Sexual Transgression: Agency of Spatial and Temporal Transformation in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things

This paper explores the ways in which sexual transgression such as incest works as a viable strategy of resistance to and transformation of hegemonic history. Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things illustrates the agency of sexual transgression in the recursive structure of law-defying desire. In particular, I consider how the circularity of Kari Saipu's pederasty, Ammu's sex with a Dalit servant, and the twins' incest brings about for the downtrodden and marginalized the reassertion of place as well as the reinscription of the hegemonic concept of time. The novel shows that 'sexual outlaws' who are perceived to be abnormal, insane, or perverts can never be eliminated. Transgressive sexual practices enable them to explore the possibility of agency in oppression or abjection, so that they can return to interrogate, subvert, or reinscribe the hegemonic discourses that deny them subjecthood and livable life. To explore sexual outlaws' transformation into subjects of their history and experience, I appropriate the theories of Foucault, Bhabha, Butler, and Spivak. Among others, the examination of the interstices of history and politics shows how pederasty, a trope of colonial power's exploitation, and caste-crossing sex can be connected with a metaphor for the twins' subversive political agency.