Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature: An Introduction

Dr. Neethu P Antony¹ & Dr. Arpana Venu²
¹,² Assistant Professor in English, School of Social Sciences and Humanities (VISH), VIT-AP University, Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, India.

10.21659/9788197513022.01

Abstract
Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature examines the multiple modes of representation, contestation and re-imagination of Indian cities in literary texts and cultural discourses. The volume explores the role of urban spaces not only as backdrops, but as active forces in the construction of human life and social relations. It attempts to understand how literature depicts the tensions between tradition and modernity, memory and progress, inclusion and exclusion and local and global forces that characterise contemporary urban life. The chapters in this collection address a broad spectrum of themes such as urban marginalisation, migration, gendered experiences, environmental issues, spatial politics, memory, and imagined futures. Drawing on several theoretical and methodological dimensions, the contributors illuminate the complexities and challenges of urban life in India. This volume constitutes eight chapters that do not provide a comprehensive study of major metropolitan Indian cities as often seen in the existing corpus of urban studies. The present chapter makes the case that it is rather an attempt to bring unique representations of known and unknown urban spaces in India to unravel the way the various urban spaces are imagined, experienced, contested, represented and negotiated across different historical, social, and cultural contexts in India. The recurrence of certain cities like Kolkata in the volume does not offer a singular narrative of its urban space. Instead, it focuses on the broader dimensions of the same city with its multiple urban experiences and posits ‘urbanity’ as an evolving and dynamic process.

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Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature