“You’re Just a Housewife. What on Earth Could You Possibly Do?”: The History of the Bangladesh War of Independence Told by Women in Tahmima Anam’s A Golden Ag

Abstract

British-Bangladeshi Tahmima Anam’s debut novel A Golden Age (2007) is a mother-daughter tale of the Bangladesh War of Independence, and is set during an exceptional period of martial law. It is a story of resistance told from the margins, from a domestic space known as “Shona.” This paper explores how the struggle for independence is embodied by the actions of women, and analyzes how weaving violence and resistance into the fabric of mundane lives enables Anam to shed light on the 1971 Bangladesh genocide.