Witnessing Partition: Memory, History, Fiction - Softcover

Saint, Tarun K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0367210363 ISBN 13: 9780367210366

Publisher: Routledge India, 2019

Synopsis

This book interrogates representations – fiction, literary motifs and narratives – of the Partition of India. Delving into the writings of Khushwant Singh, Balachandra Rajan, Attia Hosain, Abdullah Hussein, Rahi Masoom Raza and Anita Desai, among many others, it highlights the modes of ‘fictive’ testimony that sought to articulate the inarticulate – the experiences of trauma and violence, of loss and longing, and of diaspora and displacement. The author discusses representational techniques and formal innovations in writing across three generations of twentieth-century writers in India and Pakistan, invoking theoretical debates on history, memory, witnessing and trauma.

With a new afterword, the second edition of this volume draws attention to recent developments in Partition studies and sheds new light as regards ongoing debates about an event that still casts a shadow on contemporary South Asian society and culture. A key text, this is essential reading for scholars, researchers and students of literary criticism, South Asian studies, cultural studies and modern history.

About this title

About the Author

Tarun K. Saint taught English literature for many years at Hindu College, Delhi University, India, and is now an independent scholar and writer. His research interests include the literature of the Partition and science fiction/speculative literature. He edited Bruised Memories: Communal Violence and the Writer (2002) and co-edited (with Ravikant) Translating Partition (2001). He has co-edited the anthology Looking Back: India’s Partition, 70 Years On (2017), with Rakhshanda Jalil and Debjani Sengupta. Recently, he has edited The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction (2019).

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0367210363
• ISBN 13: 9780367210366
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 264