Illustrating the City: Identity and Urban Experience in Indian Picturebooks

Space is not neutral. Social relations influence, and play out in, space. Literature too, reflects social space and simultaneously is influenced by the urban. As a mode of communication, picturebooks have immense potential in archiving and mirroring the social dynamics that imbue space with meaning. The urban has transformative potential; and gender has a bearing on one’s understanding and experience of the urban. When there is unequal development, infrastructure further disenfranchises the marginalised. Through a critical analysis of contemporary Indian picturebooks, I argue that for a true exploration of identity and the urban experience, we must understand cities and picturebooks in their cultural and material setting.