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Arundhati Roy situates the story of The God of Small Things in Ayemenem — a
village in Kerala, in the south-west of India. It is a case study of Velutha, the
untouchable whose very name smacks of loathing and nausea one feels at the mention
of it let alone sight of him. By focusing on the cross-cultural caste system, Arundhati
Roy takes up an issue of social, cultural and universal significance. It apparently deals
with the identity of Velutha, a paravan, which is at stake. He is the one who is
expected not to leave any footprints on the earth and any image in the mirror. His
identity is an issue and at issue because social, cultural and “Love Laws” (33) 2
do not
favour him or acknowledge his right to be. A closer analysis of the novel directs the
reader’s mind to a series of underlying ‘lacks’ or voids at the core of formation of his
subjectivity. The society constitutes a body from which Velutha is excluded as an
undesirable or unhygienic element; he is objectified to which he retaliates. He seeks
unconscious identification with the system from which he is expelled. .If Velutha is
neither a subject nor an object then what is he? Who is he? This study provides a valid
ground that Velutha does not qualify for both. Velutha’s dilemma can be better
understood if he is placed on the borderline of subject-object distinction3
. This study
takes him as a specimen for analysis and examines his borderline position from the
viewpoint of Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection. A psychoanalytical framework
facilitates the reader to determine his position.
Shazia Ghulam Mohammad, Atteq ur Rahman. (2014) Velutha: The Abject1, The Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Volume-22, Issue-1.
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