This volume brings together new research on the developing and transforming literary scape in South Asia in the aftermath of the partitions of 1947 and 1971. It thematically explores the transformations that have taken place in the literary spheres of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, since violence and irresolvable conflicts wreaked the subcontinent, through the narratives of loss and longing.
The volume deals with key themes such as feminism, minorities and marginality, vernacular history, Bengali literary representations, and post-Partition artistic and literary representations. It contributes towards fostering a network for academic exchange across the borders thereby presenting diverse and in-depth studies on a plethora of subjects within the larger framework of literary landscapes.
Narratives of Loss and Longing will be of interest to scholars of literary studies, postcolonial and decolonial studies, partition studies, minority studies, refugee studies, gender and women's studies and those interested in South Asia, especially India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Introduction Recontextualizing Partition Trauma through Literature 1.Trauma and Identity Crisis in the Partition Fiction by Sa’adat Hassan Manto and Joginder Paul 2. A Powerful Sense of Inhabitance: Lyric, Memory, and Enduring Community in South Asia 3. Being in Partition: Ontology of a Post-Partition Self 4.“The Bridge of Words”: Post-Partition Reflection in Contemporary Urdu Writing from Pakistan Feminist Observations 5. Narrating Rape and Resistance: Tracing the Trajectories of Birangona in Rizia Rahman’s Letters of Blood Minorities and Marginality 6. Dalit Migrant Reminiscences from Bengal 7. The Symbol of Sufi Shrines in Basharat Peer’s Curfewed Nights: One Kashmiri Journalist’s Frontline Account Life, Love and War in his Homeland Vernacular History 8. Tracing the Vernacular Histories of Partition: Reading P. Kesavadev’s Bhranthalayam as a Partition Narrative in Malayalam Bengali Literary Representations 9. Narrating History, Constructing Memories: Mapping the ‘Third Space’ through Cultural Negotiations in Post-Partition Bangladesh10. Re-thinking Cosmopolitanism / Re-reading Tagore 11. Challenging Borders: A Selective Study of Bashabi Fraser’s Poetry Post-Partition Artistic and Literary Representations 12. In hindsight: Pehalwans, Courtesans and the Promise of Democracy in Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s Between Clay and Dust Conclusion
Nukhbah Taj Langah is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of English (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Roshni Sengupta is an Associate Professor at the School of Liberal Studies, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), India.
