The Bengal Famine and Cultural Production: Signifying Colonial Trauma

The Bengal Famine and Cultural Production: Signifying Colonial Trauma explores how Anglophone authors and artists responded to the 1943 Bengal Famine, challenging official imperial narratives that blamed the disaster on natural disaster, war, and exploitation. They aimed to resist these narratives and promote relief efforts, nationalist movements, collective memory, ethical forms of representation, and systemic change. This cultural production sought to integrate the suffering and agency of the destitute into narratives of Bengali and South Asian identity and the Second World War. The book is relevant to researchers in South Asian history, the history of the Bengal famine, South Asian Anglophone literature, twentieth-century art history, and trauma theory.

Format: Hardback
Length: 156 pages
Publication date: 11 July 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

The Bengal Famine and Cultural Production: Signifying Colonial Trauma delves into the diverse modes of representation employed by Anglophone authors and artists in response to the devastating Bengal Famine of 1943. Official imperial narratives, which have held sway in the global public imagination for decades, attributed the famine to natural disasters, war, merchant exploitation, and inadequate local officials rather than the imperial government itself. This study highlights the efforts of authors and artists who appealed to elite Bengali, South Asian, and international audiences to challenge these dominant narratives. They sought to resist narratives that downplayed or erased the suffering of the affected individuals, instead promoting relief efforts, fostering nationalist movements, preserving collective memory, exploring ethical forms of representation, and advocating for systemic change. These authors and artists were part of an established tradition of English in the subcontinent, serving as the language of empire and cosmopolitanism, yet their works remain relatively inaccessible, under-taught, and less well-known.

The direct encounter with suffering, while crucial for individual and collective well-being, has proven insufficient in prompting systemic change. Recognizing trauma, however, holds immense importance for personal and collective healing. The cultural production of famine writers and artists aimed to integrate the suffering and agency of the destitute into narratives of Bengali and South Asian identity, as well as the Second World War. It is vital for the Humanities to acknowledge this body of work as a cultural counter-discourse to the biopower of empire and to engage these texts in the context of trauma theory.

The book will appeal to researchers specializing in South Asian history, the history of the Bengal famine, South Asian Anglophone literature, twentieth-century art history, and trauma theory. By exploring the intersections of history, literature, art, and trauma, The Bengal Famine and Cultural Production offers a profound understanding of the enduring impact of colonialism and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.

Weight: 470g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032370194