Influence of Space in Life-writing for Archiving History, Tradition, and Culture in Rohinton Mistry’s Select Novels

Abstract

Rohinton Mistry’s novels explore how space, both real and imagined, helps to preserve history, tradition, and culture through storytelling. In novels such as Such a Long Journey (1991) and Family Matters (2002), Mistry presents the lives of Parsi and Indian communities in spaces that hold deep meaning. The city of Bombay, now Mumbai, is more than a setting in his stories. It becomes a living place that shows how people struggle to find identity, face social problems, and deal with changes in their country. Homes, crowded buildings, and city streets reflect both the warmth of belonging and the pain of loss. They also show the effects of significant events such as Partition, the Emergency, and religious conflict. Mistry uses space to record and remember daily life. He shows how simple places, such as homes and markets, keep the stories of ordinary people alive. His imagination turns these spaces into memory maps where the past and present come together. Through his detailed descriptions of living spaces, he shows how people express their identity and protect their traditions even in times of hardship. These spaces also help readers understand how individuals connect their private lives to the nation's broader history. The role of space in Mistry’s writing is not limited to describing settings. It becomes a form of life-writing that records emotions, memories, and experiences. In this way, Mistry’s novels act as cultural records that keep alive the stories of the Parsi community and Indian society. They remind readers that memory and culture live not only in time but also in the places where people live, love, and struggle.