vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 needs analysis and teachers’ perceptions: a study of english undergraduate students abdul qadar lecturer in english, shaheed benazir bhutto university sheringal, pakistan. abdulqadar143@gmail.com mohammad rahman lecturer in english, shaheed benazir bhutto university sheringal, pakistan. rahmanmsw@gmail.com jawad ur rehman lecturer in english, shaheed benazir bhutto university sheringal, pakistan. jawad.sbbu@gmail.com abstract needs analysis in the context of language-learning-teaching is an important process to design a certain course and syllabus. it helps course designers to set objectives, choose content, method of instruction, appropriate teaching aids and classroom activities for different courses. this paper reports the perceptions of the researchers on the english language learning needs of the english undergraduate students of shaheed benazir bhutto university sheringal, pakistan. the data is based on the researchers’ personal experience and a first-hand observation of the population as the researchers have been teaching in the target context for about a decade. furthermore, the researchers have always been in discussion with their students and colleagues about the target students’ english leaning needs, preferred learning styles, motivation in learning english, interest, strengths/weaknesses, and attitude toward english learning in the target setting. learners’ assignments, exam answer sheets, and presentations have also been used is a source of data collection. a needs analysis model proposed by hutchinson and waters (1987) has been applied in order to analyze the data. the results show that the students lack well grammatical sentences, have poor spellings, capitalization problems, limited vocabulary, unaware of collocations, poor/slow reading comprehension, and lack of effective presentation skills. furthermore, most of the students have lack of involvement in classroom activities and feel shy in speaking english language. it was reported that provision of authentic material, interesting activities, suitable audio-visual aids, relevant texts, language labs and other logistic arrangements can better help them in learning english language. the findings demonstrate that the students wished to have a learner-centered-course which helps them excel in their academic life and learning english language. key words: needs analysis, perceptions, syllabus, needs analysis model, undergraduate mailto:abdulqadar143@gmail.com mailto:rahmanmsw@gmail.com mailto:jawad.sbbu@gmail.com vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 28 introduction in the process of designing any general or specific english course, needs analysis is the first step that is important to be taken. also known as needs assessment originated in 1970s, tries to identify learners’ needs and problems in developing a certain course. in other words, it can be defined as a set of systematic procedures used to collect data about students’ language skills, purpose of learning, language strength, weaknesses, lacks and wants prior to the development of a course. thus it will help in setting goals for a course which in turn would decide the type of material, content, classroom activities and method of instruction used in a course. iwai, kondo, lim, ray, shimizu & brown (1999) define needs analysis as the collection of information from a certain group of students in the process of curriculum designing. brindley (1989) considers it as “the gap between what the learners’ actual needs are and what should be taught to them.” hutchinson and waters (1987) define it as the necessities, lacks and wants of students in a certain course. similarly, iwai et al. (1999) say that needs analysis is the basis for any new language program or a reference for a well established foreign language program. a number of studies show the importance of needs analysis in designing courses which provided foundation to the learner-centered method of language teaching. resultantly, the focus was shifted to learners’ subjective needs and wants. nunan (1988) states “no curriculum can claim to be truly learner-centered unless the learner's subjective needs and perceptions relating to the processes of learning are taken into account”. in addition, he believes that needs analysis is an important asset for teachers to know the language skills needed by students. belcher (2006) considers needs analysis as the grounding work for designing english for specific (esp) or any general english course. similarly, nunan and lamb (1996) believe that needs analysis “provides a basis for setting goals and objectives” of a course. according to long (2005), needs analysis determines relevance of material and differences of students in terms of needs and style, thus fulfilling the requirements of students in a specific course. the empirical evidences of taillefer (2007) and cowling (2007) report that success of teaching and learning in esp depends much on needs analysis. in order to analyze the needs of students, esp researchers have proposed various approaches. the most important are the deficiency analysis, munby’s communicative need processor model, target situation needs, current situation needs and learning-centered approach model. in the current study, the learning-centered approach has been chosen for the data analysis of the students. this model was developed by hutchinson and waters (1987) that possess a vital place among the given approaches to explore the learning needs of the students. in their model, the students’ needs have been divided into two categories: (i) the target needs (what the students are required to do in the target situation) and the (ii) learning needs (what are the factors that may affect students’ learning). the target needs are the needs that students require in the situation they are studying—the type of skills, knowledge and language students need to cope with a particular situation. the target needs vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 29 have further been divided into “necessities, lacks and wants”. according to hutchinson and waters (1987), necessities are “the type of need determined by the demand of the target situation; that is, what the learner has to know in order to function effectively in the target situation”. it means, what is necessary in students’ language use in a certain situation or why a skill is necessary in their use of language. in other words we can say, necessities are the language needs of students required by the demand of a situation, e.g. the type of language and skills required by students to write exam papers, assignments and essays etc. in addition, “lacks” can be defined as the language skills needed by students; what they already know and what they need to know and deficient in— the strengths and weaknesses of students. similarly, “wants” are the skills and knowledge wished by students to learn in a particular language program. it tries to seek students’ personal views and expectations about the language acquision in a course. for instance, some students consider themselves to be weak in vocabulary, grammar and speaking skill which they wish to be integrated in their course. furthermore, “learning needs" are the factors that may affect the learning process of the students. this includes motivation, interest, society, previous failure, learning styles, awareness, attitude and strategies etc. there is a range of tools used for gathering information about the needs of students; the main techniques include interviews, questionnaires and observations. the data can be obtained from the target students, teachers, parents, students solved assignments/written work and administrations of the institutes etc. hutchinson and waters (1987) also propose a list of approaches to needs analysis: “questionnaires, interviews, observation, data collection (e.g. gathering texts) and informal consultations with sponsors, learners and others. objectives of the study the study has the following objectives: i. to report the perceptions of teachers about the needs analysis of the undergraduate students of sbb university sheringal pakistan in learning english language. ii. to analyze the english language learning needs of the undergraduate students whose major is english literature and linguistics. significance of the study the study is important for curriculum/syllabus designers as it provides data about the needs analysis of students in general and the current setting in particular. it helps the course designers to set objectives, choose content, method of instruction, teaching-material and classroom activities for designing courses for the particular context—especially a course which may help the students in their academic and english language learning. furthermore, the study is beneficial for the students and teachers of shaheed benazir bhutto university sheringal as it demonstrates the real english language learning needs of the students. moreover, the study adds to the body of existing literature on the topic and can be compared with other contexts of the globe. vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 30 methodology the study is qualitative in nature as it tries to investigate teachers’ perceptions about the needs analysis of their students at the department of english, sbb university sheringal. the data is based on the researchers’ personal experience and a first-hand observation of the target population as the researchers have been teaching in the same context for about a decade. the researchers of the study discussed and analyzed all their perceptions and perspectives about english language learning needs of their students. they discussed and noted down their understandings/observations of all aspects of the needs of their students in learning english language. furthermore, the data is based on the informal discussions and interviews which the researchers had with other colleagues of the department/campus. in addition, the researchers (quite a few times) have been in discussion with their students about the english language needs of the students in the target context. some of the areas which came under discussion with the students and teachers are: students’ english leaning needs, preferred learning styles, motivation in learning english, interest, english strengths/weaknesses, and attitude toward english learning in the target setting. moreover, students’ solved assignments, presentations and exam papers have also been used as a source of data collection for the current study. all this helped the researchers to develop a bulk of knowledge, experience, perception and perspective on the topic in respect of the target setting. in order to analyze and discuss the language learning needs of the target students, hutchinson and waters (1987) model has been applied in the current study—which discusses three kinds of learning needs (necessities, lacks and wants). the study is delimited to the perceptions of the researchers/teachers about the needs analysis of the all the english undergraduate students (majoring in english literature and linguistics) of shaheed benazir bhutto university sheringal, pakistan. analysis and discussion the current study follows hutchinson and waters (1987) model of needs analysis in order to analyze and discuss the language needs of the undergraduate students of sbb university sheringal, pakistan. the data is based on the researchers’ personal experience and a first-hand observation of the target population. in addition, the data is based on the informal discussions and meetings happened between the researchers, colleagues and their students. the following section demonstrates a detailed analysis and discussion of the language needs of the students of the target setting. learners’ needs have been divided into target needs and learning needs by hutchinson and waters (1987). the target needs—what the students need to do in the target situation has further been classified into “necessities, lacks and wants”. hutchinson and waters (1987) define necessities as “the type of need determined by the demand of the target situation; that is, what the learner has to know in order to function effectively in the target situation”. in the current study, vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 31 as observed by the researchers (being teachers of the students), the demand of the target situation is that students need to study english literature and linguistics in the department which is the major focus of their degree. during their academic life, they need to write assignments, term papers, answering exam papers, give oral presentations, write general essays, thesis writing, listen to lectures, and attend workshops/seminars etc. all these needs to be written/produced in english language. similarly, the medium of instruction is english. in order to perform well in all of the above functions, the students are required to have good command on all four skills of english language with exposure to academic/general vocabulary, technical writing skills, grammar, presentation skills, assignment writing, strategies to develop listening and speaking skills, and academic reading /writing skills. students’ language “lacks” include the language skills needed by the students; what they already know and what they need to know and deficient in (hutchinson and waters, 1987). assessing students’ assignments, exam answer sheets, essays, activity participations and class presentation provide sufficient data about the language lacks of students. moreover, the researchers in their observation, discussions with colleagues /students, and learners’ written-work-assessment found that some of the students were weak in all four skills of english language. they lack well grammatical sentences, have poor spellings, capitalization problems, limited vocabulary, unaware of collocations, poor/slow reading comprehension, and lack of effective presentation skills. furthermore, the researchers perceive that the students have lack of involvement in classroom activities and feel shy in speaking the target language. similarly, the students were reported to be good at the content knowledge of english literature and linguistics. hutchinson and waters (1987) define “wants” as the skills and knowledge wished by students to learn in a particular language program. it tries to seek students’ personal views and expectations about the language acquision in a course. as observed and discussed with the students by the researchers, the students wanted a course which may help them in all their academic and language skills. the only course that is available in the department to help the students in their academic and language learning is english for academic purposes—which is the sub-category of english for specific purposes. this course was valued much beneficial by the students. the students considered the overcrowded number of students in the teaching of this subject as one of the major drawbacks; a teacher needs to give attention to every single student participating in the activities which almost does not happen and is impossible in an hour class. furthermore, some of the students gave more importance to the grammatical knowledge of language while others wanted activity based learning where there is no/less focus on grammatical knowledge. these students wanted an artificial environment to help them learn the language like their mother tongue which is possible through role plays, language games, problem-solving-situations and simulations etc. the students wished to learn a sufficient number of target language words—the words most frequently occurring in their academic and routine language use. vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 32 in addition, a number of the students were of the opinion that provision of authentic material, interesting activities, suitable audio-visual aids, relevant texts, language labs and other logistic arrangements can better help them in learning english language. similarly, these students wanted a learning environment which is learner-centered providing ample opportunity to students to converse and practice in the target language. the students appreciated the extent of use of english language in the delivery of class lectures by their teachers and the skills they have in all aspects of the language. other factors that may affect the learning process of the students include motivation, interest, society, previous failure, learning styles, awareness, attitude and strategies etc. it was noticed that the target students are highly motivated /interested in the courses; they are much eager to study literature, linguistics and english language. they have different learning styles (mostly preferred social and learn by doing) and a positive attitude toward the learning, importance and role of english language. conclusion the current study presents the language learning needs of the english undergraduate students of sbb university sheringal. hutchinson and waters (1987) inventory of needs analysis was used in order to analyze the data. the following are some of the main findings of the study: 1. students lack well grammatical sentences, have poor spellings, capitalization problems, limited vocabulary, unaware of collocations, poor/slow reading comprehension, and lack of effective presentation skills. 2. most of the students have lack of involvement in classroom activities and feel shy in speaking english language. 3. provision of authentic material, interesting activities, suitable audio-visual aids, relevant texts, language labs and other logistic arrangements can better help them in learning english language. the study concludes that a learner-centered-course is required to be developed while addressing the academic needs and wants of the students. based on the findings of the research the following recommendations are suggested: the learner-centered-course needs to: 1. focus on enhancing all the major and minor english language skills. 2. appreciate students’ involvement in the teaching learning process. 3. provide opportunities to practice english language in an artificial environment. 4. integrate authentic material, audio-visual aids, language games and activities. vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 33 5. develop vocabulary, grammar, spellings, pronunciation, and presentations skills references belcher, d. (2006). english for specific purposes: teaching to perceived needs and imagined futures in worlds of work, study and everyday life. tesol quarterly, 40 (1), 133156. brindley, g. (1989). the role of needs analysis in adult esl program design. in r. johnson (ed.). the second language curriculum (pp.35-70). cambridge: cambridge university press. cowling, j. d. (2007). needs analysis: planning a syllabus for a series of intensive workplace courses at a leading japanese company. english for specific purposes, 26, 426-442. hutchison, t. & waters, a. (1987). english for specific purposes: a learner-centered approach. england: cambridge university press. iwai, t., kondo, k., lim, d., ray, g., shimizu, h., & brown, j. d. (1999). japanese language needs analysis. retrieved may 12, 2007 retrieved from http://www.nflrc.hawaii.edu/networks/nw13/nw13.pdf long, m. (2005). a rationale for needs analysis research. cambridge: cambridge university press. nunan, d. (1988). syllabus design. oxford: oxford university press. nunan, d., & lamb, c. (1996). the self-directed teacher: managing the learning process. cambridge: cambridge university press. taillefer, g. f. (2007). the professional language needs of economics graduates: assessment and perspectives in the french context. english for specific purposes, 26,135–155. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). http://www.nflrc.hawaii.edu/networks/nw13/nw13.pdf lack of tenderness: the main culprit for the relationship between husband and wife in lady chatterley’s lover 179 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 lack of tenderness: the main culprit for the relationship between husband and wife in lady chatterley’s lover kifayatullah phd scholar, qurtuba university, peshawar abstract this article presents the case of chatterley and clifford, the two main characters in lady chatterley’s lover, to consider tenderness a basic working emotion to shape human relationship. the lack of tenderness causes emotional as well as physical distance in relation, especially that of male-female’s relation. the first part of the article reviews tenderness. the second part reviews how tenderness and lack of tenderness affects male-female relationship in the selected novel, lady chatterley’s lover. on the basis of a careful analysis of lady chatterley’s lover, the present writer tries to prove that the lack of tenderness is the main culprit for the broken relationship between husband and wife: a major one of the relations between man and woman in human society and mutual tenderness elicits people awakening to a new way of living in an exterior world that is uncracking after the long winter hibernation. lawrence, through revelation of connie’s gradual awakening from tenderness, has made his utmost effort to explore possible solutions to harmonious androgyny between men and women so as to revitalize the distorted human nature caused by the industrial civilization. keywords: relationship, husband and wife, tenderness, main culprit, connie i tenderness plays a very vital role in connecting people and making human relationship workable.wojtyla explains that the essence of tenderness is found "in the tendency to make one's own the feelings and mental states of another person" (quoted by kalawski 201). this is a common experience in romantic relationships, as men and women feel closely involved with the inner life of their beloved ones’, entering into the other person's feelings and state of mind. lack of tenderness: the main culprit for the relationship between husband and wife in lady chatterley’s lover 180 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 tenderness also seeks outward expression. it is not enough to have an awareness of what is going on inside the other person. a person also tends to seek to communicate that sense of closeness to his/her beloved. tenderness may be quite selfless and innocent when it is based on concern for another person and what that person is going through interiorly. however, wojtyla warns that outward gestures such as an embrace or a kiss can lose their altruistic character and quickly fall into utilitarianism once they are used primarily as a means to one's own pleasure. once "the need to gratify one's own feelings" (203) begins to overshadow genuine selfless concern for the other, expressions of tenderness have crossed over into egoism and will prevent love from fully developing. and crossing that line into egoism is something we can easily fall into, for two reasons. first, as wojtyla reminds us, the love between men and women is driven in large part by sensuality and sentimentality, which are never fully satisfied and which are constantly demanding ever-greater amounts of pleasure. given our fallen human nature, therefore, outward expressions of tenderness may be sought more for the emotional or sensual pleasure we receive than out of a selfless desire to enter into the inner life of the other person. as wojtyla explains, "various forms of tenderness can easily diverge from love of the person, and stray in the direction of sensual, or at any rate, emotional egoism" (205). second, the subjective aspects of love (the powerful emotions or sensual pleasure we experience) develop much more quickly than the objective aspects (virtue, friendship, selfgiving, responsibility). since the emotion of love is often experienced as a sudden and powerful explosion, many are tempted to give or receive outward expressions of tenderness before those objective aspects of love have had a chance to develop (wojtyla 205). and, as we've seen in previous reflections, those objective aspects are crucial to ensure that the relationship remains at the level of self-giving love and does not fall into utilitarianism. that is why premature acts of tenderness are very harmful to love, for they create only "an illusion of love, a love which in reality does not exist" (205). lack of tenderness: the main culprit for the relationship between husband and wife in lady chatterley’s lover 181 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 ii one of the concepts related to tenderness is love. love is conspicuously absent from basic emotion lists. shaver et al. (81-96) have presented several arguments for the inclusion of love as a basic emotion. however, they agreed with ekman (45-60) that the word ‘‘love’’ often does not refer to an emotion but to a disposition to respond emotionally. shaver et al. pointed out, however, that the emotional disposition of love is punctuated by ‘‘surges’’ of emotion. these surges are temporally discrete in the way other basic emotions are. in addition, shaver et al. (81-96) noted that the term ‘‘love’’ means different things under different circumstances. in other words, there are several varieties of love. based on attachment theory, shaver et al. (81-96) distinguished among love as attachment, love as caregiving, and love as sexual attraction. each of these three types of love may occur by itself, or it may combine with one or both other types. shaver et al. suggested that different types of emotion ‘‘surges’’ may correspond to the different types of love. frijda proposed that, ‘‘tenderness can be regarded as the impulse toward tender—that is, care-giving behaviour or else as the acute act of recognition of an object as a fit object for such behaviour’’ (83). to summarize the conceptual relationship between tenderness and love, whereas love is a disposition to respond emotionally, tenderness is a momentary emotional experience. in addition, whereas there are different varieties of love, tenderness relates specifically to caregiving. this caregiving function of tenderness strengthens human relationship. human relationship is the thematic center of lawrence fictional writing. as marsh exactly observes “the quest for a perfect male-female relationship can be called the central subject of lawrence’s fiction” (96). his novels mainly study the causes at the back of the shifting human relationships: why relationships fail, especially that between a woman and a man and how healthy and balanced relationships can be developed and maintained in “an essentially tragic age” (lawrence 1). he looks into different features of relationships—parents-child’s relation, manwoman’s relation, man’s relation with his surroundings and nature, the relation between intellect and instinct, and the appropriate base for the marriage relationship. lawrence, in his novel writing, seeks a harmonious relationship, based on balance between intellect and instinct, and body and lack of tenderness: the main culprit for the relationship between husband and wife in lady chatterley’s lover 182 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 emotions. lady chatterley’s lover insists that the most significant of all relationships, is malefemale’s relationship. the relationship between man and woman is the most recurring theme in his writing. iii lady chatterley’s lover is the last novel of lawrence and one of his most notorious novels. the story of lady chatterley’s lover chiefly deals with a woman named connie (lady chatterley) who marries clifford, an aristocratic man who becomes paralyzed and impotent due to injuries from fighting in the war. connie develops an affair with the gamekeeper, oliver mellors, and as their relationship becomes deep and full of meanings, she becomes more and more disconcerted and detached by her superficial and shallow relationship with clifford. so, connie begins the tale as a lady chatterley, the spouse of clifford chatterley: an aristocratic coal miner and ends it as a beloved and future wife of mellors: a gamekeeper of clifford estate. but what should be held responsible for the failure of chatterleys’s love and marriage? the present writer intends to argue that among all the reasons, the lack of sensual tenderness is the main culprit for the failure of love and marriage between the husband and wife. at the very beginning of the story, we are told that “ours is an essentially a tragic age” and human relationships are badly scattered and disturbed because of war and industrialization. war turns clifford into “more or less in bits” (lawrence 1), shattered physically, impotent sexually, rigid only in the knowledge of his own supremacy to the working men he utilizes in his coalmine and in his bodiless intellectuality as a writer. all this sets a tone of bleakness and despair for the story. through the narrator’s descriptions, a mechanistic corruption, war, overintellectuality, ignorance of touch seems to pervade the setting, tainting all that they come in contact__ especially human relationship. all of them not only corrupt natural environment but also cause lack of tenderness, which leads to the split of relationship between man and woman, especially the husband and wife relation in lady chatterley’s lover. the novel opens with connie imprisoned situation within the "thick walls" of wragby. the walls seal all but the intellectual life, and connie senses confined by the culture and conversation of lack of tenderness: the main culprit for the relationship between husband and wife in lady chatterley’s lover 183 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 wragby houses and by the emptiness, tightness of the men of her generation, “they were so tight, so scared of life" (lawrence 7). neither connie's husband nor the lover she takes, michaelis, could make her free of her agonized situation "it was like being inside an enclosure, always inside. life always a dream or frenzy, inside an enclosure" (42). connie knows that little thing to do was to pass the porches and portals (87), but it is not until she is seduced by her husband's gamekeeper that brings her out of suppression. however, coming out of that “enclosure” is not that easy and simple for connie. it is very difficult for her to leave her husband and go for her love. although, there is no tenderness, warmth and harmony in chatterleys’ relationship, but still they have habit of each other and habit to clifford is “more vital than any occasional excitement” (32). moreover, according to clifford it is the habit not tenderness that enables two individuals “to vibrate so intricately to one another” (32) and the actual secret of marriage is not sex; at least not the simple purpose of sex. connie is living with her husband pretty happily, as her husband convinces her that they are interwoven in a marriage and if they glue to it, they will easily arrange “the sex thing”, the way they arrange going to a dentist. though apparently connie seems happy and convinced in her marriage, unaware of her sexual being, facilitating clifford in his writing, however, wild restlessness takes place in her when ignored corner of her being is scratched by micheal, one of the visitors to clifford’s house. nevertheless, he is interested just in his own pleasure. he is not a man to help her in full realization of her body. on one hand, micheal makes her aware of her body and on the other hand insults her by ignoring her pleasure and satisfaction. so after her humiliating incident with micheal, connie becomes very restless and disturbed and starts feeling hollowness inside with the bareness and lack of meaning in her life. she craves not just for the physical contact that clifford being crippled, and too absorbed in his books and thoughts, is incapable of giving her but she also needs and looks for tenderness and warmth, however, “clifford was not like that. his whole race was not like that. they were all inwardly hard and separate, and warmth to them was a bad taste” (lawrence 60). this inwardly hardness and separateness, makes connie detached from her husband, who is ‘all mind’. there is a dreadful anxiety, expertly expressed, in dilemma of connie: “on one side we see the lack of tenderness in her life, a space, a ‘void’ needing to be filled; on the other hand, we go in lack of tenderness: the main culprit for the relationship between husband and wife in lady chatterley’s lover 184 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 her consciousness and experience her life as a dream, an awakened ‘trance-like state’ that caused frustration but is terrified of change” (thecriterion.com). connie "knows she is out of connection," as her wasting marriage has led her to lose "touch with the substantial and vital world". her body was going meaningless, going dull and opaque, so much insignificant substance. it made her feel immensely depressed and hopeless. what hope was there? the mental life! suddenly she hated it with a rushing fury, the swindle! (lawrence 59) now she is in search of somebody who can give meaning to her meaningless life and to complete her. in such restlessness walking in the nearby woods of wragby, she meets mellors who is living a secluded life. mellors’s secluded life and separation from his sensual wife direct them into a relationship that is made little by little and is based upon tenderness, physical passion and mutual respect. when connie meets mellors, she finds safe haven in his arms and experiences regeneration and restoration of her life and womanhood. jointly they shelter themselves from the confusion and anarchy of the outside world and go to the shelter of the inside world of realization and fulfillment. however, the realization and fulfillment is not that easy. connie's transformation takes place in a set of tensions and an artistic dualism: tenderness against indifference and stiffness, wood against stone, nature against culture, frankness against manipulation or fertility against infertility, flesh against intellect. these tensions powerfully mark the first phase of the novel where wragby hall symbolizes infertility and spiritual and emotional apathy, will and intellectual control; while the hut signifies the free play of the instinct and sensuality, the safe haven of tenderness. connie hangs between the two worlds, leaving the stiffness for tenderness is the main decision, which is never easy for connie. the two worlds cannot interrelate: clifford interrupts nature with his motorized wheelchair as much as mellors is an intruder and outsider inside wragby hall. perhaps the most remarkable opposition is between silence and talk. as connie and mellors draw back into the secluded world of the hut, the author insists on the tranquility and the silence of the place, focuses on the internal and emotional feelings since both characters are escapees from "the outer world of chaos" (lawrence). that is why enclosures are in abundance in the novel: a bedroom, the hut, the cottage, the clearing, an enclosed yard, as many shelters from psychological suffering. mellors is "afraid of society" (lawrence) while connie shrinks back from the "insanity of the whole civilized lack of tenderness: the main culprit for the relationship between husband and wife in lady chatterley’s lover 185 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 species." they both remain in pure silence, even vagueness since they hardly ever call each other by names. iv the novel shows three stages in connie's relationship with her husband and mellors. in the first stage, she rejects clifford, acting in a response to a wasted bond of marriage, she gets place of safety with mellors. the second stage starts when connie restores in the serene world of her lover's hut. finally, in the third stage she escapes wragby hall as she leaves to spend holidays in venice. there she decides never to go back to the lifeless world of clifford. this decision is taken more easily by connie because being away from wragby hall she can think again about her commitment to mellors while their relationship is increasingly revealed and discussed as a scandal which really puts a stop to her from returning to her husband. then the novel's central struggle transfers from that between a lady and a gamekeeper to that between connie and mellor's promise to each other and the antagonistic force to their relationship. connie’s relationship with mellors becomes stronger and stronger and she starts rejecting her previous mode of life and everything, which is represented by her husband. mellors has given her a superb happiness and a sense of liberty and life. the relationship of connie and mellors presents the image of complete wholeness of being in which both partners are fulfilled while connie’s relation with clifford, lacks both physical as well as emotional tenderness. industrial revolution and war, up to some extent, can be held responsible for clifford’s lack of sensual tenderness; however, on a whole he is not a tender person. this is clear the way he suggests connie to get a lover outside of a marriage. so lack of sensual tenderness plays a decisive role in the dissolution of wife and husband relationship. lack of tenderness: the main culprit for the relationship between husband and wife in lady chatterley’s lover 186 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 works cited e. m. w. tillyard. hamlet: shakespeare's problem plays. london: chatto and windus press, 1951: 19. print. ekman, p. “basic emotions. in t. dalgleish & m. j. power” (eds.), handbook of cognition and emotion chichester, west sussex, wiley, 1999, p. 45–60. print. frijda, n, h. the emotions. new york: cambridge university press, 1986. print. kalawski ,j, p. “is tenderness a basic emotion” motivation & emotion 34.02 (2010): 158–167. lawrence, d.h, lady chatterley's lover. new york: signet, 1962. print. lawrence, d, h. phoenix. new yark: cambridge university press. 1978. print. nicholas, marsh. d.h.lawrnce the novels. new yark: st matin's press, 2000: 96. print shaver, p. r., morgan, h. j., & wu, s. “is love a ‘‘basic’’ emotion?” personal relationships, cambridge university press, 3(1996): 81–96. talat, khan, shaista. “man-woman relationship in d.h. lawrence’s lady chatterley’s lover”. n.d. web feb11, 2012. online. @ 2020 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 31 totalitarianism and colonial legacy: a postcolonial analysis of muhammad hanif’s a case of exploding mangoes dr. yasir arafat assistant professor of english, numl islamabad, pakistan yasirarafat1980@gmail.com sharjeel ahmad research scholar, department of english, numl islamabad, pakistan muntazir mehdi assistant professor of english, numl islamabad, pakistan mmehdi@numl.edu.pk abstract the current study has taken into consideration muhammad hanif’s a case of exploding mangoes (2008). this text is a cut-throat satire on the socio-political history of pakistan and the interference of military in state affairs. this research highlights the elements of totalitarianism and colonial legacies practiced by general zia in his dictatorial rule. this research also highlights the failure and inefficiencies of autocratic rule and spotlights the undemocratic ways of such a despotic regimes. the theoretical framework used for this study is taken from hanna arendt’s origin of totalitarianism (1951) and frantz fanon’s the wretched of the earth (2004). this study has contextualized the socio-political history of pakistan discussed in the selected text and highlighted general zia’s manipulation of people by using islamization and ideology of nationalism. key words: totalitarianism, colonial legacy, ideology, nationalism, islamization, despotic regimes. introduction the scholarship is going to highlight the elements of totalitarianism in the novel ‘a case of exploding mangoes’ (2008) written by a pakistani writer muhammad hanif. it mainly looks for the oppressive, barbaric, totalitarian, tyrannical, and colonial techniques used by the president of pakistan (1977-1988) general muhammad zia-ul-haq, a military dictator who overthrown the government of one of the most charismatic leader in the history of pakistan, zulfiqar ali bhutto by imposing martial law and begun the longest and most despotic period in the history of pakistan. zia took over the government and promised the people to arrange free and fair elections in 90 days, but unfortunately, his regime lasted for 11 long years. in the novel, hanif has portrayed very skillfully with a satirical tone the real historical events in pakistan, which finally lead to the demised of zia in a plane crash. totalitarian regimes have degraded the political atmospheres of countries, destroyed the life and choices of the masses, and exploited, tortured, and marginalized. “they are decentered by the despotic tendencies of the ruling authority and the useof power and authority is highly concentrated” (arif, 2018). during these totalitarian periods, the plights and predicaments of the masses kept pace and they become fed off from their lives. hannah arendt in her book origin of totalitarianism (1951) discussed the curses of authoritarian rules very briefly she said: “the university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 32 purpose of modern dictatorship is not elimination rather, it demands an unquestionable obedience from the masses” (arendt, 1951). the same thing happened in the text in which zia is demanding the dog’s loyalty from the people by force or consent and exploited the people for his political benefits using religious and national ideologies as his tools of power. this paper will also focus on the colonial legacy maintained by zia in his regime by practicing the policies of white masters and treating the people of his own country in an inhumane way. it was a ruling habit of colonial masters to subjugate masses and do not allow them to interfere in their actions. the same is the case with zia, in the novel he is serving like a comprador by trying to retain the manifesto of colonialism. fanon says; “[the] intermediary does not lighten the oppression, nor seek to hide the domination…he is bringer of violence into the home and into the mind of the native” (p. 38). problem statement hanif’s novel a case of exploding mangoes represents the political tumult in pakistan during general zia’s administration, who used the ideologies of religion and nationalism to oppress and subjugate the people unlawfully for his satisfaction. this paper presents a far-reaching analysis of the tyranny of absolutism of totalitarian regime as portrayed by hanif and spotlights the roles of the powers-that-be in the religio-politico environment of the pakistani politics. colonial traits are also addressed which is the need of the hour and to eradicate such menace from the world to give freedom to the people from their autocratic rulers. the rationale of this research is to fill the lacuna by calling the attention of the people to a comprehensive interpretation of the prevailing colonial heritage and bringing out the totalitarianism in the state during general zia’s administration. research objectives this research endeavors to achieve the following research objectives.  to analyze the ways in which the totalitarian administration of general zia oppressed the people of pakistan through his tyrannical exertion by imposing different ideologies.  to highlight the colonial legacy retained by general zia through his undemocratic authority and autocratic norms. research questions the research paper attempts to answer the following research questions. 1. in what ways does general zia manipulated the masses and controlled the political, social and cultural aspects during his regime? 2. how does general zia’s undemocratic authority retained colonial legacy and served the manifesto of colonialism? significance of the study this study is significant because it draws attention towardshighlighting absolutist and autocratic ways in the novel a case of exploding mangoes, a historical metafiction. further, it will bring forth into people’s consciousness the efforts of standing against such evils and showing an act of defiance to any kind of dictatorial authority. the totalitarian rule automatically gives birth to a university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 33 colonial legacy which is only based on the exploitation and marginalization of the people. this paper attempts to highlight the fault lines in the socio-political ambiance by providing the readers with a sense of responsibility and understanding of undemocratic power over the masses. delimitation of the study the study is delimited to only one literary text i.e. muhammad hanif’s a case of exploding mangoes. the theoretical framework used for the analysis has only been taken from hanna arendt’s origin of totalitarianism (1951) and frantz fanon’s the wretched of the earth (2004). literature review a brief review of the literature has been given to find the implications of colonial legacy and totalitarianism. this novel can be easily applied to the socio-political history of pakistan and articulating a universal phenomenon of undemocratic authority and colonialism. muhammad yar tanvir in his article praetorianism in a case of exploding mangoes: a critical analysis(2014)has criticized the socio-political scenario of pakistan in the 1980s, when general zia take over the government by imposing martial and ruled for 11 years until his death in a plane crash. he described the role of army and the reality of pakistani politics using the same text. iqbal (2015) in his article has investigated the neo-colonial aspects of the novel. he criticized zia’s regime for using religious ideologies and islamization for exploiting and manipulating the people. sunder huma et al. authored an article a case of exploding of mangoes: postmodernist analysis (2018) analyzed the novel from a postmodern perspective and claimed it as a ‘black comedy’; a prominent feature of the postmodern text. she has gravely satirized the influence of the military in politics. mubashar altaf deconstructs in his research a barthesian critique of mohammad hanif’s novel a case of exploding mangoes (2019) the myths and heroic beliefs of the people about general zia. he further investigated that it was a social trick used by zia and that’s why he was famous among the masses with the name of ‘man of truth’ and ‘man of faith. he reported in a very crystal clear manner that these historical beliefs of people about general zia are only myths and myths do not occur naturally. hafsa niabat et al. in their research ‘the geometry of god and a case of exploding mangoes’ (2020) used the comparative method for analyzing both postmodern novels. this study investigates the social and political situations of pakistan during general zia’s administration. both the novels have deeply criticized the interference of military in politics of pakistan. methodology and theoretical framework this research is reflexive and qualitative in approach which is based on textual analysis of hanif’s novel a case of exploding mangoes (2008). as qualitative research is based on personal interpretations of the researcher the same has been used by the scholar as well and mentioned the opinions, ideas and researches of other scholars for adding value to the conclusion of study. for analyzing the text of a case of exploding mangoes two major perspectives have been used as a theoretical framework. first is the perspective to analyze the totalitarian authority of general zia and for that hannah arendt’s concept of totalitarianism is very suitable which she discussed in her book origin of totalitarianism (1951). second is the idea of the colonial legacy for which the researcher has used postcolonial theorist frantz fanon’s (2004) concept of inferences about colonial legacy and its practitioners from his book the wretched of the earth. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 34 analysis and discussion a case of exploding mangoes is a satirical novel, which has unleashed the mystery of the sociopolitical history of pakistan during the dictatorial regime of general zia and has become a matter of special attention for mohammad hanif to enlightened the people by using ‘black comedy” influenced by his own military experiences and the military corruptness in the shape of religious improvisation. hanif has used ali shigri, a junior officer at pakistan air force as his mouthpiece who is seeking to assassinate general zia in revenge for the death of his father. hanif has mainly focused on zia’s political and social life and his manipulation of the masses by using different ideologies. totalitarianism in zia’s administration the curse of the centrality of authority was a prevailing concept during the 20th-century world, which has devastated the lives of millions of people across the globe, for instance, hitler, stalin and mussolini did the same and imposed on the masses what shashi tharoor in his book an era of darkness (2016) called “draconian restrictions” and caused havoc in the form of two world wars by using their horrendous policies. in a totalitarian regime the authority use power, threat, force, coercion, and other horrible oppressions to suppress the masses and make them marginalized in own state. in the moral sphere, all these techniques and tactics are unjustified and wholly based on personal political benefits. similarly, in the novel, a case of exploding mangoesthe protagonist ali shigri says that “you want freedom and they give you chicken korma” (p.127). ali knows that it was general zia who killed his father so he makes a plane to take his revenge. up till now, he has not started anything about that plane but zia was afraid of him and order the isi to arrest and imprison him. such days of despotism make daily life affairs a forbidden fruit for them arif et al. (2018). it is very difficult for the dictatorial power to suppress every person with tyranny because it will aggravate the social and political situation of the country. in the novel, another man who was the secretary-general of the all pakistan sweeper movement has been imprisoned for 9 years without any charge. everyone during zia’s regime was supposed to blindly follow the orders without any resistance. “every member of the pakistan sweepers’ union believes in political struggle,” he says grandly” (p.126). hanna arendt in her book origin of totalitarianism (1951) stated that “ a fundamental difference between modern dictatorship and all the other tyrannies of the past is that terror is no longer used as means to exterminate and frighten opponents, but an instrument to rule masses of people who are perfectly obedient” (arendt, 1951). this idea of suppressing the masses will not run for a longer time because the more you marginalized them the more they will become radicalized and finally outbursts into a bloody revolution. it is a very pitiable situation that the job of the military is to protect the state from the opponent attacks but here things are topsy-turvy as arendt has explained it beautifully that such totalitarian and despotic authority use power and force against its people. “state use coercion in every aspect of life” (arendt, 1951). zia used islamization and the ideology of nationalism to manipulate the minds of the people for his political interests. in the novel, we can see many instances that zia posed to be a religious man to get the support of religious groups. he was famous with the names of “man of faith”, “man of truth” and “friend of widows”. here hanif draws a satirical picture of zia by claiming university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 35 him “nothing but a tit ogler” (p.145). in the novel, the first lady says that he is not a friend of widows rather he is morally a degraded person who needs to be admired by women. zia used religion as a tool so that people would start loving him as a good muslim and support him in his political manifesto while on the other hand, he used power to suppress people who stood against his monolithic laws. as in the novel ceausescu advised zia “the key (to power) is they should either love you or fear you, your decline starts the day they become indifferent to you. (p.275). inthe novel, we can easily notice how zia is using the army and isi for abducting and eliminating people who speak against him. bendersky has given an exquisite definition of totalitarianism in his book a concise history of nazism (2014) and which we can easily relate with zia’s rule “a society in which party and its ideology would permeate in every aspect of public and private life”. zia’s colonial legacy frantz fanon has explored the hypocritical face of those native people who are serving and promoting the manifesto and legacy of colonizers without knowing the morbid consequences of such actions. in a case of exploding mangoes hanif has narrated such events in which general zia is treating the subjects of the state like slaves. sartre said in his preface to the wretched of the earth (2014) that “fanon reveals to his comrades, above all some of them who are rather too westernized” (p.218). in the undemocratic regime of zia he was the only one that everyone should obey him and answerable for his/her deeds to him but he was answerable to no one like in the colonial time the viceroy was not answerable to anyone of the colonized and treated them like slaves. the colonial legacy of master and slave is very prominent during the dictatorship of general zia. fanon says “the intermediary does not lighten the oppression, nor seek to hide domination… he is the bringer of violence into the home and into the mind of native” (p.38) similarly in the novel, we see many instances that are based on corruption, dominance, and exploitation of people. from a postcolonial perspective, general zia is a crystal clear representative icon of the colonizing world and white masters. he corrupted the sacred notions of religion and portrayed a wrong picture of islamic conservatism and fundamentalism to the whole world. he took control of the media to manipulate the minds of the people which was a prominent tactic of colonizers. shashi tharoor in his book an era of darkness (2016) says that “the newspapers and other media all reflected the interests of small european community” (tharoor, 2016). in the novel, we can notice that zia left no stone unturned to use the media for his political gains. as ali says “the only newspaper we get in academy is the pakistan times, which on any given day has a dozen pictures of general zia”. (p.124). it is very much obvious that zia was not only a mere retainer of colonial legacy but his character in the novel portrays hypocrisy, egoistic attitude, revenge, conservatism, corruption, political incompetence, and moral decadence. conclusion to conclude, this research paper has highlighted different elements of the totalitarian regime and colonial legacy practiced by general zia in the selected text. the research has brought these dangerous autocratic policies to the limelight and focused on the resulting consequences. the elements of totalitarianism, which this research work has found are the use of force, coercion, threat, killing, abducting, and imprisoning those people who stood against these autocratic university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 36 policies. colonial legacy in the form of master-slave relationship between authority and masses and censorship of media is very prominent in the novel. references altaf, mubashar. "international journal of research in english." 2019. arendt, hannah. "the origins of totalitarianism [1951]." new york .1973. arif, muhammad, humaira ahmed, and bakht rahman. "dismantling panopticonic regime: study of orwell’s 1984." liberal arts and social sciences international journal (lassij), 2018. arif, muhammad, humaira ahmed, and bakht rahman. "highlighting the undemocratic hegemony of totalitarian regime: an analysis of bisma’s the queue." liberal arts and social sciences international journal (lassij), 2018. bendersky, joseph w. a concise history of nazi germany. rowman& littlefield publishers, 2014. fanon, frantz. the wretched of the earth. grove/atlantic, inc., 2004. huma, s., bhatti, a.i, ali, h. a case of exploding of mangoes: postmodernist analysis (2018) hanif, mohammed. a case of exploding mangoes. new delhi: random house india .2008.print iqbal, m. a., m. s. arif, and a. jamil. "an analysis of the role of comprador class: a neocolonial study of a case of exploding mangoes by hanif." british journal of english linguistics, 2015. manzoor, fahmida. "a comparative analysis of ‘the geometry of god and a case of exploding mangoes’ in the framework of postmodernism, 2016. siddiqa, ayesha. military inc.: inside pakistan’s military economy. penguin random house india, 2017. tanvir, muhammad yar, shahbaz arif, and mazhar hayat. "praetorianism in a case of exploding mangoes: a critical analysis." (2018). tharoor, shashi. an era of darkness. aleph, 2016. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 1 a free verbal repetition in bronte’s poetry rabbia khan comsats, islamabad, pakistan bia_880@hotmail.com abstract this paper attempts to analyze the use of free verbal repetition in emily bronte’s poems by using leech’s classification. the aim of this linguistic analysis is to establish how different categories of verbal repetition contribute to the process of foregrounding’ of literary meanings and effects. to evaluate the functional value of these linguistic patterns, the approach of fish (1980) and toolan (1990) is also used. the study ends with the conclusion that the poet makes an extensive use of the device of free verbal repetition in two different kinds; both intermittent repetition and immediate repetition. the findings of this research reveal that bronte uses more intermittent repetition than immediate ones. she uses these verbal repetitions to establish a threefold meaning, poetic, personal and symbolic of greater universal realities. keywords: emily bronte, stylistics, repetition, epizeuxis, polace, lexical level, syntactical level. introduction poetry is an artistic composition, propounds unique features which make it different from prose. the victorian poetry also makes its distinctive place due to its adequate amount of linguistic and literary features. the poetry of victorian poets like that of tennyson, bronte and rossetti is thickly populated as far as the poetic features are concerned. cronin states in the book a companion to victorian poetry that the style of victorian poets is florid and over decorated. it is dense and impenetrable (cronin, 2002, p. 9). in this regard, ‘style’ can be a verbal organization to form a poem either with deviant use of language at any level like phonological level, lexical level, syntactical level to create a distinctive style (widdowson, 1975, lodge, 1984, carter, 1980, nash, 1980, freeman, 1996, simpson, 2004,leech & short, 2007). therefore, a style of a poet requires an in-depth study. the study of style imparts an understanding of the poems in terms of the figures of speech and in terms of its interpretation. emily bronte is one of those famous poets of the victorian era, who reflect their genius through poetry. the poetry of bronte remained unappreciated during her life. she remained in the limelight because of her single novel wuthering heights. in the late twentieth century and at the beginning of the 21st century, the collection of her poetry gains impetus in the field of research. the research, previously conducted on her poems mainly focuses on the themes of nature, love, romance and childhood or on the devices like symbolism and imagery. bronte’s mystical influences from university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 40 bataille has been discussed periodically. some scattered discussion on gothic adventures are found but not in detail. in this regard, gezari writes in her article last things: emily bronte’s poems: her approaches are formalist, feminist, historical, cultural, thematic, biographical, and psychoanalytic; her sources range from the stoics to georges bataille. no one else (and she cites her predecessors) has looked so closely at the craft of brontë’s poetry: the variety of her meters, the placement of the caesura, the deployment of masculine and feminine rhymes, and the fineness of her“musical ear”, (gezari, 2008, p. 548). therefore, the present research paper exclusively has been conducted on the style of bronte in terms of free verbal repetition. bronte makes the use of the device of repetition at different grammatical levels to underpin her yearnings for fixing and placing herself at conciliated cessation. conciliated cessation is her idealized self in which she is unified in her thought and personality. it is a continuous, trouble free existence of her where she wants to stay forever without any change. stylistics stylistics provides the podium to the analyst for the investigation of devices used in any piece of work. it is a field in linguistics which gives platform to study, to analyze and to interpret any piece of writing (leech & short, 2007. p. 11).in this way, stylistics gives grounds to the readers to hunt the devices which a writer or a poet uses to foreground meanings and effects. the concept of foregrounding is related to the deeper meanings and effects which are highlighted with the use of certain devices. carter & nash articulates in the book, seeing through language that the idea of foregrounding lies in the fact that it makes the use of certain devices to appeal the reader in terms of meaning making and effects. it is an uncommon use of language which can be termed as deviant (carter & nash, 1990. p. 4). the device of repetition provides a useful ground to see the structure in order to reach the underlined meaning. okunowo states in the article, patterns of parallelism as trope of meaning in osundare’s poetrythat there is a relationship between the structure and the idea proposed in the form of repetition(okunowo, 2012, p. 716).it is in this regard that the current study offers to study bonte’s poetry for the sake of understanding the connection between a structure and an idea. methodology the present research focuses to analyze the style of emily bronte keeping in mind the notion of modern stylistics, which lies in the fact of foregrounding (carter & nash, 1990) in the light of the classification for the device of repetition as presented by leech (1969). the analyst studies the model objectively in terms of the linguistic levels of phonology, lexis and syntax. in terms of the interpretation the researcher keeps the notion of toolan (1990) and fish (1980). according to fish, the reader in the central figure in context of deriving meaning from a text. the meanings and effects are created through the reader in response to the contact with the text. the university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 41 text analysis is the poems of emily bronte, a little while, a little while, and come walk with meedited by clement shorter in 1908. objectives of the study 1. to specify the style of bronte’s poems in terms of the device of repetition. 2. to interpret the device of repetition with respect to the functional value it holds in the selected poems. research questions 1. what kinds of repetition, do operate in bronte’s poems? 2. what linguistic level, has the device of repetition been purposed? 3. what are the foregrounded effects of repetition? analysis free repetition free repetition is the reappearance of the words, structures or ideas. it is used for emphasis and special effects, according to the context of the poems. in rhetoric free repetition is further distinguished between immediate repetition or epizeuxis and intermittent repetition or polace (leech, 1969, p. 77). epizeuxis or immediate repetition the term ‘epizeuxis’, is originated from greek ‘epi’ which stands for the meaning of ‘upon’ and the other joint of the term, ‘zeugnunai’ conveys the meaning of, ‘to yoke’. in particular, epizeuxis is the recurrence of the same word or structure without the intervention of any other word or structure. it has the possibility of occurrence at any linguistic level like at the level of phonology, at the level of lexis and at the level of syntax (leech, 1969, p.78). at the level of syntax immediate repetition or epizeuxis at the level of syntax caters to the structure involved in the making of the poem as a whole. emily bronte implies this particular type of free repetition in the poem, a little while, a little while. “a little while, a little while” (1) (bronte, a little while, a little while, 1908, p. 51). with the repetitive patterns, in the above mentioned structure, the poet determines the importance of the respite from the cumbersome burden of worldly commitments. the construction also gives another notion that ‘a little ‘pause causes an immense joy to the poet, but there lies a sad aspect along with the happy one. the poet wants that break to stay longer. in this way, the construction of free repetition highlights three aspects of the poet; that of sadness, happiness and desire to have a recess. in the same stead, the kind of immediate repetitions used in the following example, which shows the poet taking rest in singing and in smiling. the immediacy of the structure also encompasses the immediacy of the desperate desire of having arrest in the delights of singing and smiling. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 42 likewise, the poet registers her ability repetitively by applying the auxiliary ‘can’, which again gives another meaning, that the poet has developed the quality of being patience with the circumstances. the use of ‘can’ also shows the hope of the poet. here again the many folded desires of the poet are made to appear in the use of this specific construction, that of having positivity in life, the singularity of experience and continuous and never ending phenomenon of pleasures as the very conjunction ‘and’ gives an insight of that fact. the poet needs recess in progression. “and i can sing and i can smile” (2) (bronte, a little while, a little while, 1908, p. 51). conversely, the use of the construction, like personal pronoun+ verb (auxiliary) in the examples; ‘i can sing’(3), ‘i can smell’, (4) ‘i have holidays’ (4), ‘i love them’ (20), ‘i mused’ (21), ‘i passed’ (24), ‘i knew’ (34), ‘i have lingered’ (37), ‘i stood’, (41), tell the reader about her paradise regained. therefore, here again threefold meanings are derived out of this construction, that of the poet’s faith in her, in action and the ability to take the challenges on her own. again in the poem, come walk with me, there is an instance of immediate repetition in the following line; come walk with me, come walk with me; (14) (bronte, come walk with me,1908, p. 212). the above given construction of immediate repetition exposes the desperate desire of the poet to culminate in the company of her companion. the construction of the line with the verbs ‘come’ and ‘walk’ also reveals the sizzling and scorching urge of fixing herself in some action. the immediacy of the repetitive structure shows how close, to her heart the desire of companionship is. polace or intermittent repetition the polace is the type of repetition which exists in a poem sporadically and spasmodically. it is the irregular reiteration of lexis and syntax (leech, 1969, p.77). in the first stanza, the use of ‘while’ in line 4, is ‘intermittent; whereas in line 1, it is regular and immediate. a little while, a little while, the weary task is put away, alike, while i have holiday \or alternatively ‘knew’ in the following stanza is yet another example of spasmodic repetition: that was the scene, i knew it well; i knew the turfy pathway's sweep university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 43 similarly the use of ‘so’ in stanza 4, l 15 -16 is an example of immediate repetition whereas in the repetition of ‘so’ in l 29 becomes intermittent or polace. a fuller description of polace at the level of lexis and syntax is given below. at the level of syntax in the poem, a little while, a little while,the poet uses this type of repetition at the level of syntax, to express the idea of being impressed by the attraction of the things which pamper her senses of feel, sight, taste, hearing to the fullest, as seen in the following example; ‘so longed for’ (16) ‘so clear’ (29) ‘so calm’ (29) ‘so sweet’(30) ‘so soft’ (30) ‘so hushed’(30) ‘so deep’ (42) (bronte, a little while, a little while, 1908, p. 51). therefore the indulgence of her senses in the positivity which she undergoes satiates her soul in a great depth and in intermission as the use of ‘so’ with the intermittent repetition declares her state of emotions in his particular way. she breathes in the space provided to her by the positive experience. here again the tripling of experience is showcased in terms of extreme enjoyment, the enchantment of her soul out of an extreme enjoyment and interruption of positive kind. the poet wants either to end in that experience or to end herself in it. the use of ‘ing’ form shows the continuity of experience. words like ‘sitting’ (17), ‘dripping’ (18),‘circling’(28),‘deepening’(31),’feeding’(32), ‘winding’(35), ‘wandering’(36), inform about the ongoing flow within the poet. here again we see that the use of this particular type of repetition shows that the experience of the poet is never ending. she wants to take respite in some positive experience she undergoes. at the level of lexis in the poem, a little while, a little while,the use of ‘i’ is seen almost 10 times in line 3,4,20,21,24,33,34,37,41. this denotes the singularity of the experience undergoes by the poet. the use of ‘the’ in the examples like ‘the weary task’ (2), ‘the dreary tempest’ (11), ‘the house’ (13), ‘the trees’ (13), ‘the hearth’ (16), ‘the mute’ (17), ‘the stone’ (17), ‘the dank moss’ (18), ‘the wall’ (18), ‘the thorn trees’(19), ‘the walks’ tell us about the uniqueness of the experience underwent by the poet. the word ‘weary’ in line 2 and 8 has been used in an intermittent way to tell us that this notion of tiresomeness is an overbearing emotional state in which the poet resides. the obsession of this weariness of that state is more dominant in the mind of the poet. the poet wants to take respite from it. the repetition of this particular kind describes that the poet is obsessed with it in recurrence and unable to get rid of it. this weariness has got stuck with her and university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 44 the poet experiences it time and again. the repetition of the lexis ‘while’ tells us another factor about the poet that for her, the zone of time is of greater importance. the repetitive use of ‘knew’ in line 33, 34 tells us about the surety of the fact that the poet has over the affairs of the world. another factor that the poet is a seasoned and experienced person; is smelled out of this repetition. in the poem, come walk with me, there is the intermittent repetition at the level of lexis as has been seen in the use of ‘and’ in line10, 25 and 30; and on the horizon rest at last and then revive anew? and surer than that dwelling dread, the use of ‘and’, in the above-mentioned example, again reveals never ending burning desire of the poet to have the company. conclusion the analysis shows that the poet makes the use of both types of free repetition for ‘foregrounding’ of meanings in different ways. she uses the intermittent kind more frequently than the immediate kind of repetition. given the definition and description of ‘foregrounding’ in carter & nash (1990), ‘repetition’and dominant forms of repetition ‘foreground’ special literary effects. however, as dominant form of repetition in emily bronte’s poems is ‘intermittent’ spread out across the entire poems instead of being clustered at any one point, it seems to form more of a ‘ background’ rather than ‘foreground’ and, the few examples of immediate repetition, are more ‘prominent’ and visible. immediate repetition of two examples foregrounds some meanings because of their position in the first line. in fact, the occurrence of ‘a little while’ in the very first line makes it doubly prominent. on the other hand, intermittent repetitions are used more at the level of lexis.it is used almost 5 times. the instances of intermittent repetition at the level of syntax are 2. still each one is significant in a different way. repetitions of words seem to gather some bits and pieces of emotional details, whereas syntactic repetitions gather ‘processes’ of natural phenomenon watched and observed by the poet. taken together they foreground the perceptions and state of mind of the poet. the intermittent repetition establishes a gentle current of emotions across the whole poems over which the immediate repetition adds occasional emphasis, insistence or outburst. finally, the analysis of the poems, a little while, a little while and come walk with mein terms of free repetition, along with its kinds, also reveals threefold use of repetitions. firstly, they are a poetic necessity. secondly they help express the poet’s personal emotions, perceptions. thirdly, they become symbols of a greater poetic self-seeking connection with social natural world in the universe. they are ‘tripartite’ in nature. this phenomenon of tripartitiy exists not only in terms of the use of linguistic items, but also in the making of the theme. she uses these verbal constructions to reveal the framework of her mindin three ways. she mainly shows her quest for mirth in the present moment or draws upon memories of past sorrows or joys to compare the present, or she hopes for future happiness in the future. this phenomenon makes her style tripartite. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 45 references cronin, r. (2002). a companion to victorian poetry(vol. 1st). oxford: blackwell publishers ltd. fish, s. (1980). what makes an interpretation acceptable? is there a text in this class? (pp. 338-355). london: harvard university press. freeman, c. (1970). linguistics and literary style. new york: holt, rinehart & winston. gezari, j. (2008). last things: emily brontë's poems.nineteenth-century literature, vol. 62, 546549. leech, g. n. (1969). a linguistic guide to english poetry. new york: longman group ltd. leech, g. &short, m. (2007). style in fiction _ a linguistics introduction to english fictional prose. u.k. pearson, longman. okunowo, y. (2012). patterns of parallelism as trope of meaning in osundare's poetry. academic research international, 2(2), 716. short, m. (1996). exploring the language of poems, plays, and prose. harlow: longman. shorter, c. (1908). the complete poems of emily bronte (vol. 1). london: hodder & stoughton. simpson, p. (2004). stylistics: a resource book for students. london: routledge taylor and francis. toolan, m. (1990). the stylistics of fiction: aliterary linguistic approach. london: routledge. w. nash. &r. carter. (1980). seeing through language: a guide to styles of english writing. british: t.g. press ltd. widdowson, h. (1975). stylistics and the teaching of literature. london: longman. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 43 bacon’s “envy”: an evaluation of punctuation muhammad waqar ali phd scholar (linguistics) and lecturer at the department of english islamia college peshawar abstract punctuation plays a pivotal role in enhancing comprehensibility of a text. it not only abolishes ambiguity from the text but also adorns the individual style of the author. this paper analyses bacon’s essay “envy” evaluating the aberrant use of punctuation to understand its impact on holistic comprehension of the essay. bacon has deviated in some punctuation marks in different situations. most deviations occur in the use of the comma and the semicolon. the least deviations occur in the use of the period. two explanations may be inferred from the analysis: first, what seems to be deviant in this regard was normal in his time; second, he deviates on purpose to make the long, complex sentence clear and easy for the reader. keywords: punctuation, bacan’s envy, deviation, comma, semicolon i punctuation is an important tool for bringing clarity into composition. it guides readers where to pause and for how much time. does a sentence manifest surprise or ask a question? such questions can be answered only with the help of punctuation marks. as it is believed that “[p]roper punctuation lends a precision to your writing, gives it clarity, conveys to your reader exactly the meaning you intend” (reader’s digest 338). “punctuation can make the difference between the understanding of communication… and the absence of that understanding” (reader’s digest 338). punctuation marks “can make all the difference in whether your writing makes a favourable or unfavourable impression on others” (reader’s digest 337). apart from ensuring clarity and comprehension of a composition and leaving a positive or negative impression, punctuation becomes an identity marker for writers due to their peculiar and at times individualised uses of punctuation marks. punctuation is given great importance in formal writing; however, there are a few people, like e. e. cummings, who do not pay much heed to punctuation. still, its importance cannot be denied even in literary compositions. men of letters have different writing styles, at times very peculiar and individual. writing style of an author may include many elements such as diction, structures of sentence and paragraphs, cohesive devices, coherence, organization of content and punctuation. ii this paper is an attempt to analyse bacon’s use of punctuation in his essay “envy”. bacon, as an essayist and prose writer, is famous for his aphoristic and rhetorical style. his essays are full of wisdom, and he is one of the most quoted english authors (deepak). his essays are studied from university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 44 thematic perspective. or sometimes they are analysed for different literary features of style or choice of diction, but little has been said about his use of punctuation; therefore, an attempt is being made to analyse and understand his use of punctuation. here, the intention is not to evaluate every instance of using every punctuation mark; instead, the focus of the paper is to analyse deviations from rules in the use of punctuation and impact of such aberrations on holistic comprehension of the essay. the first and foremost punctuation mark that needs consideration is the period. the period is one of the three end punctuation marks that indicate the end of the sentence. it is placed at the end of declarative or imperative sentences. since the period is a sentence ending punctuation mark, there is not much deviation found in this essay. only once bacon has used the period anomalously in the fifteenth paragraph: “now, to speak of public envy. 1” (par. 15). this quotation is not a complete sentence because it lacks the basic requirement of a sentence—having at least one independent clause that comprises of subject and predicate. therefore, it might be called a fragment, not a sentence. so using a full stop here is an aberration as per the rules of formal writing, and the comma is more pertinent instead; however, men of letters have their peculiar writing styles characterised with some deviant uses of punctuation: e. e. cummings is the most recent example. these deviations adorn originality in bacon’s style. the next in importance lies the colon. the colon has a few uses in formal writing; primarily, it functions as an introducer. hult and huckin, in the new century handbook, believe that the colon announces “details related in some way to the statement. these details may be a list of items, a quotation, an appositive, or an explanatory statement” (786). further, fowler and aaron state that “a colon is always preceded by a complete main clause…. a colon may or may not be followed by a main clause” (477). in other words, it cannot introduce a series of items that are the direct objects of a preposition or verb. iii bacon employs the colon very sparingly in this essay. there are very few (to be more accurate only two) aberrant uses of the colon. the first use of the colon occurs in the very first paragraph: “for that sets an edge upon envy: and besides, at such times the spirits of the person envied do come forth most into the outward parts, and so meet the blow” (par. 1). as discussed earlier, the colon functions as an introducer, introducing a series, an appositive or an explanatory clause; in the quoted example the clause following the colon qualifies to none of the functions. this clause is an independent clause since it starts with a coordinating conjunction, and the semicolon—not the colon—is an appropriate punctuation mark to set off elements of equal importance. bacon may have used the colon instead of the semicolon to abate the importance of the previous clause, “for that sets an edge upon envy” (par. 1) since this clause states the result of preceding clause, and he 1 used the period within quotation marks intentionally to discuss this use of the period. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 45 equates the clause starting with the words “and besides” with the first main clause of the sentence in importance. in this case, the full stop may be more appropriate than the colon. the second aberrant use of the colon occurs in paragraph 10: “concerning those that are more or less subject to envy: first, persons of eminent virtue, when they are advanced, are less envied” (par. 10). the use of the word “first” indicates that the colon introduces a series; however, this paragraph discusses only first type of persons. the next type, “persons of noble birth” (par. 11), is discussed in the next paragraph without explicit mention of the word ‘second’. since this sentence does not enumerate all the items of series closely one after another, the full stop (period) may have been more apt than the colon. for the third time, bacon employs the colon in the last paragraph of the essay: “…and therefore it was well said, invidia festos dies non agit: for it is ever working upon some or other” (par. 18). this use of the colon is according to the rules of punctuation marks because the clause following the colon explains the latin expression in italics. so, this is not a deviation from the norm of punctuation. the next punctuation mark that bacon has employed in his peculiar way is the semicolon. the semicolon indicates greater pause than a comma does and has a few functions in formal writing. it is used to separate independent clauses (when they are not joined by coordinating conjunction), long items of series and before conjunctive adverbs (hult & huckin; fowler & aaron). in the first paragraph there is one instance of semicolon that appears to be a deviation from the norm. in this instance, bacon employs a semicolon to separate a dependant clause from the main clause: they both have vehement wishes; they frame themselves readily into imaginations and suggestions; and they come easily into the eye, especially upon the presence of the objects; which are the points that conduce to fascination, if any such thing there be. (par. 1) in this example, the first two semicolons separate independent clauses. the second semicolon is used before a coordinating conjunction (i.e. and); however, here semicolon is justified because a comma may have confused the third independent clause with the phrase included in the same clause. moreover, the sentence includes a series of independent clauses, and this legitimises the use of semicolon. now, the problem lies in the third use of semicolon which precedes the subordinating conjunction “which” (par. 1). a semicolon does not connect two unequal structures. in this case, bacon deviates from the standard practice of punctuation. in this essay, the use of semicolon, instead of the comma, to set off independent clauses in compound sentences is very common (pars. 1-3). one reason for such a use may be that the sentences comprise of multiple independent clauses, which are at times structurally lengthy as well. bacon’s use of semicolon for setting off two unequal structures of a sentence is not limited to subordinate clauses only. there are some more sentential elements which in fact require a comma university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 46 but are separated by a semicolon. in paragraph 6, there is one instance in which bacon employs a semicolon to separate a participle clause though a comma is felicitous in such a case: for he that cannot possibly mend his own case will do what he can to impair another’s; except these defects light upon a very brave and heroical nature, which thinketh to make his natural wants part of his honor; in that it should be said, that an eunuch, or a lame man, did such great matters; affecting the honor of a miracle; as it was in narses the eunuch, and agesilaus and tamberlanes, that were lame men. (par. 6) in this sentence, larger sentential elements which include commas are separated by semicolon— which is one of the uses of semicolon (reader's digest); however, the semicolon employed before the word “affecting” sets off a participle clause, deviating from the norm. this clause is not equal to the preceding one in importance; instead, the latter is subordinate to the former. another aberration in the use of semicolon occurs in the very next paragraph (par. 7) of the essay wherein bacon separates the second verb of compound predicate by a semicolon: “for they are as men fallen out with the times; and think other men’s harms a redemption of their own sufferings” (par. 7). next, paragraph 8 witnesses another aberrant use of the semicolon. in this instance, the sentence comprises of two subordinate clauses, lacking an independent clause: “which was the character of adrian the emperor; that mortally envied poets and painters and artificers, in works wherein he had a vein to excel” (par. 8). so, according to standard practice of written english, such a structure may be called a fragment rather than a sentence. that discussed, there are many other instances of bacon’s anomalous use of the semicolon. further discussion of the same may result in reiteration, nothing more. another important punctuation mark is the comma. the comma is mostly used punctuation mark in writing with its multiple functions. hult and huckin write that “ commas are used essentially to interrupt the flow of a sentence, to set off certain parts of it and thereby enhance the sentence’s readability” (767). the comma can be used for many functions; however, the most important one is to set off nonessential elements of a clause or a sentence. first deviant use of the comma occurs in paragraph 2 wherein bacon uses the comma to introduce a list of clauses: “…we will handle, what persons are apt to envy others; what persons are most subject to be envied themselves; and what is the difference between public and private envy” (par. 2). here, the use of the comma appears to be inappropriate because it is not used for introducing a series or list; instead, it can set off items of a list. therefore, a normal structure of the quotation may require omission of the comma and replacement of the semicolon with the comma in the following instances of this sentence. or the expression preceding the comma may be developed into a complete main clause and the list of clauses may be preceded by the colon. next two instance of the aberrant use of the comma occur in the second paragraph. in the following sentence, the comma separates subject from predicate: “a man that hath no virtue in himself, ever envieth virtue in others” (par. 3). as a rule, the comma is not used to separate the subject of the clause from its university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 47 predicate because the comma is used to enhance readability of the sentence by setting off nonessential elements of the same, not the essential elements of it. another sentence that is worth discussing is from the sixth paragraph: “deformed persons, and eunuchs, and old men, and bastards, are envious” (par. 6). primarily, peculiarity does not lie in the use of comma, rather it lies in the use of conjunction ‘and’. bacon employs the word ‘and’ with every item of list in compound subject. one reading of such a use may suggest that the repetition of ‘and’ is for the sake of creating greater pause in reading to accentuate the idea of the sentence. nevertheless, the last comma preceding the predicate of the sentence seems unnecessary since it sets off the subject from its predicate. in the next example, bacon has used the comma to separate the subordinate clause from the main clause: “cain’s envy was the more vile and malignant towards his brother abel, because when his sacrifice was better accepted there was no body to look on” (par. 9). usually, the comma sets off the dependent clause from the independent if the former precedes the latter in position; if the dependent clause follows the independent one, the comma is not required to separate the two except in case the dependent clause is nonessential one. in the aforementioned case, the dependent clause is not nonessential one because it provides the reason for the preceding part of the sentence. therefore, the comma is not required here to set off the two parts of the sentence. formal writing requires that when there are only two elements in the compound predicate of a clause, the comma is not needed to separate the two. bacon has aberrantly used the comma in the following clause: “for men think that they earn their honors hardly, and pity them sometimes (par. 12). the comma is not required in this clause because when the two independent clause have the same subject, the subject of the latter clause may be omitted leaving the coordinating conjunction in place. more importantly, the comma is to be omitted in such cases. bacon is not only deviant in using the comma where it is not required but is also aberrant in not using the comma where it is by rule required. such an aberration is found in the fourteenth paragraph wherein bacon writes: “lastly, to conclude this part; as we said in the beginning…” (par.14). here, the semicolon is not relevant punctuation mark since it sets off a phrase from a clause, which is not the function of the semicolon. a phrase might be better separated through the comma than the semicolon. parenthetical or nonessential expressions can be set off from the rest of a statement by three different punctuation marks: dashes, commas and parenthesis. however, they do not carry equal intensity of importance. quirk and greenbaum, in this regard, state that “[p]arentheses subordinate more definitely than commas, and dashes are particularly suitable for informal ‘asides’” (460). similarly, fowler and aaron in the little, brown handbook state that dashes give the greatest emphasis, whereas parentheses are the least emphatic. bacon has used parentheses at three places in his essay “envy”. first use of parentheses occurs in paragraph 2. in the first instance, parentheses are preferred to commas are dashes because the expression written within the parentheses interrupts the major thought or idea of the clause and is least relevant to the same. moreover, commas may have overloaded the sentence with one type of university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 48 punctuation mark since the sentence already carries too many commas. likewise, dashes are not felicitous here, for they are used either with informal asides or for emphasis. for the second time he uses parentheses in paragraph 13. here again, bacon puts nonessential comment in parentheses to manifest that the remark is only interruptive and not necessary for understanding main thought of the clause. another instance of parentheses that is worth mentioning occurs in paragraph 17. in this instance the words “though hidden” interrupt the actual statement: “then the envy … is truly upon the state itself” (par. 17). the parenthetical expression here functions as aside; it is not indispensable for the understanding of actual sentence. bacon employs parentheses where his major thought is interposed. apart from these deviations, bacon has deviated in the use of quotation marks. according to punctuation rules, quotation from other source are to be cited within quotation marks. bacon employs a quotation from the bible (mathew 13:25): “the envious man, that soweth tares amongst the wheat by night” (par. 18). instead of using quotation marks, bacon cites the quotation in italics. similarly, he uses italics for all latin expressions. this may be a common practice in the days of bacon to write everything in italics which is not of the author because there thorough consistency in this regard. iv the above discussion leads to a conclusion that bacon’s use of punctuation marks, in majority cases, is in accordance with the norms of formal writing. he adheres to standard practice of punctuation, and the same compliance with the rules brings balance in the structure of his sentences, resulting in parallel structures and antithesis. this balance results in creation of aphoristic and proverbial statements memorised by thousands of people. despite his mastery over punctuation marks, bacon’s essay carries a considerable number of aberrations in the use of punctuation marks. some of the deviations may be ascribed to history because language functions as a living organism and some minor alterations in the use of punctuation may occur due to temporal factor, and some uses that seem to be aberrant today may be normal in the days of bacon. another aspect of these deviant uses is that in some cases it is inevitable due to his writing very long sentences wherein using complex punctuation is necessary to enhance readability of the sentence. nevertheless, the complex use of punctuation may be avoided with simple revision of the sentences. in some instances, he intentionally creates a greater pause for reader to avoid ambiguity in reading by deviating from normal use of punctuation marks. that said, bacon is still a great prose writer. despite all the aberrations and deviations in the use of punctuation marks, this is still a great essay—full of wisdom. these anomalies do not belittle his stature as a great prose writer and father of modern prose. works cited deepak, kashyap. literarism: the republic of letters. 20 april 2011. web. 28 august 2017. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 49 fowler, h. ramsey and jane e. aaron. the little, brown handbook. 10th. boston: pearson custom publishing, 2007. hult, a. christine and thomas n. huckin. the new century handbook. new york: longman, 2002. print. quirk, randolph and sidney greenbaum. a universtiy grammar of english. harlow: longman, 1973. print. reader's digest. write better, speak better. hong kong: south china printing co., 2000. print. the holy bible, new king james version. wisconsin: national publishing company, 1983. print. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 23 analysis of pakistan’s national curriculum for english: a learner-centered ideology perspective kamran akhtar siddiqui lecturer in english, sukkur iba university, sukkur, pakistan kamran.akhtar@iba-suk.edu.pk abstract curriculum is said to be the blueprint that lays down not only educational goals but also the ways to attain those goals. the blueprint is highly ideologically influenced and this is reflected in the goals set by the developers of the curriculum. the national curriculum for english published in pakistan in 2006 is considered an updated document with contribution from all key stakeholders; however, the literature on curriculum studies lacks any study that has been carried out to understand its ideological nature. hence, the purpose of this study is to analyze the national english curriculum from a learner-centered ideological perspective. use qualitative methods to close reading of the document was done to carefully find useful excerpts of the text and label according to the purpose of the study. the results show that the curriculum follows the learner-centered ideology in terms of subject matter, content knowledge, teaching process and the role of students and teachers. however, in terms of assessment, it follows a traditional approach. the study concluded that the assessment part of the curriculum needs to follow a more formative and innovative assessment approach to make the document more learnercentric in nature. moreover, the study puts forward a few recommendations with respect to the training of teachers, the provision of guidance strategies for teachers, and the allocation of more proportions for formative assessments. keywords: curriculum, curriculum ideology, learner-centered ideology. introduction countries attain their long-term goals in the field of education and through the field of education using curriculum as a road map. each curriculum is based on certain beliefs and concepts that form the ideology of curriculum. the four main curriculum ideologies that schiro (2008) introduced are scholar academic ideology, social efficiency ideology, learner-centered ideology and social reconstruction ideology. ministry of education, pakistan has also developed a curriculum for english much like other subjects taught and studied in pakistan. english is the most important curriculum of all because english is not only the lingua-franca of the world but also the official language of pakistan (shamim, 2008). although the revised english curriculum published in 2006 is claimed to be an up-to-date document, no study confirms its learner-centred nature. therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the national curriculum for english (grade i-xii) from a learner-centered ideological perspective. this study debates that the curriculum under study is developed from the perspective of learnercentered ideology, because it focuses on individual skills development, making meaning through experience, application of cooperative activities, the role of teachers as facilitators and the role of vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 24 students as active learners. however, in terms of assessment, it does not meet this ideological point of view. purpose of the study this study aims at analyzing pakistan’s national curriculum for english (grade i-xii) from the lens of learner centered ideology. significance of the study this study is important for the entire research community, especially for researchers who examine the curriculum from an ideological perspective. the study is also important for curriculum developers and researchers in pakistan as these findings may guide them in tailoring the english curriculum or that of any other subject according to learner-centered ideology. literature review curriculum and curriculum ideology narrowly speaking, curriculum is deemed as a catalogue of subjects and content to be taught in an academic environment. more broadly, the curriculum is the sum of an individual's learning experience not only at school but also in society (ozar, 1994). moreover, several educational goals and objectives are achieved through curriculum (su, 2012). each country designs curricula according to its needs (social, political, religious and other). therefore, the curriculum is a set of norms on which society depends for survival and continuation (egan, 1978). when these norms and beliefs become part of the curriculum, the curriculum ideology develops. curriculum ideology is described as "personal beliefs about what educational institutions should teach, for what purpose and for what reason" (slethaug, 2007). moreover, schiro (2008) terms “objectives of education as curriculum ideologies”. curriculum ideologies each curriculum is influenced by certain ideologies. curriculum ideology is a special belief in the content of educational institutions: the purpose, methods and ways of teaching content and the reasons why the content of teaching is useful (slethaug, 2007). ideology about curriculum "refers to the general philosophy and educational field that support curriculum descriptive theory" (farahani & maleki, 2014). taking a leaf from the book “topic specialized curricula” by talebzadeh nobarin, m. & fathi vajargah, k. (2002), the ideology of the curriculum can be seen as a set of principles for determining the decision-making needs in the field of education. schiro (2008) proposed four curriculum ideologies and developed a questionnaire through which one could judge the curriculum ideologies (marulcu & akbiyik, 2014). these curriculum ideologies can be divided into four types: scholar academic ideology, social efficiency ideology, social reconstruction ideology and learner centered ideology. according to mnguni (2013), schiro also stated that every curriculum ideology possesses particular features that relate to the aim of the subject, content knowledge, and the instructional process, the role of the students, the role of teachers, and assessment. scholar academic ideology this ideology points out that over the years, people have accumulated a wealth of knowledge and divided it into different disciplines which novice learners must learn as it is. the ultimate goal of vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 25 this idea is to extend the accumulated knowledge to new learners. this is designed to foster a new culture for individuals; therefore, it is done on a cultural and personal level (marulcu & akbiyik, 2014). social efficiency ideology proponents of this curriculum ideology argue that the curriculum must be used as a tool for creating such members of society who contribute to society in many different ways and thus can meet the needs of society (marulcu & akbiyik, 2014). this isas they call itscientific instrumentalism meaning use of curriculum as a scientific instrument. schiro (2008) states that the "curriculum developers in the field of social efficiency ideology “have supreme faith in the ability of education, through the medium of curriculum, to educate students to understand the nature of their society in such a way that they will develop a vision of a better society, and then act so as to bring that vision into existence”. social reconstruction ideology this ideology is curriculum from a social point of view. it stated that society was weak and had many “problems of our society and the injustices done to its members, such as those originating from racial, gender-based, social, and economic inequalities”(farahani & maleki, 2014), and that there was an urgent need to rebuild it. teachers and students are active drivers of this change, as structural change begins with the remodeling of the classroom environment, which reshapes the tenderness of the children. this remodeling can help students envision society in a different, better way. therefore they can create a world around them which is fair and equitable (schiro, 2008). learner centered ideology the idea is to provide a more enjoyable learning environment to children, in which teachers create meaningful experiences and students learn socially and interactively. schiro points out that children have innate abilities and the potential to learn new things (farahani & maleki, 2014). since pakistan's national english curriculum is being analysed from a learner-centered ideological perspective, it will be discussed in detail in the following paragraphs. research shows that learner-centered ideology "is a phenomenon that puts learners at the center." the learner-centered ideology emphasizes that education must help students develop skills and abilities. according to proponents of this ideology, the main objective of the theme is to realize the potential of children (taylor, bogdan, & devault, 2015). according to ahmed (2010), performance of students is best when they do what they like the most. the learner-centered ideological advocates argue that knowledge is the sum of the meanings that children create through experience and interaction with peers, textbooks and mentors. therefore, the main task of educators is to carefully create that environment to encourage children to grow up during the meaning construction process. for them, the locus of whole teaching process is the child, and his growth should be the ultimate goal of learning. they think children are an active part of the class and the role of teacher is limited to being a facilitator. assessment is more formational and subjective. this means that a child's continual progress can be tracked and tested in specific areas that he already has mastered. this means that the goal of education can be seen vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 26 as a scaffolding that helps people develop their natural abilities that, later on, can be applied in future actions. pakistan’s national curriculum for english following considerable efforts and consultations with all stakeholders, the main policy document, the national curriculum for english was launched in 2006 (ministry of education, 2006). the new curriculum was introduced because the previous english curriculum was criticized for being outdated and teacher-centered. this document provides comprehensive guidance for english teaching throughout pakistan from grades 1 to 12. it provides for the integration of all language components and identifies strategies for developing all areas and skills of english. from the perspective of curriculum developers, the updated english curriculum not only outlines knowledge acquisition, but also emphasizes language skills to ensure the overall development of learners. as a result, the curriculum focuses primarily on developing learners' communication skills and “focuses on teaching language instead of teaching about the language”(jadoon, chishti, afzaal, & afzal, 2020). this clearly implies that the national english curriculum was drafted under the influence of a learner-centered ideology. although studies have been conducted in the past to examine the links between the abovementioned curriculum and the classroom syllabus (jabreel asghar, 2014) and to analyze the document from cognitive strategy instruction perspective (jamil asghar & butt, 2018), the literature lacks any empirical research to prove that the national english curriculum is consistent with a learner-centered ideology. therefore, this paper contributes to the literature by analyzing the national english curriculum (levels i to xii) from a learner-centered ideological perspective, and reports its theoretical nature. research question to what extent pakistan’s national curriculum for english aligns with learner-centered ideology? methodology qualitative methods were used to analyze pakistan’s national curriculum for english. qualitative methods help to better interpret ideas because they allow researchers to interpret them without any restrictions. (taylor et al., 2015). the text was closely read and was evaluated from a learnercentered ideological perspective, and the interpretations were made. in order to analyze the curriculum from the said perspective, curriculum analysis inventory by schiro (2008) was employed which comprised six open-ended questions (table 1) and was used as analysis guide. table 1 a tool used for studying components of the national curriculum for english (adapted from schiro, 2008). purpose of analysis of english curriculum data open-ended questions for analysis of curriculum vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 27 to analyze its contents from learner centered ideology national curriculum for english language a) what is the aim of the curriculum? b) what kind of knowledge is prescribed in the curriculum? c) how is learning supposed to take place? d) what is the nature and the role of students in the learning process? e) what is the role of teachers during instruction? f) what is the purpose of assessment? findings and discussion the results show that pakistan's national curriculum for english largely reflects the learnercentered thinking. the author has tried to identify themes as well as sub themes of ideology. aim of the subject according to the learner-centered ideology, the aim of the subject should be to help students reach their full potential so that they can create personal meanings and respond creatively to life experiences. the curriculum analyzed is also designed with an aim to equip learners with academic and practical skills so that they can complete their studies and develop their careers after graduation from school (ministry of education, 2006). in addition, learner-centered ideology suggests that children use their own experiences to create meaning and form their own knowledge. this means that students will be involved in real-life situations so that they can combine learning with reallife life. the curriculum under study also focuses on enabling students to experience different reallife situations and use language in context, rather than learning the language themselves (ministry of education, 2006). instructional process the learning-centered ideology keeps learners at the center of learning in the instructional process, thus, it focuses on the growth of learners. the national curriculum for english also seems to follow this ideological teaching process. the curriculum points out that the structure and integration of the learning process lies in the student's ability to achieve competencies "through a spiral progression" and that the main focus should be on mastering the language rather than the content. activities must also be designed to enable students to access information and ideas through listening and reading, and to communicate through spoken language and writing, so all four skills must be integrated. it also proposes strategies such as discussions, role-playing, presentations and projects, cooperative learning, and more to keep learners active and central point of the process. role of students and teachers according to the learner-centered ideology, the learner is active in the learning process, and the teacher considers them as they are. the implied meaning of the ideology here is that there are vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 28 differences in learning style, nature, background, etc. of learners. the role of a teacher is described as a role of a facilitator that stimulates student diversity and creates an environment for children to interact. in short, students should be active and teachers should supervise classroom activities. pakistan's national curriculum for english treats learners as poor and therefore emphasizes that students should be provided with "formal opportunities to learn the language” which are outlined in this well-thought-out and organized curriculum (ministry of education, 2006). it also discusses the design and use of activities in the classroom that not only allow students to interact with each other, but also correct each other's mistakes through peer correction (ministry of education, 2006). it also noted that such an environment should be provided "to suit the different interests, abilities and learning styles of students" (ministry of education, 2006, p158). this suggests that the course discusses and highlights one of the four cs of the 21st century. assessment assessment as per learner centered ideology is done to diagnose the students’ abilities to facilitate their growth. tools like portfolio, teachers notes, teachers ‘diaries, developmental checklist, learning logs and generals are used. this implies that assessment is formative and subjective, as each learner learns at his or her own pace and needs. the assessment part in the curriculum, on the other hand, is dominated by summary evaluation tools, such as selected constructs to answer questions, essay questions, performance tasks (e.g. projects), etc. (ministry of education, 2006). the results of the analysis show that pakistan's national curriculum for english tends to be a learner-centered in its ideological nature as discussed by (schiro, 2008). however, it lacks the quality of a developed learner-centered curriculum. first, it does not allow learners much space to define their learning goals, which in the long run will not develop their personal abilities. students must have some freedom to choose their learning goals or design courses under the guidance of their teachers in order to make learning more inclusive and engaging. second, stakeholders should use this curriculum as a reference (ministry of education, 2006); this means that teachers can use this document as a guide for teaching purposes. conversely, the sad thing about the story is that they are not sufficiently trained to properly intervene based on the curriculum to alter student's experience. as jadoon et al. (2020) report that teachers lack adequate training to cope with the revised curriculum and therefore can only rely on their previous experience. based on these findings, this study provides some recommendations. recommendations teachers should receive preand on-the-job training so that they are familiar with their roles and how to play them. in this regard, certain teaching strategies must be shared with teachers, who are unable to explore them on their own for a variety of reasons, particularly the lack of ict skills. in view of the inefficiency of teachers’ curriculum understanding, curriculum development under teacher guidance and learner autonomy become distant goals. third, the final results should be based on a formative assessment and should provide descriptive feedback so that learners can trace their progress. conclusion in summary, it is noted that the pakistan’s national curriculum for english focuses on learners' skills development, integrating their learning into the environment through cooperative activities, vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 29 and that the role of teachers has changed from sages on stage to facilitators and roles of learners from passive learners in the classroom to active learners. however, traditional assessment tools, such as constructed answer questions, paper questions, and other methods used for final assessment reflect the learner-centered ideology in the document that needs to be improved. therefore, rather than making drastic changes in the current national curriculum for english, some changes should be made in the field of assessment to bring classroom learning into keeping with assessment practices. references ahmed, a. h. (2010). students’ problems with cohesion and coherence in efl essay writing in egypt: different perspectives. literacy information and computer education journal (licej), 1(4), 211-221. asghar, j. (2014). review of reading goals in the national curriculum of english language (grades 11-12) in pakistan. academic research international, 5(3), 292. asghar, j., & butt, m. i. (2018). a critique of national curriculum for english language in pakistan: proposing cognitive strategy instruction for elt. kashmir journal of language research, 21(1). egan, k. (1978). what is curriculum? curriculum inquiry, 8(1), 65-72. farahani, m. f., & maleki, m. (2014). a survey on tendency toward curriculum ideologies among academic board members in educational sciences faculties–tehran 2010–11. procediasocial and behavioral sciences, 116, 2392-2396. jadoon, a. u. r., chishti, m. i., afzaal, m., & afzal, t. (2020). challenges faced by newly inducted teachers implementing revised english curriculum in pakistan. english language teaching, 13(7), 52-66. marulcu, i., & akbiyik, c. (2014). curriculum ideologies: re-exploring prospective teachers' perspectives. international journal of humanities and social science, 4(5), 1. ministry of education, government of pakistan. (2006). national curriculum for english language grades i – xii. retrieved from http://bisep.com.pk/downloads/curriculum/grades-ixii/pk_al_eng_2006_eng.pdf mnguni, l. (2013). the curriculum ideology of the south african secondary school biology. south african journal of education, 33(2). ozar, l. a. (1994). creating a curriculum that works: a guide to outcomes-centered curriculum decision-making: eric. schiro, m. s. (2008). schiro, michael stephen, curriculum theory: conflicting visions and enduring concerns. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, 2008. shamim, f. (2008). trends, issues and challenges in english language education in pakistan. asia pacific journal of education, 28(3), 235-249. slethaug, g. e. (2007). teaching abroad: international education and the cross-cultural classroom (vol. 1): hong kong university press. su, s.