The Struggle of Memory against Forgetting in Kamila Shamsie’s Salt and Saffron

Abstract

This article 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 the 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 prejudices. In so doing, the article offers broader insights for understanding the nature of intergenerational memory, mourning, and transformation in the wake of historical violence.

Keywords

• Mourning
• Melancholy
• Kamila Shamsie
• Salt and Saffron
• Partition
• Postmemory