SEARCH ARTICLE

32 Pages : 334-340

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2020(V-II).32      10.31703/gssr.2020(V-II).32      Published : Jun 2020

Delhi: A Metaphor of Hope and Despair in Delhi and Twilight in Delhi

    This paper is an effort to de-construct the two opposite ideas of hope and despair in Ahmed Ali's Twilight in Delhi and Khushwant Singh's Delhi. The comparative points of view regarding Delhi by Singh and Ali serve to construct the ideological, political and ontological framing of Delhi. The paper explores the significance of Delhi as a symbol of political energy which distributes power or snatches it as an active agent of power-history. The paper exhibits the socio-political, economic and communal structures portrayed by Ali and Singh. The study is an effort to detect the system of representation in the metaphor of Delhi in the context of power-resistance and failure of the struggle against the Raj. The paper tries to show that both Ali and Singh see Delhi with a difference of outlook and literary approach to manifest hope and despair.

    Delhi, Political-energy, Power-resistance, Representation, Subcontinent.
    (1) Shaista Andleeb
    Ph. D scholar, Department of English Literature, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan.
    (2) Muhammad Asif Khan
    Department of English Literature, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan.
    (3) Shahzad Ahmad
    Research scholar, Department of English, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Multan, Punjab, Pakistan.

52 Pages : 551-557

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2020(V-II).52      10.31703/gssr.2020(V-II).52      Published : Jun 2020

A Reconsideration of Feminine Sensuality in Twilight in Delhi: Indian Women in Fiction

    Modernist discourses centralize feminine sensuality as an indicator of a female’s autonomy; generally, they denounce religious or traditional constraints related to its expression. In particular, liberal feminism rejects normative constraints on female sensuousness, which are argued to enforce gendered restrictions. Amid these popular considerations, there has been a remarkable increase in interest in postcolonial women’s approach to sensuality. Being perceived as sensually submissive by their faith, the question which continually surfaces is: is the sensual ethics of postcolonial women shaped by their religion? Or are they shaped by the societal considerations and values of the society they are born into? This paper addresses this question by considering the varied choices of sensual behaviour adopted by female characters in the postcolonial text, Twilight in Delhi, written by Ahmad Ali. By approaching the decadent culture of Delhi in this novel from a feminist perspective, this paper analyses the feminine sensuality of the Indian women and considers their assumptions about what counts as an appropriate choice for them within the cultural context of Indian society. This paper concludes that the sensual inhibition of these women is conditioned by the cultural bias towards the female gender that connects shame and guilt with their sensual desires in a traditional Indian society.

    Feminism, Post-colonialism, Psychoanalysis, Marginalization, Discursive Representation
    (1) Kanwal Zahra
    Assistant Professor, Centre for Languages and Translation Studies, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan.
    (2) Aisha Jadoon
    Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities, COMSATS University, Islamabad, Pakistan.

58 Pages : 598 - 604

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2020(V-II).58      10.31703/gssr.2020(V-II).58      Published : Jun 2020

The Discursive Resistance to the British Imperialism: Writing Back the Colonial Discourse of Violence in Hyder's River of Fire

    This paper analyses the discursive representation of the Indian natives' resistance to British imperialism in Hyder's River of Fire. The violent resistance to British Empire by Indian natives has been termed as 'mutiny' by imperial discourses whereas postcolonial discourses term it the heroic 'war of independence'. In the backdrop of postcolonial theory and the concept of counter discourse, the discursivere presentation of violent resistance to British Imperialism is highlighted. Hyder has portrayed the events of 1857as a heroic response of vibrant culture to the cunning rulers of the British Empire.

    Colonial Discourse, Counter Discourse, Discursive Representation, Hegemony, Postcolonialism, Violence, Writing Back
    (1) Kanwal Zahra
    Assistant Professor, Centre for Languages and Translation Studies, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan.
    (2) Ahmad Nadeem
    Assistant Professor, Department of English, Government Ambala Muslim College Sargodha, Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan.