-w. (2012). the various concepts of curriculum and the factors involved in curriculamaking. journal of language teaching & research, 3(1). taylor, s. j., bogdan, r., & devault, m. (2015). introduction to qualitative research methods: a guidebook and resource: john wiley & sons. http://bisep.com.pk/downloads/curriculum/grades-i-xii/pk_al_eng_2006_eng.pdf http://bisep.com.pk/downloads/curriculum/grades-i-xii/pk_al_eng_2006_eng.pdf vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 30 @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). satire and realism in jane austen’s pride and prejudice: an interpretative analysis aziz ahmad assistant professor ,department of english, university of malakand azizuom@yahoo.com dr. tariq khan assistant professor, department of english, university of malakand tariqkhan1975@gmail.com naseer ahmad m. phil scholar. islamic international university naseerqazi7@gmail.com abstract jane austen is acknowledged for the application of realism and satire in her novels. this paper focuses on the analysis of realism and satire in jane austen’s pride and prejudice; however, her entire oeuvre spotlights the features (of satire and realism) alongside robust feminism: typical of her literary taste and temperament, not necessarily of the romantic age which she lived in. rigorous analysis and realistic observation reveals that the employment of realism and satire in pride and prejudice, are quite obvious, in all sorts of aspects including narrative, settings, themes and characters. analysis of the novel under study leads to the observation that satire and realism go hand in hand in the said novel—intermittently—and thoughtfully. conclusively, it is observed that jane austen’s literary life had a tremendous influence on how to subsume realism (primarily through matrimonies) of age and satire on a romantic society (whereby ideals collapse headlong), in pride and prejudice. key words: novel, romantic age, satire, irony, realism, jane austen. introduction the novel, pride and prejudice (1813), revolves around the main and repeated themes of pride and prejudice. the two main characters, mr. darcy and elizabeth bennett, represent these two facades of the novel realistically and sarcastically. mr. darcy does not realise how these traits bear upon his character adversely though he is well aware of the presence of these qualities. elizabeth’s statement “... had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner” castigates him. contrariwise, elizabeth does not know her quality of discerning people’s character has grown into pride. consequently, she becomes prejudiced against mr darcy. she feels it her insult to know that the traits of pride and prejudice are present in her personality. she never expected to possess these qualities. such anomalies in the novel lead to irony of situation which further highlights the title, vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663 1512 , issn (p): 2617 3611 13 vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663 1512 , issn (p): 2617 3611 the main themes in the novel, the social relationship between men and women, and stabilises the issues of pride and prejudice. the sarcasm disparages traditional and conventional social hierarchal structure of romantic age and underscores the perception that jane austin is a realist in the context of the novel under study. the realism maybe seen in the issues of status and class, the fall of the old aristocracy, the gentry and the yeomanry, the capitalist system, the eternal fight of reason against fancy, the moral issues, match-making (not as a consequence of love, but as a way to assure social and financial security), and women’s role in a society with delicate manoeuvring. literature review: an overview in her novels, jane austen abundantly uses satire and realism. on close observation, it becomes evident that she has ridiculed the derogatory attitude of society towards women, though she has shown support for the patriarchal values. some of the features used in writing of this novel are contrast, irony, and the devices used such as letters. the realism created by these features enhances and addresses the issues of the period and through this the main themes in the novel. hatfield opines that in the 18th century novel, jane austen epitomises unison of satire and realism (p.286). satire, realism and novel, before the romantic age, were regarded opposite genres because satire was considered to represent traditional value, whereas novel compiled recent values. however, hatfield argues that realism and satire in the due course assimilate into novel. satirically realistic compositions developed into the novel by 18th century. the satirist contemporaries of jane austen were also presents with the romantic age novelist (pp.284-85). the remarks are elucidated by austen’s writings, which are related seldom to the age of satire (neo-classical age) and augustan realism rather than a novelist of romantic age. sherry argues that realism and irony are employed to deal with many facets of pride and prejudice e.g. settings, plot and characters (p.611). in addition, it is inferred by sherry that irony dressed in realism is among the significant features in the development of the plot of the novel. sherry describes how both (irony and realism) overshadow the interface among the characters and create prospects for the plot to unfold, simultaneously making fun of the conventional social system present in the novel (pp.614-16). in fact, hatfield cited from paulson and described “pride and prejudice” as a satire sublimated’ ” (p.286). likewise, counts argues that some scholars believe the use of irony in austen’s novels as a modus operandi to realism and free style of narration (p.31). furthermore, count opines that the amalgamation of these tools generates possibilities for austen to reconsider communal and individual notions, a trending subject of debate among researchers who investigate austen’s work (p.31). undeniably, tuite, states that austen’s irony and her essential sarcastic beliefs serve not to resolve the societal milieu revealed in her novels, but to assault the characteristically prized notion of class, she considers as ‘snobbery’ (pp. 4-5). tuite makes a treasured opinion visible in nearly 14 vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663 1512 , issn (p): 2617 3611 all of austen’s novels. subjects like gender and class portrays jane austen’s association to realism which is unified in the work of fiction (p.10). according to mudrick, the use of satire in pride and prejudice serves as a means to differentiate social stereotypes, and unique and individual characters. it is claimed that satire is an aspect of elizabeth’s character which helps her in making her insights (pp.120-125). the story is chiefly found through elizabeth’s judgements. her ironical behaviour distinguishes elizabeth from other characters in the novel, demonstrating her capacity to reflect on her preferences, while other characters predictably restricted their options. in some cases, they intentionally opt not to notice it because of their gender and class. mudrick’s argument is, further, cemented that satire is employed to differentiate between an eccentric character, like elizabeth, and characters that lack will and function as the embodiments of social stereotypes, like mr. collins and charlotte lucas (pp.12324). brown deviates from the common opinion about pride and prejudice as a satirical work and declares the novel as an ironic comedy (p.37). brown perceives the novel as a comedy prevalent with sarcasm with qualities that accomplish the comic novel requirements. one such quality is that the main female character should realize the world around her and acknowledge it the way it is. the hopelessness caused by this realization is temporary. this is illustrated in the story when her mother and family almost ruin the chances of marriage for elizabeth. they did not behave appropriately. however, a joyful ending comes with mr darcy’s second proposal of marriage. nonetheless, in satirical realism stories, the hopelessness is severe and merciless (pp.38, 42-43). in brief, heroine is the differentiating element between satirical realism and ironic comedy, and in pride and prejudice, elizabeth fulfils the requirement of poignant farce. nevertheless, brown agrees with the rest of the academics that jane austen uses irony, commenting likewise to counts that austen uses irony to express realism, especially through description to include information which is otherwise not possible for characters due to their limited, restricted, and almost missing inactive observation (pp.25-26). like mudrick, brown also observes irony as a tool to discern between the general public and individuals, and illustrates that the most elementary kind of irony has been displayed by the opening line. the readers can feel this irony throughout the story of the novel and maybe able to appreciate it as such (p.26). significance of paper the study is significant in highlighting the hidden meanings and values within the text. it also illustrates how the surroundings, the literary trends of the time, and author’s background influence the text. jane austen rubbed on the garb of satire to extend forth the realism of her age, however, the romantic age is remarkably characterised by imagination and fancy, and not by satire or/and realism. 15 vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663 1512 , issn (p): 2617 3611 objective(s) of paper the following two main objectives are intended and researched to be achieved: a. to investigate how satire is applied on pride and prejudice for achieving the desired goals of reflecting the true romantic society of england. b. to probe into the realism of the age that was rarely written about. purpose of paper the main purpose of the paper is to explore satire through the use of irony, as modus operandi, to elucidate realism of the romantic age present in the novel, pride and prejudice. scope of paper analysis of the novel under study has been delimited to those facets of the texts that fulfil purpose of the study i.e., the aspects must be ironical and satirical. methodology qualitative research paradigm has been employed because the study is based on in-depth analysis of the text. information has been gathered from the previous studies conducted on the subject. interpretative analysis, based on the literature review, would be conducted to answer the research questions. discussion analysis of the text reveals several issues to be deliberated. these issues include the exercise of irony, the poignancy of satire, and realism expressed through plot, characters and the settings. first of all, the novelist has widely used in the test under study. jane austen is well-known for her narrative style. this is significant to keep in mind that austen has blended realism with narrative while using irony as a whip. as the analysis is carried out, it could be observed that the writer has used interactions of characters as the basis for the expression of realism. a mere skimming gives the impression that characterization in austen’s novels should be the focal point. however, an indepth investigation into the text elucidates the mode of narration, general description in the novel and depiction of characters are vital in the employment of irony and implicit realism therein. the narrative style of austen enables her to express the sentiments and situations in such a way that provides the appropriate atmosphere for her reader to grasp, allowing them to appreciate the irony used in the novel. in addition, her manner of narrating the events has been cleverly leading the readers through the metaphorical path that austen wants them to feel; the realism she implies is not merely in the narration or characters’ personalities but also in the hidden narrator which is austen herself—austen’s life, her spinsterhood, the reality of life she experienced. here the reader 16 vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663 1512 , issn (p): 2617 3611 exclusively knows and understands matters which allow expectation and further prospects of irony in the novel. though analysis of the setting is brief, yet it fetches a profound impression on the reader, especially if one is to consider the social milieu in which austen has written the novel and the society that populates pride and prejudice. when the setting of novel is associated with the social and cultural backdrop of the realistic events it is centred on, the readers feel the advantage of the alternatives presented and the offence at the rejection of such offer. specifically, because of such reaction, she has emphasized the ills of such restrictions on the choices of women and their rights, constructing the effect brimming with irony by portraying and rejecting inequality of genders through characters of the novel under study, permitting the female characters no restrictions in choice that was unusual for women in austen’s society. analysis of themes uncovers numerous vital findings with regard to irony and realism in pride and prejudice. as the name suggests, the focal premise of the novel is pride and prejudice, which in fact became a means of realism to be tackled cleverly irony. it is noticeable that the theme is employed to interpret gender differences through characters, social and class status, providing each the occasion to see other’s weaknesses, concurrently employing irony to underline the presence of blemishes in them alike. analysis of characters is significant as they are of the most significant feature of the novel. the actions, thoughts and behaviour of characters are the waves that develop the story, so it is only usual that much satire and realism could be found in them. difference in the characters often spawned comparison. the comparison in ironical characters befits as an indicant of realism, stressing the anomalies and the shortcomings of upholding the conventional notion, and also depicting austen’s perception of realism. the intensity of sarcasm in pride and prejudice has to be looked at as well. the novel is satirical in a manner that it recurrently takes the societal view of women as second-rate sex and counters it with ridicule and irony. jane austen uses irony in such manner that she ridicules the conventional structure of romantic period, thus underlining the feminist ideology of gender discrimination. contrariwise, satires are mostly thought to be cogent and harsh in its consequences, it may be argued that pride and prejudice does not fully exhort its values as a sardonic piece of literature. in its place, the adroit manoeuvring of narrative style and irony, in company with characters with peculiar personality traits, have administered to soften the tenor of satire in the novel under reference, providing a more comedic feeling to spotlight the hypothetically heavy ambience of satire. the almost fanciful denouement for the main female character is an evident clue. irony reaches to its peak when it threatens heroine’s social status. the clear veracity of satire sets in for a while. however, as the heroine escapes without enough harmful aftermaths, the effects of 17 vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663 1512 , issn (p): 2617 3611 sarcasm are decreased. in short, though satire has infused into the whole novel, it is guised beautifully by sporadic comedic adventures to moderate the farce directed at society. critique of pride and prejudice pride and prejudice is well-liked today not only because of its unforgettable characters and proficient story-telling but also the general appealingness of the novel. in the novel, austen flaunts a consummate exercise of satire, realism, and dialogue that encourage the character growth and intensify the appraisal of the novel. austen satire is devastating in its exposure of foolishness and hypocrisy. self-delusion or the attempt to fool other people is almost always the object of her wit; note how she has elizabeth say that she hopes she will never laugh at what is wise or good. the reader finds various forms of exquisite irony: sometimes the characters are unconsciously ironic, as when mrs bennett seriously asserts that she would accept any entailed property, though mr. collin is willing to; other times, mr. bennett and elizabeth serve to directly express the author’s ironic opinion. when marry bennett is the only daughter at home and does not have to be compared to her prettier sisters, the author observes that “it was suspected by her father that she submitted to the change without much reluctance.” mr. bennett turns his wit on himself during the crisis with wickham and lydia—“let me once in my life feel how much i have been to blame. i am not afraid of being overpowered by the impression. it will pass away soon enough.” elizabeth irony is lightened when jane asks when she began to love mr. darcy. “it has been coming on so gradually that i hardly know when it began. but i believe i must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at pemberley.” she can be bitterly cutting, however, on her remark on darcy’s role in separating bingley and jane. “mr. darcy is uncommonly kind to mr. bingley, and takes a prodigious deal of care of him.” the author, independent of any character, uses irony in the narrative parts for some of her sharpest—but often unnoticed—judgement. the meryton community is glad that lydia is marrying such a worthless man as wickham: “and the good-natured wishes for well-doing, which had proceeded before from all the spiteful old ladies in meryton, lost but little of their spirit in this change of circumstances, because with such a husband, her misery was certain.” austen uses irony to both provoke whimsical laughter and make veiled, bitter observation. in her hands—and few others are more capable and discriminating—irony is an extremely effective device for moral evaluation. in pride and prejudice, dialogue also plays a significant role. the plot commences with a conversation between mrs. bennett and mr bennett: “my dear mr. bennett,’ said his lady to him 18 vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663 1512 , issn (p): 2617 3611 one day, ‘have you heard that netherfield is let at last?’” in the following dialogue, one learns a lot—about mrs. bennett’s obsession with giving her daughters’ hands in marriage, mr. bennett satiric and ironic viewpoint with regard to his wife’s self-pitying nature. the plot tirelessly set to introduce the family into bingley group and the discourse has provided the reader details on events of attitudes and plot which manoeuvre the characters. dialogue are unfailingly the most lucid and essential aspects of the novel. this is expected as novels were read loudly in austen’s age; therefore quality dialogues were enormously significant. the readers understand of the key developments through the dialogue, and even deep internal changes e.g. elizabeth’s well-known soul-searching scene (“how despicably have i acted!”) is related as a person talking to herself. the speech of each character is fitting individually and is the most impressive manner of exposing the real self of each character. elizabeth’s discourse is straightforward and fresh. the talk of her is cynical, mr. collins speech is boring and childish, and lydia’s words are all silliness with no substance. the incidents that occur in pride and prejudice take place to almost all readers—humiliation at the idiocy of one’s own flesh and blood, the vacillating emotions of falling in love, and the embarrassment of unexpectedly coming to know a fatal mistake. the feelings of the main characters lead to psychological realism. elizabeth and darcy are naturally angry at each other when elizabeth initially rejects him. it is natural that she feels pinches of regret and an absolute mindshift with the passage of time. their every step towards each other has been portrayed with an understanding to the normal feeling of people and how they act/react. in the beautiful and vivid depiction of elizabeth’s self-discovery is a persuasive sight of how a bright feeling individual shifts his/her mind. however, readers should be at guard when considering realism in austen’s works. her major strength, as a novelist, is her real weakness. most of the experiences of life are beyond her scope of writing because her writings are limited to what she knows only. her male characters are not as skilfully portrayed as her women characters, especially heroines are. male are mere irregular outlines. she usually avoids extreme passions in her novels. this is observed when she starts to describe the abstract and impersonal voice when elizabeth says yes to darcy: elizabeth “immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand that her sentiments had undergone so material a change...as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure his present assurance.” the researchers who disfavour austen’s writings often refer to this absence of acute sentiments as their central argument. nevertheless, it is hard to refute her gift to create memorable characters, construct well-planned plots, or depict appraisal of society with a piercing judgement. the writings 19 vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663 1512 , issn (p): 2617 3611 of jan austen hold an enduring excellence, which presents her themes, plots and stories related and appropriate today as they were two centuries ago. conclusion conclusively and evidently, the novel pride and prejudice reflects not only the biography of jane austen herself, but that of the romantic age as well with deftness of realism and satire blended together—falling recurrently—through characters, plot, themes, settings, and even narrative style. she has resiliently offended the social stratification and class consciousness (with the tool of irony and satire) through her six novels, particularly in her favourite novel pride and prejudice—in which the heroine is her mouthpiece. references austen, jane. pride and prejudice by jane austen. broughton-in-furness: coordination group publications ltd, 2010. print. brown, julia p. jane austen’s novels: social change and literary form. england: harvard university press, 1979. print. counts, diana m. jane austen’s power of consciousness. marshall university, apr. 2003. web. 08 december 2012. hatfield, glenn. w. “review: fiction plus satire.” novel: a forum on fiction 2.3 (1969). jstor. web. 09 december 2012. merriam-webster online dictionary. merriam-webster online, 2012. web. 10 december 2012. mudrick, marvin. jane austen: irony as defence and discovery. new jersey: princeton university press, 1952. print. sherry, james. “pride and prejudice: the limits of society.” studies in english literature, 15001900 19.4 (1979): 609-22. jstor. web. 11 december 2012. tuite, clara. “romantic austen: sexual politics and the literary canon.” eighteenth-century studies 39.3 (2006): 1-10. jstor. web. 12 december 2012. @ 2019 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 20 british council’s english for academic purposes: a critical analysis of the coursebook taught at pakistani universities abdul qadar lecturer in english, shaheed benazir bhutto university sheringal, pakistan abdulqadar143@gmail.com abstract english for academic purposes course focusing on the academic language needs of students is a subfield of english for specific purposes (esp). it is a type of specialized course to integrate specific subject matter, language content, and material based on learners’ needs. the study aims to evaluate the british council’s english for academic purposes (eap) coursebook in terms of content, sequencing, learners’ autonomy, motivation, feedback and focus on language skills. furthermore, the study tries to provide a general perception of the usefulness and effectiveness of the coursebook for undergraduate students. the eap students’ manual coursebook is used as a primary source for the data collection. the researcher has chosen nation & macalister (2010) model of language teaching principles to analyze and discuss the data. the study found the coursebook a useful, effective and an appropriate source of english language learning in terms of the investigated aspects of the book. the findings report that the coursebook provides practice and practical usage in all domains of the academically required english language skills. it helps the students to build language competency and to be more independent learners. in addition, it provides an opportunity to the learners to think in the target language, use the language more practically and learn it in a natural type of environment. the study concludes and suggests that the content needs to be supplemented with english language audios and videos presenting the students relevant documentaries and helping material in order to make the coursebook and the learning process more useful, effective, interesting and motivating. furthermore, the study recommends that while choosing /designing a coursebook for a certain course, it needs to be evaluated following the various criteria and language-teaching-principles suggested by different language researchers. keywords: british council, english for academic purposes, critical analysis, text book introduction mailto:abdulqadar143@gmail.com university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 21 the emergence of english for specific purposes (esp) in 1960s opened new domains in the field of foreign language teaching focusing on learner needs, specialized content, and material selection in developing esp courses /textbooks. mackay and mountford (1978) state that “esp is generally used to refer to the teaching of english for a clearly utilitarian purpose”. it means that esp is the teaching-learning process of english language where the goals of students are to use the language in a particular situation and for a particular purpose. about the development of esp, hutchinson and waters (1987) state that “esp is not a monolithic universal phenomenon”; there have been various phases through which esp has evolved to its development. hutchinson and waters (1987) consider three main reasons for the growth of esp; the demand of the brave new world, new developments in the fields of linguistics and the educational psychology. the language courses and textbooks in the esp field address the specific requirements of english language learners based on the needs analysis procedures. the course content, objectives and material are designed on the basis of the learners’ needs and requirements in a certain field, profession and situation. according to hutchinson and waters (1987), “the purpose of an esp course is to enable learners to function adequately in a target situation”. in his definition of esp, strevens (1988) considers the characteristics of esp as “to meet specified needs of different learners, related in content to particular disciplines, occupations and activities, centered on language appropriateness and usefulness in the analysis of discourse”. similarly, basturkmen (2006) provided five broad objectives on which he based the specific teaching process of an esp courses. these include “to reveal subject-specific language use, to develop target performance competencies, to teach underlying knowledge, to develop strategic competence and to foster critical awareness”. esp coursebooks play a critical role in the teaching-learning process of english language. an ample number of researchers have provided their opinions about the vitality of coursebooks in the process of english learning. according to sheldon (1988) coursebooks "represent the visible heart of any elt program". (bano, 2005) states that “textbooks are considered as the sole and legitimate source of knowledge both for students and teachers”. hutchinson and torres (1994) say that coursebook play a positive and important part in the teaching and learning of english as it provides the required content in a lesson. richards (2001) says that textbooks provide structure and syllabus to a learning program and the impact of the program is based on the textbooks. according to cunnigsworth (1995), textbooks are effective resources/sources for self-directed learning, presentational material, ideas and activities. he further adds that it is a reference source for students and syllabus where they reflected pre-determined learning objectives, and supported for less experienced teachers to gain confidence. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 22 esp courses are quite different in focus and narrower in themes as compared to the teaching of english for general purposes (egp). hutchinson and waters (1987) differentiated esp and egp courses in quite simple terms as they say, "in theory nothing, in practice a great deal". similarly, belcher (2009) considers esp to be a leaner-centered type of language instruction distinguished from other instructional approaches in terms of the goals of instructions based on students’ specific purposes. robinson (1980) believes that “the general with which we are contrasting the specific is that of general education for life, culture and literature oriented language course in which the language itself is the subject matter and the purpose of the course”. in addition, robinson (1991) thinks of esp course as goal oriented and aiming at the specific task that the students have to do through the medium of english. an esp course considers the different levels of learners’ language-knowledge in order to address the specific conditions of their learning situation (benyelles, 2001). the domain of esp courses has been divided by a number of researchers into various classifications. david carter (1983) proposes three types of esp based courses. these include english as a restricted language (erl), english for academic purposes (eap) & occupational purposes (eop), and english with specific topics (est). hutchinson and waters (1987), in their famous ‘tree of elt’ have subdivided esp into three main types: english for science & technology (est), english for business & economics (ebe), and english for social studies (ess). each of the types has further been classified into eap and eop. designing esp courses and textbooks involve a series of activity and considerations. these include discovering learners’ needs, situational analysis, setting objectives, choosing content, material writing and evaluation. hutchinson and waters (1987) consider course designing process as "an integrated series of learning experiences to lead learners to a particular state of knowledge”. esp researchers have proposed different approaches to esp course designing— language centered approach, skills based centered course design, learner centered approach, learning centered approach and integrated skills approach. in choosing a coursebook, it is important to evaluate the coursebook to ensure its effectiveness and suitability for a certain course and situation. longman dictionary of contemporary english (2004) defines evaluation as “the act of considering something to decide how useful or valuable it is”. tok (2010) says that analysis and evaluation of a certain coursebook help teachers to improve themselves and to attain the useful insights into the basis of material. shatery (2012) considers coursebook evaluation is the most pivotal particularly in the field of english language teaching. a number of researchers have put forwarded the evaluation criteria and checklists for the evaluation of coursebooks/textbooks. some of them include skierso (1991), cunningsworth (1995), garinger (2001), miekley (2005), jahangard (2007) and nation & macalister (2010). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 23 the current study tries to evaluate the british council’s eap coursebook which is taught to undergraduate students at pakistani universities. the british council’s eap students manual is a pilot project of the british council and higher education commission of pakistan. the coursebook has twelve units with a content focusing on helping students to excel in their academics and english language skills development. furthermore, it presents interesting content, authentic material and students’ centered communicative activities. every activity/task integrates the use of all the four skills of english language. the researcher has selected nation & macalister’s (2010) criteria for evaluation of the british council’s eap coursebook. in their criteria, nation & macalister (2010) have presented twenty principles of teaching english which provide the basis for course design and evaluation. these principles are divided into three main groups—content & sequencing, format & presentation, and monitoring & assessment. the content & sequencing tells about what goes into a language course and the order in which the language items appear in a course. the format & presentation is about what actually happens in the classroom and during learning. in addition, the third group of principles, monitoring & assessment, deals with monitoring and assessment. the overall focus of these three groups is on frequency, learners’ autonomy, speed retrieval, language system, useful language skills, teach-ability, learning burden, interference, motivation, four strands, comprehensible input, fluency, output, deliberate learning, time on task, depth processing, integrative motivation, learning style, environment analysis and feedback. objectives of the study the study has the following research objectives: i. to evaluate the british council’s eap coursebook in terms of content, sequencing, learners’ autonomy, motivation, feedback and focus on language skills. ii. to provide a general perception of the usefulness and effectiveness of the coursebook based on the findings of the study. significance of the study the study is significant for finding insights into the effectiveness of the eap coursebook in respect of content, sequencing, learners’ autonomy, motivation, feedback and focus on language skills. it highlights the important aspects of english language teaching-learning process and those ignored in the book. thus, it tries to bring further improvements in the book. the study is also beneficial for english course designers to consider the better part of the results for designing university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 24 english courses. moreover, it adds to the existing body of literature on the topic and motivates further studies in coursebook evaluation. methodology the study is qualitative in design and descriptive in nature. the study tries to evaluate the british council’s english for academic purposes (eap) students’ manual. in addition, it aims to provide a general perception of the researcher about the usefulness and effectiveness of the coursebook based on the findings of the study. the eap students’ manual is used as a primary source for the data collection. the researcher has chosen nation & macalister (2010) model of language teaching principles to analyze and discuss the data. among the given principles, the researcher has selected a checklist of 08 principles as per the need and requirement of the study. the researcher has thoroughly read and taught the course for several years at different departments of shaheed benazir bhutto university sheringal, pakistan. the experience of the teaching-learning-process in teaching the course provided him with a bulk of knowledge about the book content and students’ response—which is used as a secondary source of data for the evaluation of the coursebook. in the light of nation & macalister (2010) model of language teaching principles, the researcher presented a descriptive analysis to the coursebook in order to discuss the content, sequencing, learners’ autonomy, motivation, feedback and focus on language skills in the said coursebook. the study is delimited to the evaluation of the british council’s eap coursebook in respect of content, sequencing, learners’ autonomy, motivation, feedback and focus on language skills. moreover, it is limited to seek the general perceptions of the researcher about the usefulness and effectiveness of the coursebook for undergraduate students. analysis and discussion the aim of the research is to evaluate the british council’s eap coursebook which is taught at pakistani universities. nation & macalister’s (2010) criterion of language teaching principles is applied to evaluate the book. the following section presents a detailed analysis and discussion of the topic. nation & macalister (2010) believes that “a language course should provide the best possible coverage of language in use through the inclusion of items that occur frequently in the language, so that learners get the best return for their learning effort”. the principle explains the importance of inclusion of language content, skills and the required frequency of these skills in a certain language course. the british council’s eap coursebook is a unique example of coursebook covering almost all the language content and skills required by the learners for their academic needs. it focuses on the most frequently occurring vocabulary, grammatical structures, university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 25 and language needs of the learners. furthermore, the content presents the most frequently language skills required by the undergraduate students to improve their condition in academic skills. the coursebook includes practice in presentations, vocabulary building, learning the grammatical structure, essay writing, report writing, summarizing, paraphrasing, comprehension and the use of all the four skills of language practically. the content has been sequenced in a proper order; it introduces the students from easier to the harder piece of information and activity. according to nation & macalister (2010), “a language course should progressively cover useful language items, skills and strategies”. the principle emphasizes on the integration of the useful language items, skills, and strategies in a language course. to address the principle, the british council’s eap coursebook possesses all the useful language items, skills and the strategies needed by the undergraduate students in their academic life. the course integrates the required vocabulary, important grammatical structures, language skills’ practice, dialogue production, writing summaries, comprehension activities, paraphrasing texts, report writing, essay writing skills, cv writing, and presentation skills. furthermore, in another principle they are of the opinion that “a language course should train learners in how to learn a language and how to monitor and be aware of their learning, so that they can become effective and independent language learners”. the principle explains that a language course must help its students to be independent and strategic learners—a course composed of such activities that encourage the students to become strategic and independent target language learners. the british council’s eap coursebook provides a plenty of strategies, activities, tasks, exercises and puzzle-work to help the students become strategic and independent learners. the students receive input on how to learn words using different strategies—the contextual meaning, predicting the meaning, and using words in particular contexts. it teaches how to cope with complex sentences by practicing an ample number of complex sentences which are produced by the learners in writing and speaking. in addition, the students are taught pre-, during, and post reading strategies to become effective and independent readers. similarly, the focus on writing process happens in every activity of the coursebook. the students are given word-clouds, puzzles, peer-work discussions, predicting the text, picture description, picture discussions and instruction sequencing like activities to help them independent learners. furthermore, the students work mostly in groups allow them to freely share their ideas and minimizing the influence of the teachers. in a language coursebook, “as much as possible, the learners should be interested in and excited about learning the language and they should come to value this learning” (nation & macalister, 2010). the principle explains learners’ attitude toward what they learn and study in a course. in order to make learners’ attitude positive in a certain course, the motivational level of the learners need to be enhanced. the material is required to be relevant, interesting and according to the university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 26 level of the students. the meaningful content, material, activities, and the language skills presented in the british council’s eap coursebook are much interesting, suitable, and properly sequenced; these are according to the level and academic needs of the students. moreover, the researcher in his own experience of teaching the coursebook found the learners to be more motivated, excited, interested and positive in attitude. the content and the process of the teaching are new to them; it is not a traditional type of teaching and learning. they feel excited to talk in front of the class and feel happy when receiving appreciation from the fellow classmates. the teaching-learning process provides them with an artificial environment to learn and use the language practically. the students have the opportunity to think in the target language without considering the traditional ways of learning the language. “there should be substantial quantities of interesting comprehensible receptive activity in both listening and reading” (nation & macalister, 2010) in the teaching-learning process of a language course. the principle stresses on activities that should provide a comprehensible input in language teaching. the british council’s eap coursebook integrates the use of all the four skills of english language in general and the receptive skills in particular. in every task /activity the students receive a comprehensible input both in listening and reading. in the coursebook, most of the activities involve reading texts; the students are motivated to read the given texts in groups and discuss the subject matter with one another. thus, they receive plenty of input from reading extensive texts and listening to the discussions of the group members on different topics. similarly, nation & macalister (2010) believe that “the learners should be pushed to produce the language in both speaking and writing over a range of discourse types”. the current course encourages the students to produce the target language both in writing and speaking by assigning them different tasks. the students present the learned-content in front of the class in groups and individually. the class asks different questions pertinent to the topic. moreover, the students are put in writing practice by producing summaries of the given texts, paraphrasing, and comparing texts to their life experiences. all this help the students to be fluent both in receptive and productive skills; this aspect addresses another principle of the nation & macalister (2010) criteria of language teaching course which says “a language course should provide activities aimed at increasing the fluency with which learners can use the language they already know, both receptively and productively”. “learners should receive helpful feedback which will allow them to improve the quality of their language use” (nation & macalister, 2010). the principle elaborates the importance of helpful feedback in the production of quality language use. during the teaching-learning process of the british council’s eap coursebook, the students receive a plenty of helpful feedback from the instructor, group members and classmates. the learners are appreciated for their responses and positive comments are being added on their written work. the students’ errors are tolerated and university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 27 corrected using appropriate error correction strategies. moreover, students’ feeling are never hurt; this encourages the students to practice the language more and provide them the confidence which in turn help them improve the quality of their language use. conclusion the study evaluated the british council’s eap coursebook and to know the usefulness and effectiveness of the coursebook. the study found the coursebook a useful, effective and an appropriate source of english language learning in terms of the investigated aspects of the book. the coursebook provides practice and practical usage in all domains of the academically required english language skills. it helps the students to build language competency and to be more independent learners. in addition, it provides an opportunity to the learners to think in the target language, use the language more practically and learn it in a natural type of environment. the study concludes and suggests that the content needs to be supplemented with english language audios and videos presenting the students relevant documentaries and helping material in order to make the coursebook and the learning process more useful, effective, interesting and motivating. furthermore, the study recommends that while choosing /designing a coursebook for a certain course it needs to be evaluated following the various criteria and language-teachingprinciples suggested by different language researchers. references bano, y. (2005). curriculum and textbooks: issues and challenges in pakistan. antriep newsletter, 10 (1), 3-8. bloom’s taxonomy-learning domains. retrieved from http://www.businessballs.com/bloomstaxonomyoflearningdomains.htm basturkmen, h. (2006). ideas and options in english for specific purposes. london and new jersey: esl and applied linguistic professional series: eli hinkle, edition. belcher, d. (2009).what esp is and can be: an introduction. in d. belcher (ed.), english for specific purposes in theory and practice. ann arbor: university of michigan press. benyelles, r. (2009). teaching esp at post graduate level: unpublished doctorate thesis: university of tlemcen. carter, d.(1983). some propositions about esp [j]. the esp journal (2) 131-137. cunningsworth, a. (1995). choosing your textbook. london: macmillan: heinemann garinger, d. (2001). textbook evaluation. retrieved from http://www.teflweb– j.org/v1n1/garinger.html hutchinson, t. and & torres, e (1994). the textbook as an agent of change. elt journal (48) 4 hutchison, t. & waters, a. (1987). english for specific purposes: a learner-centered approach. england: cambridge university press. http://www.businessballs.com/bloomstaxonomyoflearningdomains.htm university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 28 jahangard, a. (2007). evaluation of the efl materials taught at iranian high schools. the asian efl journal 9 (2) 130150. longman dictionary of contemporary english (4th ed.). (2003). harlow, england: longman mackay, r. and mountford, a. (1978). english for specific purposes: a case study approach. london: longman. miekley, j. (2005). esl textbook evaluation checklist. the reading matrix, 5 (2) retrieved from: http://www.readingmatrix.com/reading projects/ nation, i. s. p. & j. macalister (2010). language curriculum design. new york & london: routledge. richards, j. c. (2001). curriculum development in language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. robinson, p. (1980). english for specific purposes. oxford: pergamon press. robinson, p. (1991). esp today: a practitioner's guide. hertfordshire, u.k.: prentice hall international (u.k.) ltd shatery, h. (2012). investigating the degree of correspondence between topics of reading passages in general english course books and students’ interest. to be published in iranian efl journal. sheldon, l. e. (1988). evaluating elt textbooks and materials. elt journal, 42 (4) 237-246. skierso, a. (1991). textbook selection and evaluation. in m. celce-murcia (ed.), teaching english as a second or foreign language, 432-453. boston: heinle and heinle publishers. strevens, p. (1988). esp after twenty years: a re-appraisal. in m. tickoo (ed.) esp: state of the art. singapore: seameo regional language centre. 1-13. tok, h. (2010). tefl textbook evaluation: from teachers’ perspectives. educational research and review 5 (9) 508-517. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 55 jokes are not innocent: representation of punjabis in pashto jokes muhammad waqar ali phd scholar (linguistics) and lecturer at the department of english, islamia college university peshawar abstract in this paper, the researcher analysed racist or ethnic jokes as a genre of discourse to investigate the issue of representation of punjabis in pashto jokes. the emphasis of the paper was on understanding stereotypes and symbols associated with the representation of punjabis in pashto jokes. the data for the study comprised oral jokes of pakhtuns from peshawar. the researcher followed john stone (2008) and linde (1993) for discourse analysis of the jokes. further, the researcherfollowed althusser (1971) as theoretical framework to explain the reason(s) behind the way pakhtuns present punjabis in their jokes. at the end, the researcher concluded that ideology through cultural ideological state apparatus interpellates (i.e. calls out or hails) pakhtuns as subjects. key words: jokes, punjabis, althusser, ideological state apparatuses, pakhtuns introduction ethnicity is an agonizing yet undeniable reality of pakistani society. ethnicity in pakistan is more likened to provincialism and linguistic ethnicity. ethnic or racist discourse generally expresses ethnic attitudes of social, cultural or ethnic groups towards others. since discourse is shaped by and shapes the world (johnstone, 2008) and is in fact “a form of social practice, action, or interaction” (van dijk, n.d., p.115), its analysis can improve our understanding of the issue at hand. more, it can lead to the understanding of socio-cultural make-up of the pakistani society. daily observation of discourse on media and elsewhere can easily verify existence of racist and ethnic communicative practices. racist discourse is not limited to media only; it is available in all political, social and cultural domains and multiple genres of discourse such as drama, comedy shows, conversation, movies, songs, cartoons, stand-up comedy, jokes and so forth. as racist or ethnic discourse cannot be analyzed from every aspect in a paper like this short length, the researcher’s focus in this study is on merely one genre of discourse: jokes. furthermore, pakistan comprises a multitude of ethnicity: both linguistic and racial, and it is not possible to discuss all of them in such a short discussion. among this multitude of ethnic groups, punjabis are the largest ethnic group comprising of 44.15% of the total population of the country and pakhtuns are the second largest ethnic group making up for 15.42% of the total population (n.a., population by mother tongue, 2017). punjabipakhtun tussle pervades every discursive event held in the two provinces namely, the punjab and khyber pakhtunkhwa. nowadays, it is a common issue that punjabis, being politically, socially and culturally dominant, marginalize pakhtuns in discourse university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 56 (gazdar, 2007; kupecz, 2012; bhattacharjee, 2015). the researcher actually wants to know how the marginalized pakhtuns react and represent punjabis in the discourse of pakhtuns, particularly in their jokes—a genre of discourse. so, the researcher limits his discussion to the analysis of representation of punjabis in pashto jokes. literature review among various popular definitions of humour, the following two are more significant. crawford (1994) defines humour as any communication that generates a “positive cognitive or affective response from listeners” (p. 57).similarly, romero and cruthirds (2006) define humour as “amusing communications that produce positive emotions and cognitions in the individual, group, or organization” (p. 59). both definitions accentuate evocation of positive emotions or response. however, racial humor gives vent to ethnic emotion. freud (1960), in this regard, articulates that people use humor to manifest their repressed antagonistic instinctive urges in a socially tolerable way. many have suggested racist humour is of the hobbesian kind, a laugh at sudden glory, a form of ridicule, or some other derivative of the superiority theory (weaver, 2010).the superiority theory of humour states that what makes us laugh is the sudden glory of realizing the misfortunes or disagreeable attributes of others, which make ourselves seem superior to them even though we are well aware of our own defects. superiority humour pokes fun at certain people by pointing out their perceived weaknesses, misfortunes, or defects. apart from poking fun at other people, the superiority jokes often poke at people who are members of certain social classes, or social groups. the superiority theory says that humour is a manifestation of a feeling of superiority over others or even over one’s own former situation (berger 1987; cooper 2008). in other words, a humorous utterance can be a sign of the person “lording” (sen2012:2) it over another person whom he or she considers inferior. in the case of self-deprecating humour, it can be the case that the person is making the humorous comment to distract others’ attention away from a gaffe that he or she has committed. methodology since qualitative investigation requires thorough analysis of data, it become difficult to manage enormous data in a paper-length study. for instance, weaver (2011) analyzed anti-black jokes of 5 websites. similarly, burdsay (2011) limited his data for the analysis of jokes to the interviews of a couple of asian players. the data for this paper comprise some pashto jokes, five in number. the researcher has collected these jokes from pashto speakers who are the residents of khyber pakhtunkhwa, and all of them are educated. some of these jokes have been received in text form and some have been shared verbally. it is worth mentioning that there was a chance of misinformation by the respondents. they could just change the names of the characters in the joke which are actually quoted to represent other social or cultural groups, and could send me such jokes that do not represent punjabis. to avoid such an apprehension, the researcher clearly university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 57 communicated and required the respondents to narrate typical jokes wherein they (pakhtuns) express their feelings about punjabis. so far as analysis of the data (jokes) is concerned, the researcher agrees with sen (2012) who believes that jokes are analyzed through the analysis of the words. the researcher follows johnstone (2008), linde (1993) for discourse analysis, and barthes (1988) for semiotic analysis of cultural symbols used in jokes to represent the ‘other’ (punjabis). further, the researcher follows penelope (1990) to check presence or absence of agency. at the end, my conclusion develops on althusser’s (1971) “ideology and ideological state apparatuses”. the jokes are narrated and texted in pashto. in this paper, the researcher is writing their english translation. discussion said (1978) has discussed the notion of representation in detail in his seminal work, orientalism. he establishes the importance of discourse in constructing and/or representing social reality. a very common instance of such phenomenon is representation of the orient by the occident. the orient is defined in terms of stereotypes. likewise, social or ethnic groups represent the ‘others’ in form of stereotypes. later on, these stereotypes along with certain beliefs and notions become a part of “social wisdom” (siddiqui, 2013, p.86). jokes are a significant and powerful tool of representing the ‘other’ and constructing the stereotypes that define the ‘other’. pakhtuns represent punjabis (the other) through different stereotypes and have attached different symbols to the represented identity of punjabis. for instance, in the following joke, punjabis are represented as dupes and fools. joke 1: 001: a punjabi went for pilgrimage 02: when he returned, 003: his friend asked him 004: you stoned satan there? 005: (punjabi), i could not get a chance to stone 006: but i called [him] names a lot. this joke has two structural components: setting and punch line. the setting extends from l. 001 to l. 004. the setting of the joke sets a scene or describes a situation, and the punch line ll. 005006 represent punjabis as fools and dull people. as per common sense, a pilgrim is supposed to stone satan rather than to abuse him. more, pilgrimage (haj) is a very sacred ritual which necessitates pilgrim’s complete knowledge about it. so, punjabis are represented here as nonseries people in the religious affairs and ignorant of religious knowledge. moreover, the use of the expression in l.006 indicates that the punjabi considered calling names an adequate replacement of stoning. this makes the punjabi a laughing stock for pakhtuns. additionally, the joke is narrated in indirect (ll.001-004) as well as in direct narration (ll.005006). the use of direct narration for the punch line (ll.005-006) indicates that joke-tellers university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 58 want to retain authenticity of the foolery exhibited in the joke. had it been stated in indirect way, it would have enfeebled the force of the punch line as a proof of dullness of punjabis on the pretext that the words (uttered indirectly) might have been altered. agency has been established for the punjabi in l.006 since he says ‘the researcher called him names a lot.’the explicit agency for the punjabi in this example implies that he takes responsibility of his action. penelope (1990) articulates that human agency is “suppressed to evade responsibility for some action” (p.144). joke 2: 007: a punjabi printed a fake bill (of pakistani currency) 008: but forgot printing (jinnah) cap (on quaid-e-azam’s head) 009: (shopkeeper), there is no cap on his head. 010: (punjabi), it is his picture in summer joke 2 also follows the structural norm of two parts: setting, and punch line. a stereotype of fraud is ascribed to punjabis in l. 007 as the punjabi in this joke produces fake currency bills. pakhtuns consider punjabis fraudulent people who would commit crimes. they are presented as cunning, fraudulent and sham people. however, the stereotype of dullness is existent in this joke as well. as per ll.008-009, he forgets to print the cap. it shows his carelessness. this stereotype is extended to all punjabis by pakhtuns. in the punch line (l. 010), which creates fun, he comes up with a more imprudent and irrationalreply that the picture was shot in summer which is unacceptable even to a child. joke 3: 011: a pakhtun was dining in a hotel 012: having eaten meat, he was chewing a bone. 013: a punjabi, sitting next to him, asked him (the pakhtun) 014: khan sab, what do dogs eat in your area? 015: the pakhtun replied ‘lentil’. joke 3 is a symbolically rich joke. along with symbols, it carries some presuppositions as well. the first symbol used here is ‘meat’. in pakhtun culture, meat is associated with pakhtun cuisine while ‘lentil’ is attached to punjabi cuisine. both symbols have opposite cultural connotations. culturally, meat is considered a rich source of energy; therefore it is associated with pakhtuns to manifest that they are strong and healthy. conversely, the cultural assumption that lent is less nutritious islinked with punjabi cuisine to represent them physically feeble, weak and unhealthy. besides the two referred symbols, worth discussing symbol is ‘bone’. apart from its literal meaning, bone stands for worthless, valueless and insignificant things. more, a presupposition is attached with this symbol that only dogs chew bone. when the punjabi (l. 014) seeing the pakhtun who was chewing a bone asks what dogs eat in the latter’s area (e.g. city or province), he wants to implicitly refers the pakhtuns as dogs because it is presupposed that bones are chewed by dogs. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 59 however, he does not succeed and is tricked in his own trap when the pakhtun answers him that dogs in their place eat ‘lentil’. so, he calls the punjabi a dog because the symbol ‘lentil’ is associated with punjabis. again, the punjabi is represented as less intelligent than the pakhtun. another feature of the joke is the use of abusive language. abusive language is a very common aspect of racist humour.the researcher has come across many jokes carrying abusive words to represent punjabis. joke 4: 016: (a punjabi to a doctor), how much does plastic surgery cost? 017: (the doctor), 2 lac. 018: (the punjabi), and if we bring plastic with us. though a brief one, joke 4 is replete with witty humour. it speaks of lack of wisdom and common sense in punjabis’ cognitive faculty. in this joke, punjabis are represented as a cognitively weak ethnic group. in the discourse, they are presented as incompetent users of language in general and that of discourse in particular. the punjabi interprets the word ‘plastic’ in l.016 in its literal meaning. he does not comprehend the domain-specific meaning of ‘plastic surgery’. he cannot differentiate between use of the word ‘plastic’ in medical science and its use in routine life. joke 5: 019: a punjabi’s wife was very belligerent. 020: once his wife started reprimanding him due to something 021: for a while, he kept on smiling 022: then he left the room 023: and sat outside 024: when his wife realized that 025: it was not affecting him 026: consequently, she poured a pail full of water on him 027: the punjabi, being wet, started laughing 028: and said 029: i knew 030: it would happen 031: after thunder, it always rains. the jokes discussed so far deal with the public life of punjabis and represent them in their public domain. the joke 5 is an illustrated example of their representation in domestic or private life. the line (….) of this joke connotes that it is the female who dominates the domestic world in a punjabi family. in pakhtun discourse about punjabis, presence of a bellicose wife in a family (if the family is still intact) presupposes presence of a servile and submissive husband in punjabi culture. the punjabis are stereotyped as unconscientious and devoid of grace or self-esteem. his wife upbraids him, and he keeps on smiling. worse than this, when it does not satisfy her, she pours university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 60 water on his head (l.21) and he still smiles. instead of getting irritated, he remains calm and cool. in the pakhtun discourse, this sort of compromise, calm and normalcy on part of a husband is interpreted as cowardice, servility and submissiveness. and such a person is not acceptable in pakhtun society. consequently, punjabis, in their domestic life, are represented as very obedient and docile husbands who are dominated by wives. such situation carries very shameful and negative connotation in the pakhtun culture. rather, it is the worst thing in a pakhtun’s life to be ruled or guided by a woman. this joke tarnishes the ethnic and social stature or image of punjabis. they, as an ethnic group, have been represented as racially, physically and socially weak people who are not at par with pakhtuns and cannot match them. generalizing all jokes, it is apparent that there are some similarities among all five jokes. first, all jokes consist more or less of two parts: setting, and a punch line. setting provides a background or a situation for the punch line of the joke. it is a larger part of a joke. on the other hand, a punch line a brief line that comparatively is shorter than the setting of the joke. the punch line is essence of the joke. it is a moment of humour in narration of jokes. second, ‘intertextuality’ can also be observed in the jokes. kristeva coined the term for the “ways in which texts… built on other texts and discourses” (as cited in johnston, 2008:164).there are some words and expressions (at times situations) which are prevalent in many of the aforementioned joked. recursion of stereotypes and symbols also affirms intertextuality in jokes.third, all the jokes have same narrative style. every joke begins with indirect narration and end with direct narration. most of the punch lines are in direct narration and active voice. this is done intentionally to maximise element of humour in jokes. conclusion johnstone (2008) has discussed that culture creates, shapes and is created and shaped by discourse. discourse does not mean an amalgam of meaning and context. instead, van dijk (n.d.) suggests that “each text or talk is monitored by underlying… social cognitions (knowledge, attitudes and ideologies)” (p.99). similarly, there is some social cognition(s) (freud, 1960) underlying these jokes. every social, ethnic, cultural or religious group is under the influence of some ideology—a set of ideas and/or beliefs. and the best location of ideology is language, in general, and discourse, in particular. fairclough (1995) suggests the same, “ideology invests language in various ways at various levels, and that we don't have to choose between different possible 'locations' of ideology, all of which seem partly justified and none of which seems entirely satisfactory” (p. 71). since ideology is invested in language or discourse at various levels, the researcher opted for jokes to investigate ideology in the pakhtun culture. the researcher here attempts to answer the question: why do pakhtuns represent punjabis in the aforesaid manner? what are the reasons that cause such behavior? it has rightly been stated that “man is an ideological animal”(althusser, 1971, p. 171). no culture or society does exist without ideology. to althusser ideology is ahistorical. it does not have any university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 61 past, present or future. the representation of punjabis in pashto jokes is actually the result of ideology underlying discourse (language). since ideology promises identity (althusser, 1971), pakhtuns establish identity for themselves as well as for punjabis in pashto jokes. it is a kind of binary opposition between pakhtuns and punjabis: ‘we’ and ‘they’ (the others) respectively. the representation of the ‘otherness’ in pashto racist jokes leads to the formation of group (social) identity among pakhtuns. generally, racist jokes are shared and narrated in conversation or discussion occurring among the members of the same group. likewise, pakhtuns share ethnic jokes among their group fellows. therefore, some of the respondents were reluctant to share racist jokes with me unless the researcher ensured them that these jokes would be used for research. another aspect the analysis can be explained through the althusserian concept of interpellation. althusser believes (1971) that ideology interpellates individuals and converts them into subjects. fairclough writes in this regard, “ideology has material effects, and discourse contributes to the creation and constant re-creation of the relations, subjects (as recognized in the althusserian concept of interpellation) and objects which populate the social world” (1995:73). althusser (1971:173) states about interpellation: all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects…ideology ‘acts’ or ‘functions’ is such a way that it ‘recruits’ subjects among the individuals… or ‘transforms’ the individuals into subjects … by that very precise operation which the researchers have called interpellation [italics original]or hailing.(1971, p. 173-74) pakhtuns are interpellated or hailed by ideology, and they are being converted into good (universal)subjects. ideology is at work through discourse (i.e. jokes). the more they share such jokes, the more they are interpellated by ideology as subjects. related to this, there is one more althusserian concept, namely, ideological state apparatuses (isas) that needs discussion. defining isas, althusser (1971) states“i shall call ideological state apparatuses a certain number of realities which present themselves to the immediate observer in the form of distinct and specialised institutions” ( p. 143).althusser (1971) opines that ideological state apparatuses (isas) are a part of the private domain and function by ideology. in this regard, althusser writes: (repressive)state apparatus belongs entirely to the public [italics original] domain, much the larger part of the ideological state apparatuses (in their apparent dispersion) are part, on the contrary, if the private [italics original] domain…. private institutions can perfectly well ‘function’ as ideological state apparatuses…. what distinguishes the isas from the (repressive) state apparatus is the following basic difference: the repressive state apparatus functions ‘by violence’, whereas the ideological state apparatuses function ‘by ideology’[italics original].(1971: 144-45) the researcher believes that the isa through which ideology is functioning, is culture. the isa of culture can vividly be observed in the pakhtun discourse about punjabis. the cultural belief of lack of religiosity in punjabis pervaded many jokes. along with it, the notion that punjabis are dull, dupes and fools is also highlighted in these jokes. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 62 it has been opined earlier that ideology promises identity (individual as well as social); more, ideology works through isas using discourse. and it has also been established that discourse creates culture as well as social reality. so the same discourse can further lead to action since ideology, according to fairclough (1995) creates and re-creates relations. therefore, jokes are not innocent and they can cause rift between the two ethnic groups, namely, pakhtuns and punjabis; and with the passage of time it might be widened. many have suggested the same thing opining that racist humour can cause offence or psychological damage, and that it could affect group morale (fry, 1977; la fave, 1977 as cited in weaver, 2010).this study is an attempt to raise consciousness about the emergent racial differences and ethnic divide that is widening the gap between the two ethno-cultural sections of pakistani society: pakhtuns and punjabis. if we do not realize the damage these “innocent jokes” can do and are doing, the chasm will outgrow our capacity to refill and repair it. realizations of the problem is the first step to make amends for the same, and this study was an attempt to take that first step. however, the study is not an all-inclusive and comprehensive in its effort to make generalizations because the data was limited to only five jokes. one reason for the limited data was that the respondents were not willing to share jokes for the purpose of documentation and research. since it is a potential area of research with little research available, other studies could be administered analyzing a large amount of data to make more credible generalizations and also to ascertain the intergenerational differences ofpakhtuns’ attitude towards punjabis in the former’s jokes and vice versa in the latter’s. references althusser, l. (1971). lenin and philosophy and other essays. new york : monthly review press. berger, a. (1987). humour: an introduction. american behavioural sceintist , 30 (1), 6-16. bhattacharjee, d. (2015). the missing persons of balochistan in pakistan. retrieved from ssrn: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2612286 burdsey, d. (2011). that joke isn’t funny anymore: racial microaggressions, color-blind ideology and the mitigation of racism in english men’s first-class cricket. sociology of sport journal , 28 (3), 261-283. cooper, c. (2008). elucidating the bonds of workplace humour: a relational process model. human relations (61), 1087-1115. crawford, c. (1994). theories and implications regarding the utilization of strategic humour by leaders. the journal of leadership studies (1 (4)), 53-67. fairclough, n. (1995). critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language. london and new york: longman. freud, s. (1960). jokes and their relation to the unconscious. new york: w w norton. gazdar, h. (. (2007). class, caste or race: veils over social oppression in pakistan. economic and political weekly , 86-88. johnstone, b. (2008). discourse analysis (2nd ed.). new york: blackwell. kupecz, m. (2012). pakistan's baloch insurgency: history, conflict drivers, and regional implications. international affairs review , xx (3), 95-110. linde, c. (1993). what is a life story? life stories: the creation of coherence . new york city : university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 63 oxford university press. n.a. (2014, april 12). ethnicity in pakistan. retrieved may 09, 2015, from ethnicity in pakistan: http://ethnicityinpakistan.blogspot.com/about%20us n.a. (2017). population by mother tongue. retrieved november 18, 2018, from bureau of statistics: government of pakistan: http://www.pbs.gov.pk/content/populationmothertongue penelope, j. (1990). the agents within. in j. penelope, speeking freely: undoing the lies of father's tongue. new york city: teachers college press. romeo, e. &. (2006). the use of humour in the workplace. academy of management perspective (20 (2)), 58-69. sen, a. (2012). humour analysis and qualitative research. (n. gilbert, ed.) social research update (63), 1-4. siddiqui, s. (2013). language, gender, and power: the politics of representation and hegemony in south asia. karachi: oxford university press. van dijk, t. a. (n.d.). analysing racism through discourse analysis: some methodological reflections. in print. weaver, s. (2010, november 20). developing a rhetorical analysis of racist humour: examining anti-black jokes on the internet. (20:5) , 537-555. london: routledge. weaver, s. (2011). jokes, rhetoric and embodied racism: a rhetorical discourse analysis of the logics of racist jokes on the internet. ethnicities , 11 (4), 413-435. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 50 ditransitive verbs: an english print media based comparison of pakistani english and british english asadullah balouch lecturer, army public school & college petaro, sindh pakistan dr. farida panhwar assistant professor, institute of english language and literature, university of sindh jamshoro pakistan abstract the present study highlights the ditransitive complementation between pakistani english (pe) and british english (be). the ditransitive verb complementation allows double objects in a sentence i.e. indirect object and direct object. since the current study uses qualitative research methodology, a sample of 48 statements selected from these pakistani print media sources: one newspaper, six daily magazines and two weekly magazines; eventually, 8 statements out of the 48 statements were only found suitable. although, the findings of the present paper may be generalized as per the nature of study. moreover, the retrieved data is analyzed in correspondence with the three patterns of ditransitive complementation of be as introduced by rahman (1990). finally, the findings of the current study showed that pe utilizes infinitive phrase at the place of direct object; in view of second pattern pe leaves out indirect object and that clause remains the same between the two mentioned englishes. hence, in view of the third and last pattern, pe applies to infinitive in the place of indirect object and prepositional idiom. the study, hereby, has been successful in identifying the ditransitive complementation deviations between pe and be. keywords: ditransitive complementation, sentential, inter-sentential, double objects, infective phrase. 1. introduction having considered pakistani english (pe) and british english (be), this research paper identifies ditransitive verb complementation using pe print media. the study has covered pe newspapers, dailies and weekly magazines. certainly, several researchers (baumgardner, 1987, 1990, 1993; mahboob, 2003; rahman, 1990) have identified deviations between pe and be with respect to the sentential, inter-sentential level, lexical, and phonological level. moreover, the study also discusses earlier studies related to the variations between pe and be in terms of ditransitive verb complementation. the next section discusses language variation in the light of sociolinguistics. 1.1 language variations pakistan with respect to sociolinguistics and anthropology is classified as a multilingual, multiethnic, and multicultural country where people speak one indigenous language as mother university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 51 tongue, urdu, the official language as well as lingua franca of the state while educated people can use english, the second official language and sole code of communication in the domains of education, commerce, judiciary, army and politics etc. (rahman, 1996). investigating language variation has got prime importance in the field of sociolinguistics in which researchers examine the linguistic variations in terms of pronunciation, lexemes, discourse registers etc. linguists also explore the social, political, cultural and religious factors contributing that make pe as a distinct variety (aziz & mahmood, 2012). having considered english in view, it is a unique language which has got various varieties and these varieties are studied under the paradigm of world englishes (aziz & mahmood, 2012). the researchers like talaat (2002, 1993, 1988) and baumgardner (1993, 1990, 1987) have identified various variations like phonological, morphological, lexical, including ditransitive verb complementation related to pe but which are not only based on intuition and these findings are comprised of limited data and samples (aziz & mahmood, 2012). as many studies (malchukov, haspelmath, & comrie, 2010; boyadzhieva, 2009) notified that ditransitive complementation includes three arguments: the first one is an agent argument (a), the second one is a recipient-like argument (r), and the last one is a theme argument (t). e.g. abid (a) sent hamid (r) a letter (t). above sentence shows that the ditransitive keeps double objects in which the first object is defined as indirect object which is mentioned as beneficiary in the sentence whereas the second object is defined as the direct object which makes complete sense of the sentence. furthermore, it is vindicated by pastor (2009) that language variation takes place due to the use of english as a lingua franca. language variation enriches international language as it is used by international writers and it also makes possible to convey one concept in different ways. also, he asserts that language variation is caused by the influence of mother tongue as nonnative writers and speakers transmit their own language model when they write and speak in the target language (pastor, 2002; 2005; 2007). newman (1996) states that the objects are to be moved between agents while using ditransitive verb. in this regard, qi (2013) advocates that ditransitive verbs make possible two types of constructions viz. the double object construction (doc) and the prepositional dative construction (dat). additionally, ditransitive verb may change sentence into three types of passive structures (boyadzhieva, 2009). conversely, since editorial guidelines do not allow researchers to follow up language variation, nonnative writers face severe difficulty when they write research papers. they revise several times their write-up, so that their work may meet with the required standards in the international style of journals leaded by american and british committees (pastor, 2009). similarly, another study university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 52 carrió-pastor (2013) identifies the factors which cause linguistic variation in which the linguistic background of the writers and mother tongue of the nonnative speakers and writes are the dominant. the following section discusses objectives of the study. 1.2 objective/s the present paper investigates the deviations of ditransitive verb complementation between pe and be using pe newspapers, dailies and weekly, so that the new researchers may get better understanding about ditransitive verb deviations. 1.3 research questions rq1: what are ditransitive verb deviations between pakistani english and british english using pakistani english print media? 2. review of literature 2.1 pakistani english and british english world englishes as a separate discipline of studies of issues in applied linguistics makes vivid that the varieties of english are caused by the sociocultural, religious, political and historical dimensions of the world (crystal, 1999; kachru, 1990). these varieties of english vary in terms of phonetics, lexemes, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. an indian linguist, kachru (1990) classified world englishes into three layers by giving the title of three concentric circles in which the inner circle is comprised of these countries (e.g., the usa, the uk, australia, etc.) whereas the outer circle is comprised of these countries (e.g., bangladesh, pakistan, india, etc.) and the expanding circles is comprised of these countries (e.g., china, egypt, japan, saudi arabia, etc.). moreover, the countries in the model of three concentric circles were sorted out in terms of the geographical representation as well as sociopolitical and historical background. as the inner circle covers such countries where english is used as their first language and they are the ‘normproviding’ countries whereas the outer circle covers such countries which were ex-colonies of the uk or the usa and therein english is used as official language and is spoken as well as learned outside of classroom due to its privilege in the domains of power and unlike previous two circles, the expanding circle covers such countries which are not ex-colonies of british raja and therein english is only taught as a subject not as a language; besides, they are not encouraged to talk in english outside of classroom (kirkpatrick, 2007). the diagram of concentric circles is given below: university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 53 concentric circle model (kachru, 1992) kachru (2005) and other peripheral linguists (dissanagake, 1997; thumboo, 1992) have acknowledged the presence of world englishes and they claim that all the existing varieties of english differ from one another with respect to these features: phonology, lexemes, semantics, grammar, morphology, discourse structures, registers, styles, and syntactic representation. in the same manner, it is stated that englishisation does not only cover phonological and lexical deviations, but it also covers grammar, discourse registers, styles, and genres of english world literature (kachru, 2006). having considered world englishes, pe and be differ from each other at both the sentential and clausal level (mahboob, 2003). mehboob also identifies that pe and be englishes vary from each other in terms of word-order at the sentential level likewise vary from each other in terms of the rules of complementation at the clausal level. 2.2 complementation as a syntactic and grammatical aspect many researchers have investigated various deviations between pe and be namely, phonologically, morphologically, semantically, grammatically, syntactically, style, and registers (baumgardner, 1987; uzair, mahmood, & khan, 2012). complements with respect to valency theory (ágel, & fischer, 2009; herbst , heath, roe, & götz, 2004), subject agrees with the verb with respect to the number and type of elements; so that, to form grammatically correct sentence. in the same manner, homberger (2001) delineates that the valency theory emphasizes that the verb plays a fundamental role in every sentence to make grammatically well-formed structure as it decides how many other words can make sentence correct. the complements are usually classified into two categories: nominal complements and clausal complements. nominal complements are based on noun phrases whereas clausal complements are based on wh-clauses or to-infinitives (salonen, 2009). moreover, quirk, leech, and svartvik (1985) proposed four main types of verb complementation: i. copular, ii. monotransitive, iii. complex transitive and iv. ditransitive. ditransitive complementation is seen such sentences which keep two objects: direct and indirect object. the indirect object precedes direct object and direct object complements indirect in such sentences. for example: a) they taught the new student [indirect object] english grammar [direct object]., b). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 54 they taught english grammar [direct object] to the new students [prep. ph]. furthermore, baumgardener (1993) examined three structures of the be ditransitive complementation: (a) indirect object keeps prepositional object, (b) indirect object keeps that clause object and (c) prepositional phrase idiom. 3. research methodology the present research uses descriptive-qualitative research approach. as per the nature of research method, the study collected samples from pakistani print media english and thereby the empirical data findings were analyzed, described, compared, interpreted and explained objectively. having considered research method in view, the present study has employed convenience sampling for data collection. according to dörnyei (2007), this nonrandom type of sampling draws such participants who are eager to participate, available at the given time, timely reachable, and meeting to the nature of the study. besides, this sampling type is also known as accidental sampling. pakistani print media english that is comprised of: pe newspapers, dailies, magazines and weeklies. the research sample includes: international the news (in), dawn young world (dyw), us magazine: international the news (uin), business recorder (br), roshni magazine (rm) as the purpose behind the usage of abovementioned sources is to provide the most convenient, updated and efficient data to generate a thorough account of the ditransitive verb complementation. a sample of 48 statements (n=48) is collected from one newspaper, six daily magazines and two weekly magazines of pe. conversely, the study identifies only 8 (n=8) sentences out of the 48 sentences which are distributed according to the three patterns of ditransitive complementation of be, three by three patterns suit to the first two patterns and last remaining suit to the third pattern. in order to make comparison, the statements are transformed into be as well; besides, the data is analyzed through comparative analysis. the next section discusses data analysis and discussion. 4. data analysis and discussion using comparative analysis, the study employed three patterns about the be ditransitive complementation by baumgardener (1993), through these patterns the identified sentences are compared in order to make clear ditransitive verb deviations between pe and be. the patterns are: (a) indirect object holding prepositional object, (b) indirect object holding that clause object, and (c) prepositional phrase idiom (ibid, 1993). as the study retrieved (n=8) statements out of (n=48) statements although (n=8) statements were divided into three sections as per the number of patterns ditransitive verb of be. the first two sections carried out three statements (n=3) in each and the third section comprised of two statements (n=2) from the pe print media. moreover, the coding used for representing print media sources viz. international the news (in), dawn newspaper (dn), dawn young world (dyw), us magazine: international the news (uin), business recorder (br), roshni magazine (rm). the table 1 shows below the distribution of drawn sample: table 1: distribution of the drawn sample university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 55 total number of drawn samples from pe print media drawn sample for pattern 1 drawn sample for pattern 1 drawn sample for pattern 1 total number of the drawn sample discard sample n=48 n=3 n=3 n=2 n=8 n=40 representing pattern 1, figure 1 shows the total number of the drawn sample from pe print media, number of the selected sample and discarded sample, as follows: figure 1: data distribution for pattern 1 having considered the first pattern of be, the study could retrieve only (n=3) statements out of (n=48) statements which verified that the pe has got different syntactic representation from be. moreover, the drawn samples are also changed into be ditransitive verb in order to make a reasonable comparison, as follows: 1. pe: this potentially allows incumbents to qualify both modules with a and b within a span of six months; hence, it is called a fast track system. (in, 6 february 2015) be: this potentially allows incumbents from qualifying both modules with a and b within a span of six months; hence, it is called a fast track system. 2. pe: he became the seventh pakistani to score a century in both innings of a test match. (dn, 26 october, 2014) be: he became the seventh pakistani for scoring a century in both innings of a test match. 3. pe: siraj provides five-points formula to end crisis. (in, 15 august, 2014) be: siraj provides five-points formula for ending crisis. above findings show that the syntactic structure of pe varies from be in terms of ditransitive verb as pe keeps subject + verb + indirect object + infinitive phrase whereas be keeps subject + verb + indirect object + prepositional phrase. this type of variation makes pe different from be 48 3 45 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 total number of drawn sample selected sample discarded smaple data distributtion for pattern 1 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 56 with respect to first pattern of be which shows that the varieties of english differ from one another in terms of multiple aspects: phonologically, lexically, pragmatically, and equally syntactically. finally, this may be deduced through above findings that english varieties vary from one another from time to time, place to place and culture to culture and whatever language variations are found in pe are also genuine and reasonable. moreover, such variations cannot alienate pe from be, but these variations are also confirmed by various linguists. conversely, in accordance with the second pattern of be, the study finds following sentences from the selected pe print media in order to show syntactic variation. moreover, identified sentences are also changed into be so as to clarify deviations between pe and be. representing pattern 2, figure 2 shows the total number of the drawn sample from pe print media, number of the selected sample and discarded sample, as follows: figure 2: data distribution for pattern 2 the samples for pattern 2 are given below: 1. pe: the non-profit nature ensures (ɸ) that the field is also considered to be among the most economical ones in the country. (uin, 6 february, 2015) be: the non-profit nature ensures us that the field is also considered to be among the most economical ones in the country. 2. pe: he said (ɸ) that these decisions would be taken in islamabad. (in, 15 august, 2014) be: he said us that these decisions would be taken in islamabad. 3. pe: pervaiz khattak said (ɸ) that the punjab government had made the life of citizens miserable for the last few days by blocking entire roads. (in, 15 august, 2014) be: pervaiz khattak said us that the punjab government had made the life of citizens miserable for the last few days by blocking entire roads. when using ditransitive verbs, above examples show that the pe frequently omits indirect object before that clause which is represented by this symbol (ɸ) whereas be always puts indirect object 48 3 45 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 total number of drawn sample selected sample discarded smaple data distributtion for pattern 2 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 57 before that clause. furthermore, this syntactic deviation between pe and be is identified and verified through the pe print media as it is the most reliable and justifiable source of information collection and it also circulates news update in written form. therefore, this study clarifies that the present world uses various varieties of english rather than one variety of english and these varieties are spoken around the world with distinctive phonological, lexical, syntactical, grammatical and discourse wise variations. additionally, findings suggest that the pe has got different sentential structure from be and this procedure may be defined as the linguistic growth of english. finally, with respect to third pattern of be, the subsequent sentences provide a comparative account in order to make clear ditransitive verb deviation. representing pattern 3, figure 3 shows the total number of the drawn sample from pe print media, number of the selected sample and discarded sample, as follows: figure 3: data distribution for pattern 3 the examples for pattern 3 are given below: 1. pe: pti continued to make deep inroads into the ppp support base. (dawn, 15 january 2015) be: pti continued no interest in making deep inroads into the ppp support base. 2. pe: allama dr tahir ul qadri wanted to bring about a revolution by wrapping up the current system and he too reminded stack to his ambition while leading his march. (in, 15 august, 2014) be: allama dr tahir ul qadri wanted some backup in bringing about a revolution by wrapping up the current system and he too reminded stack to his ambition while leading his march. above samples have showed that the pe has got different syntactic structure from be in terms of ditransitive verbs. pe uses infinitive phrase in place of preposition and gerund idioms although this type of variation between pe and be verifies ditransitive verb complementation. structural representation of pe is: s + v + to infinitive whereas be has got this structure: s + v + indirect object + prepositional idiom. 48 2 46 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 total number of drawn sample selected sample discarded smaple data distributtion for pattern 3 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 58 finally, the present study identifies these three varying patterns of pe: (a) indirect object plus to infinitive phrase, (b) indirect object will be omitted whereas that clause object will remain the same, and (c) to infinitive will substitute prepositional phrase idiom. 5. delimitations the present study identifies these delimitations: firstly, the sample size is quite small which requires ten statements for each pattern and the pakistani print media sources need to be increased. secondly, there may be drawn british print media sources so that first-hand information may be collected. thirdly, the study has only compared pe with be using analytical discussion, tables and figures rather than using data analysis tools and software namely, claws7 tagger, british english 2006 (be06), corpus query processor web (cqpweb) to validate research data. in addition, this research endeavor might be more feasible and more effective when the researcher conducts other related variations such as: dative. nevertheless, the results of the study can be practicable for further studies between pe and be. 6. conclusion throughout the present study, findings emerged with the interpretation that pe varies from be in terms of ditransitive complementation. this study also confirms the findings of the earlier studies (baumgardner, 1993, mehboob, 2003) regarding ditransitive complementation. although, a set of three patterns of be ditransitive verb complementation given by (ibid., 1993) used for the purpose of identifying and proving specific type of deviation between pe and be. with this regard, the adapted patterns highly assisted in the research procedure as: first of all, pe uses infinitive phrase at the place of the direct object and that makes deviation between two considered varieties of english; at the second place, in pe indirect object is omitted and that clause remains the same between the two compared varieties of english; and at the third place, in pe sentence structure infinitive phrase is utilized instead of indirect object and prepositional idiom. in conclusion, the results have showed that both varieties of english differ at the sentential level as well as intersentential level. moreover, this study has also opened door for the new researchers to investigate the forthcoming language change and development between aforementioned varieties of english. references ágel, v., & fischer, k. (2009). dependency grammar and valency theory. in the oxford handbook of linguistic analysis. aziz, m, s. & mahmood, a. (2012). ditransitive verbs: a corpus based comparison of pakistani and british written english. wulfenia journal klagenfurt, austria, 19(11). baumgardner, r. j. (1987). utilizing pakistani newspaper english to teach grammar. world englishes, 6(3), 241-252. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 59 baumgardner, r. j. (1990). the indigenization of english in pakistan. english today, 6(1), 59-65. baumgardner, r. j. (1993). the english language in pakistan. oxford university press, usa. baumgardner, r. j., kennedy, a. e., & shamim, f. (1993). the urduization of english in pakistan. the english language in pakistan, 83-203. boyadzhieva, e. (2009). ditransitives and their arguments in modern english. езиков свят-orbis linguarum, (2), 218-227. carrio, p. m. 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(2009). the complements of the verb hesitate from the 18th century to the present day (master's thesis). university of tampere, finland. uzair, m., mahmood, a., & khan, u. (2012). impact of lexical deviations in pakistani english newspapers on the language of their readers: a gender-wise analysis. international journal of business and social science, 3(5), 181-186. yule, g. (2016). the study of language. cambridge university press. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 14 pashtun images in contemporary pakistani fiction in english syed hanif rasool department of english, khushal khan khattak university, karak, pakistan jehangir khan department of english, opf boys college, islamabad, pakistan abstract living in an area that has long been a battlefield where various world powers have often been at loggerheads, pashtuns have frequently drawn the attention of several works of fiction. yet literary scholars have largely ignored the importance of these works of fiction looking into the lives of pashtuns. this paper proposes that from the times of the cold war to those of the war on terror, pashtun identities have been clouded by the hegemonic discourses of the contesting global powers, leading to gaps and silences in their depiction in literature.this paper argues that the pashtun images in contemporary pakistani fiction in english exhibit strong influences of the dominating narratives; simultaneously, however, they seem to offer various patterns of subversion of the prevailing power narratives. despite the fact that pashtuns are generally regarded as the most subversive people of south asia and that their lands have been regarded significant strategically as well as geographically, yet they are portrayed as the others of the mainstream cultural discourses. this paper aims to highlight the contours of the socio-cultural and political valuation of pashtuns in contemporary pakistani fiction in english. keywords: pashtun images, prevailing discourses, power narratives, contemporary pakistani fiction in english, subversive. (i) from the great game between the british colonizers and tsarist russians, and from the cold war between the capitalist americans and stalinist soviets down to the war on terror between the west and various afghan militant groups, the areas dominated by pashtuns have often been used as battlegrounds where various powers and ideologies have competed for dominance. within various disciplines of knowledge, there have been renewed concerns about the historical, political, and social conditions of pashtuns in south asia. quite understandably in literature as well as in art, pashtuns have attracted the attention of british, american and south asian writers of various national backgrounds both from east and west. since literature is a human construct inclusive of intellectual, aesthetic, emotional, psychological, social, cultural, political and historical endeavors, it influences and is influenced by the currents and concepts of time and clime, i.e. when and where it is produced. inevitably, it is often influenced by multiple discourses triggered by historical, cultural, social, political and economic factors. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 15 history, as gregory quotes foucault, is both unstable, un-purposive and therefore is in a continuous flux keeping the shifts in power relations through power discourses shaping and interpreting the human experiences (129-34). literary texts “are embedded in specific relations of power” and “systems of public signification” (greenblatt, 5). this interaction of the literary text and history generates ‘tremendous social energy which circulates through the entire cultural space and makes the circumambient surrounding resonate with multiple echoes’ (kar, 75-83). thus a literary work is transformed ‘into a dynamic mode of cultural resonance’ (kar, 75-83). greenblatt considers great art ‘an extraordinarily sensitive register of complex struggles and harmonies of culture’ (6). but ‘a canonical author contains in his work the dominant ideology of his culture as well as subverts that ideology from within’ (kar, 75-83). it is from this standpoint that this paper surveys the contemporary pakistani fiction in english written between the end of the cold war and the start of the war on terror. it aims to trace the working of the prevailing discourses and ideology on their depiction of pashtuns. this paper hypothesizes that the complex web of the global power discourses mainly prevailing between the aforementioned two wars, the social, political, and cultural agendas of the contesting powers and the historical circumstances and dimensions have strongly influenced the pashtun images in contemporary pakistani fiction in english. it thus attempts to investigate how and to what extent contemporary pakistani fiction in english substantially depicts the aforesaid patterns of pashtun images. (ii) both obvious and subtle links exist between contemporary pakistani english fiction and the prevailing socio-political milieu and the dominant ideological systems. three distinct backgrounds have put a major impact on shaping pashtun images: first, the british imperialist entanglements in south and central asia and the british raj in india; second, the cold war and afghan jihad; third, the so-called war on terror. consequently, pashtun images are overshadowed by their specific socio-political milieus and further their depiction is maneuvered and manipulated by the power struggle in the pashtun land since the very inception of the great game down to the so-called war on terror. there has been a generally hostile attitude towards pashtuns in both western and south asian historiography. however, contemporary pakistani fiction in english tackles to fill this gap to a certain extent. in the post 9/11 literary scenario, several pakistani fiction writers have attempted to explore and understand the issues of pashtuns and the conditions which prevail in their lands. likewise, there has been a general stereotyping about the subversive behaviour of pashtun both in western and south asian english fiction which mainly subscribes to the prevailing discourses. however, contemporary pakistani fiction in english explores new meanings and contours in their subversive role. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 16 western english fiction, betraying a hegemonic mindset, approaches pashtun regions and pashtun character with an orientalist perspective and generally produces stereotyped pashtuns images. fiction on pashtuns is either set in pashtun-majority areas like fata, khyber pakhtunkhwa, balochistan and afghanistan constructing wishful pashtun images and characters. generally, english fiction explores the lives of pashtuns making two broad categories; first, novels authored by western writers like rudyard kipling, andrea busfield, james a. michener, robert warburton, kay hamilton, and joseph kessel; second, novels written by south asian writers like riaz hassan, khalid hosseini, kamila shamsie, fatima bhutto, shahi sadat, atiqrahimi, siamawahab, latifa, nadia hashmi, atiyaabawi, saira shah, yasmin khadra, timerimurari, jamil ahmad, ghulam qader khan, and nadeem aslam. the western writers envision pashtuns through a typical orientalist romantic approach. this approach is sometimes copied by a few south asian novelist like khalid hosseini. the earliest mention of a pashtun in english literature seems to have been made by rudyard kipling's 'the man who would be king' (1891) wherein the main character dravot addresses a pashtun in these words: ‘you're white people sons of alexander and not like common, black mohammedans’(1914). kipling compares an afridi pashtun and an english soldier, for their gallantry and chivalry, in a famous poem 'the ballad of east and west' in which he says: oh, east is east and west is west, and never the twain shall meet, till earth and sky stand presently at god's great judgment seat; but there is neither east nor west, border nor breed, nor birth, when two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth! (245) since kipling’s writing till the cold war, novelists rarely attempted to investigate pashtun images. however, in the 1980s, during the afghan jihad and later during the war on terror, the literary world has seen a remarkable boom in both fictional and non-fictional memoirs on pashtun regions and pashtun identity. in the post 9/11 contemporary pakistani english fiction, authors have betrayed an even greater interest in depicting pashtun images and character. despite the fact that non-literary works exploring pashtun territories and people are abundant and varied, there is a dearth of literary explorations and research of pashtuns’ lives and their struggles in english literature. quite understandably, academic investigations of the issues of pashtun representations in both western and south asian english literature is rare. keeping in mind this gap in pashtun studies, it is significant that the available creative writings on pashtuns in english should be explored from various perspectives. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 17 (iii) the present study analyses pashtun images in the following novels dealing with pashtun characters and locales; riaz hassan’ s the unchosen (1988), nadeem aslam’ s thewasted vigil (2008) jamil ahmad’s the wandering falcon (2011), fatima bhutto’ s the shadow of the crescent moon (2013), kamila shamsie’ s a god in every stone (2014), ghulam qadar khan’ s cheegha, the call (2014) and khalid muhammad’ s agency rules (2014). riaz hassan’ s the unchosen (2003) is perhaps the first novel set entirely in the pashtun tribal belt between pakistan and afghanistan. as has been pointed out by a renowned pakistani scholar and literary critic sajjadhaider malik, pashtuns have been ‘threatened by war and extinction’ for the last three decades (malik). interestingly, the novel attempts to explore the theme of existence from the standpoint of history and sort it in the story of ‘ “a defeated but unbowed” pashtun who dared to refuse’ to accept the predicament as judgment of history in the closing years of the 19th century (malik). the novel discloses some layers of the covert moves on the chessboard of the great game between the tsarist russians and the british colonists in the mid -19th century. the plot delineates the armed struggle of pashtuns against the british raj. although quite neglected by literary critics so far, theunchosen investigates a significant theme of pashtun character and territory during the british raj. highlighting the traditional subversive role of pashtuns, hassan refutes the british romantic representation of pashtuns of the north west frontier of india by telling a realistic tale of both pashtun characters caught between the bonds of tribal domesticity and anti-british resistance. however, despite being realistic, hassan portrays the stereotype image of a miserable pashtun woman considered a commodity and a human being with sensibility and emotions. overall, the novel realistically depicts the oppressed conditions of pashtun tribal women as doubly marginalized as any other woman in rural pakistan. nadeem aslam’s the wasted vigil explores the plights of the common people whose lives were plagued by the cold war and the war on terror. aslam explicates not only both the wars have brutally affected the lives of the innocent human beings but also they have brought an unprecedented damage to the historical and cultural treasures of the pashtun regions. set in the age of war and terror, the vigil unfolds the tales of love in a village in afghanistan named usha suggesting a pashto word ushkai.e. a teardrop. negotiating between love and war, the novel investigates the contrasting aspects of human endeavors through the characters belonging to the contesting global powers i.e. the us and the ussr fighting their wars in afghanistan, corrupting the history and culture of pashtuns. the vigil depicts how these alien warfare hasdemonised the pashtuns and have turned their territory in shambles. taking the explosive realities of both the wars, the novel navigates the war-torn afghanistan bringing the devastation and unflinching miseries of pashtuns, revealing the pain and anguish in words, aslam paints deadly images in the following words; university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 18 the explosion has created static and a spark leaps from his thumb towards a smoking fragment of metal flying past him. then he is on the ground. beside him has landed a child’s wooden leg, in flames, the leather straps burning with a different intensity than the wood, than the bright blood –seeping flesh of the severed thigh that is still attached. a woman in a burka on fire crosses his vision. he hears nothing and then slowly, as he gets to his feet in the midst of this war of the end of the world, scream soldered onto scream. he thinks the silence was the result of momentary deafness but the survivors had in all probability needed time to comprehend fully what had just taken place. (72) jamil ahmad’s the wandering falcon (2011) is set in the tribal belt of balochistan and fata. it paints some of the most unforgettable pictures from the lives of the tribal pashtuns and baluchis. the novel investigates the meaning of traditional social code of conduct called pashtunwali. human images are as vividly drawn as those of the landscape. the novel dovetails a realistic depiction of the people and places with a poetic form of prose. it unearths the subtleties of the tribal culture its harshness and hardship. no matter how inhospitable the lands and territories of pashtun and baloch tribes may appear in the novel, the emotions and feelings of these miserable tribes are delicately hospitable and obviously humble. depicting the tribal landscape, jamil uses vivid imagery of people and their conditions. ahmad’s tales revolve around tor baz, a young boy who according to the author lives like a wandering falcon. he calls him tor baz meaning ‘black falcon’(68). orphaned and homeless at the age of five, tor baz is ‘cared for by different people’ and yet ‘he has no desire to reclaim his family or history’(m. shamsie 510-11). the very first sentence of the novel combines vivid imagery with poetic prose that suits that freedom loving spirit of the tribal people and their land: ‘in the tangle of crumbling, weather-beaten and broken hills, where the borders of iran, pakistan, and afghanistan meet, is a military outpost manned by about two score soldiers’ (ahmad 1). the harsh life of tribal tor baz parallels the hard landscape which bears ‘no habitation’ and ‘no vegetation’ and ‘no water’ and ‘nature has not remained content merely at this’ because she has also created ‘the dreaded’ wind that blows ‘clouds of alkali-laden dust and sand so thick that men can merely breathe or open their eyes when they happen to get caught in it’ (ahmad 1). fatima bhutto’s the shadow of the crescent moon (2013) is also set in the tribal belt of waziristan, the mountains inhabited by some of the most warring independent pashtun tribes. it narrates the story of three brothers desirous to live ordinary lives against the winds of extraordinary conditions. curiously enough, bhutto depicts the domestic lives of wazir tribes in a rather non-tribal way. in her novel the tribal characters seem to be like pictures taken from an urban background and pasted against a tribal landscape. although the novel presents a somewhat imaginary domestic life of a family hardly representing the tribal realities of waziristan, yet it portrays war actualities substantially. caught between personal love and tribal warfare, the three brothers want to explore the meaning of their tribal lives. they are faced with a big question of survival and existence in university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 19 the mercury world of waziristan where life frequently meets unpredictable and unexpected situations and tragedies. waziristan has turned into a quagmire in which they are destined to sink deeper and deeper. their routine lives are swept by the devastating circumstances dictated by glocal1 hegemonic power discourses. these discourses have changed the role of religion in mir ali, a nexus of all such machinations the tribal region. ‘religion crept into the town’s rocky terrain like the wild flowers that grew quietly where no gross ought to have grown, you chose your mosque carefully’ (bhutto 2). kamila shamsie in a god in every stone (2014) spans over vast periods of time, in one of which she portrays some aspects of pashtun identity and region, reinforcing the historical the importance of pashtun as a race. setting some parts of her novel in the historical city of peshawar. she foregrounds the importance of pathan resistance under the banner of the red shirts or khudai khidmatgars (the servants of god). led by khan abdul ghaffar khan, lovingly called by his people bacha khan, the red shirts movement played a significant role in giving a non-violent character to the pashtun struggle against the british raj. the novel places pashtuns against the backdrop of a wider scenario dominated by the global powers during the first two decades of the twentieth century. the story dovetails its themes at two layers: on the surface floats friendship, love, and betrayal, but under the surface rules huge messy historical chaos entailing tension between the british empire and the pashtuns. swinging back and forth in time, shamsie’s narrative unearths subtleties of life from history. with an exquisite eloquence, she explores pashtun region against the vast geopolitical conflicts of our contemporary world. in one of her interviews about a god in every stone, shamsie highlights how and why she chose to excavate pashtuns identity and region. she says she was shocked to discover that for mainstream pakistani imagination, peshawar and its people were as alien as the two had been for kipling who had called peshawar ‘the frontier town’. it was to deconstruct this mainstream pakistani imagination that she decided to begin the novel in peshawar. she shuttles across time and place to evoke subtle pashtun images of friendship, freedom, and war. through her fictional world, shamsie brings forth the non-violent image of pashtuns and shows the world a novel face of the unarmed pashtun who were butchered by the british in 1930s in the historic qissa khwani bazaar right in the heart of peshawar. it was then when the british empire washed the streets of peshawar with the blood of pashtun khudai khidmatgars. peshawar itself surfaces as a character in a god in every stone. conscious of peshawar’s place as ‘the city’ and not ‘a city’ in pashtuns’ imagination, shamsie plaits with great finesse the city’s story with history and archeology. she traces the history of caspatyrus (today’s peshawar) in the land of paktyike (today’s pakteeka) as ‘the edge of darius ‘empire, edge of the known world . . . the doorway to glory’ (shamsie 8). shamsie weaves these historical references to the peshawar of the british raj in the first world war and furthermore specifically connects the city’s role to university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 20 unarmed resistance of khudai khidmatgars in the streets of peshawar in 1930s. interrelating some mysterious aspects from the classical persian and greek eras down to the beginning of the twentieth century. shamsie bridges europe and peshawar through the troika of a western woman and two pashtun brothers from peshawar: vivian spencer, najeeb gul and qayum gul. the fictional narrative is skillfully peppered with factual data such as letters, documents, reports, diaries and artifacts to excavate the subversive role of pashtuns against the british empire. ghulam qadar khan’ s cheegha, the call (2014) is a story about waziristan. the novel quests for sustainable peace in a region ruled and ruined by militancy and terrorism since the days of the afghan jihad. cheegha offers a window on the realities of a land still greatly romanticized in mainstream and national imagination. in the wake of 9/11, the world has generally associated the land with violence and brutality. khan delineates the story of common tribal folks whose love, betrayal, happiness, misery, romance, ideals are the same as those of the developed and civilized world. cheegha reveals the unexplored impressions and images of the marginalised tribal pashtuns and their untrodden lands. according to merisi angelina, the region is overwhelmingly seen through orientalist and hegemonic discourses manufactured primarily in the powerhouses of western academia. narratives subscribing to the global power players overshadow and bypass ‘the true nature, cultural and traditional norms practiced and developed in these lands over thousands of years’ (the pashtun times). according to her, the pashtun tribes and their lands have suffered an unending militancy, aerial bombardment, devastation of infrastructure, deaths and displacement of thousands of people. ironically enough, the ‘blatant abandonment of the people by state powers’ and the ban on the ‘scholars and journalists attempting to unravel the truth or verify accounts concerning ground realities’ further leave ‘the world with a one-sided, largely misinformed version of accounts’ (the pashtun times). angeline further maintains cheegha’s‘firsthand account’ of the region offeringa sharp glimpse into ‘the mysterious lands of waziristan’ (the pashtun times). the novel presents us a ‘comprehensive analysis of traditional socio-cultural norms and intrinsic features of tribal society, set within the context of recent historical events culminating in the factors which led to the current volatile state of affairs in the region’ (the pashtun times). there is an undercurrent seriousness that moves alongside the story of the novel. the straightforwardness of the narrative and the description of author’s experiences and his opinions turn the novel into a memoir. nevertheless, the novel bears ‘an overwhelming sense of injustice, hardship and betrayal that echoes through the pages, imposed on the people of waziristan by state and non-state actors supported by figures the author categorizes as “faceless people” ’ (the pashtun times). for the western world, waziristan represents a conundrum associated generally with violence and terror. drone attacks, suicide bombers, jihadis, and the army play their games, yet locals are unable university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 21 to understand the nexus of this nasty game. cheegha confronts the readers with the real conditions of waziristan which are generally harsh and unbearable. it connects us to the beating heart of the pashtun tribal society. of all the other novels written on/about waziristan and tribal areas, cheegha is unusual in that it is written by the author who himself belongs to the area. thus cheegha is a unique amalgam of experience and art and gives a fictional voice to the tribal pashtuns. muhammad khalid’s agency rules is a spy thriller. perhaps the first contribution by a pakistani author to this subgenre of fiction and although not exclusively set in the pashtun lands, a large part of the story relates to the pashtuns. deeply soaked in the most recent political history of pakistan, agency rules attempts to voice pakistan's popular counter perspective on war on terror. speaking to faizan hussain in an interview, muhammad khalid said that the story of the novel was unearthed from the recent strategic and political history of the country (the nation). agency rules gives quite convincing answers to some of the most important and difficult questions about the afghan jihad and war on terror, excavating the meaning of militant sanctuaries across the entire belt of bajaur, khyber, mohmand and waziristan. (iv) although lying at the centre of an area jealously sought for control by rival global powers, pashtuns have suffered long periods of wars and exploitations. their histories and politics have been explored by various scholars. several creative authors have also attempted to investigate pashtun lives and territories in various novels. however, literary scholars have rarely attempted to explore fictional representations more importantly their sufferings and miseries reflected in fiction have generally been overlooked by critics of literature. this study has attempted to fill some of this gap by investigating various forms of fictional representations of pashtuns and their landscape. whereas some novelists like khalid hosseini subscribe to the west’s hegemonic perspectives on pashtun culture and identity, many pakistani novelists in english largely subvert the western narrative by reimagining pashtuns and their territory. the novels authored by riaz hassan, nadeem aslam, jamil ahmad, fatima bhutto, kamila shamsie, ghulam qader khan, and muhammad khalid attempt to give more realistic depictions of pashtuns. works cited ahmad, jamil, the wandering falcon, haryana: penguin books, 2011 aslam, nadeem, the wasted vigil, noida: random house india, 2012 bhutto, fatima. the shadow of the crescent moon, london: penguin books, 2013 greenblatt, stephen j. renaissance self-fashioning: from more to shakespeare. chicago: chicago university press, 1980. __________, “resonance and wonder” in learning to curse essays in early modern literature, new york: routledge, 1990 gregory, castle. the blackwell guide to literary theory, malden: blackwell publishing, 2007 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 22 hall, e. donald. literary and cultural theory, australia: heinle cengage learning, 2001 hanif, muhammad, “‘the wasted vigil’, by nadeem aslam, lovers in the minefield” the independent, september 11, 2008http://www.independent.co.uk/arts entertainment/books/reviews/the-wasted-vigil-by-nadeem-aslam-5469154.html 10/03/2017 hassan, riaz, the unchosen, san jose: writers club press, 2002 hussain, faizan. “sneak peek into khalid muhammad's second novel.” the nation, the nation, 2 nov. 2015, nation.com.pk/01-nov-2015/sneak-peek-into-khalid-muhammad-ssecondnovel. kar, c. prafulla. “new historicism and the interpretation of the text” in studies in humanities and social sciences, vol. ii, no. 1 1995 “kamila shamsie | 'a god in every stone' | asia house bagri foundation literature festival 2014.” youtube, youtube, 12 may 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhovmefxa4c. kipling, r., kim. london: macmillan & co ltd, 1960 (1st ed. 1901). ________. the collected poems of rudyard kipling hertfordshire: wordsworth poetry society, 1994 ________. under the deodars, the phantom rickshaw, wee willie winkie london: macmillan & co. 1914 kumar, gajendra. indian english novel: text and context. delhi: sarup and sons, 2000 merisi, angelina, “cheegha: the call from waziristan, the last outpost” the pashtun times, http://thepashtuntimes.com/cheegha-the-call-from-waziristan-the-last-outpostbyangelina-merisi1/10/2017 malik, sajjad, haider, “‘the unchosen’ _a timely tale” the news, islamabad, march 10, 2003 muhammad khalid, the agency rules, karachi: dead drop books, 2014 ________.”an insight into agency rules”, interviewed by hussain, faizan, the nation, 25 july, 2015(online newspaper) majeed, fatima, “‘the wandering falcon’: understanding baluchistan, the literary way” the express tribune blog, august 30, 2014https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/23847/thewandering-falcon-understandingbalochistan-the-literary-way reiterated on 2/10/2017 shamsie, kamila.a god in every stone, london: bloomsbury, 2014 shamsie, muneeza. hybrid tapestries, the development of pakistani literature in english, karachi: oxford university press, 2017 tyson, lois. critical theory today, (second edition), new york: routledge, 2006 @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 46 matrimonial failure in george eliot’s middlemarch: through the perspective of social exchange theory naveed-ur-rehman subject specialist in english, education department, kpk, pakistan abstract this paper aims at to analyze the causes of matrimonial failure in george eliot’s middlemarch among the central couples: casaubon and dorothea and dr. lydgate and rosamond _ by applying social exchange theory and its principles (rewards and costs, comparison level, relational resources, trust and commitment and marital solidarity), through which their causes of failure of conjugal relationship are meticulously analyzed, and not fulfilling of these cause failure and fragility in central marriages in the novel. keywords: casaubon, dorothea, lydgate, rosamond, matrimonial failure, middlemarch, social exchange theory introduction human relationship is one of the main themes of george eliot’s middlemarch. in this novel, social exchange drives human relationship, particularly matrimonial relationship, in which social exchange shapes success and failure of matrimonial relationship. in the novel, three central newly marriages take place: dorothea and casaubon, rosamond and dr. lydgate and fred and mary garth. the former two marriages dominates the story in shape of exchange of rewards and costs; the latter ends the novel with the exemplary marital relationship with each other. the motives of the protagonists’ marital relationships are exclusively driven by economical and material pursuit rather than social and emotional ones; their happiness and satisfaction depend upon the fulfillment of these motives. although married romantically in the beginning, but their romance soon fade away; for romance is the charade in order to pave way to material and social gain. thus, their conjugal relationships are devoid of emotional attachment, mutual dependency, responsibility and care. social exchange theory covers all such social exchange in marital relationship in the novel. the institution of marriage has been evaluated and changed in different periods of history. in victorian age, it got the peculiar attraction of victorian writers, worrying about the diverse attitude about marriage. writers like corelli and mona alison caird (1898), point out that issues regarding marriage were not resolved. according to them, marriage was the woman’s divine purpose in life but reduced to business and bargaining. they argued in "the modern marriage market," that “mothers teach their daughters to marry for a 'suitable establishment': fathers rendered desperate as to what they are to do with their sons in the increasing struggle for life . . . say, 'look out for a woman with money'" (30). but they saw affection and sacredness at a loss and romantic ideal impossible to be achieved. such exploitation of romantic ideal can be seen in many victorian novels, remarkably in those of charlotte bronte and george eliot. