Memory, Nationalism, and Narrative in Contemporary South Asia - Hardcover

"Mallot's study is not only a thorough study of the pervasive nature of memory as it shapes contemporary South Asia, but also an invaluable exploration of the ways in which memory's empire is continually challenged and re-imagined: an erudite, sensitive, and very readable book." - Dave Gunning, University of Birmingham

'This distinctive book provides a provocative interrogation of some key tenets of memory and trauma studies. Through lively analysis of literature, film, and urban planning, it examines the diverse processes and politics of remembering on the subcontinent, convincingly arguing for more meticulous and culturally inflected memory work.' - Clare Barker, University of Leeds

"Mallot's book is an ambitious and timely project that interrogates Eurocentric assumptions that the act of remembering is purely positive and argues that a different paradigm may be necessary in South Asian contexts. The book examines memory, the relationship between memory and history, and the ethical implications and potential dangers of revisiting the past through a variety of texts, including a city that is the result of post-Partition urban planning, Hindi films, and Anglophone novels, by well-known South Asian/diasporic writers. This well-theorized and thoroughly researched work makes a valuable contribution to fields including South Asian Studies, Memory Studies, and Diaspora Studies." - Maryse Jayasuriya, University of Texas at El Paso

Memory, Nationalism, and Narrative in Contemporary South Asia investigates how English-language fiction, Hindi cinema, and postcolonial urban planning have provided surprisingly ambivalent and deeply controversial responses to the twinned compulsions of memory and forgetting on the Indian subcontinent. J. Edward Mallot examines how Eurocentric assumptions about trauma and testimony need to be challenged in South Asian contexts. In literature, writers such as Salman Rushdie, Romesh Gunesekera, Michael Ondaatje, and Amitav Ghosh turn to unexpected strategies of encoding and understanding the past. Mallot argues that these controversies and strategies expand memory studies in new, provocative directions.