{"id":791,"date":"2025-03-28T12:31:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T12:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rupkatha.com\/books\/?p=791"},"modified":"2025-03-28T12:48:33","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T12:48:33","slug":"urban-imaginaries-and-indian-cities-in-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rupkatha.com\/books\/urban-imaginaries-and-indian-cities-in-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"Call for Book Chapters: Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Call for Book Chapters<\/span><\/h3>\n

Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Editors<\/strong><\/span>
\nDr. Neethu P. Antony, VIT-AP University, Andhra Pradesh, India<\/span>
\nDr. Arpana Venu, VIT-AP University, Andhra Pradesh, India<\/span><\/p>\n

The Theme:<\/strong><\/span>
\nIn his book The Modern American Novel (1983), British author Malcolm Bradbury observes that, \u201c\u2026there has always been a close association between literature and cities. There are the essential literary institutions\u2026There, too, are the intensities of cultural friction and influences\/ and the frontiers of experience\u201d (Bradbury, 1983). Over the past few years, the concept of urban spaces has emerged as a topic of discussion that piques the curiosity and interest of modern thinkers and scholars, as the study of space is intrinsically linked to postcolonial and cultural research in literature. Today, many urban realities are reflected in diverse forms of literary writing. Indian cities have historically been dynamic and multifaceted spaces, shaping and being shaped by literature. <\/span>
\nSpace theory plays a crucial role in the study of cities. French philosopher Michel de Certeau, in his essay \u201cWalking in the City\u201d, in The Practice of Everyday Life (1984), defines the city as providing\u201f a way of conceiving and constructing space based on a finite number of stable, isolatable, and interconnected properties\u201d (Certeau, 2011). He contends that literature depicts the lived realities of city dwellers and their deeds of resistance. He asserts that the city is a text produced by the authority, but that those who stroll across it read and rewrite it, distinguishing between the planned, structured city (strategies) and the ways people navigate and disrupt it (tactics) (Certeau, 2011). His insights on spatial patterns are consistent with how literature represents daily urban realities, particularly in informal settlements and marginalized spaces. <\/span>
\nBuilding on this, the well-known French Marxist theorist and urban sociologist Henri Lefebvre\u2019s concept of space as socially shaped provides a compelling framework for examining literary portrayals of Indian cities. In The Production of Space (1974), Lefebvre asserts that \u201cspace is not a scientific object removed from ideology and politics; it has always been political and strategic\u201d (Lefebvre, 1989). This perception challenges the notion that urban landscapes are neutral backdrops, instead positioning them as contested terrains shaped by power, economy, and lived experiences. Literature, in turn, has long reflected these dynamics, captured the transforming landscapes of Indian cities and foregrounded the contradictions between tradition and modernity, colonial histories and postcolonial actualities, as well as globalisation and indigenous cultures. <\/span>
\nAt the same time, Edward Soja\u2019s concept of \u201cThird space\u201d emphasises how literature not only reflects cities but also reinvents them as spaces of resistance, transformation, and aspiration. Soja asserted that the \u201cthird space\u201d is a realm of extreme openness and resistance, in which novel implications and identities emerge. He believed it as \u201ca place of critical exchange where geographical imagination can be expanded to encompass a multiplicity of perspectives\u201d (Soja, 1996). This viewpoint is particularly significant for the study of speculative literature, which reimagines Indian cityscapes in futuristic contexts, as well as narratives that challenge dominant urban realities from diverse perspectives. The proposed volume aims to examine literary depictions of Indian urban spaces, with a particular focus on how cities serve as sites of memory, identity, resistance, and transition.<\/span>
\nThe volume also seeks to explore narratives on urban living, spatial politics, migration, environmental concerns, gendered experiences, and socio-economic inequities. David Harvey\u2019s criticism of neoliberal urbanisation and support for urban rights are vital to this discussion: \u201cthe freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights\u201d (Harvey, 2008). This stance is pertinent in literary examinations of urban relocation, economic disparity, and disputes over public spaces. Furthermore, Doreen Massey\u2019s observations about the transient and interrelated aspects of space add to this theory. She argues that space is not a solid facade but a dynamic, fluid assemblage of relations: \u201cspace as the product of interrelations\u2026space as the sphere of possibility of the existence of multiplicity\u2026space as always under construction\u201d (Massey, 2005). This concept underlines how literature creates urban identities and gendered spaces and proves that cities are not static but rather dynamic areas of negotiation in their conceptualisation.<\/span>
\nThis volume invites contributions that engage with a variety of literary genres, including fiction, poetry, drama, and hybrid forms, alongside interdisciplinary perspectives from urban studies, social geography, and media studies. Key questions include:<\/span><\/p>\n