Trauma and Memory Studies: Responses from India and Beyond

by Simi Malhotra (Editor), Sheikh Sana Assad (Editor), Farhana Tasnim (Editor), Somya Charan Pahadi (Editor), Sango Bidani (Editor)

Overview

This edited volume offers a comprehensive revaluation of Trauma and Memory Studies, foregrounding perspectives from India and beyond. It critically interrogates the prevailing Euro-centric paradigm within the field, advocating for the amplification and contextualization of voices originating from South Asian spatial and temporal contexts. Departing from conventional West/North-centric narratives, the text prioritizes the narratives of historically marginalized survivor groups, encompassing individuals affected by pivotal events such as the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, the Bengal famine, the dispersion of the Indian diaspora, and the experiences of incarcerated populations in Iran, Kenya, Palestine, etc. Through an in-depth exploration of societal mechanisms for remembrance and coping strategies vis-à-vis traumatic episodes, such as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the book unveils the intricate interplay of political, cultural, and social dynamics. It explores the complicated dynamics of post-colonial and post-conflict societies in India by using a range of interdisciplinary methodologies, such as examining artistic expressions, oral histories, and digital media. It discusses the ongoing debate between hegemonic historical narratives and the often-marginalized voices of subaltern communities. This book serves as an indispensable resource for academics, students, and researchers committed to the exploration of trauma and memory within non-Western contexts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789819663736
Publisher:	Springer Nature Singapore
Publication date:	09/15/2025
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Simi Malhotra is Professor and Head, Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. Her research areas are contemporary literary and cultural theory, including post theoretical developments, with research guidance, teaching and publications primarily concerning the same. Her latest publications are the edited books Globalization and Sense-Making Practices: Phenomenologies of the Global, Local and Glocal (Routledge, 2024), Affective World-Making: Routing Planetary Thought (Routledge, 2023), Globalization and Planetary Ethics: New Terrains of Consciousness (Routledge, 2024), Food Culture Studies in India: Consumption, Representation and Mediation (Springer, 2021) and Inhabiting Cyberspace in India: Theory, Perspectives and Challenges (Springer, 2021), and the co-authored books Terrains of Consciousness: Multilogical Perspectives on Globalization (Würzburg University Press, 2021), and Ocean as Method: Thinking With The Maritime (Routledge, 2022). She is a recipient of several grants and awards including the 2020 DUO-India Professor Fellowship Award and the grant under Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India sponsored ‘Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaborations’ (SPARC). Most recently, she has been awarded the University Grants Commission-Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (German Academic Exchange Service), UGC-DAAD Project Based Personnel Exchange Programme (PPP) 2021-22 to carry out a Project as Principal Investigator on “Mobile Feminisms: Gender, Social Media, Transnational Interactions” in collaboration with Prof Dr Mary Ann Snyder-Körber, English and American Studies, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Germany. She has visited several universities on fellowships, to deliver talks and presentations including University of Munster, Munster, Germany (May 2023), Julius Maximilians Universität, Würzburg, Germany (May 2023) on UGC-DAAD Project Based Personnel Exchange Programme (PPP) and University of Colombo, Sri Lanka (2018).

Sheikh Sana Assad is a PhD Scholar at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Her doctoral work engages with Trauma and Memory Studies with a focus on transgeneration trauma, post-memory and prosthetic memory. Her work also focuses on affective politics, women's activism, and the role of literature in memory preservation. She has also presented her research at various national and international conferences across India and abroad. She has led several workshops at the University of Kashmir. She was Ministry of Education- SPARC fellow in Vernacular languages, in 2022, at the South Asian Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany.

Farhana Tasnim is a PhD Scholar at the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia, and works in the field of Cultural Studies, Memory Studies and Trauma Studies. Her research centres on the literature of melancholia with a particular focus on the literary oeuvre of Orhan Pamuk. She has also participated in several seminars and workshops. She has also presented papers at national and international conferences.

Somya Charan Pahadi is a PhD Scholar at the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia. Her areas of study are Trauma Theory, Memory Studies and Contemporary Indian Literature. Her research is on the intersection of Trauma and Childhood in the Indian context. She has presented papers at several national and international conferences across the country. She has taught English and Communication Skills in colleges across New Delhi.

Dr. Sango Bidani is a former faculty member of the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia. He was recently awarded his PhD degree, for his thesis titled A Critical Study of the Cinematic Adaptations of Devdas in the Indian Subcontinent. His areas of research interest are in the fields of Adaptation Studies, Film Studies, Translation Studies, Partition Studies and Trauma and Memory Studies. He has three book chapter publications to his name, the latest being “The Trope of the Bastard Child: A Close Study of Children of War (2014)” published in a volume titled Articulating Childhood Trauma: In the Context of War, Sexual Abuse and Disability in 2024.

Table of Contents

Towards an Aesthetics and Atmosphere of Remembrance: Memorialising the Trauma of Jallianwala Bagh.- Secondary Trauma, Famine, and the Hindi Literati: Hindi Narrative of the Bengal Famine in Hams Literary Magazine.- Telling the Untold: Preserving Memories and Quiet Amnesias of the Partition.- Climate Change and the Experiences of the Marginalised South Pacific Islanders: Tales of Fear, Suffering and Resistance in Literature.- Witnessing, Trauma and Private Memories of Public Terror: Reading Selected Witness Narratives of the 26/11 Mumbai Attacks.- Muharram in Kashmir: Historical Trauma, Performance and Resistance.- Harmonies of Subversion: Exploring Kashmiri Songs as Sonic Archives.- Hand-Crafted Memories: Remembering Voices from Shaheen Bagh and The Bhopal Gas Disaster through Avant-garde Feminist Media.- Maps of Coffee: Diasporas of Trauma in Selected Poems of Mahmoud Darwish.- Storytelling as Protest: Counter-Narratives from Kenya in Yvonne Adhiambo Ouwur’s Dust.- Revisioning Biblical Women: Retelling Memory in Jeet Thayil’s Names of the Women.- Transgenerational Trauma: The Entanglement of Family Memories in 21st Century Diasporic Women’s Literatures from the Global South.- War and Memory: Remembering Women’s Bodies in War through a Reading of Brian De Palma’s Casualties of War.- From Delhi with (Co)Creativity: Literary Texts as Material Evidence of Urban Memories and Experiences.- Remembering and Forgetting War Memory in Nayomi Munaweera’s Island of a Thousand Mirrors.- Unveiling Alterity: Exploring the Palestinian and Israeli Multifaceted Memories, Identities and Geopolitics through Select Children’s Films.- Remembering, Forgetting, Forgiving: Perspectives from Philosophy, Psychology, and Manto’s spasmodic short stories on the 1947 Partition.- Articulating Humiliation: Trauma and Acousmatic Agency in Selected Life Writings of Harishankar Jaladas.- This is My Story: Role of Tibet Museum in Preserving Memory in Exile.- Unveiling Cancer, Trauma, and Recovery: A Study of Manisha Koirala and Lisa Ray’s Autobiographies.- Understanding Intersections of Caste, Gender and Migration in Uttarakhand through Cinematic Representations of Trauma and Memory in Dev Bhoomi.