Author(s): Dr. Gaurav Kataria

Abstract: Anita Desai's literary masterpiece, Voices in the City, is a captivating portrayal of identity, isolation, and the quest for self-discovery within the post-colonial Indian context of the city of Calcutta. At the centre of the human experience in Desai’s riveting tale, is the city of Calcutta. The city of Calcutta, which forms the background of the novel, comes to assume a distinct identity of its own through the tale. Each and every city has its own peculiarities, problems and people. However, through Desai’s captivating storytelling, the city of Calcutta reveals the complexity of its existence which it owes to its particular historical character. As the characters of the story live out their lives within its landscape, Calcutta, too, emerges as a character with its own unique individuality as it evolves in the course of its existence. This research paper explores the construction of urban space and its impact upon the identities revolving around the city in Anita Desai’s novel, Voices in the City. It probes into the different aspects of life in a postcolonial urban space, which echoes the desolation, alienation, and spiritual crisis the characters inhabiting this space are thrown into. This research paper will also examine the relationship of the urban space and the sacred space, both of which are embodied by the postcolonial city of Calcutta, placed at the junction of tradition and the horizons of modernity.

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Download Full Article: Identity and Construction of the Urban Space in Anita Desai's Voices in the City

Pages: 10-14