The Hybridity of Partition Novels in English: Reshaping National Identities in Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines and Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows

Abstract

The 1947 Partition led to the division of the Indian subcontinent along religious lines and the creation of seemingly homogeneous Indian and Pakistani national identities. Yet such clear-cut national imaginings have long been questioned, notably in the Indian novel in English. By incorporating tropes and forms from traditional Indian literatures into their novels, Amitav Ghosh and Kamila Shamsie give the genre a hybrid texture that shapes their multicultural understanding of national identity.