女性的中界位置: 阿蘭達蒂•洛伊的小說《微物之神》中的愛慾、身份認同與主體形塑

Abstract

This thesis aims to investigate the in-between subject position of the Indians, especially women depicted by Arundhati Roy in The God of Small Things. It attempts to contextualize the dominant forces including the caste system, patriarchy, colonial hegemony and Western modernity in India, so as to trace the loss and difficulties that Roy presents in the novel. In light of Michel Foucault and Homi K. Bhabha, this thesis discloses the fluidity and instability of subject formation under the influence of diverse social and cultural discourses. It reveals the ambivalent and even in-between identity of the Indians who suffer oppression, displacement, loss and alienation as a result of transitions in contemporary cultural flows. However, instead of regarding the dilemma of struggling with these forces as Indians’ doomed life, this thesis explores the possibility of transformation for Indians. It takes the state of ambiguity caused by cultural hybridity as the opportunity of freeing from the suppressive manipulation. Chapter One makes clear that subject formation and women’s sexuality are results of cultural construction. In addition to unveiling the oppression of patriarchy, this chapter deconstructs the absolute truth by exemplifying the theme of transgression in the novel. Chapter Two investigates the in-between identity and discrepant subject position caused by cultural hybridity of the nation as a whole in a shifting society. It conducts the tensions inside Hindu and those with its Western conqueror. Chapter Three discusses the unresolved tension resulting from cultural impacts in post-independent India, showing the sense of alienation caused by Indians’ traumatic memory. Taking the form of hybridity, it explores the possibility of emancipation in the floating cultural space.