Silencing the Silence: A Study of Women at Workplace
This paper highlights the extent of women marginalization through silencing their voices at workplaces in the Pashtun society. Using the construct "muted group" theory a qualitative study of the participants with ages between 25 and 32 at Abdul Wali Khan Universy, Mardan (Pakistan) was undertaken. The analysis of response reveals that both males and females work equally, share equal work load, and can perform their duties well together. It is significant that despite the appearance of unbiased equal treatment to males and females the societal biases effect a reality that is contradictory to the facade of equality. The study established that males make use of authoritative language because of which females feel reluctant to share their thoughts openly due to the fear of being rejected at the work place. They conform to male domination and in this way appease the macho ego of males. Moreover, females are often made fun of when they talk; consequently they choose to remain silent. This marginalization explains why men think that women cannot share their thoughts clearly or cannot speak logically without realizing that there is something wrong with the way they deal with women.
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Gender Discrimination, Feminism, Muted Group Theory, Discrimination, Work Place, Pashtun.
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(1) Sayed Mahrukh
Independent Researcher, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Pakistan
(2) Ayaz Ahmad
Lecturer, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Pakistan
(3) Liaqat Iqbal
Assistant Professor, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Pakistan
Post-colonial Feminist Critique of Roys The God of Small Things
The present study intends to thoroughly examine the Postcolonial feminist perspective in Arundhati Roys novel The God of Small Things by focusing on the theoretical approaches of Gaytri Spivak, Trinh T.Minha and Ania Loomba. The ambivalent personality of colonized women is tarnished due to subalternity imposed by the patriarchal culture of India. The destructive nature of the Western Imperialism forced the people to endure wild oppression by British colonizers. Postcolonialism paved the way for the double oppression of women. Women became the victim of not only British Imperialists but also native cultural patriarchy. Roy successfully intricates three generations of women i.e Baby Kochamma, Mammachi, Ammu, and Rahel into the fabric of the novel to acme the plight of women in the Third World Nations..
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Postcolonialism, Feminism, Subaltern, British Imperialism, Colonized. Patriarchal Traditions.
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(1) Zahir Jang Khattak
Professor, Department of English,University of Qurtaba, Peshawar, KP, Pakistan.
(2) Hira Ali
Lecturer,Department of English,Sargodh University, Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan.
(3) Shehrzad Ameena Khattak
PhD Scholar, Department of English,University of Qurtaba, Peshawar, KP, Pakistan.
The Rediscovery of Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie: An Analysis from New Historicist, Historical Reception and Feminist Perspectives
A social documentary of Dreiser's milieu and own life, Sister Carrie (1900) portrays American women from multiple angles. As a genuine criticism of debased American values, the text describes women's social, personal, sexual, marital, and economic sides of contemporary American women through Carrie. Having a poor critical reception in the 1910s, the novel was rediscovered worldwide with new vigor since the mid-20th-century for its potent feminist message. Like in other countries, its importance has been felt Pakistani academia, where it is psychologically preparing the emerging woman for the forthcoming SocialDarwinist challenges. This study rediscovers Sister Carrie through the lenses of New Historicism, Historical Reception, and Feminism: why Dreiser wrote it; how the public/critics received it; how it contributed a change to the women's position; and how it could strengthen women's role in Pakistan.
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Rediscovery, Feminism, Social-Darwinism, Dreiser, Pakistani
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(1) Imran Ali
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Fatima Jinnah Women University The Mall, Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan.
(2) Bahramand Shah
Assistant Professor, American Literature, Area Study Center, Quaidii-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Elements of Feminism in Language of Childrens Animations
In todays modern globalized world, the power and impact of media in different aspects of human life are universally acknowledged. The elements of feminism in media have been widely researched in the past, but, how feminist ideas are portrayed in childrens media largely remains unexplored. The aim of this research is to explore the presentation of feminist concepts, notions, and ideas in a specific genre of childrens media – animations – through verbal and non-verbal language including verbal discourse, expressions, and overall communicative symbolism. The sample of the study consists of fourteen famous animations which are selected through purposive sampling. The results reveal that the feminist ideas and concepts presented deal with the empowerment and liberation of women, and hinted towards real-life womens issues such as education, adolescence, abuse, oppression, gender equality in work and employment, personal choice and other political, social and economic issues rather than presenting stereotypical image of women.
