Publications
Nasir Iqbal, Umar Hayat, Qaisar Waheed. NEGOTIATION OF COLONIAL AND POST COLONIAL BORDERS IN JOSEPH CONRAD’S HEART OF DARKNESS, (2020) Vol.3 No.1. 76-84.
Abstract The current study aims at exploring colonial and post-colonial borders in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and demonstrating the representation and deconstruction of the colonial images of indigenous African masses. The purpose of the study is to show that the text negotiates colonial as well as post-colonial borders. It is argued that while deconstructing colonial imperialism, Joseph Conrad has explicitly raised his voice against the exploitation of the native Africans and thus evoked a post-colonial perspective in the high time of colonialism. Studying the novel wearing a colonial/post-colonial lens demonstrates that Conrad has produced an anti-racist and anti-colonial narrative that denounces inhuman treatment of the native subjected people and claims justice for them. This qualitative study carried out the analysis of the novel using content analysis and thick descriptive method to address the research questions. The present study carried out wearing the lens of postcolonial theory explores the colonial and postcolonial dimensions of Heart of Darkness to analyze how the novel written in the high time of colonialism had postcolonial elements in it. It is found that the novel negotiates the borders of colonialism and post-colonialism simultaneously.
Nasir Iqbal, Umar Hayat, Qaisar Waheed. CONSTRUCTION OF WOMANHOOD IN VICTORIAN FICTION: A STANDPOINT FEMINIST STUDY OF GEORGE ELIOT’S FEMALE PROTAGONIST IN MILL ON THE FLOSS, (2020) Vol. 3 No. 2. 74-82.
Abstract
The purpose of the present research is to analyze the contents of the text with a thick descriptive method. Maggie’s character is evaluated within the paradigm of Victorian socialization as it is a necessary element of understanding the psychological dimensions of her growth into a woman. She is the heroine of George Eliot’s modern novel, Mill on the Floss, which is considered by many to be the forerunner of the modern psychological novel. The way females define their personalities during their encounters with the environment and its inhabitants are clearly seen in multifarious aspects of Maggie’s development.
Nasir Iqbal, Umar Hayat, Qaisar Waheed. THE WORLD OF WOMEN, LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN THOMAS HARDY’S THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE. (2020) Vol. 3 No. 4. 123-132
Abstract
Fundamentally, Hardy’s approach in his novels is oriented around love and passionate feelings. The feelings most often dominate the protagonist and she/he becomes helpless because the main character is usually made up of weaker emotional fiber. Keeping this in view Hardy builds his stories around love, marriage, double moral standards, and the conflict between duty and desire. The plot of The Return of the Native has been constructed on similar lines so at the heart of the novel lay a love story, courtship, and marriage. The novel in its thematic and structural approach is conditional and much in keeping with the Victorian people’s fascination with the theme of love and marriage. This novel describes the love and marriage choices. The conflicts that the characters face are not religious, philosophical, or intellectual; these are moral conflicts as they remain mired in marital choices. The significance of love and marriage in the novel is obvious from the fact that the story begins with the failure of a love marriage between Damon Wildeve and Thomasin Yeobright.
Umar Hayat ,Nasir Iqbal, Muhammad Afzal. THE PORTRAYAL OF MYTHIC AND MODERN VISION OF NATIVEAMERICAN LIFE IN LOUISE ERDRICH’S LOVE MEDICINE AND TRACKS. (2020) Vol. 3 No. 3. 71-78
Abstract
The present study aims at realizing how the works of Louise Erdrich, a contemporary female Native American writer, truly reflect the artistic and mythic vision of the ancestral Native Americans while simultaneously portraying the hybridized lives of the mixed generations of the Native Americans. Her work, therefore, serves as a site where ancestral and the present vision of the Native American life meet to provide an insight into the transformation of the native people’s history, myth, culture, and religion as a consequence of their encounters with white ways of life. The present study seeks to explicate the history of the Native American civilization, their unique vision of the unity of human and non-human creatures, the troubled past experiences of lost lands, forced evacuation from their ancestral lands, subsequent humiliated lives in reservoirs, racial and ethnic discrimination, and finally, the identity crisis arising from the dominant culture’s efforts to assimilate the young generations of the Native Americans, in an effort, to alienate them from their cultural, religious and mythic roots.
In-betweenness is a constant feeling of dislocation and identity confusion and Erdrich explores this theme of the cultural confusion and hybrid identity faced by Native American generations in her works. As she herself belonged to two different cultures, a different set of traditions and races her major characters also represent both sides of her heritage. She has gone beyond representing only the Native American characters ingrained in Native Culture and has also portrayed characters that are not pure Native Indians. These mixed or hybrid characters that inhabit her novels are the representatives of a changing, evolving Native American culture and reveal how society and individuals have undergone a transformation.
