Research Information System
METACRITIC JOURNAL FOR COMPARATIVE STUDIES AND THEORY, vol.9, no.1, pp.22-47, 2023 (ESCI, Scopus)
The onset of neoliberal capitalism has endowed the concept of
“peripherality” with significant relevance for literary scholars investigating the dynamic
interaction between aesthetic structures and the consequences of evolving socioeconomic and political terrains. Building on the theoretical foundations of subalternity,
world-systems theory, and theories of combined and uneven development, I intend to
present a comparative, constructive exploration of three distinguished novels from India
and Turkey. These include Latife Tekin’s Berji Kristin: Tales from the Garbage Hills
(Berji Kristin hereinafter), Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (Small Things
hereinafter), and Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger (hereinafter White Tiger). My
analysis delves into the intricate intertwining of familial dynamics, communal relations,
gender violence, and patriarchal norms with the mechanisms of neoliberal market
operations. In doing so, I strive to delineate the manner in which semiperipheral
subalternity surfaces as a consistent theme of discourse within the distinct cultural
landscapes of Turkey and India