earticle

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This paper explores the ways in which subaltern characters in Salman Rushdie’s Shame and Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey respond to and counteract hegemonic control over their body to achieve human recognition and become subjects of their own experience. I contextualize the ideas and theories of Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Gayatri Spivak, and Homi Bhabha in the postcolonial setting to discuss how the characters who are perceived to be abnormal, unfit, ‘perverts,’ or insane are never completely eliminated, ostracized, or silenced. Rather, they employ various strategies so that they can redefine what Butler calls bodies that matter as well as ways of living, instead of being expelled or banished to an abject zone. This comparative study also discusses the ethics of transgressors and authority figures, given that the politics of resistance operate in a relational manner. It demonstrates how the selective and careful use of norms or ethics is instrumental in transforming subaltern others into subjects with a voice.