https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i3.022
Disability, Trauma, and Intersectionality in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things
ANJU UNNY
Research Scholar
St. Xavier’s College for Women, Aluva
Email: unnyanju@gmail.com
DR. LISS MARIE DAS
Associate Professor of English
St. Xavier’s College for Women
Email: lissmariedas@stxaviersaluva.ac.in
Abstract: Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things presents disability not as an individual medical condition but as a social and psychological consequence of intersecting structures of trauma, caste, gender, and colonial legacy. Through the characters of Estha, Rahel, Velutha, and Ammu, the novel demonstrates how social marginalization produces both visible and invisible forms of disablement. Drawing on trauma theory and the social model of disability, this article examines how Roy critiques Indian society’s failure to acknowledge psychological and emotional suffering. It argues that disability in the novel functions as both a lived reality and a metaphor for systemic oppression, aligning with postcolonial disability discourse as outlined by scholars such as Clare Barker and Stuart Murray.
Keywords: Trauma, Marginalization, Disablement, Metaphor, Systemic Oppression
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