Breaking the silence through third space : An analysis of Arundhati Roy’s Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Abstract

Arundhati Roy, the writer who always tried to give voice to the voiceless and  turned everything that she touched into gold. She got international fame for her debut novel 'The God of small things.' Her works represents the forgotten aspects of national identity that embodies realism, political and social crisis and empathy for humanity. The greatness of her writing lies in the ability of creating fiction that holds the unbearable truths of society such as wretched condition of minorities, humiliated life of trans genders, mediocre government, life of naxals, rape, murder and the stories acts like a mirror to the injustice put forward by the ruling parties. Her recent novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017) created great wave by striking on the government policies and pointing her pen towards the marginalized section of society. The themes dealt with national identity made a global readership with its epic-like scope, a wide spectrum of characters and a fascinating narrative with interwoven stories. The primarily political and discursive nature of The Ministry blunts its aesthetic appeal. The present paper tries to make an analysis of the text through the lens of third space and Heterotopic spaces