Cultural Criticism In Anita Desai's In Custody

Shahjahanabad has been a contested site culturally, historically and geographically. Not surprising, therefore, that the literary expressions engaging with this disputed space have had to work their way through many negotiations and contradictions. ‘Culture’ has figured centrally in all discourses arising in and from this space in all senses of the term as Shahjahanabad (alternatively referred to as ‘Dilli’ and post-independence, ‘Old Delhi’) has boasted of a heady and unique “way of life”, refined and stylised material and non-material culture and trail blazing artistic accomplishments. While Krishna Sobti’s Dil-o-danish (The Heart has its Reasons) recaptures this unique way of life, Anita Desai’s In Custody chronicles its demise. Through a study of these texts, it is possible to foreground both the cultural practices embedded in them as well as the material conditions which have produced them. …show more content…
In order to unravel human behaviour in society, cultural sociology focuses on groups to which individuals belong. While the biggest group is society itself, there are smaller groups as well and city and culture figure significantly among them. Thus, cultural sociology is interested in examining not just the characteristics of a particular culture but also how it figures in the entangled matrix of factors influencing complex human social behaviour. Both the texts illustrate how the matrix of urbanism and culture shape and influence the lives of