Ethical Telling and the Aesthetic Told: Ethical Narratology of Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

The present study seeks to argue the ethical values of the narrative strategies in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, a post-postmodern novel by the Indian author Arundhati Roy. To carry out the research, the prominent features of James Phelan’s rhetorical theory of narrative and Charles Taylor’s ethical philosophy are examined. By applying such interdisciplinary approaches, the researchers investigate the characters’ ethical positions in their quest for “authenticity” and “recognition” by focusing on the novel’s “ethics of the told” and “ethics of the telling.” The study indicates the characters’ attempt to reach full awareness of their in-depth inclinations and their quest to achieve an authentic self. Living in India’s multicultural context, though suffering from non-/mis-recognition by others, Roy’s major characters can become authentic, free, and fulfilled through seeing the world and its people out of pure love for collective goodness. Eventually, highlighting the aesthetic strategies and authorial creativity provides a horizon to comprehend the different outlooks towards the ethical values and commitments that circulate freely within the novel’s narrative world.