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Feminism, Language, Gender, Animation, Media
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(1) Izzah Shahid
Student,Department of English,Fatima Jinnah Women University, The Mall, Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan.
(2) Fakhira Riaz
Assistant Professor,Department of English,Fatima Jinnah Women University, The Mall, Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan.
(3) Akifa Imtiaz
Assistant Professor,Department of English,Fatima Jinnah Women University, The Mall, Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan.
Poetic Negotiations: Salad Bowl Feminism in Selected Poetry of Fehmida Riaz, Pat Mora and Joan Loveridge-Sanbonmatsu
The research attempts to evaluate the depiction of women's oppression in specific postcolonial contexts at the hands of the interlocked power pattern formed by manifold factors like patriarchy, class conflict, religion, ethnicity and imperialism in the selected poetry of the renowned Pakistani poetess Fehmida Riaz, the Latino American Poetess Pat Mora, and the Japanese poetess Sanbonmatsu. It applies the theory of Postcolonial Feminism to bring to the fore the oppression of postcolonial women at the intersection of gender, class, race, religion and culture, hence, offering a critique of Western Feminist discourse and its slogan of sisterhood, which tends to erase heterogeneity in women's situations across the globe. The theory of Third World Feminism as well as the portrayals in these poetic compositions from a variety of postcolonial social formations, highlight the fact that postcolonial women are not a monolithic and archetypal suffering category as presented in Western discourses; instead, their resistant agency and subversive subjectivity also stands at the center of their creative writings.
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Postcolonial Feminism, Hegemonic Feminist Discourse, Intersectionality, Patriarchy, Race, Class, Nationality
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(1) Kalsoom Khan
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Government Guru Nanak Postgraduate College, Nankana Sahib, Punjab, Pakistan.
(2) Mumtaz Ahmad
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Government Guru Nanak Postgraduate College, Nankana Sahib, Punjab, Pakistan.
(3) Malik Mujeeb ur Rahman
Lecturer, Department of English, Minhaj University, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
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.
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Feminism, Post-colonialism, Psychoanalysis, Marginalization, Discursive Representation
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(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.
Analyzing Feminine Subjectivity in Male Jingoistic Society: A Critical Study of Naheed's A Bad Woman's Story
The present study tends to explore the feminine subjectivity as a heart-throbbing phenomenon for men that keeps on prevailing in a patriarchal society. This is an exploration into the life of Pakistan's renowned writer, poet and human activist, Kishwar Naheed. Her autobiographical writing Buri Aurat ki Katha (A Bad Woman's Story) probes into the life of a female character who is being restrained by society due to her achievements and fame but gender discrimination prevailing in society compelled her to consider herself a stigma. Naheed is taken as a representative character to project the reality of a patriarchal society that denies feminine subjectivity in society. It covers gynophobia over men's mind towards women powerful and independent existence in society. This study contextualizes within the border of feminism theory that covers threat to female identity by throwing light to the perspective taken by Kristeva's views on feminism, majorly focusing on male jingoistic society. The present inquiry spotlights the ways in which women suffer through threatened, identity crisis, abuse, and oppression that further leads woman's journey of life restrained under social commands.
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Feminism, Gynophobia, Feminine Subjectivity, Patriarchal/Jingoistic Society, Woman Identity, Oppression
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(1) Amna Aziz
Lecturer, Department of English, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan.
(2) Aniqa Rashid
Assistant Professor, Department of English, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan.
