Somdatta Bhattacharya
Biographic Data
| ID | 3938374 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Somdatta Bhattacharya |
| GIVEN NAMES | Somdatta |
| FAMILY NAME | Bhattacharya |
| SIGNATURE | BHATTACHARYA S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8332-7989 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Cross-border mobility and epistemic embodiments of blue humanities in Vanni: A Family’s Struggle through the Sri Lankan Conflict
This article, at the intersection of postcolonial ocean studies and comics studies, examines the politics of cross-border mobility and the poetics of blue aesthetics in author Benjamin Dix and illustrator Lindsay Pollock’s ethnographic graphic novel, Vanni: A Family’s Struggle through the Sri Lankan Conflict. The novel interweaves narratives of violence, displacement, and coastal ecology within the fractured lives of Tamil families during the Sri…
Against the Grid: Urbanity and Infrastructure in Indian Sequential Narratives
The present article, situated at the intersection of comics studies and urban studies, aims to critically explore how urbanity as a condition is represented and transgressed in select Indian sequential narratives. Urbanisation in India has often been described as messy and a perpetual disaster, as cities often extend their peripheries to form slums and other informal settlements using innovative infrastructural developments. Highlighting the rele…
Drawing the Invisible: A Study of Urban Space, Informal Migration of Construction Workers, and Precarity in Simon Lamouret’s The Alcazar
This article, situated at the intersection of urban studies and comics studies, seeks to interrogate the nature of urban migration and the lives of construction workers in Simon Lamouret’s The Alcazar (2022), a comic based on and in the city of Bangalore. The article begins with a paratextual analysis of the comic, followed by a Lefebvrian analysis of the construction site, to argue that cities like Bangalore are evolving fast “beyond the plan” (…
Urbanity, precarity, and infrastructural violence in Mumbai: Exploring the politics of repair and urban regeneration in Grafity’s wall
The present paper seeks to address precarious lives and the politics of urban repair in the city of Mumbai, in Ram V and Anand Radhakrishnan's graphic novel Grafity's Wall (2020), a coming-of-age story about four youths in the city. Through waves of urban restructuring, this paper argues, precarity has emerged as a typical mode of Mumbai's urban life and living. The work investigates the urban underworld of crime, violence, and movements of urban…
Urban comics and social justice: Restructuring neoliberal spaces of Delhi in Sarnath Banerjee’s all quiet in Vikaspuri
The present paper seeks to focus on one of the prominent aspects of South Asian comics; the nature of urbanity, through a study of Sarnath Banerjee’s All Quiet in Vikaspuri, a narrative primarily set in Delhi. Banerjee’s Delhi is the space of the capitalists, urban planners, and corrupt policies; in short a ‘social product’, as Henri Lefebvre had formulated. The paper will examine how Delhi, in Banerjee’s comics, is symptomatic of various states …
Inspector Gowda’s Divided City: Space, Inequality, and Crime in Anita Nair’s Bangalore Novels
Bengaluru/Bangalore, the capital city of the Indian state of Karnataka, has played a vital role in the advancement of communication and technology across the globe. Following the progressivist logic of neoliberal urbanism, the city evolved from the quiet, placid ‘Pensioners’ Paradise’ into the bustling ‘Silicon Valley of India’ at an accelerated pace. Bangalore’s sudden growth into a global cyberpolis has motivated its recent entry into the realm…
Challenging the Romance of the Techno/Metropolis: The Social Critique of the ‘ City ’ in Zac O’Yeah’s Crime Trilogy
Following the American discovery of the high concentration of skilled IT professionals in Bengaluru, the Karnataka Government announced its IT policies in the late 1990s which changed the city from a placid ‘pensioners’ paradise’ to the bustling ‘Silicon Valley of India’. With almost an explosion of disruptive changes, the topography and the demography of the city both saw a dramatic transformation. The ‘Mr Majestic Trilogy’ (2012–2017) by Zac O’…
The Mysteries of Food: Reading Select Detective Fiction by Kalpana Swaminathan and Madhumita Bhattacharyya
Food studies, a new addition to the family of humanities, has experienced a rapid rise in the last twenty years and a number of scholars have devoted their time and energy in studying food culture as well as the patterns of eating (Albala, 2013). Food writing has slowly spread its branches into all literary genres including into crime fiction. In more recent crime mysteries, the main plot is supplemented by authentic recipes and descriptions of f…
Mapping the Evolution of Crime Fiction as a Genre: Eighteenth Century to the Contemporary Times
A mystery story which focuses on a crime and the investigation of that crime is commonly understood as a crime fiction narrative. Its ability to excite the readers, challenge their rational abilities and involve them in the gradual unravelling of the mystery is what makes crime fiction a huge success. With innumerable critical works, scholarly study and continued relevance, crime fiction has entered the canon of literature. A genre that closely r…
Narrating Lives/Labour: Documenting Domestic Labour in Kolkata
The article deals with my work of reading the ‘difficult lives’ of female domestic workers in the city of Kolkata, India. The institution of domestic servitude in the city of Kolkata has always been fed by ‘floating’ labourers from the impoverished hinterlands. These women use the urban public transport network to travel for work. The study is based on the oral narratives of women domestic workers and touches upon various issues of gendered labou…
No prominent works on this page.
