Collective Memory and Counter- Narratives: Reading K.R. Meera’s Qabar as a ‘Fiction of Memory’

Abstract

This paper examines K.R. Meera’s novella Qabar through the intersecting frameworks of memory studies and magical realism. By using the theory of collective memory propounded by Maurice Halbwachs, the concept of ‘counter-memory’ by Michel Foucault and ‘fiction of memory’ by Birgit Neumann, this paper focuses on how the novella employs magical realism to challenge dominant narratives and create alternate spaces for marginalised voices. Through close textual analysis, this research demonstrates how the novella critiques the power dynamics inherent in collective memory formation while illustrating the traumatic consequences of selective forgetting on individual and communal identities.