Absolute and Abstract Spaces: the Sea, the City and Class Divisions in Thrity Umrigar’s The Space Between Us
Absolute and Abstract Spaces: the Sea, the City and Class Divisions in Thrity Umrigar’s The Space Between Us

Summary/Abstract: Thrity Umrigar´s The Space Between Us (2005) can be understood as an exploration of class divisions and their distribution in the city-space of Mumbai. The work delves into intersections of gender and class through the relationship between upper-middle class Sera and her lower class servant Bhima, a character inspired by an actual servant Umrigar had as a child. The author recalls how the women in the family, mother, aunts and servant, shared the house chores in a sort of female community which was interrupted, however, by what the author termed “the elephant in the room”. This elephant was class which worked as a ritualized “space” that prevents a real encounter between Sera and Bhima. Inspired by Henri Lefebvre´s conception of space as active agent and passive object together with Edward Soja´s notion of spatial justice, my aim in this paper is to study that “elephant in the room”, that is, I intend to read Umrigar´s portrayal of class divisions from a spatial perspective.

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