Palimpsestic trauma and the mnemonic labors of literature: negotiating cultural memory in Atiq Rahimi’s Earth and Ashes

Building on the notion of palimpsestic memory developed by Max Silverman and the broader use of the palimpsest metaphor in memory studies by Andreas Huyssen, this article uses the concept of palimpsestic trauma to describe the layered accumulation and interaction of personal, familial, and national traumatic histories, as portrayed in Atiq Rahimi’s Earth and Ashes . It explores the mnemonic labors of literature, highlighting how the narrative actively works to record, preserve, and transmit the memory of trauma across generations, resisting erasure and cultural amnesia. By analyzing narrative perspective, intergenerational storytelling, and the mnemonic significance of landscapes, the paper demonstrates how Rahimi’s novel functions as both an ethical and cultural archive. Also utilizing the theoretical works of Max Silverman, Jan and Aleida Assmann, Stef Craps, and Michael Rothberg, while also situating these works within a decolonial perspective on memory, informed by the work of Madina Tlostanova, which interrogates the dominance of Western epistemologies in the production and interpretation of cultural memory, the paper argues that Earth and Ashes negotiates the complex terrain of individual and collective memory of trauma, transforming acts of remembering into a form of ethical engagement. Ultimately, the novel exemplifies literature’s capacity to safeguard identity, mediate trauma, and intervene in contested memory spaces, ensuring that Afghan cultural memory, carrying multiple layers of trauma is recorded, despite the destructive forces of war and forgetting.