The Impact of Neamat Imam’s The Black Coat and its Implications on the Nationalist History and Culture of Bangladesh

Abstract

In recent decades, the apparently inviolable idea of a nation has become a subject of scrutiny in the Indian subcontinent. International and intranational conflicts in socio-political spheres of the region and the hegemonic rule by certain political ideologies has prompted a novel pluralistic view in the literary productions that has disrupted the long-held monolithic myth of nationalism. In recent times, a proliferation of Bangladeshi English fiction seems to have jumped onto the wagon of a different historiographical approach to existing nationalist metanarratives that have for so long stifled the voices that have developed their own nationalistic ideals. This paper explores how Neamat Imam’s The Black Coat (2013) deconstructs the history of the early years of post-independence, a forgotten time in the collective memory of Bangladesh. It demonstrates that a representation of peripheral people enables the novel to create an alternative historical narrative that stands in stark contrast to established history. The paper’s Subaltern leanings reinforce Imam’s rejection of the indemnification of traditional nationalist history.