Abstract
Taking Kamila Shamsie's 2014 war novel A God in Every Stone as its core case study, this article examines the development of increasingly complex, heterogeneous and inclusive understandings and memories of the Great War in the twenty-first century. It demonstrates how the novel's complex and intricate narrative, as well as its paratextual framing and much of its reception, offer a timely engagement with a range of hitherto hidden or marginalized histories, particularly in relation to the role of women and experiences of South Asian soldiers, as well as with colonial violence and anti-colonial resistance in the war's aftermath. At the same time, the novel underscores the ambivalences contained in those stories. Through this analysis, the article considers the extent to which A God in Every Stone can be seen as a 'more expansive form of commemoration [..] with the scope for multiple narratives'. The novel is also 'historically and ethically responsible', not least in its critical reflection on the purposes, practices and power structures behind longer-standing historical narratives and cultural memories of the war itself and the (imperial) past in a post-colonial global context.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 229-246 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Forum for Modern Language Studies |
Volume | 56 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Apr 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2020 The Author(s).
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords
- anti-colonialism
- archaeology
- British Empire
- Great War centenary
- Kamila Shamsie
- Peshawar
- postcolonial memory
- sepoy
- South Asia
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Linguistics and Language
- Literature and Literary Theory