History, Memory, Fiction proposes an examination of several contemporary novels and memoirs of leading Pakistani and Kashmiri writers, considering them as historical fiction, in other words as works that are based on real-world facts, but as fiction are able to go further in creating what have been called 'possible worlds', ultimately creating a plausible story that might well be a true story. By blurring the frontier between history and fiction, unconstrained by concerns of referential 'truth', these novels and memoirs are able to provide us with fresh insights and moral orientation while suggesting that the pastDLwhich is not the same as historyDLmust be given meaning in our present if we wish to create better possible futures. Thus, these writers are engaged in active social critique, providing readers with a broader perspective of historical consciousness.
History, Memory, Fiction examines several contemporary novels and memoirs of leading Pakistani and Kashmiri writers, considering them as historical fiction, in other words as works that are based on real-world facts, but as fiction are able to go further, ultimately creating a plausible story that might well be a true story.
ForewordAcknowledgementsIntroductionNB1. Part 1Traumatic Experience, Crisis of SurvivalThe Exchange of Interconnected Histories in Soniah Kamals An Isolated Incident2. Now and ThenMirza Waheeds The Collaborator and the Contested History of a Place3. Part 2Migration, Exclusion and the Enemy WithiPersonal and Political Displacement in Rafia Zakarias The Upstairs Wife4. Life-writing and Cultural MemoryBasharat Peers Curfewed Night: A Frontline Memoir of Life, Love, and War in Kashmir5. Neoliberal self-help and Water ResourcesMohsin Hamids How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia6. Part 3Pakistan during the Afghan WarHistory, Legacy, and Contemporary Literary Representations7. Cultural Understanding as Military StrategyMapping the Human Terrain in Nadeem Aslams The Wasted Vigil8. Historiography and the Question of What Happened?Uzma Aslam Khans The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali9. Part 4Exit WestThe Making of a World10. Snuffing Out the MoonKino/Bio Politics, Movement, and the State of ExceptionConclusion11. Eventful History, Movement, and Social MutationPossible FuturesNBWorks CitedCopyright AcknowledgementsIndex
David Waterman is currently Professor at the University of La Rochelle, France, where he is a member of the research team at the Center for Research in International and Atlantic History (CRHIA), Co-director of the doctoral program, Euclide and Director of the Asia Pacific Institute.
