이중언어 글쓰기와 트랜스내셔널 리터러시 - 아룬다티 로이의 소설과 정치 에세이를 중심으로

Abstract

This paper explores the topics of bilingual writing and transnational literacy by examining Indian English writer Arundhati Roy’s essays and her novel, "The God of Small Things." Roy speaks two languages, Malayalam and English. She won the Booker prize in 1997 for "The God of Small Things," her first novel, and became well known in English-speaking countries. She has since written political essays and published them in prominent English journals and newspapers. By focusing on the paradox of being a successful Indian-English writer, who is critical of the colonial legacy of British imperialism and of contemporary globalization, this paper analyzes the liminal consciousness in the bilingual writing of Roy mixing English and Malayalam, and examines the radical meaning of transnational literacy in the sense of Roy going beyond the boundaries of the dominant language and knowledge adjusting themselves to the process of globalization. Liminal characters such as Esther, Rahel, Velutha, and Ammu in Roy’s novel act as transgressors, are hurt, die, or become mute because of the violence done to them by those who are dominant in India’s social orders. These social orders and India’s colonial legacy persist, reproducing their narcissistic identities and not allowing anyone to transgress them, and strengthening themselves by sacrificing those who do attempt to transgress. This kind of violence can be seen in the liminal spaces between languages, castes, religions, and social habits in India from the 1960s through the 1990s, the period reflected and depicted in the novel. It is supposed that consistencies exist between India of the 1960s, independent but not fully free from its colonial legacy, and India of the 1990s, facing the turbulent wave of globalization. The paradox of Roy’s position as a bilingual writer using English while the colonial legacy of imperial England and the globalization led by western countries looms in the background relates to the issue of transnational literacy, which should be reconsidered in this postcolonial and globalized era. Such reconsideration might expose the ways in which transnational literacy would be partial and unequal in its treatment and ability to reach people isolated from globalizing processes, who have been and are the victims of knowledge that results from colonial legacies and that serves the ongoing dam building and nuclear experiments implemented under the name of developmental nationalism in India. Roy’s novel and essays are particularly critical of this kind of nationalism and globalization and invite the small people to work against the big processes, which rely on specialized knowledge that has been tainted by power and money and has led to the exploitation of the illiterate and the poor. This paper examines these critical points in Roy’s writing and focuses on transnational literacy, which should be reformulated in terms of the unknown or ignored aspects of global knowledge production.