Umar Hayat, Qaisar Waheed, Nasir Iqbal. AN ECONOMY OF HER OWN: A MARXIST FEMINIST CRITIQUE OF PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. (2021) Vol. 4 No. 1. 98-107
Abstract
The present study analyzes Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice from a Marxist Feminist perspective to analyze the position, role, and image of the woman in the 18th-century male-dominated society. Within the Marxist Feminist theoretical framework, the study aims to explore how Jane Austen represented the image of women viz-a-viz man with a special focus on their economic conditions. More than any other female novelist of her time, Jane Austen created six admirable novels and today her fair reputation chiefly rests upon these six remarkable novels she produced during her short creative life. Although she primarily wrote about the social milieu of her time and the precarious position of women in that society which was, in the first place, a male-dominated class society that accorded women only a marginal role and status, her treatment of the gender politics and the subtle ideological maneuverings that determined the structure of the society, as well as the thoughts of the people, make her novels grand success with the readers and the critics alike.
Pride and Prejudice is one such significant novel by Jane Austen that has been immensely popular amongst Austen’s lovers throughout the ages for its splendid depiction of the 18th-century society with its sharp class stratification which categorized the people into different groups according to the social rank they possessed and thus the economic position of a person became the principal foundation of his respect, privilege, influence, and power in the society. The study inspired by the depiction of the socially-conditioned roles and images of the bevy of the female characters in Pride and Prejudice intends to realize and explain the subtle operations of the deeply classed society to demonstrate how and why women were not allowed to develop an economy of their own and realize their true potential.
Umar Hayat,Nasir Iqbal,Muhammad Afzal. SEMIOTICS AND SOCIO-HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE MODERN NOVEL: A MODERNIST CRITIQUE OF D.H. LAWRENCE’S THE RAINBOW. (2021) Vol. 4 No. 2. 183-193
Abstract
The advent of the modern novel has witnessed an array of significant changes in the matters of the content and the form; narration and structure as well as themes and narratology, and it has struck a note of marked difference from the traditional novel in terms of its emphasis upon the psychological depiction of the characters unlike the external representation of characters’ life by the majority of the traditional novelists. One of the important characteristics of the modern novel has been the interface between the text and the context. As semiotics is the study of the signs, words, objects, and images that are assumed to stand for a variety of ideas. The text, in the semiotic theory, therefore, may be taken as a signifier and the context as signified.
The text which is a collection of blocks of sentences is a sign system, a signification, and an assortment of symbols containing within itself in exhaustive verbal energy that can be obtained and interpreted in several ways. The occurrence and actualization of these semiotic symbols, therefore, rely upon the total environment in which they are unfolded and occasioned. Within this theoretical framework i.e., semiotic mode of analysis, the present work seeks to read and interpret the imaginative portrayal of the existential dilemma and traumatic malaise faced by the modern male and female subjects of the 20th-century English society as portrayed by one of the top-notch modern novelist and poet, D.H. Lawrence in his masterpiece, The Rainbow. The detailed argument of the study is premised upon the assumption that the text as a verbal or semiotic sign bears upon the socio-political as well cultural chaos that defines the modern existential experience. The analysis, therefore, inevitably moves within an eclectic theoretical framework combining the linguistically informed semiotic and socio-historical critical approaches.
Umar Hayat .Nasir Iqbal, Qaisar Waheed. DECONSTRUCTING THE CLASS POLITICS IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN. (2021) Vol. 4 No. 3. 47-54
Abstract
This article aims to investigate A Room of One’s Own from Marxist feminist standpoint in order to point out that while Virginia Woolf has upheld the cause of the liberation of the upper middle class women necessitating for them to have a room of their own where they could sit and think and write independently, she has ignored the laboring or the proletariat women of her times primarily because her own upper middle class status and distance from the working classes made her focus upon her own class only inculcating bias in her mind against the lower class women. The study explores how Virginia Woolf focuses on the continuation of the discriminatory treatment of the women of her subsequent deprivation of her human, social, legal, economic and existential rights. She uses very skilful, ironic, sometimes bitter, emotive as well as subversive language to challenge the authority of the discursive nature of many gendered norms of society communicating a very clear message that women can no more be kept alienated from the main stream cultural and existential rights, and they must struggle to make the demand of room of their own a material reality in order that can achieve the true freedom and emancipation for which woman has been longing since time immemorial and emancipated human beings like their fathers, husbands and brothers, their privileged counterparts. Although she champions the rights of women in her fiction and faction, and through her lectures as well as feminist activism, she seems to have done unprecedented work about the emancipation of women, yet her prominent stature in Victorian society and her alliance with white (upper) middle class society seems to have precluded her from incorporating working class women’s issues in her fiction and faction, that has resulted in a torrent of criticism against her from the Marxist Feminist critics whose foremost indictment of her work is that she has voiced the concerns of white, upper middle class English women only.
