Preface

Abstract

I believe that literature is never merely an aesthetic pursuit; it is a living, breathing conversation with society, history, language, and power. Each new issue of International Journal of English Language Research Studies (IJELRS), in a sense, an act of faith—faith in the written word, in careful reading, and in the belief that literature still has something urgent to say about the world we inhabit. The essays collected in this volume of IJELRS grow out of that conviction. Though they range widely in period, place, and method, they are united by a shared concern with voice, power, identity, and the ways in which texts speak to social realities that refuse to remain confined to the page.

The opening study on The God of Small Things returns us to one of the most troubling questions in postcolonial thought: whose voices are heard, and whose are systematically silenced? By closely reading the lives of Velutha and Ammu, the article shows how Arundhati Roy’s narrative resists the neat resolutions of history and instead exposes the enduring violence of caste, gender, and class. It reminds us that literature may not fully “liberate” the subaltern, but it can unsettle dominant narratives and force readers to confront uncomfortable truths.