Rethinking Trauma in the Time of Partition Narratives

Abstract

The Partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 was a violent and traumatic event, and since the depiction of a particularly violent event is crucially linked to the limits of representing trauma, my thesis explores how the selected Partition writers, through content and style, represent the Partition in their narratives. This thesis compares between texts written right after the Partition—Nanak Singh’s Khoon De Sohilay [The Songs of Blood] (1947) and Agg Di Khed [The Play of Fire] (1948) and Amrita Pritam’s Pinjar [Skeleton] (1950)—to those written a few decades after—Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas [Darkness] (1974) and Kamleshwar’s Partitions [Kitne Pakistan] (2000).