Cartographies of Remembrance: The Partition of India and Palestine in Selected Novels

Abstract

This dissertation attempts to conduct a case-oriented comparative analysis of the historiography and literature of political partition in both the Indian Subcontinent and Palestine. Despite the clear dissimilarities between the partition in both countries in terms of their historical contexts, size, and overtness of the conflict, a comparison between both ofthem would help in understanding and elucidating the consequences of partition on the everyday man. To achieve this aim, the dissertation adopts an interdisciplinary approach where the first chapter examines the historiography of partition in both geographic localities by relying onthe tools of new historicism. The second chapter investigates the possibility of finding common leitmotifs and genres in partition literaturein order to reach a model through which we can read partition literatures in a comparative manner. Finally, chapter three uses critical cartography and narrative mappingas a means to examine the different depictions of map-making in partition literature. Thus, the dissertation falls into an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion. To achieve this aim, this dissertation examines sections of the following works:Train to Pakistan (1956) by Khushwant Singh;The Heart Divided (1957) by Mumtaz Shah Nawaz;Cracking India (1991) by