Arundhati Roy: translation as a way of resistance and self-affirmation in postcolonial writing

Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is a novel about a number of things. But it is also, in a fundamental sense, about language. Or rather, how existing power structures can be thwarted, by mobilizing their own internal logics, by meticulously teasing out the inconsistencies and contradictions that lie latent in language. One way in which this act of subversion can be carried out is through translation. Both language and translation play a fundamental part in Roy’s writings. This is especially the case in The God of Small of Things. Roy’s genius lies precisely in her uncanny ability to subvert the very logic of the language of the erstwhile colonial masters in which she has chosen to express herself. The result is a superb exercise in translation. There are important lessons to be learned here about how translation is frequently mobilized in postcolonial writing to mark an important positioning and to send a political message. It may well be the case that herein may lie the key to an understanding of the political dimension of all translation, insofar as it often involves transnational contact between peoples and the unequal equations of power and prestige of the parties engaged in the process.