Webinar on The Struggle of Memory Against Forgetting: : Reading Kamila Shamsie’s Salt and Saffron

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News University of salerno, Italy - 9th August 2020

Webinar on The Struggle of Memory against Forgetting


This talk is based on a recent article that studies the ethics of remembrance and its transformative potential through the reading of the postmemorial narrative of Kamila Shamsie’s Salt and Saffron. While it is the story of a particular individual’s journey of memory transformation, it speaks to a shared experience of rupture in the wake of partition violence and what it might mean to confront and transform the powerful impact that this collective memory has on everyday lives. The analysis of central character’s evolution seeks to demonstrate the way in which memories of partition violence are connected to the continuation of an oppressive class system in Pakistan and how transforming these memories also implies transforming a worldview that maintains class prejudice. In so doing, the talk offers broader insights for understanding the nature of inter-generational memory, mourning and transformation in the wake of historical violence.

Key Words: Mourning, melancholy, Kamila Shamsie, Salt and Saffron, Partition, postmemory.

Bio: Dr. Khan Touseef Osman is one of the most original emerging voices in literary and cultural research in Bangladesh. The courage with which he traverses disciplinary boundaries is truly inspiring and manifests a great academic in the making. Our page would be looking closely at his career trajectory with a lot of excitement in the years to come. Dr. Osman is now doing his second PhD in Comparative Literary and Historical Studies at the University of Salerno. He did his first PhD in the area of South Asian Literature in English at the University of Kashmir. Later, he carried out his postdoctoral research in Studies in Historical Trauma and Transformation at Stellenbosch University. He is the recipient of several prestigious scholarships, such as South Asia Foundation scholarship for the first PhD, University of Salerno scholarship for the second PhD and Andrew Mellon Foundation fellowship for postdoc. He has published scholarly articles at home and abroad and has given special lectures at a number of international academic events. Dr. Osman has taught at several universities including Asian University for Women (AUW).