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 47 george eliot portrays several marriages in british community in middlemarch. she examines prudently the lives of characters from different sections of victorian society. she aims at to highlight common problems that happen in the novel’s marriages. the novel shows the several issues related to marriage: expectation, fantasies, age-disparity, communication and status between marital partners. in this novel, views of a characters about himself and spouses set the ground for success or failure of marriage. weiss (1984) argues that most of the marriages in this novel do not success rather fails, and this presents the irony in a period when marriage was viewed to be the solution of every problems (67). graver (1984) opines that the reason behind the demise and decline of marriages of lydgate and casaubon is “the absence of any real identity of interests”(56) it was apparent in the victorian society that marriages was considered to be the real essence for both genders. writers questioned the moral, social and legal foundation of marriages through different laws introduced by that time: the matrimonial causes act of 1857, the divorce act of 1857, and the married women's property act of 1870, published serially in 1871 and 1872. middlemarch deals with the delicate victorian concept of marriage that evolved. she does not follow the traditional setups to end a novel with a marriage instead she discusses issues happening within a marriage. methodology this is a pure qualitative attempt to analyze the matrimonial failure in the novel, middlemarch by george eliot. it focuses on to find out the factors behind the marital decline for which the sociological perspective has been chosen: social exchange theory. this is an innovative approach towards marital relationship as it aims at social exchanges within marital relationship. besides, it explain the development, maintenance and decay depending on the exchange process within a relationship. middlemarch deals with such exchange process in marital relationships which defines couples’ success or failure. theoretical framework theoretical framework to analyze the decline and fall in the marital relationship in the marriages in the novel middlemarch by george eliot is social exchange theory by homman and thibuat and killy. it closely examines the factors responsible for marital failure and fragility between dyadic relationships. the researcher chooses this theory as the fit, robust and viable framework that tells us how a person enters into relationship with the hope of maximizing happiness, achieving goals and identifying the status expected and minimizing costs that is time, energy and effort. social exchange theory (set) canary & zelley (2000) advocates that social exchange theory is a robust explanatory rationale for relationship maintenance. developed by thibaut and kelley (1959), social exchange theory contends that individuals make different assessments about relationship satisfaction and make different decisions about relationship commitment based on two values: rewards and costs. social exchange theory evaluates relationships based on a relatively rational approach. the theory examines the interplay and balance between the rewards an individual receives from a certain relationship and the costs that he or she expends in that relationship. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 48 the social exchange theory by thibaut and kelly (1978) emerged from economy, sociology and psychology. it was originally pioneered by george human in 1959. sociologists like blau, thibaut and kelly, and emerson contributed to the greater extent in developing it. the social exchange theory assumes that all human relationships that take place based on costs and rewards and people evaluate and seek to increase the rewards and reduce the costs and take a rational decision of whether or not to enter into a relationship. costs, the negative factors, affects exchange behaviors within a marriage, rewards are the pleasures, satisfactions, and gratifications that a person enjoys within a marriage (thibaut & kelley, 1959). social exchange theory explains that human beings inters into a relationship when they have the expectation of bringing any goodness and positive outcome (blau, 1964; thibaut & kelly, 1959). social exchange theory is a useful and practical perspective to study social exchange processes in matrimonial relationships. it seeks to explain the development, maintenance, and decay of exchange relationships on the basis of fair distribution of the rewards that marital partners obtain and the costs that they incur. discussion looking at the way how couples like casaubon and dorothea and lydgate and rosamond develop their relationships before their marriages, it may be observed that every one of them want to a have a partner with whom they could start their lives and bless their lives with as much rewards as possible. both couples do justice to each other by exchanging maximum rewards – cost in order to build net profit that is marriage. indeed, they build a solid foundation for their marital relationship by exchanging care, feeling, love, attraction and tenderness. both the parties choose one, who, according to them, could maximize their rewards and curtail costs. by maximizing rewards mean that their status, identity, decision, influence and equality be accepted. it may be wonderful to see that one partner wants to provide with much rewards and decrease the costs if any and the other party do not try to understand to reciprocate the same, and this leads to complexities and conflict in their lives. for example, in the martial relationship between casaubon and dorothea, it is the casaubon who does not exchange the rewards and costs with his wife, dorothea in the same quantity dorothea exchanges with him. similarly, it is rosamond who creates conflicts, depression and dissatisfaction for lydgate by increasing cost and disappearing the rewards. if we conclude the pre-marital stages, both marital partner display the equal distribution of rewards and costs and have high level of comparison. although, dorothea selects casaubon by refusing james as she sees him the comparison level of alternative as casaubon could be the sources of joy, happiness, satisfaction and care more that james could be. here, she misjudges james and takes casaubon as the future husband. similarly, lydgate and rosamond share the fair distribution of rewards and costs in early stagescourtship. so, both couples’ net product and outcome is marriage, which actually takes place. in middlemarch, marital partners like casaubon and dorothea and lydgate and rosamond and their motives are self-centered and individual. these motives are not made to maximize the other partner’s life instead they think that their own life should be full of such rewards. casaubon’s university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 49 motives, according to set, his rewards he expects from dorothea are that she will act like house wife and provides with satisfaction and happiness like a typical wife and a wife who will not dominate him and never challenge him in any matter. on the other hand, dorothea dreams about an ideal life with the scholar, casaubon, whom she considers a wonderful man and “very dignified … the portrait of lock...the most interesting man… a man like him providing knowledge …bring her up intellectually and direct her professionally…though only as a lamp holder” (eliot14). she imagines casaubon a person, “who was in all respects superior to her … the most distinguished-looking man” (18). moreover, she expects form him that he will raise her status by giving her an opportunity help him in book and research. lydgate and rosamond equally join casaubon and dorothea in matter of maximizing rewards. in this marital relationship, rosamond seems to be materialistic and worldly as she expect lydgate will provide her with sound life far apart from those living in middlemarch. she also expects form him that he may uplift her status and get rid of middlemarch society she despises too much. in complete contrast lydgate paints her a suitable and ideal wife for his life and sees in her the charm and compassionate nature he dreams form many years, say that ““[s]he is grace itself; she is perfectly lovely and accomplished. that is what a woman ought to be; she ought to produce the effect of exquisite music” (eliot 93). he expects form rosamond that she will make him happy, support and give him an identity in middlemarch society. this portion of the paper focuses on the continuity and decay of marital relationship through the perspective of special exchange theory. the novel mostly deals with marital problems and conflicts. after the period of golden day of marriage, both couples witness challenging circumstances which exposes their real nature and approach towards marriage and marital partner. both see the drastic decrease in rewards they expected from partners. the fluctuation in the rising and lowering rewards and costs in their marital relationship leads to constant tension and conflict which they fail to resolve. the loss of rewards and increase in costs are not at once but in sequence such as one action leads to reaction or another action. we can say that one act is responsible for another action which happens always negatively. their frustration, depression and lack of dependence on each other are due to the domination of cost which they provides with, and forgets to understand others’ rewards. casaubon mainly plays the role of destroying the rewards and causing much costs to dorothea. he does not know what dorothea expects from him. his social behavior, manner, and communication as a husband do not maximize dorothea’s rewards rather it increases her costs to alarming stage. every new change, revelation in his character depress and disturb her. marital relationship between casaubon and dorothea consists of social exchange in which costs outweigh rewards to the great extent. the net profit of their relationship suffers due to the unfair distribution of rewards and costs. marital partners with favorable rewards/ costs outcome and balanced distribution of rewards and costs are satisfied with their marriage (homans, 1974). (levinger, 1979) opines that there is no chance of separation or failure of marriage if marital partners are satisfied with marriage. in contrast, if they do not get favorable rewards, they are not university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 50 satisfied with their marriage. when rewards in marital relationship disappear, and a fair and loving behavior are not rewarded, the relationship goes on decline stage and does not stand as stable one. dorothea frequently attempts to maintain this relationship on the cost of her dreams and motives; she wants to maintain the marital solidarity by obeying and complying casaubon’s decision, priorities and wishes as she feels dependent on the marital relationship and she does not want to exit it. but we evaluate the exchange from casaubon’s side, it seems clear that he has stopped depending on the marital relationship with dorothea as he does not listen to her feeling, words and inside conflict; he is not in the position to respect her priorities and decision. by doing so he not only makes his life miserable but also of the dorothea; she is often found in “self-accusing cry” (middlemarch, 218) and “the feeling of desolation” (middlemarch, 218). her life is so tensed and depressed that “dorothea found herself plunged in tumultuous preoccupation with her present lot” (middlemarch, 219) and starts repenting of marrying him due to much costs and less rewards. a partner evaluates his or her relationship in a marriage on the basis of costs and rewards and value a relationships when it is above a comparison level, which may give him marital solidarity. comparison level is a standard representing what people feel they should receive in the way of rewards and costs from a particular relationships (thuabaut and kelly 1978); it is the lower level of rewards acceptable for the person. though it, an individual evaluate relationships. it may be determined by assessing all the known costs and rewards incurred with the relationship based on previous experience. when dorothea evaluates her marital relationship with casaubon, she feels that does not get what she expected form him and compare her present life with the past she feels dejection and depression and “a certain terror … inward fits of anger and repulsion … forlorn weariness” (middlemarch, 223)as level of comparison get lowered and declined. although comparison level is on lower stage, she decide to continue this negative relationship on the sacrifice of her rewards. according to set, when a comparison level is not high, a person either continues the relationship or terminates the relationship. comparison level for alternative is considered to be the lowest level of rewards a person accepts from alternative sources. it happens when the existing relationship does not provide the expected rewards, he or she is likely to accept this abused kind of relationship or look for another person as alternative to get the expected rewards with minimum costs. in this case, a person may terminates his or her relationship with the partner or continue it (thibaut & kelley, 1959). it is a fact dorothea has comparison level for alternative in shape of will ladislaw as she find him more loving, caring and responsible but she chooses casaubon again in order to give marital solidarity to their relationship. she actually curtails the chances of alternative by depending on the relationship. level of outcome that is rewards minus cost or favorable rewards is relative to comparison level, it defines a partner’s high level of attraction to marital relationship. if the level of outcomes is relative to the comparison level, it defines a partner’s attraction to the marital relationship, and inversely, if the outcome gets lower to the comparison level, it means that the level of attraction to the marital relationship has declined to the alarming stage (thibaut & university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 51 kelley, 1959). here, casaubon’s outcome is not relative to comparison level it means that he loses his attraction to the marital relationship to the alarming stage. similarly. dorothea loses attraction to the relationship as her outcomes are terribly and drastically disturbed and disappointed. bothe casaubon and dorothea’s outcomes are not above to their level of comparison, the marital solidarity is lost. marital solidarity depends on outcomes above their level of comparison and high level of attraction. they do not try to exchange rewards favorably so that comparison level could maintain relative or above and bring more attraction to their marital relationship. both live in their own world instead of communicating each other’s trouble and internal conflicts. lydgate and rosamond presents another but opposite picture of social exchange in their marital relationship. here, we witness a crucial blow to the social exchange between them as rosamond-female characterwife of lydgate, does not support, help and stand by her husband in times of tribulations, which are the principles (support, help and approval) of rewards one expects form marital partner in situation whatever. when lydgate becomes economically frustrated due to much debt, rosamond becomes so cynical and critical that lydgate is emotionally broken and hurt. there is a reason behind rosamond’ harsh and selfish behavior that is she see her motives (rewards) exploited and lost, and she also imagines her dark and unstable life in future (costs). she says to him that “[d]o you know, tertius, i often wish you had not been a medical man” (middlemarch522). such remarks from a rosamond is not expected but, he answers tenderly “[n]o, rosy, don’t say that, this is like saying that you wished you had married another man” (middlemarch522). so, here too costs outweigh rewards that is rewards are not equal to costs. that is why their relationship suffers to the great extent. according to set, if rewards and cost are on equitable stage, marital relationship is likely to continue and if not the marital relationship is like to decline and may be unstable. the decline and instability in the marital relationship between lydgate and rosamond occur due to the low level of comparison. both expected care, support and love from each other. their marital relationship suffers as both feels that they did not get rewards as expected instead it maximized their costs. when they evaluate their marital relationship on the basis of costs and rewards, for both their costs surpasses rewards; rewards are not equal to costs. it mean both do not get favorable rewards from this relationship, that’s why comparison level is disturbed. the fact is that lydgate continues supporting, helping her in the fulfillment of her motives as he “loved her as tenderly as ever” (middlemarch671)., but her obstinate and selfish behavior do not let him to continue the same action as there are no rewards for it instead it only maximizes his costs. both continue the same relationship as there is no comparison level of alternative. a relationship may get instable if there is one partner’s low level of dependence on the marital relationship (kurdek, 1993). it means that greater stability within marital relationship depends on both partners’ high level of dependence. marital partner may experience distress and disappointment in case of variance in their level of interdependence due to the lack of commitment to the marital relationship. commitment is defined as “the degree to which the self is identified with the marital relationship” (edwards & saunders, 1981, p. 384). marital trust helps in building university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 52 strong marital commitment and so the marital commitment, which may assure marital solidarity by increasing the mutual bond and curbing the comparison level of alternative (mcdonald, 1981). the level of dependence of both casaubon and dorothea on marital relationship is not up to the satisfaction, that’s why marital stability is disturbed and seems almost lost between them. casaubon lives in his frustration and disappointment; he does not show any interest in dorothea’s happiness, concerns and goals. he does not steps forward to protect the relationship by lowering his expectations and manhood. this relationship seems to be a burden on his shoulder due to his own attitude; he is jealous of will ladislaw’s closeness towards dorothea and also suspect dorothea’s character of being involved in ladislaw his suspect on dorothea is so strong that no explanation could remove his suspect; he thinks that dorothea, who ha[s] worshipped him … turned into the critical wife” casaubon misjudge “dorothea’s silence … a suppressed rebellion” (middlemarch, 477).. dorothea, on the other side. keeps on thinking how to realize him the love, feeling and inclination of her. her dependency is greater than that of casaubon. it shows her everlasting and unending commitment and trust, which does not belong to casaubon. casaubon’s low level of dependency shows that he is not committed to this sacred bond and does not keep the trust on dorothea. dorothea increases her mutual bond and curtail the comparison level of alternative for marital stability but casaubon’s attitude leads her to alarming level of frustration and depression. similarly, rosamond and lydgate’s level of dependence on marital relationship miserably suffer due to the rosamond’s low level of dependence. rosamond is not satisfied with the way lydgate provides with facilities, materialistic needs and emotional satisfaction. she feels that her life has entered into the dark stage by lydgate’s adamant and flat decisions and his being not flexible to win the circumstances. when her needs and motives are not met according to her expectation, her level of dependence on marital relationship drastically gets down. although, lydgate attempts to persuade her that such crucial and difficult stage of life will soon be over, and he also advises her to be patient and keeps trust on him. but rosamond turns deaf ear to her words and emotions too. so, their marital stability becomes lower and lower due to the low level of dependence. it shows rosamond’s lack of trust and commitment to the bond. the loss of trust and commitment leads to drastic consequences which often lead to separation and “there was gathering within him an amazed sense of his powerlessness over rosamond” (middlemarch, p. 671). although, they do not get separated but live a life of no interest and romance. level of outcomes for both lydgate and rosamond are not relative or above to their comparison level, it defines their low level of attraction to marital relationship. lydgate, although, tries to maintain his level of attraction not caring about the outcomes, but at last he loses his attraction to the marital relationship due to the cold and carless behavior of rosamond. so is the case with rosamond. she lose attraction to the level that she forget about her outcomes and about her motives. they do not keep the marital solidarity in their relationship by keeping low level of attraction and outcome not above their comparison level. marital solidarity could only be maintained by keeping high level of attraction to the marital relationship and outcomes above comparison level. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 53 social exchange within marital relationship may be affected by the transaction of resources positively or negatively relative to the capability of a partner. emerson (1976) defined a resource in a social exchange as “an ability, possession, or other attribute of an actor [partner] giving him [or her] the capacity to reward or punish another specified actor [partner]” (p. 347). the transaction of rewards and costs that partners transfer to each other is considered as one of the central roles of social exchange. there are two kind of resources marital partners administer within marital relationship: positive and coercive power. if one partner’s reward enables him to cause positive event or assist another partner in achieving his goals or dreams, such resource is supposed to be called positive power. contrastingly, if one partner’s ability to administer costs or punishment for another partner or causes negative event or environment to impede him in achieving goals or motives , such negative power is called coercive power(kelley, 1983). casaubon comes up with the use of resource that is coercive power to impede the goals or expectation held by dorothea. firstly, he creates unending jealousy and suspect in his actions and words which kills dorothea romantically and emotionally. secondly, he writes a codicil for not marrying will ladislaw in case he dies. so, he uses coercive power by creating negative circumstances for her. on the other hand, dorothea decides to maintain the relationship with casaubon after enduring the indifferent attitude of casaubon; she forget every wounds, bad attitude and harsh treatment. in this way she creates a way to continue the relationship. similarly, rosamond’s indifferent, uncaring and hurting attitude towards lydgate creates a distance between them. she uses coercive power in shape of impatience, harsh attitude and passive listening to lydgate. similarly, lydgate’s proud behavior hurts her; he does not listen to her words and ignores her decisions and does not take her help. by using such power, both create negative circumstance for the hopes and expectations they have from each other. such resource differential leads to asymmetry in their marital relationship, which brings rise of exploitation in marriage. resource differential, thus, produces relationship asymmetry. the asymmetrical nature of the relationship allows for the emergence of exploitation in the marital relationship (blau, 1964). such situations produces imbalance in marital partners. they do not care of rewards and costs. casaubon exploit the dreams and motives of dorothea and, so does rosamond, who exploits the leading dreams of lydgate. by doing so, romance, care, love and responsibility lose their meaning and usefulness. couples live a dissatisfied and depressed lives. conclusion marital relationships in the novel, middlemarch become dysfunctional due to the weak social exchanges of rewardslove, care, trust and commitment and strong exchange of costsdistance, lack of communication, distrust, hatred, anger and lack of commitment, leading to conflicts and problem. such negative exchange of behaviors surpass their good and rewarding behaviors. the unexpected circumstances, negative treatment, and harsh attitude of one partner towards other partner spoil the caring and loving environment in marital relationship. in this way, interpersonal exchange within the marriage may become fragile; the interdependency, mutual involvement and identification may weaken; liking and attraction may fade away; the level of compatibility may university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 54 less share; solidarity may come on the losing point and it may lead to the disappearance of love and affection. the everlasting happiness in marital relationship could only be achieved if partners provide with rewards expected from each other and try to remove all the costs come in their way. references blau, p. m. (1964). exchange and power in social life. new york: john wiley. chavannes, a. (1901). studies in sociology (2nd ed.). knoxville, tn: new thought library corelli, marie. (1898)."the modern marriage market." london,. victorian women edwards, j. n., & saunders, j. m. (1981). coming apart: a model of the marital dissolution decision. journal of marriage and the family, 43, 379–389. emerson, r. m. (1976). social exchange theory. in a. inkeles, j. coleman, & n. smelser (eds.), annual review of sociology (vol. 2, pp. 335–362). palo alto, ca: annual reviews. graver, suzanne. "mill, middlemarch, and marriage." portraits of marriage in novel." portraits of marriage in literature . illinois: western illinois up, 1984. homans, g. c. (1974). social behavior: its elementary forms (rev. ed.). new york: harcourt brace jovanovich. kelley, h. h. (1983). close relationships. new york: w. h. freeman and company kurdek, l. a. (1993). predicting marital dissolution: a 5-year prospective longitudinal study of newlywed couples. journal of personality and social psychology, 64, 221–242 levinger, g. (1979). marital cohesiveness at the brink: the fate of applications for divorce. in g. levinger and o. c. moles (eds.), divorce and separation (pp. 137–150). new york: basic books. literature . illinois: western illinois up, 1984. 55-66 mcdonald, g. w. (1981). structural exchange and marital interaction. journal of marriage and the family, 43, 825–838. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 56 borrowing as a tool to fill the ideological thoughts: the role of code-mixing in an american brat by bapsi sidhwa and the escape by qaisra shiraz mirza noman shamas department of english language and literature, university of lahore gujrat campus mnomans761@gmail.com zobia ehsan department of english language and literature, university of lahore gujrat campus zobiaehsan@gmail.com abstract this research article highlights the temperament, inference, scope, and motives of code mixing in pakistani english works. one novel from pakistani english novels namely, an american brat by bapsi sidhwa and one short story namely, the escape by qaisra shehraz are being selected as an illustration of this reading. in this novel and short story the writers have already dealt with the characteristics of post colonialism. english language and literature pierced into the privileged civilizations of the sub-continent, after the end of british imperialism. pakistani writers in english are the best interpreter of the post-colonial communal language. in this study, i have hit upon code mixing in english works written by pakistani authors to a bigger echelon. these works are paragons of arts and the unbelievable mixture of rhetorical and fictitious study. in these works the writers have not abased the confined diversities. they have tinted the value of pakistani english in order to achieve the chatty desires of native people. these borrowings from the native languages are used to fill the lexical fissures of ideological thoughts. the reason of these borrowings is not to represent the english as substandard assortment. through the utilization of native words we conclude that the significance of native languages has been tinted to question mark the dialect as well. the words of daily use also have an area of research for english people without having any substitute in english. that’s why in english literature innovative practices and ideas of code-mixing have been employed. key words: code-mixing, urdudized words, hybridism, bilingualism and multilingualism 1. introduction afterwards the severance of sub-continent, english was used like the bureaucrat language in order to disregard urdu-bengali controversy. bapsi sidhwa (1993) describes her own understanding by stressing her attitude towards the status of foreign english language in pakistan. she states that her usage of english in writing her novels has not been critically questioned in pakistan. devoid of putting in numerous words, it is acknowledged that because of british colonization english is with us to stay, and either we like it or not it has developed into a mailto:mnomans761@gmail.com mailto:zobiaehsan@gmail.com university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 57 valuable tool: a resource of communication with the rest of the world, and together with urdu, a link, elitist if u will, among people who speak diverse languages within country. qaisra shahraz is a popular and praised pakistan-born and manchesterresident writer. she has won the national diversity “lifetime achiever” reward for her educational and literary services. she has also toiled as a member of the royal society of arts. she has also worked as a counselor to asia pacific writers and translators organizations. in her short story “the escape”, she also used code-mix words from her own national country. she also used many words of urdu language in her short story in order to influence her own national language because she was a diaspora and had dispersed personality. so it was difficult for her to ignore her own country and the country of luxuries. that’s why she mostly switches form one language (english) to other language (urdu). the utilization of single language into new language between the similar statements, whether it is in verbal or printed form is known as code-mixing. now days, the use of multiple languages in many cultures is the most common factor. code mixing helps to comprehend the utilization of language, its purpose and nature of the relationship between individual values in a socio-cultural perspective. a code is meant to be a language technique or miscellany in the language and it is altering an element of information in communiqué just like, a letter or word phrase. at the same time, the usage of two different diversities in a speech, or usage of one language into other language is known as code-mixing. the orator or the author does not unearth appropriate appellations in the manifest language, so they employ a lot of locutions from their native tongue to overcome this problem. sometimes code-mixing refers to the hybridization of language; it means that it constructs the issues related to language maintenance then causes for a language shift and at last demise. so, code-mixing is intrapersonal. bilinguals use code-mixing in their routine life. the characters and speech communities in pakistani english works are the representative of this specimen. afterwards the liberty of pakistan, english-literature that had been produced by pakistani writers was postcolonial literature in nature and in fact it was a response to the colonial literature as well. the use of urdu words is prominent in the writings of all pakistani english writers, because they considered urdu language as the most prestigious language in their works at the secondary level. the usage of appellations from the native tongue mechanically fused in the second language in the writings of every writer as a common practice. in order to show the cultural practices and conventions, every writer uses code-mixing in his writings. the new dimensions have been explored by a lot of researchers in order to highlight the life like activities of native with respect to their expressive culture and local languages. on the foundation of this aspect, the main objective of this manifesto is to demonstrate that code-mixing is an account of ethnicities and morals at the higher-level but not at the lower-level. this research article represents the exploration of the changes in languages with respect to fidelity and bi-dialectal, because language plays a very important part in culture. language covers the means to discover code-mixing in correlation to philology that how the language gaps and domains, societal factors and basic factors, physical settings and stylistic motivations have been provoked as penalties of code mixed speeches. the awareness of the readers with the writer and university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 58 admiration of cultures is the main task of code mixing. moreover a different variety of english is the result of post-colonial state. in order to visible the culture of motherland chinua achebe has also mixed numerous appellations of african language in english and same is a case with pakistani writers in their writings which will be considered in this research article. this research article also emphasis on the edifying and societal discrepancies by language with respect to code-mixing which overlay a technique for the canvasser to categorize along with customs by giving the impression of being mixed language. the postcolonial literature gives more value to language as in the code-mixing; it got innovative means to signify the breakdown of lexical terminology. in postcolonial literature, language is most apparent because colonized writers accept it as an approach to save empires and communal significances from the alien authority. the usage of local words from native language increases the awareness and association of readers as well. this research paper concentrates on two literary pieces written by pakistani writers, in which the malfunction of glossary in english is being manifested by native words from urdu lexicons. the research study will also discover the endeavor of these two pakistani writers in their literary pieces with respect to code-mixing is and will also highlight that to what extent they used it in their works as well. this research study will emerge questions for code-mixing in these two works that are: 1. how pakistani authors are victorious in transmitting their memo to the overseas readers via code-mixing? 2. is code-mixing is a marked aspect in postcolonial-literature and how pakistani english writers marked the native cultures and societal ideals in terms of code-mixing? 2. literature review the language plays a very vital role to associate states and inhabitants from each other because it is a technique to isolate the people from one another as a state or a nation. dialect is meant to converse with one another in either verbal or written form. david crystal (1985, p.262) affirms that dialect is the most imperative way of communication to develop the incidence of users. babatunde (2002, p.1) regards language as a mean of existing. in order to observe and notice the code mixing in a language, there are no certain norms but it is being observed by native of that one language because it is the result of incensement in the curiosity and interest of reader towards the literary piece and induces the bibliophile to go through the manuscript. code-mixing was earliest observed in the works of west african languages and ansre (1971) described it as an insertion of diverse chunks of english into the performance of west african languages in trying to demonstrate the control of english on west african languages. code-mixing is the utilization of one language in relation with another language or the mixing of two or more languages or language diversities in a speech. hamers and blanc (1989, p.35) say that codemixing is the consumption of elements of single language in one more language. they were of the viewpoint that a reallocation of using linguistic units (phrases, clauses and words university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 59 etc.) of one language to another language within a particular sentence is known as code mixing. diverse instigators have believed that clarity differs when we talk about code-mixing and codeswitching. lanz (2011) regards code-mixing as a synonym for intra-sentential code switching while pfaff describes this also for code-mixing and borrowings. ardila (2005, p.60-81) affirms that the exchanging between two languages in a particular sentence is called code mixing whereas code switching is not toggling in a sentence rather it is an entire alteration to the second language for an amount of sentences. he is of the view that code mixing is upon words level but on the other side when we speak about code switching then it is exchange that maneuvers at sentence level and it is mainly common in speaking. however köppe and meisel (1995, p.277) utter that code-mixing consists of semantic and pragmatic deviations moreover muysken (2000, p.1) describes that code mixing is a deviation amongst the grammatical aspects as well. 3. research methodology this study analyzes the features of code-mixing in pakistani english post-colonial works. i will examine the occurrence of mixing of these urdu words mainly in the elected genres. following one novel and short story have been selected as a sample of study. 1. an american brat by baspi sidhwa 2. the escape by qaisra shehraz these two literary works are from pakistani english postcolonial -literature as these literary pieces had been written after independence. i have utilized qualitative method to construe and illustrate the results. the words have been taken from elected literary works and then elucidation has been done as a result. in order to analyze accordingly, the occurrence of the repeated words would be composed. for the sake of further elaboration, data would be cataloged into different areas and groups. qualitative research has been used to underline the occurrence of mixed-words in these pakistani english works because it focuses on the results of the qualitative analysis. the data has been analyzed qualitatively. the intellectual representations of these works have been shown with the qualitative analysis. the usage of urdu words represents many pakistani lexical features in these literary texts. in the following segments, i will accord this investigation in exhaustive chunk with respect to these leaflets under cram. 4. analysis and discussion on selected leaflets this segment does not only highlight and discuss the appellations of the native ethnicity but also those appellations which don’t have literal correspondent in english language as well. at several areas, it looks that awareness of the author and writer has become amplified or augmented through the portrayal of cultures, values and language. moreover compound nouns and verbs have been generally used by the writers through the tool of code mixing because these appellations belong to sundry realms and stand for the cultural norms. by showing close university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 60 association with them through an incandescent way of speech, the author does not only employ the native language but also highlights the culture of native people as well. 4.1 the escape by qaisra shahraz the escape is written by qaisra shahraz. this short story highlights the diaspora’s writing by highlighting the identity issues of immigrants, especially muslim world with respect to belonging and un-belonging. it also deals with auto biographical elements. in an interview with claire chambers (2017, p.102-107) the author herself claims that this short story is very much akin to the writer’s father life who was lingering with back home and homeland? which homeland? in this short story the character of sameer is the clear portrayal of her father’s personality and life. this short story is based on bilingualism and used two languages of different countries. short story lapses among intellectual as well as moral issues and highlights metropolitan and uncivilized concept of society. the words from english and urdu have also been added. a) edibles/ food stuff & drinks: names page numbers sewayian ( three times) 1,2,3 chana chat (three times) 1,2,3 basmati rice 2 chapatti 2 shami kebabs, kebabs 2 pilau rice (two times) 2,10 gajar halwa (two times) 2,3 curry 3 custard 5 lamb biryani 5 chicken shorba 5 keema lobia 7 tabark 10 parathas 10 kulchas 10 lasi 8 miranda 8 b) mode of address & exclamation: names page number abu-ji 2 velati 5 shush! 2 babu 12 daigmen 10 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 61 c) abstract & feminine noun: names page number zakat 9 izzat 12 d) religion, prayers & mosques: names page number imam 1 allah pak 9 jumma 1 traveeh 1 hatham 5 darul uloom masjid 1 maki masjid 1 e) places, shops, objects & money: names page number eidhi (three times) 2,3 darul uloom centre 1 sanam sweet shop 2 anarkali bazar 4 mall road 4 motorcycle 6 minar tree 6 trafalgar 6 darwin mill 7 kothi 8 bethak 8 phone 9 data gunj darbar 10 darbar (three times) 10 f) festivals, festive & welcome greetings: names page number eid mubarak 1 bisnillah! bismillah! 8 ramdhan 1 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 62 eid ul fitr 3 g) clothes and newspaper: names page number bengali sari 1 shalwar kameez (two times) 2 shervani, sherwanis 2 ghraras 2 lenghas 2 dupattas 2 the daily jang 2 h) local names & country: names page number samir 1 manzoor 1 maqbool 2 rahel 3 mehnaz 3 roxanna 4 mina 6 idi amin 8 banu 11 ibrahim 11 velat, velat 7,8 in this short story a small number of code-mixed words have been originated. in his short story main semantic context relates to pakistani culture and religion islam. the words imam, data gunj darbar; data sahib is the most pious person in islamic context and consider as wali ullah. addressing modes have also been used normally. for instance, abu-ji, velati and other mode of addressing have been utilized in this genre. the attire items have also been used in the whole of the short story. all the dresses relate to pakistani tradition such as kurta, shalwar, kamize, shervani. it illustrates the custom and culture of pakistani islamic country. the majority of the attires is of females and has used to cover the whole body. it belongs to islamic traditions just like the word dupatta is exercise to cover up the whole head but in british culture it considers as the traditional notion to be dressed in a dupatta. in this short story the most of terms belong to the islamic traditions. the mostly used term is “imam” that reflects a person who fight for the spiritual purposes. the utilization of all these terms is to demonstrate the culture and values without giving translations. the usage of these words in english highlights a factual picture of the pakistani culture and ideology by supporting the religious expressions in term of prayer (allah pak, traveeh, ramdhan and hatham as well. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 63 moreover, the word tabaruk has been used in this short story which is considered pious and good food in islam. 4.2. an american brat by bapsi sidhwa this novel highlights the fifty four circumstantial areas that have been given by baumgardner et al. however the researcher has pointed out a small number of textual areas that are being used in this pakistani english novel. in this novel in the light of semantic framework a few words and their textual area have been observed in the light of semantic framework which is twenty six in number set by kachru. these types of code mixing have been classified by this model, so it can be straightforward for the researcher to point out the text-words and evaluation. in this novel pakistani semantic contexts and occurrence of words have been figured out and are discussed in detail. a) concepts, condiments, residences & places names page number shonour 66 izzat 66,111 paans 201 easop-gol 201 bunglow 34 haveli 42 jhuggees 238,239 landa bazaar 13 b) edibles, health & prayers names page number tandrosti 41 aa-meen 46 roti 44 dhan-dar 44 dal 112 dal, rice 142 basmati 263 pakoras 36,38 patia 114, 262 dhanask 114 lentils 114 pora 296 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 64 c) psychological terms & racism names page number gora complex 26, 147 desi (eight times) 73,74,101,102,103,199,230 gora 84 gora-chittas 141 parjat 271 d) religions & religious tags names page number mullahs (seven times) 11,13,162,282 maulvi (four times) 45 burqas 10 sufi 19 allah 21,48 mujahahideen 91 guduwaras 19 agyari (six times) 40,41,278 atash (six times) 40,41,47, 278, 317 kusti (nine times) 41,164,165,278,317 sudras (six times) 164,220,278,317 bhagwan (three times) 252,254 navjote (two times) 204,293 adarnee 257 madasara 257 e) slogans, social gatherings, systems & organizations names page number “roti, kapre, makan” 21 zindabad 21 mushairas 311 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 65 mehfil 311 khandan 277 lesson-wallas (three times) 111 taxi-wallas 194 bhagwan-walla 254 anjumans (four times) 262.288,299 parsee panchayat 287 f) negative description, gender & political systems names page number zina (two times) 236,237 gondas (three times) 11, 135, 223 fundos (two times) 12,305 uloo 68 sala badmash 196 guru 210 police-thana 106 raj (three times) 36,37,196 heejras (four times) 78,79 g) adjectives, articles, buildings, art forms & occupations names page number khandani 222 lathi 282 ghazal (two times) 311 quawali 19 veranda 10,16 ayah (seventeen times) 11,13,18,23,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,43,162,178 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 66 h) descriptive labels, fabrics, measurement, money & occupation name page number boochimai (six times) 69,78,133,222 afeemi (two times) 84,127 memsahib 107 madam-ni-ma 69 general sahib 122 mudums 272 shatoose 21 nylon-satin kamize 74 thaans (two times) 220 paisa 134 doria 50 i) kinship terms, law, marriage & modes of addressing names page numbers kaka (three times) 50,134 kaki 134 baap (two times) 192,197 hadood ordinance 236 federal shariat 236 the adarenee 297 jana 14 baijee 33 jee (nine times) 52,53,122,223 baba (four times) 86,101,192,240 yaar (three times) 97,196 bibi 173 begum bhutto 175 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 67 j) accessories & celebrations names page number burqas 10 sagan 44 pyjama (two times) 10,35 shawl (ten times) 10,16,20,21,33,34,157,242 kashmiri shawl 244 sari ( thirty five times) 10,15,17,29,31,106,173,174,177,178, 204,221, 222,244,252,272,275,278,297,298,299,300,303,304 sari-blouse (four times) 10,13,31,192 dopattas 11 lungi pyjamaed 11 cholis 13 kapra 21 cummerbund 36 kusti (eleven times) 31,41,164,165,278,304 sudras (seven times) 31,164,278,317 shalwar-kamize (two times) 42,122 cashmere shalwarkamize (two times) 42,72 tanchoi sari (three times) 43,297 palloo (four times) 43,252,304 kamiez (two times) 74,122, shalwar (four times) 74,192,196,242, dhoties (two times) 106,217 khaki 192 feta 248 sari sets (two times) 297,298 sari scarf 303 it is obvious from the study that the greater parts of words are the part of arty milieu. for instance accessories are most of the attire words that are meant to women because attire for men does not reflect much diversity that has been changed by western clothing just like blouses, pants and suits etc. important parts of muslim women dresses have also been shown like dopattas, burkas, shawl and etc. these accessories with respect to cultural terms are atypical for english (non-muslims community) bookworms, because such clothe is not used in their culture to cover head. in this novel there is a wider discussion on pakistani outfits versus western outfits just like (sari-blouse, kurta-shirt, shalwar-and-shirt outfit and sari-sets). these pakistani attires have been a big reason behind migration to abroad. the main objective of the author is to emphasize on the edifying ideals of pakistan by using local words more successfully. these words not only emphasize on the cultural images but also deal with the values of culture, prevailing in a particular society as well. moreover the analysis also university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 68 highlights that particular clothes are used for particular occasions. for instance demise, marriage ceremony, quiescent, and travelling are also used to explain the particular religious, foreign, local and cultural types. for example, tanchoi sari (p. 43) and cotton sari (p. 29) are particular examples of the same clothing, mentioned in the novel as well. sari is most often used clothing accessory in the novel for forty-three times and it is usually utilized by middle and upper class women as well. the novelist has manipulated such word like ‘izzat’ which have an english equivalent like ‘respect’ but she used this word strengthen the meaning of her own culture through the impact of language. so, theories and dresses with respect to her own pakistan cultural values have been proficiently described by bapsi sidhwa in this novel. many times in this novel she uses the local words from her own native language urdu in order to enhance the impact of urdu language on the reader’s psyche just like choop kar (p. 57) and never discriminate pakistani culture in this novel through the proper use of ‘urdu words’ from her own culture context as well. 5. conclusion this research article has acknowledged that all languages have their own weight and function amidst its own speaker and reader by undermining the very fact of submissiveness and less weight age, because code-mixing in english pakistani literature written by pakistani authors has been discovered to an immense range. while writing their writings in pakistani english context the writers not only humiliated the local differences, comparatively they have also accentuated the concern of pakistani english as english language which is usually unsuccessful to accomplish the emotional obligations of local people. in order to fulfill the rhetorical divergence of intellectual ideas in english, these borrowings from the local languages are used by pakistani writers in their writings as well and the purpose of this code mixing is not to represent the english as an inferior type. the author also comes to an end that the weight of local languages and indication of a question mark upon dialect has also been meant through the proper use of local words. this research work also focuses on the words of daily use without having any alternate in english, which is also a field of study for the british people because modern motifs have been engaged in stories and novels with respect to code mixing methods in english literature. references altarriba, dana m basnight-brown and jeanette. "code-switching and code-mixing in bilinguals: cognitive, developmental, and empirical approaches." researchgate.net (2007). awan, abdul ghafoor, muhammad tariq ayub and sobia suleman, nazia suleman, aneesul hassan. "analysis of code-mixing in pakistani english postcolonial novels." global journal of management and social sciences, vol 2 (4) (2016): 57-76. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 69 ayeleru, babatunde. "linguistics innovation in the new west african europhone novel: between interlanguage and indigenization." nigeria: university of ibadan (2011). balnc, josiane f. hamers and michel h.a. "bilinguaility and bilinguailism." the pitt building, uk: trumphington street, cambridge cb2 1rp (1989). bandia, p. "code-swithching and code-mixing in african creative writing." some insights for translation studies (1996): 139-153. baumgardner, r. j. eds. "the english language in pakistan." oxford: oxford university press (1993). claire chambers, qaisra shahraz. "qaisra shahraz in interview with claire chambers." iium journal of english language and literature (2017): 102-109. lanz vallejo, l. (2011). el cambio de código español-inglés como creatividad lingüística presentación de la imagen en tweets escritos por tijuanenses. dr. muhammad fareed dar, huma akhtar and hamna khalid. "code-switching in pakistani english language classrooms: perceptions of english language teachers." jssir: volume 3, number 2 (2014): 107-120. kachru, b. b. "the indianization of english: the english language in india." delhi: oxford university press (1983). meisel, jürgen m. "studies in second language acquisition: code-switching in young bilingual children: the acquisition of grammatical constraints." cambridge university press, vol. 16, no. 4 (1994): 413-439. shahraz, qaisra. the escape. qaisrashahraz.com, 2013. sidhwa, b. an american brat. penguin books, 1994. sidhwa, b. "new english creative writing: a pakistani writer’s perspective." (1993). talib, i. s. the language of postcolonial literature. new york: new york routledge, 2002. wardough, ronald. an introduction to sociolinguistics. new york: new york basil, 1986. ardilla. "spanglish: an anglicized spanish dialect." hispanic journal of behavioral (2005): 6081. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 70 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 1 cultural symbols, identity and meaning formation: symbolic interactionist analysis of chinua achebe’s things fall apart mehnaz lecturer in english, national university of modern languages (numl) peshawar campus pakistan dr.muhammad iqbal assistant professor in english, islamia college university (icp) peshawar, kpk, pakistan dr. sayyed zahid ali shah assistant professor in english, islamia college university (icp) peshawar, kpk, pakistan ‘we shaped our buildings and afterwards our buildings shaped us.’ winston churchill (october 1943) abstract the present paper makes an attempt to examine how george herbert meade’s theory explains people’s use of symbols as a sense-making tool to elucidate the socialization process, role performance, identity, and meaning formation within the igbo society for explaining various aspects of human life in the novel things fall apart. this study is significant as it deals with character analysis of okonkwo, to see how different roles of son, warrior, husband, father and a clansman are defined in igbo culture during various phases of family and social life to clarify how symbolic interactionism has given a new impetus to see society, culture, psychology and relationships. it argues that the physical setting is significant to human behavior and human actions can be interpreted with the critical analysis of cultural symbols and the way they are deployed. it concludes that human behavior is based upon assigning meanings and their symbolic interpretations of the objects that surround them. the symbolic interactionist analysis of the novel clearly indicates that okonkwo’s self and meaning formation is built on perceptions of the reactions of his clansman and his self-concept functions to direct his behavior. the development of different roles changes role and behavior patterns. the internal and external happenings influence role performance, conflict, struggle, and affect the nature, attitude, and self-image of okonkwo. moreover, it also affirms that the cultural symbols for honor, respect, and manliness etc. are not fixed naturally rather these are the constructions of the mind and are given meaning through interaction of the people. key words: symbolic interactionism, language, culture, symbols, self, identity 1. introduction university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 2 1.1 language and culture human language plays an important role in human life and it also supports the emergence of the culture. it is a part of human behavior to express thoughts and communicate information to shape culture and personality (krech, 1962). language is an accepted system of arbitrary vocal symbols which plays a paramount role in storing meaning, experience and to develop, elaborate and transmit learned and shared beliefs, values, customs and behaviors as a culture. (linell, 2001) this is not the only important function of language but it is also a tool to make integration, social adaptation, and self-expression (sitindoan, 1984). as a means of communication, language enables a person to form and express his feelings and thoughts and meet needs by a system which is arbitrary and has public symbols (keraf, 1980). based on these notions one can say that language has symbols which contain meaning or concepts but has no direct relationship with the symbolized as it is based on the conventions in particular culture provides meaning to all human business and actions. nababan (1984, p. 53) defines culture as a "system of rules of communication and interaction that allows a society to occur and preserve". culture can not only be interpreted as "the activity and creativity of the mind" (poerwadarminta, 1983, p. 143) but also as "the sum of the conduct and human behavior that must be acquired by learning and are arranged in life" (koentjaraninggrat ed., 1985, p. 69). based on it, one can say that only humans have sense and reason to generate culture as a learned behavior to adapt to their environment and improve the standards of living. various studies have been carried out on the important function of language in communication and culture, well known among them is sapir whorf hypothesis which expounds the connection between language, thought and culture. according to sapir (1921), “language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desire by means of voluntarily produced symbols.” they believe that the world we are live and breathe in is a linguistic construct; language describes this world and molds the perception of reality. another important study in the field is by george herbert meade (2005) who in his symbolic interactionism theory explains people’s use of symbols as a meaning-making tool to describe the role of communication in different areas of human experience and explains society, culture, psychology and human relationships. he believes symbols are social objects which are derived culturally from creating, conveying and maintaining shared meanings in social interaction. people use language to anchor meanings to the symbols and perform in accordance with symbolic meanings they get within any particular situation. people thus communicate through symbols and interact to form relationships around them. self, mind, society, culture all meanings to symbols derived from and is reliant for its existence on symbolic interactions. the authors of this paper assert that symbolic interactionism contributes to the study of human self and behavior and explains human actions that why people do what they do by examining symbols, objects and their assigned meanings in the relation between culture and human conduct. the researchers analyze the work things fall apart with its focus on cultural symbols and its role on identity and meaning formation to explain how okonkwo develops his sense of self and connects to the social actions to acquire and use symbols university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 3 and shape and reshape implications for objects and himself in communal context including his own experiences. 1.2 symbolic interactionism mead’s concepts are gathered by his disciple blumer (1969) in his three principles of symbolic interactionism which are as follows: 1) ‘human beings assign meanings to things and act towards them on the basis of the implications they have for them.’ 2) ‘the meaning of objects emerges out of one’s social interactions with one’s fellows’. 3) ‘these meanings are controlled in and adjusted through, an interpretive process that a person takes help from in dealing and managing things he or she come across.’ the principal point of symbolic interactionism is that human’s language is symbolic form and life is lived in a symbolic domain: through symbols, humans create shared meanings and maintain it through social interactions as symbols are culturally derived and form relationships. the goal of our interactions is to construct reality through language by providing cultural meanings to symbols as reality is primarily a social product. in language and culture claire kramsch says that language expresses cultural reality because it is bound up with culture in complex and multiple ways as “words communicate facts, events and ideas” and it also reflects authors’ beliefs, attitudes as well as their point of view about any affair (2001, p.8). interactionists believe that individuals being social actors act and reacts in the shared symbolic world of created meanings. meanings are developed through the internally interpretive process and then checked externally to understand how feelings, realities, values, behaviors and perceptions are influenced by a social and cultural process within the moment of contact between people (blumer, 1969). 1.3 the concept of self in si the self which is dialectically related to the mind is a crucial concept of mead. mind and self cannot exist without each other thus, “without a self one cannot have a mind to converse with oneself, and without a mind, one cannot take oneself as an object” (ritzer, 2004, p.56). mead’s notion of the self is important to comprehend human performance. the self is a basic concept along with symbols, meaning, and interaction in symbolic interactionism, as the social object self is lodged in social group membership and activities; it remains stable as these membership and activities are stable. the content of self reveals the organization and content of society. the self as a social product is a link between a personal and social organization that is manifested with reference to the internalized role (role identities e.g. chieftain, husband, son) that “emerges from social expectations related to a character position within a system of relationship” (turner, 2004, p. 345). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 4 stryker and statham (1985) propose that the structure and organization of self-conception depend upon a differential commitment to various role-identities. individuals are motivated to maintain, protect act and remain committed to their particular conception of role identity because it implicates their self-esteem. the vital aspect of the self is that it is a reflexive phenomenon. reflexivity enables people to argue, reflect, evaluate and act toward themselves as objects. this human attribute based on the ability to role-take, to look at themselves from the viewpoint of others and enables the individual to develop a self-concept. 2. si analysis of things fall apart symbolic interactionism thus helps explain the self and can work as stimuli that initiate behavior. in this dimension symbols and their meanings can aid self-attributions, performing roles, and the formation of self-images in various situations. the symbolic qualities of objects and actions have implications that are common within a cultural context. people go through a self-interactive, reflexive assessment of the meanings given by others to symbols, and fit in this understood evaluation by others into the self-concept. in this qualitative research, the symbolic interactionism theory has been used in the textual analysis of things fall apart to understand how individuals find, and create meanings of cultural symbols through social exchanges in their lives and society and how these interpretations resultantly influence their identity and meaning formation. it is imperative to know, on the background of the novel that, things fall apart is about a clan which shared common awareness, once thought like one, spoke like one and acted like one. then the coming of whiteman broke this unity and changed the meaning of cultural realities of igbo society. the igbo society which was communal, tribal and religious plays a vital role in the lives of the people and was a source of inspiration for the natives. the members of the society, without questioning or reconsideration, observe the instructions of igbo gods and goddesses. while achebe incorporates numerous storiesi to prove nature as a living entity for the igbos, he also indicates that the colonial rulers discarded its spiritual value as they did not find it beautiful and welcoming. things fall apart as a novel about a culture on the edge of conversion portrays how the prospect and reality of change affect different characters and the meaning and worth of objects. the novel can also be an interpretation of the first european penetration of igbo land in the eastern part of nigeria centering mainly on the manner which affects okonkwo, a reactionary tribal leader, who failed in his offer to win the support of his clansmen to fight the whiteman who invaded the religion and culture of igbo society. becker and mccall in book entitled, symbolic interactionism and cultural studies are of the view that “if we treat religious movements as cultural movements, we will begin to give more attention to symbols and rituals within each religion in order to explain what they are and what they stand for” (3). okonkwo, for example, battles the new religious and political systems because he senses that he himself will not be manly if he approves to join or even tolerate them as they are not manly. okonkwo perceives nwoye as dead, he ceases to be okonkwo’s son as soon as nwoye converts to christianity, nwoye becomes a source of continuous university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 5 disgrace and humiliation for him and the entire family. but on the other hand, the self-evaluative system motivates a lot of the clan’s lepers to embrace christianity; especially, long despised those outcasts who were placed below everyone else in igbo cultural values catch in the christian belief system a haven to enjoy a more elevated status in the new community. achebe elaborates that the most awful thing that anyone can experience is the loss of respect and self-worth. okonkwo builds his sense of self-esteem upon the cultural ideals by which society and religion judges him; his resistance of change in culture and religion is also due to his fear of losing religious and social values ‘we look at objects and assign meaning to them, but in many cases, certain objects take on special meanings due to when, why and how they were placed in someone’s life’ (christopher, 2004, p. 8) which then directs into the interpretation of role performances and social actions within society. okonkwo, the son of the effeminate idle, poor, profligate, cowardly, gentle and lazy unoka, achieves great social and financial success by rejecting everything that he thinks to be “soft,” such as emotion and common chat and for which he believes his father had love. he deliberately embraces his opposite standards and becomes violent, prolific, affluent, thrifty, brave and obstinately opposed to music and anything else. socialization is an active process of conforming to other’s expectation and learning roles. the selfbeing active and selective interprets, constructs and expresses its roles and influences its environment and itself. the self actively engages in the unpredictable process of its own development. it may dissociate itself from a role when they perceive incongruities between some valued aspect of self-conception and the role imposed on them (cooley,1902) therefore, one can argue that okonkwo’s relationship with his late father could be the reason that forms much of his fierce and aspiring behavior. he does not want to be like his father and wishes to go beyond his father’s legacy of extravagant, lazy behavior, which he considers as frail and therefore womanly. okonkwo does not want to be like his father as he fears failure. his whole life was dominant by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. it was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father. even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. that was how okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another came for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken no title. (p.15) igbo’s veracity of a man lies in his daring and brave acts. it is no coincidence to refer to a title less man with a word which also means “woman.” this is an inherent association in the clan’s language and the relator mentions that the word for a man who fails to win any of the lavish, prestige –indicating, honorable titles is agbala, which also stand for “woman.” an account of men in things fall apart is that of inhuman, brutal and wicked every man was supposed to be like that, even though at about the time of the setting of the novel, for instance, any man who could bear the look of blood, or a man of achievements or a man of hostilities is a man. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 6 in achebe’s words, okonkwo was the first who brought home a human head in umuofia’s latest war. it was his fifth head in a very young age. ‘he drank his palm-wine from his first human head on great occasions such as the funeral of a village celebrity’. the narrative represents the way the society built up the image of men, someone who can drink from a skull of a fellow human being. bravery is appreciated of a man when he could, all in the name of tradition, put to death a fellow human being as was seen in the traditional sacrifice of the poor boy ikemefuna who was beheaded by someone whom he called a father. in self and society, hewitt claims that “meaning lies within the way we behave. meanings are not fixed or unchangeable, but are determined by how a person acts toward an object”; okonkwo’s notion of manliness is not the similar with the clan’s rather, he links aggression with masculinity and believes that he should display the only emotion of anger to display his masculinity. for this reason, he frequently threatens his wives to kill and beats them time to time. mead makes it clear that “people anticipate responses from their own individual acts and through the process of minding can have control over their own actions” (2005, p.15). the process of minding is dependent upon a basis of consciousness, and our consciousness enables us to better understand people and respond towards their actions in social settings but in case of okonkwo we have seen that he does act rashly and impulsively and does not reflect about things. yet others do not behave in these ways that are in no way having the fear of being called effeminate. obierika, unlike okonkwo, “was a man who thinks about things and matter before act.” whereas obierika excuses joining the group on the trip to murder ikemefuna, okonkwo simply afraid of appearing weak, not only voluntarily joins the men that will kill his surrogate son but also with his blade brutally kills him. although traditional igbo culture is egalitarian in nature, it is also strongly male dominant where masculinity is linked with strength while femininity is the symbol of weakness. okonkwo’s sevenyear banishment from his community only fortifies his opinion that men are resilient than women. okonkwo entirely resents the period of exile in his motherland while he lives among the maternal kinsmen. the exile gives him an opportunity to get in touch with his feminine side; he keeps reminding himself that the villagers of umuofia are warlike and fierce but his maternal kinsmen are not as they should be. he considers them flawed because they prefer compromise, compliance, and avoidance over bloodshed and anger. in igbo society, aggressiveness is considered an important symbol of masculinity which increases relative social dominance. aggression is a hostile, forceful or attacking behavior. in many cultures ‘military virtues such as violent behavior, power, bravery, and stamina have constantly been defined as the usual and essential potentials of manliness (graham dawson, 1994). okonkwo as an aggressive man asserts his manhood in a variety of forms i.e physical, verbal, nonverbal: “and he did pounce on people quite often… he was angry and could not get his word out quickly enough, he would use his fists” (p.4). he perceives affection a mark of weakness and remains unemotional and unmoved. “okonkwo never showed any emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of anger. to show affection was a sign of weakness” (p.30). he exercises his aggression not only publically to university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 7 express his dominance but also in domestic sphere on his wives and children. he beats his wives without any legitimate reason and his son nwoye as well for being lazy like a female. he “ruled his household with a heavy hand. his wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children” (p.14) okonkwo cannot deal with weakness; he seems to think his son resembles his grandfather and that is something which fills him with fire. unoka is considered weak even by him because of his idleness, talking and love for music which are believed the feminine domain of activities. he fears losing community respect by being effeminate. social repute has an important meaning in igbo culture. personal reputation is based on the number of publicly earned titles which is significantly indicated by the ankle bracelets men wear. generally, men gain reputation through the production of their yam crop, talent at wrestling, bravery in battle, and hard work as these were the symbols of power and status. status depends on merit and earns men influential position and authority in the clan as well as number of wives. wealth and prosperity are the symbols of worth and value of a man in umoufiaa patriarchal society. a man with the number of titles and number of barns who is wealthy enough to take care of his many wives and children is a source of attraction and attention in igbo society “there was a wealthy man, in okonkwo’s village, who had three barns, nine wives, and thirty children…but one title which a man could take in the clan” (p.20) a man should be domestically, socially ,and economically prosperous in order to be admired as respectable and honorable in that society, achebe shows this behavior and reality of igbo society by portraying male characters in terms of prosperity, wealth and success as they believe a ‘man’ is worthy to be called a man when he has good status and enough wealth and who has never experienced failure in any way in society. “okonkwo’s prosperity was visible in his household. he had a large compound enclosed by a thick wall of red earth. each of his three wives had her own hut. the barn was built against one end of the red walls, and long stacks of yam stood out prosperously in it” (p.16), but on the other hand people laughed at poor and treat them like a woman who is unable to support his family e.g unokafather of okonkwo, who was a failure, a debtor, a poor man who ‘owed every neighbor some money ‘and whose ‘wife and children had barely enough to eat’ (p.6). in the igbo culture, the wrestling contests are occasions which confirm the masculine attribute to continue leadership and virility for the men, even women of that culture love wrestling. they clap their hands and sing the praise of victorious warrior and honor him in a heroic way. the people of umoufia and neighboring tribes are strong combatants and they love to be violent and battle against their opponents. okonkwo is really concerned with reputation and works hard to gain respect for his village and himself by a physical contest of wrestling because he grew up with a father who was lazy and shameful. it is due to the courage and warrior ship of okonkwo that the people of umoufia not only pay him respect in his own community, but he was also respected in neighborhood. traditionally speaking, wrestling and fighting are the passions of igbo culture for which man’s manliness appreciated in igbo society. strong physique and robust body are considered important traits to build a great image of a man. the igbonian construct of the male is that of emotionally university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 8 strong man, who is not the subject of his emotions rather he has good control over his emotions and feelings. igbo culture presents emotions as feminine trait. achebe represents his ‘tall and huge’ protagonist okonkwo through his power and bodily strength and power whose ‘bushy eyebrows and wide nose gave him a very severe look’ (p.4) ‘he was a very strong man and rarely felt fatigue… (p.16). okonkwo who ‘was as slippery as a fish in water', his manly figure makes him the center of attraction and achebe compares with ‘amalinze a wily craftsman’ (p.15.) he loves to be and called a brave man who has the daring heart to face the world and has a potential to be on top. it is him who defeated seven years unbeaten wrestler amalinz the cat and won in an intertribal fight to bring first human head. ‘he was a man of action, a man of war. unlike his father, he could stand the look of blood.’ (p.11) bravery for him is a quality, he dislikes abame folk for not being valiant enough and when his clansman fails to join him in battle against invaders he is not scared to take on the white man individually and says: ‘we must fight these men and drive them from the land’ (p.182.) 3. in conclusion throughout the novel, okonkwo’s image of the self is more an image of the socially dictated image of a man. he reminds himself to act like an honorable brave man because for him the meaning of man parallels social status as a man. he prefers to remain unmoved, stern and unemotional to express his feelings at times, as his “manly” values conflict with his “unmanly” ones. he proves himself a tragic hero who finds himself unable to adapt to changing times, incapable to perform within his changing society as the white man comes to live, inspire and alter the lives, meaning and culture of umuofians. i okonkwo was banished to mbata when he rejects the oracles of the hills and caves of the priestess of agbala to claim his daughter. references becker, h. s.; mccall, michael m. (1990). symbolic interaction and cultural studies. chicago: the university of chicago press. blumer, h. (1969). symbolic interactionism: perspective and method. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. christopher, f. scott, and kisler, tiffani. (2004). sexual aggression in romantic relationships. in harvey, john, wenzel, amy, and sprecher, susan (eds.), the handbook of sexuality in close relationships. mahwah, nj: erlbaum, 287-309. cooley, c. h. (1902). human nature and the social order. new york: scribner. keraf, gorys. (1980). composition: an introduction to language kemahrian. ende: nusa indah. koentjaraninggrat (ed.). (1985). man and culture indonesia. jakarta: djambatan. krech david, richard s crutchfield and egerton l ballachey (1962). individual in society; a textbook of social psychology (mcgraw-hill) new york. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 9 linell davis. 2001. doing culture: cross-cultural communication in action. foreign language teaching and research press mead, g. h. (2005). mind, self and society. shanghai: shanghai translation publishing house. nababan, p.w.j. 1984. sociolinguistics: an introduction. jakarta: pt gramedia. poerwadarminta, w.j.s. 1983. indonesian general dictionary. jakarta: pn balai pustaka. ritzer, g. (2004). contemporary sociological theory and its classical roots: the basics.beijing: peking university press. sitindoan, g. 1984. introduction to linguistics and grammar. bandung: pustaka prima. stryker, s. and statham, a. (1985). symbolic interaction and role theory. pp. 311-378 in handbook of social psychology, edited by gardiner lindsey and eliot aronson. new york: random house. turner, j. h. (2004). the structure of sociological theory.beijing: peking university press. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/searchresults?an=linell+davis&cm_sp=det-_-bdp-_-author university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 11 the role played by facebook in developing students’ english language skills imran ullah research scholar, department of english, shaheed benazir bhutto university sheringal dir upper, khyber pakhtunkhwa, pakistan dr. mian shah bacha assistent professor, department of english, shaheed benazir bhutto university, sheringal dir upper, khyber pakhtunkhwa, pakistan abstract this study investigates students’ perception about the use of facebook as a popular forum of social media in relation to learning english as a foreign language. their approaches while using facebook and the nature of facebook have also been examined. data were collected from sixty-five undergraduate students through the tool of questionnaire. findings suggest that facebook use is highly effective in developing students’ different skills and areas of english language. some of the possible threats to students’ proficiency have also been pointed out. the study concludes that students on the whole are positive about the advantages in english language learning while using facebook. facebook is not only use for messages, and talking but get something new for learning. key words: facebook, efl learning and the role of facebook introduction the use of ‘social media’ has become increasingly entrenched in everyday life. among various social media, facebook is a highly interactive virtual social communication tool and it has become increasingly popular in students’ communities. this platform can equally be used for formal and informal learning. though facebook is frequently used by students and adults these days as a source of communication and entertainment, it can play a pivotal role in improving basic skills. facebook is one of the social media sources through which people are connected with one another. people share their thoughts and emotions through facebook all over the world. it is one of the online social networking websites. it provides a platform for building a social relationship among people. through this way, it can act as a bridging source to socially link people with one another. similarly, by linking them together, they get deep into the minds and hearts of one another and sort out the internal feelings and emotions of one another. even illiterate people in modern society are using facebook for different purposes like giving comments, sharing images, etc. due to such use of facebook them, they have started using english words in their daily conversation in their native language. facebook is becoming increasingly popular among young people and especially in the students’ university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 12 community. they use it for group chats where they make different academic discussions, along with many others, and share a variety of useful propositions and topics with one another. as this communication is carried out in the english language, so ultimately it is influencing the english language proficiency of the students. many parents in our society are worried about their children about the frequent use of facebook. they regard it as a futile activity and never think about its positive impacts upon their children. therefore, the present research study ascertains the relationship between social media and students’ study efficiency. vocabulary, the core of any language, is probably the most challenging and time-consuming part of learning a foreign language, and such social media interaction can play a key role in it. it takes time and flows like a continuous process, once the fundamentals of a language get settled such as pronunciation, vocabulary, and basic grammar. throughout this process, learners become familiarized with the words they come across, and such words can play a key role in their language learning. the use of social networking is very popular among english language learners. social networking is a tool that can assist teachers and learners to access information and facilitate the learning of english (scinivas, 2010). the main focus of this research work is to study the relationship between social media especially facebook and the academic and english language growth of the students, particularly at the college (intermediate) level. this research will also try to highlight the impacts of facebook on the growth and development of the english language of the students. methodology a group of 65 undergraduate students, who were studying at three intermediate colleges, were selected for this study. their participation was voluntary. the group of students belonged to various disciplines and with varying proficiency levels in english. sample for the present study, the researcher choose the stratified sampling technique. the number of 25 students from each of the first two colleges was chosen by selecting each of the twelfth students by marking them from their attendance list from intermediate classes. the same procedure was followed in the third colleges and fifteen students were selected. thus sixty-five students selected from three different colleges comprised the population of the present research study. date collection data were collected through the questionnaire. it consists of five questions; they were a combination of including dichotomous (yes/no) and rating scales of a three-point, five-points, and a seven-point. questions were developed to investigate students’ perception, approaches, and nature of facebook use in connection to learning english as a foreign language. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 13 data analysis data collected from the students through the tool of the questionnaire was in tabulated. each response of the participants was presented with the number of participants. findings were presented in percentages and ratios and results were interpreted and analyzed. conclusions were drawn and recommendations were offered. data presentation the current chapter of the study consists of the major findings obtained from students’ responses gathered through the tool of the questionnaire. the analyses of the results in this chapter are discussed in one smallest and two major sections. the first section briefly describes students’ academic year and the number of students studying in the various academic years of their schooling. section (2) contains an analysis of the various aspects of facebook use by the students. the final (3rd) section discusses the use of facebook in relation to students’ english as foreign language learning. before discussing students’ responses regarding their perception and approach to the use of facebook, classification of students based upon their academic year is presented. it is to highlight and emphasize the fact that the use of facebook was equally popular among students from different academic disciplines and educational backgrounds. table 1: students’ classification on academic basis students’ academic background section 1: the academic classification of the students given in the above table shows that they were from three separate academic disciplines. it is vital to explain at this juncture to define each of the three academic levels and sub-levels of the students being the participants of this study. the first two categories, namely, first year and second year are the junior and senior classes of the intermediate level. it includes students who were having their eleventh and twelfth year of their schooling. similarly, the next two categories of third and fourth year refer to students who were having their thirteen and fourteen year of their schooling respectively. these two classes come under the pre-graduation level. the last category contains students who were from the academic discipline of b.s honors. it includes students who were studying in four-year graduation programs that start after the intermediate level. the language of instruction for all the students # academic year number of students % 1 1st 06 09 2 2nd 28 43 3 3rd 02 03 4 4th 03 04 5 bs honors 26 40 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 14 belonging to these three academic disciplines was english. moreover, english was also included as a compulsory subject in their curriculums. the majority of the students who were enquired in this study were the students studying at an intermediate level. they include six students having their first year and twenty-eight students who were having their second year of schooling. they make fifty-three % of all the students: 09% of students were from the first year and 43% of the second year. the next category consists of students who were studying at the bachelor level. in this category, two students were from 3rd year i.e. those who were having the thirteenth year of their schooling, and three students from 4th year i.e. a year senior to the previous group. the remaining twenty-six students were those students who were studying at b.s level. they were students from different semesters. students from b.s make 40% of the total students who participated in the present study. the total number of students was sixty-five. section 2: the use of facebook: various aspects students’ use of facebook on a daily basis all the students were regular users of facebook. they were using facebook on their smartphones, laptops/computers, and other devices. in order to ensure their usage of facebook and determine the average time they spent on using it, they were given different options to mark according to their routine. following is the summary of the number of students divided into groups on the basis of their average time they spent using facebook on daily basis. table 2: students’ duration of facebook use on daily basis # duration spent number of students % 1 less than one hour 25 38.46 2 one and a half hours to two hours 20 30.76 3 up to three hours 10 15.38 4 up to four hours 07 10.76 5 more than five hours 05 7.69 6 none of these 00 00 table 2: students’ duration of facebook use on daily basis the displayed table shows us the students’ responses stating the average time they spent using facebook on daily basis. it confirms the fact that all the students were using facebook daily and there was no exception-though the duration of time spent by them using facebook was different. among them, there was no student who was not using facebook on daily basis. they were instructed by the researchers to mention that time only they spent using facebook exclusively and not to count that time they spent using other applications. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 15 the majority of the students (25) were those who were using facebook for less than one hour daily. they form 38% of the total participants. the next greater number of students comprised of that group who were using facebook for one and a half hours to two hours daily. they were twenty-five in number and form 30.76% of the total number of students. next, 15.38% of the students (10) were using facebook for up to three hours daily. seven of them (10/76%) were using facebook for up to four hours. lastly, the least number of students were using facebook for the greatest time. they were seven number (1067%) and they used to spend more than four hours using facebook on daily basis. as aforementioned, none of the students neglected the use of facebook on daily basis. the motive behind using facebook one of the research objectives is to find out the motives that influence students to use the facebook site. the researchers identified five major motives for facebook use given as under: 1. social interaction; 2. passing time; 3. entertainment; 4. companionship; 5. communication; all of the above five motives were stated in the questionnaire and students were asked to choose the one which they consider the most appropriate for their facebook use. their replies are presented below. # motive number of students % 1 social interaction 32 49.23 2 passing time 15 23.07 3 entertainment 32 49.23 4 companionship 10 15.38 5 communication 36 55.38 table 3: students’ motives or facebook use a finding of the study shows that out of 65 students, 32 numbers of them use facebook to keep in touch with friends for social interaction. next, 15 students primarily use facebook to pass time when they feel bored, and this relates to the idea of being socialized with friends online. talking about entertainment, the findings show that 32 numbers of students consider that facebook is the source of entertainment. facebook has also the function to facilitate companionship. owing to this function, 10 respondents used facebook to find long-lost friends. moreover, facebook operates primarily as a tool for communication among students. therefore, 36 respondents use facebook to send a message and share information with their friends. the use of ‘message on facebook can save time and money and it is one of the fastest way to share information with one another. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 16 nature of usage of apps in facebook the next finding is related to another aspect of facebook use by the students. it was to examine the nature of the usage of application on facebook. students were presented with ten major applications that are used in facebook. these apps include: 1. update videos; 2. play games; 3. poke friends for fun; 4. update status; 5. upload photos; 6. take survey/quiz on friends; 7. to post an opinion/ a thought/ a statement; 8. comments on friend’s post; 9. chatting with friends; 10. studying various materials in english. students were asked to select by marking any of the options given which they find appropriate to their facebook use. results related to these questions are presented in the following table followed by its analysis. table 4: nature of the usage of different apps results displayed in the above table show that out of sixty-five students, 33.84% of students like to update videos mostly along with using some of the other applications on facebook. next, 15.38% of students like to play games and they had this entertainment mostly on facebook. nineteen of the students (46.15%) use facebook to poke friends for fun along with some other applications on facebook. the majority of them (58.45%) students like to upload photos on # usage of app number of students % 1 update videos 22 33.84 2 play games 10 15.38 3 poke friends for fun 19 46.15 4 upload photos 38 58.46 5 update status 30 46.15 6 take survey/quiz on friends 17 26.15 7 to post an opinion/ a thought/ a statement 21 32.30 8 comments on friend’s post 38 58.46 9 chatting with friends 37 56.92 10 studying various materials in english 36 55.38 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 17 facebook. the next 6.15% of students like to update their status and have friends’ opinions on it. besides them, the next 36.15% of students like to take the survey/ quiz of an informative kind on facebook. moreover, 32.30% of students like to post some opinion, thoughts, and statements. a considerable number of them, (58.46%) students like to comments on friends’ posts. apart from it, 56.92% of students like to chat with friends while using facebook. lastly, 5.38% of students responded that they like to study various materials in english that are shared on facebook. section 3 students’ opinions about facebook use with regard to english language learning language areas focused on using facebook the next finding presented here is directly related to facebook use and students’ english language proficiency. to find out how students benefit from the use of facebook in terms of focusing, improving, and developing various language skills, they were given six statements; each statement explains an aspect of language proficiency. following are the skills that were presented to the students in a questionnaire: 1. reading habit; 2. communication skill; 3. enhancing vocabulary; 4. developing writing skill; 5. correcting and improving spellings; 6. focusing and enhancing grammar; students were asked to mark english language skills they mainly focus on while using facebook. they had to select by marking any of the six options given to them. they were also given an option in case of no skill focused. their responses are presented in the table given below, followed by its analysis. table 5: language area mainly focused on students # skill focused number of students % 1 to develop my reading habit 24 36.92 2 to improve my communication skill 33 50.76 3 to enhance english vocabulary 30 46.15 4 to improve my writing skill 27 41.53 5 to correct and improve my spelling 25 38.46 6 to focus and enhance my knowledge of grammar 35 53.48 7 none of the above 05 7.69 results of the above table show the purpose of developing the skilled mainly focused on the students during their facebook use. the majority of the students (53.48%) replied that they mainly focus on the area of grammar. students who mainly focus on grammar while using university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 18 facebook were thirty-five in number; it means that more than half of the students mainly focus on grammar in their facebook use. the second-largest number (33) of the students mainly focuses on english vocabulary. they benefit from facebook use to enrich their english vocabulary. they form 46.14 of the total participants. the third-largest number of the student's group consists of twenty-seven participants who replied that they focus their writing skills while using facebook. they were of the view that facebook helps them improve their written expression and their writing is polished and refined when they practice expressing their views, comments, and write status updates. they were 41.53% of the total students who participated in this study. the fourth group contains twenty-five students which is 38.46% of the total students. they replied that they focus their spellings while writing in performing different tasks on facebook. the next category includes twenty-four students who use facebook to develop their reading facebook. in their view, their skill of reading is improved and developed when they read the status updates, articles, comments of other people, and other reading stuff written in english on facebook. lastly, five students (7.69%) denied all the options resented to them. approaches to facebook related to english language leering the next set of questions further examines students’ approaches and tendencies of various kinds regarding their english language proficiency while using facebook. this list of questions contains nine questions that were designed to be answered in ‘yes/no’ by the students. the table given below presents the students’ replies to these questions. # question response in yes yes % response in no no % 1 do you become less careful of grammar and spelling when you chat or write on facebook 38 58.46 27 41.53 2 do you use abbreviated words phrases and sentences and other shortcuts? 50 76.92 15 23.07 3 do your facebook friends understand these abbreviated words, phrases and sentences, and other shortcuts? 54 83.07 12 18.46 4 do you use abbreviated language because it’s save time? 48 73.84 17 26.15 5 do you sometime use shortcuts used in facebook in your academic writing? 26 40.00 39 60.00 6 when you write on wall, send messages or chat with your friends, do you try to convey as much information 48 73.84 17 26.15 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 19 table 6: students’ opinions about facebook use and english language results of the set of all nine questions are discussed below: in answer to the first question in the table that was asked from the students examines whether they become less careful of grammar and spelling when they chat or write on facebook, thirtyeight (58.46%) of the students asserted that they do become less careful—though not completely—while chatting or writing on facebook. the remaining twenty-seven (42.53%) students replied that they don’t become less careful of grammar and spellings while writing or chatting in english on facebook. the next question in the list is about the use of abbreviated words, phrases and sentences, and other shortcuts while using facebook. in reply to this, the majority of the students (76.92%) admitted that they do use abbreviated words, phrases, and other shortcuts in their writing on facebook. the smaller section of students who were fifteen in number (23.07%) denied the use of abbreviations and other shortcut forms in their writing. the thirty questions is auxiliary to the previous question asked (2). it was asked to enquire whether the abbreviations and other shortcut forms in writing of the students are understood by the other facebook users. the majority of the students, eighty-three in number (83.07%) replied that the abbreviations and other shortcut forms in their writing are understood by the other facebook users i.e. their friends, relatives and other associated people. the remaining twelve (18.46%) replied that abbreviations and shortcuts are not easily understood by other facebook users. they have to explain these shortcut forms. the fourth question was also related to the previous two questions. it was asked to know the reason for using abbreviated language. students were asked whether they use abbreviated language to save time. majority of them (73.84%) assigned the use of abbreviated language to the reason of saving time. the seventeen students (36.15%) rejected this stance of using the abbreviated language for the sake of saving time. the next question raises the serious issue of the effects of facebook to use upon the academic writing of students. they were asked whether they use the abbreviated language and other shortcut forms used in writing on facebook in their academic writing also. though the larger number of students (60%) denied the use of abbreviated language in their academic writing as the effect of facebook use, twenty-six (40%) acknowledged the fact that their academic writing is affected by the use of facebook and they do as possible in each word or phrase? 7 are you always willing to learn new words, expressions or symbols used by other facebook users? 44 67.69 21 32.30 8 do you think that facebook 48 73.84 17 26.15 9 do you think that facebook influences you to use words and expressions which are not grammatically correct? 35 53.84 30 46.155 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 20 make the use of abbreviated language in their academic writing. the sixth question refers to ‘in formativeness’ they conveyed in the wording during writing on the wall of a facebook page, or during chat or giving comments on status updates. most of the students (73.84%) stated that they try to communicate much information during their writing of facebook. the rest of the students (26.15%) which were seventeen in number replied that they don’t bother about in formativeness in their writing. the next question (no. 7) examines students’ interest in learning new words, useful expressions and different types of symbols used in the writing of other facebook users. among the participants, forty-four (67.69%) showed their interest in learning new words, expressions, and understanding the meaning an significance of symbols and emotions used by other facebook users in their writing on facebook. the rest of twenty-one (32.30%) students were found not to be interested in learning new words, expressions and symbols used by other facebook users. questions no. 8 is concerned with students’ general perception of facebook. they were asked whether they find facebook helpful in learning the english language being efl learners. the majority of the students were of the view that facebook influences them in learning english less a foreign language. results show that (73.84%) of the students considered facebook helpful in this regard. while seventeen of them (26.15%) believed that facebook does not influence them in any respect in learning english as a foreign language. the last question (9) is about the possible disadvantage of facebook in learning the english language as a foreign language. students were asked whether facebook causes the use of grammatically incorrect words and expressions and spellings. results in the table show that the majority of the students (53.84%) of the students were of the opinion that facebook influences them to use grammatically incorrect words and expressions and spellings. the remaining thirty students (46.15%) denied the fact that facebook causes them to make the use of ungrammatical expressions, incorrect words, and spellings. conclusion all the participants of this study were found to be facebook users; the tendency of using facebook was recorded that confirms the use of facebook as a part of their daily routine. though not recommended, some of them were using facebook for the duration equal to their school hours. in that case, the over-use of facebook may overshadow the focus given to other subjects and activities. the main motive behind students’ use of facebook in this study was ‘communication’. it can be assigned to the fact that text messaging, sending photos, audio, and files, and making calls on facebook are cheaper as compared to other network services. yet the nature and purposes of communication require further research to ensure the fact whether it contributes to students’ expressiveness and proficiency or it damages it. the other major two motives identified behind their use of facebook were ‘social interaction’ and ‘entertainment’. some students, however, marked the motives of ‘passing time and ‘companionship’. measuring the relative effects of each motive of facebook use by students is a broad area subject to further university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 21 research. probing further into the nature of apps used by students on facebook, it was found that the majority of the students were using the apps of uploading photos and commenting upon the status updated of other facebook users, from this study perspective the latter is significant in learning english as a foreign language. the third most used app for chatting with friends is also directly concerned tot his field. similarly, a sizable portion of students asserted that they access and read different sorts of materials written in english. it directly contributes to to the development of their habit. the trend of posting opinions and updating status is beneficial in enhancing their creative use of the english language and writing skills. talking particularly about the area/skills that were focused on by students while using facebook, developing communication skills, and improving grammar were given more emphases by them. enriching english vocabulary, enhancing writing skills and improving spellings, and developing reading habits were given priority likewise. neglecting all the six areas of english language by fewer students however questions the utility of facebook use with regard to english language learning. carelessness about grammar and spellings and using shortcuts and abbreviations were the major concerns identified in this study. these practices lead directly to destroying their english language skills and proficiency. on the other hand, a greater section of students substantiated the assumption that they focus upon new vocabulary items, emoticon, and symbols they come across using facebook. on the whole, the majority of the students believed that facebook facilitates them in learning english as a foreign language. recommendations the researcher offers a number of recommendations for facilitating learning english as a foreign language via facebook use in light of the present study. they are as under:  measures should be adopted by students’ guardians and other custodians to prevent students from excessive facebook use so it may not harm the overall academic performance of students.  an awareness campaign should be launched to highlight the effectiveness of facebook to students in learning the english language by policy-making and teachers.  students should be encouraged to like and follow facebook pages created to improve the english language.  holding discussions and language learning tasks and activities on facebook should be made part of the co-curricular activities by teachers to enhance the communication skills of the students.  the practice of selecting different sorts of assignments and giving proper feedback on those assignments should be adopted to encourage facebook to use for educational purposes and english language learning.  students’ writing should be thoroughly checked for using shortcuts as caused by facebook and this practice should be strictly discouraged by teachers. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 22 reference abraham, l. b. (2008). computer-mediated glosses in second language reading comprehension and vocabulary learning: a meta-analysis. computer assisted language learning, 21(3), 199–226. abraham, l. b. (2008). computer-mediated glosses in second language reading comprehension and vocabulary learning: a meta-analysis. computer assisted language learning, 21(3), 199–226. alhomod, s. m., & shafi, m. m. (2012). facebook as a tool to enhance team based learning. editorial preface, 3(12). alm, a. (2006). call for autonomy, competence and relatedness: motivating language learning environments in web 2.0. the jalt call journal, 2(3), 29-38. bakar, n. a., latif, h., & ya‘acob, a. (2010). esl students feedback on the use of blogs for language learning. 