Shah, Zeynep Harputlu2024-12-242024-12-2420182148-77822148-9599https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.472779https://search.trdizin.gov.tr/tr/yayin/detay/327768https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12604/4632This article aims to discuss gendered parameters of national identity and collective memory incontemporary South Asian women’s writing. Tahmima Anam’s A Golden Age (2007) and RomaTearne’s Bone China (2010), in this context, represent the positive transformation of women’s rolesin the public and private spheres, as well as the understanding of femininity and masculinity in SriLanka and Bangladesh during the independence war. In the reproduction of national identity, thereis an emphasis on the significance of privatised domestic space, women’s involvement in the nationalstruggle, and a feminised collective memory in historically male-constructed nations. In A GoldenAge, despite her traditional gender roles and controversial national identity, Rehana becomes adefender of Bangladesh due to her altering political views, while her daughter, Maya, symbolises theprogressive role of a new generation of women in the movement. In Bone China, besides civil war andresistance, immigration enforces a loss of collective identity, whilst women’s domestic and publiclives are subject to profound change. The two novels promise hope for the transformation of women’sroles and status, and emphasise the significance of women’s narratives and collective memory in thepreservation of national identity.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessTarih,Asya Çalışmaları,Kültürel Çalışmalar,Edebiyat,Kadın Araştırmaları,Edebi Teori ve EleştiriReview Article121228429132776810.29000/rumelide.472779