ABSTRACT
This book studies the significance and representation of the ‘city’ in the writings of Indian poets, graphic novelists, and dramatists. It demonstrates how cities give birth to social images, perspectives, and complexities, and explores the ways in which cities and the characters in Indian literature coexist to form a larger literary framework of interpretations. Drawing on the theoretical concepts of Western urban thinkers such as Henri Lefebvre, Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin, Edward Soja, David Harvey, and Diane Levy, as well as South Asian thinkers such as Ashis Nandy, Arjun Appadurai, Vinay Lal, and Ravi Sundaram, the book projects against a seemingly monolithic and homogenous Western qualification of urban literatures and offers a truly unique and contentious presentation of Indian literature.
Unfolding the urban-literary landscape of India, the volume lays the groundwork for an urban studies approach to Indian literature. It will be of great interest to scholars and students of literature, especially Indian writing in English, urban studies, and South Asian studies.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|129 pages
Fictions of the ‘Cities at the Centre’
chapter 1|11 pages
City's Deity
chapter 5|13 pages
‘… Not Exactly Fear, But Unease, An Apprehension’
chapter 7|10 pages
At Home in City (?)
chapter 9|10 pages
Discovering New Cities and their Underbellies within the Old
chapter 12|10 pages
‘Botanising on the Asphalt’
part 2|43 pages
Fictions from the Fringes
chapter 14|9 pages
Urban Spaces and Fading Culture in Mamang Dai's Fictions
chapter 15|9 pages
Evolution of Heterotopic Space
chapter 16|13 pages
Cosmopolitanism and Trade Relations
part 3|51 pages
Staging the City
chapter 17|11 pages
‘Cities Imprison and Kill the Blood’
chapter 19|12 pages
A Tale of Two Cities
part 4|42 pages
Poetics of the Cities
chapter 21|11 pages
Imagery of Revolt and Withdrawal
chapter 22|15 pages
‘How can She Feel at Home in so many Places?’
chapter 23|14 pages
When a City Speaks
part 5|30 pages
The City in Itself