A Review of Rhizomatic Literaties: Stories from Pakistan

مجلة البحث العلمی فی الآداب, 2016

cultural exchange which, in turn, provides a chance for a better communication among the members of different cultures involved in that process. Welz explains that "cultural barriers are much more difficult to fix, let alone map on to territorial divides, as communication channels transgress and migrant communities routinely cross them" (38). Shedding light on the unique nature of transculturation, Sommer argues that it ascribes a positive connotation to cultural hybridity, cosmopolitan globalisation and ethnic fragmentation while establishing them as counter models to exclusively national or ethnic identities. Therefore transcultural concepts are marked by a utopia moment: they develop optimistic counter approaches to the 'classic' models of multicultural assimilation and alteration to the extent of approaching visions of dissolution of fixed cultural identities. (qtd. in Sissy Helff, "Shifting Perspectives: The Transcultural Novel" 80) Sales adds: transculturation, the in-between third space, emerges as a productive way for the borderline experience of contact between cultures, both in life and in fiction, where the negotiation of differences, sometimes incommensurable, may create a complex tension that could also grow into a strategy of cultural survival: beyond polarizations, against the grain of the rhetoric of binarism, from a creative inbetween transcultural space of communicative bridging. (88) Bhabha"s "Third Space," Pratt"s "Contact Zone" and Soueif"s "Mezzaterra" embody the "utopia moment" suggested in Sommer"s words. The three concepts reflect the attempts of the writers to overcome cultural differences. The short stories of both Soueif and Lahiri depict the cultural encounter experience. Their protagonists negotiate their identities to resolve cultural tensions in order to survive in a world of acute binarism. Various theories have been proposed to approach cultural encounters and how they affect identity formation. Challenging colonial

Representation of Subaltern Identities in Urdu Progressive Fiction

Green University Review of Social Sciences , 2016

Hasan Azizul Huq in his long writing career spanning over fifty years have exquisitely woven his lived experiences of a life enriched by multi spatial and temporal dimensions into short stories and novels of highest acclaim at home and abroad. In his creative works especially short stories, he with utmost care has portrayed the interior lives and exterior activities of the characters which provide us a transparent window to look at the harsh realities of human life and nature in almost perfect totality. His stories with omniscient narration, day-today dialogues, extended descriptions, familiar characters picked up from around, major focus on the working class with their afflictions, peculiarities and inner strength manifest the artistry of a consummate artist striving for comprehensiveness. In his journey, he has responded to the major upheavals resulting from socio-political transformations. He has felt and comprehended what he has gone through, concentrated on portraying life faithfully to turn his works into a convincing reality. In his whole gamut of literary career, Radha 1 Bengal where he was born and brought up till youth occupies the most significant room. Among others, the major political events like division of Bengal, Pakistani period, the Liberation War and the post Liberation War periods have featured significantly in his short stories as a spontaneous response to the changes, expectations, frustrations and prospects. This paper is an attempt to look into Hasan Azizul Huq's select short stories 2 as presentations of reality around life and activities of the writer himself and his time.

The Complete Short Stories of Tariq Rahman, 2024

This is the complete collection of my short stories written originally in English and published in the same language in three collections between the 1980s to 2002. As some of them are taught at various levels (bachelors, masters, research etc.) in Pakistan and read in other countries, I have arranged them in a chronological order so that researchers on post-colonial creative writing in English may study the evolution of my literary style. Some short stories, written from 2022 to 2024, have never been published and are appearing for the first time. To remind the readers, when my book A History of Pakistani Literature in English first appeared in 1991, there were no histories of the subject and this literature was not taught as a discipline anywhere in Pakistan. Nowadays, it is taught at various levels and is a popular subject of research by students at the M. Phil and Ph. D levels. Also, there are many novelists, poets and writers in other genres who have attained international fame. This collection of short stories is dedicated to them. Tariq Rahman 11 March 2024

Wasafiri, 2011

University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 2017

The aim of this research is to apply deconstructive approach to a short story. For this purpose Daniyal Mueenuddin's short story "Saleema" is selected and analyzed. Through deconstruction the feminist reading of the story is dismantled and the power dynamics of the patriarchal Pakistani society are subverted. The research is anchored in Derrida's concept of unreliability of language and Cuddon's idea of reversal of binary oppositions. The paper finds that the protagonist Saleema is not as weak and oppressed as she is perceived to be, rather she is a resilient, independent woman who uses any means possible to get what she wants. The power and authority reside with her and not with any male character. The study is purely qualitative and exploratory in nature.

Novels, in contemporary literature, have given us a new perspective. This is, especially, due to the presence of female writers using new story writing and narrative techniques in creating the settings. Among these is the novel under study, written by an Iranian novelist, which tends to introduce and present Iranian women’s problems and challenges. This study is, in effect, carried out on a Persian contemporary novel entitled Adat Mikonim (We’ll Get Used to It), written by Zoya Pirzad. The main character of the story is a middle-aged woman from a middle class family who is living with her daughter as well as her mother. The novel depicts the obstacles the woman faces communicating with as well as being understood by her daughter and mother.Following Hodge and Kress' (1993), the present study is carried out within the Critical Discourse framework to analyze the text. The book contains 31 chapters, out of which the first16 chapters were selected. The texts were analyzed with regard to the following properties: grammar (regarding two properties: syntagmatic models and transformations), and vocabulary (i.e., adjectives, adverbs, and verbs, with their ideological significance) The study is an attempt to depict linguistically the identity, wishes and outlooks of three women belonging to three generations, their similarities as well as differences.