.

Mid Term Research Progress Report

( January 2019 )

Mapping the Mind and Memory: Reflections on

Life and Living in Middle Class India, in Amit Chaudhuri's

A Strange and Sublime Address and Freedom Song

Supervised by : Submitted by :
Dr. Rimika Singhvi Shivaani Shrivastava
Primary Sources:

● Chaudhuri, Amit. A Strange and Sublime Address. Penguin,

1991.

● ---. Freedom Song. Penguin, 1998.

Chapterization:
Chap. 1 -
Going Beyond the Novel of Nation and History
Chap. 2 -
Regional Sensibility in A Strange and Sublime Address
Chap. 3 -
The Problematic City in Freedom Song
Chap. 4 -
The Craft of the Matter: The Memoir-Novel
Chap. 5 -
Re-defining the Modern Indian
Chapter Wise Progress:

Chapter 1 - Going Beyond the Novel of Nation and History

 This chapter discusses Amit Chaudhuri’s transition from imitation through

integration to genuine self-expression; a major novelist from the 1980s and
the 90s

 Realistic themes; portrayal of middle class Bengali society

 Adoption of new literary forms and genres from the West

 His fascination with lyricism and memory, and his love for Bengali writers
for both those qualities

 The novelist’s interest in our relationship with tradition and culture

 Chapter 2 - Regional Sensibility in A Strange and Sublime Address

 Chaudhuri simply presents a display of gorgeous vignettes and scenes filled

with wondrously observed small moments

 The recreation of the routine, quotidian magic of ordinariness; finds

pleasure in the unfolding of the unobtrusive details of daily life

 He is much admired for his representation of the numerous small and

irrelevant details of our daily life; the middle class Bengali values

 A plotless novel; filled with past ruminations and present musings

 A half-ironic, half-detached angle; blending of the personal with the

impersonal
Chapter 3 - The Problematic City in Freedom Song

 About a family afflicted/ changed by old age

 Deals with the events that intersect with the ordinary people’s
consciousness

 two problematic themes:

● anti-Muslim opinion in the post-Babri Masjid days

● the steady crumbling of a certain way of life that used to mark Calcutta
Chapter 4 – The Craft of the Matter: The Memoir Novel

 The characteristic of realism in his novels

 Creates his characters and plots around people’s everyday lives

 The writing is essentially eventless; concentration on the language and its

nuances

 An impressionist novelist; use of extensive dialogue

 The narrative is not so much of reminiscence or homesickness as much as

of loss and dislocation
Further Reading:

Choudhury, Kushanava. The Epic City:The World on the Streets of Calcutta.

Bloomsbury India, 2017.

Deb, Siddhartha. The Point of Return. Ecco, 2004.

Deshpande, Shashi. A Matter of Time. Penguin India, 2000.

Gupta, Sunetra. Memories of Rain. Grove Press, 1994.

THANK YOU