FEMINIZING THE NATURE: AN ECO-FEMINIST STUDY OF ARUNDHATI ROY’S THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS

Abstract

This study deploys an eco-feminist hermeneutic to Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (1997), positing that the novel feminizes nature and naturalizes the feminine as a means of interrogating patriarchal, colonial, caste‑based, and class‑based hierarchies of domination. With attention paid to the postcolonial eco-feminist approach, the review explores how natural tropes (rivers, trees, wetlands, flora, fauna) are used to expose how women and other suppressible bodies are repressed, and how it can challenge the presence of Kerala as a topography of struggle against intersecting oppressions. The paper presents an overview of three main lines of enquiry using material drawn on the innovative eco-feminist work of Merchant (1980), Plumwood (1993), and Shiva (1989) besides the current critical approaches to major issues, it examines the feminization of nature, the interconnections between gendered violence and ecological degradation, and the ways in which subaltern agency can position women and nature as joint partners in resistance. The discussions indicate that along with the exploitative relationship between nature and women, there is a possibility of other approaches to life that stand on the idea of relationality and the non-hierarchical nature-woman nexus; these are manifested through the story of Roy. The study ends with a reflection on how such an eco-feminist reading has contributed to the insights into the South Asian literary studies and environmental humanities and with indications towards the directions of studying feminized literatures would go in the future.