Traumas of displacement in Bharati Mukherjee’s the tiger’s daughter (1971) and Amitav Ghosh’s the shadow lines (1988)
Author(s): Ranjan Kumar Bhatta
Abstract: The Partition of India in 1947 produced not only territorial rupture but also enduring psychic and cultural dislocations that reverberate across generations and geographies. This article examines the representation of displacement-induced trauma in two seminal diasporic novels: Bharati Mukherjee’s The Tiger’s Daughter (1971) and Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines (1988). Drawing on Marianne Hirsch’s concept of post-memory, Cathy Caruth’s theorization of trauma as unclaimed experience, and Homi Bhabha’s notion of the unhomely, it argues that both texts articulate Partition trauma not as a discrete historical event but as a transgenerational, transnational haunting. Mukherjee’s protagonist Tara Cartwright confronts the estrangement of return, while Ghosh’s unnamed narrator navigates the porous borders of memory and nation. Despite stylistic and temporal differences, both novels reveal displacement as a condition that fractures identity, silences women, and renders home perpetually contingent.
Ranjan Kumar Bhatta. Traumas of displacement in Bharati Mukherjee’s the tiger’s daughter (1971) and Amitav Ghosh’s the shadow lines (1988). Int J Multidiscip Trends 2025;7(11):180-182. DOI: 10.22271/multi.2025.v7.i11c.842
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