3l; language, linguistics and literature, the southeast asian journal of english language studies., 16(1), 120-141. blattner, g., & fiori, m. (2009). facebook in the language classroom: promises and possibilities. international journal of instructional technology and distance learning, 6(1), 17-28. bokova,i. (january 2013). technology, broadband and education advancing the education for all agenda,unesco.15-20 @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 64 facebook as a language learning environment: a descriptive study on esl learners’ perceptions aakash kumar (mphil scholar), sukkur iba university, airport road sukkur #65200 pakistan aakash.mphil18@iba-suk.edu.pk dr. hassan syed assistant professor at sukkur iba university, airport road sukkur #65200 pakistan hassan.ali@iba-suk.edu.pk abstract social networking site like facebook has been used as a modern source of communication and interaction. it also has the potential to be an effective academic too. this paper aims to present a comprehensive picture of what has already been discovered regarding facebook as a language learning environment and it further tends to investigate esl learners’ perceptions of facebook as a language learning environment in pakistani context particularly in sindh. the sample who participated in this research were 100 higher secondary students studying in ibapublic school sukkur. the findings of this study revealed that the esl learners in sindh believe facebook as a language learning environment helps to enhance language skills including reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar. altogether students showed positive perceptions regarding this learning model. so, in light of the findings it is recommended for the teachers teaching english as a second language in sindh, pakistan should plan their lessons that involve facebook as a language learning platform. keywords: facebook, language learning environment, esl learners, perceptions, pakistan 1. introduction social networking sites have been the major source of communication in the recent years because these sites serve the purpose of virtual communities for the people where they can share ideas, and information and make relationships domestically as well as globally (makri & schlegelmilch, 2017). social networking sites have actually modified the mode of communication and pattern of exchange of information completely (nadkami & hofmann, 2012). to see such popularity and usefulness, social networking sites have been hot topics for educators to explore educational use (blankenship, 2011). among all the social network sites facebook is the most popular site used by 2.20 billion people around the world (facebook, 2018). majority of the users are youngsters and adults (shepherd, 2015). facebook has influenced the various fields like business, media and mailto:aakash.mphil18@iba-suk.edu.pk mailto:hassan.ali@iba-suk.edu.pk university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 65 fashion industry exponentially. having seen such influence on these fields scholars and educators have been prompted to explore its use for academic purpose (niu, 2017). one of the academic fields of interest for scholars is language teaching and learning around the world. they have tried to explore the role of facebook for learning language. studies carried out in australia and asian countries conclude that the use of facebook for language learning has been an important source of improvement in english language learning. manan, alias, and pandian (2012), conducted a research in malaysia and they found that teenagers in malaysia spend more time using facebook and other social sites outside the class. further, they say that since english is medium of communication in these sites, there are significant benefits of using facebook as a tool for language learning (p. 1). scholars and educators believe that there are many features offered by facebook like ‘facebook group’ provided with cautious manipulation, can be incorporated in language learning as a powerful tool. clark and gruba (2010), conducted a study in australia in which they suggested that it is very necessary for teachers to integrate social networking sites like facebook in language classes to make learning environment interesting for students. in addition, yunus, salehi, and chenzi (2012) made an action research in which they integrated facebook into a writing course of esl and they found numerous advantages of facebook as a tool for learning language skills and some of the advantages are;  the facebook allows students to communicate with their teachers and classmates after the class. facebook also affects their motivation and strengthened their social networking practices.  the facebook also helps teachers to discuss about the assignments and help out students outside the class. not only this, but they also share some useful links through facebook for improving students’ writing skill and students share their written draft with their teachers. however, yunus et al. (2012) have also highlighted some disadvantages of facebook. for instance, for language learning through facebook all the learners must have access to the internet. many students are accustomed to the traditional book-centered approach so they do not like to read the tasks online in soft copy. the studies conducted in the different corners of the world on facebook are mainly focusing on particular issues. for instance, the effect of facebook on electronic homework assignment, reading skill and process based writing etc. however, it can be said that it is nearly impossible to evaluate facebook as a language learning environment without investigating how language learners actually perceive it. second, there are also a few research studies on facebook as a language-learning environment in the pakistani esl context particularly in sindh. so, this study will be a big contribution in the literature of esl learning and teaching. 1.1. statement of the problem use of social media particularly of facebook is a quite new phenomenon in pakistan. since pakistan is a developing country, use of modern means of communication is still at embryonic stage. the integration of ict in education is a rare phenomenon particularly in least developed university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 66 regions. there had been significant investment in introducing means of communication in pakistan during musharraf era which has begun to bear fruits in terms of adoption of media tools in the country. facebook is also one such emerging online connectivity platform. hence, this phenomenon of rising online community in pakistan has encouraged research studies for how online media has influenced us individually and in collective capacity. keeping the rise of social media particularly facebook in view, there is debate on how this platform has influenced patterns of life in the country. there are numerous instances available in which we confront mass evidence of informal learning of both constructive and negative attitudes in communities. what remains little researched is the use of facebook in facilitating academic growth particularly in learning english. english, as we know, is not a mother tongue of our nation. however, most of the schools in private as well as public sector teach english from very beginning. the teens most frequently attend academies to develop english language skills. in addition, the magazines, newspapers and tv channels also serve as a means to develop these skills. however, the most recent phenomenon that has contributed to the development of english language skills is learning through social media which is why this paper aims at exploring the relationship between facebook and development of english language skills. 1.2. the aim of the study despite the fact that the use of facebook among higher secondary students is undeniable, the significance of this tool to effect students’ language learning positively remains a question. this can be a case that facebook in pakistan is intended for social communication and interaction, not necessarily for english language learning. thus, there is a need for a thoughtful and rigorous integration to inculcate a basis for the status of new teaching and learning practices. the current study aims to explore the esl learners’ perceptions of facebook as a language learning environment following two main aspects; the general perceptions of facebook and second aspect is to find perceptions of facebook as a language learning environment. the core aim of study is to depict a comprehensive picture of what has already been explored regarding the use of facebook as language learning environment and more specifically it tends to answer the below mentioned research questions: 1.3. research questions  what are the perceptions of esl learners in sindh, pakistan as a source of socialization, interaction and educational environment?  how do esl learners in sindh, pakistan perceive facebook language learning environment and what is its influence on knowledge and basic skills of language? 2. literature review facebook is one of the most famous social networking sites which facilitates esl learners in the improvement of their language skills. it does not only improve students’ performance of english language but it also motivates and triggers students to interact authentically (blattner & fiori, university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 67 2009). they further stated that facebook also offers some constructive educational features which are also increasing day by day (p.8). according to leutner and plass (1998) facebook is very beneficial and useful in terms of informal communication site. the findings of the study conducted by mccarthy (2010) reveal that facebook groups play an important role in the development of language skills. these groups afford the members which have joined those groups with daily updates of vocabulary, grammar and other english related information. conversation and discussion in those groups by group members also be one of the factors contributing in the improvement of language. such interaction and discussion in groups fosters student-centered approach and provide students autonomy to practice and acquire language skills in a conducive and positive environment (birch & volkov, 2007). whereas, (kabilan, ahmad, & abidin, 2010) concluded that facebook impacts at great level on students’ performance in english language because facebook these days has been part of routine of students. bakar and latif (2010), investigated students’ feedback on use of facebook as language learning tool and they found that students believed facebook was a productive tool for learning english online. it provided more collaborative environment of learning. according to liu (2010), for students’ educational communities facebook has been the potential tool and valuable resource which is widely used and the most popular platform among students for social networking. not only this, but it is also called the latest source of interaction adopted by students used for academic purpose. however, haverback (2009) indicated in his study that when students were involved in facebook discussions, they felt motivated and grasped a better understanding of the topics. in addition students became creative when they read the assignments individually and generated new ideas. whereas, alhomod et al. (2012), suggested facebook can be very effective tool to create an english language network may be called e-class where members of that network can share language related information with other users. he further claimed that all the previous studies focused on the teacher-students and student-student interaction on facebook but they did not focus on the use of facebook for creating e-classroom. shih (2013), conducted a study to investigate the effect of using blended technology along with facebook and peer assessment for one of his courses, where he found that incorporation of facebook proved to be very helpful which assisted students in learning to communicate in the context of business english. shih (2013), further said that when students’ assessed were involved in peer assessment on facebook, their professional knowledge was also improved. supporting the same idea mahmud and ching (2012) reported in the findings of his study that usage of facebook enhanced the reading and writing skills of students, their social circles expanded which ultimately improved the communication skills of students. research indicates that those studies which investigated the utilization of facebook in the context of language learning have shown positive results. for example, birky and collins (2011), university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 68 conducted a correlational study in which they found a positive relationship between facebook and foreign language learning and cultural awareness. moreover, aydin (2012), stated that facebook had a powerful impact on language teaching and learning. the related literature suggests that those teachers who used facebook in their language classroom actually engaged their students in eassignments (kitsis, 2008), developed reading and writing skills through sharing the posts on facebook (kabilan et al., 2010) and can be utilized as a portfolio tool in an english language classroom to improve process based writing (waters, 2009). on the other hand, there are some studies which has also highlighted some negative consequences of use of facebook which include inappropriate comments (butler, 2010), and cyberbullying (catanzaro, 2011). in addition, couros (2008) indicated that facebook also caused a problem of privacy among youngsters . however it should be noted that the studies showing the negative consequences were limited to its general use but they did not investigate how esl learners perceive the negative consequences of facebook. to conclude, it can be said that all the reviewed studies seem too limited as no study was found on perceptions of esl learners that how esl learners perceive facebook as language learning environment particularly in pakistan, which makes this study much significant to investigate the esl learners’ perception of facebook as a language learning environment in sindh, pakistan. 3. methodology 3.1. research design the present study used the descriptive quantitative design to investigate esl learners’ perceptions of facebook as a language learning environment. descriptive research design is known as scientific method that involves observation and description of the behaviour of any subject without influencing it (anderson & arsenault, 2005). the current study employed the use of questionnaire as data collection instrument which was designed to accumulate all the information pertaining to the objectives of the study. 3.2. sample the participants of this study were students of higher secondary classes including xi and xii studying in iba-public sukkur. who used to english as one of their compulsory subject and have facebook accounts also. the participants were selected using convenience sampling procedure. etikan, musa, and alkassim (2016), stated that convenience sampling procedure belongs to quantitative procedures in which participants are selected by researchers on the basis of willingness and availability. this resulted in a sample size of 100 respondents in which 54 were male and 46 were female whose average number of facebook friends was 330 within the range of 26 and 1200, however they also had some foreign friends with whom the respondents communicated in english language and their average number was 36 within the range of 0 to 450. the participants were also university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 69 asked for the number of english language related groups joined by them and each of them was the member of at-least 5 groups related to english language and grammar. 3.3. instrument the data collection used in this study was questionnaire and survey method was followed to collect the data. the questionnaire used was originally developed by aydin (2017), but it was modified to suit the current study and its context. the validity of modified questionnaire was validated by two experts who were requested to check clarity in statements and suitability in content. the questionnaire was consisted of 20 items which probed respondents’ gender, grade, the number of facebook friend including foreign friends and the number facebook groups related to english language joined. the instrument used five point likert scale ranging from five to one (5=never, 4= rarely, 3=sometimes, 2=usually, always=1). 3.4. data collection process for data collection phase first of all the permission was granted from the administration. the purpose and significance of study, research methodology, ethical consideration, the role of researcher and purpose behind participants’ choice were explained to the respondents who were invited to participate in the survey. it was assured that their privacy will be respected and this will create no harm for them. the participation in this study was purely on voluntary basis and survey was conducted within the bounds of respect for the respondents. 3.5. data analysis and procedure the collected data from the participants was analyzed to answer the desired research questions. the statements were analyzed using the descriptive statistics in order to find frequencies, mean and std. deviation which were presented in the form of tables. students’ demographics were also asked to support the data and data was analyzed using the statistical package social science (spss). 4. findings this sections presents the result obtained from the collected data which is presented in two sections in the form of tables. the first section shows the findings on esl learners’ general perceptions of facebook as a medium for communication and interaction. whereas, the second section presents the findings on esl learners’ perceptions of facebook as language learning environment particularly. table 1. esl learners’ perceptions of facebook as a medium for communication and interaction statement total numbe r frequencies (%) mean std. dev. nev er rarel y sometim es usuall y alway s university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 70 i use facebook is good for communication and interaction. 100 2.0 8.0 30.0 27.0 30.0 2.1900 1.0511 7 i use facebook to communicate with my family members. 100 19` 36 28 6 11 3.4600 1.1927 4 i use facebook to communicate my friends. 100 0 9 19 29 43 1.9400 .99311 i use facebook to communicate my classmates. 100 5 15 33 19 28 2.5000 1.1934 2 i use facebook to communicate my teachers. 100 17 28 34 8 13 3.2800 1.2233 4 facebook is an environment for socialization. 100 0 5 15 28 52 1.7300 .89730 i use facebook to know about social activities happening around. 100 3 9 18 15 55 1.9000 1.1677 5 facebook helps in learning english because the medium of instruction is english on facebook. 100 0 6 19 26 49 1.8200 .94687 facebook can be used for educational activities. 100 3 8 27 32 30 2.2200 1.0596 4 i discuss academic tasks with my friends on facebook. 100 9 24 40 13 14 3.0100 1.1414 6 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 71 according to the findings shown in table 1, esl learners in sindh perceive facebook a very good toll for communication and interaction. table 1. shows that 30% of students said they use facebook for communication always and 27% said they usually use facebook for communication which altogether becomes a good percentage with the mean x=2.1900 to support the statement that esl learners in sindh use facebook for communication and interaction. but mean score of second statement which is x= 3.4600 shows that large number of students do not use facebook to interact with their family members rather they communicate with their friends and classmates which is indicated in the mean scores of third and fourth statements x= 1.9400 and x= 2.5000. however, the level of communication decreased regarding their teachers x= 3.2800. esl learners in sindh prefer to use facebook for socialization x= 1.7300 and knowing social activities happening around x= 1.9000. the majority of esl learners agreed that facebook helps in language learning with the mean score x= 1.8200 and they sometimes talk about educational activities on facebook with their friends x= 3.0100. table 2. esl learners’ perceptions of facebook as a language learning environment. statement total number frequencies (%) mean std. dev. never rarel y sometime s usuall y alway s facebook is a language learning environment. 100 4 7 24 22 44 2.0700 1.1481 6 when i chat on facebook, i use english language which has improved english language skills a lot. 100 3 9 27 16 45 2.0900 1.1642 4 i learn vocabulary through facebook. 100 3 12 38 20 27 2.4400 1.1039 0 facebook helps to improve english language. 100 0 6 15 34 45 1.8200 .90319 facebook is a good discussion forum which improves writing. 100 3 4 24 25 44 1.9700 1.0584 4 i read blogs and posts on facebook and it has improved my reading skills. . 100 0 6 10 33 51 1.7100 .87957 i feel confident in writing and posting new ideas on facebook timeline and i feel i am improving in my writing skill. 100 7 6 27 23 37 2.2300 1.2131 9 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 72 many people share many english related posts and it has improved my english language skills. 100 3 14 20 31 32 2.2500 1.1404 0 i watch videos related to english shared by my facebook friends and i learn many things related to english grammar. 100 5 18 26 13 38 2.3900 1.2940 8 because of facebook my pronunciation has also improved as i watch videos so i learn pronunciation also. 100 6 13 27 29 25 2.4600 1.1756 8 according to the findings shown in table 2. esl learners in sindh perceive that facebook provides an environment for language learning as 44% said always and 22% said usually with the mean score x= 2.0700. when esl learners were asked their perceptions about improvement in language and overall language skills, the majority of students agreed that facebook improves their language skills when they chat with their friends 1.8200 and x= 2.0900 respectively . further when they were asked separate questions regarding the language skills esl learners perceive that sometimes facebook improves their vocabulary x= 2.4400, it usually enhances their writing skill x= 1.9700 and 2.2300. esl learners in sindh have also positive perceptions regarding improvement in reading skill x= 1.7100 and grammatical concepts x= 2.3900. 5. discussion the aforementioned findings indicate certain factors. the first, the factors why esl learners in sindh prefer less to communicate and interact with their family members and teachers as compared to friends and classmates may be because of age groups of the parents and teachers and familiarity with facebook as parents in sindh know less about facebook than their kids (aydin, 2014). in addition esl learners’ perceptions of communication and interaction can also be seen as an indication of respect for teacher in sindhi culture because students in sindh are supposed to behave more formal and in respectful manner with their teachers that is why social distance is considered as one of the factors of discipline. the second, why esl learners perceive that facebook does not contribute much to the pronunciation and listening skills may be because interaction on facebook is mainly dependent on written interaction. instead of all esl learners in sindh have positively perceive facebook as a language learning environment. 6. limitations of the study like other studies this study is not far from the limitations. one of the limitations of the study is that participants of this study were limited to one school and number of the participants was also limited to 100 because of shortage of time and availibity. the other limitation of the study is that university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 73 data collected in this study is limited to the perspectives of the students. further cross cultural research should be conducted to understand practical and theoretical aspects regarding variables like cultural differences and other determinants that may affect esl learners’ perceptions. 7. conclusion to conclude, facebook is perceived as a positive tool for communication and interaction used by esl learners in sindh which helps to enhance english language skills among students including reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar by incorporating learner-centered approach. facebook also provides a supportive and encouraging environment to practice and learn language skills among esl learners in sindh, pakistan. 8. references alhomod, s. m., shafi, m. m., kousarrizi, m., seiti, f., teshnehlab, m., susanto, h., & batawi, y. (2012). best practices in e government: a review of some innovative models proposed in different countries. international journal of electrical & computer sciences, 12(1), 16. anderson, g., & arsenault, n. (2005). fundamentals of educational research: routledge. aydin, s. (2012). a review of research on facebook as an educational environment. educational technology research and development, 60(6), 1093-1106. aydin, s. (2014). foreign language learners' interactions with their teachers on facebook. system, 42, 155-163. aydin, s. (2017). a descriptive study on efl learners' perceptions of facebook. online submission, 21(2), 381-400. bakar, n. a., & latif, h. (2010). esl students feedback on the use of blogs for language learning. 3l: language, linguistics, literature®, 16(1). birch, d., & volkov, m. (2007). assessment of online reflections: engaging english second language (esl) students. australasian society for computers in learning in tertiary education (ascilite). birky, i., & collins, w. (2011). facebook: maintaining ethical practice in the cyberspace age. journal of college student psychotherapy, 25(3), 193-203. blankenship, m. (2011). how social media can and should impact higher education. education digest, 76(7), 39-42. blattner, g., & fiori, m. (2009). facebook in the language classroom: promises and possibilities. international journal of instructional technology and distance learning, 6(1), 17-28. butler, k. (2010). tweeting your own horn. district administration, 46(2), 41-44. catanzaro, m. f. (2011). indirect aggression, bullying and female teen victimization: a literature review. pastoral care in education, 29(2), 83-101. clark, c., & gruba, p. (2010). the use of social networking sites for foreign language learning: an autoethnographic study of livemocha. paper presented at the proceedings of university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 74 ascilite-australian society for computers in learning in tertiary education annual conference. couros, a. (2008). safety and social networking: how can we maximize the learning power of participatory web sites while ensuring students are protected and behave responsibly? technology & learning, 28(7), 20. etikan, i., musa, s. a., & alkassim, r. s. (2016). comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. american journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), 1-4. haverback, h. r. (2009). facebook: uncharted territory in a reading education classroom. reading today, 27(2). kabilan, m. k., ahmad, n., & abidin, m. j. z. 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(2017). time orientation and engagement with social networking sites: a cross-cultural study in austria, china and uruguay. journal of business research, 80, 155-163. manan, n. a. a., alias, a. a., & pandian, a. (2012). utilizing a social networking website as an esl pedagogical tool in a blended learning environment: an exploratory study. international journal of social sciences & education, 2(1). mccarthy, j. (2010). blended learning environments: using social networking sites to enhance the first year experience. australasian journal of educational technology, 26(6). nadkami, a., & hofmann, s. g. (2012). why do people use facebook? personality and individual differences. nafional center for biotechnology informafion. http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pmc/arficles/pmc3335399. niu, l. (2017). using facebook for academic purposes: current literature and directions for future research. journal of educational computing research, 0735633117745161. shepherd, r. p. (2015). fb in fyc: facebook use among first-year composition students. computers and composition, 35, 86-107. shih, r.-c. (2013). effect of using facebook to assist english for business communication course instruction. turkish online journal of educational technology-tojet, 12(1), 52-59. http://www/ university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 75 waters, j. k. (2009). e-portfolios come of age. the journal, 36(10), 23-29. yunus, m. m., salehi, h., & chenzi, c. (2012). integrating social networking tools into esl writing classroom: strengths and weaknesses. english language teaching, 5(8), 42. appendix sukkur institute of business administration department of education participant questionnaire name male fmale name of school class statement never rarely sometimes usually always 1 i use facebook for communication and interaction. 2 i use facebook to communicate with my family members. 3 i use facebook to communicate my friends. 4 i use facebook to communicate my classmates. 5 i use facebook to communicate my teachers. 6 facebook is an environment for socialization. 7 i use facebook to know about social activities happening around. 8 facebook helps in learning english because the medium of instruction is english on facebook. 9 facebook can be used for educational activities. 10 i discuss academic tasks with my friends on facebook. 11 facebook is a language learning environment. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 76 12 when i chat on facebook, i use english language which has improved english language skills a lot. 13 i learn vocabulary through facebook. 14 facebook helps to improve english language. 15 facebook is a good discussion forum which improves writing. 16 i read blogs and posts on facebook and it has improved my reading skills. . 17 i feel confident in writing and posting new ideas on facebook timeline and i feel i am improving in my writing skill. 18 many people share many english related posts and it has improved my english language skills. 19 i watch videos related to english shared by my facebook friends and i learn many things related to english grammar. 20 because of facebook my pronunciation has also improved as i watch videos so i learn pronunciation also. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 60 a deconstructive analysis of the short story “saleema” by daniyal mueenuddin omama tanvir ms scholar, air university, islamabad nazish amir lecturer in english, university of chitral abstract the aim of this research is to apply deconstructive approach to a short story. for this purpose daniyal mueenuddin’s short story “saleema” is selected and analyzed. through deconstruction the feminist reading of the story is dismantled and the power dynamics of the patriarchal pakistani society are subverted. the research is anchored in derrida’s concept of unreliability of language and cuddon’s idea of reversal of binary oppositions. the paper finds that the protagonist saleema is not as weak and oppressed as she is perceived to be, rather she is a resilient, independent woman who uses any means possible to get what she wants. the power and authority reside with her and not with any male character. the study is purely qualitative and exploratory in nature. keywords: deconstruction, post-structuralism, feminism, daniyal mueenuddin, in other rooms, other wonders, saleema 1.1 introduction the current study applies the deconstructive approach presented by derrida (1976) to the short story “saleema” written by daniyal mueenuddin (2008). different theorists and critics have defined deconstruction in different ways but all believe in this basic underlying assumption that it emerged as a reaction to ferdinand de saussure’s idea of structuralism (1950). deconstruction, also known as applied post structuralism, works against seeing language as a system that constitutes reality (barry, 2002). according to deconstruction, language is not as reliable a tool for communication as it is believed to be (derrida, 1979). it establishes the notion of the plurality and fluidity of the meaning (barry, 2002). jacques derrida (1979) developed the concept of deconstruction to counter all the pre-established notions of criticism. it seeks to uncover various loop holes and disunity within the apparently unified texts (derrida, 1976). as a tool of criticism, this approach has wide applications in literature all over the world. it aims at finding the contradictions, paradoxes, shifts, breaks and tensions within the language (barry, 2002). however, this approach is quite new to pakistani literary circles and thus has had little application in the critical analysis of local texts. daniyal mueenuddin’s collection of short stories named in other rooms, other wonders (2008) revolves around the interconnected lives of a wealthy feudal landowner, his servant and university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 61 managers. under the backdrop of a pakistani society, these stories sketch the lives, problems and most specifically the power dynamics etched within the society. “saleema” (2008) is one such short story which throws light upon the lowly position of pakistani women as compared to men in the society. this theme of mistreatment of women is reinforced when saleema, the protagonist of the story is subjected to abuse at the hands of her father as a child, is ignored by her husband, misused by hassan, teased by other male servants and is renounced by rafik when harouni dies. this paper, however, aims at challenging the feminist reading of the story and establishing saleema as an independent, dominant entity. 1.1.1 problem statement the stereotypical portrayal of women in literature asserts the weak, submissive and irrational tendencies in their nature. the mistreatment of females at the hands of the male members of the society is highlighted in literary works from which generalizations are drawn. i̇n his short stories, pakistani writer daniyal mueenuddin portrays a very bleak picture of pakistani society which has caught western readers’ attention. his female characters are either, too weak, oppressed or they have no moral standing. the present study aims to challenge this misrepresentation of pakistani women through deconstruction and seeks to establish them as resilient and strong members of the society. 1.1.2 research objectives ➢ to dismantle the feminist perspective apparent in short story “saleema” through deconstruction. ➢ to investigate the subversion of power dynamics between two genders in short story “saleema”. 1.1.3 research questions ➢ how does deconstructive analysis dismantle the feminist perspective apparent in short story “saleema”? ➢ how have the power dynamics between the two genders been inverted in the short story “saleema”? 1.1.4 delimitation of the study this study is limited to deconstruction of feminism in the short story “saleema” (2008) written by daniyal mueenuddin in his collection of short stories “in other rooms, other wonders” (2008). 1.1.5 signficance of the study this research aims at challenging the stereotypical portayal of women in pakistani literature. where feministic analysis shows women as weak, inferior and exploited, deconstruction seeks to turn the tables and invert those binaries with the help of textual cues. thus, creating a strong, dominant and self-reliant image of pakistani women. this university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 62 deconstructive analysis propagates the idea that women in this society are not as weak and oppressed as they are portrayed to be, rather they are a force to be reckoned with. 1.2 literature review before embarking on the study, it is necessary to give a review of the work done on the different variables at play in this research. these variables include deconstruction, feminism and the daniyal mueenuddin’s short story “saleema” (2008). post structuralism criticizes the higher status assigned to language by structuralists (barry, 2002). it derives its philosophy from nietzsche’s remark “there are no facts, only interpretations” (barry, 2002). thus calling into question the commonsensical assumptions, fixed interpretations and paving way for skepticism. the biggest advocate of this concept is jacques derrida and his work structure, sign and play in the discourse of human sciences (1966) is considered as the starting point of post structuralism. derrida put forth the idea of a decentered universe by explicating that nothing is absolute or stable (derrida, 1966). derrida (1979) further elucidates the slippery nature of language. he explains that the meanings of the words are not embedded within them rather different meanings are assigned to them by different readers (derrida, 1979). this view is also supported by culler (1983), according to him deconstruction opposes the idea of “logo centrism”. he establishes the multiplicity and plurality of meaning (culler, 1983). lois tyson (2006) links this concept to semiotics and explains that a sign (word) refers to multiple signifiers (the meaning being associated with it). barthes (1968), another key figure in deconstruction gave the notion of “the death of the author” thus liberating the literary text from any possibility of associating it with what the author might have intended. in other words, he asserted that the meaning of a text is not limited to the author or any sort of context (barthes, 1968). deconstruction believes that there is no single reality, truth or identity. it rejects all the previous theories of knowledge and all the established ideologies and notions are challenged (bauman, 1992). the basic principle of structuralism that reality is constructed by language is rejected. it is something present in the minds and language is only used to express it or to put it into words (bertens, 2003). applied post structuralism or deconstruction, as a method of literary criticism, looks for contradictions and ambiguities within the text to subvert the established meanings. barbara johnson defines deconstructive approach in the critical difference (1980) as “not synonymous with ‘destruction’. it is in fact much closer to the original meaning of the word ‘analysis’, which etymologically means ‘to undo’ ” (johnson, 1980). similarly vincent b. leitch claims in his work deconstructive criticism: an advanced introduction (1983): “it aims to decipher the stable truths of a work, employing conventional ‘passive’ tactics of reading; it seeks to question and subvert such truths in an active production of enigmatic undecideables” (vincent, 1983). it is “a methodological strategy which seeks to university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 63 uncover layers of hidden meaning in a text which have been denied or suppressed” (hannack & taylor, 2001). barthes (1968), another key figure in deconstruction gave the notion of “the death of the author” thus liberating the literary text from any possibility of associating it with what the author might have intended. in other words, he asserted that the meaning of a text is not limited to the author or any sort of context (barthes, 1968). peter barry in his book beginning theory (2002) calls deconstructionist approach as “textual harassment or oppositional reading”, following eagleton’s view of this method as “reading against the grain or reading against the text itself” (eagleton, 1996). barry (2002) outlined the manner in which post structuralists do deconstruction. he also gave a three stage model of the process, comprising of the verbal, textual and linguistic level. an important facet of post structuralism highlighted by cuddon (1991) is its ability to reverse the polarity of binary oppositions like day/night, male/female etc. in such binaries one is always superior or privileged while the other is inferior or marginalized. deconstruction reverts those binaries by making the inferior one more desirable (edgar & sedgwick, 2007). since deconstruction rejects all the pre-established literary theories, it has widespread application in literary circles. this paper is concerned with dismantling of feminist criticism in a short story so a brief overview of the research done in feminism is discussed in order to get an idea of how it works. according to lois tyson (2010) “feminist criticism explains the way in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforces or undermines the economic, political, social and psychological oppression of women”. this type of criticism evolves from the feminist movement of 1960’s and aims at combating the portrayal of women promulgated by literary productions (barry, 2002). the representation of women in literature contributes in the conditioning of socially acceptable feminine values, which the feminist criticism seeks to challenge. for this purpose a crucial distinction is made between the terms feminist, female and feminine (moi, 2001). in 1970’s a lot of attention was given to the works of male writers to criticize the stereotypical representation of women in their texts. soon, a need was realized to give prominence to the neglected women writers and to establish a cannon for them. elaine showalter (1999) coined the term “gynocentricism” and distinguished between androtexts and gynotexts on the basis of styles and themes. another essential issue in feminist criticism is that of language. dale spender (1981) elucidated that “language is not a neutral medium but one that contains many features which reflect its role as the instrument through which patriarchy finds expression (barry, 2002). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 64 feminists believe that language is male-centered. the same idea is suggested by virginia woolf in her essay a room of one’s own (1929). helene cixous (1975) in her essay talk about the importance of the binary male/female. she explains that all the binaries are ultimately related to male/ female binary. because among them there is always one binary which is prioritized and privileged so it is associated with male whereas the inferior or less desirable one is associated with females (cixous, 1975). feminist criticism and deconstructive criticism are separate forms of literary inquiry but both are often associated with each other. the relationship between two has been explored by mary poovey in her essay feminism and deconstruction (1988). she has explained “how deconstruction calls feminism into question and how feminism can use deconstruction” (poovey, 1988). deconstruction can do as much for feminism as feminism can do for deconstruction, however they both cannot be regarded as the mirror images of each other (elam, 1993). deconstruction is relatively new in pakistani literary circle so not much work has been done in this regard. lashari and awan (2012) applied the three stage model of deconstructive analysis presented by peter barry (2002) to a short story “the cow” written by firdous haider (1994). the analysis yielded that the story does not convey any single meaning but it can be approached in a number of ways. same results were achieved when jawairia munir (2013) applied the same model to tariq rehman’s short story “bingo”. daniyal mueenuddin’s collection of short stories in other rooms, other wonders have been subjected to critical analysis many times. they are most commonly analyzed from a feminist and marxist perspective. mushba said (2016) made a comparative analysis of manto’s and mueenuddin’s short stories to see who presents a more authentic voice of the subaltern. ambreen hai (2014) explores the idea of servitude in these stories. all the work done on these stories reiterates the mistreatment of women in every domain but the present study seeks to challenge that through the application of deconstructive approach to short story “saleema”. 1.2 methodology the present study challenges the feminist reading of the short story “saleema” (2008) written by daniyal mueenuddin. deconstructive literary criticism has been done to bring another dimension of saleema’s character to light, a dimension which establishes saleema as a resilient and independent character. whereas the inferior and oppressed portrayal established by the feminist perspective has been dismantled. this research falls under the realm of purely qualitative research. an interpretivist approach and descriptive method was used for the analysis and interpretation of the data, which is collected in the form of words. 1.2.1 sample the sample “saleema” (2008) is taken from daniyal mueenuddin’s collection of short stories “in other rooms, other wonders” (2008). it has been selected through purposive university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 65 sampling technique. the story throws light on the precarious condition of women in pakistani society. however, this generalizing stereotypical portrayal of women is a misrepresentation to some extent, considering the recent shift in positioning of women in the society. the researchers aim to challenge that clichéd depiction of women through the application of deconstructive approach on this short story. 1.2.2 theoretical framework the concept of deconstruction put forth by derrida (1979) serve as a theoretical framework to this study. the short story “saleema” would be analyzed keeping in view derrida’s idea that it is impossible for a text to have fixed interpretations because of the unstable and slippery nature of the language (derrida, 1979). according to him a text is “no longer a finished corpus of writing, some content enclosed in a book or its margins, but a differential network, a fabric of traces referring endlessly to something other than itself, to other differential traces…” (derrida, 1979). deconstruction traces out the unfixed meanings and contradictions inherent within a text and inverts the system of established notions (barry, 2002). the text would also be analyzed in the light of textual stage of the three stage model put forth by peter barry (2002). this stage analyzes the text to look for contradictions at a broader level. it also seeks to investigate the multiple positions a text could take. post structuralism rejects the fundamental concept of binary opposition put forth by structuralism, which believes that a system is classified or divided on the basis of pairs. it establishes the notion of a “decentered world” and dismantling of all reference points (barry, 2002). cuddon (1991) points out the difference in these words: “for deconstruction, and poststructuralism, the notion of binary opposition is unsatisfactory because it represents nostalgia for ‘self-presence’ or ‘centering’ (cuddon, 1991)”. feminist movement has always been a struggle to challenge the hierarchy of sexes established with courtesy of the gender roles. according to a french feminist simone de beauvior “this has always been a man’s world”, (beauvoir, 1997, p.93). she further clarified that it is a world where man is at the center, he has the authority whereas a woman is relegated to an inferior position. hence she is marginalized. through this study, the researchers aim at dismantling or deconstructing this male/female binary. the polarity has been reversed. the females are placed on a higher pedestal and prioritized whereas the males are the ones who are weak and exploited. 1.3 data analysis this section deals with the deconstructive analysis of the short story “saleema” written by daniyal mueenuddin. “saleema” tells the tale of a poor girl who has had a very difficult childhood. her father is a drug addict while her mother sleeps around for money. she is beaten and even sexually abused by her father. the only escape that she finds is when a seemingly eligible man comes from city, marries her and takes her to lahore. there she starts working as university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 66 a maid in a bureaucrat k.k harouni’s house while her good-for-nothing husband is wasted away in drugs. to maintain her position in the new workplace, saleema offers her body as an object to gain favours. she begins sleeping with the cook hassan who soon gets tired of her. when everything seems hopeless, she seduces the senior valet rafik who is already married and has two sons. cashing in on the closeness with his boss, rafik is able to persuade k.k harouni to let saleema keep her job even when she is no longer needed. eventually saleema and rafik have a son whom they name allah bakhsh. but soon rafik repents and realizes the wrong he has done to his first wife and sons. when saleema is let off from her job after harouni dies, rafik refuses to take care of her and their son. distraught she falls prey to drugs and dies while her son is left to beg on the streets. on the surface level, this story throws light on the precarious condition of women in the pakistani society, evidencing de beauvoir’s (1975) idea of hierarchy of sexes. taking the example of saleema and in an attempt to draw generalizations from it, one comes to realize the gender exploitation prevalent in almost every household, more so in lower and middle class than in elite class. saleema is subjected to physical and sexual abuse right from a very young age. her only chance of escape i.e. marriage turns into a cage itself. her husband’s addiction with drugs forces her to seek a job as a maid to support her family. at work place, she is forced to sell her body to the cook in order to save her current employment. she also faces derogatory and insulting remarks by other male staff members. she is used and discarded on the other person’s will as if she’s an untouchable. saleema is left all alone, without any money or job, and has nothing to support her son when rafik’s so called conscience wakes up. her tragic end raises sympathy in the readers when they realize how badly she has been exploited and oppressed. since the aim of this study is to apply deconstructive approach to the short story “saleema” by daniyal mueenuddin, this section seeks to dismantle the feminist perspective within the text. and that is done in the light of the textual stage of the three stage model of deconstruction presented by peter barry. the textual stage is concerned with taking an overall view of the text and analysing the plurality of positions the text could take (barry, 2002). in other words, it analyses the paradoxes and contradictions at the broader level of the text (barry, 2002). this idea is also propounded by derrida who stated that there are multiple interpretations of a text (derrida, 1979). the deconstructive analysis of the story brings another dimension of saleema’s character to light. she is not as vulnerable and oppressed as one may perceive her to be, neither is she a weak woman who could so easily be used and manipulated by others. rather she is the one who uses and manipulates others to gain personal benefits. there are many instances in the story to support this argument. first, she uses her husband to get out of the miserable life in that university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 67 backward and small village. when she gets tired of him, she degrades him by labelling him as “weak and depraved” when she herself cannot be considered as morally upright, as at one instance she has been described as “sensuous, unscrupulous and romantic” (mueenuddin, 2008, p.19). the story suggests that saleema has always been more inclined towards the cooks of the houses she had worked for to get small favours. she seduces them so she could get treats from the kitchen. as it is mentioned in the story: “the cooks tempted her, lording it over the kitchen, where she liked to sit, with the smell of broth and green vegetables cooking and sauce.” (mueenuddin, 2008, p. 20). and on another occasion it is mentioned: “hassan gave her the best parts, things that have gone to the table, foreign things, pistachio ice cream and slices of sweet pies, baked tomatoes stuffed with cheese, potato cutlets, things that she asked for.” (mueenuddin, 2008, p. 20-21) when hassan started ignoring her, she knew the “the easy days were over, now she had no one to protect her” (mueenuddin, 2008, p. 21-22). here the word “protect” literally means “to cover”. so from a deconstructive point of view this statement can be interpreted as how after hassan got tired of saleema and gave her a cold shoulder, she realized that now there is no one who would cover for her. so instead of relying on hard and honest labor, she seduced the senior valet rafik who would stand up for her and help her get her way. she did not consider the wrong she would be doing to rafik by seperating him from his family, religion, his sense of honor and duty. her selfishness turned rafik, once a loyal husband and father, away from his family. as it is evident from these lines by his first wife: “i am writing to you because you have not been home in so many months more than eighteen months and your sons and also i miss you.” (mueenuddin, 2008, p.45). later saleema confesses to her selfishness in these words: “no, she said, i’ve done you wrong” (mueenuddin, 2008, p.45) another aspect that the deconstructive analysis of the story brings to light is the subversion of the power dynamics. in his collection of short stories, daniyal mueenuddin has reflected upon the pakistani patriarchal society where all the power resides with men. they are placed at a higher pedestal than women, who are inferior in every respect. since men hold all the power they are the ones who get to make every decision, whereas women are expected to blindly follow them and do whatever they are asked to do. but in the story these power dynamics have been reversed, where men used to dominate now a woman is shown to have the power and control, thus breaking stereotypical male dominance. in this story “saleema”, the power resides with the female protagonist saleema. she is the one who earns and supports her family including her husband and her father, while they waste away doing nothing except drugs. since she is the sole bread winner of the family she university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 68 holds the authority in her house and treats her husband as she wills. as it is quite evident from these lines: “though he knew right away that she slept with hassan the cook, , in the house where she served as a maid, the first time he opened his mouth she made to slap him and pushed him out of the room.” (mueenuddin, 2008, p.20) saleema always has the controlling position. when she had an affair with hassan, he made dishes that suited her taste. as it has been mentioned: “the entire household, from the sahib on down, had been eating to suit her appetite.” (mueenuddin, 2008, p.21) mueenuddin has also unconsiously placed saleema on a higher position as compared to the other male characters through their description. he has associated all the positive images with saleema whereas men are described in negative terms. saleema is described as having an “oval face, taller than broad, with deep set eyes, had a grace contrasting with her bright easy temperament” (mueenuddin, 2008, p. 20). whereas her husband is said to have an “emancipating face” and “rotting yellow teeth” (mueenuddin, 2008, p. 39). while comparing her with rafik we are told that she is “exactly as tall as him” (mueenuddin, 2008, p.34) which further establishes her as a force to reckon with and not just a lowly, mute creature. the above discussion proves that the character of saleema in this short story is not a weak one who is oppressed and manipulated by the male members of the community. rather it a character of great strength, one who refuses to give up and makes use of any any resources available in order to survive. 1.4 conclusion it can be concluded that deconstructive approach aims to bring out the uncounscious of the text. i̇t rests on the inability of language to convey a single fixed meaning, thus challenging the established notions. this was evident through the application of derrida’s concept of fluidity of meaning and cuddon’s idea of reversal of porality of binary oppositions on daniyal mueenuddin’s short story “saleema”. the deconstructive analysis of this story revealed that the author has unconsciously given a different dimension to saleema’s character. she is not as vulnerable and subjugated as it appears on the surface level. she continuously defies the limitations imposed on her by the society and ultimately survives by any means possible. according to the deconstructive reading, the story “saleema” subverts the power dynamics of the pakistani society where men are the dominant force and women are the submissive ones. the character of saleema holds the authority, she has the ultimate control over all the men she has been with, whereas all the men are weak and pathetic. mueenuddin has also privileged her over men through positive character description. references barthes, r., miller, r., & howard, r. (1975). the pleasure of the text. new york: hill and university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 69 wang. bauman, z. (1992). intimations of postmodernity. new york: routledge publishing, pp 150-172. beauvoir s.de. (1997). the second sex (vintage classics ed.). (parshley hm, trans.) vintage classics. berry, p. (2002). beginning theory: an introduction to literary and cultural theory. manchester: university press. bertens, h. (2003). literary theory: the basic. london and new york: routledge; taylor & francis group cixous, hélène. (2001). “the laugh of the medusa.” the norton anthology of theory and criticism. new york: w.w. norton & company. cuddon, j. a. (1991). dictionary of literary terms and literary theory. 3rd ed. london: the penguin publishers. culler, j. (2007). on deconstruction: theory and criticism after structuralism. london: cornell university press, 307 pp. derrida, j. 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(2008). “saleema”. in other rooms, other wonders (1st ed). london: bloomsbury. munir, jawairia. (2013). poststructuralist (deconstructive) approach to tariq rahman‟s short story “bingo”. retrieved from https://www.scribd.com/ said, mushba. (2016). manto & mueenudin: a brief analysis of who is the authentic voice of the subaltern. retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/ showalter, e. (1999). a literature of their own: british women novelists from brontë lessing. princeton, n.j: princeton university press. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 70 tyson, l. (2006). critical theory today: a user-friendly guide (2nd ed.). new york: routledge. vincent, l. b. (1983). “extension of subversion.” in deconstructive criticism: an advance introduction. new york: columbia university press. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 1 politics of religion in tehmina durrani’s blasphemy nouman tahir student of bs english, gpgc, karak syed hanif rasool assistant professor, khushal khan khattak university, karak abstract generally regarded as one of the most influential factors in the human history, religion has frequently been used as a strong political force by the ruling pundits. in the hands of retrogressive elites, religion has often been operated as an aggressive tool to subdue the voices of the common. in the recent political history of the subcontinent, the aforementioned political role of religion can hardly been overemphasized. made on the rhetoric of islam, pakistan has frequently identified herself as islam ka qilla (fortress of islam) since the very inception till date. such a monolithic approach of religion has substantially shaped the individual and collective socio-political consciousness of people in pakistan. driving the country’s contemporary sensitivities, the politics of religion pivots pakistani society. the contemporary english fiction in pakistan largely represents the cultural issues, deeply rooted in religion. tehmina durrani, one of the most acclaimed pakistani novelists, frequently writes about the religiosity and the status of women in pakistan. setting against this socio-political preference of religion in pakistani society, it is proposed that tehmina durrani’s blasphemy can be read as a critique of the retrogressive roles of clergy and aristocracy in pakistan. highlighting pakistan’s patriarchal and religious society, it is contended that blasphemy is a realistic representation of the wretched conditions of women. investigating the politics of religion in pakistan’s rural setting, the paper foregrounds tehmina’s bold stance on issues of women in the harsh social conditions caused by the nexus of retrogressive clergy and oppressive feudal aristocracy. key words: politics of religion, retrogressive clergy, oppressive feudal aristocracy, patriarchal society. (i) ‘history should be asked who has been the biggest forces of human casualties out of battlefield, indeed its fingers will rise towards the courtesies that were established in the name of religion and law’ (azad 148). religion has been relatively considered as a substantially influential socio-political driving force since time immemorial. throughout history and our lives, religious tags are always there with us. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 2 human race has been generally engaged in two endeavors: exploitations of the material resources for sustainable living and metaphysical pursuits for spiritual satisfaction. thus, religion is believed to be divine guidance through god’s messengers and prophets who were regarded as the role models by a great majority of people all over the world through ages. owing to its importance in the lives of individuals and in the manners and rites of group, religion gradually overwhelms every aspect of human society and ultimately becomes a tool in the hands of the rulers in the theocentric premodern world. with the emergence of modern world, and with a remarkable evolution in the human thought and action, the world, particularly the west, saw a substantial shift from theocentric pattern to anthropocentric mould and soon enables itself to get out of the religion’s power spell initially with the renaissance and then exhaustively with the french revolution. however, in the east religion remains a most influencing factor transforming almost every aspect of its societies and being used by its rulers to subjugate people in their individual and collective lives, thereby emerging as an overwhelming force to maneuver the political and social spheres. in the subcontinent, the church’s political role of medieval india continued by the colonial master who gave more importance to the pirs and gaddinasheens. as a result of the two-nation theory, pakistan emerges as islam ka qilla (fortress of islam) and thereby the religious pirs and pundits have niched a substantial position in influencing the state’s policies. whereas the state has been using the religious stratum -owing to their close connection to the masses-for her own projects during and after the cold war, these pirs and gaddinasheens have havocked the country’s illiterate, ignorant, and dependent masses and have exploited the religious feelings of the laity. durrani’s blasphemy is the representation of the aforementioned violation of religion. since religion has been vividly used for political purposes in the country, several writers approached the subject through their fictional rendering of such misuses. attempts of such authors have been discouraged and their work has been regarded as controversial by the state and her proxies. blasphemy is one such narrative of the power of religion in pakistan that is regarded as controversial due to its bold depiction of the ills of the custodians of religion. the novel disinters the wrongs these pirs have perpetrated under the guise of islam. pakistani english novelists have touched upon a wide range of subjects for their fictional rendering. durrani belongs to the generation of bold female voices who uncompromisingly have highlighted the issues that have rarely been depicted in pakistani english fiction. overwhelmed with women issue, blasphemy attempts to provoke women’s attention towards their rights and it highlights repulsive behavior of the clergy and feudal lords. while investigating the true face of the aforementioned classes, durrani foregrounds the miserable tales-mainly of the poor working class women -speaking a lot about the harsh realities of the common people. blasphemy reveals how the miserable women suffer due to the misinterpretation of religious injunctions by the pirs and gaddinasheens. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 3 durrani, herself is a pakistani women's rights activist has authored a controversial autobiography, my feudal lord (1991). in that monograph she sensationalizes her traumatic marital life by demeaning her former husband, a pakistani politician, ghulam mustafa khar. she ascribes her sufferings to the patriarchal and feudal set up in pakistan where religion is used by the tyrants for their vested interests. preoccupied with the harsh conditions of women in pakistani society, she attempts to emphasize the notion that how male has often seen religion as a tool to subjugate women. she, therefore, frequently writes about the religiosity and status of women in pakistan to provoke attention of the people to the widespread and deep-rooted religious corruption. whereas religion as a moral phenomenon is progressive, religion as a political motive, by and large, has been retrogressive. britannica concise encyclopedia defines religion as a ‘relation of human beings to god or the gods or to whatever they consider sacred or, in some cases, merely supernatural’ (online). contrary to the aforementioned peripheral role of religion in the west, south asian states tend to see religion as a powerful tool to manipulate their societies, maneuver their masses and exploit the poor and illiterate on the sacred name of religion. the pirs and gaddinasheens reiterate their previous manipulating role in the contemporary postcolonial times. these pirs on one hand work as the state proxies and on the other hand establish themselves as the sole custodian and interpreters of religious injunctions. on the name of religious missions, they expand their own material interests and fulfill their carnal desires. blasphemy reveals their retrogressive role in society. blasphemy focuses on the dark sides of the apparently religious acts of these religious elites who exploit individual and collective lives of the common people. it represents the wretched condition of women under pakistani patriarchal and religious society. the story is narrated through first person. the character of heer tells us the tales of suffering. she is married at the age of fifteen to a pir of her father's age whose religious persona is venerated in the entire village. the marriage proves to be a horrid dream for heer. the promiscuous and unprincipled sexual life of the pir and his licentious nature has ruined her innocent imagination. the heinous crime of the pir has shattered her belief in the good and noble. the ignoble acts of the pir has shattered her life. since the fake noble persona of the pir is unquestionable and she is unable to stand against the pir’s evil. she is helpless and alone because the pir can prove her wrong by virtue of his exalted religious status. blasphemy uncovers the religious exploitation and oppression of the pir and the retrogressive social conditions of the rural pakistan which is mainly under the influence of the exploitive religiosity. (ii) whereas this study hypothesis that blasphemy foregrounds the tyrannous role of the pirs in pakistani society, several scholars have approached the novel from psychological and feministic stand-points. adiba iqbal in her article “deterioration of self, emotions and islamic values: a critical survey of tehmina durrani’s blasphemy’’ focuses upon the death of emotions and university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 4 islamic values in the society. she argues that “[e]motional death is the result of extraordinary stressful events” shattering one's “sense of security” making one feels “helpless and vulnerable in a dangerous world” (210). emphasizing “the emotional death of pir sain’s wife heer and the emotions of all the people who blindly follow” pir, iqbal argues the deterioration of islamic values due to the luscious exploitation of pir sain cleverly concealed under the guise of islam. iqbal reveals how pir misuses the name of islam by dishonouring and molesting innocent women. asma in her article, “loss of essential humanity and empathy as a result of exploitations in blasphemy. . . ” argues that “blasphemy [t]he exploitation, the suffering, the afflictions, the atrocities, the pain, the torment, the turmoil, the chaos, and most of all the loss of essential humanity and empathy as the consequence of all these give a jolt to the minds of readers”(127). approaching blasphemy from feminstic viewpoint, bharti dave regards the novel as ‘chilling wails’(45). quoting fareda hussain in her article, “chilling wails in blasphemy by tehmina durrani”, bharti writes that “[t]alking about islamic countries in whole, subjugation of women is not new for them. it has emanated from the feudal structure in pre-islamic societies. this society always had father as a ruler of the family unit and wives and daughters were referred to interchangeably as slaves”(46). sandeep rani in her paper, “women and religion in pakistan: a critical analysis of tehmina durrani’s blasphemy. . .” argues that “women victimization is one of the evils confronting women all over the world” and pakistani society “is no different from any other male obsessed society”(80). she emphasises that pakistani women are so “vulnerable” that they can easily become “targets of any form of oppression, humiliation, deprivation and discrimination” in the traditional “patriachal social system” using “religion” as a medium of exploitation and disinheriting the women “from all rights” by “silencing their voice”(80). she adds that religion is “associated with god and goodness” and in principle it must treat “men and women in equal terms with humanity and humility”, but under “the patriarchal system”, “the mediators” like pir sain exploits religious authority, humiliating, degrading, victimising and subjugating women (80). highlighting the issues of feudal and patriarchal domination in pakistani society, the aforementioned critics have emphasized the subversive tone of the novel flagging people’s suffering due to exploitation perpetrated against them. however, everyone scrape the notions of the root cause which make the innocent people vulnerable. it is further intended to expose the root cause of such victimization by the hands of pirs. (iii) “there are those who call themselves muslim, but their interpretation of islam is far more dangerous than threats from infidels” (shafaq 47). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 5 emphasizing the notion that the innocent laity has always been under the strong spell of the clergy, this paper uncovers the latter’s exploitative and influential role of religion in pakistani society. highlighting the overwhelming role of religion in subcontinent, blasphemy affirms that the politics of religion still haunts the subcontinent and it has been one of the strongest impediments in the way towards civility and development. it is not only the misuse of religion which influences people and causes them atrocity. there are so many other factors which have impacts upon people, especially in developing countries like pakistan, the rate of illiteracy, lack of proper education, people’s mental growth, poverty, “[t]heir poverty imprisoned them to the shrine”(105) etc are different factors, but religion---considered to make people sacralize made diverge. it became the worst experience for those who didn’t understand it and their lakeness to this lead them toward the sordid aspect of life. this ignorance of the people lead one person to govern their emotions and passions. referring to the clergy’s doing, toti, a ghost, says: “[t]hey are impostors, imposed upon our hearts. they exploit our ignorance, our poverty, our losses and our limitations to rule over us” (88). spotlighting the cruelty of clergy, blasphemy recounts how the pir sain’s haveli has witnessed brutish tales bringing pain suffering upon the miserable laity. uncovering the vicious inner world of the pir and foregrounding his use of religion for his material and carnal desires, durrani brings heer, the wife of pir sain, as a collective mouthpiece narrating the often sidelined stories of the common people of the village who regard the shrine as a symbol of spiritual blessings. heer regards such a “shrine” powerless without the common people (106). some critics regard blasphemy as a controversial narrative loaded with exaggerated elements, when an ordinary man will read it (s) he will hardly agree with some incidents but durrani herself affirms a statement introducing her novel: “this novel is inspired by a true story. names and certain events have been altered to protect the identity of the woman whose story this is” (5). alongside the name given to the novel “blasphemy”, it kicks off with a religious ritual of islam, the call to prayer (azaan),” allah ho akbar, allah ho akbar, ashudo an la illaha illallah” (11), bespeaking motif of the story. considering the south, particularly pakistani society is under such religious spell that they can not marginalize between the believers and they believed. “pir sain” governs “trapped people” (61). "consider[ing]” him “to be a direct link between the almighty and the wretched”, they have assigned the prerogative of their fate to him, “believ[ing] that his intervention could even alter what allah had fated for them”(61). thus it became common fallacy among them. true believers did not need any link for their connection with god. the instance is clear from the story of sakhi bibi who did not pray to pir sain even when her son was on death bed. she and her husband only believe in allah, as when someone advises her to get blessing of pir sain, she told them all the times, “i have faith only in allah”(106). this story investigate that the exposition is not about islam but on the way people use it for their offenses. only some were against the shrine. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 6 explaining their uncanny nature, amma sain told heer, “we are the direct descendants of the prophet. the power of the shrine is fourteen hundred years old. it cannot be challenged” (61). late on the statement is questioned by toti as, “[d]o their actions in any way reflect our prophet’s greatness”(88)? durrani presented the picture of the shrine as an eye opener to the outsiders. she reveals to the whole world that how they blur the illuminate portrait of islam. “the whims of” their “pir spurned the message of god. he practised another religion”(83). no matter how beautiful islam as a religion is, but in blasphemy, it is treated with such contempt by its very preachers. islam in any sense does not direct any one to practice what these saints are practicing. they have a selfmade religion of their own, for which they met time and again to retrospect and safeguard their insecurities. they preach for their interests only, “religious leaders from across the country had assembled to discuss which injunctions best suited their interests”(103). highlighting the religiously privileged status of pir sain, the novel recounts a scene in which the former’s devotees are so blinded by their false system of beliefs that heer’s mother instructs her daughters that they should not “cover” their “faces before pir sain” for “he is too holy for that”(24). similarly, in another scene, when the pir sain has died, rajaji (his second son) occupies his father’s gaddi (spiritual throne). after the latter’s dastarbandi (a ceremony of wearing the turban of the deceased), his “grand aunts, too old to even stand up, bent low to touch the feet of the new pir” (188). perplexed by such an exaggerated reverevence contrary to the true spirit of islam, heer regards, “pir sain and allah” extremely opposite poles “to follow”(157). where on one side ma consider pir as “strick purdah” observer and “deeply religious”(25) and according to dai, he was the “chosen one”. “he knew how to save the faith from blasphemers”(101) while heer regards him as “a symbol of munafiqat” herself “a soldier” and her struggle for life “a jehad”(181). emphasizing the immeasurable amount of distress and hardship heer has gone through, durrani recounts the redemptive state of heer’s mother regretting her decision of marrying heer to pir sain.“[p]aranoid about her status”(23) after her husband's death, ma sees the only hope of sustainable living in marrying heer to pir sain. ma believes that this marriage will bring prosperity to the entire family and will end their poverty. ironically, ma regards the marriage proposal of pir sain for heer as a turn in their “destiny” and she envisions her household “among the privileged”(26) ones, but in reality the marriage proved to be a total fiasco playing havoc with heer’s life. later on after the marriage, heer’s life comes under the spell of unimaginable sufferings and no one, even her mother, is unable to help heer to overcome her grief and get out of quagmire of the toxic relationship with pir sain. after heer’s death, ma in the angst of deep regrets, prays to god to forgive the latter for sending her child to pir sain’s household seemingly considered to be holy, but in reality a hell, not only for heer but for everyone who is part of the pir sain’s haveli (227). durrani’s identification of the haveli with “hell” also implies the death of heer under unbearable torments. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 7 to heer, pir sain’s reality is totally different from the general noble perception of the people about him. heer has fully realised the dark side of pir sain’s vexing character. contemplating on the reality of pir sain’s heinous shadow guised under his pious persona of a mystic, heer asks herself, “was his life inside the haveli really not known outside it?” was this horrible man is the one is known only to me or the ignorant people who adore him also know pir sain’s real character? (65). witness to the evil side of pir sain “camouflaged” by his white starched cotton(65), heer recounts the latter’s true brutal self: “[t]o me, my husband was my son’s murderer. he was also my daughter’s molester. a parasite nibbling on the holy book, he was lucifer, holding me by the throat and driving me to sin every night. he was bhai’s destroyer, amma sain’s tormentor, ma’s humbler and the people’s exploiter. he was the rapist of orphans and the fiend that fed on the weak. but over and above all this, he was known to be the man closest to allah, the one who could reach him and save us”(143). recounting another story of sakhi baba’s only child who suffers from a disease which no doctor can investigate; durrani further unfolds pir sain’s character. sakhi baba and his wife are against the shrine and thereby they do not believe in his pira geri. in a scene in the novel, one aft soon, sakhi baba’s wife becomes desperate and seeks pir’s blessings for his child. pir sain tells her that they are “too late”(106). upon this rude response from pir sain, sakhi’s wife feels regret on visiting the shrine, realizing her mistake, she prays to god to forgive her “for coming here” (107). blasphemy, on the one hand, epitomizes the character of a corrupt mystic exploiting people’s emotions for his carnal desires under the guise of religion, on the other hand, it exposes the ignorance and superstitions of the laymen in the matters of religion. explaining the notion how pir sain increases his wealth and power by receiving the offerings and donations from the wealthy mureeds (devotees/followers of a pir), the novel recounts heer’s remarks on such a lucrative relationship between pir sain and his mureeds. she says, “[e]ven influential and wealthy men set at his feet like ordinary followers. pressing his legs in reverence, they implored him to pray for successful deals, licenses and sanctions to come through”(63). highlighting the role of the so-called spiritual leaders, heer emphasizes the growing stock of pir sain’s wealth given to him by his devotees as reward for the former’s recommendation and favor of the latter’s various issues and works before god. these rewards also include things like land cruiser, lancer and pajero etc. the filthy rich businessmen and corrupt politicians have given pir sain secret funds which the latter utilize to strengthen his political nexus. the glittering of pir sain’s accumulated wealth has blurred sight of heer’s mother and when the former sends a marriage proposal to the latter’s daughter, the latter instantly agrees to that. attempting to convince her daughter for the aforementioned proposal, heer’s mother remarks, “[t]hese people are very wealthy. they are far above our status. it is a great honour that they should even visit us. look at us, she said, waving her hand around. ‘what do we have to offer them’?”(24). pir sain’s real university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 8 face is exposed after the marriage and heer laments at her bad luck. thinking about pir sain’s wealth and status, heer seems baffled by the unusual respect and honour given to pir sain by his devotees. in utter confusion, she asks herself such question, “did pir sain have supernatural power or was it faith bestowed upon him by ignorant people?. . . was his life inside the haveli really not known outside it?. . . was the man in my bedroom a man only i knew?”(65). she thinks “the shrine is a symbol of all exploitation. if men can use allah against the weak, all other means are lesser and easier to exploit. if we make a war against this shrine, every truth will be served” (196). heer’s character also serves a major purpose of exposing pir sain’s heinous crimes committed under the noble guise of the shrine. spotlighting how heer attempts to defy pir sain’s fake role as spiritual guru and as a noble custodian of the shrine, durrani recounts a scene in which pir sain’s heir, rajaji, intends to marry maharani (an illegitimate daughter of pir sain). to protect sanctity of the shrine, sakhi bibi, a folk, requests heer to save the shrine from the curse of such an unethical and illegitimate marriage. responding to sakhi bibi’s concern, heer refers to the felonious character of rajaji and regards the latter as “a link to a satanic chain” of his father, pir sain (208). heer further argues that why sakhi bibi expects “him to adhere to allah’s will? which law of islam is observed here that this one should not be broken? this is not the only sin, nor is it the worst. let the myth shatter and the filth spill over”(208). towards the end of the novel, heer offers herself to god to allow her to use herself “to expose” the pir sain’s evils concealed behind the holiness of the shrine(197). she affirms “to take a course” that will condemn her but “expose the distortion” of allah’s message at the hands of his “enemies”(197). in blasphemy, durrani exposes the exploitative, promiscuous and unprincipled lives of of the so called pirs. attempting to expose the aforementioned dark side of the so-called spiritual leaders and mystics, revealing their heinous crimes through, she recounts how sikhi baba and his wife, standing firm against the haveli and its false blessing, openly criticize the pir sain and his son after their own child’s health had been restored by the grace of god, not by any of the pir sain’s so-called spiritual power. preventing innocent people from the latter’s trap, sakhi baba speaks: “by giving our son life, allah conforms that those at the shrine are impostors reveling in lies. saints need no money, no favour, and no subjugation to pray for you. . . the rulers of the shrine run a business in allah’s name. you have made it lucrative. . .you are the source of their power. . .you strengthen satan. . .you distort islam. . .do not walk barefoot with your meager resources to worship graves instead of allah. . .god is where you are.. . the god the pir worships is one who approves of him. our god does not” (107-8). towards the end of the novel, durrani explicitly recounts how heer’s mission has been fulfilled when a character in the novel remarks posthumously about the latter’s struggle against the tyrannous after one year of her death a woman stood near her tomb, praying, “o allah, bless university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 9 this soul for exposing the decadence of shrine worship. bless her for bringing us closer to you” (229). (iv) in blasphemy, durrani deals with the oppressive role of the clergy exploiting the innocent and illiterate folk. she also foregrounds the poor condition of the rural pakistani woman humiliated and exploited by the pirs and the feudal lords. the contemporary english fiction in pakistan largely represents the cultural issues, deeply rooted in religion; therefore, durrani is read as a critique to the prevalent system of rural rulers using religion as a merely exploitative means. whereas pakistan’s ideologues since its creation, have identified the country as islam ka qilla (fortress of islam), but pakistan’s state, from the very beginning till date, has used religion as a political slogan to attract the nation, but in terms of the practical implementation of the most important injunction, there is wide gap between the perception and reality. the society is intentionally kept blind to the real meaning of islam, therefore, politics of religion still drive pakistani society. keeping in view pakistan’s patriarchal and religious societies, it has been argued in this article that blasphemy is the most realistic image of the wretched conditions of women deprived of their due rights by the morally corrupt clergy grown under the shades of feudalism. the country’s ruling elites and their compadres such as the exploitative clergy and the feudal lords, taking advantage of innocence of the masses, have used religion against the common people to suppress the latter’s voices. it has been attempted to foreground tehmina’s bold stance on the issues and problems of women caught in the harsh social conditions caused by the nexus of retrogressive clergy and oppressive feudal aristocracy. works cited azad, abul kalam. umm ul kitab (urdu), lahore: makki dar ul kutub, 1990 durrani, tehmina. blasphemy, lahore: feroz sons (pvt.)ltd. 1998 durrani, tehmina. my feudal lord, london, corgi edition, 1995 iqbal, adiba. et all. “deterioration of self, emotions and islamic values: a critical survey of tehmina durrani’s blasphemy” in asian journal of social sciences &amp; humanities vol. 3(3) august 2014. shafaq, elif. forty rules of love, london, penguin books, 2011. rani, sandeep. women and religion in pakistan: a critical analysis of tehmina durrani’s blasphemy; a novel. issn no. 2394-0344. issue 2nd july 2015 dr. dave, bharti. chilling wails in ‘blasphemy’ by tehmina durrani in iosr journal of humanities and social sciences, volume 2, issue 11, november 2017. mubarik, asma. loss of essential humanity and empathy as a result of exploitation in blasphemy by tehmina durrani in advances in languages and literary studies, vol 6, no. 3; june 2015. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 10 @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 1 new world order: basra: a new dawn in electronic literature rabia aamir assistant professor, department of english, national university of modern languages, islamabad, pakistan research fellowship columbia university, new york, usa “objects and events are not primitive experiences. objects and events are representations of relations.” (baldwin, the nihilanth: immersivity in a firstperson gaming mod 1) abstract in this age of techno globalization “contemporary artists, poets, and musicians [are] making imaginative use of algorithms to generate new works and taking advantage of communications networks to craft cyber textual projects or works in cross-media formats” (burdick 8). it is one of these cyber textual projects and a cross media format that this article takes as case study to explore. titled “new world order: basra”i by sandy baldwin, this cyber textual project integrates, apparently, two very different genres of expression, i.e. a poem and a typical game of shooting and hunting. the visual analysis of the electronic digital narrative titled “new world order: basra” by sandy baldwin entails different steps for this visual analysis; namely composition interpretation, semiology, and discourse analysis, discussed here shortly. keywords: digital humanities, cyber textual project, visual analysis, digital narrative, electronic literature humanity is living in an inescapable reality in the 21st century. this reality is an ever changing phenomenon going around us. it is continuously changing our modes of perceptions towards almost everything. one such reality is the virtual field of digital humanities which can be considered a giant leap in the cognitive capacities of human knowledge, skills and endeavors stretched across from the last two decades of the previous century until the present times. the narratives which were earlier engaging the reader from the printed pages took on to newer dimensions. the virtual world of the digital world has become a thriving reality and “[b]y their hierarchy, arrangement, organization, and other features they contribute to the production of the narrative in substantive ways” (drucker 1). there have been precedents of visual mediums, means and methods of interpreting and telling in the discipline of humanities which were “the traditional domain of anthropologists and have only relatively recently re-emerged as popular among sociologists as well as applied social researchers working in areas such as education, social policy and social work” (wiles 4). digital humanities is extending this mode of human perception to new boundaries. electronic literature extending the modes of human experience from digitized texts (a scanned book etc.), manifests, at times, in the digital narratives of graphic novels, gn, or digital graphic vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 2 novel, dgn, with its most important aspect of visual and extra textual elements. the visual and extra textual elements are being used in different ways and capacities in order to enhance the cognition and modes of perception. at other times this feature of extra textual essentials is taking a phenomenal dimension of artificial intelligence, ai, a very recent development in the field of digital visual culture. for instance, in electronic literature collection vol 2 “facade” is a form of electronic literary game in which the producers of this game michael mateas and andrew stern, set up a home with a husband and wife, both programmed with artificial intelligence. the third important character of this dramatic game is the player/ consumer. both the husband and wife are shown to be going about their routine life when the player is going to interact with them. if this interaction is done in a congenial atmosphere the reaction of the two on screen players remain quite friendly but if the off screen player/ consumer uses any of the dialogues of the husband and wife to trigger or instigate a slightly heated discussion they may react in very different ways and at times it may be seen that the husband and wife of the game may take the situation of their heated debate to such a juncture that it becomes difficult for the player to handle these two characters with artificial intelligence (mateas). a similar yet different game concerning the basics of artificial intelligence is the game of “still standing” (nadeau). in this game the words of a poem are thrown across a virtual projector screen and they keep on moving in a random manner until the player/ consumer keeps on walking in front of the screen. as soon as the player stands motionless in front of the screen the words on the screen arrange themselves according to the silhouette of the player who may then read through the text of the poem etc., whatever the words arrange themselves into (nadeau). this interesting poem makes the player/ consumer to exercise two skills at the same time of standing still and then reading with concentration across the text thus provided. it can be made an interesting exercise for young children to polish their skills of standing still and reading with concentration. another use of these visual and extra textual elements are being used in computer forensics [see (kirtz)] or “digital poem, retro-game, an anti-design statement and a personal exploration of the artist's changing worldview lens” (nelson). yet another example is that of an innovative experimentation with the reader using the hypertext, as can be seen from the interactive literature, “‘deep surface” [which] is based on a simple-minded metaphor: what if the pages of a book -or more accurately, the so-called pages of the web –[sic] were made from some pliable fluid, like water, so that we could dive gradually from one plane of presentation to the next? (moulthrop). similarly, “pieces of herself” is an exploration of feminine embodiment and identity in relationship to public and private space. using a drag-and-drop game interface, viewers scroll through familiar environments (e.g., domestic, outdoor, work) to collect metaphorical ‘pieces’ of the self and arrange them in compositions inside the body” (davies). it may be seen from all the examples cited above that how the different manifestations of interactive digital literature are opening up new vistas of cognition and understanding in a user friendly digital narratives/ text/ visuals. the world of virtual reality spans across many other forms of interactive literature/ drama or cinema like science fictions and speculative fiction produced by the writer of seminal works in this vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 3 genre, william gibson. his sprawl triology, also known as the neuromancer (1984), cyberspace (1986), or matrix (1988) trilogy are some seminal works in this genre. some writers like larissa lai are writing novels “[f]ramed by a playful sense of magical realism, salt fish girl reveals a futuristic pacific northwest where corporations govern cities, factory workers are cybernetically engineered” (lai). though the cyberspace, cybernetics and science fiction genre are quite engaging fields of enquiry, this research is delimited to the in depth analysis of one production of electronic interactive literature, “new world order basra” by sandy baldwin to study the mores and tropes produced by such interactive literature. according to one scholar in the book, digital arts & humanities: scholarly reflections (2012) “the first decade [of the twenty first century] is an amalgamation of old and new ideas being brought to the public and laid on their lap” (young 23). this is what can be seen in the visual culture –hyper reality of the game under study. “new world order: basra” is explained as a modification for the game half-life by the author/ producer of this virtual realm. it may be taken as a manifestation of a kind which, stated in another context can be expressed as “the development of new media models for social change” (jakubowicz n.pag.). professor sandy baldwin, the originator of “new world order: basra” says that “[a]s otherness invades, even the rocks and walls become alien, tables turn organic. half-life is a shooter game and the story advances through annihilation of the enemy” (baldwin, the nihilanth: immersivity in a first-person gaming mod 4). therefore modeled on the usual game of shooting and killing the enemy like the game halflife; “new world order: basra” makes use of the typical weapons of a crowbar and a shotgun to destroy not the “other” (ashcroft 169) or any enemy but the words of apparently very simple but a very allegorical poem “introduction to poetry”ii (1988) by the american poet laureate, billy collins. drawing interstitially from four different theoretical modes of inquiry this research paper about this interactive literature titled “new world order: basra” studies the impact such apposition of a poem and a video game has on the consumer of this virtual realm. using professor espen aarseth’s model of ergodic literature as the base line model of inquiry which is defined by aarseth as nontrivial effort required to allow the reader to traverse through the text (koskimaa), the other tools thus used are evenly balanced between two traditional and two innovative modes. the two relatively new modes of inquiry being visual analysis and visual rhetoric analysis; where the discourse analysis and discourse analysis with particular regards to post colonialism being a relatively traditional modes of exploration. the rationale for such a mode of investigation is drawn from a study conducted in an mit conference back in 1999. professor andrew jakubowicz, in a conference in 1999 talked in terms of documentary but it is something relevant for this paper too when he said that “documentary is facing dramatic changes as the new media open up issues of complexity and diversity not available to traditional single media forms…. [and by bringing] together cyber space and cultural conflict, we can begin to see a point of intersection where communities can take greater control of the representation of their own histories, and in so doing, move towards a future which is infused with a greater awareness of the necessity but also the vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 4 fragility of cultural collaboration” (jakubowicz n.pag.). since the sample interactive literature of “new world order: basra” is an interplay of cyber space, textuality, visual sequences and political reality this research paper examines their mutual interaction and the subsequent impact on the consumer of this genre. this research paper targets three key questions in order to establish the significance of this mode of interactive literature and draws on its relevant impact in the contemporary world. 1. how does the text of the poem integrated in cybertext of this game a product of the historical period in which it is written? 2. what is the significance of juxtaposition of the text of the poem “introduction to poetry” (1988) and the game, “new world order: basra”? 3. how and why do the social economic and political changes contribute for the capitalism to reify people into things? answers to all these three research questions will be illustrated with the relevant modes of inquiry suitable to the question thus posed. in other words, a question may be answered by one or two or all theoretical modes of visual or visual rhetoric analysis and discourse analysis with relevant features of postcolonialism as manifested in this interactive literature. for ready reference and convenience the visual model for ergodic literature, as presented by professor of digital culture at the university of jyvaskyla, finland, raine koskimaa, in his phd dissertation digital literature: from text to hypertext and beyond (2000) is given as under: it may be seen from this figure that the sample of interactive literature of “new world order: basra” under study is a form of ergodic literature which is dynamic versus the static linear literature. additionally it may be seen that ergodic literature is a cyber-text which uses the features of exploration, configuration and textons (the building blocks of a text) which are experienced by the user. where, the ordinary linear text is received as traditionally interpretative reality by the user. this at length discussion about the theoretical framework used in this study impels the discussion towards the answer to our first research question; that how the text of the poem integrated in cybertext of this game being a product of the historical period in which it was written. the poem “introduction to poetry” was written in 1988 by billy collins, poet laureate of united states of america from 2000-2003. the main theme of the poem is about letting the poem be and enjoying vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 5 the poem with its original texture and the meaning it gives of its own accord rather that whittling the meaning out of the poem with harsh actions. one possible interpretation of the poem may be that the paraphrasing exercise that is ordinarily used for understanding a poem is something which should be avoided as per the idea given by the poet, billy collins. however, sally baldwin has used the textons of this poem and embroidered them into the game of half life in which the consumer is supposed to shoot down the enemy which are the words of the text of this poem. this points to a very pertinent historical event which took place in 2003, i.e. the invasion of iraq. when the “[h]istorical situatedness, historical embedment, and the politics of [this] literary text[]” (bertens 61) of this poem is analyzed it becomes quite apparent that the progenitor of this interactive literature, “new world order: basra” is building an analogy between the text of the poem and the extended metaphor of the event of invasion of iraq. it is the year 2003 which marks for the initiation of the event and the production of this game and “[t]he result is a text-length trope which preserves the two-level ontological structure of metaphor (literal frame of reference and metaphorical frame of reference), but in which, instead of being announced explicitly, the two-level structure remains implicit, disseminated throughout the text” (mchale 140). though, in this quote, brian mchale is talking in terms of written texts in his book postmodernist fiction (1987) but it can be appropriated on this interactive literature of sandy baldwin. in “new world order: basra” he has countered all sorts of literature and war mongering frenzy that was being generated in the media and the press during the invasion. by juxtaposing the two things he has negated the uncalled for hype created in the mass media culture. it can therefore be said that his poetical use of the text of the poem, integrated in cyber text of this game makes it a product of the historical period in which it was written and certainly not without reason. for addressing the second question of the significance of juxtaposition of the text of the poem “introduction to poetry” (1988) and the game, “new world order: basra” (2003) a sidelight on the originator of this interactive literature, sandy baldwin, would be of avail. sandy baldwin is associate professor of english and director of the center for literary computing at west virginia university. he received his phd from new york university and is a fulbright scholar. his work imagines the future of literary studies in a digital age. he is on the electronic literature organization's board of directors, where he serves as the elo treasurer, and is executive editor at electronic book review. this insight into the background of the producer of this interactive literature sheds light on the basic idea behind this creation. it may be seen clearly that though the producer may not have over emphasized it but there is a grand idea working behind this production—the idea which exposes the lies told all across media; lies regarding the then regime of saddam hussain hiding the weapons of mass destruction. in their article, “visual rhetoric: analyzing visual documents” the writers have discussed “[a] rhetorical situation [which] occurs when an author, an audience and a context come together and a persuasive message is communicated through a medium” (mark pepper 2). it may be seen that sandy baldwin has put across a very important message to the “target audience..[who are always]…seeking and speculating…” (mark pepper 2-3). alternatively it may vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 6 be understood that visual rhetoric analysis which focusses on the purpose as being informational, inspirational and motivational may be seen as working through this interactive literature, especially the purpose of inspiration and motivation. this production by sandy baldwin is inspirational as it is clearly evoking emotions with the color symbolism, an integral part of this visual rhetoric analysis, which is being used to explain the creation of mood and feeling by the writer. it is also motivational as it initiates and spurs action, attendance and participation. in the second stage of visual rhetoric analysis in terms of context this essay of this mode of analysis given at the website of welcome to the purdue owl present the basic consideration of the use of any techniques to draw attention in a potentially busy or competitive environment (mark pepper 4). with this in view it may be seen that sandy baldwin has made effective use of the context of this poem and the event of invasion of iraq of 2003. and as asserted in the book, digital text: from text to hypertext and beyond (2000), “it was quite natural that along the shoot’em ups and other action games, also text based games were developed (koskimaa). “new world order: basra” (2003) is a clear indication of such an effort by sandy baldwin and quite a good one. building the critique further upon the lines of the first feature of the visual analysis, the composition interpretation; it is seen that it renders that the background and the foreground of this 3d game of “new world order: basra” has a color scheme of sepia colors. the earthly tones of the combination of these colors in their light and dark hues lend a somber and dignified ambiance to the game. the floor, dark brown with occasional patches of mahogany and the ceiling with a regular pattern of straight lines of the same color as the floor, combined with its pastel beige background makes it blend comfortably with the walls of cubicle hall, with creamy beige walls, in which the whole action takes place. the hall is strewn by an array of, not enemies as the usual game of half-life, but the random words of the poem “introduction to poetry” (1988). the player is made to hunt down the hanging wooden planks with the words of this poem written across them with either a crowbar or a shotgun. the consequentionalist approach (wiles 7) as mentioned in visual ethics: ethical issues in visual research (2008) is also made use of while doing this analysis. the consequentionalist approach believes that “ethical decisions should be based on the consequences of specific actions so that an action is morally right if it will produce the greatest balance of good over evil. [this approach also emphasizes the fact that a]ll individuals have a moral outlook about what is right and wrong that guides their behaviour” (wiles 6). applying this approach it may be seen that the sequence of this arrangement in this game can be further understood with the second step of visual analysis i.e semiology. analyzing in a classic saussurean fashion, the signifier and the signified may have any or all of the iconic, indexical or symbolic representations. the crowbar and the shotgun, the weapons in the hands of the player signify an iconic representation as these weapons are used for attack, both in the real world and the virtual world of this digital game narrative. in the indexical stage of the semiological analysis it may be seen that the world is encapsulated in the four walls of the hall where the whole action is taking place. it is in the symbolic stage of analysis that it may be seen vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 7 that the additional relationships get manifested when seen in the sociopolitical and cultural perspectives. the symbolical imagery of the poem can help understand the signified meaning of the game as a whole. though the producer of this game sandy baldwin has explained it in the paradigm of immersion of the player into a video game when he says that the “dimensionality and solidity of the words come[] to symbolize ‘reading.’ immersion in this environment is reading” (baldwin, the nihilanth: immersivity in a first-person gaming mod 2), there may be some extended metaphorical understanding that may be rendered to this digital narrative beyond the phenomenon of immersion as discussed by the author. the symbolic representation of this unique combination of the poem whose main theme signify that a poem should only be left alone to be, and not be tortured to whittle/force the meaning out of it. collins expresses this in the poem by saying, “t[ying] the poem to a chair with rope/ and tortur[ing] a confession out of it” (collins l 1314). when these words are juxtaposed in this game, it condenses it into a totally new set of meanings. the poem by billy collins evokes an imagery where one can “[i]magine a bungee cord on the surface of the water and someone (with the rope stretched) diving from high above, and reach the bottom of the water, look around and collect the meaning, and jump right back to the surface” (pozzi). alternatively the imagery of holding “up of a poem up to the light/ like a color slide” (collins l 2-3) means that the poet is asking the reader to delve into the real essence of the poem by holding it up to a light in order to see and appreciate its colors and depth. this unique metonymical symbolism of the poem integrated into the game of “new world order: basra” takes the discussion to the next level of interpretation using discourse analysis. in answering the final research question of how and why do the social economic and political changes contribute for the capitalism to reify people into things? as, to the ‘how’ part of this question i.e. how does the social economic and political changes contribute for the capitalism to reify people into things, the specific image of the words hanging as wooden planks in the environment of the sepia colored hall where they are being shot down at random is helpful. it solidifies an understanding of the whole scenario. it suggests that the images of this game construct the world view of basra, which, to put it synecdochicallly, is being shot down in order to create a new world order just as the suggested poem is being tortured to force out its meanings in the poem by billy collins. as to the ‘why’ part of the question, that why does the social economic and political changes contribute for the capitalism to reify people into things we need to take the discussion on the second level of discourse analysis of this game “new world order: basra”. according to the article by sandy baldwin titled the same as the game itself, i.e. “new world order: basra” the “thematic violence in collins’ poem resonated through the creation of nwo in early 2003, during the second invasion of iraq” (baldwin, new world order: basra). interpreting this game in an institutionalized perspective, it is deduced that the standpoint of postcolonial theory can be seen as working through the binaries thus created both in the actual poem of billy collins and the game. in “introduction to poetry” (1988) the binary is created between the reader and the labored meaning of any poem, while in this game, “new world order: basra”, the binaries are between the vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 8 hegemonic stance of the player of the game and the oppressed words on wooden planks that are being brutally massacred just as the actual war imposed on iraq in 2003. a war, which abrogated and marginalized the habitat of this city and was appropriated with coalition provisional authority which was established as a transitional government of iraq following the invasion of iraq on 19 march 2003 by the united states, united kingdom, australia and poland. this is the hegemony against which sandy baldwin has produced the rhetoric of this game which signifies that “[t]he colonizer’s discourse, his most effective weapon in the cultural encounter, is less stable and secure than he thinks. one reason is that stereotyping is a basic element of colonial discourse” (bertens 167). this colonialist rhetoric is endemic to the autocratic regimes and goes on to reveal “how they attain their coherence by setting up false oppositions between a supposed centre and an equally fictive margin and how their language invariably deconstructs the coherence they try to establish” (bertens 171). the interactive literatures like “new world order basra” is a clear indication that such hegemonies are disrupting the peaceful milieu of this planet, are trying to sabotage the existence of ancient cities like basra, and presenting a hegemonic rhetoric which is actually deconstructing the coherence in their language that they are trying to project. conclusion this research paper has highlighted a new understanding of hegemony in the context of electronic literature. sandy baldwin has dexterously made use of literature (billy collins’ poem ‘introduction to poetry’) and digital games (half life, a typical game of shooting and hunting) to present a new reality in the field of digital humanities. with the help of the theoretical tools of inquiry, i have tried to bring forth baldwin’s projection of the hegemonic design of creating a new world order with its usual subversive results. the crushing of the indigenous peoples of basra and iraq with an iron fist of hegemonic design has resulted in an anti-colonial political struggle of its people against the oppressors. if capitalism is reifying and commodifying people into things (bertens 65) then the game, “new world order: basra”, by sandy baldwin, can be taken as a symbolic, metonymical and metaphoric representation of this hegemony in a visual narrative of literature which has furthered the comprehensive boundaries of digital humanities. vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 9 works cited ashcroft, bill., garreth griffiths and helen tiffin, ed. key concepts in post colonial studies. london and new york: routledge, 1998. print. baldwin, sandy. "new world order: basra." 2003. electronic literature collection vol 2. web. 19 march 2016. <http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/baldwin_basra.html>. —. the nihilanth: immersivity in a first-person gaming mod. west virginia university, n.d. web. —. "the nihilanth: immersivity in a first-person gaming mod." 2014. new world order: basra. web. 19 march 2016. <http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/00_baldwin.html>. bertens, hans. literary theory , the basic theory. new york: routledge, 2008. print. burdick, anne. johanna drucker and peter lunenfeld. digital humanities. cambridge, massachusetts london, england: massachusetts institute of technology, 2012. web. 23 4 2016. collins, billy. "introduction to poetry." the apple that astonished paris. university of arkansas press, 1988, 1996. web. 19 march 2016. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176056>. davies, juliet. "pieces of herself." n.d. electronic literature collection vol 2. web. 21 may 2016. <http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/davis_pieces_of_herself.html>. drucker, johanna. "graphic devices: narration and navigation." narrative 16.2 (2008): 121-139. web. 26 may 2019. <https://www.jstor.org/stable/30219279>. jakubowicz, andrew. "discourses of the social making multicultural australia a multimedia documentary"." media in transition conference at mit on october 8, 1999.]. australia: university of technology, sydney, australia, 1999. n.pag. web. 20 may 2016. <http://web.mit.edu/m-i-t/articles/index_jakubowicz.html>. kirtz, jamie lee. "computers, comics and cult status: a forensics of digital graphic novel." dhq: digital humanities quarterly 8.3 (2014): 1-14. web. 19 march 2016. <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301651158_kirtz_j_2014_computers_comic s_and_cult_status_a_forensics_of_digital_graphic_novel_digital_humanities_quarte rly_83>. koskimaa, raine. digital literarature: from text to hypertext and beyond. 2000. web. 4 april 2016. <http://users.jyu.fi/~koskimaa/thesis/thesis.shtml>. lai, larissa. "salt fish girl." 4 aug 2002. goodreads. web. 20 may 2016. <https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/531944.salt_fish_girl>. mark pepper, allan brizee, elizabeth angelli. "visual rhetoric: analysing visual documents." n.d. welcome to the purdue owl. web. 14 march 2016. mateas, michael. and andrew stern. "facade." 2005. electronic literature collection vol 2. web. 19 march 2016. <http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/mateas_facade.html>. mchale, brian. postmodenist fiction. london and new york: routledge: taylor and francis, 1987, 2004. print. vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 10 moulthrop, stuart. "deep surface." n.d. electronic literature collection vol 2. web. 18 march 2016. <http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/moulthrop_deepsurface.html>. nadeau, bruno. and jason lewis. "still standing." 2005. electronic literature collection vol 2. web. 19 march 2016. <http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/nadeau_stillstanding.html>. nelson, jason. "game, game, game and again game." 2007. electronic literature collection vol 2. web. 19 march 2016. <http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/nelson_game.html>. pozzi, gerard. "“introduction to poetry” – analysis." 19 jan 2012. the books nest. web. 19 march 2016. <https://thebooknest.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/introduction-to-poetry-analysis/>. wiles, rose., jon prosse2, anna bagnoli, andrew clark, katherine davies, sally holland, emma renold. "visual ethics: ethical issues in visual research." esrc national centre for research methods oct 2008. web. 26 may 2019. <http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/421/1/methodsreviewpaperncrm-011.pdf>. young, gareth. "twenty-first century music technology." digital arts & humanities: scholarly reflections. university college cork, 2012. 