shazrah salam - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by shazrah salam
The last few decades mark the emergence of the bodyin Western social theory and humanities, where... more The last few decades mark the emergence of the bodyin Western social theory and humanities, where it is being used as a theoretical model and a citical construct to study, analyse and interpret socially situated subjectivities. This research project takes the theoretical framework of the body and combines it with insights from postcolonial feminist theory to critically engage with the depiction of the bodies of South Asian(Pakistani and Indian) women in the novels of Bapsi Sidhwa, a feminist voice from Pakistan. Using the approach of the body as an inscriptive surface, the narratives of The Bride and Water are critically examined to expose patriarchy's use of culture and religion as powerful tools to establish its hegemonic control over the bodies, subjectivities and lives of South Asian women. Questions of female objectification, marginalisation, socio-religious positioning and agency are the focus of this research, in an effort to highlight the corporeal and gendered existence of South Asian women in the context of Bapsi Sidhwa's novels.
This dissertation is a personal and political act of resistance. Through a centralisation of the ... more This dissertation is a personal and political act of resistance. Through a centralisation of the female body as an analytical construct, my research offers a feminist intervention to discussions about contemporary Pakistani Anglophone writing thereby challenging the often overtly political and nation-driven attention these texts have received. My analysis focuses on the inscription and framing of the bodies of Pakistani-Muslim women in Mohsin Hamid's Moth Smoke (2000), Kamila Shamsie's Broken Verses (2005) and Nadeem Aslam's Maps for Lost Lovers (2004). A central claim in this dissertation is that these novels complicate and challenge (if not always deconstruct) popular discourses which define Pakistani-Muslim women in essentialist terms as a homogenous group of passive and voiceless victims of male oppression or of a misogynist religion. Instead, I argue that the female bodies represented in the novels occupy a broader range of positions. While some are "silent" victims, others are highly subversive civic subjects and individuals. The novels portray historically and culturally-specific materialisations of womanhood, born out of a complex interplay between the discourses of religion, politics, desire and sexuality. I also claim that these novels address and write back to both indigenous and global actors. They engage and disrupt neo-Orientalist discourses of Muslim and feminist exceptionalism. At the same time, these novels question the privatisation and domestication of Pakistani-Muslim female bodies in local nationalist and religious discourses. While many of the female characters in these novels resist appropriation in (masculine) discourses of nationhood and religion, I nonetheless observe a problematic Salam iv tendency to portray motherhood, and the maternal body, in ambivalent or even negative terms. I note, too that the implied audience of these novels is a global readership and/or a globalised elite, English-reading audience within Pakistan. In addressing this readership, these novels risk ignoring or even silencing the voices, issues, concerns and aspirations of a local population that is non-cosmopolitan, non-transnational and regional. Despite their challenges to monolithic assumptions about Pakistani women, then, the notion of agency attributed to the female subjectivities in the texts I have considered seems to be refracted through a neo-liberal lens which equates modernity/progress with individualism and secularism. Salam v Acknowledgements I feel exceptionally fortunate to have the opportunity to do research under the tutelage of Dr. Kim Worthington and Dr Celina Botolotto-two incredibly strong women whom I have come to value and love like my own family. This thesis would not have been possible without their continuous and unflinching professional and emotional support, patience, and encouragement. This has been a long and arduous journey stippled with joy, accomplishment, frustration and immense loss. I would not have been able to survive without their help. I am also immensely grateful to them for their perceptive academic advice, for critically challenging me with their insightful questions and suggestions. I am especially indebted to Dr Worthington who, in the last phase of the write-up, went above and beyond in helping me. I am also thankful to Higher Education Commission, Pakistan, whose financial support has been instrumental in enabling me to undertake this research project in New Zealand. I am also grateful to Bahauddin Zakariya University for the study leave which has allowed me to pursue this dream. This journey would not have been possible without the love, kindness and generosity of my friends, Amber Faisal, Sadia Sattar, Khalida Tasneem, Sofia Khanuum and Natasha Mantis. They opened their hearts and homes to me, held me when I needed a shoulder to cry on and dealt some tough love when I needed it. Lastly, a very warm and earnest note of thanks goes out to my family, especially my parents, without their unflinching love and encouragement I would not have been able to make it this far.
