Representing Calcutta
Subtitle: modernity, nationalism, and the colonial uncanny
By: Swati Chattopadhyay.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: New York
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Routledge
Language: eng
Number of pages: 314
Subjects: City planning -- India -- Calcutta -- History.; Calcutta (India) -- History.; Calcutta (India) -- Social conditions.
Description: "Representing Calcutta: Modernity, nationalism, and the colonial uncanny is a spatial history of the colonial city, and addresses the question of modernity that haunts our perception of Calcutta. By examining architecture, city plans, paintings, literature, and official reports through the lens of postcolonial, feminist, and spatial theory, the book explores the conditions of colonialism and anti-colonial nationalism that produced the city as a modern artifact. At the center of this exploration resides the problem of "representing" the city, representation understood as description and narration, as well as political representation. In doing so Chattopadhyay questions the very idea of colonial cities as creations of the colonizers, and the model of colonial cities as dual cities, split in black and white areas, in favor of a more complicated view of the topography."--BOOK JACKET.
Table of contents: title: The colonial uncanny; title: The limits of "White" town; title: Locating mythic selves; title: Telling stories; title: Death in public.