Intersecting Captivities: A Carceral Humanities Reading of Sudha Murthy’s Gently Falls the Bakula

Abstract

This article explores the double confinements in Sudha Murthy’s Gently Falls the Bakula, which revolves around the young couple Shrikant and Shrimathi through  the lens of Carceral Humanities. It analyses how the domestic and corporate space  function as carceral institutions that discipline and confine individual agency. The narrative foregrounds intersecting captivity as Shrimati gets emotionally incarcerated within patriarchal domesticity, whereas Shrikant gets entrapped by neoliberal logic of corporate ambition. By mapping these entrapments the paper argues for a broader understanding of the novel which is reinterpreted not only as a tale of marital disillusionment but as a narrative of layered incarceration where situating Sutha Murthy’s work within a neoliberal paradigm revealing how everyday environments like home and office can function as carceral spaces.