FAMILIAL TRAUMA AND INTERGENERATIONAL MEMORY IN THE PARTITION PROJECT: A PSYCHOSOCIAL EXPLORATION OF IDENTITY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.68156/4e9yys10Keywords:
Documentary Representation, Familial Trauma, Identity, Intergenerational Memory, Partition, Postmemory, Psychosocial ExplorationAbstract
This study examines familial trauma and intergenerational memory in Saadia Faruqi’s The Partition Project (2024), focusing on how inherited histories of displacement shape identity and belonging. It explores the grandmother–granddaughter relationship through which Dadi’s memories of Partition become meaningful to Maha, a Pakistani American adolescent. The study adopts a qualitative, interpretive, and literary-analytical design, employing close reading and thematic analysis. Its theoretical framework brings Cathy Caruth’s account of traumatic representation into critical dialogue with Ruth Leys’s examination of trauma theory, supported by Marianne Hirsch’s concept of postmemory. The analysis suggests that familial remembrance broadens Maha’s understanding of belonging while preserving the distinction between the survivor’s direct experience and the descendant’s mediated engagement. Storytelling and documentary representation facilitate historical preservation but also generate tensions concerning privacy, consent, trust, and ownership of testimony. Maha’s increasing concern for the people represented in her documentary indicates a developing recognition of these ethical responsibilities. The study concludes that intergenerational memory contributes to identity formation through interpretation and relational engagement, while responsible remembrance requires respect for the survivor’s authority. It offers a psychosocial reading of familial memory as both a historical inheritance and an ethical responsibility.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Mudassir Ullah Khan, Dr. Faiz Sultan (Author)
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