The last few decades mark the emergence of the bodyin Western social theory and humanities, where... more The last few decades mark the emergence of the bodyin Western social theory and humanities, where it is being used as a theoretical model and a citical construct to study, analyse and interpret socially situated subjectivities. This research project takes the theoretical framework of the body and combines it with insights from postcolonial feminist theory to critically engage with the depiction of the bodies of South Asian(Pakistani and Indian) women in the novels of Bapsi Sidhwa, a feminist voice from Pakistan. Using the approach of the body as an inscriptive surface, the narratives of The Bride and Water are critically examined to expose patriarchy's use of culture and religion as powerful tools to establish its hegemonic control over the bodies, subjectivities and lives of South Asian women. Questions of female objectification, marginalisation, socio-religious positioning and agency are the focus of this research, in an effort to highlight the corporeal and gendered existence of South Asian women in the context of Bapsi Sidhwa's novels.
This dissertation is a personal and political act of resistance. Through a centralisation of the ... more This dissertation is a personal and political act of resistance. Through a centralisation of the female body as an analytical construct, my research offers a feminist intervention to discussions about contemporary Pakistani Anglophone writing thereby challenging the often overtly political and nation-driven attention these texts have received. My analysis focuses on the inscription and framing of the bodies of Pakistani-Muslim women in Mohsin Hamid's Moth Smoke (2000), Kamila Shamsie's Broken Verses (2005) and Nadeem Aslam's Maps for Lost Lovers (2004). A central claim in this dissertation is that these novels complicate and challenge (if not always deconstruct) popular discourses which define Pakistani-Muslim women in essentialist terms as a homogenous group of passive and voiceless victims of male oppression or of a misogynist religion. Instead, I argue that the female bodies represented in the novels occupy a broader range of positions. While some are "silent" victims, others are highly subversive civic subjects and individuals. The novels portray historically and culturally-specific materialisations of womanhood, born out of a complex interplay between the discourses of religion, politics, desire and sexuality. I also claim that these novels address and write back to both indigenous and global actors. They engage and disrupt neo-Orientalist discourses of Muslim and feminist exceptionalism. At the same time, these novels question the privatisation and domestication of Pakistani-Muslim female bodies in local nationalist and religious discourses. While many of the female characters in these novels resist appropriation in (masculine) discourses of nationhood and religion, I nonetheless observe a problematic Salam iv tendency to portray motherhood, and the maternal body, in ambivalent or even negative terms. I note, too that the implied audience of these novels is a global readership and/or a globalised elite, English-reading audience within Pakistan. In addressing this readership, these novels risk ignoring or even silencing the voices, issues, concerns and aspirations of a local population that is non-cosmopolitan, non-transnational and regional. Despite their challenges to monolithic assumptions about Pakistani women, then, the notion of agency attributed to the female subjectivities in the texts I have considered seems to be refracted through a neo-liberal lens which equates modernity/progress with individualism and secularism. Salam v Acknowledgements I feel exceptionally fortunate to have the opportunity to do research under the tutelage of Dr. Kim Worthington and Dr Celina Botolotto-two incredibly strong women whom I have come to value and love like my own family. This thesis would not have been possible without their continuous and unflinching professional and emotional support, patience, and encouragement. This has been a long and arduous journey stippled with joy, accomplishment, frustration and immense loss. I would not have been able to survive without their help. I am also immensely grateful to them for their perceptive academic advice, for critically challenging me with their insightful questions and suggestions. I am especially indebted to Dr Worthington who, in the last phase of the write-up, went above and beyond in helping me. I am also thankful to Higher Education Commission, Pakistan, whose financial support has been instrumental in enabling me to undertake this research project in New Zealand. I am also grateful to Bahauddin Zakariya University for the study leave which has allowed me to pursue this dream. This journey would not have been possible without the love, kindness and generosity of my friends, Amber Faisal, Sadia Sattar, Khalida Tasneem, Sofia Khanuum and Natasha Mantis. They opened their hearts and homes to me, held me when I needed a shoulder to cry on and dealt some tough love when I needed it. Lastly, a very warm and earnest note of thanks goes out to my family, especially my parents, without their unflinching love and encouragement I would not have been able to make it this far.