Representing Partition 1947: Orientalist Narratives, Post-Colonial Memory and Trauma in South Asian Films
| dc.contributor.author | Hamza Hassan | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-01T08:18:15Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2026 | |
| dc.description | The Partition of the Indian Sub-continent in 1947 remains one of the most violent and transformative events in South Asian history, marked by communal violence, mass displacement, and enduring psychological trauma. This thesis examines the cinematic representation of Partition through the intersecting frameworks of Orientalism, postcolonial memory, and trauma. It analyses Train to Pakistan (1998), Earth (1999), Partition (2007), and The Viceroy’s House (2017), while addressing a gap in existing scholarship by demonstrating that representations of Partition in cinema are shaped not only by historical memory, but also by ideological formations rooted in colonial discourse. The study employs qualitative textual film analysis and draws on Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism alongside psychoanalytic approaches to trauma and memory in order to examine narrative structure, character positioning, and visual form. The analysis demonstrates that each film constructs Partition through a distinct ideological and aesthetic lens: Earth foregrounds psychic fragmentation through a child-centred perspective; Train to Pakistan emphasises communal violence and the disintegration of social cohesion; Partition explores moral injury and unresolved memory; and The Viceroy’s House frames Partition through elite political narratives that privilege colonial authority. Across these films, trauma is articulated through cinematic strategies such as fragmentation, repetition, symbolism, and shifting perspective. The thesis argues that representations of the 1947 Partition are shaped by the interaction between trauma and Orientalist discourse, revealing how postcolonial memory is mediated through enduring colonial legacies. By bringing Postcolonial Theory and Trauma Studies into analytical dialogue, the thesis positions cinema as a critical site through which historical violence is interpreted, contested, and ideologically reframed within South Asian cultural discourse. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://scholarhub.unimas.my/handle/123456789/1031 | |
| dc.language.iso | English | |
| dc.publisher | Universiti Malaysia Sarawak | |
| dc.relation.ispartofseries | Faculty of Applied and Creative Arts | |
| dc.subject | Partition 1947, Orientalism, Postcolonial Memory, Trauma Studies, South Asian Cinema, Film Analysis | |
| dc.title | Representing Partition 1947: Orientalist Narratives, Post-Colonial Memory and Trauma in South Asian Films | |
| dc.type | PhD |