Structural and Symbolic Violence in South Asian Literature: A Comparative Analysis of Roy, Hosseini, and Ali

Abstract

This paper seeks to compare the works of Arundhati Roy, Khaled Hosseini and Monica Ali to examine how their novels alter the nature of violence from a mere event into an enabling process of constructing identity, memory and cultural identity in south Asian and diasporic communities. The study examines how these authors place the female agency, strength and unity at the centre of the systemic frameworks of male oppression. Roy's novels give a fairly good picture of how caste, communal and gender structures remain resilient and how one could hope to create an archive of the unsaid and whichever sections of history remain hidden. In each realist story, Hosseini places the issue of ethnic discrimination, of patriarchy and domination, and the experience of war trauma against the backdrop of a wider injustice, while at the same time showcasing the capacity of women's solidarity and sacrifice to change their world. By contrast, Ali portrays the “slow violence” of migration, when women find themselves constrained by cultural alienation, economic precarity, as well as racial stereotyping, and when the ability to live outside is strategies for resistance and a practice of collective care. Based on the foundations of trauma theory, postcolonial criticism, structural and symbolic violence and intersectionality, the research presented here foregrounds the capacity of literature to be witness to oppression, but also as an ethical arena for the imagining of resilience, justice and transformative solidarity.