Mad Woman in the Attic

  Evolution of a city across different periods Bombay Novels: Some Insights in Spatial Criticism  by Mamta Mantri attempts to recreate the spaces of the metropolitan Mumbai city through literary representations which include both past and present. It also explores the motif of how Mumbai is a confluence of ‘imaginary geography’ and ‘literary images’. Select literary texts are used by the author to cull out and comprehend the influence of social, economic, and material factors in refashioning spatial history: “The metropolis of today is the chameleon, changing shape and size. Margins evolve into the center; centers turn into frontiers and regions become cities.” (60) By employing an interdisciplinary approach, the author has attempted to trace the history of Mumbai chronologically from the 11 th  century AD. Significant events inclusive of the impacts of 1905 Bengal partition and the riots during 1920-22 Non-Cooperation movement are recorded. Mamta Mantri ably chronicles t...

 As cultural studies theorist Iain Chambers noted, urban “reality” is not single but multiple, and that inside the city is always another city. The reference to various “cities” can exist within the city (p. xiv) underlies Mamta Mantri’s introductory argument of a counter-statist “protestors’ city”. The book is about protests and the need for voices to be heard among women and the urban and rural poor. The collection, except for one chapter, largely concerns India. It represents an example of a new, enthusiastic and passionate genre of interdisciplinary South Asian scholarship. It is a delight to read with ease (a book to take on the train, or in the park to read) and without unnecessary jargon; it is poetic, and each chapter fits together neatly, synchronically.  The collection articulates a spatial logic, with only a few references early on to Edward Soja and David Harvey; though Frederic Jameson (call for a spatial metaphor) would have been interesting. Most of the chapters...