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RUPKATHA BOOKSUrban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature
Bibliographic Details
- Publisher: Rupkatha Books (Imprint), Aesthetix Media Services (OPC) Private Limited; First edition (19 June 2026)
- Language: English
- Ebook: 103 pages
- ISBN-13: 978-81-975130-2-2
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.21659/9788197513022
- PDF Link: Free Access
- License: CCNC
- Dimensions: 21.59 cm x 27.94 cm
- Country of Origin: India
- Book Citation: Antony, N. P., & Venu, A. (Eds.). (2026). Urban imaginaries and Indian cities in literature. Rupkatha Books. ISBN: 978-81-975130-2-2. https://doi.org/10.21659/9788197513022
About the Book
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.
Table of Contents
Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature: An Introduction
Dr. Neethu P Antony and Dr. Arpana Venu
Olivia Joseph
Multilingual Metropolis: The Politics of Language and Belonging in Guwahati Through Sheelabhadra’s Fiction
Sangeeta Bhagawati
Spatial (re)orientations and Epic structures of the urban in Fareeda Mehta’s Kali Salwaar
Elroy Pinto
Between Tramline and Traffic Jam: Mapping Indian City through Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar and Anurag Basu’s Life in a…Metro
Trisha Sengupta & Dr. Sanghamitra Baladhikari
Reimagining Kolkata: Subaltern Narratives and the Colonial Urban Dystopia in Kallol Magazine’s Literature
Nandini Gayen
Walking, Writing and Resisting the City: Spatial Tactics and Postcolonial Reimaginings in Janice Pariat’s Everything the Light Touches
Parvin Sultana
Mimesis, Montage and Mapping: A Spatial Analysis of Gangtok City Scapes in the Select Works of Satyajit Ray and Prajwal Parajuly
Dr. Sudakshina Bhattacharya, Dr. Sulagna Mohanty, and Dr. Ankusha Bandyopadhyay
About the Editors
Dr Neethu P. Antony is an Assistant Professor of English at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities (VISH), VIT-AP University, Andhra Pradesh, India. She holds a PhD in English Literature from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, specialising in Gender, Performance, and Theatre Studies. Her research explores theatre and drama, subaltern resistance, trauma theory, gender and performance studies, urban space theory, and communication studies. She has published extensively on voice studies, Indian theatre modernity, ekphrastic literature, gender fluidity, and urbanism, and has presented her work at numerous national and international conferences.
Dr Arpana Venu is an Assistant Professor of English at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, VIT-AP University, Andhra Pradesh. She holds her doctoral degree from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, with a focus on Intra-Asian Travel Writing. Her research interests include travel writing, South-Asian studies, urban studies, bhasha literature and film studies. She has published and presented her research at various national and international conferences. Additionally, she is interested in translation, Indian classical music and interdisciplinary collaborative research.