Diasporic Chronotope of Indian 1947 Partition and Spatializing Partition Trauma and Memory in Anjali Enjeti’s The Parted Earth (2021)

Abstract

Chronotopes according to Bakhtin are “organizing centers" of narratives through which time thickens, and space becomes meaningful. The Indian Partition of 1947 led to the formation of diasporic identities during massive migration. Anali Emeti’s debut novel The Parted Earth (2021) explores the legacy of Partition across generations and continents. Enjeti depicts through the survivors like Deepa Khanna, Laila, and Harjeet Singh the haunting legacy of Partition, while their descendants, Chandani Singh, Vijay Khanna, and Shan Johnson, face inherited trauma and identity crises across various diasporic landscapes. This research aims to investigate the ways in which Enjeti’s debut novel The Parted Earth reconstruct Partition into a diasporic chronotope across diverse locations and generations. This study deploys an integrated framework of Bakhtin's chronotope, Hirsch's postmemory, and trauma concepts from Caruth and LaCapra to explore the diasporic consciousness across generations and the temporal and spatial fractures of Partition. The  findings of the study unearth the Partition-related undercurrents as the characters migrate from  the Subcontinent of 1947's  to the emotional ramifications for characters in diasporic settings of the U.S., London, and Amsterdam by 2017 shapes themes of transgenerational trauma, loss, silence,  broken identities and resilience. The study argues that diaspora serves as a spatiotemporal dimension for both displacement and the reclamation of fragmented histories through empathetic narratives. As such, this study conceptualizes the 1947 Partition as a transgenerational occurrence instead of a localized historical event and the framework of chronotope enhances cross-border historical traumas and memory studies.