Partition as Historical Novum: Cognitive Estrangement in Ritwik Ghatak’s Partition Trilogy

Serhat Erdem

doi:10.5195/cinej.2026.955

Partition as Historical Novum: Cognitive Estrangement in Ritwik Ghatak’s Partition Trilogy

Authors

Serhat Erdem Atatürk University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3782-0147

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2026.955

Keywords:

Ritwik Ghatak, Partition Trilogy, cognitive estrangement, historical novum, melodrama, postcolonial displacement, unhomeliness, sound design, Bengali cinema, Darko Suvin, science fiction theory

Abstract

This article rereads Ritwik Ghatak’s Partition Trilogy—Meghe Dhaka Tara, Komal Gandhar, and Subarnarekha—through Darko Suvin’s concept of cognitive estrangement. It does not claim that Ghatak is a science fiction filmmaker; rather, it argues that Partition functions in his cinema as a historical novum: a rupture that transforms home, landscape, kinship, and national belonging into unfamiliar perceptual fields. Through close readings of sound, interrupted railway spaces, mythological interruptions, and female suffering, the article shows how Ghatak’s melodrama converts post-Partition trauma into an estranged mode of historical perception. This framework connects melodrama, postcolonial displacement, and science fiction theory while preserving the Bengali specificity of Ghatak’s films.

References

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Published

2026-10-15

How to Cite

Erdem, S. (2026). Partition as Historical Novum: Cognitive Estrangement in Ritwik Ghatak’s Partition Trilogy. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 14(2), 658–686. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2026.955

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Issue

Vol. 14 No. 2 (2026): Fall

Section

Ritwik Ghatak: The Visionary of Cinema

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