Touching the Untouched: Touch and Affect in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things

Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is often read for its use of linguistic patterns as postcolonial critique. Scholars such as Alshammari Shahd, Veena Shukle, and Elizabeth Ouka, for example, have discussed characters’ transgressions, social exclusion, and trauma. Missing from these scholarly conversations is the role of non-linguistic communication, such as touch. As I suggest, the aspect of touch plays a vital role in the progression of the novel and its postcolonial critique. I draw on the field of Affect Theory, which provides a way of understanding non-linguistic forces (or “affects”) like touch and emotion, to examine the use of touch in the actions of Velutha, Ammu, and the twins, Rahel and Estha, as ways of communication and healing from the trauma experienced by each of them. I contend that addressing this overlooked element of the novel provides a new understanding of postcolonial conditions and identity, in which the transgressive acts of touch become tools of healing and communication, not the misguided results of trauma that they are often said to be.