Topoanalysis and the City Space in the Literary Writings of Amitava Kumar

Abstract In the postmodernist transnational moment, the “city” is a “distinctive location of diasporic dwelling, belonging and attachment” and that the city as home is rooted in “city-specific memories” (Blunt and Bonnerjee 237). Emotions and feelings are not static in nature; the very place where one is born becomes a memory house once the individual moves out. Thus, with dispersion, the spaces of “home” transcend to other physical aspects related to it, i.e., the “locality, town or city spaces” (Roy 141) where one has spent a considerable amount of time. Gaston Bachelard in his formulation of “topoanalysis” analyzes the subjective phenomenological expression vis-à-vis “home” and contends that memories of it are not something remembered, but rather, are entwined with the present. From the literary writings of Amitava Kumar, whose major setting is his hometown “Patna,” the article considers the “city” as a sentimental space of “home” that often forms the core of his varied literary works and manifested through the diasporic consciousness of the author. His literary writings, such as Passport Photos, Bombay-London-New York and A Matter of Rats, showcase the author’s constant negotiation of Patna. The literary texts under consideration explore how Kumar extrapolates through his “sense of place” (Agnew in Creswell 7), where “home” becomes an instrument of “topoanalysis” (Bachelard 8). Using Kumar’s literary texts as a literary example, this article offers new ways into thinking of the associated concerns of diaspora, home, city spaces and topoanalysis.