Power Relationships and Social Construction in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things

Abstract

The God of Small Things, a highly stylized novel,was first published in 1997. It got rave reviewsand won the prestigious Booker Prize the sameyear. Ever since, it has been read, re-read andcommented upon by critics and scholars. Theyhave explicated it from various perspectives, yetsurprisingly the Foucauldian perspective isconspicuous in them by its absence. It issurprising because The God of Small Things is atext which is eminently amenable to aFoucauldian reading.