Conflict Zone Literatures: A Genre in the Making

This book examines the metanarratives promoted by the state that determine the ideological framework and how these respond under extraneous circumstances like conflicts. The volume shows how individuals in such geo-politically aggrieved zones re-organise, re-structure and re-interpret their memory and identity and negotiate with violence in the literary space. Focusing on Kashmir and Northern Ireland in the decades of 1980s and 1990s, and post 9/11 America, the author maps the changing contours of the state and its powers in the late capitalist phase. It investigates complex themes such as the changing nature of governance and warfare, citizenship and resistance, inclusivity and xenophobia, and statecraft as a linguistic discourse in the post-global scenario.

Interdisciplinary in approach, the volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of literature and aesthetics, peace and conflict studies, politics and international relations.

Debamitra Kar teaches English in Women’s College, Calcutta. She takes interest in reading about conflict zones, trauma studies, Marxist literature, and detective fictions.