Nasir Iqbal ,Umar Hayat, Qaisar Waheed. MARRIAGE OF PHILOSOPHICAL AND LITERARY CONCEPT OF TIME IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S TO THE LIGHTHOUSE. (2021) Vol. 4 No. 4. 26-34
Abstract
This article is an attempt to study Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse with reference to the modern theories of time and temporality propounded by Henri Bergson, and Heidegger. The study traces the influence of Bergson’s theory of time on Virginia Woolf’s fiction by investigating the nature of narrative time and the technique(s) used by Woolf to dismantle the traditional notion of time. As such, the focus of investigation, in this project, is the affinity of Bergson’s philosophical conceptualization of the category of time and Virginia Woolf’s literary presentation of the new notion of time through the spatial and temporal experience of her characters.
In the process of investigating the narrative flow of time, this paper attempts to address the two crucial questions: First, does there exist systematic relationship, and hence interdependence, between French philosopher Bergson’s theorization of time and English novelist Virginia Woolf’s narrativization of structures of time? and Secondly, what narrative technique(s) has Virginia Woolf used in her fiction to bring out Bergsonian concept of time?
In order to address these two significant questions, the paper begins with articulating main postulations of Bergson’s theory of time. Next, to forge a marriage of philosophy and literature, To the Lighthouse is analyzed comprehensively to study the application of the philosophical concept of time upon the literary art of Woolf. How Woolf has explored and integrated into her fiction the innovative conceptualization of time, the study argues, is one of the features of Woolf’s departure from the traditional art of novel-writing. The dissertation concludes pointing out the striking similarities, as well as peculiarities, between the eminent philosopher’s conceptualization of time and the intellectual novelist’s treatment of time in the fictional world of To the Lighthouse.
Nasir Iqbal, Umar Hayat, Muhammad Asif Nadeem. Subverting the Politics of Discourse in Gerald Vizenor’s Heirs of Columbus. (2021) Vol. 6, No. 5. Pages: 101 –109
Abstract
Vizenor is an illustrious novelist whose works, especially The Heirs of Columbus, dwells upon some of the substantial and significant issues facing the modern-day Native American nationals of America and Canada as the majority of the Native American tribes straddle along the borders between the two countries. Victor believes in Saidian terms that the white Euro-American colonizers, after making inroads into the native people’s land, established their stranglehold by maintaining and perpetuating the policy of the misrepresentation of the native people. Through a body of specialized writings about the colonized people, the Europeans in the first place and Americans afterward- after the center was shifted from Britain to America as a result of far-reaching political and economic changes in the world scenario- grossly misrepresented the indigenous people by portraying them as uncivilized, ignorant, brutes, inferior, born to be ruled over and, thus, by implication defined themselves as civilized, democratic, knowledgeable having the divine sanction to rule. They had this cultural/anthropological theory of their innate superiority over the non-white to ideologically support and legitimize their exploitative agenda.
Nasir Iqbal, Umar Hayat, Muhammad Asif Nadeem. The Ethos of War Literature in For Whom the Bell Tolls. (2021) Vol. 6, No. 1. Pages: 254 – 263
Abstract
The aim of this research paper is to demonstrate that Hemingway’s work, ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ to show commitment to representing the war literature in which he realistically depicts the war scenes and the crippling impact of violence upon the individuals. This research is qualitative research carried out within the framework of theory, fiction, and history. We have deeply and analytically studied the text and marked the relevant portions. After many close readings and intensive study of the text, the relevant textual evidence was located, marked, and extracted. In ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway enthusiastically depicts the heroic actions of Robert Jordan, the American protagonist, fighting for the Spanish cause and the other loyalists who were engaged in resisting fascist aggression against the democratic setup.
