Female narratives of loss: memories of partition

Abstract

The Indian English narrative has to be considered from a threefold perspective: history, nation and narration. Indian women writers have also tackled this theme. The way they represent the shock of Partition is very much related with the situation of women in India. This article aims to diacronically analize some examples of female Indian narrative: Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961) by Attia Hosain, Clear Light of Day (1980) by Anita Desai and An Unrestored Women (2016) by Shobha Rao, to specifically focus on how women characters build up their memories of the historical event as a narrative of loss through which, eventually, we can identify the trace of gender violence as linked to the concept of nationalism in an attempt to restore the past and the present.