Tracing the Violated Identities of Women: A Comparative Study of Saadat Hasan Manto's 'Khol Do' and Dr. Sherri Szeman's 'The Kommandant's Mistress'

This paper will attempt to explore the concept of the female body being used as a site of violence in Manto's Khol Do and Szeman's The Kommandant's Mistress.The texts refer to the two canonical genocides of human historythe Partition (1947) and the Holocaust.This comparative study delves into the psyche of two different communities from two different parts of the world tied with the same string of trauma and loss.The fragmented memory caused by the recurring nature of trauma in women due to sexual atrocities committed upon them and the subsequent silence and repression of emotions will be nuanced within this paper, deriving from Freud's work on Hysteria, stating that traumatic experiences can cause psychological disturbances.Based on Caruth's theory of Belatedness, this paper will examine and highlight the recurring nature of trauma and the altered identities of the two rape victims.