63 Pages : 633-641

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2020(V-I).63      10.31703/gssr.2020(V-I).63      Published : Mar 2020

Women, History And Faith: Suleri's Critique Of Pakistan's National Culture In Meatless Days And Boys Will Be Boys

    Sara Suleri is divided between her fascination for her father's strong character and her repulsion for the consequent effect on woman's space in family life, connoting a critique of Pakistani patriarchal society in which women, irrespective of their social status, suffer from marginalization. Although Suleri's Boys Will Be Boys is an elegy for her father, as she announces in the sub-title of the work, she manages her tilt toward her father despite her advocacy of the woman's space miserably shrunk to domestic life in Pakistani society. Besides womenÂ’s position, she questions the dominant version of history and the state's political manipulation of religion for ulterior motives. She is close to Boehmer's theorization of the elitist continuities and intimacies with a view that develops from geographically and historically multiple contexts and histories. Her role as a native intellectual is two-pronged: her view is colored by Western discourse, but her status as a 'representative' Pakistani voice is also significant. This article analyzes how far Suleri's representation of women, religion and history of Pakistani society is colored by Western context.

    Pakistani Literature in English, Nation, Representation, Feminism, Patriarchy, Gender, Sara Suleri
    (1) Ghulam Murtaza
    Associate Professor, Department of English, GC University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.
    (2) Mazhar Hayat
    Professor, Department of English, GC University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.
    (3) Syed Ali Waqar Hashmi
    Research Assistant, Department of English, GC University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.

55 Pages : 441-450

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2019(IV-III).55      10.31703/gssr.2019(IV-III).55      Published : Sep 2019

Under Western Eyes: A Critical Consideration of Fictitious Muslim Stereotyping in English Fiction

    English fiction pertaining to the British rule in India marked Indian Muslims intovisibility through the portrayal of their stable stereotypical identity, and since its publication, A Passage to India has gained the status of authentic imagining of Muslims asconservative religious ‘Other’ of the West. As such, they are analyzing this text as an instance ofcolonial fixity necessitates the identification and consideration of those discursive strategies used bythe text for the projection of abrasive Muslim images. The focus of this paper is to critically approachA Passage to India through the application of Fairclough’s threedimensional model so as to validate the claim of stereotypicalrepresentation of Muslims in India during colonial rule. Largely amatter of despotic manipulation within the text, the narrator doteson the anecdotal treatment of Muslim characters with a purpose tojustify. By adhering to colonial discursive binarism, this noveldepicts colonized Muslims as dehumanized and caricatured othersin essentialist terms by shelving their political, historical andcontextual identification.

    Colonial Discourse, Foreground, Image Construction, Stereotypical Representation, Colonized Muslims
    (1) Kanwal Zahra
    Assistant Professor, Centre for Languages and Translation Studies, University of Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan.
    (2) Aisha Jadoon
    Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities, COMSATS University, Islamabad, Pakistan.

22 Pages : 385-399

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2018(III-II).22      10.31703/gssr.2018(III-II).22      Published : Jun 2018

The Politics of Voice in the Stereotypical Representation of the Pashtun: A Critical Study of Khaled Hosseini’s Novels

    The current study is an attempt to critically analyze the role and politics of voice in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns in terms of categorical and stereotypical representation of the Pashtuns. It is a critical discourse study (Norman Fairclough, 1989, 2018) of the selected data. Moreover, the data is viewed from the perspective of critical discourse studies. The novels under study are polyphonic in nature, and the characters belong to various Afghan ethnic backgrounds, like the Pashtuns, the Tajiks and the Hazaras. The study concludes that the novelist's choice of the characters with their respective voices and the roles assigned to them are political, ideological and somewhat biased. The Pashtuns have been stereotypically represented by categorizing them as the social, well-educated and more or less liberal Pashtuns, the tribal and traditionalist Pashtuns, extremist and fundamentalist Pashtuns, like Taliban. Misrepresentation of the tribal and fundamentalist Pashtuns as racists, ethnic nationalists, ideologists, sexists, exclusionists, traditionalists and power-abusers is indicative of the novelist's biasedness and exaggeration.

