The Real and the Imagined Mumbai: Oscillation and the City in Rohinton MIstry's Such a Long Journey (1991) and Vikram Chandra's Love and Longing in Bombay (1997)

Abstract

This research paper analyses how the seamless fictional Mumbai in Such a Long Journey (1991) by Rohinton Mistry and Love and Longing in Bombay (1997) by Vikram Chandra is created through the Oscillation of the real and imagined Mumbai. It makes a spatial inventory of the real, imagined, generic geographical places in Mumbai and non-Mumbai places. It looks at the use of multiple Indian and foreign languages. It also does a quantitative analysis of the mentions of Indian and foreign products mobilized in the creation of the fictional Mumbai. The research paper applies the theory of Geocriticism (2007) developed by Bertrand Westphal to the two selected texts in order to understand the process of Oscillation and the consequent production of the fictional discourse on Mumbai.