Trauma and Storytelling in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Bibliographic Data

ID11677340
AuthorsPier Paolo Piciucco (0000-0002-6337-3563, University of Turin, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume45
Issue4
Pages477-492
Publication date2023-09-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSouth Asian Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0275-9527 • E-ISSN: 2573-9476
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02759527.2023.2262791
OpenAlexW4387140638
LanguageEN
References cited13

The graveyard in Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017) may be interpreted as the quintessential place that communicates traumatic loss, so that the present paper purports to analyze this fictional work from the perspective of trauma studies. I will first demonstrate how the text abounds with all the typical elements on which this field of study focus their attention, from dissociative disorders to the obsession of repeated images, and more. Another section of my work analyses how the impact of trauma results in the surfacing of a death-wish that dominates Anjum's frame of life, as well as the whole narration. Differently from what had happened in The God of Small Things, this pessimistic view however is countered in The Ministry, where an instinct for survival reacts against the prevailing gloomy atmosphere. In this context, the roles of storytelling and social commitment acquire a central role as agents able to neutralize psychic suffering and restore social connection. Finally, particular attention has also been made to offering a range of possible interpretations to the meaning of the term "happiness," a key word for this text.Keywords: TraumaArundhati Roy The Ministry of Utmost Happinessstorytellingdeath-wishinclusiveness Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Notes1 Henceforth, abbreviated as The Ministry.2 See Anne Whitehead. Trauma Fiction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004.3 See his Living in the Borderland: The Evolution of Consciousness and the Challenge of Healing Trauma, and particularly chapter 11, entitled "Borderland/Borderline" (102–118), where the notion of Borderland overlaps with that of the borderline personality disorder.4 See, for instance, Baines (Citation2020), Rajan (Citation2021), or Kuiti (Citation2021) for a discussion on the novel in terms of a utopian narration.Additional informationNotes on contributorsPier Paolo PiciuccoPier Paolo Piciucco is an Associate Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Turin, where he regularly teaches courses on English Literature. He took a Ph.D. from the University of Bologna in 1999, working on contemporary Indian fiction in English. Over the years he has mainly focused his concern on contemporary, postcolonial and postmodern literatures being these the most recurrent topics analyzed in his research works. His monograph, The Two Souls, is a theory on the negotiations and compromises which gave rise to a totally marginalized form of art in South African Theater during the Apartheid years. He has edited 9 books and is the author of about 50 articles. Contemporary Vulnerabilities, his last edited book, is out since August '23

Art · Christian ministry · Context (archaeology · Happiness · Literature · Meaning (existential · Narrative · Psychic · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Sociology · Storytelling · Theology · Contemporary Literature and Criticism · History · Literature, Magical Realism, García Márquez · Medicine · Nostalgia and Consumer Behavior · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOI