UPID No:1325P11EN

Article Title:

Entangled Margins: The Portrayal of Marginalized Urban Spaces in Contemporary Indian English Fiction

Author(s):

Remya Rajan E.

Assistant Professor of English

Sree Narayana College, Alathur

Palakkad District, Kerala, India

Affiliated to Calicut University, Kerala, India

Email: remyarajane@gmail.com

Discipline: English

Article Dates: Received: 01 September 2025 | Revised Submission: 22 September 2025 | Accepted: 07 October 2025 | Available Online: 20 October 2025

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63554/ijarsai.132511

Repository DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17398661

https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30401689.v1

https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/FWSVK

Research Discovery Platforms:

https://IJARSAI.short.gy/132511-ScienceOpen

https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-777608

https://IJARSAI.short.gy/132511-ACADEMIA

Abstract:

The modern Indian metropolis is a site of profound contradiction, where gleaming symbols of global capital coexist with vast zones of deprivation and informality. While official cartographies and state-led urban narratives often render these marginalized spaces invisible or pathologized, contemporary Indian English fiction has emerged as a crucial counter-discourse. This review paper argues that novelists such as Arundhati Roy, Aravind Adiga, Deepa Anappara, Vikas Swarup, and Jeet Thayil employ marginalized urban spaces—slums, ghettos, wastelands, and forgotten peripheries— not merely as backdrops but as central, agentive landscapes that are inextricably entangled with the city’s core. Drawing upon the spatial theories of Henri Lefebvre and Edward Soja, and contextualized by insights from Indian urban studies, this paper analyzes how these literary works function as a form of spatial critique. By foregrounding the “lived space” of the urban poor, these novels challenge the dominant “conceived space” of planners and politicians, revealing the margin as a constitutive element of the urban whole. Ultimately, this fiction acts as a form of literary resistance, mapping spatial injustice and reclaiming the narrative of the city from the bottom up.

Keywords:

Urban Space, Marginalization, Indian English Fiction, Spatial Justice, Henri Lefebvre, Edward Soja, Lived Space, Thirdspace, Contemporary India

Citation:

Remya Rajan E. (2025). Entangled Margins: The Portrayal of Marginalized Urban Spaces in Contemporary Indian English Fiction. IJARSAI International Journal of Advanced Research Scientific Analysis & Inferences, 01(03), 122–129. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17398661

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International Journal of Advanced Research Scientific Analysis & Inferences

UPID No:1325P11EN

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