BODY POLITICS AND THE BODY POLITIC

Abstract

While the field of memory studies continues to expand, critics question the applicability of Western trauma research in non-Western contexts. Not every Third World victim of violence, for example, may be willing or able to ‘speak’ or testify. But the Western emphasis on verbal testimony ignores other critical modes of remembering and disclosure. Shauna Singh Baldwin's What the Body Remembers, a novel about pre-Partition South Asia, suggests ways in which the human body can retain and reveal individual and collective memory. Baldwin offers scars, tattoos, blood and reincarnation as potential paths to testimony and healing; her work considers topics such as gendered memory, postmemory and the relationship between individual and collective pasts.