Of Fictional Cities and “Diasporic” Aesthetics

Abstract

This essay considers the work of social reproduction as it unfolds within the cultural realm in both national and diasporic contexts. Beginning with a discussion of the creation of Malgudi—the quintessential Indian hometown created in the 1930s by one of India's most venerated writers, R K Narayan—I go on to argue that in the preindependence days, this Indian small town was created from an aesthetic position not unlike that of present‐day diasporic artists. I then look at the novels of South Asian‐American writer Indira Ganesan and the paintings by South Asian‐American artist Arijit Sen to document the ways in which the works attempt to map alternative articulations of the space of home and community in a diasporic context. Together, these imaginary hometowns do the work of reproducing a viable social sphere through creative work that overcomes the constraints of colonial rule (in Narayan's case) and immigration (in Ganesan's and Sen's work).