Graphic Pains, Persecuted Memories-Dismantling the Narrative Spaces Within Selected Texts from This Side, That Side (original) (raw)

Abstract

This paper is a critical inquiry into selected narratives from the partition anthology This Side, That Side edited by Vishwajyoti Ghosh-namely 'Border' by Kaiser Haq and Hemant Puri, 'Which Side?' by Ravish Kumar, Shveta Sarda and Ikroop Sandhu, 'A Letter from India' by Mahmood Farooqui and Fariha Rahman, and 'Know Directions Home?' By Nina Sabnani-probing into the trauma, the memory of pain, and the loss incurred from partition. Brendan O'Leary in his essay Analysing partition: Definition, classification and explanation defines partition as 'the division of an entity into parts.' For a nation like India, which is a conglomeration of cultures, confluences, identities, and existences, the period of partition was an incursion of its very soul, its existence-'entity' as O'Leary calls it. Partition has perhaps been the most tragic saga in the recorded annals of history of the nation that is India and her neighbors as the tragedy that this period ushered in, infected millions of lives across the landscape-physically and psychologically. Partition literature is a testimony to those times, those appalling moments and memories that has forever tarnished the spatial historiography of the subcontinent. This Side, That Side is an exemplary addition to the already rich collection of partition literature. An anthology of graphic narratives 'restorying partition', the collection opens new dimensions and questionnaire on studying and analysing partition literature. For one, the anthology chronicles the trauma of partition in a graphic format-a form very novel and recent in Indian literature and its corresponding academic intrigues. The visual narrative space coalesces the tragedy and its associated parameters in a format, which owing to its presentation heightens the reader experience. The paper looks to deconstruct the semantic and semiotic spaces within the narratives, perceive the silences within the texts and dismantle the memorial spaces within the narrative constructs thereby analysing the atypical format which recreates partition.

Loading...

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.

References (16)

  1. Maltese-American journalist and cartoonist. He is best known for his comics journalism and books like Palestine (1996), Footnotes in Gaza (2009) based on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and Safe Area Gorazde (2000) and The Fixer (2003) based on the Bosnian war. Works Cited Anderson, Michael C. & Benjamin J Levy. "Suppressing Unwanted Memories." Current Directions in Psychological Science 18.4 (2009): 89-194. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01634.
  2. Brister, Rose, and Belinda Walzer. "'Kairos' and Comics: Reading Human Rights Intercontextually in Joe Sacco's Graphic Narratives." College Literature 40.3 (2013): 138-55. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24543226\. Accessed 28 Jun. 2022.
  3. Broch-Due, Vigdis. "Trauma, Violence, Memory: Reflections on the Bodily, the Self, the Sign, and the Social." Violent Reverberations. Culture, Mind, and Society. Ed. Vigdis Broch-Due and Bjorn Enge Bertelsen. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, 2016, 23-58. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39049-9\_2\. Sil_370
  4. Choudhury, Suranjana. "Pangs of Being 'Un-Homed': Engagements with 'Displacement' and 'Relocation' in Select Partition Narratives from Bengal." The NEHU Journal XII.1 (2014): 01-16. Print.
  5. Chute, Hillary. "Comics as Literature? Reading Graphic Narrative." PMLA 123.2 (2008): 452-65. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25501865\. Accessed 28 Jun. 2022.
  6. Deb, Dorothy. "Language, Culture and the Creation of Bangladesh." Journal of Defence Studies 15.4 (2021): 59-76. Print.
  7. Farooqui, Mahmood, and Fariha Rehman. "A Letter from India." This Side, That Side. Ed. Vishwajyoti Ghosh. New Delhi: Yoda Press, 2016. 69-82. Print.
  8. Haq, Kaiser, and Hemant Puri. "Border." This Side, That Side. Ed. Vishwajyoti Ghosh. New Delhi: Yoda Press, 2016. 43-50. Print.
  9. Hussain, Sabina. "Label and Literature: Borders and Spaces in Postcolonial Migrant Literature in Australia." Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature 3 (2006): 103-116. Print.
  10. Kumar, Ravish, and Ikroop Sandhu. "Which Side?" This Side, That Side. Ed. Vishwajyoti Ghosh. New Delhi: Yoda Press, 2016. 51-58. Print.
  11. Pattinson, Dale. "Narrative Exploits: Space and Trauma in Contemporary American Literature." Diss. Arizona State University, 2013.
  12. Ragobete, Daniela & Elisabetta Marino. Introduction, The Partition of India: Beyond Improbable Lines. Eds. Daniela Ragobete and Elisabetta Marino. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018. 1-8. Print.
  13. Roy, Rituparna. South Asian Partition Fiction in English: From Khushwant Singh to Amitav Ghosh. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2010. Print.
  14. Sabnani, Nina. "Know Directions Home?" This Side, That Side. Ed. Vishwajyoti Ghosh. New Delhi: Yoda Press, 2016. 99-112. Print.
  15. Samaddar, Ranabir. A Biography of the Indian Nation, 1947-1997. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2001. Print.
  16. Windari, Tri. "National Identity Attachment and Its Variables." Journal of International Women's Studies 22.3 (2021): 81-95. Print.