Trauma, Multimodal Mental Imagery and Intermediality in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things

Abstract

Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things has been effectively described by N. Rokotnitz as a narrative that accesses and arouses sensory modes of reception and perception, infiltrating reader’s preconscious and subconscious levels of understanding and thus enhancing the vividness of immersion in a text that ultimately renders its moral code physically tangible. This use of multimodal mental imagery, which per se vouches for a transmedia understanding of narrative as a “multimedia construct” (Ryan 2004), is an integral part of a literary representation of trauma that also integrates explicit reference to other media, namely cinema and traditional dance performance. The essay addresses the role of these media within the socio-cultural frame of Roy’s novel and interrogates their function in shaping the literary narrative of trauma and healing, integrating the writing’s multimodal imagery and contributing to the reader’s emotional and intellectual responses.