Know the Author: Arundhati Roy



Literature and society have, throughout history, and often even today, shared a relationship of dependency; a literary text, no matter how much we try to, can never be separated from societal concerns while society needs literature to reflect on its own strengths and flaws. Writers have always tried to adhere to the notion that 'literature is a mirror to society'. A mirror indeed, reflecting not just the beauty of the society it reflects, but also its hideousness. Arundhati Roy's works fall into this later function of the mirror. Her works are a documentation of that reality or history which, as mentioned in the above quote, has/had been 'deliberately silenced' or 'preferably unheard'. One might even agree to the argument that literature is where these unheard and silenced voices, find expression and that it is often one of the many reasons behind literary expression.

Though I can't recall the very first time I heard the author's name or the title of her work, my first formal encounter with both was during the very first year of my undergraduate course in English Literature. The text was God Of Small Things. Click here to read a brief summary of the novel
A text reflecting the troubles of the caste system, a socio-cultural flaw of the Indian society, God Of Small Things looks at how it affects the fundamental human emotions like love. Apart from this, the Booker Prize winning novel, is notable for many other reasons. Watch the following video to find out why:


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