20-24. web. 19 march 2016. <http://josullivan.org/wpcontent/uploads/digital-arts-humanities scholarlyreflections.pdf>. i appendix ii “new world order: basra” by sandy baldwin http://nt2.uqam.ca/en/repertoire/new-world-order-basra http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/00_baldwin.html ii appendix i from: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46712/introduction-to-poetry introduction to poetry by billy collins i ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear against its hive. i say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem’s room and feel the walls for a light switch. i want them to waterski http://nt2.uqam.ca/en/repertoire/new-world-order-basra http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/00_baldwin.html https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46712/introduction-to-poetry https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/billy-collins vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 11 across the surface of a poem waving at the author’s name on the shore. but all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. they begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means. billy collins, “introduction to poetry” from the apple that astonished paris. copyright 1988, 1996 by billy collins. reprinted with the permission of the university of arkansas press. source: the apple that astonished paris (university of arkansas press, 1996) @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 29 exploring the id in hemingway’s the sun also rises (1926) kiramatullah lecturer in english, qurtuba university, peshawar abstract this research paper focuses on exploring the id in hemingway’s the sun also rises (1926). from freudian prospective, id, ego and superego are three parts of human psyche or mind. the id or pleasure principle is dominant throughout the novel. the instinctive and impulsive urges of the id ruin the ego and superego of the characters. as the characters strive to forget the traumatic past of the war, they indulge in excessive pleasure as free sex and excessive alcoholism. the deep trauma of war rooted in the unconscious of the characters, makes their lives like a hell. consequently, the id strives for gratification and pleasure for removing the trauma from their minds. brett, who is the heroine of the novel, falls to the urges of the id blindly. she recklessly indulges in free sex and excessive drinking. similarly, jake, mike, bill and count always seek excessive pleasure in drinking. the characters search for pleasure is the unconscious urge for life instinct and psychic energy. the dominant id suppresses ego and superego as a result it creates neurotic anxieties in the characters. keywords: id, ego, superego, neurotic anxieties 1. introduction “you can’t always get what you consciously want, but you get what you unconsciously need” (tyson, 2006, p. 12). psychoanalytic criticism can be aptly used for the interpretation and analysis of a literary work. the literary work reflects the dreams or unconscious of the writers. dreams preserve infantile and some fundamental impulses, wishes, desires and urges repressed by some social restraints in the unconscious. from freudian prospective, dreams comprise of manifest and latent layers; the former is our real dream recurring in a form of images or symbols. the latent is the deeper and unconscious level and an object of analysis. the repressed wishes are fulfilled in dreams when they move from the latent level to the manifest level and find an outlet through abstract images and symbols. similarly, like dreams, artists have their own realm of some repressed desires, urges and ideas in their unconscious. the writers express their unconscious in literary works and provide an outlet to their restrained urges or desires. the psychoanalytic analysis can aptly interpret the literary text, which reflects the unconscious or dreams of the writer. the id, ego and superego constitute a major personality theory of freud; these three layers of human psyche represent instinctive, rational and moral levels of human personality. id is the innate part of human psyche, which creates pleasure principle or eros and it seeks immediate gratification university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 30 of all needs, wishes and urges. freud (1949) says that id develops in the unconscious and it is the store of innate and instinctive urges. the id is blind to values, morality, religion and tradition. the ego develops in the conscious level and it operates on reality principle and rationality. it mediates between id and superego and fulfills their demands. . freud (1949) states that ego is conscious and acts upon the reality principle. the ego regulates and balances different urges, resolves the conflict and achieves relief. it develops defense mechanism for controlling the urges of the id and superego. the superego imposes moral authority and represents traditional, social and religious values. according to freud (1949), the superego restrains the urges of the id and presents the influence of parents, teachers and role models. the superego controls the aggression of the id and forbids sex, obscenity and amorality. it restricts the impulsive demands of id, which are unacceptable in the society. the researcher uses psychoanalytic tool of id, ego and superego for the interpretation and analysis of the personalities of characters in the novel. the id is dominant throughout the novel and its impulsive urges suppress the ego and superego. when dominant id suppresses ego and superego, it creates neurotic anxieties in human personality. the researcher has thoroughly analyzed and explored the three levels of the characters’ personalities and their neurotic anxieties. 2. dominance of id in the sun also rises (1926) freud’s theories were very popular in the early twentieth century and during the publication of the sun rises (1926). therefore, his concepts influenced the literary works and general folks. in the aftermath of the war, new values and trends emerged which ruined victorian ideals and traditional concepts. one major reason of such liberal and amorous trends was obviously the impact of freudian concepts. fishbein (1986) says that psychoanalysis produced some valuable changes for the victims of the war as it mocked at victorian ideals and sought new ways of social conducts. in the aftermath of the war, a group of young war affected people called the lost generation emerged. the characters in the novel are the members of the lost generation. they strive to forget the traumatic past; therefore, they leave their own lands and move from one place to another. the characters blindly fall to the urges of the untamed id; therefore, they indulge in free sex and excessive alcoholism. in his book the generation of 1914, wohl (1979) states that the expatriates indulge in debauchery and they spend most of their time in drinking and other pleasures. they sleep with each other women and do not give birth to children. in the aftermath of the war, the expatriates indulge in aimless and reckless tendencies. 2.1. the dominant id of brett ashley brett ashley, who is the heroin of the novel, is in the complete hold of wild id. she represents the new woman of early twentieth century who challenged the victorian and dominant role of man. the dominant and liberal role of the new woman was the result of freudian concepts. fitzgerald (1931) illustrates, “one of its former glories, the less sought-after girls who had become resigned to sublimating a probable celibacy, came across freud and jung in seeking their intellectual recompense and came tearing back into the fray” (p.5). brett like the new woman indulges in university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 31 parties, drinking and sex freely. she is the most powerful and influential character in the novel. she acts independently and follows her free will; her sole aim is to eat, drink and be merry. fishbein (1986) states, that the main factor that contributed to new and liberal manners of women was the influence of freudian theories. the ideas of freud produced rapid effects on sexuality and role of sex on a social level. brett’s actions and behavior are new; she adapts herself to the modern tendencies of the post war age. she merely searches for the satisfaction of her instinctual and impulsive demands of the id. the defense mechanism of brett’s ego like sublimation and repression cannot control the urges of the id; her powerful libido and eros triumph over her ego. sublimation transforms impulsive desires of id into socially acceptable way. repression pushes back unacceptable urges of id into unconscious and they cannot pester us consciously. brett is helpless to sublimate or repress the instinctual urges of her dominant id. the id of brett strives for psychic energy and pleasure for removing the trauma of war from her mind. like other victims of the war, the trauma of war has deeply rooted in her unconscious. consequently, her id strives for relief and pleasure; she indulges in lavish parties, excessive drinking and free sex. rudnick (1995) states, “brett represents hemingway idealized rendering of the woman free of sexual repression” (p.70). it is difficult for her to suppress her biological needs and sexual desires, and it is her wild id, which indulges her in excessive and rash sexual acts. she is always obsessed with wild sexual urges; she strives to satisfy her sensual needs. rudnick (1995) says, “brett represents the principle of female eros” (p.70). the psychic energy and libido of brett’s id have developed a powerful eros; therefore, she acts blindly to satisfy her erotic desires. according to freud (1964), the relation of ego and id is like a rider and horse. the horse provides the power of motion and ego directs the motion of horse. after the analysis of the unconscious of brett, it is explored that her id is without the control of the rider. she has experienced a severe trauma of war; her first fiancé has died of dysentery in the trenches of war. moreover, she has worked as a nurse in the war and she has seen a number of injured and dead soldiers. therefore, she constantly searches for pleasure so that the trauma of war can be removed from her mind. brett spends aimless and careless life while searching for psychic energy and excessive pleasure. willingham (2002) states that for a quite long time a number of critics have regarded her destructive bitch, promiscuous and amoral woman who badly affects men and weakens them. she is destructive force for men and a major cause of disagreement among male characters in the novel. similarly, wilson (1941) calls her “an exclusive destructive force” (p. 328). she has become destructive in search of excessive pleasure and wild sex. she crosses all limits and acts blindly for the satisfaction of her sexual desires. her own fiancé, mike, calls her “an extra ordinary wench” (p.143). consequently, she abuses and harms many men in this quest. the untamed id of brett ruins her ego completely when she develops multiples relation with men, and sleeps with them without any reluctance. she is waiting for her divorce; mike is her fiancé, and she loves jake madly. similarly, she sleeps with cohn, pets with count, and finally she falls university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 32 in love with a young spanish bullfighter, pedro romero. yu (2010) states, that brett remains dominant throughout the novel. she chooses men of her own choice for sexual relations; she makes relations with different men and then compels them to break the relations. aldridge (1950) is of the view that she is a compulsive bitch. sex has become her mania and compulsion. she loves jake madly, but drinks and enjoys with count; she also sleeps with cohn. finally, when she falls in romero love, she becomes a compulsive bitch, and her id subdues her ego completely. she knows that jake loves her madly, but she tells him instantly after falling in love with romero. one sensible and rational person does not disclose new love or infatuation to their lovers. she tells jake “i’m a goner. i’m mad about the romero boy. i’m in love with him, i think…i can’t help it. i’m goner. it’s tearing me all up inside”. (hemingway, 2004, p.159). jake is helpless, and he listens to brett patiently. her untamed id torments him and hits his superego throughout the novel. the sexual urges of the wild id of brett are clearly exposed in her conversation with jake. when ego defense mechanism is weak, it becomes the center of the conflict created by these three levels of human mind or psyche. this conflict leads to anxiety and neurosis. the dominant ego creates external or realistic anxieties; the dominant superego creates moral anxieties and when id suppresses both ego and superego, it leads to neurotic anxieties in human personality. freud (1964) explains this important function of ego, the ego, driven by the id, confined by the superego, repulsed by reality, struggles to master its economic task of bringing about harmony among the forces and influences working in and upon it…if the ego is obliged to admit its weakness, it breaks out in anxietyrealistic anxiety regarding the external world, moral anxiety regarding the superego and neurotic anxiety regarding the strength of the passions in the id (110-111). brett defense mechanism is obviously weak; her ego cannot sublimate or repress her impulsive urges. she knows that jake loves her passionately; therefore, it is not rational approach to be such fickle and wavering in the presence of her lover but she still torments jake with her aggressive advances. when jake asks her to stop longing for romero, she replies, “i cannot help it. i have never been able to help anything” (p. 195). when jake feels upset and asks her to stop it, she replies, “how can i stop it? i can’t stop things. feel that?” (p.159). she feels utterly frustrated and she is trembling while talking to jake. she is impatient in the absence of romero; she tells jake, “i have got to do something i really want to do something. i have lost my self-respect” (p.159). she also ignores the fact that if a woman is even extremely promiscuous, the world does not appreciate her for becoming such bitch in the presence of her lover. brett is extremely under the effect of neurotic anxieties as her id has suppressed the ego and superego. in addition, brett’s id persuades her true lover, jake, to help her in finding romero. at this stage, she is blind, and her id has destroyed her ego. in reality, everybody will condemn and abhor such act of woman or man if they use their own lovers to make new and multiple relations. jake helps university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 33 her and arranges her dates and sleeping with romero. as he facilitates brett in this way, cohn taunts him and calls him, “damned pimp” (p. 165). finally, in search of romero, bret’s id overwhelms her ego completely; her remarks show the power of her wild id. “god knows, i have never felt such bitch…i have always done just what i wanted” (hemingway, 2004, p.160). jake is helpless and listens to her. her remarks prick him and shatter his superego. she says again, “i do feel such a bitch…my god! the things a woman goes through…i do feel such a bitch” (p.160). here, the instinctual and impulsive needs of her unconscious have ruined her conscious. she cannot repress or sublimate her impulsive sexual urges. fielder (1975) is of the view that brett is the most exceptional among hemingway’s bitch women. such promiscuous urges of brett have made jake life like a hell; he goes through severe anxieties and frustrations. the desire of brett for free sex, excessive drinking and aimless wandering ruins also her superego. brett is rebellious against social, traditional and religious values. she is irreligious, and she does not follow the old values of christianity. brett does not observe religious or spiritual practices; she spends reckless and hasty life. rani (2014) comments on the irreligious approach of brett “she takes leave from the institutionalized religion and traditional concept of god” (p. 967). when she goes to church with jake, she feels much nervous and bored there. she wants to come out instantly; her remarks to jake expose her irreligious approach. “let’s get out of here. makes me damned nervous” (p.160). she is not relaxed in church, and she wants to leave it instantly. she says to jake, “don’t know why i get so nervy in church. never does me any good…i’m damned bad in the religious atmosphere. i have the wrong type of face” (p.181). her remarks show that she has lost her religious and spiritual zeal. it is obvious that her superego no longer performs its basic and effective function. her rebellious acts and wild desires have subdued her superego completely. 2.2. the id of jake barnes jake barnes is the hero of the novel, and he is the most complex character among the expatriates. he has received both physical and psychic trauma in the brutal experience of war. the wound of war has rendered him a complex personality; it is difficult to analyze his character from psychoanalytical prospective. the wound is a baffling one because he has lost his penis in the war but his testicle is safe and functional; therefore, he has not lost his warmth completely. the power of his id and libido in the unconscious is intact but he cannot copulate. freud compares the relationship between the structure of personality and the level of consciousness to an iceberg floating on water. one-third part of the iceberg, which is visible, represents the conscious level; the invisible part of iceberg is unconscious level and it largely controls the visible part. the invisible unconscious of jake is active; therefore, he still feels warmth and sensuality for brett. he loves to get closer to her and desperately wants to kiss her. when brett does not like it and draws back, he asks her, “isn’t there anything we can do about it?”(p.22). he does not get proper response and reaction from brett. she is confused and lost in her thoughts. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 34 he still asks her, “and there’s not a damn thing we could do?” (p.23). he wants to have brett in his company as it gives him pleasure and satisfaction. the neurotic anxieties of jake’s id are very complex and painful due to his mysterious wound. jake might have left brett if his testicles were also dysfunctional like his penis. his functional testicles have preserved the power of his id; therefore, he stays with brett for restoring psychic energy. brett’s promiscuity troubles him extremely; however, he cannot leave her alone. baskett (1978) adds that brett keeps frustrating him; however, he cannot live away from her. he wants to get closer to her whenever they are together. his constant stay with brett makes him stable and tough character and he faces all the troubles willingly. brett likes and prefers him among all the characters due to his sincere and altruist nature. although he knows that he will suffer whenever he lives with brett, yet he is unable to live without her. he narrates his difficult situation during dancing to the tune, “i had the feeling of a nightmare of it all being repeated, something i had been through and that now i must go through again” (p.56). here it is obvious that he accepts all troubles and anxieties for gaining psychic energy of eros. he is well aware that his impotence frustrates and pricks brett; however, he is not ready to desert her. the psychoanalytic analysis of jake character is not simple like other characters of the novel. the functional state of his testicles reveals the true power of his id. his mysterious wound arise a serious question about the urge of his id. when he feels warmth for brett without penis, how much his id will be powerful and dominant if he is sexually healthy? this is a question, which puzzles many reader and critics. astre (1959) is of the view that hemingway’s hero was able to produce all feelings of a man, but he could not exercise such feelings. the power of his id is intact; however, he has lost the instrument, which functions the instinctual drives of the id. he is caught in severe dilemma, and he cannot leave brett nor can he satisfy her. similarly, schmigalle (2005) adds that the genital wound of jake has occurred in such manner that his sexual desire is functional, but he is unable to have an intercourse. here, it is obvious that the id of jake is not weak, but he is helpless due to his mysterious and complex wound. he might have independently indulged in sexual activities if his penis had not been lost in the war. 2.3. the untamed id of the expatriates hemingway’s other characters are also in the hold of id; therefore, they are suffering from extreme neurotic anxieties. the major characters are heavy drinkers in the sun also rises (1926). brett, jake, mike, bill and count drink excessively. the obsessive urge for drinking is the effect of the powerful id, which seeks immediate gratification of all needs. the trauma of war has snatched their happiness. as a result, their id becomes dominant which needs pleasure and gratification for removing the trauma of war from their unconscious. gelderman states, in the sun also rises (1926), most of the time the characters are talking about drinking. they are suffering from pains and depression because of excessive drinking. the characters in the novel mainly focus on drinking in their conversation. food and drinking are natural and basic needs of human body, but the impulsive desire for extra food and drinking is the result of the untamed and dominant id. hemingway’s characters in the sun also rises (1926) are epicures, and they always seek pleasure university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 35 in drinking and food. wyatt (1999) states, “food and drink are the most reliable pleasure in hemingway” (p.598). the unconscious demands of the pleasure principle are compulsive, and drinking has become the need of hemingway’s characters. the love and desire for wine are rooted in their unconscious, which has become a sort of permanent need, and they cannot control these wild urges. the expatriates are compulsive epicures and they fall victims to hedonism. the novel is replete with reckless remarks of the different characters. like hemingway, his characters have alcoholic dependency in his novels. after the fiesta, when jake returns to alcohol, his remarks show that wine gives him a great company in isolation, “i drank a bottle of wine for a company. it was a chateau margaux. it was pleasant to be drinking slowly and to be tasting the wine and to be drinking alone. a bottle of wine was a good company” (hemingway, 2004, p.204). the remarks of jake reveal his unconscious desire for pleasure and utter dependence on alcohol. he is also alienated and isolated in the crowded world. he has many friends and a lover like bret, but he still feels aloof and isolated. he likes to drink alone, and he does not want his friends to disturb him after the fiesta. his deep inclination for wine is the stimulus of the id, which unconsciously indulges him in compulsive drinking. drinking is normal, but such abnormal urge for drinking is the direct effect of the id. consequently, the id merely needs the satisfaction of the unconscious demands of the pleasure principle and jake falls victim to neurotic anxieties brett’s abnormal urge for drinking is also the unconscious desire for psychic energy. she seems sick of the other talks except drinking. while sitting with jake and count, she is fed up of their conversation with her. she tells count, “this hell of dull talks. how about some of that champagne?” (hemingway, 2004, p.51). her remarks expose her deep love and urge for wine. she does not want to listen to other talks except drinking. as brett shows her annoyance over the dull talks, the count turns to wine, and starts checking it. jake narrates, “the count reached down and twirled the bottles in the shiny bucket” (p. 51). the count asks brett, “you are always drinking, my dear. why don’t you just talk?” (p.51). the count’s comment, “you are always drinking, my dear” shows brett’s incessant inclination for alcohol. the id of brett is so dominant that she does not like to talk about other things. the urges of her pleasure principle have affected her ego, which is evident in her rash acts and remarks. when jake gives the bottle to bartender, she asks him for more wine “let’s have one more drink of that. my nerves are rotten” (p.158). she strives for compulsive drinking throughout the novel; her alcoholic dependence leads her to hasty and reckless behaviors. her constant neurotic anxieties make her life like a hell. the excessive urge for drinking is the direct effect of her dominant id, which has led her to show such weird behavior. the fiancé of brett, mike, is also a heavy drinker, and he behaves abnormally when he is drunk. he is a bankrupt and some false friends have deserted him. like the other characters, he also strives to remove the trauma of war from his mind; he seeks an escape in heavy drinking. jake calls him a “bad drunk” (p.129). mike’s remarks show that excessive drinking has also affected him psychologically. "i’m rather drunk," mike said. "i think i’ll stay rather drunk. this is university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 36 all awfully amusing, but it’s not too pleasant for me. it’s not too pleasant for me” (hemingway, 2004, p.176). he knows that drinking has led him to psychological complexities and anxieties, but he still feels that drinking is amusing and pleasurable. excessive drinking makes him peevish and blunt and he mostly embarrasses brett with his reckless conversation. the neurotic anxieties of mike create extreme psychological complexities in his personalities. bill and count are also drinkers, and they relish wines like other characters in the novel. bill is a war veteran; he drinks heavily and adds some good humor in the company of his friends. jake calls him a “good drunk” (p.129). count is a true epicure, and his sole aim is to eat, drink and be merry. he enjoys with brett, and he buys some good wine for her. he takes great pleasure while drinking with brett. he adores brett when she is drunk, and he thinks that she seems sober and beautiful when she is drunk. his remarks about brett expose his adoration for brett and wine. “there, my dear. now you enjoy that slowly, and then you can get drunk. my dear, you are charming when you are drunk” (p.52). his love for brett and wine has surpassed all his desires. he says about brett, “she is the only lady i have ever known who was as charming when she was drunk as when she was sober” (p.52). the count is absolutely under the influence of the id, and his acts and remarks reveal his epicurean nature. moreover, the count’s comments reveal the intensity of brett’s love and addiction for wine. the moral anxieties of the superego in robert cohn abstains him from drinking. cohn is a jew; he clings to old and victorian values. jake narrates about the nature of cohn, “mike was a bad drunk. brett was a good drunk. bill was a good drunk. cohn was never drunk” (p.129). he is the sole man in the novel who is guided by the superego and he is in the hold of moral anxieties. he wants brett to love and obey him like a traditional victorian woman. he believes in conventional notion of marriage and love. however, cohn’s liaison with brett shatters his traditional and victorian values. his relation with brett brings some drastic changes in his personality. he becomes overemotional, effeminate, creep and weird; his relation with brett stirs his id which shatters his superego. malik and karuna (2015) comment on the later development in his personality compare him with other characters and regard him a different one from other characters. he is a symbol of the romantic ideas that existed before the war. however, his love affairs with brett ruin his romantic values. at the end, because of the dominant id, his moral anxieties are transformed into neurotic anxieties. the ego and superego of pedro romero make him the only sane and sober character; he acts and behaves sensibly throughout the novel. his realistic and moral anxieties create many challenges for him when he is in relation with brett; however, he gracefully overcomes all the complexities. hemingway presents him as an ideal man who has the capability to cope with all the adverse conditions of life. he is a brave bullfighter, and he kills many bulls in the fiesta. romero has a balanced personality; he never talks or acts irresponsibly. spika (1962) is of the view that romero is a true hero in the novel. he represents the real manhood; therefore, all the male characters need to follow his moral integrity and manly nature. of course, he is a real hero of the novel as he has university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue i | jan – june | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 37 acquired all the qualities of a great character. in addition, unlike the other characters, romero stands firmly when he is in relation with brett. he wants brett to shun her promiscuous nature and aggressive behavior and he strives to change her code of conduct. the untamed id of brett cannot subdue his ego and superego. 3. conclusion after the thorough analysis of the characters, it is obvious that the dominant id has created neurotic anxieties in the characters. the traumatic experience of the war has ruined their peace of mind and happiness; consequently, their id instinctively strives for pleasure and psychic energy and they indulge in hedonism. the trauma of war has stimulated the id of the characters and they search for excessive pleasure. war is the main culprit for the dominance of in the novel. brett, who is a central character, is a promiscuous woman. she is an obsessive bitch, and she crosses all limits for the satisfaction of her compulsive erotic urges. similarly, jake, mike, bill and count are heavy drinkers, and they indulge in extreme drinking for psychic energy of eros. cohn’s superego and moral anxieties also perish when he surrenders to the compulsive urges of brett’s id. the untamed id stirs up neurotic anxieties in the characters, which creates imbalance and disorder in their personalities. consequently, the characters are facing some psychological problems. romero is the only sensible and sober character whose ego and superego are constant throughout the novel. he has balanced and sane personality; his great manners and noble character make him exceptional among all the characters in the novel. references astre, g. a. 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(2010). the new woman in the sun also rises. english language teaching, 3(3), 176. zilboorg, gregory (1951). sigmund freud, his exploration of the mind of human. new york: charles scribner’s sons. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). stylistic analysis of the poem “humanity i love you” by e.e. cummings abdul majid department of english, kohat university of science and technology kohat majidktk78@gmail.com muhammad ishtiaq assistant professor (english), govt. degree college takht e nasrati, karak ishtiaqm48@yahoo.com dr. syed hanif rasool assistant professor, department of english, khushal khan khattak university, karak, khyber pakhtunkhwa syedhanifrasool@kkkuk.edu.pk abstract this study deals with stylistic analysis of e.e cummings’s poem "humanity i love you". this study is dealt under the level of lexicology, graphology and the parallelism in stylistics. qualitative method has been applied in the analysis of the poem in which the data are collected from primary, secondary and tertiary sources. the analysis of these features is helpful to comprehend the basic theme of the poem that is completely sarcasm and irony. the first free clause "humanity i love you" repeats several times ironically in the poem but at the end of the poem this structural repetition is being juxtaposed and parallelized with what the poet actually wants to say “humanity i hate you”. keywords: stylistics, levels, parallelism, irony, theme 1 introduction 1.1 style style is derived from latin word stilus which means “the particular way in which something is done” (oxford advanced learner’s dictionary: 2011). it holds way of living, personality of a person, his thought and his way of speaking and writing. in everyday talk we use the term style for expressing the shape and colour of building, dress, painting, sculpture, furniture. for example, this house has a unique style. similarly, when we talk about the manner of speaking or writing, we say ‘the essays of bacon have epigrammatic style’. in literature, style reflects the choice of words, sentence structure and tone of ideas by the writer in order to “show” the reader what the writer intends. 1.2 stylistics stylistics, the branch of applied linguistics, studies the style of a literary text. it is the study of style in spoken and written language at all levels such as phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicology. vol. 3 | issue i i | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663 1512 , issn (p): 2617 3611 mailto:syedhanifrasool@kkkuk.edu.pk 16 moti (2010) says, “the message or thought what we communicate in language does not have only one function. it has diverse functions, and it is also diverse in expression or manner (style)”. stylistics studies literary effects caused by linguistics. stylistics bridges linguistics with literature. stylistician uses linguistic data while analysing literary text. stylistic analysis investigates how literary text creates meaning, how readers construct meaning from the language of text and make the text understandable by applying specific techniques of stylistics such as deviation (semantic, grammatical, phonological), pun, foregrounding and parallelism. 1.3 levels 1.3.1 lexical analysis the stylistic use of words may produce denotative, connotative, collocative, affective, thematic, or stylistic meanings based on the intention of speaker or writer. certain characteristic use of words may help us to identify the context of a text, its genre, its communicative purposes, and its author. at this level of analysis, lexis of the poem is studied as a theory of semantic field. the notion of semantic field is to study words which are similar in meaning and analyses the relationship among them. new words and vocabulary (neology) and affixation (prefix and suffix) and compounding are examples of word-formation most commonly practiced in english language to be studied at lexical level. in affixation, prefix and suffix are added to a word while in compounding, two different words are joined together in order to make a new word. 1.3.2 graphological analysis leech (1969:39) claims, “graphology exceeds orthography. it refers to the whole writing system: punctuation and paragraphing as well as spacing”. punctuation is a system of using the punctuation marks in writing for the purpose to split sentences, phrases and words. these marks contain full stop, colon, semicolon, comma, exclamation mark, question mark, quotation mark, apostrophe, ellipsis, hyphen, brackets, and parenthesis. it also includes paragraphing which separates parts containing information that usually consist of several sentences or lines. every text has an individual layout which reflects the characteristics of that particular period of genres. generally texts are divided into distinct paragraphs and parts and sub parts from the beginning to the end and these units are separated from one another according to the kind of information, idea and concept. every paragraph starts with a new line. leech and short (2007:131) say, “graphological variation is a relatively minor and superficial part of style, concerning such matters as spelling, capitalisation, hyphenation, italicisation and paragraphing”. due to these features, stylistician can rationally explore and provide descriptions of the manifestation of the literary texts. graphology as a system of writing can also show the type of language used. for example, american english writes the words ‘meter’ and ‘color’ which are different in spelling from the british english in which they write ‘metre’ and ‘colour’ for similar reason. 3.4 parallelism parallelism is an example of linguistic foregrounding through which the writers take words, phrases and discourse from the ground into the foreground in order to emphasize or attract the attention of the readers and scholars. parallelism is a type of foregrounding in which the 17 meaning or shape of words and phrases change their position in a parallel structure. there is either antonymical or synonymical relationship of meaning among the parallel expressions. it either joins similar ideas to show their connection or juxtaposes contrasting ideas and images so as to show their stark variance. the antonymical or synonymical relationships of meaning among the expressions paralleled may also be strengthened by phonological, grammatical and morphological features. trauth and kazzazi(2006:858) define parallelism, ‘a figure of speech of repetition for syntactically similar constructions of co-ordinated sentences or phrases, e.g. time is passing, johnny walker is coming’ .parallelism is a broad term and it is not limited to the extra repetition of words and phrases in a text. poets use different techniques of parallelism while constructing poetic language. those techniques are: rhyme, phonemic transcription, syllabic structure, pun, anaphora, apostrophe, consonance, assonance and alliterative pattern in texts. all these levels of language categories words, phrases, sentences, units of meaning and sound may be tied up for the purpose to create parallelism and these parallel constructions are aimed to achieve the effect of foregrounding in a literary passage. 2 review of literature 2.1 stylistics stylistics, the branch of applied linguistics, deals with the style in which literary text is studied. aslam et al. (2014) say that in the last quarter of 19th century, stylistics was only limited to literary texts. but in 20th century, it began to analyse nonliterary texts stylistically. for example: religion, laws, newspaper, and advertisement. different authors define and explain the term stylistics differently. leech and short (2007:11) define that stylistics is the linguistic study of style which does not take it for its own sake but an exercise in which we describe the different use of language. crystal (2008:460) states that stylistics as a branch of language, studies the situational features of the language used by authors in different contexts distinctly. it establishes principles for exploring the particular choices of language made by the individual. according to nørgaard, montoro and busse (2010:01), stylistics takes theories, models and frameworks as an analytical tool for explaining and describing why and how text on page works. it tells us the way we come from the words on page to their meanings. the analysis focuses on different features of the text such as semantic, grammatical, lexical, phonological, discoursal or pragmatic features. some stylisticians give importance to the author and analyse the text from the author point of view. while other stylistic approaches give importance to the text itself. they say that we need text on page, instead of author for the analysis. there are other who claim that it is all about readers to construct meaning while analyzing a text. they consider the readers’ role in analysis. according to watts (1981:25), in stylistic analyses, the job of stylistician is not to interpret the text but to find out the linguistic structures within the text particularly in literary text. some stylistic analysis also tends to justify the methods and principles of the model, not only to interpret the text. wales (2001:437), in the first edition of her dictionary of stylistics offers that we can view style in several different ways. there are a lot of stylistics approaches to literary text which are mainly influenced by linguistics and literary criticism. though we study literary materials but attention is mainly given to the text. in most stylistics analysis, we do not simply analyse the formal 18 characteristics of text but to show the functional significance of the literary text studied in a specific context. while simpson (2004) says that stylistics is a process of interpreting text in which the importance is given to language. he says: the reason why language is so important to stylisticians is because the various forms, patterns and levels that constitute linguistic structure are an important index of the function of the text. the text’s functional significance as discourse acts in turn as a gateway to its interpretation. while linguistic features do not of themselves constitute a text’s ‘meaning’, an account of linguistic features nonetheless serves to ground a stylistic interpretation and to help explain why, for the analyst, certain types of meaning are possible. (p. 2) burke (2014:2) says, ‘stylistics nowadays is a field of study that confidently has one foot in language studies and the other in literary studies’. stylistics bridges linguistics with literature. stylistician uses linguistic data while analysing literary text. 2.2 levels of analysis 2.2.1 lexical analysis shakoor (2015) says that the term lexical in ‘lexical analysis’ refers to the ‘lexis’ which means the vocabulary or words of a language. every poet uses a choice of vocabulary in his or her writings. there are different kinds of lexical devices such as apostrophe, connotation, analogy, hyperbole, irony, personification, pun, metaphor, and simile. analysis at lexical level also includes deviation from the routine choice of word and phrases in poetry. according to khokhar, khurshid and kassim (2015) ‘lexical deviation refers to nonce-formation or neologism. in the analyses at lexical level (li and shi in 2015), include the study of neologism in which the stylistician explores the newly created words and phrases (leech, 1969:42). neologism is through nonce-formation and word-formation. in nonce-formation, poets invent new words just for a single and particular situation, not for the purpose of enhancing vocabulary. in word-formation, they form new words through affixation and compounding. the use of affixation (prefixation and suffixation) is the most productive and effective way of increasing vocabulary. in prefixation, poets attach prefixes such as ‘un’, ‘dis’, and ‘en’ to the beginning of a morpheme or word while in suffixation, they add suffixes such as ‘ly’, ‘ness’, and ‘less’ to the end of a word. compounding is the process of combining two or more words together. in compounding, words are joined directly together from different parts of speech such as handpicked, honeymoon, and ‘not-too-distant’. the stylistician job is to analyse and explore these elements in the language of poetry. simpson (1997: 34) states about open-class words and closed-class words while describing the english lexicon. according to him, open-class words are the lexical morphemes which carry the content of the meaning that the writers want to convey. it includes noun, verb, adverb and adjective part of the speech. in this class of words, more word or morphemes can be added to the english language. while closed-class words are all the functional morphemes that connect content words together. it includes articles, prepositions, pronouns and modal verbs. these functional morphemes are fixed, and further new morphemes cannot be added to the english language that is why they are called closed-class words. lexical items from open-class words, according to goodarzi (2009), are combined to form images in poetry and extend its meaning: 19 every lexical item contributes to produce images in poetry, either directly or in an oblique manner. once an image has been established in a poem, all lexical items in the poem may probably be applied to it by extending their meaning metaphorically. even those lexical items which seem apparently unrelated to the established images can be attributed the role of creating more images for the purpose of making the experience of the poem more complex. in this regard, strings of related lexis in a poem can help the reader to understand how the poem creates and co-ordinates different levels of imagery, in order to convey the sense of an experience. 2.2.2 graphological analysis graphology refers to the layout or the appearance of text. the layout of the text contains a lot of graphological elements such as paragraphing, jeffries and maclntyre (1956:44) graphic choice, punctuation, capitalization, italization, bold-typing, underlining and spacing as well. each element has its own particular function and creates meaning in the text. according to crystal and davy (1969:18) “graphology is the analogous study of a languages writing system or orthography as seen in the various kinds of handwriting or topography”. say that ‘graphology is the equivalent in the written language to phonology and is conveyed through the visual medium rather than the aural’. in graphological analysis, stylisticians analyse the layout of literary text through graphological features. according to these features, stylisticians give meaning to a literary passage. they create the effect of foregrounding in the text and stress ideas through the use of italics, capital letters, and underlining in order to catch the attention. leech (1969:47) claims that cumming is best known for his graphological style in poetry. he says that his orthographic deviation discards punctuation and capital letters which seems very eccentric. for him, punctuation, capitalization and spacing are not just symbols to be put down but they become expressive devices. with reference to the graphological elements in cummings’ poetry specially the poem “you no”, simpson (1997) comments that the poem contains all the stylistic characteristics of cummings’ poetry and so are contrary to the standard layout, orthography and punctuation. his well known technique is the use of lower case which tends to be normally printed in upper case such as the use of personal pronoun or the initial word the line. he says that he does not mention ‘the spelling of the poet’s own name’. simpson further says, by contrast, when upper case is used, it is used in the most unlikely of environments: in this text it is restricted exclusively to comparative and superlative terms (‘less’; ‘most’; ‘more’). these terms thus become foregrounded in a text where lower case is the norm. (p.45) pishkar and nasery (2013) state about the graphology of cummings, 'he caused a great controversy with his insistence on the unorthodox spelling and punctuation , he refused to capitalize the personal pronoun (i) , let his lines wander all over the page and in general refused to bend to the recognized rules of poetic grammar'. 2.3 parallelism mtumane (2010) says that parallelism is a stylistic technique in which words, phrases and sentences are arranged and ordered in a balanced way in the consecutive lines. he says that these phrases and sentences are structured along with their balanced meaning. parallelism is a system of arranging an equal number of words in two or more than two consecutive lines and these words 20 correspond with one another in the lines. this effect creates beautiful rhythm in lines and feels pleasing to the ear when someone listens to them. ntuli (1984: 190) refers to the perfect parallelism, when “correspondence is found between all the units” of consecutive lines. cuddon (2013:511) states that parallelism is ‘a very common device in poetry (especially hebrew poetry) and not uncommon in the more incantatory types of prose. it consists of phrases or sentences of similar construction and meaning placed side by side, balancing each other…’ gregoriou (2009: 37) also states that ‘when words in a text are structurally parallel—whether by the same or similar sound, meaning, or position in a syntactic structure—there seemingly exists some sort of equivalence or opposition between the semantic relationship of the words’. further he says that generally parallelism is adhered to the earlier case. it relies on the repetition of norms and unexpected regularities. these norms and regularities are either in the form of sameness or in the in the form of contrast to one another. according to waugh (1980: 64), ‘parallelisms create and unify a network of symmetries, and via these symmetries—whether contrasting or equivalent—they construct the poem into one unified whole’. according to okunowo (2012), the study of parallel linguistic structures creates ideas and links those parallel ideas in order to understand and convey the meaning of a literary text: parallelism is a linguistic phenomenon, which explains the relationship that may be understood between units of linguistic structures, which are constructed parallel to each other or related in some other ways. literature exploits this relationship to create ideas in the units of language that are composed as parallels. our understanding of the concept as a linguistic phenomenon enables us to interpret its heuristic uses in literature in which meanings are suggested in order to argue a point of view and convey a message. according to khokhar, khurshid and kassim (2015), parallelism is a planned repetition of words and phrases in order to make a text artistic (for artistic purpose). they have given the following three types of parallelism: lexical parallelism: refers to ‘the repetition of a word, phrase, or a clause in a regular pattern’; phonological parallelism: the repetition of stressed and unstressed syllable; syntactic parallelism: the structural repetition of the sentence rather than repeating the same words. the present study is only concerned with lexical parallelism in which the repetition of phrases and sentences would be analysed. 2.4 introduction of the poem li and shi (2015) talk about irony in poetry and take example from e.e. cummings’ poem ‘humanity i love you’. they say that irony is used to refer to the opposite side of actual surface or what is actually said. the interpretation of irony is like uncovering the mask. e.g. humanity i love you because you are perpetually putting the secret of life in your pants and forgetting it’s there and sitting down on it (cummings: 1994:53) they comment about the stanza that: although the poet reasserts his ”love’ for humanity, what is reckoned from the shameless behaviors in full display only intensifies in reader’s mind his hatred for the cruelty and selfishness of mankind rather than love, the effect of which has been achieved by irony as expected. 21 the study in this poem is how the faults of humanity, repetitions, metaphorical language and ironic visual imagery and the contrast between the first and the last line create the theme of this poem by applying some specific stylistic techniques: graphological analysis, lexical analysis and parallelism. 4. methodology methodology includes the analysis of the poem. the poem is analysed at three levels: lexical level, graphological level and the use of parallelism. this study interprets the poem from a linguistic point of view in order to show the analysis of a literary text through linguistic approach and to find out why some particular literary text is observed so highly. 4.1 lexical level in this poem, the words of two categories (noun and verb) are immensely used. words of both the categories add meaning to the first noun word ‘humanity’ of the poem. it has an important role in the poem due to which the first letter of it has been written in upper-case. this poem is all about the description of humanity in which the poet criticizes the contemporary society. in the start of every two stanzas, he repeats only one line ‘humanity i love you because’. he actually emphasizes and foregrounds it in order to attract the attention of the readers. in this line of the poem, the first person pronoun ‘i’ refers to the poet and the author addresses to the second person pronoun ‘you’ which refers to humanity. the verb ‘love’ in the line which the poet repeats before every two stanzas is irony. he says ‘humanity i love you’, ironically. the author does not openly expose his true nature towards humanity. the words and expressions that he brings after the first line before every two stanzas contradict to the word ‘love’. they do not relate to the semantic field of the word ‘love’. the poem begins with the simple sentence structure of svo {subject (s) verb (v) object (o)}. the first line of each stanza exhibits semantic juxtaposition with the rest of the lines, and this semantic incoherence is being indicated through the following subordinate clause beginning with the subordinator ‘because’ in each stanza. humanity is loved for having the very detestable and abominable qualities. for example, doing things which are embarrassing for both the parties is not something loving and likeable; rather it is quite shocking and atrocious. similarly to pawn one’s intelligence for buying such petty, harmful, and trivial thing like ‘drink’ is worth pitying instead of loving. the lexical item “love” of the first free clause is, in fact, disjointed and incoherent with what follows in the subordinate clauses, beginning with the subordinator ‘because’ in each of the three stanzas. the dispersed content in the subordinate clauses demonstrate lack of coherence with what is said in the first free clause. the first free clause in these three stanzas, having an svo syntactic pattern {humanity i (s) love (v) you (o)} does not correspond to the detail in the clauses immediately following it in the same construction. the detail after this clause does not present any plausible argument for the loving aspect of humanity. the poet gives description which seems nonsensical, incoherent, illogical and not in thematic link with the first free clause. the poet adds through the conjunction ‘because’ merely surprising and shocking information of human folly, ignorance, hypocrisy, meanness etc. which are not loving at all. generally such worthless and negative qualities do not seem to integrate well with the preceding line of 22 personalized and very pure human emotion of love. how can one love a phenomenon with such negative, evil and detestable qualities; instead, phenomenon with such bad qualities deserves to be hated. thus, the readers are confronted with a mass of apparently disjointed sentences having no obvious relation with the thematic progression of the opening line in each stanza but the fact of the matter is that the author is completely sarcastic and ironic in his treatment of the subject matter. he has deliberately chosen to be so in order to get the desired effect of getting the attention of the readers by presenting such semantic juxtaposition. however, at the very end of the poem, through the very last line where unlikely all other preceding expressions, the choice ‘love’ is substituted by its exact antonym ‘hate’, the author has made it explicit what he actually meant by the earlier mentions of the apparently positive choice ‘love’. the choice of lexical items that follow in the subordinate clauses in each of the three stanzas is contradictory and unexpected which both surprise and perplex the readers. passing from the highly personalized and positive emotion of ‘love’ in the opening line (human experienced/feeling oriented line), we encounter choices which are invariably negative, unwelcome, and undesirable. for example, to mention a few negative items that are not indeed worth loving we can refer to choices like “embarrassing the parties”, “unflinchingly applaud”, “to pawn one’s intelligence in order to buy drink”, “continually committing nuisances” etc. human nature, in fact, universally hate these things and phenomena instead of loving them, and the poet has, off course, used the word love in ironic and sarcastic implications which is also evident from the last explicit use of word “hate” instead of “love”. there are no strange and unusual words or apparent deviation at lexical level of the poem – no neologisms, for example, and no unusual affixation, which cummings often uses in his other poems. however, the arrangement of the words on the page is arranged in a strange way which makes the poem difficult to read. 4.2 graphological level an analysis at graphological level, first of all, the poem has no formal title. the poem consists of six stanzas and each stanza contains four lines. the first stanza starts with a line ‘humanity i love you’ and repeats the same line after the two stanzas in the poem. it carries a single and complete idea. there is no capital letters in the poem except the first letter of the word ‘humanity’. leech (1969:47) says that “cummings is well-known for his use of other types of orthographic deviation: discarding of capital letters and punctuation where convention calls for them”. throughout the poem, the poet e.e. cummings has written the word ‘humanity’ with capital first letter. this can signals that the poet has foregrounded and make the word ‘humanity’ visible and emphasized in the poem because the author has broken his own creative rules which is the use of ‘lower case’ in his poetry. the word ‘humanity’ has an important concept in this poem. the whole poem is revolving round this particular concept. throughout the poem, the poet has used lower-case especially the personal pronoun ‘i’ in the written language of the poem. pishkar and nasery (2013) say that e.e. cummings refused to capitalize the personal pronoun (i). this is the most striking aspect of his deviation from the usual and routine writing. in this poem, there is no single punctuation mark used in the poem. the poet has written the poem like a free verse in run-on lines in which the sentence does not stop at the end of line but it continues next-to-next lines, which is called enjambment. there is no full stop at the end of sentences, no 23 colon, semi-colon, quotation mark, exclamation mark, question mark or a single comma in this poem. e.g., in the second stanza, the poet has given three nouns ‘country home and mother’. the conjunction ‘and’ is fine after the two nouns but there is nothing between the first two nouns. comma or the conjunction ‘and’ should have been written between the first two nouns. there are no bold, italics and numeral letters in this poem. most of the helping verbs are used in contract forms in the poem such as ‘you’re’, ‘it’s’. there is an equal space among lineation and the stanzas. 4.3 parallelism the poet begins the poem with a verbal irony, ‘humanity i love you’ and repeats it with a sarcastic tone while at the end of the poem the author has given more directly ‘humanity i hate you’. it really strikes the mind of the readers while going through text of the poem. it really invites attention of the readers when viewing two completely contrastive ideas. the poet actually foregrounds the ideas through the ironical use of the line ‘humanity i love you’. the author repeats the same idea three times respectively. he makes his arguments strong through repetitions. in the last line of the poem he reveals his true nature of what he actually intends and wants to say openly and leaving no confusion to the readers. since simple repetition is a restricted technique to produce foregrounding, poets use parallelism to achieve this effect. parallelism holds some features contrast, especially the structural ones, while other such items as lexical items, idioms, words etc. change. according to short (1994:5), sometimes even the phrase and the clause level parallelism may be limited as the poet may extend it the whole domain of a poem and thus nothing seems changed structurally and this is very much true in case of ‘humanity i love you’. all the stanzas got the same structure. each stanza begins with the same line followed by a similar pattern. in this poem, parallelism is use to show the stark contrast. what the poet loves, is not lovable so two contrastive ideas are juxtaposed in each stanza having the same structural features. the first line of each stanza with the following subordinator ‘because’ is repeated throughout the poem imprinting on the readers mind what horrible things and ideas the poet loves. however, we see a deviation at the very end line of the poem, not structural deviation instead, it is lexical. for this time, the lexical item ‘love’ of the recurring first line is substituted by its antonym ‘hate’ which startles the readers. another feature is that it is not followed by the subordinator and the following description which would clarify the case. the readers are not provided with the detail why the author hates humanity, this left to their own description and common sense judgment. 5 findings and conclusion the stylistic analysis reveals an ironic and sarcastic treatment of the subject matter and theme in the poem, initially implicitly stated through the use of negative and unpleasant lexeme, like ‘embarrassing’, ‘unflinching’, ‘continually committing’ (all intrinsically negative in their meaning) or revealed through verbs like ‘black the boots’, ‘pawn the intelligence’, ‘buy the drink’ (all verbs associated with something unpleasant) or suggested through nouns, ‘old howard’, ‘pawn shop’, ‘nuisances’, ‘the secret of life in your pants’, and ‘poems in the lap of death’. despite a shift from the sincerest emotion of love in the first free clause towards an averse and unexpected experience in the following subordinate clauses, we observe a subtle extension of the theme, not 24 through cohesive devices such as anaphoric, cataphoric references, ellipsis substitution and conjunction, or coherence but through the use of irony and sarcasm. in parallelism, it can be concluded that the purpose of parallelism here is irony and sarcasm. the structural repetition here is not futile but the poet conveys his thoughts indirectly by saying “humanity i love you”. the poet repeats the same structural repetition through several stanzas in the poem. but this structural repetition is followed by some undesirable and detestable qualities after the subordinator ‘because’ which are not lovable. another striking feature of the parallelism is juxtaposition. in the poem, the poet juxtaposes two contrastive ideas which are completely opposite to each other. after the structural repetition “humanity i love you” several time, the poet ends up the poem by saying “humanity i hate you” which struck the readers’ mind off while going through the text. to conclude, the poet does not actually love but hates the contemporary society for their disgusting and abominable qualities. that is why, the poet is more direct and expose his true nature by saying “humanity i hate you” at the end of the poem. recommendations in this study, three tools of stylistics i.e., lexicology, graphology and parallelism have been applied to the poem “humanity i love you” for its analysis. the concept in the poem is very deep rooted. it is not the work of one study on the poem for the understanding. if someone wants to work again on the same lexical level of the poem, they can get the depth of the poem and reveals what the poet actually want to convey about the contemporary society. there are other levels such as phonological, grammatical and semantic level of analysis in stylistics which can be applied on the poem. references aslam s. 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(1980), the poetic function in the theory of roman jakobson. – poetics today, vol. 2, no. 1a, pp. 57–82. – doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1772352. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1772352 http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1772352 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 36 genderlect styles: analysis of ibsen’s “a doll’s house” from the perspective of gender differences in language use robina khaliq lecturer in english, national university of modern languages (numl) peshawar campus pakistan robeenakhaliq@gmail.com mehnaz lecturer in english, national university of modern languages (numl) peshawar campus pakistan mehkhan@numl.edu.pk abstract this present paper examines ibsen’s a doll’s house from the viewpoint of gender differences in the use of language by the characters in the play, and the way the lives of the characters are affected by the use of language. the study concludes that the prevalent ideologies in the society define the gender roles that stimulate women to maintain intimacy and connection and men to preserve their independence and status. however, females break this connection when they tend to preserve their identity and individuality instead of maintaining connection. the analysis of the selected text, from the play, is carried out through using discourse analysis tools like identity building tool, turn taking and holding floor, story telling, empty adjectives, intensifiers. tannen’s theory of genderlect styles and althusser’s concept of ideological state apparatuses have been used to draw the conclusion. key words: discourse analysis, a doll’s house, genderlect styles, ideological state apparatuses. introduction ibsen’s a doll’s house has received multiple approaches. (finch; 2011, aulakh; baseer et.al, 2013, 2015) concentrating on feminism, the rights and liberation of women. yet the notion that nobody is suppressed in the course of the play; rather every individual (male/female) speaks from his/her respective standpoints corresponding to his/her subcultures as pointed out by deborah tannen (1990). tannen in her book you just don’t understand: women and men in conversation (1990) theorizes that males and females speak dissimilar dialects thus establishes genderlect theory. the objective of genderlect theory is to discover how men and women talk idiosyncratically which results into miscommunication. literature review males’ and females’ use of language has been the point of discussion since long (j.l viveswrote, 1538; bingham, 1785). otto jespersen (1922) presented the notion of women’s speech being deficient in his book language: its nature and development. however, this idea remained mailto:mehkhan@numl.edu.pk university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 37 unobserved until lakoff (1975) brought forth the concept of “women’s register”, contending that females’ language use show their subservient role. this viewpoint has been marked as “deficit approach” which prompted various research studies in the field of gender discourse showing that the communication patterns of men and women reflect the superiority of men in society, thus proposing the “ dominance approach”. yet, the ‘sub-culture’ theorists maltz and broker (1982) and tannen (1990) believed that the language use by women was “different”, not “deficit” or subsidiary, hence presented the” difference approach”. discourse has been defined as text beyond the level of sentence or the linguistic realization of an individual’s social interest. discourse analysis provides a framework to evaluate language patterns in use (gee, 1999, jhonstone, 2008). hence, tools from discourse analysis are applied to identify gender differences in language use. (brown 1980; goodwin 1980; fishman 1980; west and zimmerman 1975 tannen 1990). the discourse analysts take samples of the language used by men and women for study. tannen (1990) is among one of the scholars who examined routine conversations. she contended that men and women’s manner of speaking is dissimilar both in function and in nature. tannen (1990) regarded males and females’ language to be “two distinct dialects” which were neither inferior nor superior to each other. tannen’s theory established the “difference approach’ in language use (according to which malefemale conversation is ‘cross cultural’), in gendered discourse. a doll’s house (1889) has received multiple interpretations. a. finch (2011) talks about the significance of the play with regard to the rights of women and the restrictions of the society in general. he places this very play in post-feminist and evolutionist context. aulakh (2015) analyzed the gendered linguistic variation in a doll’s house and hedda gabler and concluded that males’ speech shows dominance while females’ speech was marked by hesitancy. yet the idea that in the course of the play nobody is suppressed rather the individuals (male and female) speak from their own standpoint and in accordance with their own subcultures as pointed out by deborah tannen (1990) is the key consideration of the present study. theoretical framework the current study examines ibsen’s a doll’s house from the viewpoint of discourse analysis. the selected dialogues of the play are analyzed using discourse analysis tools yet applying tannen’s genderlect styles theory and althusser’s concept of ideological state apparatuses as the specific application to zero in on conversational exchanges among the characters. data analysis and discussion as this work approaches the gender differences in the use of language by male and female characters in the play a doll’s house, the dialogues uttered by the characters have been selected and analyzed from the perspective that males and females, in the play, speak from their respective ideological positions and no one suppress anyone in the course of the play. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 38 questions the chief character helmer asks rhetorical questions thus presenting himself as more dominant and assertive. for example; helmer:is it the squirrel skipping about? p: 01 helmer:"bought," did you say? what all that? has my little spendthrift been making the money fly again? p:02 helmer:what? is the squirrel pouting there? (takes out his purse) nora, what do you think i've got here? p:02 helmer: what do they cali the birds that are always making the money fly? p:03 the above mentioned dialogues evidently show that helmer uses this specific strategy to affirm his “status” as someone is in command and who possess more awareness and understanding of the world. rhetorical questions do not function like regular questions in discourse, rather they express a view which may be confirmed and agreed by the discourse participant. helmer’s use of rhetorical questions shows his status as a man. furthermore, helmer asks critical questions to sustain his position and prove himself to be more knowledgeable as it is shown in the dialogues uttered by him. on the other hand, nora asks tag questions which are usually for confirmation and for keeping the conversation carrying on as illustrated below; nora: aren't you frozen? nora. yes; isn't it? (ibsen, 1879, p.8) the tag questions by nora indicates her as a person who has less knowledge therefore whatever she says is to be confirmed by her listener. additionally, she attempts to retain the conversation cycle, thus creating and maintaining connectivity. according to tannen (1994), men do not ask questions for confirmation or for getting help as doing so will depict their ignorance thus preserving their public face. the analysis of the selected dialogues shows that helmer does not ask questions for confirmation or information; rather he is constantly there to guide nora. identity building tool a number of strategies have been used by the characters to build identities for themselves and others who interact with them. for example, naming, use of possessives and framing. i. use of naming and possessives throughout the play helmer uses names like “lark” (p.6) “squirrel”, “songbird (p.7) to address her. helmer’s handling of his wife nora shows her to be a feeble and small child who is entirely at his mercy. the use of possessive “my” with each label he ascribes to his wife, she is objectified as a being who is owned by him and who can be controlled within the little sphere of home. helmer uses these names as terms of endearments because his position as a man motivates him to call her by such names hence to establish his “status” at home. by calling her “lark”, “squirrel” or “songird”, he does not dehumanize his wife; rather his linguistic choices are the result of his role and position. in the same way, by constantly calling her as, ”my capricious little girl” (p.95) university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 39 “little one”, “little girl,” and “my willful little woman” (p.45) he does not try to create an atmosphere of subordination but maintains his position as a man. according to mcconnell-ginet social labeling practices offer a window on the construction of the gender identities and social relations. thus, helmers practice of labeling nora, constructs his identity as well as nora’s identity of a totally dependent woman which was typical of the then time women. helmer builds his identity as an independent man who is very much conscious about what others in society think and speak about him. the dialogues show this very concern when nora requests him to keep krogstad’s positions in the bank where the newly appointed manager refuses to do so. helmer. oh, nothing, so long as a willful woman can have her way-! i am to make myself a laughing-stock to the whole staff, and set people saying that i am open to all sorts of outside influence? (p.59) it seems quite impossible for helmer to expose any sort of non-individuality and dependence. he does not want to let it known to people that he can be influenced by his wife or any other person; rather he acts on his own without taking into account his wife’s opinion or desire, thus preserving his individuality and independence. nora, on the other hand, tries to convince him to keep his post in the bank because if krogstad is dismissed, he would let helmer know about the forgery nora has done in order to get money for helmer’s treatment. nora’s effort shows that she is concerned with her family and her happy relation with hemler which will be shattered if helmer comes to know about her deed. when helmer asks her not to spend more money, she replies: nora: very well-as you please, torvald. to keep her family and connection with helmer intact, she again requests him as indicated in the dialogues. tannen (1990) states that a woman views intimacy as a key to achieve harmony and avoids presenting an air of superiority because she sees the world as a set of connections. nora’s efforts to keep her act of forgery secret are motivated by this very notion and for this reason she begged her husband to keep krogstad in the bank. ii. framing goffman (1982) considers framing as, “the alignment we take up to ourselves and the others present as expressed in the way we manage the production or reception of an utterance. a change in our footing is another way of talking about a change in our frame for events…”(pp. 128) throughout the play helmer frames nora as a child and unreasonable being. the dialogues when nora says that they will borrow money till helmer takes his salary, are indicative of the way helmer frames nora. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 40 helmer. yes, from new year’s day. but there's a whole quarter before my first salary is due. nora. never mind; we can borrow in the meantime. helmer: nora! thoughtless as ever! (p.3) both nora and helmer act in their respective frames in order to make the identity they want to construct for themselves and for others. he advises nora for not taking any debts thus establishing his identity as a reasonable person. it also gives a metamessage to nora that she does not take wise decisions and framing her as unreasonable lady. the utterance, “you know my principles on these points”(p.4), shows that he has an upper hand at home and nora abides by his principles that he has devised. nora maintains her identity as a caretaker of home and family considering helmer’s position as breadwinner. moreover, the dialogues where helmer confirms from nora that she has not been eating any sweets also show the frame he is in and the frame he has put nora into. instead of asking one time question of either she has eaten the sweets is repeated by helmer many times in different words like: “didn't she just look in at the confectioner's? “,”not to sip a little jelly?” and “hasn't she even nibbled a macaroon or two?” (1879, p.3) according to (norrick 2000/2001) repetition is used for emphasis and a state of reference for the speakers. the type of repetition used by helmer is termed as commoratio which is defined by marriam joseph (1947) in “shakespeare's use of the arts of language” as "a figure whereby one seeks to win an argument by continually coming back to one's strongest point…”. helmer’s use of commoratio is a tool for proving himself one in command of nora even in the case of eating something. nora has accepted her role as a child and dependent one because she feels loved and cared by receiving such treatment by her husband. for example: nora. if your little squirrel were to beg you for something so nora. the squirrel would skip about and play all sorts of tricks if you would only be nice and kind. (1879, p:22) nora accepts labels like “lark” as term of endearments from her husband at this moment. she does not challenge him by calling her a “lark” rather by saying “yes, it is” instead of “here i am”, she approves this as gesture of love and care. in the same way, when she requests helmer to keep krogstad in the bank, she explicitly takes part in her objectification . she frames herself as someone who relies on him in most of her life’s decisions. this gives an indication that nora has accepted her role as a dependent being. the lines show that helmer does not frames nora as a dependent lady who is always in need of help and security from him on the purpose of belittling or dehumanizing her. rather, his ideological position as a man motivates him to play the role of a powerful person whose duty is to secure and protect his home and family. the identity helmer university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 41 builds for himself also plays a role in the identity building of nora. however, the identity helmer builds for himself, is an attempt to preserve his “status” as a man as indicated in his dialogues: do you know, nora, i often wish some danger might threaten you, that i might risk body and soul, and everything, everything, for your dear sake. (1879, p:39) only lean on me; i will counsel you, and guide you. i should be no true man if this very womanly helplessness did not make you doubly dear in my eyes. (1879, p:41) you may rest secure. i have broad wings to shield you. (1879, p:41) similarly, the identity he constructs for nora is not aimed at demolishing her rights, which is indicated in the following lines: helmer: "well, we will share it, nora, as man and wife should. that is how it shall be." the utterance shows that torvald is quite aware of the notion of marriage being a shared experience where both man and woman are equal partners and no one suppresses the other one. iii. shift in footing according to goffman (1982), “change in footing is very commonly language linked; if not that, then at least one can claim that the paralinguistic markers of language will figure.”(p, 128). a change in footing by nora is observed at the end of the play. throughout the play, helmer holds the floor for longer and talks more, but at the end of the play, nora holds the floor and talks more. nora changes her dress, and by wearing a plain black dress and the way she talks to helmer symbolically represents her new self. the use of directives like: “don’t interrupt. only listen to what i say….” and “sit down, torvald” (1879, p.112) indicate that she tries to acknowledge her identity as an independent person. nora has realized that she should discover and establish her own identity first and then she can become a better wife and mother. she leaves her home and family to show that her soul is awakened and now she is determined to become an individual person which would not be treated like a doll by any men. she tries to escape situation which she regards an oppressive one and which does not let her grow as an independent individual. she thinks that her father and husband have done “wrong” to her by treating her as a child. her opinions, according to her, were formed by her father. the words “your house” shows that she does not own the house she has been living for years. she challenges the frame she has been living in. turn taking and holding floor turn taking is regarded as cyclic procedure by newell, arnott, woodburn and procter (2011), with one person continues talking until he gives turn to the other person in conversation and the conversational floor is held by the second speaker until the talk is finished and the control goes back to the first speaker. according to coates (1996) holding the floor refers to the fact when a speaker speaks for a long period of time. the conversational exchanges between nora and helmer indicate the extent of turn taking and holding the floor by nora and helmer. the dialogues between helmer and nora show university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 42 that helmer holds the floor for longer period of time while nora’s responses are short and she mostly asks questions for clarification of what is already said by her husband which is an indication to him to take over the turn. nora. yes, torvald; but helmer. nora, nora! and you could condescend to that! to speak to such a man, to make him a promise! and then to tell me an untruth about it! nora. an untruth! helmer. didn't you say that nobody had been here? [threatens with his finger.] my little bird must never do that again! a song-bird must sing clear and true; no false notes. [puts his arm round her.] that's so, isn't it? yes, i was sure of it. [lets her go] and now we'll say no more about it. [sits down before the fire.] oh, how cosy and quiet it is here! [glances into his documents.] (1879, p. 17) nora. do you think that-? helmer. just think how a man with a thing of that sort on his must be always lying and canting and shamming. think of the mask he must wear even towards those who stand nearest him-towards his own wife and children. the effect on the children-that's the most terrible part of it, nora.( 1879,p.44) tannen (1990) states that men’s conversation is mainly focused on lecturing, that is to say they are mostly centered on advising or giving directions. kotthoff (1997) finds out that by using lecturing which suspends turn taking, asserting an arguable claim in a straightforward way men gain a high intrinsic status. she further argues that women tend to listen and agree to what men say to establish and maintain connection while men misinterpret this agreement as the reflection of their power and status. as a result of listening and acknowledgement on women’s part, men might conclude that women are insecure and indecisive. but the reason for behaving this way by woman is the result of her attitude towards the relationship she is in and it has nothing to do with her agreement of men’s power and status. giving information and holding the floor for long frames the speaker with a high status, on the other hand listening and agreement frames the listener as someone lower in status. while listening to men, women do not think about status, rather they think in terms of support and connection. story telling stories have concurrent functions: that is to please, instruct, praise others or to establish connection. (labove, 1972, heath 1982,riessman 1993, schiffrin 1994). in the play the female characters (nora and mrs. lindi) tell their life stories to each other. “mrs. linden. you spent a whole year in italy, didn't you? nora. yes, we did. it wasn't easy to manage, i can tell you. it was just after ivar's birth. but of course we had to go. oh, it was a wonderful, delicious journey! and it saved torvald's life. but it cost a frightful lot of money, christina. mrs. linden. ah, i see. he died just about that time, didn't he? university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 43 nora. yes, christina, just then. and only think! i couldn't go and nurse him! i was expecting little ivar's birth daily; and then i had my poor sick torvald to attend to. dear, kind old father! i never saw him again, christina. oh! that's the hardest thing i have had to bear since my marriage. (1879, p.5) nora: ………now tell me, is it really true that you didn't love your husband?( 1879, p.6) mrs. linden. my mother was still alive… papa died at that very time. i meant to have told him all about it, and begged him to say nothing. but he was so ill-unhappily, it wasn't necessary.” (1879, p.8) coates (1996) believes storytelling to be as important aspect in women's lives as stories serve the purpose of making and maintaining connection among them. narrating stories to friends prove to be a strong component of 'doing friendship'. she further argues that while telling stories, the focus is either on discussing worries or the events that went smoothly. likewise, the storyteller is either the victim of a situation or in charge of it. stories telling construct a particular identity. in the play, nora constructs her identity that of a responsible lady. although the way she chose for getting money to treat her husband was wrong but that was the only possible way for getting money at that time. even though she knew that krogstad writes for the most ‘scurrilous paper’ , still she asked him to forge her father’s signature and then in order to repay the money, she worked hard to earn money which proves her to be a self-sacrificing woman. similarly, mrs. lindi also created the identity of a self-sacrificing woman who even lost her love for the well-being of her family and married a man who was older than her because she needed money for her young brothers and for the treatment of her mother. money had been the mutual problem of the two women. had nora not been a self-sacrificing woman she would not have been chosen the wrong way and putting her honor at stake for her husband's sake. similarly, if mrs. lindi had not been a lady with fine heart, she would not have left her love. empty adjectives lakoff (1973) contends that empty adjectives like wonderful, lovely, divine are generally used by females in conversation. in the present play, many empty adjectives are being used by the female characters. some of the dialogues are selected as example. nora. oh, isn't it wonderful? (1879 p.4) nora.oh, how delightful! (1879 p.4) mrs linden.. yes; at any rate it must be delightful to have what you need. (1879, p.5) nora: and yet it was splendid to work in that way and earn money. (1879, p.9) the adjectives like wonderful, glorious, lovely, splendid, poor, delightful, tremendous, beautiful, delicious, are recurrently used by the female characters in their conversation. lakoff (1975) classifies a set of adjectives as empty adjectives as they are used to express approval and admiration. the use of empty adjectives is specific to female speech as the use of this group of adjectives by men may risk the reputation of men as someone who is holding a status. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 44 intensifiers female speech is marked by the use of intensifiers in the play. some examples are in the dialogues: mrs. linden. and much, much older, nora. (1879,p.4) nora :oh, sometimes i was so tired, so tired. (1879, p.9) mrs. linden. yes; i go so very slowly. (1879,p,10) nora. oh, it's too tiresome. (1879, p.17) intensifiers are used by females to emphasize to what they say. lakoff (1975) asserts that women use intensifiers with the purpose of persuading the addressee to take their talk seriously and also to enhance the strength of their statement because they consider their utterance to be unheeded. in other words, lakoff suggests that women’s use of intensifiers indicate their lack of confidence. conclusion the analysis is primarily focused on analyzing the use of language by both male and female characters. women’s talk is marked by self-disclosure that leads to build and maintain intimacy and relationship. while men talk is aimed at building and maintaining their status, preserving independence and less self-disclosure. the data analysis shows that nora’s impression about her treatment by her father and husband is because of the gender differences in language use. the application of tannen’s(1990) theory of “genderlect styles” to the present play, indicates that men’s and women’s use of language is aimed at different ends. for example, the male characters in the play are concerned with their ‘status’ and ‘independence’ while the females maintain ‘connection’ and ‘intimacy’. women (e.g nora) avoid conflicting situation because it is a threat to connection and intimacy. the last scene of the play presents a striking difference in the situation when helmer comes to know that nora has loaned money from the bank without his permission. by using the ‘footing’ tool, the last scene is analyzed to see how the footing of the main character is changed. nora decides to leave her family as she thinks that she has not been treated well by her husband. nora leaves her house and family because of the misunderstanding caused by the language differences. this language differences are based upon their role in the society. males are ideologically prompted to use the language in such a way as to preserve their status and maintain their independent role. females, on the hand, are ideologically stationed in a position from where they are motivated to use their language in such a way as to preserve connection and maintain intimacy. the differences in language use motivate disconnection at the end of the play between nora and helmer. by deciding to leave her family behind, nora’s challenge is threefold; i.e challenges the existing order of the society and the ideological standing of her husband and secondly she questions her own existence and ideological position, thirdly she challenges the institutions and the rules these institutions have for every individual in society. her declaration to educate herself is a decision to the authenticity of the norms and rules she has been following all her life. she challenges the norms and the prevalent ideology of the society about the role of a woman. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 45 by leaving her family she does not seek freedom for the role of a wife and a mother rather she seeks to establish her identity as individual. she leaves her family because she realized that establishing an individual identity for herself is more essential ‘duty’ to her than any other duty. the difference in the language use gives a way to disconnection, a point which tannen misses out in her theory. tannen’s notion of women being seeking connection and intimacy is modified through the present study. if a woman becomes aware of her duties towards herself and develop a sense of individuality, many cases of disconnection can be observed because she would be breaking the norms of the society for the establishment of her individuality. according to althusser 1975, ideological state apparatuses (isas) which include education, religion, family, communication, culture, the legal system education to unite the society through ideology and produce a system by manufacturing the agreement. culture and education as isa, instructs the individuals in society to act in a certain way that is desirable to their roles. the ideology is carries by ‘concrete’ individuals who agree "always-already interpellated" as subjects. the subjects so not act as an independent powerful agent with selfcreated identities rather the individuality and social identity of a subject are produced by social forces. thus, both the male female characters in the play are controlled by the prevalent ideologies of the culture and society. helmer does not see nora as a child who is subordinate to him and who lacks the ability to understand serious matters. his use of terms of endearment like "skylark" or "songbird" for nora and advising her about spending money are to build and maintain his status and independence as a male because he is required to preserve his identity as a man as he has got the label of a man. according to althusser's ideological state apparatuses, helmer's ideological position as a man compels him to act in this way. helmer being the product of his culture, cannot help the situation as the society does not allow a female to do anything significant like business dealings without the husband’s approval. women were confined to household chores only. but it does not mean that the women suppressed by men, rather being confined to the norms of society, men were also confined. society as isa, has defined a specific pattern of behavior for both nora and helmer as per their status i.e. husband and wife hence, the language used by both of them is inspired by their roles where helmer, being a man, tries to prove himself higher in intellect and reason than nora and nora, being a female, shows herself as naïve. the analysis shows that both males and females in the play are influenced by gender stereotyping, the society as isa forces them to adhere to. behavior patterns and attitudes are enforced on gender through stereotyping. consequently, helmer’s use of language shows his stereotypical attitude of a man and an elder towards nora and nora’s use of language presents her as a stereotypical woman who strictly adheres to her defined role. thus, cultural norms play the role of isa in society and for this reason all of the characters are directed by certain ideas. references university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 46 finch a. (2011) a post-feminist and evolutionist reading of a dolls house. retrievd from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220025756 on 6th september 2015. althusser , l. (1968), lenin and philosophy and other essays, monthly review press , new york. aulakh k.j. (2015) evaluation of gendered linguistic variations in henrik ibsen’s a doll’s house and hedda gabler. published in the international journal of humanities & social studies (issn 2321 9203). baseer , alvi, zafran (2013) , the use of symbolic language in ibsen’s a doll’s house: a feministic perspective. published in language in india www.languageinindia.com issn 1930-2940 vol. 13:3 march 2013. coates.j. (1996). women, men and everyday talk, palgrave macmillan uk fishman, p. (1983) interaction: the work women do. university of california, santa barbara gee, j. p. (1999) an introduction to discourse analysis theory and method. routledge goffman. e. (1974) frame analysis: an essay on the organization of experience. new york ; harper and row holmes. j (1995) men , women and politeness. london, longman. jespersen, o.(1922). language: its nature and development. published by g. allen & bunwinh. holt, london new york isbn 10: 0044000073 jhonstone,2008) discourse analysis: an introduction (blackwell, 2001). kotthoff helga (1997) “communicating gender in context”. jhon benjamins publishing company amesterdem/philadelphia lakoff .r. (1973) language and woman’s place, oxford university press. lakoff, r. t. (1975). language and woman's place. new york: harper & row. maltz, d. n. and borker, r. a. 1982 a cultural approach to male-female miscommunication. language and social identity, in gumperz (ed.), 196-216. new york: cambridge university press. spender, dale. (1980). man made language, london: pandora press. tannen, d. (1990). you just don’t understand: women and men in conversation. new york, woodburn, r., arnott, l., newell, a.f., procter, r. (2011): ―a study of conversational turntaking in a communication aid for the disable. retrieved from citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.50.1876&rep=rep1...pdf on 6 october 2015 zimmerman, d. and west, c (1975) ‘sex roles, interruptions and silences in conversation’. in thorne, b. and henley, n. (eds) (1975) language and sex: difference and dominance. rowley: newbury house. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.researchgate.net/profile/andrew_finch https://www.researchgate.net/profile/andrew_finch https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220025756 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220025756 http://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780044000075/12130383884 http://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780044000075/12130383884 http://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780044000075/12130383884 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 47 .` university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 23 on gulzar’s poetry: comparing the three versions of english translation pallavi kiran assistant professor (english), school of humanities, kiit bhubaneswar, odisha, india pallavi.kiranfhu@kiit.ac.in abstract gulzar’s merit as a contemporary indian poet rests on his use of hindustani, which has a high degree of emotional intensity, expressiveness, naturalness and unusual vividness that strikes the head and the heart of the listener. the study pragmatically and stylistically probes a randomly selected poem of gulzar and its english translation by three translators, underlining, in the main, the variations in the linguistic choices they make and the significant differences in their translation. the analysis discusses that which is complicated and complex in the poem; and how it is simplified by the translator, leaving out that which puzzles the poet. the pragmatic-stylistic approach effectively identifies the translation shifts and investigates the value and belief system of gulzar encoded in the language. keywords: gulzar, poetry, hindustani, english translation, pragmatic-stylistic approach, poetry translation evaluation. introduction gulzar has made such an immense contribution to hindustani poetry in the past three decades that its worth is being realized in the 21st century. breaking the shackles of the classical urdu poetry tradition and following the style of free verse, he has enriched the realm of indianurdu poetry by his sense and sensibility of poetic images. pavan k. varma comments on his sense of imagery thus, “the uniqueness of gulzar’s verse is that it is luminescent with imagery that is startling as it is beautiful. he has the ability to juxtapose a thought with an image so powerful that a reader is literally wrenched out of his or her world.” (varma (trans.) xiv) some of his poetic works have been translated into english, in india and abroad. these include autumn moon (1999), silences: selected poems (1994), selected poems (2012), neglected poems (2013), green poems (2014), suspected poem (2017), 100 lyrics (2012), another 100 lyrics (2016), and pluto (2015). english translations have heightened (up) his literary presence. though the translations have existed for decades and attracted a large audience at the home as well as overseas, these have not received adequate academic attention. the study, therefore, seeks to draw attention to, and evaluate, english translations of gulzar’s poetry to find out what is transferred, how it is transferred and how much is transferred. for the purpose, a poem is randomly selected along with its english version by different translators to compare and contrast the balance between the two versions. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 24 gulzar’s poetry raising the hindustani poetry to a higher level, gulzar complements his thoughts and emotions through his unusual imagery. saba mahmood bashir comments on his poetry skills, “while usual and mundane, images strike an immediate chord with the reader/common audience, mixing it with an unusual poetic image enhances its aesthetic value while keeping the reader grounded with the images he is familiar with,” (bashir 61). moreover, in an interview with her, he lists out the names of the poets such as t. s. eliot, rabindranath tagore, bulleh shah, farid, sant tukaram and namdev that influenced and shaped his poetic cult. he develops a great deal of poetry that is new and original in his collections namely, kuch aur nazme (1980), mera kuch saman (1994), raat pashmine ki (2002), triveni (2003), pukhraaj (2005), yaar julahe (2009), pandrah panch pachattar (2010), meelo se din (2010), dyodhi (2012), pluto (2013) that showcase a variety of poetic innovation. gulzar’s poetic format of hindi-urdu appeals many for it is sweet and soulful. to determine the significance of gulzar as a contemporary poet, the study briefs out the influential poets of his time. in the context of hindustani poetry. among them, “the name of ghalib stands foremost.” (qadir 18) ghalib’s poetry absorbs the words and expressions of urdu and persian. his poems enrich the colloquialism and simplify the vocabulary of hindustani. the subject of his poetry comes from everyday philosophy, existentialism and mysteries of life that soothe(s) and delight(s) the hearts of many in their moments of pensiveness or joy. ghalib’s ghazal revised the older ghazal conventions from expressing only ‘the pangs of love’ to ‘talking love’ (qadir 22). though his couplets are easy on the tongue and witty in a sense, translating ghalib’s poems was not considered easy. while translating the couplets of ghalib, ralph russell remarks, “you are forced with the stubborn and unalterable fact that urdu has rhyming words in plenty and english has not. [...] you are forced, then, in most cases to translate a poem knit together by a unity of rhyme into one where this kind of unity cannot be maintained.” (russell 77) sounds of the urdu often pose difficulties for the translators. they are not only sounds, but also metaphors or symbols that denote the politeness and its subtleties. hindustani, the lingua franca of north india, helped the poets of the partition period to voice the pain and agony of their region. for example, bulleh shah’s (1680-1757) poetry occupies much of his subject from the turbulence in punjab between muslims and sikhs. he writes spiritual poetry propagating the four stages of sufism: shariat (path), tariqat (observance), haqiqat (truth) and marfat (union) that appealed to all. (shah 2009) his verse form and style is called kafi. sufi singers in india and abroad still follow his style (still). however, in the english translation bullehshah-made-easy, muzzafar g. a. ghaffar criticises the “over simplifying the meaning of the verses in order for the uninitiated or partially initiated to make sense of them; and under mixing the need for the punjabi literacy by offering a romanised transliteration of the verses and their english university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 25 translation on top of that.” (alam, “how to read bulleh shah.”) in other words, poetry translation should not be a process of oversimplifying or under mixing of the poetic elements but the transfer of entire creative energy of the original. during upheaval and unrest in india, the progressive writers movement1, played a significant role in the development of hindustani poetry2. besides, using hindustani to inspire people through writings, to preach equality and lash out at the social inequality and backwardness, it led to the unification of the art and its further beautification. among the prominent members of the movement were sadat hassan manto, ali jawad zaidi, zoe ansari, m.d. taseer, faiz ahmed faiz and many more. among them, kaifi azmi (1919-2002) introduced hindustani poetry in bollywood. his song ‘ab tumhare hawale watan saathiyoon’ (is) still stirs up the sense of patriotism in indians. experiencing the menaces of communalism since childhood and the love for country since then, inclines his poetic writing. he has four anthologies to his credit namely jhankar (1944), akhiri shab (1947), awara sajde (1974) and iblis ki majlis-e-shori (1983). he verses boldly and sajjad zaheer refers his poems as ‘simple and direct.’ (2015) his poems, (are) translated into english by pavan kumar varma, (that) unfortunately received(s) criticism by anjum hasan. she remarks, “pavan kr. varma has failed to find the english language equivalents for the rhythms of urdu.” (kidwai, “post-independence urdu poetry: the indian panorama.”) and recommends not to struggle for capturing the rhythm of the original but to look for similar rhythms in the target language. hindustani has its own charm and sweetness, rhythm and resonance, which should reach the english readers. another poet-lyricist from delhi was nida fazli (1938-2016) who made most use of hindustani to voice his separation (mostly the separation from his family during partition) and loneliness, his contribution to bollywood was in the form of ghazal complied in his anthologies namely safar me dhoop toh hogi, mor nach, lafzo ke phool and ankh aur khawab ke darmiya. he writes in hindi, urdu, and gujarati. again, not much is written on the english translation of fazli. one finds one or two translation by komal balraz (“poetic injustice”) in m. shafey kidwai’s evaluation of the post-independence urdu poetry. it seems, translation is not offered to his poems yet, and hence, he is deprived of linguistic evaluation. another staunch poet is amrita pritam (1936-2004) from punjab. she challenges the patriarchal values, redefines gender roles, and narratives assigned to women through her poetry. defining the new femininity in the mid 20th century, she boldly discusses the female sexuality: “her influencing gaze at sex, her exploration of emotional and psychological nakedness and a sense of self-irony and self knowledge underwrite several of her poems.” (“amrita pritam: sexual politics and publishing in mid 20th century india” ) sunwani while briefing out the life and work of amrita pritam, her place in and contribution to punjabi literature presents the fact that her works are translated in english, albanian, bulgarian, french, polish, russian, spanish and all the 21 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 26 indian languages. nirupama dutt, a poet, writer, translator and close friend of pritam, translates some of her works in english. surprisingly, the translated works are still deprived of scholarly evaluation. thus, we see how these poets exert peculiar influence on hindustani poetry. they bring with them the traces of literary cultures they have been through and leave behind their own literary trails. the subjects of their poetry are mainly partition, exile, society, and the love and sorrow within. their unique poetic style shapes the understanding of hindustani poetry and we learn about their english translations. first, the metaphors and symbols carrying the nuances and the politeness of hindustani pose a great difficulty to the translators. second, it must transfer the entire creative energy of the poem, which otherwise makes the translation appear as over simplified or undermixed. third, we learn the importance of translating literary pieces immediately. the translations do not enjoy the high status more than the original, but the aim is to make the original available to the future generations. fourth, is to make translation undergo an evaluation by the linguistic critics and scholars to locate the problems in translation and provide remedies for it. a linguistic evaluation authenticates the translation and makes the original reach the target readers as original as possible. in this respect, the previously mentioned points project the reasons to select gulzar’s poem and his english translation for the present study. briefing out the poetic purposes and style of the above poets justifies how gulzar poetises in their lineage. as a contemporary, he too exerts peculiar influence and diversifies the dimensions of hindustani poetry by conveying his deep philosophies of life and its aspects through colloquialism. his literary worth and presence is appreciated by the good amount of english translations available. thus, the study carries out a linguistic analysis of his english translations, which will pass down his poetic style, form and fame as a poet of hindustani to the future generation. methodology a translation often requires a comparative analysis with the original. therefore, the present study attempts to locate the problems in english transations by the three translators rina singh,j.p. das, and pavan kumar varma through an analytic approach of pragmatics and stylistics. the study deals with gulzar’s poem ‘nazm’ (selected poems 68) and its three version of english translation by three translators namely singh (silences: selected poems. 51), das (autumn moon 46), and varma (selected poems 69). the original poem of gulzar and its three translations are presented in a tabular form to make the comparison of pragmatic stylistic features easy for the readers. nazm (gulzar) nazm uljhi hui hai sine me university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 27 misre atke huye hai honthoon par lafz kagaz par baithte hi nahi udte firte hai titliyoon ki tarah kab se baitha hua hoon main, ‘jaanam’ sada kagaz par likh kar tera naam bas tera naam hi mukammal hai isse behtar nazm bhi kya hogi poem (rina singh) a poem entangled in my chest, lines fastened on my lips, words like butterflies won’t sit still on paper. i sit for so long with your name on this blank paper. your name just your name exists; could there be a better poem? poem (j.p.das) a poem is entangled in the heart. lines trapped on the lips, words flit about like butterfliesthey do not settle down on the page. i have been here for a long time, my love, having written your name on the blank page. isn’t the poem done? can there be a better poem than your name itself ! poem (pavan kumar varma) a poem is caught in my heart its lines stuck on my lips. words refuse to sit on paper. they wing around like butterflies. long have i waited, my beloved, to write a name on a sheet of white paper. your name is enough, complete what better poem can there be? gulzar expresses the common emotions of being in love in a very uncommon way. his beloved is the obvious subject of the poem and the lines describe his experience of falling in love. he finds it difficult to focus on his poem as strong random thoughts and ideas run through his head and heart, which he explains with the analogy of butterfly. he intends to tell her how her presence in his life has filled it with grace, lightness and a sense of completeness. his poetry now is nothing other than her. pragmatic features in a whimsical state, the first line suggests how the poet is thinking of a poem but the random thoughts in his head and heart is thwarting him from doing so. the meaning is well conveyed by the phrases ‘nazm uljhi hai’ and ‘sine me.’ ‘nazm’ is an urdu word, meaning ‘poem’ while ‘uljhi’ and ‘sine’ are the hindi(u)/arabic word, meaning ‘puzzled’ and ‘heart’ respectively. the translation is close but the choice of equivalents makes the difference. for instance, singh and university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 28 das use the equivalent ‘entangled’ to capture the image of ‘uljhi’ and it sounds literal. varma, on the other hand, tries to capture the pronunciation and the tone of ‘uljhi’ in ‘caught.’ ‘caught’ and ‘entangled’ are and so balance the pragmatic force that ‘uljhi’ carries in the original. again, das and varma use ‘heart’ for ‘sine me’ while singh’s ‘chest’ sounds prosaic to the ears. ‘chest’ sounds flat and plain and misses the romantic love. the difference(s) occurred in making the best selection of equivalents is mainly due to the lack of pragmatic factors involved in achieving unity and homogeneity. gulzar makes his poetry out of colloquialism of the present day life. the line ‘misre atke huye hai hoontho par’ suggests how his lines of the poem are on his lips but he cannot express. in the hindustani colloquialism, it is a way of saying for something that is there in one’s head and heart yet is he unable to express or find exact expression. the use of relative word (related to ‘nazm’) ‘misre’ is an urdu formal term for poetry meaning ‘line of the couplet.’ ‘atke’ denotes being stuck in hindi. ‘hoontho par’ goes beyond the connotation and denotation suggesting how lines of the poem should flow naturally without being obstructed. for instance, in such a situation, we generally frame a sentence like ‘dil me hai par zuban par nahi aa rahaa (it is there in my heart but i am unable to speak). the translators use ‘lines’ and ‘lips’ as equivalents for ‘misre’ and ‘hoonth’ that fit(s) in the translation, for the scientific and technical words are translated literally, yet it loses the contextual clue and the deviation appears with the equivalents of ‘atke.’ singh uses ‘fastened,’ das uses ‘trapped,’ and varma uses ‘stuck.’ the three equivalents are again synonymous to each other yet these are different in usage. ‘fastened’ means to become firmly close together; ‘trapped’ means to trick or device into doing something contrary to their interest or intentions; and ‘stuck’ means unable to move or be moved. hence, from the contextual point of view, ‘stuck’ seems appropriately used in accordance with the intention, sound, and meaning, while ‘fastened’ fails to capture the intention, and ‘trapped’ is somewhat close but does not convey the aesthetic feel. thus, there are marked differences between hindustani and english that pose a significant difficulty to the translators in achieving an accurate lexical rendering because of the pragmatic factors. gulzar, further compares his ‘nazm,’ it’s lines, and words, to butterfly and invite the readers to paint the picture of butterfly in their mind. the third line suggests how he cannot keep up with his thought process and hence cannot pen them down. ‘lafz’ is related to nazm meaning ‘shabd’in hindi. ‘kaagaz’ is the sheet of paper to write on. the poetic force is carried out by the phrase ‘baithte hi nahi’ suggests his difficulty in penning down his unguarded thoughts and flashy images into action. he sees them flying and floating in the sky like the butterflies. the butterfly symbolizes personal transformation and the beauty of life’s continuous unfolding. hence, the obvious assumption here is of the poet falling in love. he feels being in the seventh sky, has a story to tell, incidents to relate to and (an) anecdotes to share. yet, he finds no expressive words university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 29 as his words seem to carry the spirit of butterflies. translated image of ‘lafz,’ and ‘titliyoon’ have an exact rendering i.e. ‘words,’ and ‘butterflies.’ however, the shift occurs in finding correct equivalents for ‘udte-firte’ and the phrase ‘baithte hi nahi.’ consequently, singh misjudges the content and its context and translates it literally. further, it seems in a haste or deliberately she drops the metaphor of ‘udte-firte;’ owing to non-existence of an exact equivalent. she did not try to create the nuance for the target audience as das does. he uses ‘flit’ for ‘udte-firte’ meaning to move ‘swiftly and slowly.’ the equivalent relates to the swift and light movement of butterflies. however, his use of equivalent ‘page’ for ‘kaagaz’ sounds very formal and flat unlike ‘paper’ used by singh and varma. ‘page’ means one or both side of the sheet of a paper in a book, magazine, newspaper etc. while ‘paper’ means a material used for writing, drawing or printing on. similarly, he equates the phrase ‘baithe nahi hai’ with ‘do not settle down’ which gives a different meaning. settling down means as if the words are at a war with each other and they do not settle in war. this is against the connotation of butterfly sitting still on one place. nevertheless, varma captures it intelligibly ‘refuse to sit’ and keeps it simple. ‘refuse’ connotes the negative context in a positive way unlike ‘does not sit,’ read by singh. thus, to capture the beauty of simplicity of the diction and the complexity of metaphors, the translators should use equivalents that go well with the context. in the following couplet (line 5&6), addressing his beloved, ‘jaanam’, the poet speaks about his patience despite the restlessness he is going inside. here he talks to her and addresses her yet does not mention her name. as a poet, he knows well what to tell and how much. he deliberately leaves out his beloved’s name to keep a grip on the reader’s attention and intrigue. unfortunately, singh drops the metaphor of ‘jaanam’ completely and hence the whole reference attached to it; in spite of the accurate equivalent available. while das’s use of ‘my love’ and varma’s use of ‘my beloved,’ both sounds similar and tends to carry the emphasis of ‘jaanam.’ similarly, the phrase ‘kab se baitha hua hoon main’ suggests his willingness to wait patiently and let his thoughts find their way to his poem. ‘kab se’ refers to the wait time he has passed on willingly. however, in translation, singh equates it literally, ‘for so long,’ das too equates it literally with an addition i.e.‘for a long time.’ these equivalents do not match with precise meaning and the poetry it carries. varma again stands out by keeping up the precision in using the equivalent ‘long.’ further, ‘baithta hua hoon’ implies the state of idealness when one is lost in someone’s thought and feels like doing nothing. singh uses the phrase ‘i sit/ for so long’ literally. das, on the other hand, mishandles the phrase ‘i have been here,’ that does not convey the state of idealness intended by the poet. varma picks up the undertone and intelligibly creates the phrase ‘long have i waited’ and it covers up the entire connotation. the last couplet reveals the apex of the poem. with the phrase ‘likh kar tera naam,’ he hints at all he wants to write is about her and he has so much to write that he feels puzzled and confused. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 30 das and singh keep the equivalent ‘your name’ literal. unfortunately, varma’s translation is contradicting the original. his use of the phrase ‘to write the name on the sheet of white paper’ connotes that the poet intends to write the name of someone else, and not of his beloved, on the white paper. he loses the metaphor of ‘tere naam’ and the weight it carries in the poem. further, he fails to understand that the two languages have different syntactic organization characterised by their own degree of inflection and, in making it too poetic, one often loses the image. further, the metaphor ‘sada kaagz’ is the white sheet of paper that deeply symbolizes how by writing only her name on it has opened the ways for his poetic creation. ‘sada’ is a hindi word meaning white colour and it carries the cultural nuance of purity and sanctity. this refers to the sense of pure love and sense of completeness. das and singh mistranslated it as ‘blank paper’ and the equivalent is contradictory. it contradicts the two meanings i.e. if the paper is blank, how he can sit with her name on it and if her name is on it, how the paper can be blank. hence, the translators fail to handle the ticklish sentence effectively. it hints at their unawareness of cognitive and cultural issues when translating from hindustani to english or vice versa. therefore, it is not enough for the translator to be only bilingual but to be bi-cultural as well. in the last couplet (line 7&8), the deep philosophy of gulzar strikes the surface. the metaphor ‘tera naam’ continues to carry the weight and emphasis. it defines her aura, her illustrations, her beauty, and above all, the atmosphere of their love. singh repeats the metaphor in the line break to retain the pragmatic force of this metaphor i.e. ‘your name/ just your name.’ further, the use of adjective ‘just’ seems deliberate to balance the heaviness assigned to the original message. das and varma use the literal translation ‘your name.’ the cultural word ‘mukammal’ posed them a serious problem. ‘mukammal’ is an adjective used in urdu to denote perfect or complete. gulzar presents his philosophy on the sense of completeness in love. he describes how he feels united with her and she fills the void in his life. alternatively, he compares her to the divine almighty. singh could not equate it with an english word nor did she try to create one again. she distorts the meaning by the addition of ‘exists’ which even partially does not cover up the cultural nuance. das tries to be poetic and cover the cultural nuances with an interrogative sentence ‘isn’t the poem done?’ this is an instance of imitating the poem. imitation in poetry translation challenges the poet’s authenticity. therefore, varma does not imitate but recreates. he uses two adjectives ‘enough’ and ‘complete’ to convey the heavy pragmatic force and cultural nuance of ‘mukammal’ knowing the fact that an equivalent does not exists. his equivalent fits with the original and the metaphor changes to hyperbole keeping the translation close to the original. gulzar ends the poem by the passionate display of his emotions using the adjectives ‘mukkammal’ and ‘behtar.’ as poetry metamorphoses a poet’s thinking, so does his beloved to him. he considers her, his poetry, and finds no better subject than her. women have always been analogous to poetry for their beauty, love and compassion. the emphasis on the phrase ‘isse behtar university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 31 bhi’ projects how perfect she is for his poetry. ‘behtar’ is a ‘hindi/urdu word meaning ‘better’ and has been translated exactly. it is a colloquial sentence in hindustani, which means what else can be better than the thing in present. there is no direct interrogation involved. yet, singh and das convert the sentence into simple interrogative to convey the whimsical tone of the poet. das goes a step further and keeps the interrogation separate from the rest of the poem, which partially makes the long sentence unnecessary. he brings in the metaphor of ‘your name’ in the last line. varma tackles the colloquialism easily by the simple addition of interrogative word ‘what.’ ‘what’ here does not ask a question, rather it provides all the answers for how she completes him and his poetry. it is the task of the translator to present the translation in a special way of using the language for its brevity and precision. stylistic features 1. in the original, the lines are not divided into stanzas and the last two lines are separated by a line gap. contrary to this, the translations are presented in a different fashion. singh’s translation is divided into three stanzas, each unfolding the inner beauty of the poem one by one. the first part projects the troubling experiences of the poet and the reasons are made obvious. the second stanza projects the reason, i.e. his falling in love. moreover, the third stanza projects how he feels a sense of completeness with her and so finds his poem complete. with slight difference, das keeps the seventh line, lined out to put the emphasis on how the poet feels content and complete with her name. while varma’s shows no difference. 2. the poem is written as a whole and in free verse. the translations are of free verse too but the lines are divided into cables that make them read 15 lines for singh and das. varma follows the eight lines as it is. 3. the original shows minimal use of punctuation. there is only one punctuation mark i.e. a comma in the fifth line after ‘main’ to produce a brief pause. the next word ‘jaanam’ kept under quotes that convey the weight and information at the same time. the image of ‘jaanam’ is of the poet’s beloved. as the poet does not mention the name of their lovers so does, (?) gulzar addresses his beloved with synonymous words. there is no other punctuation mark to put a check on the reader’s reading. unlike the original, the translators make heavy use of punctuation mark. singh makes use of commas, full stops, semicolons, and a question mark to decorate and add aesthetic elements to her poem. she even uses line breaks to convey the intended pause, which is not there in the original. besides using similar punctuation marks, das too uses line breaks to keep it close to the original, failing to realise that the original poem has a flow of its own. while pavan only uses a full stop, a comma and a question mark. however, the punctuation of ‘question mark’ is questionable, as the translators have mistaken to understand the colloquialism as an interrogation. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 32 4. word classifications noun pronoun verb adverb adjectives prepositions nazm sine misre hoontho lafz kaagaz titliyoon jaanam naam main tera uljhi atke baithe udte-firte baitha likh sada better kya kab mukammal me, par pe poem heart lines my its they(varma caught(varma) stuck(varma) refuse(varma) long enough (varma) like complete won’t(singh) on to there lips words paper(singh & varma) butterflies beloved name lines page (das) &das) i your (singh) itself sit wing(varma) have waited write can be entangled(singh) fastened(singh) could(singh) exists(singh) trapped(das) lilt(das) settle(das) done(das) what (varma) so(singh) still(singh) blank(singh & das) white (varma) with(singh) on(singh) this(singh) about down the poet and the translators uses nouns that are familiar enough, there is nothing unique or distinctive about them and are being used colloquially. the verbs, adverbs, and adjectives lend the university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 33 lines and the expressions their touch of excellence and quality. the pragmatic force and power and the aesthetic beauty of each phrase, expression and the lines is grown out of the poet’s and the translator’s use of them. the table clearly shows that the translation do not use more numbers of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions that suggests that the translation does not simply mimic. findings • gulzar here appears as a romantic poet who keeps his language colloquial yet poetic and makes it accessible to the common readers. he mixes literary and colloquial diction with a freedom that would have been frowned in the previous generation. however, his mix does work and he has not only achieved precision but also a variegated ‘speech’ interesting in itself. with his hindi-urdu format, he tends to create a soothing effect for poetry lovers of the generation and times to come. pragmatic and stylistic is most applicable for poetry translation because (a) contextual synonyms (pragmatics) provide hints for the readers to relate to the message encoded in the poem to his own socio-cultural background, knowledge and experience; (b) stylistics brings out the semantic dimension to decipher the lexical relations in its complexities. thus, the lexical relation helps to achieve cohesion and lexical cohesion are capable of conveying the pragmatic meaning effectively. • the inappropriate uses of equivalents by the translators are due to the chain of associations that links the text to a deeper inner meaning. das and singh present their version that exploits the range of possibilities, crosscurrents, and nuances present in the source text through the interaction between the semantic system of the language and the cognitive environment of the target readers. • when translating from hindustani to english, the translator must attach great importance to context and try to make the polysemous words unambiguous with the help of the contextual clues. both the languages have undergone different lexical evolution(s). the meanings of the words have expanded in a way that they have endowed the old words with a new meaning by means of extension or metaphor. moreover, both the languages have their syntactic organization characterised by their own degree of inflection. • self-referencing is very much evident in the three translators that coincides with the primary voice of the poet. for instance, singh’s repetition for creating the metaphor of ‘mukammal’ and ignoring the pragmatic force of ‘udte-firte.’ das, on the other hand, makes an interrogative sentence to approximate equivalence on the level of poetry. varma, though keeps the translation university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 34 close, yet over-determines the context of finding the perfect subject for the poet’s poetry. thus, self-referencing makes the translators to displace the cultural embedding of the original. conclusion to conclude, singh, das, and varma have omitted, added and recreated the gulzar’s poem in english deviating from the original. das and singh have done most of the addition and omission trying to keep the style and the form of the original. consequently, important metaphors are dropped and replaced with adjectives to fill the gaps. while varma’s translation recreates the cultural nuances and the metaphors effectively but makes a blunder by using an interrogative mark for a heightened emotional expression. that which is complicated and the translators, leaving out what, have simplified complex is otherwise puzzling. however, varma’s translation stands out by keeping close to the original while das’ and singh’s translations fail to balance the pragmatic force of the metaphors. besides, there is no significant difference among them in the application of their translation strategies. the systematic linguistic theory employed for the identification of the translation shifts are effective tool kits applied to investigate the value and belief system of gulzar encoded in the language. works cited “amrita pritam: sexual politics and publishing in mid-20th century india.” vida: women in literary arts, 25 feb. 2016, www.vidaweb.org/amrita-pritam-sexual-politicsandpublishing-in-mid-20th-century-india/. “poetic injustice.” the hindu, the hindu:online edition of india's national newspaper, 17 june 2001, www.thehindu.com/2001/06/17/stories/1317017n.htm alam, muhammad badar. “how to read bulleh shah.” dawn.com, 1 jan. 2017, www.dawn.com/news/1305772 bashir, saba mahmood. . “roh dekhi hai kabhi, roh ko mehsus kiya hai? (the imagery).” i swallowed the moon: the poetry of gulzar. harpercollins publishers india, 2013. “bulleh shah.” sufi poetry, 26 nov. 2009, sufipoetry.wordpress.com/poets/bulleh-shah/. gulzar. autumn moon. (j.p.das, trans.). new delhi: rupa & co. 1999. gulzar. selected poems. (p.k. varma, trans.) new delhi: penguin books india. 2008. gulzar. silences: selected poems. (rina singh, trans.). new delhi: rupa & co. 2013. kidwai, m. shafey. “post-independence urdu poetry: the indian panorama.” indian literature. vol.45. no.5 (205). new delhi: sahitya akademi. sept-oct, 2001. pp.19-33. qadir, abdul. “ghalib as a poet.” famous urdu poets and writers. new delhi: seemant prakashan. 27 february, 2008. russell, ralph. “on translating ghalib.” http://www.vidaweb.org/amrita-pritam-sexual-politics-and-publishing-in-mid-20th-century-india/ http://www.vidaweb.org/amrita-pritam-sexual-politics-and-publishing-in-mid-20th-century-india/ http://www.vidaweb.org/amrita-pritam-sexual-politics-and-publishing-in-mid-20th-century-india/ http://www.vidaweb.org/amrita-pritam-sexual-politics-and-publishing-in-mid-20th-century-india/ http://www.vidaweb.org/amrita-pritam-sexual-politics-and-publishing-in-mid-20th-century-india/ http://www.vidaweb.org/amrita-pritam-sexual-politics-and-publishing-in-mid-20th-century-india/ 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a revolutionary.” the hindu, the hindu, 29 mar. 2016, www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/a-poet-arevolutionary/article7586498.ece. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/a-poet-a-revolutionary/article7586498.ece http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/a-poet-a-revolutionary/article7586498.ece http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/a-poet-a-revolutionary/article7586498.ece http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/a-poet-a-revolutionary/article7586498.ece http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/a-poet-a-revolutionary/article7586498.ece http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/a-poet-a-revolutionary/article7586498.ece http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/a-poet-a-revolutionary/article7586498.ece http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/a-poet-a-revolutionary/article7586498.ece http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/a-poet-a-revolutionary/article7586498.ece http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/a-poet-a-revolutionary/article7586498.ece vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 52 a review of second language teaching and learning through short fiction and communicative approach dr. tariq lecturer in english university of malakand mr.saddam hussain lecturer in english university of malakand dr. shaukat ali assistant professor of english, university of malakand abstract this paper examines the potential role of literature and communicative approach in teaching second language (sl). this paper mainly focuses on digging out the prospective role of literature and communicative approach in teaching sl. analysis of past studies indicate that teacher usually recourse to grammar translation method for teaching of english language, for this method needs little endeavor and supplementary materials[1]. the reviewed literature has found that this method is ineffective and futile. to critically examine the potential role of literature in combination with communicative approach in teaching sl, this paper tries to unearth the current literature and investigates the relevant research works carried out on the importance of exploiting literature and communicative approach for teaching of english language. the present paper found that using literature and communicative approach for teaching of sl is more effective and productive than gtm. in the light of findings of this study, it is recommended that teachers of l2 need to exploit literature and employ communicative approach for teaching of second language. key words communicative approach, literature review, second language 1. introduction second language learning takes place outside the native speech community which is both arduous and demanding because l2 learners do not usually have direct access to native environment; and they are often forced to put in extra efforts in the language classroom. but unfortunately, it does not seem to work for native real life environment, because the method of teaching of l2 is based on grammar translation method (gtm), which is more prevalent among sl teachers, for it demands little efforts and resources on the part of teachers (textbooks, a piece of chalk and blackboard). in addition, it is less labor-intensive for teachers and learners; all students are supposed to learn grammar and vocabulary in chunks, and that too in isolation. vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 53 main focus of this method is on memorization, rote learning and translation from the target language to first language and vice versa. teaching second language (sl) through this method provides learners with some knowledge about target language but they are unable to communicate, for its focus is not on the communicative aspects of the language rather on the usage of it [2]. its contents are often limited to school family life, and very rarely involve social and real life, attaching much importance to mastering form rather than practical application of l2. hence, learning only linguistic elements and grammatical knowledge is not sufficient for l2 learners [3]. moreover, language learned in this fashion has no utility in real life because it is taught in isolation and units [4, 5]. for example, teaching l2 through word to word translation and using students’ first language for teaching target language [6, 7], does not serve the needs of l2 learners. teacher is all and all in the class and learners are supposed to get correct answers. the prime objective of this method is to sharpen the skills of the students to read and write at the cost of speaking and listening, with pronunciation almost ignored. memorization of vocabulary and structure is emphasized at the cost of communicative competence, so students graduating from schools are not competent in communication. nevertheless, the main purpose of teaching l2 is to improve the communicative competence of learners. 2. employing clt for learning the target language (l2) language teaching and learning is a process of varying aims geographically. the methods and techniques designed for teaching and learning of l2 may work in one context, but may not work in another context due to certain reasons. thus various methods, techniques and approaches were tried and used for certain period of time, such as (gtm) the grammar translation method and audio-lingual method which relies much on structured drills and repetition of drills that makes the process monotonous and the activities boring for the students. the german scholarship suggested grammar translation method as the offspring of some leading supporters [8] the goal of which was “to know everything about something rather than the thing itself” [9]. the salient characteristics of this method include: the sole motive of learning a foreign language is to make an individual capable of reading its literature or to get full advantage from the psychological discipline and the rational growth that affects studying the foreign language. the way of grammar translation is to have a detailed examination of its grammar rules, then translating the texts and sentences into and out of the language by the application of the skill acquired. hence, according to this method language learning is not only understanding the rules and facts but to comprehend and manipulate the syntactic structure and morphology of the second language. as mentioned by [11] “the l1 is determined to be a reference system in acquiring of the second language” (455). vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 54 conventional language teaching welcomed the increasing interest in clt approach to teaching foreign language. in this approach, the focus on teaching grammatical rules and units and other linguistics elements shifted to teaching of communicative aspect of language using authentic materials in the language classroom where students take ownership of their learning. on the assumption, that they can use what they learn in the language classroom. this communicative approach and other related approaches appeared such as audiolingualism, situational language teaching, total physical response, silent way counseling learning and suggestopedia appeared in the same period. apart from these methods and approaches neurolinguistic programming and multiple intelligences appeared in the language teaching profession. these methods were not considerably developed in the language teaching field because the learning principles of these methods and approaches were different from those available in second language acquisition except vocabulary and lexical phrases that are the building blocks of communicative competence. methods like total physical response, silent way counseling learning, and suggestopedia did not flourish in the language teaching domain nor attracted the support of the majority of second language teachers. each of them saw but a brief popularity among language teaching domain and soon disappeared from the sight. to overcome the lack of communicative competence among l2 learners, the integration of short fictions in sl classrooms seems to be an appropriate option among other materials because it has got a rich potential and authenticity of materials [14]. short stories with its rich potential and promising nature can easily enhance the learners’ four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing [15] short stories have been singled out on account of their effective, motivational and cultural enrichment [4, 16]. short stories as a source text in combination with communicative approach have been recommended by scholars for being involving, interesting and authentic. in addition, communicative approach being popular and practical for giving much importance to the use of authentic materials used in real life situations [16, 21], for teaching l2. moreover, english language teachers have reckoned that literature can be utilized up to a maximal level to strengthen the four basic skills, and to improve language teaching as well [22, 23]. [24, 25] assert that with learners at the beginning and intermediate levels, teachers can utilize literature for “language utilization, reading comprehension, and aesthetic value of the text”. [26, 27] in contrast, with the students of advanced level, “literary texts” are bound to be utilized for “knowledge development globally in the realms of literature such as identifying figures of speech, layers of meaning, and other discursive elements” moreover, students gain insight and motivation by getting entry into literature. they will explore the world of familiar or unfamiliar cultural aspects of stories [28], compels them to think outside the box. 3. the role of short fiction in teaching and learning of second language vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 55 literature not only provides authentic materials but also introduces the learners to the target language culture which can prove positive in term of learners’ positive attitude towards target language community [23, 29, 30]. literature carries the norms, values and ethos of the target community which has inevitable “penetrative and pervasive” effect on the minds of the learners [31]. literature familiarizes l2 learners with the true nature of the target language, how much it is flexible and elastic that native speakers bend it to meet their needs, or adapt to new situations. apart from “authentic materials”, short story gives two characteristics, one language in use, meant for native speakers without any modification to its linguistic elements.[32] second an aesthetic value of language in spoken form which is supposed to recover or represent language within a specified sphere of cultural context [33, 34]. short stories are not written without their contexts. they always happen in certain cultural contexts which represent certain segments of a given society. it also penetrates through the static nature of language established by artificial grammar of classroom being modified and artificially reconstructed where the learners communicate but at a survival level. language enrichment, be it either through aesthetic sense or through active reading of literary work, provides a “rich context in which individual or lexical items are made more memorable”. [36, 37]. despite this fact, it also makes a connection with literary work which further exposes learners to the formation and functions of sentences, improves their speaking and writing skills. it also enriches their repository of words as finding of words is often followed by looking up cultural references, and cultural enrichment, justice [38]. as rightly defined by [39] that literature as a source of authentic materials, where learners are exposed to the language that is genuine and undistorted in the classroom context. 4. how literature helps in teaching and learning of second language? there are different ways in which this goal could be achieved. these ways have been presented below. reinforcement and benefits of short stories several benefits of short stories teaching for the purpose of teaching l2/efl have been advocated by the researchers. they are; literary, motivational and cultural benefits that pave the way for instructors to reinforce the skills through them. reinforcing the skills language proficiency at any level is enriched by incorporating short stories and the teachers are facilitated to teach basic language skills through them [4] shows that “short stories will give an edge to elt courses for learners if the quality text content is appropriately exploited and vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 56 selected”. he explicates the reasons for which stories should be used for reinforcing the elt. instructors can plan and create activities such as drafting, letters, applications and essays to various audiences and on different topics as well as implementing acting dialogues. also, [40] states that literature assists learners to write creatively and critically. for example, students can be given tasks to write dialogues in the classes [4, 41] or to write with strenuous efforts complex writing activities provided that the students have achieved proficiency level of language. likewise, a literary work provides a “rich context” in which individual or lexical items are made more memorable, and gives learners a clear view of looking into syntactic structure of the text and they properly analyze the way how to differentiate written language from spoken. language is beyond the realms of words for it is the repository and means of habits, routines, traditions and socio-cultural context. and above all, when mastered through literature, it can reflect the human soul [42, 43]. as argued by [45, 46] that "literature increases all linguistic skills as the scope of literature will extend linguistic understanding". the employment of literature and culture in a language classroom should not be randomly selected. teaching of both disciplines is not akin to transmission of information about the people of a target community [47]. absorbing the culture of target language needs acumen to focus on the aesthetic reading of the text and find the relation between the text and target language. this kind of relation is a kind of constructing and reconstructing the values in their specific spheres. it motivates the learners to look at the syntactic structure of the text and to differentiate between a written and spoken language. linguistic input is densely found in literary text that offers plethora of information regarding the basic language skills. besides, literary texts help the learners to have know-how of their culture. further, literary tet deals with universal themes of love, war and other related emotions that persist in humans everywhere. such themes are not covered in the course books of second language learners. in this regard, “literary texts are representational rather than referential” [19, 48]. referential language does permeate to other levels rather it is mono level language that deals with only one level, whereas the representational language carries other cognitive faculties. it involves the learners’ engagement and a pivotal role is given to their emotions. in this way, the students become able to use various devices in literary text. there are certain objections as to the complexity of literature for teaching foreign language but according to [49], the linguistic difficulties pertaining to literature have been deliberated umpteen times for which readers are not supposed to experience comprehension completely vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 57 rather they are required to gain something or a gist of the text. this is the true nature of literature where connotative interpretation will suffice the purpose rather than denotative meanings [50]. benefits of short stories a number of reasons and advantages of using literature in language teaching classroom have been presented by various authors such as,[51] by listing the following with less or more endorsement. 1. cultural amelioration, by reading literature one can promote one’s awareness and understanding with target language community and thus reduces the intensity of cultural shock, [52, 53]. 2. linguistic expression, literature is composed of diverse writing techniques and expressions. it provides learners with distinctive writing styles. 3. mental training, literature being the creation of sublime and great minds among other disciplines builds and trains readers’ sensibility and moral sense. 4. literature extends readers’ linguistics competence, especially of those who have already mastered the basics of linguistics. 5. reliability on the materials of literature are genuine and authentic for teaching purpose [54]. 6. using literature in language teaching is useful because of the facts that the language used in it is taken from real life situations. 7. being interpretive and suggestive, it is open to multiple interpretations and a useful and convenient resource. [17]. literature stimulates discussion and interaction because it is rich in having multiple levels and shades of meanings, and interpretation, which can easily be exploited by learners. it enhances learners’ awareness of the target language obliging them to analyze standard and non-standard usages of language occurred in literary texts. moreover, it makes their awareness more subtle and analytical of the norms of language use [55, 56]. apart from its motivating quality, it enjoys an elevated and high position in many cultures and countries, so learning or understanding a piece of highly respected literature can give the learners a sense of achievement. it is involving because it keeps the learners in suspense as what will happen next, on the basis of what has just happened. the instant difficulty with its linguistic elements (lexicons) may not cause any hurdle in the way of understanding and comprehending the theme. vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 58 5. importance of incorporating short stories in teaching of second language short stories are the real assets for enhancing the communicative skills of the learners through a developed ration of sensibility and empathy. it serves the purpose of a true and enhanced motivator for the learners to acquire “capacity”. it also helps the learners’ negotiation and interpersonal skills that are of paramount importance in the global business context. [60]. according to [61] optimal input is apt in acquiring language that is quite relevant and interesting. short stories grab students’ attention and motivation to learn [62] recommends that literature helps students to go beyond mere knowing the basic knowledge of language to “learning about”| language. in this way, students develop a fifth skill that is the skill of thinking and processing. the correct use of literary text in classroom aims at improving communicative competence and provide “an edge for uplifting critical thinking and creative aesthetic appreciation” [63, 64], and create students awareness about the sociocultural set up of the target language. for example, the results of some studies, like those of [55] recommend the merging of literary skill in the sl/fl curriculum. likewise, several writing on this subject propose curriculum which focuses on the context of literature [65, 66]. short fiction is a source for knowing life other than linguistic faculty. in short stories, a realistic picture of real life is cascaded by the characters who act out real and symbolic aspects of life. this representation takes place in a tone of register and various tones. short fiction illuminates human lives and it is true representation of humans [6]. the following educational benefits can be attained by the incorporation of short stories fiction the esl / efl curriculum [67]. short story makes reading easier for learners because they are short and easy to understand as compared to other literary books. it opens a way for the learners to use their minds creatively. it also uplifts the critical thinking skill of the students. it also promotes the students ability to communicate with each other because of its universal language. advanced level learners observe the characters in short fiction that how they make use of linguistic items and figures of speech. these figures have communicative intent which gives an edge to learners to use english clearly and powerfully [68]. 6. reinforcing the productive (speaking and writing) skills short stories enable the learners to gain the language skills proficiently. [69] indicates that “short stories provide authentic and quality text if selected and exploited appropriately that enhances elt course up to maximal level” (p. 9). this will in turn improve the skills of students at intermediate level. he further asserts that the reasons for reinforcing elt and adds that teachers can create opportunity for the learners by discussing the activities; in return the learners start acting out the role of characters in the story. in this way they are able to write the themes and perform creatively. in the same vein, [35] confirms, “ literature opens new vistas of experience if the point of view of short fiction is focused on which enlarges students' horizon of vision and vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 59 fosters critical thinking by orchestrating the several paths through which a situation can be visualized” (p. 85). therefore, when the learners start reading they hook up with the text. this interaction with the text enables them to interpret what they read. and once the stage of interpretation takes place, they can focus towards speaking english creatively. 7. motivating aspect of short story short stories have plot construction in a streamlined form as they have beginning, middle and the end. this triggers the linguistic proficiency of the students at all levels. their ability of cognitive reasoning is stimulated while reading the text of short story as they find out the rise of conflict then its climax and resolution. [71] for example, affirms that “literature motivates advanced students and is motivationally effective if students can genuinely engage with its thoughts and emotions and appreciate its aesthetic qualities” (p. 197). he insists on the importance of developing “student–response and competence” in literature. in addition, there is a reason [72] asserts for employing literature with learners is that “literature motivates students to explore their feelings through experiencing the feelings of others” (p. 1). in addition, choosing stories according to students’ preferences, stories ought to have density of themes because, as [73] point out, variety of themes will offer different things to many individuals’ interests and tastes (p.178). teachers are supposed to teach elements with simplicity and lucidity to intermediate level students as character, plot construction and setting become difficult for them to understand. whereas more complex elements, such as conflict, climax, resolution, etc., should not be taught to intermediate level rather they should be introduced with more advanced levels. [74] explains “how literature can be introduced by describing the order of activities: pre-reading activities, factual in-class work, analysis and extending activities”. in the pre-reading activities, students learn the background of the story and they come to know about the vocabulary of the story (p. 233). besides the basic language skills, short stories assist instructors in teaching literary, cultural and higher-order thinking aspects. as for culture and other related benefits, [75] believe that culture should be intermingled with curriculum and “literature is one feature . . . in the cultural domain that provides added value beyond the level of language acquisition.” literature helps students in expanding their “linguistic and cognitive skills, cultural knowledge and sensitivity” (quoted in [20]. one is led to say that integrating short stories into the curriculum will help efl students to become well rounded professionals and human beings, for short stories teach more than the skills necessary for survival in the target language. students also become more productive and daring once they come to know the richness and flexibility of the language they are learning and set about to make use of some of that potential without any external support. thus, knowing the meanings of individual lexical items or phrases vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 60 becomes less significant than chasing the development of the story. student becomes enthusiastic to find out what happens as events unfold; he/she feels close to some of the characters in the story. this can have favorable effects on the language learning process. as pointed by [74, 76], that literature in second language classrooms provides students with opportunities in acquiring competence in l2 like that of native speakers, enabling them to learn the features of modern english as well as linguistic system such as idiomatic expressions. [77] explicates that literature opens up new vistas of possibility that allow students to question, interpret, connect, and explore. in a nutshell, literature provides students with an incomparably dense source of authentic material over a wide range of registers. if students can gain access to this material by developing literary competence, then they can effectively internalize the language at a high level [63, 64]. especially, for students with verbal linguistic intelligence, the language teacher’s using literature in a foreign language class serves for creating a highly motivating, amusing and lively lesson.[78], literature does not only develop basic language skills of the students in target language but it also windows opening into the culture of the target language, uplifting cultural competence in students. 8. conclusion based on the above discussion it can be concluded that using literature and communicative approach for teaching of second language is highly effective. a large body of knowledge on the use and importance of communicative approach and literature also supports this contention as is mentioned above. in this regard many studies have found that teachers can effectively use communicative approach as a teaching tool to teach second language. in the same way, many studies also indicated that using short stories (literature) can highly be beneficial for teaching and learning of second language. based on the analysis done in this paper, it can easily be inferred that communicative approach and literature can be an effective sources for teaching and learning of second language. references 1. khan, h.i., english teachers’ perceptions about creativity and teaching creative writing in pakistan. american international journal of contemporary research, 2012. 2(3): p. 57-67. 2. hişmanoğlu, m., teaching english through literature. journal of language and linguistic studies, 2005. 1(1). 3. mckay, s.l., teaching english as an international language: rethinking 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foreign language: a critical review. foreign language annals, 1999. 32(4): p. 514-526. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 47 repression, isolation and paranoia: a psychoanalytic feminist study of ‘the nightmare’ by rukhsana ahmad noreen zainab ms english, islamic university islamabad abstract generally, literature written by pakistani women writers in english depicts women as victims of patriarchy, social and cultural oppression. meanwhile, in recent times the short fiction is exploring new paradigms related to the psychological oppression of married women in pakistan. the following paper selects the short story, ‘the nightmare’ by pakistani writer, rukhsana ahmad, where a housewife suffers from paranoia because of disconsolate marriage. therefore, this research aims to study the causes of psychological disorders specifically paranoia among apparently happy housewives. moreover, the causes and effects of repression and isolation on personality of women would be discussed from the psychoanalytic feminist perspective using the framework of sigmund freud (197386) through the character of fariha. through the method of character analysis (dobie, 2011) this paper concludes that the childhood experiences of repression are the reason for victim’s passiveness towards psychological oppression during adult life. this paper would also help in establishing the conclusion that women who suffer abuse in their childhood are more likely to face abuse in their adult lives, which becomes the cause of their psychological instability. key words: short fiction, pakistani women, paranoia, housewives, isolation, unconscious, symbols, psychological abuse. 1 introduction short stories are popular form of literature; despite being popular it is one of the most neglected areas in research studies. one of the reasons for this negligence is short length and exclusion of details in this genre. so, most researchers in field of literary criticism prefer to work on either longer fiction or poetry. while this research is particularly focused on short stories the significance of short story has been highlighted by researchers and theorists (james, 1898; hunter, 2007). hunter in his book, cambridge introduction to short story in english (2007) explains the origin of short story with often prevalent misconceptions about its structure and content. by giving the example of henry james (1898), hunter says that instead of comparing its structure to a novel and considering it a small extract from long narrative one must think of it as a text which “suggests and implies meaning, rather than stating it directly” (james, 1898, p.652-3), what these theorists saw in short story was the “great richness and complexityor multiplicity, because of rather than despite, its brevity” (hunter, 2007, p.2). though brief, short stories can convey much more with respect to both, form and content. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 48 short story as a genre of fiction has always been much more than “matter of form and technique”, the connection between brevity and complexity however as explained by hunter (2007) is “the art of saying less yet meaning more”. many writers were interested in short stories including g. k. chesterton who considered short story to be the reflection of “fleetingness and fragility of modern life” (chesterton, 1906, p.69). a south african writer, nadine gordimer (1968) in comparison of short story and novel says, novelist juggles about with chronology, and all the time his characters have readers by hand, here the consistency of relationship does not convey quality of human life, and contact is more like flash of fire flies. short story writers, however, see by the light of flash, theirs is the art of only thingthe present moment. they have learnt to do without explanation of what happened before and beyond that point. (p.459) here we can see how important short story is in terms of its content rather than structure. therefore, the focus of this research would be on the content of the stories. 1.1 brief introduction of selected text and writer the paper is based on the short story ‘the nightmare’, written by pakistani female writer rukhsana ahmad, published in her short story collection, the gatekeeper’s wife (2014). one of the feminist writers, rukhsana ahmad has been nominated for several awards including “writers’ guild” and “susan smith blackburn prize”. even though ahmad is the writer of two novels, her short stories being widely anthologized are the reason of her popularity within literary circles of south asia and pakistan. the stories included in 2014 collection, ‘the gatekeepers wife’ are twelve tales of women from across pakistan. therefore, narratives from both rural and urban cultures have been included while the accounts of pakistani immigrants living in western societies did not get ignored. the selected short story ‘the nightmare’ is about the whole life of a woman named fariha, belonging to a humble background, who suffers from severe psychological disorder ‘paranoia’. further, as the story proceeds, the causes of her condition are unveiled in the form of hints dropped by the writer playfully. psychological abuse of fariha being one of the major themes of story is investigated through psychoanalysis of the protagonist in this paper. 1.2 research questions 1 what are the causes of fariha’s repression and isolation within and outside marriage relationship in the selected short story ‘the nightmare’? 2 what is the role of fariha’s immediate family and childhood experiences in her repression and mental illness with reference to selected fiction? 3 what is the significance of title of selected fiction with reference to fariha’s recurrent dream? university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 49 1.3 research objective the main objective of this research is to investigate the causes and effects of psychological repression through unconscious (dream and recollections) of the protagonist in selected short story ‘the nightmare’ by rukhsana ahamd. 2 literature review/theoretical framework the theoretical framework for this research includes both the theory of psychoanalysis and feminism. the psychoanalytic theory of sexuality given by freud (1973-86) in his thirteen volumes of research on human mind, unconscious and sexuality is the basic framework used for this research. the most controversial, most debated yet most important essay on unconscious by freud (1973) include detailed nots on “existence of unconscious”, conscious and subconscious which are responsible for construction of human identity. unconscious as suggested by freud is that part of human psyche which remains unidentified. this part of human thinking is hidden not only from the society but from the individual him/herself. tyson (2006) talks about freudian concept of unconscious and describes it as “the notion human beings are motivated, even driven, by desires, fears, needs and conflicts of which they are unaware” (p.12). the unconscious according to freud (1973) and lacan (1977) is the “storehouse of all the painful experiences and emotions” other than painful experiences it also consists of an individual wound “guilty desires and unsolved conflicts” (p.12-13). the unconscious part of human personality comes into existence through various repressions and unhappy events of life. tyson (2006) in his explanation of psychoanalytic theory says that family plays the most crucial role in psychological development of individuals specially females as “we are each the product of role we are given in family-complex” (p.13). through the experiences of our relationships in families all of us built our identities. the oedipal complex another important idea given by freud as quoted by tyson involves our sexual attachment with parent of opposite gender which further influences our sexual relationships and complex desires. 2.1 conscious vs unconscious the symbols and images stand for something as pointed out by qazi (2011), the unconscious symbolism depend on word play, puns, or sometimes actions (p.3). the meanings of these verbal or symbolic signs are always delayed and remain understood as per the theory of structuralism given by derrida. habib (2008) focused in his study on the “imaginary stage” the stage where the unconscious of the child is developed. solms (2000) while working on the modern dream theory referred towards the dream analysis theory of freud as he states, “unconscious wishes through dreams are transformed into conscious images” (p.618). he further explains that multiple mechanisms such as “displacement, condensation and regression” are often at work in the process of dreaming. cheniaux (2006), says that there is always a tension between conscious and unconscious and thus the dreams are in the form of symbols, i.e. hidden and unrecognizable (p, 34). another critic blechner (1998) says that dreams may or may not be the repressed desires of individuals but most of the time they represent the unspoken ideas, the thoughts unexpressed. it means that dreams can be some repressed desires i.e. the fears and anxieties or even childhood university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 50 memories. siegal (2001) and fosse et al. (2003) carried out similar researches where they found out that memories do play a very significant role in construction of unconscious. crick (1983) on the other hand, argued that dreams consist not on the “memories that are consolidated but on those which are being erased” (p.) i.e. the unconscious. 2.2 psychoanalytic feminist theorists theorists including deborah l. madsen (2000), julie rivkin & michael ryan (2004) and lois tyson (2006) talked about the new approach towards literary analysis, psychoanalytic feminism. madsen (2000) in her book says that the psychoanalytic feminists ask the question about the gendered identities of women and how one becomes a woman, i.e. the processes involved in one’s journey. with reference to freudian concept of oedipal stage, she argues that, this development stage is much more complex for girls as compared to boys. gillian (1982), a famous psychoanalytic feminist critic, criticized the work of freud by saying that all the biological theories exclude the differences of women to some or mostly large extant. she indicated us towards many aspects where freud’s theory was gender biased and thus reinforces patriarchy (gillian, 1982. p.7). the female attributes such as sensitivity, confusion, uncertainty which are considered as the signs of weakness must not be seen negatively, as gillian suggests that these elements can be taken as part of their morality, the values of women are much different than men. as men celebrate individuality, women tend to protect the relationships (madsen, 2000, p.101). as the previously mentioned theorists tend to imply the differences in nature of men and women, flax (1983, p.218) says otherwise. she claims that, ‘mother is the one who ensures the reproduction of patriarchy’. women are as much responsible for their oppression as men, as they are not only physically oppressed but psychologically programmed to pass on patriarchy to their coming generation. purpose/justification of the research the paper aims to explore the causes and effects of severe psychological disorders among women such as paranoia through psychoanalysis of the protagonist in selected short fiction. this paper intends to explore the issues regarding psychological disorders and sufferings of women. the subject holds significance as it effects the quality of life of any society. emotional and psychological wellbeing. as psychological repression is an invisible form of abuse; thus, it is often quite difficult to deal with such theme within literature, as well as literary criticism. however, with the emergence of such themes in pakistani short fiction there is need to explore psychological aspects of feminism from literary perspective. 4 research methodology the method of character analysis is used for the analysis of selected short fiction according to the requirements of research objectives. as psychoanalysis of the protagonist is indicated to be one of the most appropriate methods of analysis in psychoanalytic criticism by dobie (2011) in her book theory into practice. for psychoanalysis, the unconscious of the protagonist would be investigated. the unconscious according to freud includes dreams, memories, childhood university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 51 experiences and symbols. all these elements which are induced in the selected text are going to be selected for analysis. character analysis is one of the three methods of research in psychoanalytic criticism of literature, as pointed out by dobie (2011). however, the character analysis in literary research is different from the character assessment in field of psychology. therefore, instead of focusing on the elements of character the character would be approached through its description and participation in the events of the story. for analysis purpose, three major aspects of fariha’s character, such as her character descriptions, her childhood experiences included in text and symbolic significance of her dreams would be analyzed and interpreted 1interpretation of her dream 2interpretation of her childhood and 3interpretation of her adult life (post marriage). other than these elements, the interpretation of fariha’s name, title of the short story are included as well. these interpretations will be helpful is understanding the major theme of the text. 5 textual analysis the short story “the nightmare” written by rukhsana ahmad is unique with respect to the themes it explores. the story basically is about a married pakistani woman, who suffers from mental health issues, specifically paranoia. she is in the delusional state where she had completely lost the sense of reality and dream. her imagination plays a very important role in description of her psychological state of mind, whereas the memories and few recollections of childhood, being an important aspect of psychoanalysis would help in understanding of her repression. 5. 1 name interpretation the story revolves around a female character named fariha, which is from arabic origin; the meaning of fariha is happy/content. however, quite opposite to the circumstances of protagonist her name presents an irony for readers. the appearances may suggest that she had a content life, the people of society even her parents are unable to see her miseries. as fariha has never been physically abused by her husband, she did not suffer from poverty and bore male children. consequently, she is the luckiest and happiest a woman can ever be. the psychological and emotional abuse she suffered for a long time is not considered to be the matter of significance as she did not have bruises and cuts to show. for instance, the nurse in the very first few lines sympathized with fariha’s husband as she was suffering from psychological disorder instead of trying to understand the causes of her state. 5.2 title interpretation the title of the story itself is very interesting “the nightmare” which refers towards bad or unpleasant dream which frightens a sleeping person. dreams according to freud’s dream interpretation theory are part of our unconscious which in the form of symbols is presented through university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 52 dreams. a bad dream, rather a frightening one creates imagery in the mind of reader about unsettling situation, an anxiety or terror. the nightmare is the symbol of terror, horror, agony and misery. from the very first line of the story reader comes to know that the story is about a female character that is in delusion as she could not answer the nurse about the question, a very simple question. she is anxious, worried, insecure and upright as she could not remember her own name her feeling at that moment is captured by writer with the use of imagery of darkness “the question worried her as it penetrated through dark veils of numbness” (p.79). the word numbness here is of great significance as it refers towards the insensitive state where a person is unable to feel or understand anything; it is a sleep like state, rather death. the imagery presented in the very title to first line of the story as well as title give readers an idea about the suffering and pain protagonist is going through. 5.3 dream interpretation the dream in the story represents a cluster of ideas, many symbols are being used by writer and freud’s dream theory is seen at work through the nightmares of fariha. the dream which is the cause of her paranoiac behavior is the perfect example of displacement and condensation. displacement being the process where one image stands for another situation and condensation is the conflict which occurs inside the dream after the recollection of dream the symbols may represent multiple images, multiple situations and people from real life while conflicts (condensations) may represent your fears and problems with those people or things. the dream, rather nightmare repeatedly seen by fariha while she was unconscious (asleep) as well as in her conscious (visions) as described by salim was …something about two birds… a huge, vicious-looking vulture and a trembly little dove. the vulture kept pecking the dove’s wing with its sharp beak, but the dove wouldn’t move couldn’t get away. it just stood there mesmerized, submitting to it… (p.82) the imagery of two birds, represent the conflict. one being much more powerful than other asserts its power on other and other being weak and smaller is getting hurt. the helplessness of the smaller bird, the weaker one results in submission. the later part of this conversation reveals that now fariha thinks “she is the dove” (p.82). the psychological instability of fariha, the protagonist of selected text is described through this image in her delusions. the displacement of images, in case of dove and vulture hint us towards another interpretation of this nightmare, a more explicit one. as freud (1915) claimed ‘dreams and symbols’ to be the “representation of one’s unconscious mind” therefore through analysis of dream we can get hold on to the unconscious sufferings of fariha. each image in her dream is a symbol, a symbol of another situation or person, a conflict. the major symbols of the dream are “trembly, little dove”, “a huge vicious looking vulture”, “dove’s wing”, “sharp beak” and “shoulder”. in the earlier part where fariha in her consciousness experienced university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 53 this dream, an illusion and described the whole conflict among the symbolic birds dove and vulture to nurse as “his sharp was hard, so hard… it plunged deeper each time drawing blood, i couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything” the imagery of “hard beak” “plunging, drawing blood” and repeated “helplessness” are included among other images to be interpreted (ahmad, 2014: pp.82-83). 5.3.1 symbols and images in dreams two major images dove and vulture in terms of literature carry a lot of significance, according to the dictionary of literary symbols by michael ferber “dove is the symbol of love” the greek and romans recognize dove as the goddess of love, whereas dove is also recognized for its “gentle cooing, faithfulness to mates, gentleness, innocence, timidity and peace” (p.61-62). likewise, dove other than being the symbol of peace is also the symbol of beauty, spring and gentleness. the association of fariha to his bird and identifying herself with dove carries a lot of significance as apparent through the symbolic interpretation of dove as a symbol. the character and personality of fariha is that of a dove, who prefers peace, thus make many compromises to maintain it. her role as a mother and house wife is that of a nurturer and care taker, furthermore she is the innocent and faithful creature, who despite being unhappy cannot walk away, or leave her master, the person who controls her life. another major symbol used in the story is vulture. contrary to the delicate and sensitive image of dove, vulture instead is a very large bird, who is physically very resentful and eat dead animals, vulture belong to the family of hawks, eagles and falcons whose usual prey is dove (ferber, 2007: p.95-96). other than this a vulture stands for a very deceptive and beguiling person who takes advantage of others, who is already weak, or in very bad condition. nevertheless, vulture if used for a human being also carries the meanings of “rapacious or predatory person”. other synonyms for vulture are “bloodsucker, buzzard, harpy, predator” etc. as provided in oxford dictionary. the interpretation of dream at surface level reveals that fariha assimilates her own painful experiences and repressed tormented sexuality to these images of dove and vulture. she herself is the fearful, weak, fragile and helpless dove, whose job is to bring happiness, and love everyone. on the contrary the imagery of vulture may represent her husband, as a bloodsucking predator, who for her whole life used her sexuality and then her physical labor to take care of house and children. she was the one to bear him babies and raised them for ten long years alone while he was abroad “away from the comforts of home” while she was the one providing comfort to his children educating and nurturing them with her precious life. 5.4 psychological abuse in fariha’s childhood there are several occasions within the story where fariha’s childhood has been referred to, including her memories of childhood experiences, her relationship with her parents, role of her mother and an account of incestuous childhood sexual abuse which her subconscious seem to remember occasionally. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 54 5.4.1. childhood memories and experiences as she tries to remember a childhood memory came in, her mother scolding her, on being dirty. psychoanalytic method of analysis given by dobie () includes interpretation of childhood experiences and memories as one of the most significant parts. therefore, each image remembered by protagonist and had any link with her memories holds significance in case of psychoanalysis of her character. the way of scolding she remembered was in a form of warning, a threat “now go and wash your hands and face before your father gets here” (ahmad, 2014, p.79). the argument of kristeva on sex and gender is important here as gender roles define attitude of people, even parents the character of fariha’s mother as shown is representation of the patriarchal society of pakistan and conventional roles of parents. females being associated with the concept of house work are expected to clean, the brother who was as dirty as “faro” being male was not scolded by mother. here we can see the personalities of both fariha’s mother and father, i.e. an authoritative male, who is the leader of her family and a housewife who stays at home and take care of her children and responsible for cleaning, cooking and child care. the relationship of fariha with her father and her father’s role in family is explicitly described through the next line “don’t let me catch anyone calling her anything else but by her proper name” (ahmad 2014, p.79). she is attracted towards her father as he is the authority, she fears him for his power in the family and he is the male standard in front of her since childhood. 5.4.2. role of fariha’s parents the confusion when she looks for her father and finds her husband is rather very important as freudian theory says that children are attracted towards the parents of opposite gender and try to substitute them for their whole lives in form of their romantic partners. “her father was not there anymore. her husband salim was saying these words” (ahmad, 2014: p.79) also indicate towards another aspect of patriarchy where men are in control of everything and females are transferred such as commodities from one being to another. these male members can call them by whatever names they want to as salim says to the nurse “i like to call her fairy, that’s my special name for her” (ahmad, 2014: p.79). the patriarchal system which from the very childhood plays its role in establishing the identities based on gender and confine women to inferior roles where they must play part of submissive. the role of fariha’s mother as ascribed by irigaray (1985) is of the submissive woman rather than passive one. she accepted her inferior role being a woman and raised fariha on the similar guidelines. another of fariha’s memory was about her mother’s golden advice about marriage; the secret of happy married life is only in the part of woman. as she advises her daughter “marriages can’t work without any effort. you must work at them. a man is like a vessel, hard and unchanging, and a good woman should be like water, should flow and adapt herself to his shape” (ahmad, 2014: p.80). here in these lines we as readers come to understand the situation fariha has been living in. being a married woman she must implement her mother’s rules and lose herself, her identity, her university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 55 conscious so that she can become acceptable for her husband. the description of “good woman” as given by her mother is also important with respect to the unconscious and psychological instability of fariha in present time. the repression of her desires, from her very childhood was one of the major causes of her depression, anxieties and paranoia. as freud says that the experiences of childhood become part of our conscious as well as unconscious and develop our personality fariha due to such teachings of her mother could not revolt. she as told by her mother lost herself in her unhappy marriage. 5.4.3. childhood sexual abuse the hard beak, and pecking’s of vulture represent the sexual experiences and exploitation in the hands of her husband when she “couldn’t move, couldn’t get away”. her abortion and humiliating sexual experiences were the cause of such imagery when she wanted to resent her husband, wanted to tell him to stop, shout at him, and express her anger at such disgrace of herself. she suffered from marital rape which is often not considered the matter of attention in our society, so she suffered silently, in isolation and it made her conscious as well as unconscious resentful towards sexuality. the bleeding shoulder represent her painful experiences in sexual life the sore wounds, acing her insides. other than her husband vulture can also be the distant relative “uncle jamal” who sexually assaulted her in her childhood, he molested her, and asked her to keep it a secret. he was an old man, as his “old, dry fingers” used to touch her inappropriately. thus, he can also be the symbolic representation in the form of a hideous, grotesque “vicious looking” animal vulture. his inappropriate touch used to “hurt her deep inside” (p.80) i.e. drawing blood, making her suffer. this sexual assault in her childhood is also part of her unconscious and reason of her fear from sexual intimacy. she associated this experience and kept on remembering and comparing it with her marital relationship. it can be one of the reason she could not enjoy her life and become happy and content as she thought of it as “all wrong and dirty” (p.80). meanwhile she had a lot of secrets to herself, of such sort she could not share with anyone. the exposure of these secrets is one of the burdens on her conscious which played important role in her isolation and repression. 5.4.4. repressed emotions during time when she was being sexually abused by her uncle in her adolescent age, she did not dare tell her parents about her assault. she was old enough to understand that it was all wrong and dirty and it hurts. she could not tell her parents and kept on worrying, asking she a question “what if someone finds out?” (p.80). this act again raises a lot of questions in the minds of readers, what was she scared of? did she think it was her fault that she was molested? what would have happened if her parents found out? and many more. despite being the victim of sexual abuse, she did not have enough courage to tell her parents. consequently, it indicates the lack of confidence, she had in her parents and herself. her parents, like most of the parents in patriarchal pakistani society did not give her enough courage to stand up against injustice. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 56 furthermore, she was scared even to share it with her mother, in pakistan girls are being blamed for their misfortunes, likewise she was punished for the things she was not responsible for resulting in the loss of her confidence in her parents. given the reaction of most parents when they come to know someone is molesting, teasing or chasing their daughter they would have blamed her for not stopping him, not telling them, going near that molester. consequently, they would become highly protective of their daughter not allowing her to do anything on her own, go anywhere she wants. given the consequences she found it easier to keep it from her parents and endure the pain of sexual abuse instead of getting punished by her parents for the crime she did not commit. 5.5 psychological oppression after marriage psychological oppression of fariha continued in her adult life, even after her marriage she was psychologically abused by her partner as she was obligated to repress her emotions and desires. meanwhile she was also the victim of isolation and sexual abuse within her marriage. 5.5.1 repressed emotions and desires salim, fariha’s husband was hard and unchanging as a vessel. she was in continuous state of conflict with reference to her sexual desires, i.e., her id and super ego. she could not take any pleasure inside the sexual relationship with her husband, she was used by her husband for the sake of his pleasure and satisfaction whereas she remained unhappy, being angry at her mother and society for making her this way. during such encounters she felt anger towards everyone and her mother who told her to “yield” but she could not express her anger, her depression, her sadness and dissatisfaction with the circumstances. meanwhile she kept asking herself and no one else “would she break if she didn’t yield? must she yield even when her whole being revolted against the slithery panting thrusts” (p.80). the sexual desires being never fulfilled made her marriage an unbearable burden. all these repressed desires and frustrations were cause of her present situation, where she suffers from paranoia. 5.5.2 isolation after calling them all to america salim was disappointed to see his wife, fariha as she was no more beautiful, as a dove is supposed to be. “she looked… fat. he had hesitated over the word then. and so much older than she should have” (p.82). the faithfulness of fariha, her hard work for ten long years went unacknowledged by her husband and the only thing which mattered to him was her physical appearance and he felt “shocked” and “betrayed”. just as vulture when she was useless he threw her away in an asylum where she was aware of her “bareness”, her uselessness. now the children grew up, and salim wanted to shift, for a brand-new job, with his children. his last words to fariha were “they’re older now, they’ll miss you, but i think they will manage” (p.86). she knew she was useless and thus she accepted her fate, just as the dove in her nightmares “she was mesmerized” and submitted. she wanted to forget everything, every suffering of her life as she realized her worthlessness sitting on the hospital bench looking at rootless trees “barren, like i have become, unable to produce a baby, when i so needed one. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 57 what’s a woman worth if she can’t even bear children? she could hear ma and nani” (p.85). this memory again takes us towards the gender identity and childhood experiences, the fears and repressions of her unconscious which were made part of her personality through these teachings, these unconscious statements. the anxieties which later made her a psycho patient could be traced back to her childhood, the early years of her growth and identity formation. 5.5.3 sexual abuse in marriage another feeling every woman want from her married life is intimacy and being desired, so that she can feel important, meanwhile it was not the case for fariha, as her encounters with her husband were “urgent” and “businesslike” as it was “the way of getting babies” (p.80). the exploitation of female sexuality is the matter of routine for men such as salim, who marry so that they can get someone to take care of their house, bear them babies; babies which belonged to them and will be called out by their names. this exploitation of female sexuality was another factor which added towards the repression of fariha and later became reason of her paranoia, her physiological disorders. this mechanical nature of relationship among husband and wife indicate the isolation of fariha within her marriage. her voice was never heard, and she finally gave up on all her desires but being a house wife, she could not. other than sexual exploitation she also went through the painful experience of “abortion”, the unimaginable pain and suffering. most importantly it was against her will, she wanted to keep her baby but the pressure from her husband could not let her wishes survive. this shows us how much fariha lacks control over her own body, her lack of authority even in the matters most personal indicate towards the loss of identity and self within a marriage. her husband, being her care taker speaks for his wife. he is the one doing all the talking as she keeps on thinking, while he keeps on justifying his position “she had to have this abortion i didn’t realize how much she wanted it” (p.81). to prove himself as a rational being he insists on representing his wife as an extremely emotional, an illogical person whom you cannot reason with. she was not given her own voice; instead her husband kept on apologizing for her “foolishness”. as if he was the victim of her irrational behavior, she being an unreasonable person was a burdon for him. 6 discussion through the detailed psychoanalysis of fariha’s character we can understand the various forms of abuse she suffered, both in her adolescence and adulthood. the psychological abuse from partner was tolerated by fariha for a very long time, passively, even before her marriage she was psychologically abused by her parents. being part of such a family where women were not expected to express their emotions and opinions she suffered from isolation throughout her life. even though the childhood molestation and accounts of marital rape indicate the sexual abuse in fariha’s life, her sexual abuse however became one of the major reasons for psychological instability. the pain of sexual abuse was more related to emotions as compared to physical pain, her inability to express resentment towards sex was another reason for her repression and psychological oppression. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 58 psychoanalysis is the theory of psychology which in this context is used to analyze text of the selected story. the term psychoanalysis refers to the analysis of human unconscious, however in case of literature-based research, the elements of psychoanalysis, discussed by freud (1915) are identified within the text. therefore, psychoanalysis of selected fiction is approached while staying within the text of story. textual analysis is crucial part of psychoanalysis and character analysis as unconscious is approached through its depiction within text. 7 conclusions through psychoanalytic analysis of the story we come to know that the basic cause of protagonist’s paranoia was isolation from her immediate family as well as within marriage. she could not share her wishes, desires and express her fears and sorrows to her parents. moreover, the sexual abuse she suffered from in her childhood and from her husband was the cause of her repression, and later became one of the major causes of her paranoia. other than sexual abuse, the childhood memories, recollections of her parents imply that the lack of confidence, inability to express herself and absence of control in her life was the result of her childhood training, she couldn’t undo. furthermore, the dream is the most suggestive part of story as through her dream fariha could communicate her fears and repressions to the readers, the imagery of her nightmare was an act of displacement, each image and action was meaningful and suggestive beyond understanding. even though the story is about a recurrent dream, the “nightmare” in the title of the story is not only the dream but it is the title of fariha’s whole life, from childhood till old age where she suffers at each stage of her life at the hands of those closest to her. lastly, the fact that no one understood her, including her husband, parents and children till the end of story import that there is lack of understanding on issues of mental health and paranoia in pakistani society. consequently, instead of curing the patient, they pushed her even deeper into the depths of loneliness after being identified as psychologically unhealthy. references ahmad, r. (2014). the gatekeeper’s wife and other stories, ilqa publications: lahore. blechner mj. the analysis and creation of dream meaning. contempt psychoanalyst. 1998; 34:181-94. cheniaux, e., (2006). dreams: integrating psychoanalytic and neuroscientific views, rio de janeiro, rj: brazil. chesterton. g. k., charles dickens (london: methuen, 1906), p. 69. crick, f & mitchison, g. (1983) the function of dream sleep. nature. ; 304(5922):111-4. dobie, a. b., (2011), theory into practice: an introduction to literary criticism 3rd ed. wadsworth cengage, university of louisiana: lafayette. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 59 fosse m. j., fosse r., hobson j. a., stick gold r.j. (2003). dreaming and episodic memory: a functional dissociation? j cong neurosci; 15(1): pp 1-9. freud, s. (1973-86). the complete introductory lecture on psychoanalysis, trans: james strachey. new york: other press. gillian, c. (1982). the practice of power and belief in nature, sex in question: french materialist feminism. ed. diana leonard and lisa adkins, london: taylor and francis. gordimer, n. (1968). the international symposium on the short story: south africa, kenyon review 30: pp. 459. habib, m.a.r. (2008). modern literary criticism and theory: a history, usa: blackwell publishing. hunter, a. (2007). cambridge introduction to short story in english, cambridge university press: new york. irigaray, l (1985) this sex which is not one (1977). trans. catherine potter with carolyn burke., ithaca, new york: cornwell university press. james, h. (1898). ‘the story-teller at large: mr. henry harland’, fortnightly review 63: pp. 652–3. lacan, j. (1977). ecrits: a selection. trans. alan sheridan: the significance of the phallus, p.281-291. new york: w.w. norton. madsen, d.l. (2000) feminist theory and literary practice, sterling, virginia, london: pluto press. pg. 94-119. qazi, k.a. (2011). lacanian conceptstheir relevance to literary analysis and interpretation: a post structural reading, the criterion: vole ii, pg. 1-12. rivkin, j & ryan, m. (2004). literary theory: an anthology, victoria, australia: blackwell publishing. pg. 765-861. siegel, j. m. (2001). the rem sleep-memory consolidation hypothesis. science. 294(5544): 1058-63. solms, m. (2000). freud in a modern light: freudian dream theory today, the psychologist. vol 13: (12). pp. 618-619. tyson, l. (2006). critical theory today: a user-friendly guide, london, routledge. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). i university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 analytical study of violence theme in victoria schwab’s this savage song muntazar mehdi assistant professor, numl, islamabad, pakistan, mmehdi@numl.edu.pk muhammad abdullah phd scholar, numl, islamabad, pakistan, abdullahbaig09@gmail.com saadia khan bs english literature, numl, islamabad, pakistan, sadia.khan0139@gmail.com abstract this research article focuses on the theme of violence and its representation by the characters of the novel “this savage song” by victoria schwab. how violence is transmitted through genes to next generations and to what extent sociopsycho factors are involved in it, has also been discussed. similarly, in what manner violent events and deeds by the parents affect the psychology of children and how it inculcates aggressive behaviour in their minds has been studied. what role is played by the parents in grooming the personality of children and ultimately their decisions to choose the right or wrong way has been argued. in the light of the theory of judith harris, this research paper highlights all the phenomena involved: how the social hierarchy controls the behaviour. in addition, the aggressive approach of the people in their lives has been analyzed in the light of the study of second theorist thomas w blume. as the novel is a unique representation of supernatural characters, the monsters, which are the products of some cruel deeds, this research paper brings out different dimensions of human sufferings with respect to these supernatural beings. moreover, the researcher also discusses that, in what manner the curse of violence creates an inevitable vicious cycle of cruel monsters that makes the life of the characters turbulent and miserable. keywords: parents, children, society, violence, monsters 1. introduction in this research paper, the researcher has analyzed that how the tendencies of violence are created in someone or somewhere because of the cruel acts in the form of some supernatural characters like monsters. in this research, the researcher has described when the cruel deeds are committed and subsequently lead to the creation of monsters among human beings. through the major character analysis of this novel, ‘this savage song’, the researcher has to find out the fact that how the vicious cycle of violence recycles itself because of the evil acts. it is difficult to get away scot-free from it. the hide-and-seek game between the evil and the good started since the creation of this universe. so ultimately human beings are inclined to use evil ways to fulfill their desires. this research has shown that how the children unconsciously adopt all these things to satisfy their unquenchable thirsts. in this paper, it has also explored that how the supernatural creatures like monsters are created due to violence and how they affect the lives of the people. similarly, in what manner they control the life of the people. in this research the researchers has to analyze the two major characters of the novel. katherine harker, who is a human being but wants to become a monster. in this way, the researcher has highlighted the presence of the elements of aggression and violence in her because of her familybackground especially the wicked deeds of her father. the researcher has to explain the fact that in what manner the anxiety, depression and the socio-psychological factors affect the mind of children. when kate saw this thing that her father liked cruelty and he used to get everything through violence. he had a corps of monsters to create anarchy in the city. the writer, victoria schwab, divides the monsters into three categories: cosai, malchai and sunai. she describes these supernatural characters in a very different manner. cosai comes from the acts that are not actually death-causing, although they do harm the people. the next one is malchai who is born out of the murder of someone. kate’s father callum harker had a corps of monsters consisted of cosai and malchai. cosai lives on flesh and malchai on blood. the other character is august flynn, who is a supernatural being but looks like a human. he is a sunai. the most dangerous one is sunai whose food is the soul of criminal human beings and they are the one who born out of the most heinous acts of bomb blasts, target killings, etc. they have their specific instruments which they play when they have cravings for food i.e. the soul of the evils. he has a violin, his brother uses anything to feed on the soul like guitar, piano, flute, etc. but his sister only needs to play a sweet song to fulfill her appetite. in the character of august flynn, the researcher has investigated that why he wants to be a human being which is a weak mortal creature. in both characters it is seen that an urge of transformation exists as they both wanted to transform themselves. august flynn wanted to become a kind-hearted human being because he tried to feed on the soul of humans. he wanted to live a normal life, but life is so cruel that it never spares any one. kate harker tried to normalize her life to become cruel, but no one was successful in their acts. they both lived in a city of cruelty and fear where no one is secure and evil acts created an inescapable cage of real monsters around them. 2. research objectives the objectives of this research are: i. to explore the theme of violence in this novel “this savage song” with the help of its characters. ii. to analyze that how violence breeds in children because of their parent’s influence, who want to harm the other people. iii. to find out the socio-psychological factors of violence present in this novel “this savage song” 3. significance of research the significance of this research study has been based on the factors that how violence breeds violence and in what way it gives birth to the monsters in the society. in what manner the writer describes the birth of supernatural characters (monsters) in the novel as a result of some cruel acts. the socio-psychological reasons behind the violent traits of the characters of the novel would be examined. how violence, cruelty and evil deeds affect the lives of the characters? how the urge of gaining power makes monsters in a society? 4. research question what are the socio-psychological factors behind the violent traits of the protagonists in the novel “this savage song”? 5. literature review man is endowed with reasoning faculty. man has learnt to live and understand this world. it is said that man has to come and to depart alone from this world. then why there is conflict of right and wrong in a society? the answer is simple. man cannot live alone in this world. man needs relatives and friends. there are not only relatives and friends, but also rivals and competitors. in the modern era, man is forced to live in a globalized world of cut-throat competition. power and authority play significant role in man’s life. if a person is powerful, he enjoys life fully, because such a man establishes his power by creating fear and horror in the hearts of his fellow men. such people kill and usurp the rights of other people. they gain short-term benefits but they trigger an unending series of violence. just as able killed cain and laid the foundation of oppression and injustice, ultimately the tyranny spread all over the world. like mistletoe, it inflicted weapons of mass destructions. violence, fear and conflict are the products of hunger and lust for power. in this novel, one sees that kate’s father callum harker was a power-hungry person and to satisfy his hunger for power he controlled the lives of people of verity city and the whole city with the help of army of such maniacs who were the product of evil. in the end, violence destroyed him; those who take the sword must perish by it. violence only needs a trigger, then it gets started and spreads like a dark night in which no one can differentiate between the right and the wrong way. humans become monsters due to their limitless dreams. owing to these limitless desires, monsters are also born in their surroundings. just as the creatures which feed on flesh, blood and soul presented in this novel. these all are the products of some lethal acts, the result of the murder of any innocent one. august flynn the protagonist of the novel who is a monster is also a product of cruel deeds. he wants to be a human, a kind hearted human, but due to the lust of power human created monsters. the world is full of cruelty and violence, innocence has perished from the earth. as coleridge (1798) in his poem, the rime of the ancient mariner, writes about the worst consequences of the bad deeds. violence falls upon them as a curse just as the sailor killed the innocent wind giving the bird and as a punishment all had to face death, hunger, thirst and fear. all humans have a 'dormant' beast present in them and it comes out when the situation is favorable for it. one uses this beast as a tool to fulfill one's own desires. themain character kate harker burns six school chapels, fighting and threatening the girls. she uses all the evil means to get the attention of her father and shows herself as powerful and remorseless as her father is. one can relate this thing to the present situation of the world that how political violence affects the minds of children from the study of iavi & slone (2009) who identified that in the places like israel , the attitude and the behavior of the people, particularly children undergo a lot of changes due to the violence which is prevalent there. similarly, due to the death of her mother kate has changed remarkably. likewise, in west bank and palestine, anarchy and bomb blasts have also created a very hostile and passive approach of these children towards life. due to the social and the political atmosphere it created a very drastic change in the behavior of the children as compared to the children of the same age in other parts of the world. so the views the children perceive for a long period of time has a greater impact on their minds. in these places where no one is safe from violence is just like the verity city described by the writer. the mental condition of children is as disturbing as the character of kate depicts in this novel. they want to become monsters to fight with those monsters in the disguise of human beings who spread violence both politically and socially and eat their flesh. how violence is induced in someone and its psychological effects on the behavior of a person? causes of violent behavior in young school children and how violence breeds violence? just as the elements of violence present in kate. she was born in a war and her father was a killer who has a corps of monsters. so these violent traits are present in her person. the story of kate and the child in the novel blood meridan mccarthy (1985) has similar traits as both were born in war. that is the reason child agrees to join captains whites company to kill mexicans at a very young age of fourteen. before joining that company he came across with an old man who describes himself as the bad implication of violence and massive killing just like kate trapped in an inescapable trap of misery which never ended. after the killing of all the monsters another monster was created because the vicious cycle of evil never ends easily once it starts. kate uses all the ways to put her life on a right track. she used evil ways in school to become prominent and to go back home in order to start a normal life. but in the world of evil, it is difficult to escape easily from the quagmire of wrong deeds. war and anarchy do not mean only some physical danger i.e. killing or murdering it is something beyond that realm. it affects the mental conditions of the people in a very bad way. it makes children to think violently and to behave in a brutal manner. they start thinking that they can achieve anything by spreading terror and using evil ways. they lose their innocence just as kate and august who know their realities. they cannot live a normal life. the social factors had played a very significant role in their lives. herrenkohl (2008). many researches have been done that highlight the potential of violence present in young children as compared to elders just as element of violence present in kate since childhood. in these researches, it is also mentioned that the absence of one parent, anarchy and crime also had a great role towards violent behavior of children. august wants to become a soft hearted human, although he has full awareness of the evil present in him. but kate used all the wrong ways to get a normal life. due to socio-psycho factors they both were striving for a better life. every human loves power. the urge of power and becoming prominent is induced in human nature, it runs in his veins like blood. in this game of power, evil is one of the biggest tools to awake the monsters which are present in a person. callum harker of this novel in the delusion of his power and to maintain his rule on the verity city, did not spare even his wife. he said she died in an accident. but his daughter knows he killed her with one of his monster just to keep his head high. past never leaves one. it travels side by side throughout one's whole life. it can influence anyone’s behavior. everyone’s life is full of some untold painful stories. in one of research papers about violence against girls provokes girls to violence schaffer (2007) has mentioned about this phenomenon. through that research one can fully understand the behavior of kate the protagonist of the novel. that how she wants a normal life, a home, in which both of her parents can live with her. she had done all the cruel things like her father. she proved herself in every school that she was as strong and brave as her father. so the violence in her behavior is due to the emotional negligence of her parents. what a setup god has made for his creatures in this universe. humans become monsters because of their frivolous desires and monsters want to become human. both are suffering in their own ways simultaneously. the same difficulty was faced by the protagonist of this novel august flynn, who is a sunai: the result of some cruel deed. he spent his childhood confined in a house. he has a great knowledge about humans. the hollowness about man is described in the poem the hollow man by t.s. eliot inspires him. he wants to satisfy his own self. he no more wants to be kept in one place. he was fed up to satisfy his hunger while feeding on the souls of humans. in one research paper about human sufferings in which human are not satisfied with their life and they feel why the nature around them is so unpleasant for them; durkheim,(2008) describes in his study that mostly humans face these kinds of problems when there is a difference created by nature and society around them. so august has been facing the same problem as described by durkheim in his study. august has also the problem to socialize in the society. he wants to become a normal human to remove all the cruelty, violence from the society that every day creates a real monster like him. august the protagonist of this novel all the time wishes to become human. he again and again expresses this wish to himself and to kate. she tells him that in this world, humans are more dangerous than the monsters. they are real monsters and also the product of their deeds. he liked plato. he had a full knowledge about his books, especially. the republic in which he explained the real philosophy that self-establishment is itself a great accomplishment. if one wants to become a real human being he/she has to become humane. these all things were not possible in august because he cannot achieve the highest point of humanity. he was a sunai who feeds on human souls. this thing was also discussed in a journal by kierkegaard (1854). he describes that humanity is not an easy thing. human being is a supreme creature and he can do all the things that all other living creatures cannot. so to taste the fruit of humanity, one must have to achieve some higher goals. but all these things were pretty much difficult for august. the socio-psycho factors do not allow him to become human. people say mostly about other people or children around them that he is inborn writer, musician, mathematician or an artist. but no one sees the complete scenario behind someone being extra ordinary. mystery that penetrates in every cell, not only is in the blood, but also present in the inner layers of these cells. all the dangers, fear, success and failures of anyone’s life is encoded in it. in the study of biology these are called genes. mukherjee (2016) a famous physician also claimed that gene is the most influential thing in the human body, it not only affects physical traits but also a psychological condition of children. he also explained this fact in his book in (2010) the emperor of all maladies by giving the example of his own family, the sufferings of his close relatives due to some mental problems and also the transfer of this trait in their next generation. so the case of kate harker is similar that the gene of violence present in her was bequeathed from her father. so, at the end of the chapter in the light of research objectives to explore the theme of violence in the novel “this savage song‟‟, the researcher has studied, how violence affects the life of the characters. how their psychology is affected. how this thing breeds in them due to the influence of their parents and what is the role played by sociopsycho factors. all these things are discussed above in the light of previous researches based on this objective. the social factors and the inherited-genes played their role in it. this dissertation would highlight that the violent deeds affect not only the one person and its family, but how they create an inevitable gyre of violence. after the death of one monster how the other monsters are created immediately and the game of endless cruelty begins. it takes the whole society towards a blood bath. these factors have been found out, in response to the questions about the main objectives of the research. 7. research methodology the present study has been done to find out the reasons behind the violent behavior in the human beings. how it breeds in someone and what are the psychological reasons behind it. the supernatural characters which are present in this novel and the part they play in it; how they are created as a result of human misdeeds. why human beings want to become monsters and monsters want to become human beings? the researcher has selected the qualitative method for the complete analysis of the novel "this savage song”. data will be collected step by step through the study of the characters and how the theme of violence is present in it. and what are the socio-psycho factors behind the violent trait of the characters. data analysis of the research has been based upon the theoretical framework which is selected for the study of theme of violence with respect to its characters. to keep in mind the research questions the researcher has analyzed the data to reach its final objectives. 7.1 theoretical framework the research work of this study has been based on the theory of violence and aggression by judith rich harris in her book the nurture assumption, (1998) in which she has explained the psychological factors about the violent behavior in children and another theory of violence in which the social aspects of violence are presented by thomas w. blume (volume 2, spring 1996, pp. 9-23). in this research paper, the researcher has to find out the socio-psychological factors behind the theme of violence present in this novel. so the researcher has combined these two theories to explain the theoretical frame work. in the first theory, the theorist judith harris explained the areas of the brain implicated in violent or aggressive behavior, psychology of a child and the reasons behind them of becoming violent in nature and how this thing is connected to the characters of the novel. the researcher observed this thing with kate harker, who was engaged in minor crimes due to the socio-psycho factors. lack of fear and of understanding towards each other and desire for excitement these factors made them aggressive and violent in behavior. on the other hand, august, who wanted to become human and remove violence from the society, showed how the environment and the acts of his parents influence his personality although he is a monster, a product of cruel acts. in the above theory, this thing is also mentioned that violent behavior also transmitted through genes from one generation to the next. so one of the major factors of the tendency of violent behavior in kates is due to this very reason and social reasons had also a great influence upon her behavior. the sociological factors present behind the theme of violence present in this novel are explained in the second theory by thomas w. blume. he proposed many of the factors, including the goal of social change which have been created by a powerful elite for their selfish means. in this case, violence is seen as a natural response from the elite stratum of society when any social hierarchy is threatened and the powerful people use violence and aggression in the society to maintain their power. as callum harker, the power megalomaniac, had created violence in the society to maintain his power. so these things the researcher has found out in this study. 8. content analysis “this savage song” by victoria schwab is selected for research. this novel will be analyzed according to the "the qualitative thematic analysis technique". the theme of the novel will be analyzed by keeping in mind the theoretical framework to fulfill the objectives of the research. this is the story of verity city; the story of violence and its birth; the story of two young souls kate and august struggles to become a monster and human; and the story of their parents. twelve years ago, war broke out between the two different groups in the city which resulted in the massive killings of innocent people due to the lust for power. the city is divided into two parts. under the control of two different men, one was power hungry, the other wants power to save the lives of the people. killing of innocent people results in a great damage to the social fabric and those who are responsible for that killing must have to pay the debt of the lives of innocent and it also breeds some harmful things in the society. in this novel, victoria schwab has beautifully explained the theme of violence that how it breeds in the society. by the representation of the game of evil she shows how the supernatural characters are born due to bomb blasts, target killings etc. these supernatural characters in the novel are the product of fight which took place twelve years ago. they are divided into three groups. cosai, malchai and sunai. the analysis of the characters in the light of theoretical frame work in which the theorist judith rich harris explained in her book the nurture assumption that how parental behaviors and their acts play a very important role in shaping the lives of their children, their behavior and their way of perception and how the violent behavior travels through genes. kate, whose full name is katherine olivia harker is the daughter of a very powerful man callum harker famous for his three things, making money, friends and enemy in the verity city. katherine is a sixteen year old school girl. she wants to live a normal life like any other ordinary girl. but her power hungry father sends her to different boarding schools. she created problems there like beating girls and burning the school chapel that’s why she changed six schools in five years. all she did to come back home. she wanted to become a monster as her father liked a monster. he had a corps of monsters cosai and malchai to rule the one part of the city. august flynn, a supernatural character, in the novel was also sixteen years of age. he was the product of some cruel act of the murder of the innocent. his guardian was henry flynn, head of the southern part of the city. he wanted to become human to remove monsters from the world. he was a sunai whose food was soul of prisoners. sunai, had a unique character that they went dark when they stop feeding on the soul of evil ones. august had tallies on his skin, which showed how much time they had in this world. august had become fed up of feeding on the soul of humans, but he was afraid to go dark. so he did all this to remove the sinners from this world. both the characters are striving for their existence to make their life easier and useful for the others. everyone is connected with the past and these past memories shape his/her behavior. this past knowledge is essential to know any person because man does not reveal his background to everyone. these characteristics are found in the persons of kate and august the main characters of this novel. their past is not known to everyone, but it is unfolded through various tales about them. these tales reveal their nature fully. they reveal the truth about kate olivia harker. kate, who apparently with her iron nails was undaunted and had burnt six schools created fear in the heart of her fellows like her father, but in reality she wanted to escape from the strange walls and strange faces of dalloway, leighton, pennington, wild prior and st.agnes. she says that firstly his father dug the grave of her mother and then put the kate into these six strange places. she wished to live like an ordinary girl in an ordinary household “i want to come home” (schwab, 2016, p. 20). kate, who born in a city of violence, and where monsters were free, wanted to gain attention of her father since her childhood. she has developed aggressive behavior in herself: very daring and confident just like her father. she also killed a malchai from his father corps. her hands did not shiver at that time. she hasn’t even felt pity for the monster like her father. these things depict that environment is the byproduct of man. and then this environment shapes man. his every trait is the reflection of his environment. scientists and psychologists agreed upon this point that man’s environment mirrors his psychology. kate used to live with her mother and then after the death of her mother, at the insistence of her father, she had to stay at boarding schools. she had a violent streak to get everything she wanted just like her father. this gave impetus to the urge of kate of becoming a monster. the evil involved is the environment and sociopsycho factors, especially the influence of her father. the man who said “the people are users. it’s a universal truth, use them, or they’ll use you.” (schwab, 2016, p.93). this shows her father’s materialistic approach towards life, which too much resembles to the thinking of dominating men that are busy in turning the lives of innocent people into ashes and tangle themselves and their generations into the endless and fruitless gyre of money; making enemies and friends just for the sake of power. the next generation of these kinds of real monsters has same problems as kate was facing in the society. having no idea where to go and whom to follow. so the things she perceived since her childhood had everlasting prints on her mind. she looked at the world from the eyes of her father just to get his attention. but later when she looked at the things critically and when she removed the spectacles of her father’s perception of world, then she realized that how cruel she was and the world created by her father, their home in appearance was very elegant and beautiful, but in reality full of savagery, blood and cruelty the place where everyday men were murdered and monsters were created. how her father gave way to violence to produce monsters and later on they also killed her father because when one sow the seed of cruelty it never gives one the flower of springs, but an everlasting pain that takes life from one's body not in one time but it makes one's every breath painful. august flynn, who was a sunai, a product of some evil, cruelty and loss of the life of innocent children. but he was born to feed on evil soul to remove the real monsters walking everywhere in the disguise of humans, the crown of all creation. according to his perception of the world, he said that: “it began with a bang” (schwab, 2016, p.21). this universe came into existence by the huge explosion, with a big bang. but it will end because of a bang of human cruelty and deeds which he has been doing to take power and play with the weakness of ones who are fragile. here we can also see the things in august that he is a real monster product of evil, but he wants to become human desperately. he said “i am not a monster, that’s what he wanted to say, but he couldn’t. he hadn’t found a way to make it true” (schwab, 2016, p. 34). he wanted more time to end this bloody game of power and hunger which results in destruction. it may not cause the death of one person or two, but death of families, their dreams and also the optimistic approach of their coming generations. august a sunai, a non-human creature knows the hollowness of men more than men themselves know. they always sing the song of savagery. their hearts are full of poison and bitterness. they cannot imagine the prosperity and happiness of others. they even do not sacrifice their minor things for others. they destroy the happy moments, innocent dreams, houses that every brick is bought by the sweat and blood of their possessors. they destroy the houses of people through violence. to satisfy their mean desires, they commit murder and violent deeds. if one relates this thing to the present situation of the world that how the higher authorities kill brutally the innocent people; the father, the son or husband who is the only bread winner of the family. in america, black people, murder their foes for the sake of revenge. the crime rate is very much higher, they steal the things, money and if anyone resists they kill them. in pakistan, target killing is very common, especially in karachi just for the sake of money and vested-interests. they take the lives of the people. and, with them the whole family is buried in the darkest grave of misery. so in this world of evil, cruelty and darkness august wants some light that is the reason he steals the soul of sinners. and hence his tallies protect him from falling him into the darkness. although he is a product of evil, he wants to remove all the violence from the earth. he wants to fill the world with the light of happiness. and to make this world a place where there is no room for monsters and no catalysts present to breed the new ones. he wants to fulfill the dream of his father, guardian henry flynn to do something to remove the cruelty from this world. august was also very much impressed with his brother leo, the first sunai. he helped his father a lot to do their work for the betterment of their region. his brother said to his father not to worry about them “we are soldiers, flynn. we are holy fire” (schwab, 2016, p. 29). the positivity in his character is because of his guardian henry flynn, who also lost his parents, first wife and brother in this game of blood and power. but he worked for the betterment of the people with the help of his son leo who was also sunai. he was a surgeon and saved people’s life without any greed of money. so as the researcher discusses this thing in her theoretical frame work that the influence of parent’s deeds on children had played a very significant role in the lives of their children. one can see this thing in the contrasting character of both august and kate. the socio-psycho factors had influenced both the character in a different manner, as this thing is reflected through their actions in the whole novel. their perception, their approach towards life is totally different because kate is seeing the appearance and when she realizes the reality of golden coating of coal stones no time is left. and she witnesses the birth of new monster. august who tried his best to save kate from these monsters is helpless. as the humans and our soldiers who gave their lives, energies, dreams, families to stop spreading the game of violence feel helpless as kate and august are. the seed of violence has so much potential in it that without water or manure, it germinates, grows, spreads and covers the whole land automatically. it needs only some hatred and some lust of power, then it spreads and with its dangerous, deadly fangs inflicts wounds that are unable to heal and cure easily. this savage song of violence has been sung by man since time immemorial and this song will be sung till the dooms day. most of the time we hear this that violence breeds violence but no one goes into the depth of this thing. because mostly human-beings become violent for their survival, it is a common approach. men are mostly violent and cruel to save their own lives. no, it is not the reality. they are mostly aggressive to materialize their wild desires that they are unable to fulfill by using the right path. so a person despite of finding a solution mostly choose the wrong path that looks easier but it tangles them in a vicious cycle of miseries that it is difficult to escape from it. after looking at the history of violence, it is known that violence is the main trait of man and it is only curbed by civilization. the primitive man was violent in nature as it was the need of the hour. he had to hunt his prey by using this violent trait for his survival. gradually he learnt sympathy for the fellow creature and in the course of civilization, he adapted kind compassionate behavior. this became his salient trait and transformed him from savage man to human being but civilization has not expunged his violence trait. people say that primitive man became violent because of his survival. no one in this world is violent consciously. man has been given the reasoning faculty which restraints him to become violent, but the beginning of this universe and human development tells us that his violent trait was inevitable for his survival. civilized man is only violent because of his wild desires sometimes it appears in the form of money, women or being dominating. the first murder was committed by cain because of a woman. so when one examines the theme of violence in this novel one realizes this that all the characters in this novel are revolving around their own wishes. if it is said that august is neutral, then it is also incorrect because he was fed up of his own existence. that's why he wants to become human to remove evil from this earth because he was tired from the battle of cruelty started on the earth. in this battle, there is no room for humans, but to monsters only. the tendency of violence in children is also more than their parent's. by looking at this thing in the present world, it can be observed that how the children of these kinds of people have the same type of mental setup. they think that they can achieve all the things through the use of weapons. the upper class controls the lower class by the formula of might is right and this is also the main reason of violence in our society. this thing is also mentioned by the second theorist chosen by the researcher thomas w. blume. in the present century, america, israel, and other european countries have a lot of economic power and armies like callum harker in this novel. these countries spread anarchy in iraq, afghanistan and in syria. recently bomb blasts and target killing have also started in these countries, because, the cost of the lives of innocent poor people is always trivial for them. according to kate: “my father keeps a malchai as a pet” (schwab, 2016, p.244). similarly, the west world also considers the people of east their slaves. they think that all their strength and resources should be used for their own benefits. like the oil resources and some other resources, coal and precious minerals are only beneficial for the west. so that’s why they create anarchy to appease their greed. as callum harker uses the strength of his monsters and also killed them even for minor reasons. but at the end callum harker‟s own monsters killed him at the end of the novel in the same manner as the monsters created by these countries, exploit innocent muslims. ahmed (1999) mentioned in his article “the talibans exposing extremism” the west said that talibans created terrorism in their countries. they are not the talibans, but the pets they keep for their benefits on minor wages for feeding their families and usurping their land and dreams. the violence needs only one reaction one incident that occurred in the verity city twelve years ago and overcome the curse of violence spread in their city, but they were unable to do it. one of their teachers said in her school, she usually thought: but, the teacher had been right about one thing: violence breeds violence...... someone pulls a trigger, set off a bomb, drives a bus full of tourists off a bridge, and what’s left in the wake isn’t just casting shell casing, wreckage and bodies. there’s something else, something bad; an aftermath; a recoil, a reaction to all the torture, cruelty and death. that’s all the phenomenon was really, a tipping point. verity had always been violent the worst in all ten territories – it was only a matter of time before there was enough mass and all that bad started pulling itself together. (schwab, 2016, p. 56) this statement reflects the reality about the birth of violence. nothing is left, but pain and anger from both sides: the actor and the reactor both pay off the debt. the humans are responsible for their own deeds. their footsteps, their own deeds follow them. it makes or breaks their life. the good is simply a word but has depth in its connotation. if one does well, no pain, no monster is created anywhere in this world for him/her. but violence, evil and cruelty have very deep roots, it has no escape. it affects not only one person, but its whole coming generation. it is instinctive in nature. no matter, how good one is, how ignorant one is, it catches man. just like kate has to fight with another monster at the end of the novel. violence from their surroundings surrounds them like an air. violence is present in kate’s gene and august is the product of violence. so both are trying to get rid of this thing, but they are helpless, because the world is full of real beast and blood sucking creatures. if, one tries to observe this thing in this world, one can see that modern man and primitive man both have violent instinct. because violence is instinctive in nature, it is present in the genes of every man and when he sees any weak point of his fellow. his instinct is activated. as kate‟s father callum harker a human being having violence in his instinct and also very active, is shown fully from his acts he said: “every weakness exposes flesh‟ ‟he‟d said, “and flesh invites a knife.‟‟(schwab, 2016, p. 58). man is always selfish, greedy and power hungry. if he is not able to cope with his devilish instinct, then the anarchy and his wrong doing will result harmful not for himself, but also for his generations like kate in this novel. most of the men have been facing the same problem as a result of the violent act of their ancestors. 9. conclusion this was the qualitative research and all the research has been made in the light of objective and research questions. the researchers have analyzed only the main theme in the light of characters of this novel. but there are many gaps still left in the novel. there are many important themes, symbols and characters yet to be explored. the significant theme is the song sung by the savage man. the character of callum harker still has many unfold stories if one relates his psychology, his status to the present human beings; they are also making this world a place of fire and pain. the main thing that how one can find the solution of violence which is spreading in every society of this world. it not only destroys the society, but also inflicts an everlasting pain that also travels into the next generations. how to place at halt the devilish instincts of man is an important issue. it may provide a clue for monsters to feed on their soul. all these things are still needed to be analyzed in this novel. how the violence is so flexible in nature and once it born spreads easily, quickly like an incurable cancer wherever it finds its way. 10. references ahmed, r. 