Interaction between Ethics and Narratology in Novel:Ethical Narratology in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things

 The present study aims to investigate the ethical values of the narrative strategies in The God of Small Things, by the Indian author Arundhati Roy. The theoretical framework includes narratology and ethical philosophy and aims to illustrate how the ethics are communicated by narrative techniques and rhetorical devices. On this account, this investigation relies primarily on James Phelan’s narrative theory and Charles Taylor’s philosophy of ethics. Phelan considers the novel’s ethical judgments through ‘ethics of the told’ and ‘ethics of the telling.’ Ethics of the told revolve around the ethical dimensions of the characters' choices and interactions, while ethics of the telling considers text-internal issues and the ethical significance of the narrative techniques. The ethical issues are related to the concept of authenticity and the necessity of recognition. In this regard, Roy becomes the voice for the outcasts who suffer from a lack of necessary recognition to reach their authentic self. The ethics of the told is shown in Roy’s use of micro-narratives which reflect the absence of the ethical issue, besides the linguistic creativities against the monopoly of the standard language. On the other hand, the use of non-linear narration and focalization forms the ethics of the telling, by which the ethical discourse is conveyed to the readers aesthetically. The main question of this research concerns the ways by which the author deepens the ethical judgments of the readers through the narrative strategies.