From Ancestral Voices to Modern Silences: Intergenerational Dialogue in Chaudhuri’s Prose

Abstract

This study explores how Amit Chaudhuri's fiction examines intergenerational dialogue, focusing on the interplay between ancestral voices and modern silences. His work, known for its introspective style and minimalist aesthetic, portrays middle-class Bengali families in post-independence India navigating changing cultural values. The research, drawing on postcolonial theory, memory studies, and narrative ethics, finds that intergenerational communication in Chaudhuri's prose is often indirect and elliptical, conveyed through gestures, silences, and shared routines rather than direct confrontation. Memory and everyday rituals become crucial mediums for transmitting cultural sensibilities. The study highlights how silences in familial relationships are not empty voids but rather repositories of historical and emotional complexity, reflecting the fragmentation of collective memory in a postcolonial urban setting. Chaudhuri's nuanced portrayal avoids both idealizing tradition and fully embracing modern detachment, instead presenting a continuum where ancestral voices subtly resonate. Ultimately, the study concludes that Chaudhuri's understated style emphasizes the significance of the unspoken in shaping intergenerational consciousness, challenging typical narratives of generational conflict and offering a more ambiguous and introspective view of cultural continuity in the modern Indian novel