Understanding Social and Political Unrest through Fiction: A Study of Selected Novels from Contemporary South Asia

Abstract

Along with many of its definitions, literature can also be defined as an art of storytelling. And, as writers like Chinua Achebe and olive Senior have inferred, “Storytelling, is essentially a threat [through which] storytellers, poets, writers, have always found ways of confronting tyranny, especially in spaces where such actions are dangerous and deadly.” Aristotle was of the view that Poetry [Literature] is more reliable than the historical method. For Aristotle, Poetry [Literature], in more than one way, orders history in abstract ways, conveying deep truths rather than mere descriptive accounts. The poets function is to “speak not of events which have occurred, but of the kind of events which could occur, and are possible by the standards of probability and necessity.” In this spirit, Lionel Trilling observes that literature is the human activity that takes “the fullest and most precise account of viciousness, possibility, complexity, and difficulty.” In the contemporary times, Indian subcontinent/South Asia is beset with social and political unrest/s of various kind and nature even long after the decolonization in the form of armed conflicts professing sub nationalism, religious conflicts, class conflicts, caste conflicts, gender oppression, imperial domination, inter-country wars, etal. In fact, the genesis of many of these conflicts dates back to the historical eras of colonization and decolonization. However, historical and political evolution in South Asia has also given rise to these conflicts and unrest/s or it could be argued that these have been reinforced. This has resulted in a discourse which partakes of a whole spectrum of writing - literary and non - literary. Owing to many contending discourses, most of these writings have come up with their own subjective perspectives regarding these conflicts, especially in terms of experience and reality. Written from various positions, both hegemonic and participatory, these writings are preoccupied with rhetoric that results in the non-rendering of many significant aspects of lived experience. However, any site of conflict or resistance does inevitably shape the imaginations and experiences of its people and leads to expression of their situation.