Umar Hayat, Nasir Iqbal, Muhammad Asif Nadeem. War and Politics on Water: An Eco-Critical Critique of Animation Movie Rango. (2021) Vol. 6, No. 4. Pages: 104-111
Abstract
Since its release, critics have evaluated ‘Rango’ from technical, artistic, thematic, psychological and feminist perspectives. However, the role and purpose of nature in ‘Rango’ remains unexplored. This study, from an eco critical perspective, aims to discover the aqua politics of the elite to exploit the local community through controlling water resources. This qualitative research is carried out within the framework of literary and semiotic, fiction and history of the genre, animated movies. It is premised upon an explanatory and interpretative analysis of the chosen movie. The current research also evaluates the impact of water politics on the construction of individual identities. In addition, there search looks at issues of Eco feminism addressed in the movie. After watching the movie and reading the text of that movie, semiotical and close readings have been applied to explore the water politics, aqua politics, and Eco feminism. The study concludes that in the contemporary technological advance area in which other than super-power of the world, like America, Russia and China, the other less powerful yet potentially threatening countries of the world that possess weapons of mass destruction can prove highly dangerous for the world peace and, while the water resources are assuming prime importance in developing the energy resources of different countries.
Umar Hayat, Nasir Iqbal, Muhammad Asif Nadeem. The Fall of Macbeth: A Psychological Inquiry into the Case of Corrupting Power. (2021) Vol. 6, No. 3. Pages: 113 – 121
Abstract
The research paper investigates how authority, power, and position are the words that denote the god-like status of a person in the world and it has often been seen that when people come to power, they face the temptation of abusing their power for the achievement of unrestrained personal desires. This research is qualitative research carried out within the framework of Renaissance literature and its link with psychological reflections upon Renaissance fiction and history. It is premised upon an explanatory and interpretative analysis of the chosen text Macbeth. The present study aims to explore in-depth the socio-psychological factors that nurture such a mentality through the textual analysis of Macbeth, a play universally recognized for the study of the disastrous upshot of inordinate ambitions.The study is an exploration of the nature of evil in Macbeth, the evil of immoderate ambition planted in the mind of Macbeth, an army General in the kingdom of King Duncan, by his exceptional lyambitious wife, Lady Macbeth, who aspires her husband to become King of Scotland by hook or by crook even if he had to wreak havoc in the lives of all those who stand in the way of her ambition.
Umar Hayat, Nasir Iqbal, Mumtaz Ahmad. An Ecocritical Insight into Ted Hughes’ Poetry as an Alternative and Complementary Approach to Anthropocentrism. (2019) Vol. 4, No. 2. Pages: 454 – 461
Abstract
This paper aims to explore the ecocritical perspective of Ted Hughes in his poetry as an alternative and complementary approach to anthropocentrism. The present study, immersed in the ecocritical theoretical insights, is significant in terms of pinpointing Hughes’ contribution to advocating the need to promote Eco-friendly and symbiotic attitudes for ensuring what is termed as ecological balance. In his poetry, it is evident that nature still retains vigor, vitality, and primal energy, which is lost by man. Obsessed with the idea of conquering nature, which has its roots in the enlightenment ideologies of the nineteenth century, reason-led humans have taken a dangerous route to reach the pinnacle of worldly success by defeating the environment around which man believes, is his enemy so must be vanquished. Ted Hughes is the one finest nature poets of the twentieth century, highly acclaimed for his treatment of nature,environment, animals, and symbiotic relationship between man and his environment. Animals and ecological concerns frequently appear in his poetry, and he shows a delicate and human concern for the non-human creatures and believes in the harmonious co-existence of humans and non-humans. This paper explores bio centrism in Ted’s poetry as an alternative and complementary approach to anthropocentrism.
Umar Hayat, Mumtaz Ahmad, Nasir Iqbal. Language, Women and Discourse in Toni Morrison’s Fiction. (2019) Vol. 4, No. 1. Pages: 425 – 431
Abstract
The present study, grounded in the qualitative research paradigm, is an interpretive and explanatory analysis of Toni Morrison’s fiction from the critical perspective of post structuralist feminist literary theory and fiction. In my reading of Toni Morrison’s fiction as the manifestation/materialization of the knowledge in terms of discursive (re)configuration of women and to analyze their works from “feminine sentence” perspective, I have used Feminist poststructuralist theories in the discourse-theoretical/methodological background. As part of the methodology, this project draws extensively upon feminist theories, particularly those propounded by French Feminists Helene Cixous and Julia Kristeva, which I have used in the backdrop of discourse analysis methods proposed by Michel Foucault. This fusion of Feminist theories as a theoretical framework and discourse analysis as a methodology has illuminated systematically the process of the discursive formation, dissemination, and institutionalization of the knowledge about women. For my analysis of the discourse spectrum of the texts-to-be-analyzed, I have used extensively Foucault’s notions about discourse and knowledge as discussed comprehensively in his books, articles, and interviews.