The Partition of Bengal: Fragile Borders and New Identities

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Cambridge University Press, Oct 22, 2015 - History
This study looks at the rich literature that has been spawned through the historical imagination of Bengali-speaking writers in West Bengal and Bangladesh through issues of homelessness, migration and exile to see how the Partition of Bengal in 1947 has thrown a long shadow over memories and cultural practices. Through a rich trove of literary and other materials, the book lays bare how the Partition has been remembered or how it has been forgotten. For the first time, hitherto untranslated archival materials and texts in Bangla have been put together to assess the impact of 1947 on the cultural memory of Bangla-speaking peoples and communities. This study contends that there is not one but many smaller partitions that women and men suffered, each with its own textures of pain, guilt and affirmation.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
1 The Calcutta Riots in Representations and Testimonies
36
History Memory and Representations
68
Displacement and Belonging in PostPartition Bangla Fiction
117
Refugee Rehabilitation in Bangla Partition Fictions
157
Nation and Narration from the Northeast of India and Bangladesh
188
Politics and Identity in GeoNarratives of the Partition 200510
220
Bibliography
251
Index
267
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About the author (2015)

Debjani Sengupta teaches in the Department of English at Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi. Her publications include an anthology of Partition short fiction titled Mapmaking: Partition Stories from Two Bengals (2003, 2011) that she edited, and articles on Bangla science fiction, Bangla theatre and the Bengal Partition in anthologies and journals. She has contributed translations from Bangla to The Essential Tagore and The Oxford Anthology of Bengali Literature.

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