Mapping Trauma: Nation, Memory, and the Politics of Identity in Kamila Shamsie's Kartography

Abstract

Trauma, memory and national identity are the core issues in postcolonial literature, especially in the countries which were affected by colonialism, partition and political violence. The themes of ethnic conflict, historical silences and divided identities are explored in a fascinating manner in Kamila Shamsie's Kartography (2002), which portrays Karachi as a city, beset by such problems. Theory of trauma studies and memory studies are explored in this article, mainly following Cathy Caruth's and Pierre Nora's theories of trauma and places of memory and Benedict Anderson's theory of imagined communities. The study uses qualitative textual analysis methods to make arguments against the official national narratives in the form of 'silenced' memories associated with the Bangladesh War in 1971, ethnic violence in Karachi and the emotional burdens passed on to the post-Partition generation. The novel illustrates the constant intermingling of personal memory and national history and how identities are constantly unstable, contested and shaped by political stories. In addition, this article argues that maps and cartography do not only serve as geographical instruments, but are also symbols of memory, belonging and historical reconstruction. In the end, Shamsie calls for the idea of a more inclusive view of a Pakistani identity, based on a historical understanding, and not on collective amnesia. The study helps to explain the mainstream research on Pakistani English literature by evoking an oppositional mode of remembering, reconciling and reflecting on the nation by the literary narratives.