The Grace of the Quotidian: Banality as Resource and Resistance in The Infinity of Grace

Abstract

Postcolonial literature was a pathbreaking literary genre as it helped undermine many of the universalist claims which Eurocentric discourses came up with. Rather than seeking validation from European literary models, it attempted to forge a form and theme of its own. Thus, it endeavoured to be counter cultural. Within the larger arena of Postcolonial literature, attempts have been made by several writers to embrace the sensibility of Avant-Gardism. While most postcolonial fiction overtly concerned itself with action and spectacle, energised by the anticolonial struggles and the decolonising mission which were underway, writers like O.V. Vijayan maintained a distance from such influences and introduced a novel aesthetic of banality in fiction. Banality and quotidian particularities, which are believed to breed boredom, have been extensively employed by these writers in their literary compositions. This paper seeks to investigate how banality and the minutiae of daily life, rather than forming boredom in the mind of the readers, energise the narrative in The Infinity of Grace.