HUMAN COMMUNICATION AND THE ROLE OF STORYTELLING IN ROHINTON MISTRY’S „A FINE BALANCE” (1995)
HUMAN COMMUNICATION AND THE ROLE OF STORYTELLING IN ROHINTON MISTRY’S „A FINE BALANCE” (1995)

Summary/Abstract: “A Fine Balance” (1995) is a neo-realist novel set in an unnamed city that readers can easily assume is Bombay, the author’s native city. It focuses on the terror experienced by people during the Emergency, underlining the most grisly and hideous aspects of life such as poverty, despair and violence. This paper aims to demonstrate that the novel transcends the traditional preoccupation of postcolonial discourse with Otherness and focuses on universal, humanistic themes as well. I investigate in the following sections the importance placed by Mistry on intercultural communication and its potential to bring out the best in humans as well as the complex role of storytelling as a means of finding and discovering one’s genuine identity. The conclusion is that Mistry promotes an exchange between human beings that focuses not only on cultural difference but also on intercultural Sameness.

• Details
• Contents