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@article{190733,
        author = {John Paul. J and Shruta Kirti S},
        title = {Gazing the City, Writing Belonging: Urban Space, Festivity, and Representation in Contemporary English Travel Narratives of Calcutta},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {8},
        pages = {3014-3021},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=190733},
        abstract = {The article examines the discursive construction of Calcutta in two contemporary English travel narratives—Amit Chaudhuri’s Calcutta: Two Years in the City (2016) and Bishwanath Ghosh’s Longing Belonging: An Outsider at Home in Calcutta (2014). Situating these texts within the relatively limited corpus of English travel writing devoted exclusively to Calcutta, the study draws upon Stuart Hall’s theory of representation and John Urry and Jonas Larsen’s concept of the tourist gaze to analyses how meaning, value, and urban identity are produced through narrative selection and emphasis. Focusing on two interrelated axes—urban spaces and festive temporalities—the paper explores the representation of Park Street and North Calcutta alongside key cultural moments such as Christmas, New Year’s celebrations, and Durga Puja. It argues that these spatial and temporal sites function as charged signifiers through which questions of class, memory, consumption, and belonging are negotiated. While both authors construct deeply personal engagements with the city, their narratives simultaneously mediate the reader’s gaze, revealing how Calcutta is imagined as a layered, unequal, and affectively dense urban space. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates that travel writing on Calcutta operates not merely as descriptive reportage but as a culturally productive discourse shaping how the city is seen, remembered, and inhabited.},
        keywords = {Calcutta, Travel Writing, Representation, Tourist Gaze.},
        month = {January},
        }