PERSPECTIVE OF CULTURAL SPACES IN AMIT CHAUDHURI’S WRITING

Abstract

The study focuses on the representation and the significance of cultural spaces in the novels of Chaudhuri. As this study foregrounds the term ‘mapping cultural spaces’, it is expedient to explain and elaborate the term culture and cultural spaces. Chaudhuri’s novels represent the cultural spaces largely inhabited by middle class. Regional novels try to faithfully reflect the realities of a particular region, figuring the true sensibility of its inhabitants. The environment is often used to explain the character and action of its inhabitants. To depict the spaces with keen perceptiveness is not the singular trait of Chaudhuri’s writing. Despite the changes in social, religious and political spheres at various stages of its historical and recent past, the spirit of Indian culture remains fundamentally unaffected. There has been a revival of traditional cultural modes and manners encompassing discrete areas of life and living. The present study seeks to fill this gap by undertaking the study of all his writing from the perspective of cultural spaces which mark his work in a very effective and vigorous manner. The chapter that follows is devoted to the critical exploration of his non-fictional work which may provide a key to understanding his fictional work.