(3) Tayyabba Yasmin
Lecturer, Department of English, University of Education, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
Black Bodies White Culture: A Black Feminist [Re]Construction of Race and Gender in Morrison's Paradise
'This article intends to explore and expose through the analysis of Morrison's Paradise how the Afro American female writers [re]construct the potential of Afro American ecriture feminine to seek the true freedom and empowerment of black women by appealing them to 'write-through bodies'. To achieve this purpose, this article articulates its theoretical agenda, through the exploration of the work of the outstanding, widely acknowledged award-winning, English speaking Afro American female writer: Toni Morrison. Though it aims to highlight the significance and contribution of the Afro American female novelists towards broadening the frontiers of 'ecriture feminine', it does not aim to offer the generalized history of women writing in Afro American literature. It seeks to propose alternative ways of informed analysis, grounded in discourse and Feminist theories, to evaluate Toni Morrison's contribution to 'ecriture feminine'.
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Race, Gender, Culture, Black Feminism, Morrison.
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(1) Mumtaz Ahmad
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Government Guru Nanak Postgraduate College, Nankana Sahib, Punjab, Pakistan.
(2) Fatima Saleem
Lecturer, Debarment of English, National University of Modern Languages, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.
(3) Ali Usman Saleem
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Government College University Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.
Environmental Performativity in Native American and Afro-American Womens Fiction: An Ecofeminist Critique of Erdrichs Tracks and Morrisons Beloved
This article, evaluating the usefulness and applicability of the ecofeminist tenets upon the environmental fiction of Erdrich and Morrison, creates a new understanding of the preservation of the environment for engendering a more egalitarian relationship between humanity and nature. It presents the critique of the ways Toni Morrison and Louise Erdrich engage with the environmental themes and motifs using the historical connections of their communities with nature as a reference point via eco-performative texts. The overall scheme of the article, therefore, denies the anthropocentric approach upheld by the Euro-American world towards the environment and glorifies the biocentric approach revered and celebrated by the Native American and AfroAmerican lifestyle, emphasizing that in the cosmic scheme of nature, not just humans but non-humans, nature and environment are equal partners. The study concludes that Morrison and Erdrich have stressed in their fiction the ecocritical recognition of the inevitable interdependence of man and nature. Their fiction asserts that considering environmental issues to be human issues can positively affect the human attitude towards nature/environment.
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Afro-American, Ecofeminism, Eco-Performative Texts, Environment, Native American
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(1) Mumtaz Ahmad
PhD Scholar, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan.
(2) Nighat Ahmad
Assistant Professor, Department of English, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan.
(3) Amara Javed
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Government College Woman University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.
Socio-Cultural Trauma and Gender Objectification in Haider's How It Happened: A Cultural Feminist Study
The research aims to pinpoint the socio-cultural suppressive crisis faced by the Pakistani women and tends to evaluate the standards through which Pakistani women are (mis)recognized through Shazaf Fatima Haider's How It Happened (2012). It focuses upon the internalized social norms regarding women's conduct to achieve perfection and a state of acceptability which have terrifyingly placed a question mark upon women's existence. Zeba, being the protagonist of How It Happened, undergoes anunnerving situation, being continuously displayed as an object for her marriage. Simone de Beauvoir's cultural feminist ideologies in her work, The Second Sex(1997), tend to deconstruct falsely existing cultural archetypes. She illustrates in her work the transformative stages of women's life beginning from the oppressive state towards the protesting state. Consequently, celebrating women's strength by acknowledging biological differences. Through the methodological application of a Textual analytical apparatus, this research tends to reverse the suppressive patriarchal patterns, bringing women from the periphery to the center, also providing a voice to silenced women entangled in the fabricated culture.
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Gender, Feminism, Pakistani Literature in English, Fiction
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(1) Nida Tabassum
Visiting Lecturer, Department of English, National University of Modern Languages, Faisalabad Campus, Punjab, Pakistan.
(2) Muhammad Owais Ifzal
Lecturer, Department of English, Government College University Faisalabad, Hafizabad Campus, Punjab, Pakistan.
(3) Ghulam Murtaza
Associate Professor, Department of English, Government College University Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.
