Architecture and interior influence the inhabitant’s consciousness and conduct. This article looks into the spatio-cognitive factors affecting the inhabitants through a close reading of Jahnavi Barua’s Undertow (2020). In so doing, it applies the ‘prospect-refuge theory’ in analysing the affective aspect of the interiors, developed by J. Appleton (1975) wherein he delineates the proclivity for certain landscapes which furthers the feelings of safety and pleasure from inhabiting environments that offer both views and a sense of enclosure. The veranda is one such space wherein a sense of prospect and refuge can be traced simultaneously. Hence, reading the space of the verandah as the threshold bears a crucial role in the lives of the protagonists, Loya and Torun. Taking cue from Gaston Bachelard, this article also probes into the phenomenology of interiors through a reading of the houses as described in the novel.
Udeshna Tai (Thu,) studied this question.