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(2007). violence against girls provokes girls' violence: from private injury to public harm. violence against women, 13(12), 1229-1248. schwab,v .(2016). this savage song, monsters of verity #1.(ist ed.). green willow books. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 41 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 1 a discourse analysis of canadian pm’s speech after new zealand christchurch mosque shootings muhammad amjad riphah international university faisalabad mamjadfsd@gmail.com abstract we use language for different purposes that are mostly related to the social practices in different contexts and perspectives. discourse analysis is one of the disciplines which examines the use of language from different perspectives to reach a possible understanding of the discourse. this paper is also an attempt to analyze language used in a particular context and perspective to understand and expose some constructed realities. the objective of this study is to examine the canadian pm’s moral and ideological standpoint, his commitment to show solidarity with the grieved community, his determination to eradicate terrorism and his linguistic characterization of terrorism that he confirmed in his speech in the house of common on march 18, 2019 after the christchurch mosque shootings in new zealand. the analysis is based on fairclough’s conceptions in cda. it claims that ideologies and texts are interrelated, and it is not possible to break this link between ideologies and texts because the texts can be interpreted in maximum possible ways. this study analyzes the components of ideology and persuasion used in justin trudeau’s speech to reveal his commitment and persuasive strategies against terrorism, and it gives new hopes to the targeted communities worldwide as well as the general public. he tried to ensure the public that they are not alone because the world leaders and the heads of the states are unconditionally united to eradicate worldwide terrorism. keywords: cda, canadian pm speech, new zealand, christchurch mosque shootings 1.introduction 1.1 background of the study “cda is a problem-oriented and multidisciplinary set of theories and methods which have been widely used in educational research” (rogers, 2011). it is a broad field related to the practical use of language in different contexts and perspectives. it focuses on the social practice of language (fairclough & wodak, 1997), and all forms of social practices are tied to specific historical contexts, demands and functions of social situations, relations and cultures to serve different interests. moreover, the grammar system of a language is interlinked with the needs of a society and individuals that language is required to serve (halliday, 1978). “a shared assumption is that discourse can be taken as a multimodal social practice” (rogers, 2011). the manifold roots of mailto:mamjadfsd@gmail.com university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 2 cda focus on different theoretical and methodological approaches, and they have webbed links with different branches of linguistics and “discourse studies have at least seven dimensions in common” (wodak & meyer, 2009). at present, the study of everyday life, decision-making in organizations and political institutions has become a major new focus of cda. it also looks into public and political speeches, advertisements, newspapers, official documents and examines the relationship among languages, ideologies and power. discourse analysts critically study the lexical, syntactical, semantic and pragmatic choices to understand the use of language beyond and behind the text or discourse. their focus is on constructing or exposing realities by using logical arguments or counter-arguments. discourse is always meaningful according to different interpretations in different contexts and perspectives. at cohesive level, it is related to textual, formal and structural features, but at coherence level, it is related to the theme, ideas, pragmatic and world knowledge. cda deals in these two levels. there is a gap of ideas in discourse which we fill with our experience, education, political, economic and social knowledge related to various concepts in an acceptable way. despite all that, a cohesive text can be uncoherent and a coherent text can be non-cohesive. coherent text should be attached with the outer world and logical development of ideas should be according to the social practices and world knowledge. placing the words, phrases, sentences in a different world can change the meaning and interpretation of the same sentence. a sentence in literature, science or in any other area of knowledge will be interpreted differently. the optional elements of world knowledge, moving sequence of events and schemata help to fix the meaning of discourse in different contexts and perspectives. among various areas and perspectives of discourse analysis, the theological and ideological issues are very sensitive in every corner of the world, so even a little misunderstanding can cause controversial debates and uncontrollable riots worldwide because these issues are mostly based on emotional interpretations of ideas, traditions and beliefs. thus, there is a pressing need of time that the thinkers, scholars and research community should play their constructive role to expose the constructed and constructive realities for the people. it is said that failing to address such issues at social, psychological, legal, emotional and ideological levels may cause destructive feedback as recently seen in new zealand christchurch mosque shootings that can be quoted as an example of a theological or an ideological clash among different groups of a society. according to the media reports in new zealand, “the christchurch mosque shootings were two terrorist attacks at the mosques in new zealand during the friday prayer on march 15th, 2019. a 28 years australian white supremacist, as described in media reports, gunman live-broadcasted the first attack in which 50 people were killed and 50 others injured.” politicians and the world leaders condemned the attacks, and pm jacinda ardern described it as "one of new zealand's darkest days." as reported in media, the government has established a royal commission of inquiry into its security agencies on these horrible mass shootings. in this context, canadian pm justin trudeau delivered a speech in the house of common on march 18, 2019 to condemn these deadly attacks, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/terrorist_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/new_zealand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/friday_prayer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/live_streaming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/prime_minister_of_new_zealand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jacinda_ardern https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/royal_commission university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 3 as the global community also condemned the attacks, calling the killer “a monster, a terrorist, a coward motivated by islamophobia and hateful ideology.” this cda of canadian pm speech on christchurch mosque shootings is of great significance because the mp tries to make his audience believe his words to eradicate terrorism. after quoting some verses from the quran and the gospel of mathew, the pm says that our faith lessons bind us together. he also says that we have seen such tragedies many times before. the world leaders should show their responsibilities to establish peace in every corner of the world. these are the responsibilities that we cannot ignore by simply pointing out the problems and sitting together to talk about them. the pm also urges the heads of the states and the world leaders to come forward and use their maximum resources against terrorism. it is a direct and unanimous message to all terrorists and interest groups that the world is unconditionally united to eradicate terrorism. 1.2.significance and purpose of the study canadian mp’s speech on terrorism after christchurch mosque shootings in new zealand is very persuasive to assure the world that canada will do cooperate to the best of its power and economic capacity to eradicate terrorism. the acts of terrorism are the international problems that are very closely related to the theological or the ideological issues, so governments and the world leaders must cooperate to eradicate terrorism. without their commitment, the world cannot be a safe haven for the coming generations. undoubtedly, it is a direct message to all the terrorist organizations and interest groups from the world leaders who unconditionally agree to eradicate terrorism. the pm also urges the world leaders to use maximum intellectual, physical and economic resources against terrorism. his words surely give better hopes to the individuals, minorities and the targeted communities because of his commitment to eradicate terrorism and make the world a safe haven for the coming generations. this discourse analysis tries to expose the hidden meanings of the pm’s speech on these terrorist attacks. it focuses on developing a clear understanding of the moral and ideological standpoint, commitment and determination of canadian mp through his speech after christchurch mosque shootings. moreover, the study will motivate the researchers to investigate and highlight the significance of cda related to the popular world speeches to understand the thoughts of the world leaders and the international community. 1.3.research questions this research study critically analyzes the canadian mp’s speech after the christchurch mosque shootings focusing on the following research questions. a) what is the pm’s moral and ideological standpoint against terrorism that he wants to show to the world through his speech? b) what lexical choices and linguistic expressions have been used to show solidarity with the targeted community? c) what lexical choices and linguistic expressions have been used to show determination to eradicate worldwide terrorism? university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 4 d) how has the pm linguistically characterized the terrorists and the terrorism? 2.the review of literature the term discourse has many definitions, and one is that discourse "integrates the whole palettes of meanings" (titscher et al., 2000). van dijk (1998) says cda is a field that is related to the studies and analysis of written and spoken texts to unfold the discursive sources of power, dominance, inequality and bias. in a similar way, fairclough (1993) defines cda as a discourse analysis that aims to systematically explore often opaque relationships of causality and determination between (a) practices, events and texts being discursive, and (b) wider structures of the society and culture, relationship and processes; to look into how such practices, events and texts arise and are ideologically patterned because of the connections of power and struggles. it also explores the relationships between discourse, society, power and hegemony as quoted by fairclough (1989). thus, cda aims at establishing clear connections among discourse practices, social practices and structures which might be unclear to a layperson. the objective of cda is the use of language as a social practice. language is an important part of society for social practices and communicative purposes (fairclough, 1995). the language users do not function in isolation; they function in different structures. cda accepts all the textual and contextual structures and tries to find out the connections among them, explores the links between structures and their social functions. cda of religious, political, ideological and social speeches is of great interest for the international linguistic community to reach an understanding for many different reasons. researchers are making intellectual efforts to contribute towards various areas of cda including the analysis of literary texts, newspapers, power, politics and speeches. many speeches of the well-known political and religious leaders have been critically analyzed by researchers such as sharififar and rahmani (2015) analyzed obama’s and rouhani’s speeches at un, but there is no critical discourse analysis of this speech. this research study is an attempt to contribute to the existing knowledge through the analysis of canadian pm’s speech. the main analytical tool of our paper is the "three-dimensional method of discourse analysis" introduced by fairclough namely the language text, written or spoken, discourse practice and the social and cultural practices. 3. research methodology the text and video data of the canadian mp’s speech delivered on march 18, 2019 have been taken from www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2gwe6pbxis for this study. only the qualitative paradigm has been used to understand different perspectives of the speech focusing on the analysis of lexical and syntactical choices, intonation and stress patterns in the speech, the body language of the pm and all kinds of references in the speech to answer the related questions in this particular sociocultural context as stated in (1.3. a-d). for the purpose of cda of this speech, fairclough model of "three-dimensional method of discourse analysis" has been chosen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2gwe6pbxis university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 5 4.data analysis the data analysis has been done in four subsections focusing on the main ideas in research questions. these subsections are the analysis of ideological standpoint, linguistic devices, lexical choices and linguistic characterization of terrorists. • analysis of ideological standpoint: our analysis and interpretations of this speech show its links with international terrorism and the current terrorist attacks in new zealand. the most important sentences of the pm’s speech with critical analysis are stated below to understand the meanings behind the text. a) “mr. speaker, before we begin, our hearts go…who are…the aftermath of a tram shooting.” before discussing some of the main points of his speech about the terrorist attacks at the mosques, the pm expresses his emotions by shedding tears on this tragedy and the significance of its aftereffects. this is a kind of psychological treatment of the grieved families by offering the tearful condolence. the researchers do not call it a political move at the international level to win a kind of favor and popularity among the international community on the bases of humanity. they do not question the sincerity of the pm by looking at his innocently pulled down face shedding tears during his speech among the elected official gathering, but the chances of these political moves and psychological treatment cannot be minimized as it is said that nothing is permanent and impossible is possible in politics. it can be an intentional and deliberate effort to construct another reality and discourse, but positively speaking, his words and the way of tearful condolence are like healing ointment for the emotionally injured people of those grieved communities. b) “we stand with our dutch friends … we will be reaching to out …offer our …support.” he shows his great determination to stand with the dutch friends and reach them to offer all possible supports at that difficult time. it is a short but clear message to the terrorists that the world is united unconditionally on this issue to strongly support the eradication of terrorism in every corner of the world. this is also a kind of persuasion and motivation at the international level, so the other countries and world leaders can come forward for this purpose. in this way, their strong message will not only discourage the terrorists and their organizations but also give a ray of hope to the grieved communities that their future is in the safe hands of the committed leaders. c) “mr. speaker, i rise today to …deepest condolences to all …in new zealand.” once again, he expresses his deepest and mournful condolence to all the grieving people in new zealand and the worldwide grieved communities from himself and from the people of his country. the purpose of his speech is to condole with the grieved communities as he mentioned. this is also a psychological therapy of those sad families in new zealand and in other parts of the world. there is no doubt that love, respect and politeness are very strong antibiotics which can heal the bad injuries, and the pm’s healing words do have positive and healing impacts. d) “our friends and …the worst terrorist attack …. an attack … islamophobia. fifty …murdered …dozens …injured. gunned down ….” university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 6 according to the pm, this is the worst attack in the history of new zealand in which many friends have suffered. he also declares and links this attack with islamophobia in which fifty men, women, children and elderly people were murdered during the prayers. there were also many injuries during the shootings. he expresses his anger and feelings of hatred by calling the killer a monster, a terrorist and a coward. his clear message and statement also show that people know, and they should know the reasons of the negative motivation of such hateful people by islamophobia and such hateful ideology behind such terrorist attacks. e) “our hearts ache for mothers and …who …chance to say goodbye to their ….” once again, he expresses his emotions of painful hearts because fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, parents and friends will never say goodbye to their relatives whom they love a lot. this is again a psychological therapy at the social relationship level by mentioning the family relationships of people. he is able to create a sense of relationship and bridge the gaps among the grieved families and the world leaders. the hearts-ache, he adds, because of such tragedies; they shake all the human beings even the strangers. the pm hits the nail on the head and catches the attention of the people by talking about these human relationships. f) “loved ones killed by a hateful …who ascribed to a hateful ideology.” here he touches an important point related to the hateful individual and hateful ideology which cause such problems at the international level. he tries to make people sure that such terrorist attacks are because of the hatefulness in individuals or in their ideologies, and it is very dangerous for our society and can cause such mournful events of killing innocent people for nothing. the world leaders do understand such hateful ideologies behind such killings. that is why, he gives a clear message that such tragedies are because of some individuals from different countries, religions and interest groups. this is also an indirect message that the people from these countries and religions are not of such hateful mentality. they are very peaceful people who are also against such killing of innocent people. g) “to our muslim friends here …, know that we mourn …you. we feel …pain,…we love you.” he uses heart-winning words to address the muslim community in canada, new zealand and all over the world that canadian people also mourn with the muslims, feel their pain and love them. such sympathetic attitude and expressions do not let the people be disappointed and turn them to be the hateful individuals having the hateful ideologies because of such targeted, fearful and cruel terrorist attacks. h) “the quran tells us: “the true servants of the most merciful … also heard it in the gospel of matthew.” these are the historical words of the pm in the speech which will be remembered and quoted for ages. he highlights the importance of peace by quoting the verses from the quran and the gospel of matthew. the quran teaches its followers to reply with the words of peace when the foolish quarrel with them and the gospel also speaks of no revenge. religious motivation, in the positive or negative sense, has no match at any level. the pm uses the religious references very skillfully to convince the people worldwide on the peace issue. it is also a message to the terrorists and their university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 7 organizations that they are not following any religion because the religions do not teach such hateful actions of killing innocent people as he quoted from the revealed books. i) “innocent people are killed. headlines blare out …. it is shameful, and sadly.” whenever some innocent people are killed in such terrorist attacks, there are different kinds of headlines in the newspapers using different lexical choices to construct some realities. it is also painful to read such words in the papers as “mass shootings, faith-based slaughter and terrorist attack.” such news headlines also cause fear among the nations which are already engaged in a close fight or struggle without weapons. he calls such events shameful and sadly. they are sadly because of the death toll and injuries of innocent people; they injure everyone related to those people. they are also shameful because there are still many people who have debates on such tragedies in different contexts and perspectives, and that we are unable to control them fully. j) “the leaders …bear some responsibilities. …we can …by simply pointing fingers.” this is another strong statement reminding the world leaders of their responsibilities. he urges the world leaders by reminding them of their responsibilities to play their vital role to eradicate terrorism; this needs some practical steps to resolve such problems. just talking about these problems and pointing out some problem areas cannot help anyway. he also indirectly criticizes those who just talk about such deadly attacks and do not take part in practical activities against terrorism. it means that responsibility is an integral part of successful life, and people cannot make progress in any sphere of life without it. then people should not think of resolving such challenging problems without taking their responsibilities seriously. k) “we see …, in online harassment… places of worship, acts of violence, and even murder.” he declares, despite all their possible and considerable efforts, that canada is still facing many security related problems of online harassment and of security at the worship places including violence and killing because of some hateful individuals and ideology. it shows that the canadian government is observing and addressing such problems at different levels. it is a kind of disappointment to show that canada is a big country having many resources to eradicate terrorist activities, but the success level is not as high as required or expected by such a resourceful country. therefore, the world should keep making all its possible efforts to resolve these worldwide problems. if we are united to fight against this worldwide problem despite the lack of resources, we will overcome it, and we will lose if we do not have the intention to do it. l) “we have seen an increase …terrorist attacks targeting muslims….” this is also an important point that the pm officially mentions about the critical and sympathetic position of the international muslim communities. the muslims are being attacked for different reasons all over the world, but some of the countries do not accept this reality because of their own interests. this reference of the pm’s speech in the house of common can be an authentic quote and a convincing argument of targeting the muslim all over the world. this is a statement neither of a muslim leader nor of a layman; it is an official statement by a pm of a secular democratic country which is very closely related to the western countries for its political, religious and economic interests. thus, it is not possible for the anti-islamic leaders to reject this statement. this university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 8 is also notable that this statement is not of an individual, but it is a statement by a pm in the presence of all the respectable elected members of the house of common. this is another heartwining political statement of the pm which convinces the international muslim community to appreciate him for being a man of principle. m) “anti-immigrant hatred, right-wing extremism, white nationalism, neo-nazi terrorism.” after mentioning the targeted attacks at the muslims all over the world, the pm critically mentions the reasons behind such attacks. he further says that there are a few individuals with such a hateful behavior and ideology who negatively response to the immigrants worldwide. it also shows that this hateful response against the muslims is from different social groups as he mentions them by their worldwide brand names. these groups are everywhere and in every corner of the world; they are in every sect, religion, social, political and economic interest group. n) “i am calling on like-minded countries …in this fight. muslim, christian… – we must fight …as a team.” this is one of the best sentences in the speech that the pm invites all – the muslims, the christian, the jewish, the black and white – all the world to stand with canada as a team to fight against individual and collective hatred ideology. it should be a team of practical actions to resolve the issues; it is not just thinking and praying after such attacks. the meanings behind the text also show that there are many world leaders and countries that want to work together against this international issue, and there are a few world leaders and countries that have their biased ideologies, so their support is only verbal. their behavior not only encourages such hateful ideology, but it also encourages practical support from different social, political and religious groups. by calling on the countries for support against terrorism, he stresses on the collective efforts by every social group as a team. it seems that he believes in the collective efforts for success; otherwise, it will not be possible to eradicate this deep-rooted social problem at the international level. o) “mr. speaker, there are …people than the bad …. we must counter this hatred. and together, we will.” the pm also mentions that the good people are large in numbers as compare to the bad people, so the light will outweighs the dark and the good will outnumber the evil. we must counter this hatred, and we can do it easily when we work together as a team. without any differentiation among religious and social groups, he mentions that the good people are large in number as compare to the bad people, and it is in every country, region, sect or religion, political, economic and social group. it also shows that the pm wants to take the international community with him to fight against this hateful ideology to eradicate terrorism. • analysis of lexical choices & linguistic expressions for solidarity with effected community: in this section, lexical choices and linguistic expressions, which show solidarity with the effected community, have been discussed to understand the meanings behind the texts. a) “we will be reaching out to our counterparts to offer …support.” university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 9 the pm assures an unwavering support to the government in new zealand as a counterpart. he uses the pronoun ‘we’ to declare that it is not only his point of view to fight against terrorism but also of all the elected members of the present government. they are all unconditionally united to offer their continuous support at all levels against terrorism. here again he gives a message that all the terrorists and their organizations do cooperate with one another for their hateful ideology to destroy the world peace, so we as the peace keepers and peace makers should also cooperate with one another to establish worldwide peace. our personal interests should not force us to keep quiet when the innocent people are being attacked and the world peace is being ruined for nothing. b) “i rise today to express canada’s deepest condolence …in nz.” he shows his strong determination to stand with the dutch friends and reach them to offer all possible physical, intellectual and economic supports at that difficult time. it is also a clear message to the terrorists that the world is united unconditionally to eradicate terrorism from every corner of the world. this is also a kind of persuasion and motivation at the international level, so the other countries and the world leaders should come forward for this purpose. in this way, their strong message will not only discourage the terrorists and their organizations but also give a ray of hope to the targeted communities worldwide that their and their children’s future is in the safe hands of the committed leaders. these lexical choices and linguistic expressions show solidarity with the effected communities worldwide. c) “we mourn with you. we feel your pain, and we love you.” these are also the lexical choices and expressions to show love and solidarity with the grieved community to take part in their moments of sadness and pain. these lexical choices show the pm’s concern to realize and feel their pain in such a difficult time. he further adds that all the people in the government and the people of canada love the muslims in the country, and they are with them at every step of this difficult time. here the pm expresses his concerns by simple lexical choices that emotionally attract the grieved communities worldwide. d) “people are tired of fighting …of their leaders.” this expression shows that the pm is positively thinking about the people who have been suffering for a long time, and they are still doing all their work regularly and punctually. such critical conditions could not break their nerves. he appreciates the people who are facing all these problems for a long time without the practical support of their leaders. before losing their hopes and giving up, we should take our responsibilities to eradicate all kinds of terrorism. if people lose their hopes and stand against their leaders for not taking their responsibilities seriously, no one can stop them, and we can then do nothing to control and face their anger. this situation will strengthen the others to be successful in their purposes. these expressions also force the people to be on the side of the pm despite their dissatisfaction. e) “we have … reforms around gun control.” here he gives a new hope and another assurance to the people saying that the government has taken some strict and meaningful steps related to gun control in the country. it means the government will make it sure that no one can buy, smuggle and carry guns illegally, and it can help to maintain the law and order situations and avoid such mournful tragedies in the future. it university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 10 might be just an idea or beginning of the plan, but it is much more for the public as they are used to construct new hopes on the true or false promises of their political leaders. thus, it is a better way to show solidarity in such a simple manner. f) “we increased funding … places of worship.” to maintain law and order situations in the country, there is a pressing need to allocate huge budgets for training, patrolling, and security agencies of the countries so that they can perform better at all levels. the governments mostly hesitate to allocate huge budgets for such projects which are unseen, but here the pm shows the concerns with the targeted community by mentioning the allocation of huge budgets for security reforms. it is also a kind of effective psychological hook to catch the attention of the public and successfully convince and motivate the people to pay their taxes willingly and happily because these taxes are spent on different projects of public interests including the security of their lives, properties and a happy future of their children. g) “there are more … than bad in the world.” he also gives his positive opinion about the people in the world focusing on their interests by these simple lexical choices that also shows his hopes to overcome these problems step by step if it is not possible as quickly as it should be because of the sensitivity of the issue. at this stage, he calls the world for peace distinguishing between the good and bad people. those who are coming to join the team against terrorism are among the good people and those who are just thinking of their own interests are from the bad people because they focused on their own interests even at the cost of world peace and human lives. h) all these lexical choices and expressions are heart winning and heart consoling in such a mournful situation where people see the dead bodies of their loved ones. each of his words is like some healing ointment for aching hearts of the grieving families and friends. the pm not only expresses his deepest condolence to the grieving families but also shows his pain and love for them. he uses the words such as unwavering support, deepest condolence, grieving, heart ache, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, parents and friends, mourn, pain, love, responsibility, maintain freedom, meaningful reforms, gun control, increase funding, security at places of worship, much more to do and more good people than bad people. all these lexical choices express the deepest emotions, sympathy and solidarity of the pm with the targeted communities in the world. • analysis of lexical choices & linguistic expressions used to show the eradication of terrorism: these lexical choices and linguistic expressions of the pm show his determination to eradicate worldwide terrorism. a) “the leaders …bear some responsibility. …can no longer ignore simply pointing fingers.” he shows his determination to eradicate terrorism by calling on the world leaders to realize their responsibility. without this realization, it will not be possible to see a peaceful world. those who bear responsibilities are among us and those who think about their interests are others who prefer their own interests even at the cost of world peace and human lives. this is also a worldwide message that there are world leaders and countries that are not taking their responsibilities seriously to give a safe and better future to the coming generations. it is a kind of hook to convince the university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 11 people in favor of the policies of the present government because the government is thinking of the better future of the coming generations. b) “we cannot let … these 50 deaths unlearned.” here the pm indirectly mentions taking strict actions against the terrorists who are killing the innocent people. the lesson of these 50 deaths must not be left unlearnt this time. it is all because human lives are very precious on the earth, and nothing is more important than this. thus, those who commit crimes against humanity must be punished and let them be an example for those who do not cooperate with us to establish peace in the world. nothing is more important for us than the lives and prosperity of our people in the world. the pm again speaks about what people are thinking using very simple words and expressions. c) “we can take a stand…in canada and around …, and say … is enough.” he mentions that we should not bear such losses anymore and give some crushing reply saying that enough is enough. if we do not do it now, we cannot stop the international terrorism anywhere. there is a limit for every human being to bear such things. if we do not say that enough is enough, the world community will say it, and then we do not have any choice to control things. this sentence also shows the anger of the pm because some countries are not taking their responsibilities seriously. he wants the international community to take up this issue seriously for the grand interests of their people as well as for the coming generations. d) “we will do what need …. and we will bring this message …stage.” here the pm promises with the people that the government will do what is needed at every level and will also be able to bring this message at the international level for better hopes in the future. on one hand, people are cooperating with their governments and the world leaders, and they are looking at them for some decisive results. on the other hand, the governments and the world leaders are still thinking of their long term interests. if the world does not take up these issues as suggested and recommended, we will keep experiencing such horrible tragedies of death traps and tolls somewhere in the world. e) “the fight against racism and … fight. but we can’t put it off anyway.” he further says that there are different context and perspectives of this issue, so we have to fight against this hateful ideology whenever and wherever we find it without thinking of our personal and national interests because human lives are more important. we have to do it for humanity. if we fan the flame now because of our interests, we cannot save our own home from the upcoming fatal accidents. there is no other and better way to eradicate terrorism if we control racism and discrimination either through table talks or else. to engage these people of hateful ideology to come to the table for dialogue is also a kind of fight at psychological and ideological levels to eradicate worldwide terrorism. it is only possible if we decide to do it keeping away the national ego, pride of strong military power and selected snobberies. f) “we must counter this hatred. and together, we will.” all these lexical choices and expressions show the determination and strong will-power of the pm to eradicate the international terrorism. he calls on all the international leaders to come forward and stand with the canadian government, and his words show his determination to resolve such university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 12 hateful issues at the individual and the ideological levels. the pm tries to show a better and peaceful future to people and their children where everyone will live peacefully, and people will not be attacked because of their faith and ideology. the pm uses the words such as unwavering support, responsibility, take a stand, enough is enough, call on countries to stand with canada, fight as a team, investigations into extreme hate groups, fight against racism and intolerance and can’t put it off. all these words show the pm’s determination and unwavering support to eradicate terrorism all over the world. • analysis of linguistic characterization for terrorism: the pm uses very strong words for the linguistic characterization of terrorists which show the anger and determination of the world leaders against terrorists and terrorism. a) these lexical choices and linguistic expressions for characterization of terrorism show the negative denotative and connotative meanings in a broad perspective. the words have been chosen from different contexts. he not only uses words of negative meanings but also the words which represent different extremist groups in different religions and societies. these terrorist groups are active in different parts of the world, so he uses the words which are mostly used by the international electronic and print media for different kinds of worldwide terrorist attacks. b) he uses the words such as the worst terrorist attack, attack motivated by islamophobia, gunned down by a monster, a coward, the hateful individuals and ideology, the mass shooting, the faithbased slaughter, the shameful, anti-semitic, anti-black, anti-indigenous, anti-immigrant, the rightwing extremism, the white nationalism, neo-nazi terrorism, daesh, al-qaida and boko haram. these lexical choices and expressions represent different social, religious, ideological and hateful classes or interest groups worldwide. they have their own ideology of the right and wrong, the religious tolerance or dialogues for peace in the world. by his linguistic and lexical choices, the pm touches every ideological corner related to different social groups which are involved in worldwide terrorist activities. c) there are also many important linguistic features of the speech which need analysis from different perspectives. the pm uses many incomplete sentences, incomplete phrases and even words to express his ideological standpoint and the concern of the canadian government. in this style of real-life discourse, he uses anaphoric and cataphoric references, transitional words for cohesive devices, logical development of ideas as a coherence device, unity and many other linguistic features. the co-text, which he uses in the main text of speech, helps the readers to fully understand the context of his speech. all these verbal and nonverbal expressions and features elaborate his chosen words, phrases and sentences in their context and perspective for better understanding. 5.findings a) the pm selected very simple and impressive lexical choices and linguistic expressions to convey his standpoint against terrorism and convince the muslim communities worldwide by offering his full support to eradicate terrorism for the better future of the coming generations. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 13 b) he urged the international leaders and countries to take their responsibilities seriously instead of just talking about these problems. c) he also used some peace references from the quran and the gospel to convince people against terrorism, and it is a message to the terrorists that they are not following any religion because a religion does not allow killing of innocent people for any reason. d) he called all terrorist organizations worldwide by their brand names indicating their negative roles of destroying the world peace for their personal interests even at the cost of human lives. he used negatively strong lexical choices for the terrorist who attacked the christchurch mosques in new zealand. e) the pm also hooked people by talking about human relations, their importance in life and the human emotions for which people can do everything. f) he successfully convinced and assured the people about the better future of the coming generations because the world leaders are unconditionally united to eradicate worldwide terrorism. conclusion discourse analysis is a broad field that is related to the practical use of language in different contexts and perspectives. it focuses on language as a social practice and all forms of social practices are linked to particular historical contexts, demands and functions of social situations, relations and cultures to serve different interests and purposes. after going through the different stages and contexts of this discourse analysis of the canadian pm’s speech in the house of common on march 18, 2019 after the christchurch mosque shootings in new zealand, the researchers have come to the conclusion that the pm very successfully elaborated his moral and ideological standpoint against terrorism. he showed solidarity with the targeted community through his best lexical choices, linguistic expressions and his determination to eradicate worldwide terrorism. he openly mentions the terrorist organizations one by one by their brand names and invites the international community to stand with canadian government to address these issues at different levels instead of pointing these problems with fingers only. this can only be successfully done when we work and fight all together as a team for the prosperity and better future of the coming generation. reference canadian pm’s speech (2019). www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2gwe6pbxis dijk, t. a. (1998). ideology and discourse. barcelona: pompeu fabra university. retrieved from http://www.discourses.org/unpublishedarticles/ideology%20and%20discourse.pdf fairclough, n. (1989). language and power. london: longman publishing fairclough, n. (1993). discourse and social change. cambridge: blackwell publishing fairclough, n. (1995). critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language. london: longman publisher http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2gwe6pbxis http://www.discourses.org/unpublishedarticles/ideology%20and%20discourse.pdf university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 2 | issue ii | july – dec | 2018 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 14 fairclough, n., & wodak, r. (1997). critical discourse analysis, in t.a. van dijk (ed.) discourse as social interaction. london: sage, 258-284 halliday, m. (1978). language as social semiotics: the social interpretation of language and meaning. london: edward arnold rogers, r. (2011). an introduction to critical discourse analysis (second. ed). london: routledge sharififar, m., & rahimi, e. (2015). critical discourse analysis of political speeches: a case study of obama's and rouhani's speeches at un. theory and practice in language studies, 5 (2), 343 – 349 titscher, s., meyer, m.; wodak, r.; & vetter, e. (2000) methods of text and discourse analysis. london: sage. wodak, r., & mayer, m. (2009). critical discourse analysis: history, agenda, theory and methodology 1. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265678850 @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265678850 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 1 contemporary issues of radical temper in leonard ikerionwu’s heroes of change: a marxist study raphael chukwuemeka onyejizu nnamdi azikiwe university, nigeria raphaelnjz@gmail.com abstract this paper sets out to examine the contemporary issues of radical temper in leonard ikerionwu’s prose fiction. it aimed at showing that the myriads of challenges of the nigerian socio-political enclave have not escaped the creative consciousness of the emergent african (nigerian) writer and critic. it was discovered that the text under study carefully mirrored the present society from the marxist viewpoint, highlighting attendant problems such as marginalization among the rank and file of the military, poverty, corruption, unemployment, insecurity and leadership ineptitude. in the light of these potent issues presented, the paper sought to educate and appeal to the masses’ conscience to perceive revolution as an alternative means, towards the total restoration of change in human society. key words: literary creativity, radical temper, marxism, commitment, revolution, heroes of change introduction literary creativity in the 21st century has continued to revolve around societal concerns and matters which frequently draw the attention of african (nigerian) writers from within their environment. this has witnessed writers existing as custodians of the moral conscience of their societies where they practice their profession and project the creative art. through their literary reflections, which make possible the relaying of events of the past and present history, they consistently demonstrate that literature is not only unique a tool for creative ends, but that it greatly does so in its dynamic and transformational appeal to life. this has seen writers transcending limits, and employing multiple ways of mirroring myriad situations and actions that tug at our very human existence. thus, through their literatures, the social education, reorientation and re-direction of society, they have effectively accounted for the remediating effect in human lives and relationships in recent times. similarly, n. m. obi captures the view on literature and its social essence as that “… important means of understanding and interpreting human beings and aspects of society such as politics, religion, economics, social conflicts, class struggles and human condition through the medium of language” (487). contributing, charles nnolim notes that: literature as art deploys language embellished with pleasurable accessories to paraphrase aristotle, and it is around the embellished use of language that the creative energy of the university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 2 society deploys itself. and to invest the story with meaning, there must be some themes, some moral, and some philosophy of life and some metaphor of life that tugs at the edges of symbols. as in all arts, literature is useful, for as art, it is not a waste of time. (3) literature and the society have symbiotic relationship. by this, the literary artist is the fulcrum upon which his creative transmission of values and socio-political norms of men in africa and nigeria in particular thrive. despite this observation, what keeps the artist’s thoughts alive is literature which according to ngugi wa thiong’o, “…results from the conscious acts of men in society”, and that, “the act of writing implies a social relationship” (5).thus, various literatures, either oral or written, derive their implicit and explicit inspiration from socially dependent phenomena. for this reason, literature maintains a unique status of uncovering potent truths embedded in the creative process. from the outset, writers of literature in africa and nigeria in particular have been passionate in protesting and agitating against social decay, corruption, leadership crisis, unemployment, child molestation, military brutality, political dictatorship, etc. these topical themes majorly lend credence to revolutionary art which in the opinion of mao tse tung “… should create all kinds of characters drawn from real life and help the masses to move new history forward” (23). this dimension to art gains currency in some contemporary literatures and show the direction in which the nigerian literary scene identifies itself with. interestingly, the works which are classified as ‘revolutionary’ inspire spirited rebellion against the backdrop of social malaises. they are written by writers who assume their responsibilities as builders and reformers in the society. in this case, they employ satire as a suitable characteristic mode to depict the prevailing contradictions orchestrated by the ruling class and collectively strive for absolute change that literary creativity tenably affords. their perception of society’s dilemma derives from multiple but recurrent phenomena of bad governance among other mentioned problems, potent enough to spur literary rejuvenation. thus, their literatures vigorously aim at tackling the clogs in the wheel of progress, head on. that notwithstanding, a cursory survey of the literary oeuvre of scholars such as ngugi wa thiong’o, wole soyinka, festus iyayi, osumane sembene and alex la guma, disclose precedent preoccupations with post-colonial issues. such is the case with emergent writers of modern extraction, whose creative oeuvre encompass in accomplishing the demands and expectations of african literature in the 21stcentury. today, we tend to associate their works as janus-faced with variegated events in the present socio-political and socio-economic dispensation, most especially in heroes of change (2015). in the novel, leonard ikerionwu tailors his scathing criticism towards the nigerian terrain, examining extensively, the manifold crisis of human existence that has unnaturally become common pastime in the lives of civilians. he registers his voice with a prose fiction that cast critical university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 3 glances at nigeria’s recent history, suggesting a revolutionary modicum of liberating it, and also, revealing to the world that his proactive vision of society also redemptive. it is in the light of the above-mentioned concerns that the research arose. by the same token, a clearer understanding of radical temper would suffice, to be preceded by some reviews of related scholarship and the theoretical framework germane to this study. the concept of radical temper radical temper is one of the literary ways of writing that takes centre stage in the study of nigerian and african literature. it results in writers employing confrontational means of addressing themes of dictatorship, leadership failure, neo-colonialism, corruption, racism, etc, through literature, which authenticates the lived-protest and reactions of writers within the continent. this method of writing derives from “radicalism” and espouses the belief in radical ideas and principles for farreaching ends. it further suggests a proactive, transformative and visionary perspective for the attainment of positive change by reverting to the roots. kenneth nzebueze kanu in identifying its stages avers that: radicalism could be a human sentiment that could be interpreted in three ways. in the first place, it abuses the objects of moral indignation; secondly, it encourages the destruction of systems and social set-ups considered obnoxious, and finally, it carries out democratic reconstruction of the society based on socialist humanism.(51) further, such complexities as highlighted above which radical works project, accounts for the combative nature of the art. this arises when the ailing social structure is overstretched and the call to confront such situation becomes imminent. thus, this radical ideological position according to augusto boal will aim at: diminishing, placing, satisfying and ultimately eliminating all that can break the “balance all”, indicating the revolutionary transforming impetus which can lead men and women to perceive that the power to change the world rests in their very hands.(42) this standpoint in art is taken by african writers as a viable means of dethroning the capitalist superstructure so as to enthrone egalitarian society. proponents of radicalism anticipate the disintegration of society as long as it remains in the hands of capitalists; they advocate a radical change, a dethronement of the agents of capitalism. this is usually achieved through communal support within the framework of characterization in the fictive art, and by extension, the physical world. iji m. eddie sees radicalism as: …an inclination, a tendency favouring extreme changes, which may also include a return to basic principles of life distorted or dislocated through varied process of corruption. consequently, radicalism could be further modified to connote a psycho-social exuberance of the creative minority or an individual who revolts against the dominant modes or certain established conventions of the society. (2) university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 4 and in radical works, commitment reveals greater insight into the onus of this vision towards the conditions of the masses. radicalism is centered on the notion of commitment in creative art, and this basically concerns itself with the welfare of the masses. it has no lopsided interest in the bourgeois class. more so, chinua achebe notes that: the writer has a sense of obligation, a strong attachment to a cause… when we speak of a writer’s commitment; we mean his identification with a particular social aim and use of his writing to advance those aims. this of course implies a belief that literature can and should be used as a force for social transformation, and the writer should be responsible enough to do just that.(182) the literature of commitment upholds a consistent desire to stimulate the consciousness of africans through literary creativity, to see the visionary perspective of radical ideology, the evils of capitalism and its attendant subjugation of the masses. this also forms the major subject of the radical oeuvre. its end is the establishment of an egalitarian society through the marxist dialectical approach. as a concept in literature that operates in diverse scopes, it has its classical, sociological, political, marxist, cultural, religious, and military perspectives, which emphasize change. the version of radicalism which this paper settles for is marxist-driven. in other words, it builds on the marxist aesthetics (ideology), propounded by karl marx and engels to achieve revolution. theoretical framework marxist literary criticism shows concern with the relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat classes as presented in a work of art. here, economic factors are indices of delineation between the two classes. the proponents of marxism preach that writers should be at the frontline of protecting man from suffering and that literary imagination should reflect man’s fight against nature. this is emphasized in the communist manufesto by marx and engels with the notion that: …the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of struggles.” in the same vein, “it … sees classes as being in economic categories based on control and access to the means of production, culminating in a class society of the proletariats and bourgeoisies. the two principle social classes are considered as the material foundation of any society. (ikerionwu 42) also, terry eagleton sees marxism as “a scientific theory of human societies and of the practice of transforming them”(111). similarly, france muthern quoted by eagleton states that “marxism is not merely ‘sociology of literature’ but aims to explain this literary work more fully and this means a sensitive extension to its form, style and meaning” (200). the thrust of the struggle is the transformation of human society. harry shaw too, conceptualizes marxism as “a system of thought university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 5 which explains the struggle that throughout history, the state has exploited the masses” (221). he further states that: class struggle has always been the principal means of effecting historical changes; that the capitalist system contains the seeds of its own decay that after a period of dictatorship of the proletariat socialist order and classless society will emerge. (221) this marxist ideology expresses the trepidations of the capitalist structure in the society, especially between the rich and the poor, where the poor are the objects of oppression. the fundamental bearing of the proponents of prose fiction is on the dimension of change through revolution, and of art as an effective transformative tool in the society. according to chinyere nwahunaya in literary criticism, critical theory and post colonial african literature: what is often considered as extreme view of the sociological approach is the marxist approach which ties literature to the economic base and ideological superstructure in its system of dialectical materialism. it champions the downtrodden of socioeconomic class, critiquing texts that assume a class society of economic elitism and hegemony, and champions texts that support the “common man”. it asks of the writer that he uses his art as a weapon to expose the falsities of a bourgeois culture, and becomes a propagandist for the destined society in which all men would be happy and free because they would have lost their economic claims. to the marxist, the writer who does not do this is unacceptable and even dangerous. (34-35) the course of the downtrodden is achieved through revolution. this reinforces the notion of class variance which becomes inevitable in the form of conflict between the bourgeoisies and the proletariat. thus, dual tactics emerge towards revolution in the society: the first harps on the virulent suppression of the oppressive and exploitative power of the property-owning class by the proletariat, the other echoes the steady approach to revolution which revolves around the conflict in the individual conscience. this is marxist philosophy in motion. it is a philosophy that concerns itself with man’s freedom from oppression with its major thrust on revolutionary humanism. this doctrine advocates the revolutionary transformation of a society in the interest of the harmonious development of the human person. contemporary writers within the marxist circle often address the plight of downtrodden workers of the world, against the backdrop of injustice and misrule. no wonder then that marx according to arjun appadurai; posits that if this has to stop, if the oppressed must be liberated, then, there must be social revolution: a social revolution is inevitable because the future development of capitalism will take the form of the concentration of capital in fewer hands, while at the same time, there will be ever closer and more elaborate organization of the proletariat, at the climax, the proletariat university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 6 will arise and overthrow the capitalist class and expropriate them of the means of production. (118) marx and engels’ ideology has long inspired african radical writers to delve into the african society, shifting grounds from a critical realist position to a radical social standpoint with a social realist thought that believes in proletariat potentials for the obliteration of capitalism. this has had an enhancing effect to the growth of classless society and an immeasurable development of humanity. to this wise, radical literatures see capitalism as a symbol of oppression and marginalization of the less privileged in the society. this accounts for creation of the literature of radical impulse, carefully sustained in revolt, uprising and collective struggle by the downtrodden of the society as the only means through which capitalist superstructures can be destroyed. to this end, one of the major primary concerns of african radical prose fiction is an amendment of the western modes of bourgeois writing and criticism and to encourage an african marxist socialist literary aesthetics. having expressed the views above, we shall now turn over to the text. heroes of change leonard ikerionwu’s debut novel, heroes of change x-rays the socio-political milieu of the present nigerian environment and makes strong inquiry into the lived conditions of its citizens. a cursory reading of the blurb shows that, the novel is: … a reminiscent and scintillating synthesis of historical wars which progressively recreates a fictional dialectic of revolutionary consciousness. through its conscientization and awareness of the peasant farmers, traders, artisans, ex-service men and a lot more, these groups match up to brigadier banjo’s house; a representative of the tyrannical government. as a conventional novel, it interjects dialectical discourse on burning issues such as marginalization among the rank and file of the military, child abuse, drunkenness, poverty, unemployment, corruption and so on. (blurb n.pag) heroes of change is also a tart criticism of inequality and social malaise which pervade the nigerian society. practically, the novel is embedded in marxist terms foretelling a social cataclysm with the masses emerging triumphantly. the novel also intermingles with a few songs and drama. david ker in literature and society in africa categorizes the expectation of a writer in “the modern writers and commitment”. he captures jean sartre’s view that “it is unthinkable that a writer should not be practically committed” (3). quoting him on the core of literature, he says that any literary writer “must put himself on the side of the majority of the two billion striving, if he wishes to be able to speak to all and be read by all; failing that, he is at the service of a privileged class and like it an exploiter” (3). ker considers that the literary writer “must recognize his obligations to his society and throw many explosives as possible, after all his own safety may depend on it” (3). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 7 more so, achebe remarks that “the african writer cannot… be unaware of or indifferent to, the monumental injustice which his people suffer”(78). ikerionwu appears to adhere, rather strictly to achebe’s admonition above. his critical shifts are basically directed at leadership ineptitude in the country. his commitment towards social transformation in umuowa is aptly portrayed in the novel. umuowa, governed by a tyrant, brigadier banjo in whose presence the rotten eggs of corruption and leadership misrule are swiftly hatched, does little to assuage the plights of the poor in his community. in the novel, no reservation is needed to satirize other social anomalies that becloud the community which microcosmically symbolize nigeria society. some of the issues raised includes: marginalization, insecurity, poverty and unemployment. they rear their obnoxious heads within the confines of the country and pose greater challenge to the growth of the nation at large. but with a critical sweep made on the nigerian security personnel over their lack of patriotism and devotion to the protection of lives and property of the citizens as their fundamental objective, the writer draws our consciousness to the question of insecurity. this failure marks our leader’s delay to identify the location and whereabouts of the adopted chibok girls by the dreaded boko haram insurgents, whose excesses have drawn the attention of international communities in a campaign, tagged “bring back our girls” which till date, leaves much to be desired. the next issue raised in the novel is the historical incident of “apo six” in the narrative, which historically witnessed the unlawful killings of nigerian citizens who were on the way from abuja and were mistaken for hoodlums by a group of ruthless police officers of the nigerian police force. the writer uses this historic experience to rouse the moral consciousness of our leaders to the urgent need to change and to desist from throwing caution to the wind. remarkably, as events in the novel unfold, aringo, a major character, begins his search for radical messiahs and heroes, who will emerge from the peasant class to repudiate the ensuing social dichotomy and engender changeheroes whose revolutionary vigour aligns with marxism in ideologyto exterminate marginalization, corruption, poverty, leadership misrule and unemployment that have become household names in africa and nigeria in particular. with marginalization among the rank and file of the military becoming a major challenge in this age, the writer reckons that it assumes a rather frightening form of modern enslavement built on the pedestal of hierarchy. a case in point abounds in the foregoing analysis. in heroes, saturday, africa’s father, who is a peasant ex-soldier, recounts his ordeal in the hands of senior military officers who oppress lower ranked recruits. he has fought in the civil and liberian wars but “was never given any benefit for his contribution to keep the nation a united entity” (18). through him, we gain a firsthand knowledge of the reminiscence of war; how war led university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 8 to the untimely death of his father. but the most striking aspect of his story rests in his lack of education which leads to an “unselective military recruitment and hasty training which did not turn him out as a highly qualified soldier” (23). he remarks that: being illiterate military recruits, most of the odd jobs were done by them. they were the ones who were used in the services of the educated military officers … i was in the adjacent flat doing my usual morning chores for an officer when i heard a sudden piecing and discomforting cry of two soldiers …two huge alsatian dogs had been set ready loose to unleash terror on them…the two alsatian dogs with tails coiled like a snake, leapt and made a squirm as a dog would play with its kind and attempted to tear them to shreds…. (24-25) also, whereas the lower ranked soldiers take to menial jobs and often end up as war casualties, the higher-ranking officers “…felt that they were the jet probers of war” (26). they do not go to the war front to confront any enemy. “they stayed in their air-conditioned flats which are well and exclusively furnished…majority of the senior officers stayed in their big hotels and flats with their girl friends and harem of women; drinking the costliest local and foreign alcohol and enjoying niceties provided for them by the state” (26), while the recruits are forced into war to die without proper compensation (emphasis mine). the indictment of nigerian leaders who fail in their responsibility to secure the country against external invasion from the dreaded islamic terrorists, who have found succour only in altering the peaceful co-existence of the country, is glaringly expressed: look at the war against boko haram experienced in the country. it is not a conventional one … see the level of sabotage and conspiracy among the soldiers. it is better experienced than imagined…the military professionalism; the ethics and tactics are not applied. (55) the writer therefore suggests a way out of the situation: “there should be re-orientation and retraining of our soldiers and all the para-military officers to match them with international standards” (55). having retired as a soldier, saturday ends up as a palm wine tapper with little or no support from the government who fails to compensate him, leaving him to dwell in abject poverty. his “… walls cracked which allow bats, rats, insects and reptiles to forge inside the walls and fences are too low and some parts fallen which allow goats, stray dogs, drunks and mad people to take refuge at will”(128). consequently, this social situation forces africa to decry his father’s impoverished condition; he makes a sharp comparison between the ruling government and the peasant before brigadier banjo at umuowa. this sharp divide between the haves and have-not, is captured thus: university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 9 we don’t know the meaning of electricity, clean water and social amenities that can give joy, pleasure and longevity; your type, the devil’s fascist, the majorities are significantly comfortable. your children are abroad reading without stress. some are in government’s sponsorship of payroll and we, the rejected, only pray to exist each day that passes without hope of existence. (128) his verbal responses unveil unequal circumstances of class struggles which are part and parcel of human existence at umuowa. the theme of wretchedness and poverty revolves around saturday. his proceeds, which come from palm wine sales and distribution, are hardly enough to feed his family let alone foot his son’s secondary education bills. his business fails to yield profit due to the reluctance of debtors like banjo to pay up their depths in due time. consequently, africa is unable to continue his secondary school education, after gaining admission into wazobian model secondary school. he languishes at home running unsuitable errands for his father. again, the protection of lives and properties of the citizens remain one of the cardinal points of the military profession. but this is the contrary. the military personnel champion the course of corruption, brutality and further, extort money and the likes from citizens of the country, putting them in perpetual fear and momentary panic with loaded rifles, as they drive along nigerian roads: both the soldiers and nigerian police in most checkpoints have not only tortured and exploited private and public drivers but have made them fill the compunction forever driving on the road. the earlier something is done to stop it, the better for the country. (56) these soldiers and policemen take laws into their hands to harass those they are supposed to protect. the warnings of the consequence of their actions, which may culminate in disaster is made referenced to “apo six” mayhem, an unfortunate event in nigeria’s history, which recounts the deaths of innocent nigerian citizens, but “…has not taught our security officers a lesson” (56). interestingly too, much of the bitter denunciation of leadership incompetence are directed at brigadier banjo who introduces sanitary control scheme, managed by some para-military men who are bent on harassing innocent market women at umuowa, rather than engender peace and mutual co-existence. in the employment sector, eyebrows get raised through authorial commentary on government’s sharp practices in the employment of citizens into various establishments in the country. the unemployment rate in the country is so much that certain social conditions necessitate it. also, the presentation of youths as bearers of the burden of lack of white-collar jobs, having graduated from the tertiary institution, is given flesh and blood in the novel, thus: university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 10 the majority of the youths have wafted to different cities in search of white collar jobs that will still regret tomorrow as that might put them out of job… some of the youths are now engaged at home especially those who could not travel nor go to school.(82) most of the graduates who roam the streets today come from neglected backgrounds. they search for the jobs that are hardly available: “they out number what one could count; graduates who could not get jobs years after graduation. many graduated over six to ten years ago without a job”(98). the jobs are existentially absent and the government shows little or no concern for the graduates. many of those who roam the streets in search of jobs get frustrated; and even when “workers are dying, some are resigning or setting their jobs for one reason or the other while many retire annually yet, we are made to believe job vacancy exist” (99). despite the fact that workers often retire from civil service on yearly basis and younger hands are occasionally needed to replace them, the government seldom sympathizes with the teaming graduates, who are mostly peasants. little or no measures are taken by the government to statically ascertain youth’s employment status by devising viable means of accommodating the unemployed into public and civil service or better still, place them on a sustainable payroll. in addition, and worse still is the fact that even those who are willing and capable never get the work in any establishment of their dream end up disappointed; no plans exist in the government’s pipeline to forestall this social challenge. but as soon as government’s wades graduate from tertiary institutions and become certified, the jobs are already there waiting for them with as little efforts as that which demands searching through websites, newspaper tabloids and billboard placements for vacancies. when this attempt fails for the neglected, they become all the more disillusioned and disenchanted. this is hardly the case with the wealthy. the so-called children of eminent figures who attend interviews competitively with their brilliant candidates already know their fate. since they have the “connection” and financial means to bribe their way through, they would always get a job at the detriment of the poor. thus aringo remarks: go to most of the oil companies, job is there waiting for the president’s sons, daughters and his cohorts of relations. what of the minister’s sons and daughters, the government, commissioners and their aides. it is only the sons and daughters of the poor that suffer in this “beautiful” and goddamn country. (99) the apparent dichotomy between the peasants and the bourgeois constantly widens by the day at the detriment of the former. godwin okpara, a vibrant graduate in accountancy from a nigerian polytechnic cannot secure a job with his degree certificate for a decade. chirstabel ogbaduju, the first daughter of mr. and mrs. ogbaduju’s eleven children remains jobless at home when all attempts to secure a better job to help her poor household proves abortive. her father’s vulcanizing business and mother’s petty trading in perishable goods is not enough to cater for the family. under much pressure, she yields to the exploitative tendencies of wealthy men, cheats and pleasure seekers, who constantly prowl at her threshold for some ulterior motives. thus, she becomes a university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 11 prey to be exploited by “…several unsuspecting men…” who “… had either crossed legs with her or duped her of some reasonable amount of money, giving her the hope of getting her job”(104). her impoverished circumstance compels her to become alhaji dansuki’s mistress, an illiterate millionaire, who has six wives and twenty-four children, but still nurtures the prospect of making her the seventh, which she vehemently refuses. her objection to alhaji’s request culminates into a strained relationship between them. consequently, her fantasies and utopian lifestyles are cut short as she is “… drugged, assaulted, raped, abused and finally carried away to an unknown destination and dumped at a refuge heap…” (135). luckily, respite comes from two fulani herdsmen samaritan, who miraculously rescue her. through rosaline, a devout christian and friend, she repents and becomes a christian convert. by the same token, aringo’s reflections on these socio-political matters appeals to and inspire africa with an interrogative cum dialectic inquiry into the state of affairs of the peasants. in other words, the former’s revolutionary urge for change is equally the latter’s radical response to change. africa, therefore, reinforces the rational attitude upon which revolution becomes inevitable. from a symbolic and critical view, africa seems a microcosmic representation of the continent. although he assumes the role of a radical character, his actions and motives towards revolution seem a direct appeal to africa. again, his characteristic disposition towards heroic potentials is a pungent revolt against social inequality between the superstructure and the base. this gesture is attested by him and informs of the seeming but underlying principle of marxism as it relates to radicalism. thus, his angling with the downtrodden masses reveals his accentuated position: i have made up my mind to join those who have been relegated to the background by the exploiters; and those out there that are victimized. i have made up my mind to join in the inevitable part of the heroes of change. (128) thus, marxism sees literature from the materialist perspective; it further aims at the total destruction of capitalism. where brigadier banjo stands out as a fictional representation of capitalist exploitation, africa corroborates the marxist revolutionary tenet in form of collective cum communal activism. he appeals to a group of peasants, the blind and the cripple, the exservicemen, aringo, saturday, some angry women, traders, farmers, artisans, pensioners, children, all aggressively wielding placards of war and greenish leaves to protest the indignities and injustice meted out against the poor and the entire population of umuowa, by the capitalist exploiter brigadier banjo, who is created in a fictive mould of the nigerian political leaders: in a short time, they had multitudinously landed in brigadier’s compound. the atmosphere became increasingly rancorous. there was tension as they stampeded in procession. they flung the gate open furiously with their songs of protest and angst as africa led the chant… anger! anger! anger!.... (143) university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 12 thus, the community reaches a memorandum of understanding towards changing the status quo. the brigadier has no option but to concede defeat to the rancorous crowd of impatient protesters. africa, who symbolizes the voice of change, reads out the memorandum of understanding aloud to the protesters who gambol and dance for communal victory. this is the marxist perspective in motion. with umuowa in control of the government of the day, the much-needed wind of change has come to staythe proposed plan of transformation positively affects the common man in general. conclusion our discussion on some of the contemporary issues of radical temper in african prose fiction has shown that, the writer is at home with major social events at his disposal, propelling the society forward through literature, which according to chinweizu, “… is a matter of orientation, a matter of perceiving social realities and making this perception available in works of art…” (253). in heroes of change, the writer is preoccupied with the concept of class struggle, denunciating corruption, leadership misrule, unemployment and marginalization from proletarian perspective. these issues are informed by his marxist and revolutionary ideologies, which are perceived as the hallmark of meaningful transformation, aimed at ensuring the triumph of an egalitarian society. the paper recommends that the novel be read by all and sundry to engender transformation of nigeria and in general, the african society. works cited achebe, chinua. morning yet on creation day. essays: london, 1975.print. __ __ __ .“the african writer and the biafran cause”.morning yet on creation day. essays: london, 1980.print. appadurai, arjun. the substance of politics. delhi: oxford, 1975.print. boal, ausgusto. theartre of the oppressed. new york: urizen books, 1979. print. chinweizu, et al. toward the decolonization of african literature. enugu: fourth dimensions, 1980.print. eagelton, terry. marxism and literary criticism. london: metheun and co. progress publishers, 1976. print. eddie, iji m. the three radical dramatists. lagos: kraft books, 1991. print. ikerionwu, leonard. heroes of change. ibadan: joytal educational services,2015. print. __ __ __ . social transformation in modern nigerian drama: a study of the selected works of three nigerian playwrights. unpublished ph.d thesis. august, 2014. print. kanu, ndubueze kenneth. “revolutionary consciousness in the works of the second generation of modern poets in nigeria.” a journal of language and the art. no. 7, nov., 2008. print. ker, david. “the modern writers and commitment”. literature and society in africa. ibadan: spectrum books limited, 2004. print. nnolim, charles. “morning yet on criticism day: the criticism of african literature in the university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 13 twentieth century”. nigeria national merit award winner’s lecture. portharcourt: university of portharcourt press, 2009.print. obi, n. m. “language: a tool for literature”. languages and linguistics in aba: national nigeria grand orbit communication, 2006.print. shaw, harry. dictionary of literary terms.new york: mcgraw-hill, 1972.print. tse-tung, mao. talks at the yenam forum on art and literature. peking: foreign language press, 1960. print. wa ngugi’o, ngugi. writers in politics. nairobi: heinemann, 1972. print. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 a psychological journey of optimistic/pessimistic cycle in the fault in our stars muntazar mehdi assistant professor of english, numl, islamabad, pakistan mmehdi@numl.edu.pk hafsa azhar mphil scholar, numl islamabad, pakistan abstract this paper attempts to explore the presence of freud’s psychoanalytical toolsid, ego and superego and their role in determining the protagonists’ optimistic/pessimistic cycle towards life. the researcher has applied psychoanalysis theory of sigmund freud to analyse the novel. the research has successfully revealed application of freudian psychoanalytical tools. moreover, the researcher has also unveiled the psychological drives which were evident during the optimistic/pessimistic cycle of protagonists’ lives. the researcher has concluded her research on the ground which illustrates when protagonists were having positive approach towards life, the working of superego in their life was indicated and while having pessimistic approach in their life witnessed the presence of id. key words: psychoanalysis, sigmund freud, optimism, pessimism, id, ego, superego. introduction the novel, the fault in our stars is a novel about the teenager couple, who fell in love and were suffering from the fatal and inevitable disease. any disease chooses its victim regardless of social status and age. with every disease, there comes another element which is known as suffering and in this piece of literature/ fiction suffering is an unalterable part of their lives especially hazel, augustus and isaac. they have suffered physically as well as emotionally. the writer through the character of augustus shows that grief does not change you it just unmasks every human being who is having any kind of grief in his/her life. it is a novel about love, loss and pain. all these pains are the part and parcel of living or maybe the side effect of living as hazel grace lancaster says in the novel that depression is the side of effect of dying. right from the beginning, hazel being a patient of stage iv thyroid cancer was of the view that depression is not the side effect of cancer but in actual is a side effect of dying. being obsessed with this idea that after few days or years she will be no more she all the time thinks about what will be the impact of her death on everyone around her especially her parents and augustus. the fact that she will be dead soon was all the time in her subconscious. it affected her outlook towards mailto:mmehdi@numl.edu.pk university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 2 life as she considers herself a grenade. a grenade that will soon explode and will destroy everything in its range. by considering herself as a grenade she just wants to minimize the number of causalities so she distanced herself from the real world especially augustus waters. hazel was most of the time worried about her parents especially her mother. when hazel was in the hospital she once heard her mother saying that would not enjoy being a mother anymore and this thought remained in her sub-conscious throughout her life. augustus waters, a male character in the novel, was a tall and handsome young boy of seventeen years with blue eyes. he was another victim of a fatal disease named as osteosarcoma caused him to lose his right leg. hazel met augustus in one of the support group meetings which she attended on her mother insistence. augustus was in that meeting, too, supporting his friend, isaac, whose another eye is going to be removed soon due to cancer. in the support group meeting, augustus told that he fears oblivion. later on, on this topic, he had a discussion with hazel. this discussion was the first milestone towards their love story as after this they met time and again. after the meeting they agreed to read each other favourite books. augustus after reading the novel, an imperial affliction which hazel gave him became very upset because of its abrupt ending as the protagonist of aia, ana died. hazel explained her magnificence of an imperial affliction; a story of a 13 years old girl anna, who was a cancer patient who eventually died .the novel ends in a midsentence and this is the way how a person dies. according to hazel, this book portrays death truthfully, as in the novel she said, “you die in the middle of your life, in the middle of a sentence.”(john green, 2012, p. 67). this is what she thinks about herself that she will die in the same manner. augustus wants to do something in his life that will leave a mark on the world. at the same time he fears that he will not be able to do so. when his cancer was cured, he has got a very positive outlook towards the life by enjoying his life and helping hazel to stop thinking about gloomy things such as death. the moment his cancer returned his outlook towards life, got changed he got upset with the fact that soon he will die. as he would not be able to do anything remarkable in this world so will be forgotten by the people. problem statement the researcher intends to explore the psychological aspects (of freud’s psychoanalysis theory). the focus of this study is on the elements in freudian psychoanalysis (id, ego, superego) which are evident in the novel whether the journey is from optimism to pessimism or vice versa. the researcher has analysed the text in order to clarify the hidden psychological aspects of protagonists (hazel and augustus) to figure out for them what life is? significance of the study this study will be beneficial for all those new researchers who aim at finding how a person’s psyche will change over the passage of time i.e., from being a pessimist to being an optimist, as university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 3 this will be under consideration. moreover, it would be relatable for readers if anyone in their acquaintances is suffering from a fatal disease and is having a pessimist approach towards life. it would be helpful for people who are interested in novel reading and who have the urge for the better understanding of literature because the research will develop an understanding between the reader and the ideas of the author which will help the reader to get the proper idea of the novels. research objective to investigate how the psyche of an individual affects him/her to an extent that his/her perspective about life changes from pessimism to optimism and vice versa. research questions 1. how has the author knitted the instances of pessimism and optimism together in his novel? 2. what is the psychological effect of these –isms on the mind and life of major characters i.e., augustus and hazel? delimitations this angle of study has been narrowed down to the novel the fault in our stars by john green exploring the psychological aspects. literature review this segment of the article entails the works and researches done by earlier researchers on the topic of psychoanalysis. the researcher has tried to substantiate her own views with reference to the works already done. paris (1974), in his book a psychological approach to fiction asserts that psychology enables one to talk about what the author knows, but his works help us to know what the psychologist is talking about…(preamble). the answer to the question why the theory of psychoanalysis is widely used in the study of literature as psychology and the theories of psychoanalysis talk about human beings in conflict with themselves and one another. literature depicts and is written and read by such people. different characters of different novels to highlight different psychological aspects. al-tibi (2012) in his article discussed the mentality of poe's characters in his short story, the fall of the house of usher. characters in a literary work are representing writer’s mind in one way or in another. in this article, al-tibi has talked about roderick, madeline and the narrator of the story and have applied sigmund freud’s iceberg theory. according to altibi’s finding in his article, he concluded that in this story, roderick is a representative of id as he was imaginative and quickly jumps up to the conclusions. madeline is representing such ideas which cannot be expressed and the narrator had played the role of presenting superego. freudian’s id is active even when an individual is asleep. here in this case, id in the shape of dreams urges the individual to do whatever he/she wants. masculine ego is shown as a tool to take women back to the stereotypical role assigned by the social world. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 4 esmaeil zohdi (2015) in his research has thrown light upon the characters especially the dreams of carla and three steps freud’s theory i.e., id, ego and superego. in the analysis portion, he has pointed out the instances that how in her dreams she had all those thing for which she was longing in her living real life i.e., to have a new identity of being an independent individual. she was living a very repressed life so in her dreams her wish for being free became real. zohdi summed up his work by saying, flora is the representing id because it was encouraging her to go for freedom like the one she had in her dreams. due to this, clara was always in doubt as she was hanging in between the reality of her social position and her dreams. clark (another character) goes with ego as he forced his wife back into the stereotypical role assigned to women by this male-dominated society. furthermore, sylvia is the embodiment of superego as she says that carla’s will be happy if she will stay with her husband instead longing for a thing which she could never have because of social norms. sara assad nassab (2016) in her research paper observed that the journey of marlowe was considered as a psychological journey as both the main characters i.e., marlow and kurtz were hypnotized by the unexplored africa. nassab suggested that marlow, according to psychoanalytical theory of freud, represents ‘ego’ whereas kurtz stands with ‘id’. he has let his inner demons control his outer self in the african jungle. the research tried to describe this novel as a voyage towards self-discovery. kurtz has depicted the demonic side of a human. in every human, there exists always an ability for evil but is repressed by the social pressure. over here, nassab has suggested that kurtz who has the desire to satisfy his inner devilish instinct by doing so he becomes a symbol of id whereas, marlow stands for ego as his inner instincts were not as dominant over him as in the case of kurtz. shumei gao (2006) in his work has described the main characters of wuthering heights by emily bronte as whose character is a representative of id and who represents ego and super-ego. gao after examining the three character of the novel, came to the conclusion; heathcliff is a symbolic figure of id as throughout the course of novel he does whatever he wants. id is illogical clarified from the instances when heathcliff takes revenges and ignored the aspects of morality and law .ultimately it leads to harmful results as heathcliff killed himself because his id was timeless. “[a]nd his unconscious impulse had made him do all the things to make feel satisfied”(shumei gao, 2006, p.8) catherine is representing ego; one of the essential element in freud psychoanalysis theory. she was among few people who cannot go against society and therefore submit themselves in the hands of society. in her childhood, her id was a dominant part of her personality. when she was an adult, ego dominated her personality. her feelings towards heathcliff was a result of their similar dominant aspect i.e, id not because of some physical aspects. according to freud, superego is the superior part of one’s personality. the researcher has suggested that the author has shown the element of super-ego through the personality of edgar linton. the main aim of analysis is to put forward the intentions of the author which are not expressed by the author directly. many research articles have also been written in order to understand the university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 5 motives of the author. analysis of a novel is done for many purposes. research is researcherdependent as it only focuses on what the researcher wants to explore. the psychological approach helps us to understand the meaning of a literary text because the characters in the novel are in actual representing author’s imagination. as imagination is more powerful than the knowledge itself. korth(1981) in a chapter of his work entitled unconscious behaviour and freudian slips has given a stance that, anything which is forcefully suppressed into the unconscious mind will at some stage of life, affects the life of that particular individual of which the individual would be completely unaware of. (p.33). na and do (2016) in their paper aimed at finding out the main psychological issues by using sigmund freud theory of psychoanalysis. by using descriptive method and qualitative approach along with the application of psychoanalysis theory, the paper was concluded with the finding that on the part of hazel (protagonist) this novel witnessed self-defence evidences. the cause of selfdefence could be traced from her childhood. the paper claimed this novel as an incomplete psychological novel as the researcher was unable to find out the instances as to how hazel developed her berliore issues. isaoglu (2015) in his paper by using freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, tries to find out the reasons behind the abnormal behaviour of human. according to freud all the three drives i.e., id ,ego and superego plays a very significant role in personality development and by studying these three in details one will understand the main reasons leading to the mental disorders as all they are interconnected. by analysing the novel, the researcher finds out that the characters in this novel has a direct relationship with the three drives but when the researcher has seen this psychological aspects with his highly critical spectacles then he concluded that these three drives are not in harmony as at some place their id is dominant and at some other point ego and so on. this lack of consistency brought perplexing results on the part of each character. hester was isolated initially. dimmesdale is unable to counter his conscience and ultimately punishes himself privately to ease the pain and grief from which he is suffering. chillingworth never ending feeling of uncontrollable anger and resentment. amber ashfaq (2016) in her research article has examined the power of love because of which the protagonist, hazel had understood the real meaning of life by the love of augustus which played a role of protector and healer. his love gave her the power to face the bitter reality i.e., facing the death of loved one with a smile on face. the theoretical framework which she used was that of hazart inyat-ullah, according to this theorist, love makes you master or saint as love is a positive force in a person’s life. ashfaq here says in her article that love has made hazel a saint as she decided to live for others after the death of her love – augustus. iqra naeem(2016), in her article has analysed the behaviour of two protagonists towards life and death by doing a comparative analysis by using arnold’s theory of comparative analysis. she concluded her research with the following findings that attitude of both the characters changes university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 6 throughout the course of the novel as the approach of hazel towards life was transformed from pessimism to optimism and approach of augustus towards life was other way round. many critics have analysed green’s novel as well .the thematic study of this novel has already been explored in the past few years. the analysis of characters has been worked upon too but the present research paper differs from all the previous researches carried out on the topic of psychoanalysis. here researcher has analysed the novel keeping in mind the character of hazel and augustus with respect to their journey of life. the researches that have been mentioned above are representing an individual either as an embodiment of id, ego or superego. in an individual, all the three instincts i.e. id, ego and superego are present and are evident at different stages of life and its growth. the previous researches reflected that a single person is a representative of only one instinct which can either be id, ego or superego. however, in the current study, the researcher has focused on the way of life of both hazel and augustus that revolves around optimism/pessimism cycle. particularly, which of the elements of the current theory have been visible in the characters in form of positive or negative attitude towards life. fictitious work has commonly been termed as imaginary as “the new standard encyclopedia fiction” defines narrative “a result of author’s own imagination”. (p. 89 90). research methodology it is a descriptive research with a qualitative approach and is limited only to the novel the fault in our stars. qualitative method has a purpose to explain the motives of researcher in depth. research has been carried out by analysing the psyche of the major characters i.e., hazel grace lancaster and augustus waters. research design this research is a qualitative research. the data for this research has been analysed using a descriptive method. relevant instances from the novel supporting the objectives of the researcher were collected and analysed according to the freudian psychoanalysis theory. theoretical framework to conduct the research of analysing psychological aspects involves during optimistic/pessimistic cycle on the part of main characters in the novel; hazel and augustus. the research has used theory of psychoanalysis of sigmund freud to the idea of personality that how the two main characters have taken their journey of pessimistic/optimistic cycle through the novel. freud (1923) observed that the human psyche constitutes of three elements (i.e. tripartite) the id, ego and superego. he says that our unconscious mind influences the working of our conscious mind. id, ego and superego university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 7 these are the three components of human mind the conflict arises when unconscious mind takes control of the conscious and ego cannot keep the balance ego is directly connected with the reality and pressure is exerted on ego by the id. the id is impulsive and a desire driven part of personality the id wants all of its desires to be fulfilled and it works on pleasure principle as described by freud (freud, 1920), whereas, the ego works according to freud on reality principle it tries to balance the demands of the unconscious with what is practical. the superego is not realistic at all it can demand the moral actions that might bring a harm. the id is not realistic as well as its demand is to fulfil its desires without the fear of consequences. the id balances both of them and tries to keep both the parts of mind work according to what is practically right (hayes, 2000). ego is ‘that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world.' (freud [1923], 1961, p. 2) freud (1923) asserts that the id is a horse and the ego is the rider. so, ego is ‘like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse. (p.15). super-ego is the exact opposite to the id. it also tries to influence ego to follow moralistic path rather than giving up to the id. data analysis many people have done the analysis of many novels according to their own understanding. here researcher is going to analyse the text of the novel with reference to the psychoanalytical theory by freud because of the undeniable fact that whenever a person reads a piece of literature he understands the concept. this section of the paper emphasizes on the psychological state of the two main characters of the novel i.e., hazel grace lancaster and augustus water. it depicts that which of the three essential element (id, ego and superego) in sigmund freud’s theory of psychoanalysis are present during the course of novel and which force is influential when the character either has a positive outlook towards life or having a negative outlook. late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided i was depressed, presumably because i rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death. (green, 2012; p.3) john green started his masterpiece with a pessimistic approach towards life as depicted by hazel grace when she mentions her act of hardly leaving her place. one confines oneself to one’s house when one is unable to decide whether to go with id or superego so ends up with ego and in her case she preferred to stay at home and continued up with her monotonous routine. as she knows that she will die soon so she wants to stay away from the external world by staying at home and not meeting anyone. one of the major instances to support pessimism in terms of hazel is that she has plenty of time to think about death as she has accepted the reality of her life that she is going to be dead. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 8 whenever you read a cancer booklet or website or whatever, they always list depression among the side effects of cancer. but, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. depression is a side effect of dying. (cancer is also a side effect of dying. almost everything is, really.) (green, 2012; p.3) it was in her subconscious mind that she will die soon and this has made her an extremist in terms of being a pessimist. thinking about death is a component of superego. as id will always give you ideas that are pleasurable and death is a painful experience, however, superego will always give you lectures on the extreme realities of life. it is not considered good or appreciable to think about death while you are alive so following her superego she said so as it was very difficult for her to face the extreme and harsh realities of life. she feels, that she is depressed not because she is diagnosed with cancer but because she knows that she will be dead soon and this increased her depression: i wanted to make my parents happy. there is only one thing in this world shittier than biting it from cancer when you’re sixteen, and that’s having a kid who bites it from cancer.(green, 2012; p.8) although she was depressed, still she was worried about her parents that shows the good side of her character i.e. ego. she started caring for her parents in a very realistic manner because she knew she will die soon. by accepting this reality she started caring for her parents. if she cared for them more than her own life, then it would be superego. being a pessimist, she can still find some aim in her life and cares about her parents as she is their only hope. she feels sad while thinking about the time when her mother would not have anyone to call her according to hazel, there is nothing worse in this world than having the only child who is dying of such a fatal disease at a very early age. “and i’ve never lit one. it’s a metaphor, see: you put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to do its killing.” (green, 2012; p.20) these lines are by augustus waters; who is a foil to hazel grace not only in terms of character but in terms of his thinking process too. he played a role exact opposite to hazel. he was a cancer survivor, but he did not let his past or subconscious thoughts ruin his present. he had a very positive outlook towards life. these lines are showing the aspect of superego because he did not let his past experience of dying of cancer ruin his cancer-free present. although during cancer, he had lost his one leg still he is a very optimist person. he is of the view that nothing can harm you if you do not allow that thing to harm you. according to him, getting harmed or not is in our hands. he clarified his view by putting the cigarette in between his lips and did not light it up as he did not light it up so it cannot harm him. “i want to minimize the number of deaths i am responsible for,” i said (green, 2012; p.28) when augustus was at hazel’s place, they were discussing about dinner and hazel refused to have chicken in dinner. the reason she gave was that every chicken she will eat she will be held university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 9 countable for its death. this shows that how different she is from others by thinking about such a minor issue which is hardly noticed by anyone. although it is in her subconscious that she will die but the way she interacted with society i.e., ego. these lines marked a change in her mental working as earlier, it is observed that she cared about her parents. over here. she is thinking and caring about everything that she eats as over here she talks about a chicken. caring for others is an act of kindness. act of kindness and caring for others is an instance of the dominance of superego. so i excused myself on the grounds of pain and fatigue, as i often had over the years when seeing kaitlyn or any of my other friends. in truth, it always hurt. it always hurt not to breathe like a normal person, incessantly reminding your lungs to be lungs, forcing yourself to accept as unsolvable the clawing scraping inside-out ache of underoxygenation. so i wasn’t lying, exactly. i was just choosing among truths. (green, 2012; p.45) through these lines, hazel is once again represented as a pessimist, owing to the fact that she is suffering from lung cancer. due to this, she cannot breathe properly. whenever she does something wrong she always has this excuse that she is dying of cancer. satisfying her this negative instinct i.e., id, she uses her disease as an excuse as she was unable to overcome her id. the excuse she gave was that she does not consider it as a lie but she satisfies herself by saying that she was just choosing among few opinions of truth. that’s part of what i like about the book in some ways. it portrays death truthfully. you die in the middle of your life, in the middle of a sentence. but i do—god, i do really want to know what happens to everyone else. that’s what i asked him in my letters.(green, 2012; p.67) hazel likes a book titled as an imperial affliction a lot. she liked this book because it is about a girl who lost her life because of cancer. hazel was unable to control herself from thinking about death. she cannot control her id and to face the real world and enjoy her life till the time she has it. she has exchanged her book with augustus and when he has read it she discussed the book with him. she told him the reason why she likes this book as it depicts death truthfully. hazel was unable to take herself and her mental faculty out of the concept of death and all the time she talks about death. her personality is dominated by her id i.e., being a pessimist and a depressed individual while interacting with others. i imagined sitting at a sun-drenched café with peter van houten as he leaned across the table on his elbows, speaking in a soft voice so no one else would hear the truth of what happened to the characters i’d spent years thinking about. he’d said he couldn’t tell me except in person, and then invited me to amsterdam. i explained this to mom, and then said, “i have to go.” (green, 2012; p.79) whenever she reads her favourite book ‘an imperial affliction’ her id dominates her personality. in order to give her id a stand on physical ground, she wants to go to amsterdam as the writer has university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 10 invited her a nd augustus to meet him. hazel was going as she wants to satisfy her id by knowing what happened after the novel ended as it had an abrupt ending because of ana’s deaththe narrator of ‘an imperial affliction’. she wants to know what had become of ana’s mother (ana is the one who died because of cancer). although, she knew that being a patient of lungs cancer she cannot travel but to satisfy her id she was willing to do so. she was fearless of death while going to amsterdam/ travelling to amsterdam. “i am. i didn’t cut this fella off for the sheer unadulterated pleasure of it, although it is an excellent weight-loss strategy. legs are heavy!”(green, 2012; p.83) these lines stand as one of the best example of augustus being an optimist person. although he had harsh memories of cancer. due to this disease, he has lost one leg but he did not get sad over losing it. he has a healthy ego. although he was a basketball player he did not let his past harsh memories to ruin his cancer-free present, therefore, has a very optimistic attitude towards life. he knew that crying over spilt milk is useless what is gone is gone he cannot have his leg back so he started living his life with one leg happily by saying that legs are heavy. “i’m like. like. i’m like a grenade, mom. i’m a grenade and at some point i’m going to blow up and i would like to minimize the casualties, okay” (green, 2012; p.99) by calling herself a grenade, she is unable to keep her mind off from death which is approaching her. working of superego is evident as by calling herself a grenade she wants to save others. here, her caring and sensitive nature is seen when she says that she will minimize the number of people who will be affected by her death. she is not concerned about her pain/ suffering but is concerned with the pain that her relatives more specifically her parents will face. taking into consideration, +her caring nature it will be analysed as the working of superego as it is the exact opposite of id(by calling herself as a grenade) whereas by caring for others shows her mental condition that although she is depressed and pessimist but still she cares for others. “i’m a grenade,” i said again. “i just want to stay away from people and read books and think and be with you guys because there’s nothing i can do about hurting you; you’re too invested, so just please let me do that, okay? i’m not depressed. i don’t need to get out more. and i can’t be a regular teenager, because i’m a grenade. (green, 2012; p.99) being a cancer patient, she is a pessimist still she cares for the ones who cares for her. here working of her ego is seen (a balance between id and superego). she decides that in order to minimize the number of causalities she would simply stay at home and read some books. she knows that she is a grenade not a normal teenager who can enjoy life. she considers herself as a grenade which is a tool of destruction. she depicts that as grenade destroys the place where it bursts in the similar manner her death will bring destruction in the life of those who loved her as it will destroy her parents and all her dear and loved ones. “ cause i’m just—i want to go to amsterdam, and i want him to tell me what happens after the book is over, and i just don’t want my particular life, and also the sky is depressing me, and there is this old swing set out here that my dad made for me when i was a kid.” (green, 2012; p.121) university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 11 being a victim of lungs cancer, she was not suitable for a distant travelling but still she wanted to go to amsterdam just to fulfil her useless desire of knowing what happened to ana’s family after her death. this is the working of her id that now she only wants to know what has happened with ana’s family. she felt uncomfortable till the time her desire was not fulfilled. the sky was depressing for her even on the swing which she always felt comfortable and relaxed on. it is now making her uncomfortable. just to get this desire of her id fulfilled she afterwards went to amsterdam. much of my life had been devoted to trying not to cry in front of people who loved me, so i knew what augustus was doing. you clench your teeth. you look up. you tell yourself that if they see you cry, it will hurt them, and you will be nothing but a sadness in their lives, and you must not become a mere sadness, so you will not cry, and you say all of this to yourself while looking up at the ceiling, and then you swallow even though your throat does not want to close and you look at the person who loves you and smile. (green, 2012; p.213-214) towards the end of their trip to amsterdam, hazel was told by augustus that his cancer has reappeared. upon hearing this bad news, she didn’t start complaining in fact she started to stay positive to be a positive force in his life. in these lines, she is once again thinking about others which shows, the working of ego which balances her personality and enables her not to be selfish and not be ignorant/numb towards others by doing whatever she wants and wherever she wants. working of her superego is evident, when she clearly says that you cannot cry whenever you are hurt especially not in front of those who love you because it will hurt them. it is easy to feel pain by one’s own self instead of watching others in pain because of you so you can get yourself hurt but you should never hurt others more specifically the one who loves you. “the world,” he said, “is not a wish-granting factory,” (green, 2012; p.214) augustus waters, the one who has used his last wish to visit amsterdam for hazel and his wish got fulfilled as he went there. using his last wish for hazel is linked with superego as he was thinking about hazel’s happiness. he says that world is not a wish-granting factory you cannot get whatever you want. this sentence marks the transformation in the character of hazel grace as well as augustus waters. augustus after being diagnosed as a cancer patient again his approach towards life transformed into pessimism from optimism as witnessed earlier when he was a cancer survivor. he didn’t let his pessimist past ruin his present life; a life free of cancer. over here, the case is exact opposite now as the novel proceeds working of his id will be evident because he knew that now he will be in dust soon like many other cancer patients. what am i at war with? my cancer. and what is my cancer? my cancer is me. the tumors are made of me. they’re made of me as surely as my brain and my heart are made of me. it is a civil war, hazel grace, with a predetermined winner. (green, 2012; p.216) augustus waters, by saying that he is at war with his cancer as for him, his cancer is not a disease but he himself is killing himself. over here, he has used the word cancer in a metaphorical manner. