Cartographies of Memory: Trauma, Migration, and Spatial Identity in Second‑Generation Holocaust and Partition Narratives (1947–2025)

Kavya Sharma, Aakash Roy, Dr. Priya Chatterjee

Department of English and Comparative Literature, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi

1. Abstract

This paper delves into the intertwined experiences of collective trauma, migration, and spatial identity as reflected in second-generation narratives stemming from two of the twentieth century’s most catastrophic events: the Holocaust and the Partition of India in 1947. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates trauma studies, memory studies, postcolonial theory, and cultural geography, this article follows the development of second-generation literature, oral accounts, and multimedia works from the immediate aftermath of the Partition to contemporary expressions extending into the early twenty-first century (2025). By concentrating on “cartographies of memory,” the research investigates how inherited trauma and displacement are spatially encoded, negotiated, and reimagined across diasporic, psychological, and geopolitical landscapes. Although the Holocaust and Partition are historically and culturally distinct, they share significant dislocations—forced migrations, fragmented communities, and disputed geographies—that have influenced subsequent generations. Second-generation narratives frequently confront the tension between inherited silence and the necessity for expression, creating memory maps that reconfigure familial histories through imagination, storytelling, art, and movement. These narratives reveal how spatial identity is constructed through memory, loss, nostalgia, and resistance. This article synthesizes existing literature, conducts a comparative analysis of key texts across various forms (literary, cinematic, oral history), and highlights themes such as return and belonging, borderland identities, memory as spatial practice, and the ethics of testamentary inheritance. Methodologically, it combines qualitative textual analysis with narrative cartography—mapping reasoned connections between narrative structures and spatial imaginaries. Findings indicate that second-generation narrators use spatial metaphors and geographies—homes, ruins, borderlands, migration routes—to grapple with trauma and reconstruct identity. The comparative aspect underscores shared strategies as well as unique cultural nuances in Jewish and South Asian diasporic practices. The article concludes that these cartographies of memory do not merely preserve the past; they transform personal and collective identities, enabling new ethical modes of engagement with the legacies of violence and loss.

2. Keywords

Maps of Memory, Narratives from the Second Generation, Migration and Trauma, Literature of the Holocaust, India’s Partition, Identity in Space, Studies of the Diaspora, Studies of Memory, Cartography of Narratives