Political Representation of Mumbai Political Representation of Mumbai in Rohinton Mistrys Such a Long Journey and A Fine Balance

Political Representation of Mumbai Political Representation of Mumbai in Rohinton Mistrys Such a Long Journey and A Fine Balance

The representation of cities in works of literature is significant as it is these images of cities which are consumed throughout the world. The objective of this thesis is to examine the Political Representation of Mumbai in Rohinton Mistrys Such a Long Journey and A Fine Balance. I have used Stuart Halls essay The Work of Representation as the theoretical framework for analysing the two selected works of fiction. I have analysed representation in the two texts by applying the semiotic approach to representation; by studying the contextual major political events, characters and spaces in the city as signs which are encoded by the author in the texts to construct the city of Mumbai. It was found that the author encodes Such a Long Journey with the political representation of Mumbai as ??a city in siege, as ??a city in throes of conspiracy and as ??a city of struggle, squalor, pleasure, nostalgia, loss, spirituality and political power struggles and thus constructs the city of Mumbai in this novel . Moreover, the political representation of Mumbai in A Fine Balance is done by employing signs like Mumbai as ??a city grappling with a draconic state and its life-denying laws, Mumbai as ??an all-embracing and redemptive city and of Mumbai as ??a city great in its magnanimity but also great in its inadequacies. Thus, Mistry constructs Mumbai which is the signifying field on which Emergency politics are played out in the novel.

Shaival Dilipbhai Thakkar

Department of English