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The Politics of Narration: Revisiting the Violence and Trauma of Bangladesh ‘Liberation War’ Through Shaheen Akthar’s The Search
Javid Ahmad Reshi Dr Kusumika Sarkar
Abstract:
\r\nThis paper interrogates Shaheen Akthar’s treatment of birangonas (women victims of rape) in her novel, The Search, by interrogating the underlying politics in her re-presentation of pain, suffering and the psychological trauma of loss of people from minority groups in the former East Pakistan. It investigates the author’s circumvention of the underlying nuances of the Bangladesh Liberation War allowing for the implicit furthering of the nationalist discourse based on the ‘Othering’ of women of minority groups; and, contrary to her outward claim of addressing the issue of ‘birangonas’ in the novel, this paper investigates her perpetuation of stereotypes already prevalent about rape victims of war in Bangladesh. Therefore, The Search, this paper argues, objectifies and stereotypes Bengali women, implicitly vilifies a particular religion and the non-Bengali minorities by evoking and emphasizing the religious identity markers of its evil characters, marginalizes them by placing ethnic Bengalis at the centre stage, and based on a false dichotomy of innocent, liberal Bengalis versus evil others, the author reduces a major and complex historical event to a coloniser/ colonised binary.\r\n