Representing Calcutta

Swati Chattopadhyay is a Professor in the Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. She is an architect and architectural historian, specializing in modern architecture and the cultural landscape of British colonialism.

• Introduction: The City in Historical Imagination 1. The Colonial Uncanny 2. The Limits of White Town 3. Locating Mythic Selves 4. Telling Stories 5. Death in Public. Conclusion: The Politics of Representation

'Representing Calcutta provides a new and exciting look into the burgeoning capital of the Raj in the early nineteenth century. Chattopadhyay powerfully weaves together architecture, space, and culture to describe a city of 'blurred boundaries', in which British and Bengali each play a part in the creation of a distinctively colonial culture. From the layout of the bungalow to the ideas of Bengali reformers, Chattopadhyay gives us a living Calcutta in place of the usual stereotypes derived from Kipling and contemporary image-making' - Thomas R. Metcalf, Professor of History Emeritus, University of California, Berkley'Representing Calcutta offers a wide ranging and fluent interpretation of the literature, art, and urban landscape of the colonial city that uses each to illuminate and sometimes to undercut the others. Chattopadhyay's great talent is to lay out large issues in concrete ways, creating a vivid and memorable portrait of colonial Calcutta's life and landscape and offering a fresh perspective on one of the world's great cities.' - Dell Upton, School of Architecture, University of Virginia