Patriarchal Corruption and Familial Disintegration: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Paternal Moral Failures in Contemporary Global Fiction
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31185/eduj.Vol63.Iss2.4715Keywords:
patriarchal corruption, familial disintegration, culture, postcolonial literature, and moral failureAbstract
This article examines the representation of corrupted father figures in contemporary global literature through close readings of four novels from different cultural traditions: Christos Tsiolkas's The Slap (Australia), Joseph Boyden's The Orenda (Canada), Keri Hulme's The Bone People (New Zealand), and Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger (India). Through a comparative framework grounded in postcolonial theory and family systems analysis, the study examines how these texts portray moral and societal corruption within family structures across diverse cultural contexts. The analysis reveals how these narratives challenge traditional patriarchal authority while simultaneously exposing the sociocultural factors that lead to paternal failures. This research contributes to scholarly discourse on the literary representation of fatherhood by demonstrating how contemporary global fiction engages with universal themes of familial dysfunction through culturally specific manifestations, ultimately revealing both the particularity and universality of patriarchal corruption across diverse societies.
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