Dilemma of Unheard, Unnoticed, and Unaddressed Positions: A Review of Implicated Subjects from Shahnaz Bashir’s The Half Mother and Scattered Souls

Abstract

The present study attempts to map a third position of subjects with a proximal and distal relationship with victims and perpetrators from the traumatic events narrated by Shahnaz Bashir in his Scattered Souls (2016) and The Half Mother: A Novel (2014). From Kashmiri narratives, maximum academic discourses present the bipolar justification of every event of injustice and violence. However, the present study studies some shadowy existing positions with the help of Michel Rothberg’s argument of implicated subjects, which is the third position in this study. The Kashmiri literary oracles report every event from the past, present, and future in the forms of violence, injustice, memory, trauma, victimization, and perpetration. Therefore, there are subjective positions that get benefits, have compliance or solidarity, and are sometimes entangled with their fellow subjects, all of which are the center of this study as several indicators of third position or implicated subjects. Ultimately, the study reflects various views and reviews while investigating reasons for producing and reproducing traumatic events with the help of Bashir's mentioned literary narratives. It summarizes the genealogical and structural approaches of power and privilege, injustice and violence, pain and penetration, and victimization and perpetration.