Challenging Language. A Study of 'Opposition' in Five Political Essays by Arundhati Roy

This article analyses linguistic opposition – from sounds to single terms to entire passages – as a shaping feature of Arundhati Roy's non-fiction through the framework of opposition theory (Jeffries 2014). Building on previous studies, Jeffries takes the theory and practice of oppositeness in meaning-creation to innovative conclusions that hypothesise its key-role in human cognition, societies, and the construing work of language itself. I will concentrate on five representative political essays in Arundhati Roy's collected volume of non-fiction My Seditious Heart (2019), with the goal of analysing Roy's use of 'opposites' in her fiery criticism of the Indian government's development projects and neocolonial policies. I will first relate Roy's non-fiction to Jeffries' insights, then focus on some key passages in Roy's essays where oppositional structures are foregrounded, and finally draw some provisional conclusions in relation to structuralist stylistics.