    The Politics of Voice, Discource, Representation, Categorization, Stereotyping, Critical Stylists
    (1) Rab Nawaz Khan
    Assistant Professor, Department of English, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Mardan, KP, Pakistan
    (2) Abdul Waheed Qureshi
    Assistant Professor, Department of English, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Mardan, KP, Pakistan

21 Pages : 355-375

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2018(III-I).21      10.31703/gssr.2018(III-I).21      Published : Mar 2018

Manifestation of Gender-Binaries in Pakistani Television Commercials: A Semiotic Analysis

    The current study investigates the prevalent gender-binary narrative in Pakistani television commercials. It tends to portray the dominant gender representational mechanisms which are implicitly employed by the advertisers. Television commercials, having the power to (re)frame the ideology of larger audience through visual/linguistic content and agency to pave the way for social change have become one of the most viable social institutions of disseminating information to a wider audience. The theoretical underpinning of the study is based on the theory of semiotics outlined by Dyer in “Advertising as Communication”. Semiotics is considered a critical tool for investigating meaning making process in media discourse because of its wideranged acceptability and reliability. The data for the current study comprise television commercials which are broadcast on popular Pakistani television channels. The sampling technique is purposive in nature including only those commercials which largely reflect gender representation. The study finds the commercials presenting layers of meanings at symbolic level of semiotic modes where men and women are displayed in stereotypical manner, subscribing to patriarchal structures.

    Semiotics, TV Commercials, Gender-binaries, Representation
    (1) Muhammad Haseeb Nasir
    Lecturer, Department of English Studies, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan.
    (2) Muhammad Safiullah
    Research Assistant, Humanity Research Council, Islamabad, Pakistan.
    (3) Sana Hussan
    MPhil. Scholar (English), Department of English, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mardan, KP, Pakistan.

28 Pages : 473 -488

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2018(III-I).28      10.31703/gssr.2018(III-I).28      Published : Mar 2018

Islam and Women Parliamentary Representation in Pakistan

    There are various perspectives and interpretations regarding an interaction of religion and women's parliamentary Representation. In Pakistan,the religious debate started since its inception in 1947. The religious debates translated into objectives resolution and were adopted by the constituent assembly in 1949. Women parliamentary Representation remained a complex phenomenon due to the religiously dominated cultural sphere. However, the initiatives towards women's Representation started in the 1920spassed through different challenges and opportunities. The constitutions of Pakistan from 1956 to 1973 have also incorporated relevant sections regarding women's Representation. A significant issue merged in the 1990s in Pakistan when the constitutional mechanism regarding women's Representation lapsed. The global initiatives on women's political Representation were the major milestone that influenced Pakistan politics in 2000. During this period, gender-equal participation in the decision-making process was brought at the center of political debate. During the Musharraf regime, women parliamentary share increased up to 20percent on reserved seats. This paper is anattempt to explore women's Representation in Islamic perspectivesand their contributions to women. The result of this qualitativeresearch shows that women parliamentarians are primarilyrepresenting their own political parties and class in decision-making bodies

    Islam, Women, Representation, Parliament, Legislation, Pakistan
    (1) Saiqa Jabeen Shouket
    M.Phil Scholar, Department of Islamic and Religious Studies, Hazara University-Mansehra, KP, Pakistan
    (2) Muhammad Shakeel Ahmad
    Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad, KP, Pakistan. Post-Doctoral Fellow, School of Politics and International Relations, The University of Nottingham, United Kingdom (UK).

26 Pages : 289-300

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2023(VIII-I).26      10.31703/gssr.2023(VIII-I).26      Published : Mar 2023

Treatment Of Environmental Issues In Leading Pakistani Dailies

    Environmental issues are contemplated as the most frightening and challenging issues that occurred due to climate change. These environmental issues are disturbing the whole world including living species. Pakistan is also facing issues regarding environmental changes. Pakistan is considered the 7th most susceptible country in terms of environmental disasters. The current research is conducted to study and analyze the treatment of Pakistani English papers in the coverage of ecological issues and the basic drive of this research is to evaluate the “media representation of environmental issues” as discussed in leading Pakistani dailies (Dawn and The News). The content analysis is used to know the frequency and direction of environmental issues. The universe of the study contains textual content of print media including news stories and editorials. It is concluded that The News, gives more coverage to environmental issues as compared to Dawn newspaper in terms of news stories and editorials.

    Environmental Issues, Media Representation, Pakistani English Dailies, Content Analysis
    (1) Nasim Ishaq
    School of Communication Studies, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
    (2) Ghazala Kanwal Ejaz
    Govt. Fatima Jinnah College (W), Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
    (3) Noor
    Govt. Fatima Jinnah College (W), Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.