Feminine Body as a Site of Trauma and Resistance: A Comparative Study of Pinjar by Amrita Pritam and Aurore By Ernest Moutoussamy
Ernest Moutoussamy’s Aurore and Amrita Pritam’s Pinjar depict two societies in a moment of crisis and transition. Moutoussamy recounts the struggle of the Indian indentured laborers in Guadeloupe who vainly try to restore their ties with their East-Indian roots through the struggle of Râma the prota...
Kaydedildi:
| Yayımlandı: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/archipelies, |
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| Yazar: | |
| Materyal Türü: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Dil: | Anglais |
| Baskı/Yayın Bilgisi: |
Archipélies
2025
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| Online Erişim: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Özet: | Ernest Moutoussamy’s Aurore and Amrita Pritam’s Pinjar depict two societies in a moment of crisis and transition. Moutoussamy recounts the struggle of the Indian indentured laborers in Guadeloupe who vainly try to restore their ties with their East-Indian roots through the struggle of Râma the protagonist. Aurore, betrothed in childhood to Râma crosses the ocean to find her beloved. But before their final reconciliation, she undergoes traumatizing experiences of enslavement in the plantation colony where her body becomes the site of domination of the plantation owner. As she bears his child, she feels totally alienated from her identity and loses all connection with her past. In a similar vein, on the eve of India’s Independence as religious riots break out in the border areas of Pakistan and India, Pooro is kidnapped by Rashida as an act of vengeance against a Hindu family. Similar to those who have crossed the Kalapâni, women who have crossed the threshold of a Muslim family become unacceptable to their parents, lovers and kin. Pooro becomes an outcaste. Her new identity as Hamida, a Muslim woman, leaves her angry, violated and even more so when she bears the child of Rashida, whom she perceives as her enemy. Through the theoretical perspective of post-memory as proposed by Marianne Hirsch and perspectives on Partition fiction by Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin, this article will argue that women’s bodies not only became the site of gendered violence during periods of political upheaval, but these narratives also show how history has muffled women’s voices in the process of reconstructing the nation. In Moutoussamy’s novel, the marriage of Aurore and Râma becomes symbolic of the restoration of East-Indian cultural traditions in Guadeloupe. In Amrita Pritam’s Pinjar, Pooro reconciles with Rashida and her identity as Hamida, symbolizing the restoration of fraternal ties between the two nations, forgiving each other’s atrocities. This article proposes to render a reparative reading of two works of fiction which portray trauma and violence caused by narrow ideologies and colonial economic exploitation but move beyond a narrative of despair to describe the regenerative powers of womanhood. |
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