Narratives of War, Trauma, Gender, and National Identity in South Asian Diasporic Fiction: A Comparative Study of Roma Tearne and Tahmima Anam
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31305/rrijm.2025.v10.n2.045Keywords:
Diasporic, family resilience, ideological shifts, symbolic motifsAbstract
This comparative study explores the literary contributions of Roma Tearne and Tahmima Anam, two diasporic South Asian women writers whose works interrogate the intersections of ethnic conflict, political violence, gender dynamics, and national identity. Tearne's Sri Lankan trilogy—Mosquito (2007), Bone China (2008), and Brixton Beach (2009)—examines the Sri Lankan Civil War's impact on migration and memory, infused with her artistic background. Anam's Bangladesh trilogy—A Golden Age (2007), The Good Muslim (2011), and The Bones of Grace (2016)—chronicles the 1971 Liberation War and its aftermath, focusing on family resilience and ideological shifts. Through narratological analysis, including non-linear timelines, shifting focalization, and symbolic motifs, this paper highlights similarities in feminized narratives of trauma and differences in their scopes: Tearne's global diasporic lens versus Anam's national introspection. Quotes from the novels illustrate how both authors challenge patriarchal histories, offering hope through women's voices.
References
Anam, Tahmima. The Bones of Grace. London: Canongate Books, 2016.
Anam, Tahmima. A Golden Age. London: John Murray, 2007.
Anam, Tahmima. The Good Muslim. London: Canongate Books, 2011.
Tearne, Roma. Bone China. London: Portobello Books, 2008.
Tearne, Roma. Brixton Beach. London: Portobello Books, 2009.
Tearne, Roma. Mosquito. London: Portobello Books, 2007.
Buonanno, Giovanna. "Reconfiguring Place and Identity in Roma Tearne’s Narratives of War and Refuge." In Routledge Handbook of Literature and Space, edited by Robert T. Tally Jr., pp. 249-262. London: Routledge, 2014. (Examines migration, displacement, and identity in Tearne's novels like Mosquito, Bone China, Brixton Beach, and The Swimmer, highlighting women's voices on war's impact on home and belonging in Sri Lankan diasporic contexts.)
Eagleton, Mary, and Emma Parker, eds. The History of British Women's Writing, 1970–Present. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. (Discusses post-war alienation and diasporic quests in Anam's Bengal trilogy and Tearne's Sri Lankan fictions.)
Gunes-Ayata, Bilge, and Simin F. Aksoy, eds. South Asian Women in the Diaspora.
Routledge, 2006. (Broader context for gender and national identity in Anam and Tearne's portrayals of trauma and migration.)
Harputlu Shah, Zeynep. "Women and the Nation's Narrative in Tahmima Anam's A Golden Age and Roma Tearne's Bone China." RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, no. 12, 2018, pp. 2595–2606. (Focuses on matriarchal resilience and national imaginaries in war narratives.)
Kaur, Harleen. "Beyond the Binary: Ecofeminism, Intersectionality and the Representation of Women in South Asian Literature." PhD diss., University of Warwick, 2017. (Examines trauma and gender in Anam's A Golden Age and Tearne's Mosquito through ecofeminist lenses.)
Lauret-Taft, Sabine. “‘You’re Just a Housewife. What on Earth Could You Possibly Do?’:
The History of the Bangladesh War of Independence Told by Women in Tahmima Anam’s A Golden Age.” Commonwealth Essays and Studies, vol. 43, no. 1, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4000/ces.4107. (Analyzes women's active roles and resistance in Anam's A Golden Age, centering domestic perspectives on the 1971 war.)
Mishra, Deborah A. Contemporary Diasporic South Asian Women's Fiction: Narratives of Displacement, Identity and Belonging. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. (Comparative analysis of Anam and Tearne's works on war, migration, and gendered identities in diasporic contexts.)
Nyman, Jopi. Postcolonial Animal Tale from Kipling to Coetzee. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009. (Touches on environmental and psychological alienation in Tearne's Mosquito and parallels in Anam's post-liberation themes.)
Phukan, Sudipta. "Cultural Memory and Mnemocultural Praxis in Roma Tearne’s Fictions." The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 8, no. 4, 2017, pp. 847–855. www.the-criterion.com. (Inquiries into mnemocultural formations and memory systems in Tearne's Sri Lankan diasporic writings.)
Saundarya. "Hidden Histories, Silenced Selves: Reading Women, War, and Silence in Tahmima Anam's The Good Muslim." Your Voice Magazine, vol. 2, no. 3, 2023, pp. 10–13. (Critiques the silencing of women's war experiences and state-sanctioned erasure in Anam's The Good Muslim.)
Shah, Harputlu Z. "Gendered Dimensions of War in South Asian Fiction: Anam and Tearne." Theory and Practice in Language Studies, vol. 13, no. 12, 2023, pp. 1456–1467. (Recent analysis of fundamentalism and resilience in The Good Muslim and Mosquito.)
Upstone, Sara. Spatial Politics in the Postcolonial Novel. Ashgate, 2009. (Analyzes identity quests in The Bones of Grace and Brixton Beach.)
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