Visions and Values: Some Recent Urdu Novels
by Christina Oesterheld, Germany
The role of fiction writers in modern societies very much depends on their position within the culture industry or superstructure of a given society. As members of the middle class they usually show a desire for change, support modernization, democracy, social justice, rule of law etc., but simultaneously depend on the leading elites for survival and protection. (Cf. Rai Shakil Akhtar, Media, Religion and Politics in Pakistan. Karachi: OUP, 2000, pp. xix-xxi) In the present context, a writer’s success and thereby outreach may be determined by extra-literary factors such as marketing, fashion, personal relations and sponsoring, media hype etc. A case in point is the almost global success of English fiction by writers of South Asian background. Urdu novels, however, cannot claim as much media attention even inside Pakistan or India. It is worthwhile, therefore, to draw the attention of a wider public to some Urdu novels of the last two decades (by Mustansar Husain Tarar, Ahmad Bashir and Zahid Hassan).
In the present paper, an attempt will be made to outline central features of the value systems which are implicitly expressed in the characters of the analyzed novels. The focus will be on core concepts such as peace, justice, equality, honesty, tolerance, and freedom of choice in personal matters. Through the characters’ minds and eyes we get glimpses of the things that run counter to the values they cherish. How they try to live up to their standards, where and how they fail to do so also sheds light on the state of affairs in their surroundings. There seems to be a common credo of the works analyzed: resistance to mobilization by any ideology, shunning of all extremism, and utmost realization of individual freedom. Finally, we will look at the consequences of such attitudes in present-day Pakistan, especially in the context of the concept of civil society. Whether the authors may leave a lasting impact on their readers, however, largely depends on the aesthetic quality or readability of their work.
Pakistani English Fiction: Tales of Conflict and Violence
by Muneeza Shamsie, Pakistan
The history and attributes of Pakistani English literature are different from other Pakistani literatures because it is written in a language acquired by the East-West encounter. In Pakistan its readership is confined to an English speaking elite, but it reaches a very wide, international Anglophone audience. The paper will briefly touch on the attributes and cultural duality of Pakistani English fiction, but its main focus will be on post-1991 novels of a new generation such as Nadeem Aslam, Mohsin Hamid, Uzma Aslam Khan and Kamila Shamsie, who grew up in Pakistan’s turbulent 1980s and 199Os, but have also spent long periods in the west. The paper will explore the cultural, social and political conflicts their fiction reflects as well as its undercurrent of violence and will also look at the dimensions that the choice of language – English – gives their work.
The Dissenting Feminist Voice in a Globalized Marketplace
by Ritu Menon, India
The globalization of media, and especially of book publishing, together with the dominance of English as a world language, makes the question of alternative voices and perspectives a particularly urgent one for us. Structures of wealth and control in publishing, in the production of knowledge, in the creation of intellectual capital, are now part of global publishing empires, and their policies are aimed at maintaining the status quo, economically-that is, keeping wealth in the hands of the few.
Politically, they are conservative and exclusive; intellectually, they are hidebound or reactionary, and as far as gender relations are concerned, highly unequal. Where then, and how, are marginalized voices or the voice of dissent to be heard? How do our messages, in favor of progressive social change, get communicated? Which forms-- fiction, non-fiction, academic, journalistic-- and which media are most effective? And finally how do we reclaim a space for ourselves in the global marketplace?
Gender, Writing and Development
Women Writers as Agents of Change: Some Comparative Perspectives
by Ravni Thakur, India
Fiction, the catch word for the imagination of the mind, a figurative creation of identities, histories and realities. By definition they are alternative, like the gendered world.
Women have always had an important relationship to writing. They have explored not only the possibilities of their beings and the construction of a gendered subjectivity, they have also used the tool of literature, cinema and other creative forms to reach out to others and express their own goals and visions. In my presentation today, I will not dissect women’s writings. Instead my focus today will be on how fiction by women has played an important role in reshaping gender roles and spearheading a quest for a principled and equitable world. My examples will draw on the writers from the sub-continent and also China, a country that I have had the pleasure of knowing well.
Three theoretical tropes underlie any analysis of such a role. The first is of course gender, the second the field of writing and finally development. At several levels, these are interlinked discourses, a discursive grid as it were. Let me however take them one by one.
Gender is a social category. It is both a relational category and a category of difference. Through gender two categories are created, male and female, which relate to each other for the other is necessary to the one. It is a category of difference because it attributes different characteristics to men and women. This difference permeates in turn the discourse of development, of change and also of writing. In fact the difference between feminist approaches to literature can be seen as related to the way to define the social relations of gender. It defines the politics of representation and of feminism.
Similarly, the social relationship of gender also permeates the discourse of development.
Women are assigned specific roles, those of nurturers, and yet not often of breadwinners. Even programs that seek to supposedly empower women tend to stereotype them into the second sex.
The past twenty years have seen several issues emerge in the field of sustainable development. In India, the chief cause taken up by women leaders at this level has been the fight for tribal rights and environment degradation.
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