Abstract
This paper discusses the ways in which Nadeem Aslam’s novels – Maps for Lost Lovers and The Wasted Vigil – highlight the need for a re-conceptualisation of immigrant identity, in post-9/11 world, by linking traumatic experiences of an individual to the collective memory of a community or nation. Taking cue from Sigmund Freud, Judith Butler, Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok’s concepts of mourning and melancholia, an interface between transnational movement and mourning will be investigated in order to emphasise how private grief becomes a metaphor for public grief. With reference to Aslam’s novels (that are set against the background of post-9/11 rhetoric of war on terrorism), I discuss how an endless process of diasporic nostalgia and mourning interacts with immigrants’ efforts to deal with different ‘others’ in their adopted homelands.
Highlights
This paper is an attempt to demonstrate that Nadeem Aslam’s novels – Maps for Lost Lovers(2004) and The Wasted Vigil (2008) – highlight the need for a reconceptualisation of immigrant identity by linking traumatic experiences of an individual to the collective memory of a community or nation
Drawing on Freud, Butler, Abraham and Torok’s concepts of mourning and melancholia, an interface between transnational movement and mourning will be investigated in order to emphasise how private grief becomes a metaphor for public grief
With reference to Aslam’s work, I show how an endless process of diasporicnostalgia and mourning interacts with immigrants’ efforts to deal with different others
Summary
This paper is an attempt to demonstrate that Nadeem Aslam’s novels – Maps for Lost Lovers(2004) and The Wasted Vigil (2008) – highlight the need for a reconceptualisation of immigrant identity by linking traumatic experiences of an individual to the collective memory of a community or nation. Whereas Freud’s melancholic subject fails to mourn, Kaukab does mourn but her mourning does not entail “the progressive serving of affective ties to what has been lost so as to free the subject to direct its love and attention to new objects and endeavours” (Ruti 2005, 639).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
