Paper short abstract:

My discussion moves from a reading of Bapsi Sidhwa’s short story "Defend Yourself Against Me" in order to analyse how it represents the memory of Partition relocating it in the everyday life of a community of migrants in the West.

Paper long abstract:

In the field of the Anglophone literature created by South Asian writers the Partition of India and Pakistan has been affronted by several authors on both sides of the border. Some of the novels based on this historical event and its consequences have been widely known and discussed. This kind of literary production has thus played a role un-silencing memory both in India and in Pakistan since the years that followed Partition. My discussion moves form a reading of Bapsi Sidhwa's short story "Defend Yourself Against Me". The aim is to analyse what happens to the memories of that event when the personal stories related to it are translated through a border that is not the one dividing the once united Indian Subcontinent but is the frontier separating an Asian community living in a contemporary American town from its original place. Thus, memory as something that ties people to a far homeland becomes an element that unites a group constituted by Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs whose members recognize their roots in a common past. At the same time, memory as a still open wound and, as such, as a burden on the shoulders of the new generations, is something that chases people, even when they are far from the place where and time when that historical facts occurred. While dealing with it can open breaches into the community, it can also give a chance to learn from that past trauma.