Narrating Lives/Labour: Documenting Domestic Labour in Kolkata
The article deals with my work of reading the ‘difficult lives’ of female domestic workers in the city of Kolkata, India. The institution of domestic servitude in the city of Kolkata has always been fed by ‘floating’ labourers from the impoverished hinterlands. These women use the urban public transport network to travel for work. The study is based on the oral narratives of women domestic workers and touches upon various issues of gendered labou…
The Mysteries of Food: Reading Select Detective Fiction by Kalpana Swaminathan and Madhumita Bhattacharyya
Food studies, a new addition to the family of humanities, has experienced a rapid rise in the last twenty years and a number of scholars have devoted their time and energy in studying food culture as well as the patterns of eating (Albala, 2013). Food writing has slowly spread its branches into all literary genres including into crime fiction. In more recent crime mysteries, the main plot is supplemented by authentic recipes and descriptions of f…
Mapping the Evolution of Crime Fiction as a Genre: Eighteenth Century to the Contemporary Times
A mystery story which focuses on a crime and the investigation of that crime is commonly understood as a crime fiction narrative. Its ability to excite the readers, challenge their rational abilities and involve them in the gradual unravelling of the mystery is what makes crime fiction a huge success. With innumerable critical works, scholarly study and continued relevance, crime fiction has entered the canon of literature. A genre that closely r…
Inspector Gowda’s Divided City: Space, Inequality, and Crime in Anita Nair’s Bangalore Novels
Bengaluru/Bangalore, the capital city of the Indian state of Karnataka, has played a vital role in the advancement of communication and technology across the globe. Following the progressivist logic of neoliberal urbanism, the city evolved from the quiet, placid ‘Pensioners’ Paradise’ into the bustling ‘Silicon Valley of India’ at an accelerated pace. Bangalore’s sudden growth into a global cyberpolis has motivated its recent entry into the realm…
Challenging the Romance of the Techno/Metropolis: The Social Critique of the ‘ City ’ in Zac O’Yeah’s Crime Trilogy
Following the American discovery of the high concentration of skilled IT professionals in Bengaluru, the Karnataka Government announced its IT policies in the late 1990s which changed the city from a placid ‘pensioners’ paradise’ to the bustling ‘Silicon Valley of India’. With almost an explosion of disruptive changes, the topography and the demography of the city both saw a dramatic transformation. The ‘Mr Majestic Trilogy’ (2012–2017) by Zac O’…
Urban comics and social justice: Restructuring neoliberal spaces of Delhi in Sarnath Banerjee’s all quiet in Vikaspuri
The present paper seeks to focus on one of the prominent aspects of South Asian comics; the nature of urbanity, through a study of Sarnath Banerjee’s All Quiet in Vikaspuri, a narrative primarily set in Delhi. Banerjee’s Delhi is the space of the capitalists, urban planners, and corrupt policies; in short a ‘social product’, as Henri Lefebvre had formulated. The paper will examine how Delhi, in Banerjee’s comics, is symptomatic of various states …
Drawing the Invisible: A Study of Urban Space, Informal Migration of Construction Workers, and Precarity in Simon Lamouret’s The Alcazar
This article, situated at the intersection of urban studies and comics studies, seeks to interrogate the nature of urban migration and the lives of construction workers in Simon Lamouret’s The Alcazar (2022), a comic based on and in the city of Bangalore. The article begins with a paratextual analysis of the comic, followed by a Lefebvrian analysis of the construction site, to argue that cities like Bangalore are evolving fast “beyond the plan” (…
Urbanity, precarity, and infrastructural violence in Mumbai: Exploring the politics of repair and urban regeneration in Grafity’s wall
The present paper seeks to address precarious lives and the politics of urban repair in the city of Mumbai, in Ram V and Anand Radhakrishnan's graphic novel Grafity's Wall (2020), a coming-of-age story about four youths in the city. Through waves of urban restructuring, this paper argues, precarity has emerged as a typical mode of Mumbai's urban life and living. The work investigates the urban underworld of crime, violence, and movements of urban…
Cross-border mobility and epistemic embodiments of blue humanities in Vanni: A Family’s Struggle through the Sri Lankan Conflict
This article, at the intersection of postcolonial ocean studies and comics studies, examines the politics of cross-border mobility and the poetics of blue aesthetics in author Benjamin Dix and illustrator Lindsay Pollock’s ethnographic graphic novel, Vanni: A Family’s Struggle through the Sri Lankan Conflict. The novel interweaves narratives of violence, displacement, and coastal ecology within the fractured lives of Tamil families during the Sri…
Against the Grid: Urbanity and Infrastructure in Indian Sequential Narratives
The present article, situated at the intersection of comics studies and urban studies, aims to critically explore how urbanity as a condition is represented and transgressed in select Indian sequential narratives. Urbanisation in India has often been described as messy and a perpetual disaster, as cities often extend their peripheries to form slums and other informal settlements using innovative infrastructural developments. Highlighting the rele…
Law (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Art (5 works) · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis (5 works) · Literature (5 works) · Social science (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Comics and Graphic Narratives (4 works) · Engineering (4 works)