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 12 this instance is highlighting the dominance of his id as his cancer is none other than his own id. the work of id is to have every single desire of heart and brain get fulfilled no matter how illogical the demand of id maybe. the way he called it a predetermined winner this will be evident in the upcoming instances that augustus’ id will take over his ego and superego and he will be doing whatever comes to his mind without giving a single thought to the consequences of such demands. “i wanted to buy a pack of cigarettes,” he mumbled. “i lost my pack. or they took it away from me. i don’t know. they said they’d get me another one, but i wanted . . . to do it myself. do one little thing myself.” (green, 2012; p.244) upon hearing the news that cancer of augustus has returned. his parents took his cigarettes away from him by saying that, they will buy him another one. he did not want others to do his works. this is the evidence of working of his id as he wanted cigarettes , which are not good for him, so instead of waiting for his parents to get him one he himself went outside in that miserable condition to fetch it to satisfy himself. “i hate myself i hate myself i hate this i hate this i disgust myself i hate it i hate it i hate it just let me fucking die.” (green, 2012; p.245) this is how augustus has interpreted his weakness, being a weak person he cannot do what he wants to do and cannot go where he wants to go. the working of his id is seen when he went out at night to have a pack of cigarette when he already knew that his condition is not favourable for such activity. over here, his id is seen as he started to hate himself due to the fact of being unable to do anything on his own and thus unable to satisfy the desire of his id i.e., of doing something for his own self. “i’m hopeful i’ll get to attend as a ghost, but just to make sure, i thought i’d— well, not to put you on the spot, but i just this afternoon thought i could arrange a prefuneral...” (green, 2012; p.257) fully aware of the fact that he will die soon, he plans to arrange a prefuneral for himself. instead of letting things happen in their natural way at the desired time. his personality being dominated by id, therefore, he arranged his prefuneral because he wanted to do so. he did not even give a single thought regarding the feelings of hazel and isaac that how they will utter such sentences which they have to say when he will be no more with them. saying such sentences by considering augustus as a dead person when he was alive; was the toughest task for both isaac and hazel but they did it for augustus as they both cared for him but he was not bothered about it and he wanted his id to get fulfilled and this is what he did. he gained satisfaction by causing pain to isaac and hazel whom he once cared a lot. in the next part, the researchers have concluded their research by mentioning the findings and outcomes that answered the research questions. conclusion the research is concluded with the findings that the writer has knitted the instances of optimism and pessimism side by side. when hazel was a pessimist, she had an inspirational force named as augustus water. gradually, due to his presence in her life she became an optimist. in her case, she university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 13 needs someone who can bring her back to life, and that someone turns out to be none other than blue-eyed augustus waters. in terms of augustus’ character, it was just cancer that changed his approach towards life. when he was a cancer survivor, he became optimist and when it was diagnosed that the silent killercancer has entered his body once again, he became a pessimist. it was just his fatal disease due to the presence of which he got a pessimistic approach towards life. the psychological effects of these –isms (optimism and pessimism) on the psyche of hazel and augustus are observed too. when both of the characters (hazel grace and augustus waters) are having an optimistic approach towards life, the working of their superego is witnessed; one of the essential elements in freud’s theory of psychoanalysis. moreover, when they had a pessimistic approach towards life, working of their id was evident because they knew that they were going to die, so what they wanted and wished to attain by hook or by crook they did such as, augustus arranged his pre-funeral ignoring the fact that it will hurt isaac and hazel a lot. john green has sketched the plot of the story in a way that even in the every hopeless situation there was always a ray of hope and happiness. when hazel was all the time thinking about her death, then, at that time in this hopeless situation augustus performed the role of hope. he was the only one who took her from this hopeless situation. similarly, when augustus was obsessed with the fact that he will die soon at that time it was hazel who stood by his side and sympathized with him although she too knows that her gus will soon leave this world. the analysis has shown how psyche of an individual affects his perception of life. through the characters of the novel, the writer has very artistically presented the psychological representation of life. this exploration has brought about different levels of understandings. the foremost contribution of this research is that it has enabled us to understand in a better way the working of human psyche when a person is having positive and negative view towards life. this research will also open new dimensions of analysis and will be assisting those researchers who intend to study the psyche of individuals in terms of the optimistic/pessimistic cycle of their lives. references al-tibi, bahaa aldin h. (2012). applying sigmund freud's iceberg theory to edgar allan poe's short story “the fall of the house of usher”. ashfaq, amber. (2016). love as a strength: a thematic study of the novel “the fault in our star” by john green. freud, s. (1920). beyond the pleasure principle. se, 18: 1-64. freud, s. (1923). the ego and the id. se, 19: 1-66. freud, sigmund. (1909). the interpretation of dreams. ed. britannica: clark university. gao, shumei. (2006). an analysis of emily bronte’s wuthering heights on the angle of psychology. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 1 | issue i | july – dec | 2017 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 14 i̇saoğlu, hande. (2015). a freudian psychoanalytic analysis of nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter” international journal of social science, jasss2713 number: 32, p. 499511, winter iii 2015 hayes, n. (2000). theories of personality. in foundations of psychology (3rd ed., p. 203). retrieved from https://www.bookdepository.com/foundations-psychologynickyhayes/9781861525895 korth, leslie.o. (1981). “unconscious behaviour and freudian slips”. the power of creative imagination. northamptonshire: a thomas and company. mcconnel, j. v. (1980) understanding human behaviour. new york: holt, et. al, print. mcleod, s. a. (2016). id, ego and superego. retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html naeem, iqra. (2016). “attitude towards life and death a comparative study of hazel grace and augustus in the fault in our stars” nassab, sara assad. (2006).a postcolonial and psychoanalytical approach to heart of darkness. new standard encyclopedia. chicago: standard ed. co., vol. 6. pangestu, nathania astria., & sunardi, f.x. dono. (2016) an incomplete psychological novel: a psychoanalytical analysis of hazel lancaster in john green’s the fault in our stars, phenomena vol. 16 no. 1, 20-28. paris, b. j. a. (1974). psychological approach to fiction. bloomington and london: indiana university press. zohdi, esmaeil., & bahador, raheleh. (2015). alice munro’s runaway in the mirror of sigmund freud, ijalel, vol. 4 no. 2, 169-176. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). http://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html http://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 66 historicist and presentist interpretation of shakespeare’s twelfth night sharif mohammad shahidullah phd. student, department of english literary studies international islamic university malaysia (iium) sms1132@gmail.com dr. nor faridah abdul manaf professor, department of english literary studies international islamic university malaysia (iium) email: nfaridah@iium.edu.my abstract historicism and presentism are two recent, mostly discussed phenomena in the ethos of shakespearean studies. while historicists like stephen greenblatt argues that historicism pursues historical aspects to explain a text and keeps away presentday political, social and cultural affairs to avoid the misunderstanding of it, the presentists like terence hawkes advocates that presentism offers an unending dialogue between present and past, which is deeply rooted to the present. in addition, presentism is the re-evaluation of the historical facts upon which our early modern understanding depends. therefore, presentism could be an excellent idea to interpret the appropriacy of early modern literature, especially shakespeare’s oeuvre. this paper, however, elucidates twelfth night, one of shakespeare’s masterpieces, from both historicist and presentist points of view, which looks especially at the way shakespeare views gender while applying these both approaches. this article also clarifies the reasons for selecting this text for explicating shakespeare from these two approaches. finally, this study advocates for combining these two approaches, which might offer a better way to understand shakespeare’s works and to make him more relevant today. key words: historicism; presentism; twelfth night; transvestism; gender; renaissance; marriage; feminism introduction historicism as a term was developed by german philosopher karl wilhelm friedrich schlegel (1968). however, it is not clear who coined the term presentism but it is believed that it had been used since the 1870s. johann gottfried herder, a german romantic theorist, who in 18th century defined historicism-conception by underscoring on its “changing ideologies , assumptions, and mental frameworks as history developed from one era to the next” (dipietro & grady, 2013). backed in 1980s, stephen greenblatt, a prominent historicist termed this as ‘’ new historicism’. mailto:sms1132@gmail.com mailto:nfaridah@iium.edu.my university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 67 as proven by the works of greenblatt and some other historicists, cited by singleton ariella, historicism looks forward to pursuing historical facts in order to explain a text while it keeps away the present-day social, political, or cultural affairs so that it can evade the misapprehension of it. in addition, historicist scholars argue that historical context of a given text not only echoes the social and cultural time in which the text was written , but also it greatly assists a reader to ‘a fuller understanding of the text itself’(singleton, 2017). the literary scholars prefer historicism to interpret early modern literature texts because such an approach gives the texts a historical context. the scholars also like it because it has lots of scholarly appeal and it bears enough responsibility; for it requires a tremendous search into the past and thus establishes a good relation between a text and the historical events which likely played a great role in the progress of the text. therefore, historicism is so popular especially to the historicists. presentism on the other hand, is quite opposite to historicism, and it is inseparably connected to the past and has great influences over the past literary works especially shakespeare’s. as terence hawkes , a remarkable presentist scholar, writes in his foreword to shakespeare in the present (2004) ‘presentism presents us with an unending dialogue between present and past, and demands interaction between what we call “facts” from both ends of that 400-year channel of time’(hawkes, 2004). so, we must understand fully the past’s meaning which has a deeper root to the present without which it is likely that we are engaging ourselves in an investigation for facts which is quite dangerous and empty. in addition , presentism , as dipietro states ,is to ‘re-evaluate the historical, ideological and semantic foundations upon which our understanding of the ‘‘early modern’’ rests, and to assess the function and value of the ‘‘early modern’’ in the present’ (dipietro, 2007).therefore, this study is likely to contend that presentism as a critical frame work is an excellent idea which can play a vital role in interpreting the appropriateness of early modern literature, shakespeare’s works exclusively. the present article explains twelfth night, one of the most important comedies of shakespeare, from both historicist and presentist point of view and looks specifically at how shakespeare addresses the issue of gender while employing both historicist and presentist approaches. this study also describes the reasons for choosing this text for explaining shakespeare from these two approaches. finally this article argues that synthesizing these two perspectives opens a better window for understanding, teaching and researching shakespeare’s relevance today and in future. twelfth night as the chosen text twelfth night offers exclusively apt starting points for navigating historicist alongside presentist dialogues of the ubiquitous topics of gender. twelfth night is certainly appropriate to topics of gender. pertinent historicist works divulge possibilities for understanding the play that look significantly unlike from its present-day performances and adaptations. with historical context in university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 68 mind, the question of performing the roles of women by men is at the forefront of explaining the play’s events. as maslen (2008) views the condition of the theatre of elizabethan era, “since women were not allowed to perform on the public stage, boys took the female roles in plays.” however, a presentist approach to twelfth night, supports the feminist readings of viola’s crossdressing. waller puts it “the play asks us to applaud viola’s resumption of a properly feminine subjectivity” (waller, 1994). moreover, a presentist approach to twelfth night appeals for a re-essential zing of a gender in the play with a view to making it a suited current feminist agenda, while a historicist approach allows the readers to support “shakespeare’s ideas with judith butler’s by lending itself , to a reading of gender in the play as non-essential” (singleton, 2017). historicizing gender in twelfth night gender is a predominant theme in twelfth night. as maslen (2008) senses that it was in elizabethan literature, shakespeare’s comedy in particular that gender concerns were the focal point and disguise on the stage was an obvious technique to carry out these issues. indeed, shakespeare’s twelfth night dedicates itself to discover the mere strangeness of attitudes to gender in the early modern period through cross-dressing, where men especially the boys performed the women’s part, and thus women were , in fact, viewed from a male perspective. lesley ferris, cited by penny gay (1994) , argues:‘the absence of women in [ elizabethan and earlier ] theatre created the notion of woman as a sign, a symbolic object manipulated and controlled artistically by male playwrights and male actors: unavoidably , it would seem, the shakespearean text presents its female characters from a male point of view’ (gay, 1994). it is viola who adopts the disguise of a man named cesario for much of the piece and thus she becomes the servant of the duke, orsino, and for whom she works as a messenger of love to countess olivia. at the same time, under the disguise cesario pretends to be viola to win the love of the duke by professing himself ready to die “a thousand death” to satisfy orsino (5.1/129). thus, performing this play in shakespeare’s day meant a man had to dress as a woman who disguises herself as a man and also, at times, pretends to be a woman—making gender out to be rather flexible and malleable (singleton, 2017). stephen greenblatt argues in his famous book shakespearean negotiations (1988) regarding transvestism on shakespearean stage that this cross-gender phenomenon is pertinent to both early modern understanding of gender and that of our own when masculinity and femininity are two distinctly prevailing issues: within the imaginary women bodies, there are other bodies—the bodies of the actors playing the parts of shakespearean women. from the perspective of the medical discourse . . . this final transvestism serves to secure theatrically the dual account of gender: on the one hand, we have plays that insist upon the chafing between the two sexes and the double nature of individuals; on the other hand, we have a theater that reveals, in the presence of the man’s (or boy’s) body beneath the woman’s clothes, a different sexual reality. the open university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 69 secret of identity—that within differentiated individuals is a single structure, identifiably male—is presented literally in the all-male cast . . . presented but not represented, for the play . . . cannot continue without the fictive existence of two distinct genders and the friction between them. (p.98) here greenblatt reminds us that an early modern spectator was expected to foresee that the female characters on stage were truly women, notwithstanding the fact that they discerned all the parts were performed by men and boys. and while these performances usually portrayed clear unlikeness between the gendered parts, they concurrently emphasized that it was all an act; this, in turn, would have reminded audiences of the single gender represented on stage below the costuming—that which, in the presence of early modern ideas of anatomy and biology, was also the base for the bodies of women. the seminal book making sex: body and gender from the greeks to freud (1990) by thomas laqueur, goes in line with greenblatt’s above idea, which provides us with a clear picture of how body was perceived and thus portrayed in renaissance era. he writes in it “the more renaissance anatomists dissected, looked into, and visually represented the female body, the more powerfully and convincingly they saw it to be a version of the males” (laqueur, 1990, p.70). different early modern paintings discovered this idea and undoubtedly it was conspicuous on the stage, which portrays renaissance culture as awfully male gender oriented which greenblatt buttresses thus: “characters like rosalind and viola pass through the state of being men in order to become women. shakespearean women are in this sense the representation of shakespearean men, the projected mirror images of masculine self-differentiation” (laqueur, 1990, p.90). this, however, testifies the superiority of men to women. while greenblatt and laqueur express their views on early modern ideas regarding biology , which give us some perceptions into the minds of shakespeare’s audiences, shakespeare remains still distinctive in his concern with ‘gender performativity’. his ideas of gender were unlikely to be influenced by his contemporary culture, which malcolmson emphasizes that comedies like twelfth night dramatizes the superiority of women to men and explicitly compares the success of women to the failure of men (malcolmson, 1996). shakespeare was not only wary of twelfth night’s gender-blurring that it might introduce a scholarly challenge for his audiences, but he likely had enough reasons for doing that. if we could think him as forward of his time, his notions visa-vis gender would go parallel with those of judith butler who evidently discarded the ideas that we are essentially one gender or another, instead, views gender as performative. it follows, then, that while laqueur believes in biology, butler does in performativity. so, in order to draw a conclusion from laqueur to butler, we have to but envisage how the former views on early modern anatomy—which led people finally to trust that male biology was the basis of female biology, which ultimately evokes the sense of genderlessness. therefore, butler’s ideas of performativity can propel us to a better perception of what shakespeare had in his mind with the gender-blurring which is a major focus in twelfth night. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 70 butler’s influential book on gender , undoing gender (2004), i think, is a better option to quote from concerning this issue to establish a good connection between butler’ notions of performativity and shakespeare’s gender-blurring: if gender is performative, then it follows that the reality of gender is itself produced as an effect of the performance. although there are norms that govern what will and will not be real, and what will and will not be intelligible, they are called into question and reiterated at the moment in which performativity begins its citational practice. one surely cites norms that already exist, but these norms can . . . be exposed as nonnatural and nonnecessary when they take place in a context and through a form of embodying that defies normative expectation. what this means is that through the practice of gender performativity, we not only see how the norms that govern reality are cited but grasp one of the mechanisms by which reality is reproduced and altered in the course of that reproduction. (p.218) people, from butler’s point of view, preserve leading social ideas of how a person should think or act, but they are not fundamentally feminine or masculine. with the nature of casting early modern plays and the comfort with which viola dupes those around her in mind, it is not a leap to envision that shakespeare, too, assumed of gender as performative and anticipated to express this to his audiences. that is not to say that anyone from the renaissance would have pledged to butler’s ideas, but her work is advantageous in that it offers us some of the terminology essential for explaining and then enunciating shakespeare’s moves regarding gender and performance, which we can undoubtedly comprehend to be the consequence of his longtime association in the theatre, and their effects. in what is possibly the most eminent quote from as you like it, jacques declares that “all the world’s a stage” (2.7.140). and it is one of a many of hints that aware us to shakespeare’s obsession with a kind of performance that is not limited to theatre alone. the hazy gender of the viola/cesario character, elevated by the fact that an organically male artist lies just underneath the costume, shows an idea of gender performativity similar to that which we see reconnoitered all the way through butler’s work. viola is, of course, shakespeare’s prime means of proving the idea that gender is performative, non-essential. however, though, from the above discussion we come to know that gender is non-essential, the study feels, it urgent to discuss our present play in such a way that it may give us a clear stand of women and their social position in shakespeare’s time in order to historicize the gender issue. for this purpose, this study will analyze the foregrounding article ‘what you will: social mobility and gender in twelfth night’ (1996) written by cristiana malcolmson, which clearly portrays the women’s condition in renaissance era from male point of view. as malcolmson writes that twelfth night was written in such a period when women has not a distinct place in society rather they were deemed as ‘social inferiors’. she insists that ‘shakespeare, and other authors, constructed literary representations to challenge this ideology’. likewise, the issue of ‘social inferiority’ of women is dramatised in this play by the dramatist. even though these women are merely servants, are equally potential to their male masters, and university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 71 eventually come out of their typical roles in order to become their ‘master’s mistresses’. in 16th century renaissance, unlike today marriage was such an institution which used to define the social advancement , but which in this play is shown as an open market ,and which in fact relies more on personal “choice and ‘status exogamy’ than it is in traditional society”. it is, though, very interesting that both male and female change their fortune by the means of this market, and the playwright shows a sharp contrast where females are more victorious than their male counterparts. malcolmson then argues that “the purpose of dramatizing the superiority of women to men is to call into question the rigid structures of the traditional order .nevertheless, , such questioning is contained through the play’s model of marriage , which requires a ‘loving ‘ commitment to others” (malcolmson, 1996). shakespeare through viola breaks the rigid structure of the elizabethan tradition of love and marriage. we see in the play that olivia, the countess falls into love with viola/cesario, a servant. olivia repeats to herself her questioning of cesario, and reveals her attraction to what she takes to be his ‘gentility’: ‘what is your parentage?’ ‘above my fortunes, yet my state is well. i am a gentleman.’ i’ll be sworn thou art. thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit do give you fivefold blazon. (i.v.265-269) although olivia senses that her falling in love with a servant is unsuitable, she is in fact trapped in a delusive situation, which is smartly generated, and which is outlandishly represented as a blue-blooded young man, with his tongue, face, limbs, actions, and spirit. as sir andrew puts it, ‘that youth’s a rare courtier’ (lll.i.88). however, critics argue realistically that the play, in a true sense, is ‘put on’ maneuvering deceptions and masquerading through which viola’s aristocracy gleams. (malcolmson, 1996). viola succeeds at her mission while despite his being male and knight, sir andrew aguecheek fails, and who because of his insufficient wit and verbal ineptness will be ‘put down’ by both maria and sir toby (l.iii.79) in addition to viola, maria, the servant of olivia is another mouthpiece of shakespeare through whom he breaks the traditional norms of renaissance era regarding the gender and social rank. while viola produces the look for a man , maria does it for her mistress ,not only by her hand writing, but through her eloquence which convinces malvolio that this is indeed ‘my lady’s hand’ (ll.v.84) . it is their adept astuteness for which both viola and maria are able to marry orsino and sir toby, kinsman to olivia, who are surely in superior rank in illyria. it is, therefore, crystallizedly clear that sir toby-maria marriage represents the advancement of women, which is very unlikely in shakespeare’s age. twelfth night sets free a fluidity between the roles of man and woman, and master and servant in the case of viola and maria, however, limits it severely and abruptly in the case of malvolio. in a marxist study of shakespeare’s comedies, elliot krieger (1979) argues that university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 72 malvolio’s aspirations are ridiculed and exorcised by the play not in order to preserve thetrue ‘liberty’ of saturnalia, but ‘to allow the aristocracy to achieve social consolidation’. he claims that whereas identity is generally mutable in the play, malvolio’s attempt to cross the line between servant and master is condemned as transgressive. whereas viola’s enactment of gentility is rendered legitimate by our discovery at the end of the play of her ‘noble’ blood, malvolio’s inferior status ensures that his ambition will be viewed as presumption. krieger is quite right to point out that the play balances the freedom of viola’s fluid identity against the strictures on malvolio, and that such strictures finally reinforce class prejudice. but in this play such prejudice is more complex than krieger suggests. the play as malcolmson senses ‘includes a tentative but radical disruption of conventional categories of identity which is checked but not erased by its ending , and checked in a complicated way’. by reducing viola’s skilled performance to her nobility at the end of the play, the audiences observe that it ignores the part she plays. as a courtier viola gains her prestige, financial rewards from orsino and a marriageproposal from countess olivia, which she may achieve by her noble-breeding but, her femininity under the costume of cesario makes it more significant. unlike perdita in the winter’s tale, twelfth night emphasizes viola’s performative genius rather than her nobility. her conversation in the first scene with the captain and the sailors proves that she is not a commoner, yet the scene veils her nobility from the audiences for the purpose of familiarizing her through her role-playing. even the male society doesn’t believe that women can love equally as men do. .in act ll, scene iv, we see viola with her value and power of female intelligence faces the duke. but it is to be noted that this sort of female intelligence in the then society is subject to women’s ability to love. the scene, however, introduces a debate regarding women between two prospective lovers. shakespeare through this debate confirms the audience’s compassion for viola’s stand, which she achieves by her masked identity and love for orsino. the duke’s claim of women’s inability to initiate love for men seems most unlikely since, the scene suggests, women can initiate love as deeply as men do. the scene however, tells the audience that the duke’s love for olivia is rather shallow, fluctuating and finally exploitive. in her conversation, viola pursues the duke to see the things from woman’s perspective: viola say that some lady, as perhaps there is, hath for your love as great a pang of heart as you have for olivia. you cannot love her. you tell her so. must she not then be answered? duke there is no woman’s sides can bide the beating of so strong a passion as love doth give my heart; no woman’s heart so big to hold so much; they lack retention. (ll.iv. 89-96) the duke refuses to imagine that a woman could desire as he does, and so he loses the point of the scene communicated to us: a woman, viola, loves as deeply as a man, and recognizes that she university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 73 cannot control her beloved’s point of view. the debate about love in this scene is a submerged exploration of the extent to which “renaissance masculinity depends on denying women a will of their own, and the independent perspective” (malcolmson, 1996) that goes with it. viola deflates this masculine conceit by her words and her presence: duke make no compare between that love a woman can bear me and that i owe olivia. viola ay, but i know duke what dost thou know? viola too well what love women to men may owe. in faith, they are as true of heart as we. (ll.iv. 101-6) when viola interrupts the duke’s masculine and mastering order ‘make no compare’, she asserts that her knowledge and experience constitute an identity comparable to his own: ‘ay, but i know.’ in act ll, scene v, which directly follows the debate about love between orsino and viola, malvolio imagines his new estate as ‘count malvolio’, and the play reveals that such self-interest has always motivated his government within the house. it is clear that “malvolio does not pursue olivia with the poetic abandon of the other lovers in the play; he sees her as the ticket to a higher social position” (malcolmson, 1996). his desire for olivia as well as his ethical severity is a mask for a will to power. malvolio’s fancy divulges that unlike viola’s esteem for the duke, he from his craving of dominating, he has taken the ‘disciplinary’ mission in his hand. for the purpose of showing his authoritativeness within the household of olivia, he reproofs sir toby, ‘you must amend your drunkenness’, which is like his ‘branched velvet gown and imperious looks’. the play shows similarity between malvolio’s aspirated criticism of sir toby and orsino’s sympathetic correction by viola; their respective motives clarifies their difference. it is not malvolio’s offence that he wants to marry his mistress as a gentleman; it is that he desires to use this marriage as a token to establish his superiority and impose his will on others. his virtuousness is only to institutionalize his supremacy in illyria. by using his ‘prerogative’, malvolio has brought fabian ‘out o’favour with my lady’ olivia for bearbaiting and put viola’s generous captain into jail for nothing (ll.v.67; v. i 275-6). although maria calls malvolio only ‘a kind of puritan’, malvolio’s fantasy of power constitutes the plays critique of london disciplinarians, those puritan aldermen who were perhaps gentlemen but had originally been merchants, who condemned holiday revelry, bearbaiting and the theatre: such a concern for civil rule, according to the play, masks a self-interested desire to govern, an unwillingness to accept traditional social bonds, and a willingness to disrupt rather than harmonize the social order. london puritans and malvolio are like the ‘politicians ‘and ‘brownists’ that sir andrew fears (lll.ii.30-1): each is a type of ‘separatist , one who does not university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 74 respect the bonds that tie the community together, bonds which may be flexible and fluid, but which must continue to hold if society is to survive (malcolmson,1996). twelfth night from presentist perspective unlike historicists who regard gender as performative and non-essential as butler’s theory does, presentist theorists are likely to focus a lot over gender essentialization and they argue that gender is not performative. for more clarification this study is citing kenneth branagh (2006), a film director who built the film as you like it, in which rosalind is portrayed as almost extremely feminine with all sorts of womanish embellishment and a soft voice, and who dressed like a man. but it is noteworthy that the director changes this scene and excludes the costuming details. branagh did it quite intentionally so that he, being a feminist, can bring forward feminism associated with gender essentialism to his modern spectators, which is extremely different from early modern theatres. however , since the concentration of this study in this section is twelfth night ,to describe which from presentist point of view which is mentioned in the introduction, the study would like to refer to waller’s (1994) introduction: ‘much joy, some terror: reading shakespeare’s comedies today’, which is stated before , to make the discussion more meaningful. in his introduction the writer discusses about the influential book shakespeare our contemporary by jan kott who is a polish director and critic, and which was published in 1964. in this book kott senses about the importance of studying shakespeare from presentist framework. as waller reveals: kott unabashedly insisted that we should search for the meaning of the plays here and now, especially in the politics of our post-holocaust, nuclear age. his approach represents an important strand of current criticism that insists that we ask not only ‘what does that mean?’, but rather ‘what does that say to us now?’ how can we make that work for us, here in our place and time? (quoted in waller, 1994). hence, we have to be mindful of our shakespeare, and therefore, waller (1994) advocates that it is significantly essential that ‘we make our shakespeare as powerful and interesting an intervention as we can, not only in the history of shakespearean criticism , but also in the broader cultural life of our own time’ (waller, 1994). grady, however, in james o’rourke’s introduction points out that the emergence of presentism in shakespeare studies is much eye-catching and appealing to the modern readers of shakespeare and grady includes feminism , cultural materialism, and postcolonial criticism within the periphery of ‘presentist methodologies’ (o’rourke,2012). in what follows the study will explore the present text twelfth night from feminist point of view for which it is preferable to cast a net over the background of feminist readings of shakespeare before going to the main discussion. feminism , in fact, talks about the women’s rights and their ranks in society in every age as callaghan dympna (2016), a distinguished feminist writer, claims in the preface that “in the introduction to the first edition of a feminist companion to shakespeare, published in 2000, i university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 75 confidently defined feminism as a political and intellectual movement that took as its central object of concern the status of women” (callaghan, 2016). in addition, feminist point of view is deemed as a striking lens and using this lens feminist writers are more likely to analyze the shakespearean literary texts. dympna (2016) again emphasizes ‘a feminist perspective remains an immensely powerful lens through which to view literary texts, and its potential, far from being exhausted, continues to generate fresh insights about shakespeare’s plays and poems as well as about the early modern world in which they were written’(callaghan, 2016). with a view to seeing the impact of feminism, it is likely to view it through waller’s (1994) eyes, who narrates that feminism is the most dominant reading area of all our ‘contemporary’ readings of shakespearean comedies. if we back to one century when seemingly ideal girls were praised for their sweetness, nobility and virtue, which today appear to be condescending and sentimental. fifty years later waller in line with dympna finds feminism as one of the most critical ‘movements’ in the present era when ‘feminist readings of shakespeare have developed a tradition of less patronizing , more serious and complex readings of gender in the comedies’. in recent criticism ‘problems of sexual identity’ and ‘family relations’ along with gender issues dominate the ‘feminist theory’ and ‘critical practice’ (waller, 1994). unlike historicist feminists, who view cross-dressing on shakespearean stage as flexible and malleable, presentist feminists like catherine belsey reacts disapprovingly about as waller (1994) writes, the blurring of sexual identity and the traditional gender roles. so, transvestism is a much discussed phenomenon in the presentist feminist theory. waller puts it “indeed , crossdressing in the comedies –in particular, the fact that on the stage in shakespeare’s time women’s parts were played by boys, which afforded the dramatists the occasion for both amusing and disconcerting references-has become a major focus of recent feminist criticism”. in addition, influential presentist and feminist analyst like laura mulvey and teresa de lauretis critically question the ways through which women are traditionally represented as objects of the male gaze, the seemingly unchallenged pleasure of which is disconcerted when the object is a man playing a woman-who is, in as you like it and twelfth night, also playing a man. moreover, to waller it seems unlikely that many authors and critics are males while gender problems are the core points to the comedies. waller again puts some questions like ‘what insights (or ignorances) was shakespeare articulating about his own or patriarchy’s fear of or curiosity about women? ‘and ‘what differences does gender make to reading?’--which are current feminist and ‘male feminist issues’ (waller, 1994). feminist like marilyn french (1981), however, points out that being disguised, viola “represents essentially an absence, the searching, uncertain part of the self” (french, 1981, p.117). among all other artists in the play it is only viola who willingly disguises herself as cesario, but the part itself articulates in a negative and passive way. "o time, thou must untangle this, not i," she protests in her soliloquy; "it is too hard a knot for me t'untie"(ii.ii.39-40). the deadlock for viola, as wikander senses ‘is represented by her inability to improvise, to venture beyond the part university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 76 set down; her passiveness and emptiness are preconditions of her femininity’ (wikander, 2019). cross-dressing for portia is a chance to play “a thousand raw tricks of these bragging jacks" (iii.iv.77) while for viola it is ‘distaste’ and ‘philosophical discomfort’. in fact viola is in trouble for her own identity and she admits that disguise is a ‘falsity of external looks’ (wikander, 2019) and a deceptive one. in her soliloquy, we listen: disguise, i see thou are a wickedness wherein the pregnant enemy does much. how easy is it for the proper false in women's waxen hearts to set their forms! (ii.i.26-29) wikander (2019) clarifies the disguise and viola’s self-identity more in what follows: viola's identification of her disguised self as olivia's (and womankind's) "pregnant enemy" suggests a very female fear of the social tragedy of unwed pregnancy and casts maleness as an invading and embossing force that sets and fixes female fluidity. yet at the same time viola sees the "waxen hearts" of women as regrettably frail. in her "proper false" disguise she yearns for the fixity that only male power can impose (p.359). however, although viola deems her disguise as a ‘deceptive imposture’ (wikander, 2019), she finally overcomes the marginality and liminality of her femininity by marrying orsino and becoming the “‘master’s mistress” at the end of the play (malcolmson, 1996). the presentist approach echoes this and suggests that viola is such a feminine heroine who, although literally shipwrecked and exhausted, overcomes all the impasses surrounding her, using the tool of transvestism to rescue herself despite being caught up in a male dominated oppressive society. conclusion all through the play viola proves that women are with no consideration inferior to men and they can prove their worthiness if they intend and remain confident enough. even in case of love women can be superior to men and they are quite able to introduce to love as it done by men: viola proves it by loving the duke and by being ready to sacrifice herself as she is disguised namely cesario. it is described in this article that although viola deemed transvestism is deceptive, it was the only mean to overcome all the difficulties and marginalities prevailing in the then society. for historicist feminist, however, viola’s disguise as a boy is not objectionable while for presentist feminist it’s a but crucial matter since the disguise disguises the true self of womanhood. for historicists gender is non-essential while for presentists gender is essential and the latter emphasise that women must not be disguised as men. hence they disapprove viola’s disguise as a boy, cesario. for the latter again on stage the women’s part acted by men is an offence and an abuse and therefore, women must act and represent themselves by their own in the theatre. elaine showalter (1985) articulates the same. she pronounces that from the time shakespeare’s heroines are acted by women not by men, they started to get their own voice and the meaningfulness of their existence. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 77 however, with consideration for the benefits of historicist and presentist approaches, comes the concern for what happens when one of them is chosen over the other. as the discussions of twelfth night in this essay show, the most responsible scholarship and teaching takes place when we are able to consider multiple and competing perspectives. part of this task, then, is recognizing what is lost when we exclude one approach in favor of the other. the play examined in this article demonstrates, for example, that historicism may unintentionally consider contemporary and current issues as inappropriate and insignificant. in contrast, a presentist approach may lead a learner or a researcher to misapprehend shakespearean texts, if he/she is unaware of the historical context. this study, therefore, asserts that synthesizing both approaches while interpreting or teaching shakespeare in the classroom, can offer us a better and fuller apprehension of the texts, and also can expose the way of making shakespeare germane for today and tomorrow. references branagh, k. 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(2008). bloom’s shakespeare through the ages: twelfth night. in loos. pamela(ed.), twelfth night, gender, and comedy, from early modern english drama: a critical companion (pp. 203-214).new york, ca. bloom’s literary criticism university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 78 o’rourke, j. (2012). retheorizing shakespeare through presentist readings. oxon, england: routledge. schlgel, b. e. (1968). dialogue on poetry and literary aphorisms. university park, pa, tx: pennsylvania state university press. shakespeare, w, mowat, b.a, werstine,p,& belsey, c. (2009). twelfth night, or, what you will. simon &schuster pbk.ed.new york: simon &schuster paperbacks. showalter, e.(1985). shakespeare and the question of theory.in patricia. parker & geoffrey .hartman(eds.) representing ophelia: women, madness, and the responsi bilities of feminist criticism, (p.80). new york, ca: methuen. singleton, a. (2017). the politics of interpretation: presentist and historicist perspectives of othello and as you like it. university of texas, usa. waller , g. (1994). shakespeare’s comedies. in gary. waller (ed.), introduction : ‘much joy, some terror: reading shakespeare’s comedies today’ (3rd ed, pp. 1-25). new york , ca: longman inc. wikander, m. h. (2019). as secret as maidenhead:the profession of the boy-actress in twelfth night. western michigan university, 20(4), 349–363. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1353/cdr.1986.0005 @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 41 a comparative analysis of the poetics of anger in john osborne’s look back in anger and femi osofisan’s the chattering and the song bosede funke afolayan (ph.d.) department of english,university of lagos, nigeria bafolayan@unilag.edu.ng abstract anger is a basic human emotion which has a force for constructive or destructive ends. its expression in any circumstance can be a trigger for a desire to change a prevailing situation. in all cases, anger is a fundamental component of art. this study examines the use of anger in osborne’s look back in anger and osofisan’s the chattering and the song. osborne and osofisan are two writers who are very anxious to change their societies through their art. in spite of differences in their origin (osborne was a briton while osofisan is a nigerian), they wrote at a time of certain social and political upheavals in their countries. they also share similar concerns and attitude towards art. my focus in this paper is on the early plays of osborne and osofisan where anger is strongest and where their artistic triumph is most poignant. working within the formalist approach, the paper reveals that in osborne and osofisan, extreme anger is both material and style and is what marks their art out. the reification by the intellect provides a potent instrument for investigating society. anger becomes the point of departure for their art, it is not mere hysterics but a cerebral one and it is the motivating force for their writings. key words: anger, british drama, african drama, john osborne, femi osofisan, literary history. introduction this study is a comparative analysis of osborne’s look back in anger and osofisan’s the chattering and the song, an english and a nigerian play whose aim is to reform society by drawing attention to its ills. like all comparative studies where the influence of a foreign author on a local one is extracted, this study is more interested in exploring certain interconnectedness in terms of theme, form and the context of the plays. the work is interdisciplinary because it takes concepts from psychology, sociology, literature and culture in exploring its concerns. the paper is based on a pivotal idea of anger that is germane and integral to the art of these two writers from disparate continents, and it focuses on their utilization of anger as an emotional construct. since it discusses how anger is replicated in the selected plays, the paper attempts to demonstrate how this term is expressed in the theory and practice of playwriting of these two writers. anger is revealed in their intense concern and disenchantment with the society. it informs their mailto:bafolayan@unilag.edu.ng vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 42 consciousness, conditions their creative impulse, is demonstrated in the speeches of the protagonists and it is a major thematic preoccupation of the plays. the paper is more interested, however, in establishing that the portraiture of anger in their art does not whittle down their artistry, contrary to assumptions that their reformist zeal tends to overwhelm the literariness. the methodological procedure adopted is to scrutinise and interpret the speeches of key characters while relying extensively on earlier studies to demonstrate our points. conceptualising anger a central concept in this paper is anger and it needs to be properly conceptualised. anger is generally believed to be a destructive, unpleasant, immature, aggressive, hostile, anti-social, impulsive, abominable and an indecent emotion. however, as a much-maligned emotion, it has its positive aspect as an unavoidable fact of life and a feature of human interaction. this seemingly ignoble emotion is also a weapon of self-assertion since it is excited by a sense of wrong. people are bound to be angry when mistreated or when others refuse to obey social laws. anger is also a sociological and philosophical issue that can be triggered by social injustices such as anger at racism and sexism. it is a basic political element that opens the way to new ideas and new ways of seeing things. it is in line with the above that i utilise the concept in understanding the plays of osborne and osofisan. harriet goldhor-lerner in her book; a dance of anger is critical to this analysis. she states that “anger is a signal …. it may be a message that we are being hurt, that our rights are being violated; that our needs or wants are not being adequately met or simply that something is not right.” (1) in other words, anger is a product of social interaction and to some extent, a useful response to frustrations. it is, thus, not a totally negative emotion. this view aligns with carol tavris position that: anger is not a disease with a single cause, it is a process, a transaction, a way of communicating. with the possible exception of anger cause by organic abnormalities, most angry episodes are social events. they assume meaning only in terms of the social contract between participants. (162) tracing the use of anger in playwriting, i note that the drama of anger has its precursor in jarry alfred’s ubu roi in 1896. the play’s use of harsh words and blunt and verbal abuse has no antecedent. it has also been copied by wole soyinka in the dramatization of the sadistic years of the late sanni abacha of nigeria in king baabu. the vitriolic and acerbic use of words and grotesque depiction of baabu and maariya is reminiscent only of ubu in jarry alfred’s play. background of study as a member of society, a writer is confronted with myriads of social, economic and political issues and these in most cases, engage his/her attention. he reacts to these tensions in different ways: he could escape from the scene of grave corruption and moral ineptitude by resorting to dreams in his writings or he could, in disgust and great moral outrage, “take up arms” through his vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 43 art and lash out against societal ills in overt terms, employing angry language and satire with the sole aim of shocking the society to an awareness of the ills. my concern in this paper is with the latter writers who are greatly irked by social and political circumstances of their times and employ their art as instruments of social criticism and social engineering. on the english stage, no playwright before john osborne has been so vituperative in his language as him. from shakespeare to ben jonson, richard sheridan, oliver goldsmith, no dramatists engaged the society frontally like osborne. the drama before him was largely conformist, pandering to the taste of the society. even in the latter part of the nineteen century and the beginning of the twentieth century when drama in europe and america emerged as an instrument for the discussion of serious issues in both form and content. writers such as henrik ibsen in norway, strindberg in sweden, pirandello in italy, arthur miller in america and anton chekhov in russia blazed the trail. of note in britain was the work of george bernard shaw who was the first english dramatist to use his plays for societal awakening. the events after the second world war of 1939-1945 demanded a new type of drama. the end of the war seemed to mark the beginning of a new era for drama. post-war britain was a period of serious social and political upheavals, especially with the breakdown of the class system. it was a society where so much was expected from those in authority but nothing was forthcoming. this ultimately led to disillusionment and despair. however, there was liberalisation in education which made many people in the middle and working classes to go to the university but there were no jobs for the graduates (ward, 17). the enormous problems of this era invariably provided the basis for the new dramatic efflorescence championed by new playwrights and writers such as john osborne, ann jellicoe, kingsley amis, c. wilson, alan sillitoe and john arden. these writers were young and felt more keenly the deleterious effects of the malaise in the society and they brazenly used their art to encapsulate the despair and negotiate social change. they were not subtle but belligerent and vitriolic, left-winged and irreverent. john osborne was a leading light of this era. as a member of the lower middle class, he wrote plays that dealt with class struggles, with passion. he was an actor, playwright, theatre and film director and he later became a lord in the british upper house, a fact which should have changed his non-conformist attitude towards the aristocracy in particular. osborne died in 1994. his plays include look back in anger, the entertainer, luther, a patriot for me, time present and inadmissible evidence. his philosophy of writing is expressed in the following words: “i want to make people feel, to give them a lesson in feeling. they can think afterwards ….” (banham, 30). this overtly sensitivity earned him and others, mentioned earlier the term, “angry young men”; a sobriquet which was a catch-phrase in britain in the middle and late 1956. it referred to young writers who were vocal in their depiction of the disillusionment and dissatisfaction of young people. the term, according to kenneth allsop suggests many things which include “irreverence, stridency, impatience with tradition, vigour, vulgarity, sulky resentment against the cultivated …” (allsop 19). look back in vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 44 anger helped to express the mind of young people in britain and began the trend. john russell taylor in his book anger and after helped to shape the notion of the term: 8 may 1956 marks the breakthrough of a new drama into the british theatre, and osborne himself remains … the first of the “angry young men” and arguably the biggest shock to the system of british theatre since the advent of shaw. (taylor 37) george bernard shaw was a shock to the british people in writing plays such as mrs warren’s profession, widowers’ houses and others plays he referred to as “plays unpleasant”. for instance, he laid the blame for women going into prostitution squarely at the door of the society who could not provide job opportunities for its women and on male licentiousness. this was a big shock at that time. the shock is however, greater in osborne’s use of language and irreverence in look back in anger as we shall see later. on the nigerian stage, no playwright has expressed so much anger and dissatisfaction as femi osofisan. before him are the first-generation dramatists such as wole soyinka, j. p. clarkbekederemo, zulu sofola and ola rotimi who were conservative in their vision, pandering to traditional culture and sometimes, imitative of the west in order to prove that their works were of equal quality and worth with those of the western writers. however, with the nigerian civil war of 1967-1970 and its attendant social and economic problems, new writers emerged. the oil boom after the war created a sharp gap between the rich and the poor. these new writers saw a lot of problems in the society and reacted to these issues by imbibing the marxist aesthetics and philosophy as alternative to the problems. these writers include femi osofisan, kole omotosho, bode sowande, wale ogunyemi, and tess onwueme. they are classified as second-generation dramatists in nigeria (yemi ogunbiyi, 36 and olu obafemi,168). their attitude to societal ills is revolutionary and the aim is to change society through their art. femi osofisan occupies a significant place in this group as the most strident and most prolific. femi osofisan is a university lecturer, theatre director, an administrator, a novelist, poet and essayist. he has written about fifty plays and some of them are morountodun, the chattering and the song, farewell to a cannibal rage, women of owu, once upon four robbers and birthdays are not for dying. in deviating sharply from the concerns of the older generation, because the times were different, he embraced revolution against the romantic explorations of the gods in soyinka and clark. he became belligerent and vociferous in the treatment of societal ills. in his essay, “the alternative tradition: a survey of nigerian literature after the war”, osofisan submits that: the older writers represented a watershed, in both the socio-historical and the purely aesthetic aspects of artistic expression, and it was a watershed from which we had to depart in order to keep our rendezvous with history. muted now are the lyrical clairvoyant cadences of okigbo, the raw, inchoate passions of soyinka and his challenging esotericism; vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 45 and muted also achebe’s sedate, serious concern for the often-tragic mutation in social culture. these voices, together with their unending mythopoetic narcissism had to be left behind, because when all is said and done, behind their genuine human attitude there was always a plea for a reactionary or simply impracticable idealist utopia, engaged in false maze of a tragic cycle. (osofisan 783) to achieve a complete breakaway from the reactionary and tragic visions of the older generation, osofisan embraced a revolutionary posture. in his own words on his philosophy of writing: to use the pen we had, our zeal and our eloquenceto awaken in our people the song of liberation. with our writing, we would wash the stigma away, the stigma of inferiority, rouse our dormant energies, unmask the pest and traitor among us, preach the positive sermons. our works would be a weapon in the struggle to bring our country to the foremost ranks of modern nations. our songs would call for radical alternative. (osofisan 1987, 6) thus, the same attitude to societal ills noted in osborne is inherent in osofisan. their responses to writers before them is another common ground. how this attitude is played out in their creative work forms the body of the next section. anger in osborne’s look back in anger the plot of look back in anger is a simple and conventional one. on the surface, it tells the story of an estranged marriage. a story of two people from two different classes of society living together as husband and wife. the relationship already evokes feelings of conflict, resentments, misunderstanding and sometimes, inferiority complex. in the play, the wife leaves and returns to continue their unrealistic game of “bear and squirrel that begins the play. in this way, the play is a “piece of straight-forward dramatic realism” (martin banham, 12). however, in this simple story of a failed marriage is built the issues of class, alienation and the socio-political circumstances of the britain of 1956. as earlier stated, the plays of terrence rattigan, christopher fry and t. s. eliot, prior to 1956, showed elaborate and sometimes symbolic settings and the plays were well-made plays and drawing – room comedies. it is significant to note that all the actions in look back in anger take place in one setthe porters’ one-room flat in midlands. this bare setting is at once a shock to its audience and a pointer to the acute housing problem of the time. stephen lacey avers that: “the realism of a set like this asks to be judged not only in relation to the observable social reality beyond the stage but also against other kinds of theatre; in both senses the play was a considered provocation.” (29) the play opens with jimmy and cliff on sunday evening reading the newspapers with alison at the ironing board. the ironing board is in itself a domestic labour that is absent on the stage of a well-made play. this was a revolution as the audience was invited to see a world that was sordid (banham 12). vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 46 it is in jimmy’s speech, however, that the audience is introduced to the class system in britain. jimmy is angry that the newspapers seem to be divided into the “high and mighty and the posh ones”. a deliberate act to exclude the poor and common people by writing half of the news in french, in a language that only the upper class can understand. he attacks the reviews for being the same even with different books. to him, nothing changes. this division already prepares us for the social barriers that exist in the society. by lashing out at this injustice, jimmy becomes the “representative of a generation determined to destroy this kind of injustice (alan carter 23). it is this kind of intellectual snobbery that jimmy fights in the play. anger is remarkably present in osborne’s play. it is emblazoned in the title and it colours his criticism of his society seen in the various attacks on class, the establishment and religion. acknowledged as osborne’s first and famous work, it launched him into stardom. osborne’s anger at the various injustices in the society is championed by the major character, jimmy, who articulates the disillusionment of the post-war youth in britain. before now, britain was regarded as a superpower, but with the decline in her empire by the colonies’ declarations of independence, britain lost most of her territories and this had a great effect on her social and economic life. the year 1956 itself was rife for “agitation or disillusionment”. john russell taylor in the book john osborne: look back in anger provides the context for the unrest in britain over nuclear disarmament, the revolt in hungary, the suez canal debacle where britain was humiliated and the illusion of britain ruling the world was destroyed (taylor 14). for instance, egypt had gone on to nationalise the suez canal which at that time was controlled by britain. britain and france mobilised forces to wage war against egypt and could have carried it through but for the intervention of the united states. britain lost face. the people’s self-esteem was affected and the image of britain as a superpower dimmed. osborne was one of the writers who addressed britain’s fortunes at this time. even within britain, there was unrest because young people who were the major beneficiaries of the mass tertiary education of 1944 could not secure jobs after their education. such is the case of jimmy who with his university education keeps a “sweet stall”. jimmy is a representative of his age and it is in him, that the anger against the way the establishment has treated them is greatly reflected. the play is thus about anger. anger is reflected in the title and it remains the major thematic thrust of the play. carter observes that: ‘look back in anger is not a play about anger; it is about feelings, about despair….’ (131) what is anger, if not an emotion that reflects strong feelings? the anger here is not “malicious” but the obverse of which is love. it is a call for greater commitment to the issues of the lower class. indeed, jimmy porter’s verbal onslaughts stem from despair, but they carry his deep love for a society that refuses to show love to its lower classes. jimmy porter’s anger also is a product of his frustration with his society. he lives in a society that enables him to have an upperclass education but denies him an employment that correlates with his education. he has tried many jobs before settling down to selling sweets. vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 47 jimmy’s wife also contributes to his frustration by her nonchalant attitude. alison knows exactly what jimmy requires from her but she is unwilling to make adjustments. in frustration, he rages: “nothing i could do would provoke her…” (19). jimmy, in anger, laments alison’s inaction and her “passivity.” all he craves for (from her) is some enthusiasm. jimmy says of her: “she’s a great one for getting used to things…” (16). instead of reacting to the issue at hand, alison just flows with it. it is this inability to communicate that leads to his frustration. jimmy’s anger also has a root. he watched his father die at the age of ten. to him, “anyone who has never watched someone die is suffering from a bad case of virginity. (57) osborne’s disgust for religion which translates to anger is also reflected in the play. the play opens on a sunday evening. jimmy porter later complains about the insistent ringing of the church bells. the “bishop of bromley” is attacked for his “vaguery.” and sunday, itself, is seen as a “depressing day.” god, how i hate sundays! it’s always so depressing, always the same. we never seem to get any further, do we? always the same ritual. reading the papers, drinking tea, ironing. a few more hours, and another week gone. our youth is skipping away…. (1415) according to carter, osborne’s anger is against the established church and its servants. his anger stems from the fact that the church does not address the ‘problems of today’. therefore, jimmy porter’s anger on the church is a call for ‘real religion not less’ (3). again, jimmy porter also taunts helena into inviting the parson over for tea in the hope that some of his ‘spiritual beefcake’ would make a man of him. hear him: jimmy: … should i go in for this moral weightlifting and get myself some over developed muscle? i was a liberal skinny weakling. i too was afraid to strip down to my soul, but now everybody looks at my superb physique in envy… (79). to reinforce his attack on religion, jimmy cites the uncaring attitude of religious people: did you read about the woman who went to the mass meeting of a certain american evangelist at earl’s court? she went forward, to declare herself for love or whatever it is, and, in the rush of converts to get to the front, she broke four ribs and got kicked in the head. she was yelling her head off in agony, but with 50,000 people putting all they’d got into “onward christian soldiers”, nobody even knew she was there. (14 emphasis mine) behind this mask of anger is jimmy porter’s plea for more care, more commitment and honest responses from people. the attack on religion is also a central concern in the entertainer and luther. his keen and deep love for society makes jimmy porter a very lonely man, despite his talkative nature. the theme of loneliness is exemplified in different references to isolation in look back in anger. jimmy porter is an extremely sensitive person who demands greater reaction from his vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 48 listeners this is what his angry outbursts seem to call for. he seeks more involvement from his wife especially, and when he gets none, he becomes agitated and offensive. we note this right from the opening of the play. he says to alison: “you can talk, can’t you? you can express an opinion; or does the white woman’s burden make it impossible to think?” (11). jimmy is angry with everyone and everything. he is angry at alison’s mother, her father and her brother. he is angry at helena, the sunday papers and the church bells. his anger at nigel, alison’s brother is mainly because he represents the government. he calls nigel “the platitude from outer space” (24). nigel, to jimmy is the symbol of young british politicians who has sold the people out through his “vaguery” and it is here that his attack on the establishment – government, royalty and its apparatusesis most pungent. according to banham, nigel represents all that jimmy derides: in fact, nigel is being used as the symbol for jimmy’s general enemies, those he sees as smug, privileged, and what’s more, successful. on the way, he manages to attack the conservative party, its candidates and supporters, politicians in general, the regular army and its officer corps, and the public schools. (20) again, the theme of class is strengthened by jimmy’s attack on alison’s friends and all he considered successful. to jimmy, these people are “militant, arrogant and full of malice or vague” (44). but he is enamoured with poor workers such as cliff, his own mother and madeline who are sensitive and have big hearts. only poor people fall into his classification of “good people”. alison’s mother receives a bashing from the cantankerous jimmy. he attacks her for her role in trying to ensure that her daughter does not marry a ruffian like jimmy. hear him: … there is no limit to what the middleaged mummy will do in the holy crusade against ruffians like me. mummy and i took one last quick look at each other, and from then on, the age of chivalry was dead. i knew that to protect her innocent young, she wouldn’t hesitate to cheat, lie, bully and blackmail. (52) jimmy sees himself as an underdog, one who has no money, no pedigree but in spite of these, he refuses to be intimidated. he rages on calling alison’s mother “an old bitch” and that she should die. this foul, verbal attack goes on unchecked: my god, those worms will need a good dose of salts the day they get through her! oh, what a bellyache you’ve got coming to you my little wormy ones! alison’s mother is on her way! (in what he intends to be a comic declamatory voice). she will pass away, my friends, leaving a trail of worms gasping for laxatives behind her – from purgatives to purgatory. (53) a survey of jimmy’s language above shows the use of everyday language, it is repetitive but it achieves importance by its vehemence. look back in anger is an important play most especially by its use of language. the stark rhetoric and bluntness of the language is intended to shock its audience. no delicate use of words, no finesse, no tact and no delicacy. this language was new to the stage. the content of the language shows monologues, acerbic use of words, invectives, vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 49 vituperations, insults and tirades. all of these make the audience listen and become aware of the injustices jimmy suffers from. alison receives the greatest attack in the play. being from the upper class, she becomes the butt of his misplaced anger. he attacks her verbally and physically and emotionally. he calls her judas, a phlegm, someone that is so bloody feeble. he likens her to a “chocolate meringues sweet and sticky on the outside and sink your teeth in it … inside, all white, messy and disgusting …” (49). some of his abusive similes in the play are: “you are like a sexual manic – only with you its food” (12). “you sit there like a lump of dough” (17) and “… oh, it’s more like a zoo every day! (26). such harsh language and invectives characterise the relationship between the couple, two individuals from different classes of the society. jimmy humiliates, taunts, bullies and provokes her all in the bid to get her to respond physically to him. he calls her “sycophantic, phlegmatic and pusillanimous” (21) and he provides the meaning of the last adjective as “pusillanimous. adjective. wanting of firmness of mind, of small courage, having little mind, mean spirited, cowardly, timid of mind. from the latin, pusillus, very little, and animus, the mind” (22). and because she does not respond or talk back, he calls her “this monument to non-attachment” and all she says is “god help me, if he doesn’t stop, i will go out of my mind” (22). alison, perhaps, out of the good breeding or the well-bred nature of her class refuses to be drawn into an argument with jimmy. two images of animals begin the play and ends it – “the bear and the squirrel”. jimmy and alison play the game, he is the bear and she is the squirrel in a moment of happiness. this game assumes a larger role at the end of the play when she returns, having lost her pregnancy. it is not “fey” as helena, alison would want us to believe, it is their coping strategy and a way of escape. hear jimmy: we’ll be together in our bear’s cave, and our squirrel’s drey, and we’ll live on honey, and nuts …. and we’ll sing songs about ourselvesabout warm trees and snug caves, and lying in the sun. and you’ll keep those big eyes on my fur, and help me keep my claws, because i’m a bit of a soppy, scruffy sort of a bear. and i’ll see that you keep that sleek bushy tail glistening as it should, because you’re none too bright either, so we’ve to be careful. there are cruel steel traps lying about everywhere, just waiting for rather mad slightly satanic and very timid animals. right? (96) i have quoted this lengthy ending to the play for very clear reasons. many critics have found it unsatisfactory. banham says it is a “cliché of an ending” because the ending does not reflect the intensity of the emotion from the start. jimmy has successfully roused our emotions but leaves us flat at the end. finally, look back in anger achieves greatness because of the use of anger in the form of the play. the socio-political context of the play contributes greatly to this impact. it is mainly in its bare setting, the character and the language of the protagonist that helped to make it the important play vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 50 it has become, even though the anger seems dated. it is a language that wakes up the audience and shocks them. anger in osofisan’s the chattering and the song although the plot of the play is thin, it contains very strong statements about the political life of the people. on the surface, the plot revolves around the wooing of yajin by sontri and the preparation for the wedding that was eventually stalled. this is what one encounters at first. however, it is more than this. the play is about the activities of a group of friends trying to effect the necessary change in the society. in the bid to achieve this, one of them, eventually reveals himself as a traitor to the cause. this group of enlightened characters came together to form the farmers’ movement; a somewhat subversive organisation working against the chicanery of the rulers. they are angry at the situation of things in the land and so decide to join hands with the poor to transform the society. on this level, the play is a demonstration of the anger of the characters against the wicked ruler and his activities. the farmers’ movement is actually a ‘subversive’ organisation whose revolutionary anger makes them the target of government’s attack for they are also hunted by the government. according to mokan, it is this group’s intention to ‘seize power for the farmers… arm them and proclaim a new republic’ (47). they try to help the poor. it is leje’s responsibility to recruit new members into the organisation while sontri is its songwriter. the play opens with the courtship dance between sontri and yajin. they re-enact the “iwori otura” riddle. this riddle is on the ifa divination tray that evokes a binary opposition. in re-enacting this riddle, the imagery of the oppressed and the oppressor is played out in the predator and prey animal imagery used: the fish swimming for life the hawk with the beak of steel swooping down on the hen … (osofisan 1977, 1-5) this polarised image of the oppressed and the oppressor sets the tone for the play. this image reinforced by the play-within-play employed by the playwright helps to reveal the overall effect of the play. the friends decide to give sontri and yajin a wedding present in form of a play. the play-within-the-play is based on the history of the alafin abiodun who in historical records is depicted as a benevolent king. osofisan subverts this fact by making him a tyrannical ruler. his belief is that the benevolent ruler, if unchecked by progressive revolutionary groups can become malevolent. in fact, in an interview with olu obafemi, osofisan states that even with his benevolent attitude, there was an opposition to his rule. in the play, alafin abiodun becomes evil. he and his friends “are fed and flourishing” and steal the lands of the poor. alafin and his cronies are rich and their “salaries swell from the burden of poor people’s taxes”. his barns are full and bursting while poor people’s children are on the streets begging for food. (osofisan 1977: 42). vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 51 alafin supports his evil acts with his status as a divine king. he hides under the influence of being the intermediary between man and the gods. in the playwithinthe play, sontri becomes the alafin abiodun who exploits his people. the traitor, mokan, arrests him. his arrest, however, does not disrupt the activities of the movement as we observe that leje still carries on its activities. by this, osofisan seems to suggest that the movement is bigger than any single individual. thus, the arrest of sontri does not affect the work of the movement. the insensitivity and corrupt lifestyle of the king is attacked by latoye and with the aresa, they expose his antics of surrounding himself with the gods. osofisan’ s sacrilege is to unmask the infallibility of the gods and make people aware of the fraud that the king is. in aresa’s words: we worship osanyin, god of secrets, but if he stands in the path of justice, we shall haul him into the stream. for all those who seek to unbalance the world, to rearrange it according to their own greed, there is only one remedy, abiodun, death. (osofisan 1977:46) both latoye and aresa are vocal and are aware of their rights to speak truth to power. latoye is seen as an underdog, a rebel and a usurper who confront abiodun frontally. he insults the king using invectives, harsh and uncompromising language as shown above. the king resorts to magic to conquer latoye when he could not march him words for words. latoye, on the other hand, relies on reason as against magic. his words conscientize the guards who saw their deplorable conditions and refuse to arrest latoye as the king has ordered. latoye, a chief under alafin stood up against the king’s sheer irresponsibility: latoye: for centuries, you have shielded yourself with the gods. slowly, you painted them in your colour, dressed them in your own cloak of terror, injustice and bloodlust … to each of the gods, edumare gave power and fragility so that none of them shall be a tyrant over the others and none a slave …. but in your reign abiodun, the elephant eats and nothing remains for the antelope! the buffalo drinks and there is drought in the land! soldiers seize him, he is ripe for eating. (45) betrayal is another area where the anger of the playwright is shown. yajin was mokan’s girl before the play begins but she is drawn to sontri and they are to be married. mokan’s seemingly legitimate anger at yajin’s ‘betrayal’ or abandonment is hidden under a humorous cloak, and is left to fester into the betrayal of the larger cause of the movement. at a certain point in the play-acting, mokan reveals himself as a member of the state security police a government force used to clamp down on resistance groups. by betraying the cause of the farmer’s movement, osofisan reveals that traitors and saboteurs are to be expected within a group and thus, suggests that measures must be put in place to avert their negative impact on the movement. despite sontri’s arrest, leje continues to recruit new members. osofisan seems to suggest that the revolution is still on course even when the obvious leader has been arrested. vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 52 sontri is the most conspicuous character of the group, but in the playwright’s opinion, the most quiet. leje is its actual leader. sontri is described in violent terms. when he first appears, sontri is drunk as he ‘lunges forward angrily, tripping, picking himself forward, crawling and swearing, towards a bottle’ (1). right from this scene to the end of the play, he is angry and abusive. yajin describes sontri as the hunter. his eyes are ‘the colour of blood’, the ‘strangled scream of the people’ and ‘the shade of red’ (4-5). sontri is the artist of the group as he writes all the songs of the farmers’ movement. yetunde is quick to remind the girls that sontri paints but ‘only with anger’ for he is always angry. he is handsome but in character, sontri is a complex individual. as pointed out by yajin, sontri is ‘something… like a… mountain with a volcano inside…’ he, like jimmy porter in look back in anger is a not a pleasant individual to be with. as he re-enacts the iworiotura riddle with yajin in the courtship scene, the images he draws on are those of the oppressor: ‘a flaming ember’ ‘now i am a hawk…’ ‘say i am a stag…’ as a student in college, sontri was “the wild, untamed one, running the street with brats, garage touts, and the like, and only just managing to scale through the exams” (13). he is the one yajin eventually falls in love with and is about to marry as the play begins. she has just broken her engagement with mokan. interestingly, sontri is a restless individual having been in the army, in politics, prison and the war. his last disappearance during the civil war has left a mark on him as observed by his friends. he is said to have grown “harder, angrier but also more concerned” and eventually, he joined the farmers’ movement (13). yajin describes him thus, yajin: far more restless. he could not settle anywhere. he joined the army and left. he tried politics and was imprisoned. then the first coup came, and his old officers brought him out of prison…. yajin: for over a year no one knew where he was. and then suddenly he was back…. (13) osofisan does not pursue the reason behind sontri’s angry behaviour. in other words, the audience is not allowed to see the motivations behind sontri’s complex personality and as pointed by muyiwa awodiya, this represents one fault in osofisan’s characterisation: osofisan is less concerned with the inner psychology of his characters and gives greater emphasis to their outward actions… their psychological depths are not drawn. consequently, osofisan has not so far created the character types, which can be regarded as the authentic, individual african human types like say, the european human typesa macbeth, a hamlet, an othello, etc. (119) vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 53 unlike osborne’s delineation where the problems of the society are implied in the troubles of the prominent characters, osofisan treats social and economic issues on the public plane; his characters merely help to extend the issues. consequently, sontri is shown mostly from outward description. it is an angry yell of “soponno o” that heralds his re-entry on stage. he enters ‘very angry’ (15) demanding to know who let the weaverbirds out of their cage. obafemi refers to sontri as ‘the wild radical possessing an eruptive nature’ (189). his language is harsh, full of invectives as he harangues yajin and her friend. in a humorous manner, he mimics yajin and her father, the judge: ignorance! ignorance again! no wonder you are good friends: you’ll both end well. tell me, suppose i take your pretty virgin here before her father, what do you think will be verdict? ehn? (to funlola, who cringes from him) her father is a judge, you know, if you haven’t heard of him, then you are not breathing. an eminent judge, known and respected from lagos to kaura namoda! esungboro! the fearful spirit who deals out death penalties with the same ease as a wealthy man deals out fart into the air! forty six years on the bench! dear father did so well, killing off the nation’s bad children that, to reward him, they’re going to put him on the armed robbery tribunal! ha! ha ha! (18) this language is reminiscent of jimmy porter’s. yajin may not match him word for word or anger for anger, but she is not silent like alison, as she retorts: “yajin: yes sontri, why do you stop? you know, it doesn’t hurt anymore. or are you out of words”. (18) but his ravings end in humour for his anger has no malice and yajin prays to be able to tame the fire that is in his belly. leje, the real leader of the farmers’ movement, goes under many pseudonyms in order to escape police arrest. he is “osongongon”, the farmers’ leader (52). he uses drunkenness and a pronounced sense of humour as a cloak under which he hides his true identity and his anger. at the end of the play, mokan is revealed as a traitor who sells the friends out to the government. unlike conventional plays where individuals rise to heights by their singular efforts and the well being of the society depends on them, osofisan pitches his tent with the collective effort of the group working together to transform society. mokan betrays the group and sontri is arrested but the work of organising the people continues. hear sontri: “the police are ignorant. what is a single man in a revolution? once a movement begins, in the search for justice, it will run its course, with or without those who serve to spark it off ….” (the chattering and the song 53) significantly, the play is saturated with the word “anger”. if we care to know the number of times that anger appears or if we could use numerical analysis, we would say that anger is specifically used in about twenty (20) instances: angrily; paints with anger; a volcanic; he grew harder and angrier, enters sontri, very angry; controlling her anger; flaring up through anger; he is almost hoarse with anger; beside herself with rage; the anger and the gall, etc. (1, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22). these words as used could not have been placed there for their aesthetic effects but to add to the intention of the playwright in constructing the play. vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 54 conclusion this paper has examined critically the representations of anger in the philosophy and dramaturgy of john osborne and femi osofisan. these are two playwrights from two different continents who share the same opinion on the role of art. significantly, they are also, in a way angry at society for not doing enough for its people. therefore, anger stands out in the two plays selected for the study. the anger, i refer to here is not the malicious, hysterical and destructive one but one that has been tempered and tamed by artistry; cerebral or intellectual anger. a significant revelation in both plays examined is the socioeconomic problems of the post-war era in britain and in nigeria that provided the framework and the basis for the drama of osborne and osofisan. both playwrights emerged at a time in social evolution when anger was legitimised by the social predominance of marxist rationalism of inequality. while osofisan is more marxian, osborne harbours marxian sentiments. the protagonists of both plays share commonalities; they are restless, angry, brash and irreverent, lashing out at their partners in vituperations and verbal abuse. however, while osofisan’s anger is directed at a particular social change, osborne’s anger is not. osborne wants a change in the socioeconomic situations of his time but does not seem to know the alternative to the situation he openly criticises. works cited allsop, kenneth. (1964). the angry decade. london: owen. awodiya, muyiwa. (1995). the drama of femi osofisan. ibadan: kraft books limited. …………………. (1993). excursions in drama and literature. ibadan: kraft books limited. banham, martin. (1969). osborne. edinburgh: oliver and boyd. carter, alan. (1969). john osborne. edinburgh: oliver and boyd. goldhor-lerner, harriet. (1985). the dance of anger. new york: harper and row publishers. denilson, d. patricia. (ed.) (1997). john osborne: a casebook. new york and london: garland publishers inc. hayman, ronald. (1970). contemporary playwrights: john osborne. london: heinemann. lacey, stephen. (1995). british realist theatre: the new wave in its context 1956-1965. london and new york: routledge. obafemi, olu. (1996). contemporary nigerian theatre: cultural heritage and social vision. lagos: cbaac. ogunbiyi, yemi. (ed.) drama and theatre in nigeria. lagos: nigeria magazine. osborne, john. (1975). look back in anger. london: faber and faber. osofisan, femi. (1977). the chattering and the song. ibadan: university press. ………………. (2001). insidious treasons: drama in a post-colonial state. ibadan: opon ifa publishers. vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 55 tavris, carol. (1987). “anger defused” in karen g. duffy (ed.) personal growth and behaviour. connecticut: the dushkin publishing group inc. taylor, j. r. (1963). anger and after. london: hammondsworth. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 motivation and anxiety in english language classrooms at intermediate level in daska, sialkot, pakistan mubashar raza university of management and technology, sialkot, pakistan wasankaay@gmail.com dr. ihsan ali university of management and technology, sialkot, pakistan ihsan.ali@skt.umt.edu.pk abstract positive motivation plays an important role in the acquisition of l2 at all levels. the present study tries to explore why 70% sialkoti students enrolled in public schools (school education department punjab 2020,april 20) are not interested in english language and as a result pakistan is suffering both in terms of economy and progress. in the past, researchers ignored the factors such as anxiety, absence of motivation and socio-economic factors that affect motivation. the research shows that sialkoti students having strong economic background show keen interest in english language learning as compared to those with poor or weak economic background. poor economic conditions cause discomfort, low or no interest in the classroom, weaker student-teacher bond and absence of selfrespect. these conditions increase the level of anxiety and demotivate the learner to speak english in the classroom. it is very important to maintain conducive environment for the students so that they may pay more attention to the acquisition of language. the population of this research consists of 56 intermediate students of govt. higher secondary school adamkay cheema, sialkot. the researcher formulated a questionnaire on lickert’s scale and provided maximum time to the students to solve it. the data has been analyzed using spss version 22.0. the results of the study show that motivation plays a very important role in learning l2 in students of daska, sialkot. keywords: motivation, socio-economic background, academic background, higher secondary level, daska, sialkot introduction english language i.e. the language of power has been the center of fascination and attraction not only for the rulers and masses of the third world countries but for the students as well. they learn it for bright future and employment (anderson 1990). second language for the students of the third world countries is not only a language but also a test of their tendency, amplitude and personal attribute. it determines their attitude i.e. how much motivated they are towards their mailto:wasankaay@gmail.com university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 103 second language learning. (christiansen and chater 2008) have expressed the same in their research and explored the relationship between student’s mental abilities and second language. in past no specific attention was given on the relationship between second language acquisition and student’s previous academic background and motivation (amara 2015). motivation plays very important role in learning especially when we are learning a foreign language. motivated students perform better resultantly they learn better as compared to those who are not interested or not motivated to cover milestone of second language(liu and huang 2011). students get inspired when they receive motivation from their teachers or when they see their motivated peers rocking in their studies. motivation may be classified as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation furthermore, they may be labeled as instrumental and integrative motivation(sansone and harackiewicz 2000). there are a number of theories addressing the very basic question i.e. the motivation originates from within whereas external motivation is the result of external factors. researchers have proved that positive psychology and attitude improves the capability of learning second language, this role becomes more vital when the students hail from poor economic and learning background(buckingham, beaman et al. 2014). pakistani students having high motivation and bearing determination are better recipient of second language. motivation paves the way of encouragement, and students ask questions when they are motivated, as a result we get healthy attitude towards foreign or second language in classrooms (chambers 1999). it is pertinent to mention that demotivation paves way for anxiety and it has been proved by many researches that when there is anxiety there is no knowledge, i.e. students suffer from mental agony and cannot perform better in class. in the class of foreign language anxiety disturbs and has higher rate of influence on students’ proficiency and learning(horwitz 2010). it has been noticed that motivation plays important role than corporal punishment or mental agony that is very common in third world countries. motivation can encourage a student to excel in any subject and he can produce extraordinary results(glenn 1984). importance of english in daska, sialkot, pakistan english is enjoying very important status in all the cities of pakistan especially in daska. it is not confined to educational institutes but masses can speak and understand english in pakistan(rahman 2009). there are various factors responsible for the popularity of english in this city of pakistan however, the prominent ones are english as a compulsory subject and its official status is very important. english is lingua-franca and enjoying huge reputation across the globe. multi-national companies and media especially printed and electronic media has promoted english a lot in pakistan (sultana 2007). from beijing to tokyo from dubai to dhaka everyone is learning and promoting english. even pakistani incorporate english while using urdu language, i.e. they take many words from english(iqbal 2011). english is a status symbol in pakistan, a fellow having excellent proficiency and good vocabulary with sentence structure may impress interview panel and grab an envious job surpassing other language speaker. english is very common even in villages and towns of pakistan. people learn english from play group to university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 104 graduation as a compulsory subject(abbas 1993). the students improve their writing skills because educational system in pakistan promotes grammar translation method (gtm) but they are not able to speak english fluently. it is an alarming situation in pakistan that needs attention and improvement for good. competitive examinations incorporate english as a compulsory subject and it is astonishing that a number of brilliant, intelligent fellows are not able to pass english paper of these examination even after completing their masters or m.phil. degree in english(siddique and singh 2016). in a nutshell we may say that english is very important language in pakistan and people having interest and capability in speaking, writing and listening may enjoy extreme respect in pakistan. research back-ground many researchers have explored different areas of motivation and many other aspects of english in past 73 years. worthy researchers included motivation and positive behavior or psychology but ignored the role of anxiety. anxiety is a grave issue and concern of many students in daska, sialkot(ahmed, pathan et al. 2017). students are not able to concentrate and give their 100% attention to their studies because of anxiety and as a result we get huge ratio of failure(khan and khattak 2011). need of the research 70% sialkoti students are enrolled in public schools (school education department punjab 2020,april 20). a number of factors i.e. weak teacher student bond, lack of interest in teaching, non availability of av-aids lead towards lack of interest in english learning. students do not learn english language and it hampers the economy of the country. it will be highlighted in this research how we can minimize aforementioned factors and increase learning interest in the students so that their l2 learning capacity and interest in english may be upgraded. what is motivation in second language learning? motivation is very important in second language learning; you cannot teach a student without motivation. it is very important variable and inevitable as well for the students of third world countries(memon 2007). students need a motive and a clear direction so that they may learn and sail for it. motivation is the power that helps in keeping the steering of life straight-forward and help learners in achieving their goals and directions with constant struggle (cheng and dörnyei 2007). in this research we will highlight how motivation helps in removing anxiety and increases learning levels, how students having low or no anxiety are able to perform better than those who are not good in controlling their anxiety. how motivation does enhances mental process of learning for the students of daska. classification of motivation as we have discussed earlier that we may classify motivation as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation furthermore, instrumental and integrative motivation. let’s have a brief overview of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. intrinsic and extrinsic university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 105 deci and ryan (1985) for the very first time introduced difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. intrinsic means when there is interest from your inner, when a student wants to do more than assigned task i.e. a student fond of reading poetry and good books in english is because of intrinsic motivation. extrinsic motivated students learn english language for employment, to please a member of their family and to pass a specific exam. intrinsically motivated students have goals with interest whereas the extrinsically motivated follow the path of their goal with very low interest. intrinsic motivated students are able to perform better and learn better. they are less affected by anxiety and chances of learning increases in this case whereas in extrinsic motivation the students are motivated for a specific time period only and after that there is nothing that keeps their vibes alive. instrumental motivation following the same patterns of aforementioned examples i.e. intrinsic and extrinsic motivation the instrumental motivation encourages a student to learn a subject or a language because he is supposed to operationalize it. the interest factor is missing here and learning motive is only for a specific purpose. integrative motivation if a student learns foreign culture and language out of interest and he operationalizes the outcomes later on but his primary motive is interest, he is learning a language because he is interested in that language. he learns a culture because it appeals him. this type of motivation is known as integrative motivation, and in this type we follow the voice of our heart. role of attitude in second language learning in second language learning attitude is very important, though it is very difficult to define attitude but (dehbozorgi 2012) writes that it varies from person to person. it is based on our inner belief and the outcomes of one’s believe determines its attitude. if a student has positive attitude toward english language learning it means he may perform and learn this language better as compared to those who have negative attitude towards learning(williams, burden et al. 2004). thus attitude is the sense of interest towards a particular cause/language learning, it may be positive or negative. attitude leads and paves the ways of learning that later on develops cognitive abilities, whereas negative attitude destroys learning abilities and learning is very low in this way.(kong 2009)thinks that positivity or positive way of thinking eases the process of language learning and students having positive attitude and behavior have more tendency towards learning as compared to those who have negative behavior or attitude. negative behavior or attitude results in poor results and mostly students end their academic career ends in blind alley. a number of latent variables i.e. one’s academic behavior and emotional status also leave their effect on language learning along with attitude. how a student is performing in the class, how he is learning at home is determined by attitude. an attitude plays very important and vital role in language learning (wesely 2012). how anxiety disturbs second language learning university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 106 (zheng 2008) defined anxiety as a tension that learners feel when they learn a second language. the learner may take anxiety and tension when he feels difficulty in learning i.e. reading-writing or speaking-listening any second or foreign language. previous researchers have classified anxiety furthermore i.e. reading anxiety, writing anxiety, listening anxiety or speaking anxiety. a learner may feel a specific anxiety and it is possible that he is feeling this anxiety at a specific point(eysenck 1979). it is very important to uproot the causes of anxiety so that student may grow positive attitude in him and the process of learning takes it route positively. students having poor academic background have no speaking skills, they feel shy and a fear of incorrect english is there. they do not speak english and prefer to speak/contribute in class in their local language. the students of villages do not speak with one another in english even in the class of english language because they have a fear in their mind that many will laugh on them and they will not be able to perform better ever(rahman 2001). this hesitation if not remove properly obstructs the lives of the students and as a result they are not able to communicate and take part in any english language activity in their lives. thus english learners from village are not able to improve their vocabulary, english fluency, english grammar and vocabulary problems, resultantly they never learn english properly. students from poor background have a fear in their mind i.e. they will not be able to learn again if they fail once in any specific course. the researcher took many results as a reference and proved that there is a strong relationship between positive psychology and learning. literature review (kabilan 2000) stressed a lot on the teacher student relationship and termed it a major cause of student development. he is justified that we cannot follow one scale to measure all parameter, similarly we cannot apply one strategy in all language classes that will be suffice for all the students. if a mentor employs more than one rule in the classrooms it means he is creating more room for learning and motivating many minds to join new emerging concepts of class. it is wise to include interactive tools i.e. tape recorder and self-study interactive tools of revision to improve the learners’ capability to improve the language acquisition (macdonald, yule et al. 1994). a language teacher is different from other subject teachers, it is very important for a language teacher to understand the feeling and emotions of the students because it will leave long lasting effects on language. the job of a language teacher is complex in the sense that he has to deal with the emotions and subject deeply than other mentors (borg and sanchez 2020).language teaching is an art and this art is different than other subjects as motivation is a part and parcel of any language class. motivation plays a very important role in language teaching class. student’s motivation is central to learning and sharing the same with their peers, motivated students share their knowledge with their fellows and thus it goes on and on, on contrary discouraged fellows stop the process of sharing as they are not able to penetrate very first step of learning (alizadeh 2016). motivation leads towards passion and passion leads university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 107 towards excellence. motivation and involvement of the students in the class leads the student’s role from passive to active learner (riyanti 2019). (masgoret and gardner 2003) says that integrative behavior and positive attitude towards studies are highly effective in teaching the foreign language, it sharpens the capabilities of the students and make them able to learn in better manners. motivation play inevitable role in the acquisition of second language learning. motivation is a driving force, it gives determination and goals to human beings and then students achieve it with full interest and zeal (deshon and gillespie 2005). motivation is different than our goals and inner approach i.e. it is different from willpower, inner actions and plans. motivation is a process in which goal directed process in planted in the mind and then sustained and flourished with the passage of time, it grows and brings the wonderful fruit in the form of desired results (pintrich and schunk 2002). we will highlight in this research how we can increase the learning levels in students with motivation or positive psychology, what are the ultimate roles of the motivation and to insulate it and strengthen in the mind of a learner. (hussin, maarof et al. 2001)states that positive psychology or crystal clear ideas of understanding paves the ways of deep understanding and boosts the inner motivation of the student, a motivated student has clear goals in his mind. the role of motivation is not limited to student only, positive psychology or motivation plays a very important role in constructing the environment, when environment around student is conducive it urges them to learn more effectively(deutsch 1965).in this effective and appealing environment student focuses more and more on language acquisition and thus performs better results in language acquisition than ordinary students. (sheikh and mahmood 2014)conducted studies on teaching strategies and took 12 branches of different private schools, he was interested to explore the dimensions of teacher dominated classrooms. he emphasized on different teaching techniques and concluded that all those techniques that involves student’s motivational aspect leave a long lasting effect on the performance of the student. teacher student bond and cooperation leads towards special bond of love and respect among teacher and students (wei, den brok et al. 2009). the researcher encouraged the participants to involve all those techniques and strategies that are student centered and having capabilities to involve students fully. (rehman, bilal et al. 2014)conducted his study and tried to prove that how many students were learning english without any taste and what are the numbers of real interested students? in his quantitative based study, he analyzed that merely 24 percent of student were learning english out of their interest whereas 76 percent students were learning to cope with their day to day affairs. the researcher emphasized that students’ psyche should not be ignored while teaching any foreign language, in case the psyche is ignored desired results are not achieved and thus the whole purpose of teaching is useless. the teacher, rather than the academic researcher, is best qualified to decide upon the innovations in instructional procedures and materials which are to university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 108 render foreign language teaching more effective than it presently is. in order to be able to play this role and not relinquish it to others, the teacher must come to have a proper understanding not only of psychological theory and research per se, but of the process whereby psychologists themselves come to formulate these theories(jakobovits 1970). yuet (2008), conducted his research and explored the elements of demotivation in the classes of second language learning. she highlighted that students suffering from poor academic and economic background takes tension and they are unable to focus on their study because of anxiety. the students are not able to improve their cognitive abilities and a sense of inferiority overlaps them. they feel shy in when they are invited for reading or any activity and thus anxiety makes their life darker. they have little expectations from life and they want to complete their life so that they may opt any clerical job or any low cadre job, anxiety and low motivation suppress their aspirations and as a whole they fail in their life(ahmed, aftab et al. 2015). (akram and ghani 2013), explored the relationship between motivation, anxiety and foreign language learning. the researcher highlighted that students having huge motivation and less anxiety performs better in second language classes and vice versa. furthermore, in her research all highly motivated students having no anxiety performed better and scored high as compared to those students who were comparatively less privileged in the sense of academic achievement. in this way she concluded that anxiety is a great hurdle in the way of learning any foreign language. (shamim 2011), a researcher from pakistan conducted a research and proved in her research that elite or upper middle classes of the pakistan who have sufficient income and arrangements at home to communicate with students in english provide better environment and students learn better as they are highly motivated and they are less worried about their problems. she proved that there is a positive relationship between motivation and learning. in pakistan mostly elite families motivate their learners to remain tension free even if they fail once the parents let me revise the course whereas the poor or lower middle class fellows do not have aforementioned facility normally. (ditual 2012), conducted his research and argued students having high motivations either instrumentally or integratively learn the language. the former learner will retain the results for long whereas the later have probability to forget the results after sometime. the researcher is of the view that internal motivation does matter and the external factors does not matter a lot in the case of any foreign language learning. (kondo-brown 2001), dealt with the role of motivation in second language learning in his research in 2001. he focused on the inner drive and will power of learning. he focused on the goal oriented studies and highlighted the roles of cultures and orientation in the studies. the researcher stressed that goal orientation studies and targets keep the learners motivated and they are able to perform better than those students who have no goal in their mind. secondly he highlighted the role of anxiety and proved that a learner having no anxiety can perform better students bearing any tension or stress. he focused on the confidence building of the student. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 109 (oxford and shearin 1994), highlighted the direct relationship between second language learning and motivation in their research. they focused on the strategies i.e. how students are using different vocabulary in the classrooms and how much motivated they are. furthermore, they explored the difference of proficiency and fluency between the students who having anxiety and anxiety free. they also highlighted the results of motivation in actual lives i.e. how much students retain what they have learnt in their actual life. research questions: 1. what are the conditions that give rise to anxiety in an english language learning classroom? 2. what are the factors responsible for negative attitude of students towards l2 learning that affect students’ motivation? methodology this research is a bit different from previous researches in the sense that it focuses on studentteacher relationship, the motivating environment of classroom and highlights all those factors that boosts the confidence of the students. it discusses how a positive reinforcement motivates and encourages the student to move on. previous researchers employed survey method and many other tools including interviews but i have used questionnaire based on 04 points lickert scale. i have used 12 questions in my questionnaire and sought the results that motivation plays very effective and important role in learning of any second language. i have employed quantitative research method and used questionnaire to collect data. reliability test data was entered in spss 22 after collecting it from students for reliability test, attached table display the value of cronbach's alpha of the motivation and anxiety in english language classes of intermediate classes in daska, sialkot. the result of the reliability test i.e. .754 shows that students were well aware of the question and they completely comprehended the questions. table 1 reliability statistics cronbach's alpha cronbach's alpha based on standardized items n of items .754 .759 12 cronbach alpha value population and sampling students of higher secondary school level were selected because of quick and easy access. only those students were selected who have at least 12 years of english learning background having punjabi or urdu as their first language. all these students were handy with urdu and punjabi speaking and they were able to read and write english of high school level. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 110 participants 02 sections (arts and science) of students from higher school students were selected, 32 students from each and 56 in total. the concerned teachers experience and education were observed to get more clear results. figure 0 survey questions adaptation in total 12 questions were chosen that suits the level of students and address the interest of student in learning english language (04 questions); role of teacher’s motivational lecture (04 questions) and external/internal motivation (04 questions). the answers were demanded on 04 point lickert scale (strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree). table 2 discipline and further distribution of the students is as under university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 111 discipline name number of the participants fsc pre. medical 15 fsc pre. engineering 16 ics 10 fa it 4 fa arts 11 total participants 56 it will be best to interpret the characteristics of the participants. table 3 here are some characteristics of participants number of students 56 age 17-20 years male or female male only level higher secondary level of schooling name of the institute government higher secondary school adamkay instruments used for the study a questionnaire based upon lickert scale was utilized to analyze all the causes of motivation; i employed 12 questions based upon following easily understandable options. sa (strongly agree), ag: (agree), da (disagree), sd: (strongly disagree). the questionnaire was designed in easiest and accessible way, the students were briefed before undertaking the questionnaire and the motive was to capture the real concept and motivation of student towards english language. students were supposed to answer all the questions and their anonymity was guaranteed. enough timing was provided to every student and the questionnaire was not snatched from any person. every possible care was taken in consideration and students who were unable to digest the crux of questions in english were briefed with translation in urdu. initial results all the student attempted the questions and answered all portions of questionnaire. after getting preliminary results the researcher got convinced that students have acknowledged the role of motivation. table 4 let’s have a glance on the overall responses of the students. no. sd da sa ag 1 7 9 25 15 2 10 9 24 13 3 8 10 21 17 4 8 10 25 13 5 02 0 43 11 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 112 6 5 8 25 18 7 2 6 29 19 8 7 10 17 22 9 11 12 16 17 10 04 08 28 16 11 7 2 34 13 12 9 10 25 12 table 5 your teachers can increase your inner motivation by employing different examples from daily life? frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent sd 7 12.1 12.5 12.5 da 9 15.5 16.1 28.6 sa 25 43.1 44.6 73.2 ag 15 25.9 26.8 100.0 total 56 96.6 100.0 missing system 2 3.4 total 58 100.0 in the response to the very first questions that is about the inclusion of examples from our day to day life, the majority of students have answered that daily lives example meant a lot for them. 25 students strongly agreed and 15 students merely agrees that is a great result and a huge ratio of all those participants who are nodding in yes. the ratio of the students who are not agreeing with the inclusion of daily life is negligible.therefore, it is highly recommendable that teacher of intermediate classes should include examples from daily lives and he should improve the level of learning by including these examples. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 113 figure: 1 table 6 classroom environment plays a great role in learning? frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent sd 10 17.2 17.9 17.9 da 9 15.5 16.1 33.9 sa 24 41.4 42.9 76.8 ag 13 22.4 23.2 100.0 total 56 96.6 100.0 missing system 2 3.4 total 58 100.0 the answer of second question holds water and provide astonishing results that classroom environment is very important in the learning of any foreign language. 19 students denied the role of environment in learning english language, but a majority of students i.e.24 sa and 13 ag gives it ample weightage. we may say that peaceful environment plays vital role in english language learning. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 114 figure: 2 table 7 in large classes it is difficult to learn and participate? frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent sd 8 13.8 14.3 14.3 da 10 17.2 17.9 32.1 sa 21 36.2 37.5 69.6 ag 17 29.3 30.4 100.0 total 56 96.6 100.0 missing system 2 3.4 total 58 100.0 in the response of third question that discussed the number of participants in a classroom and its effect on student’s learning attitude gets 21 sa and 17 ag. whereas 10 da and 08 sd only, this data shows that students are more inclined towards classes where number of learners are limited and the students are able to ask questions at their own, they face no difficulty in asking questions from their teacher. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 115 figure: 03 table 8 there should be no fear of failure? frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent sd 8 13.8 14.3 14.3 da 10 17.2 17.9 32.1 sa 25 43.1 44.6 76.8 ag 13 22.4 23.2 100.0 total 56 96.6 100.0 missing system 2 3.4 total 58 100.0 the fear of failure is a nightmare for student. students focus on getting passing score by hook or crook and learning experience is spoiled in this competition 25 students sa and 13 ag on this questions. it is a great ration that suggests that students should learn having no fears in their mind. on the other hand only 10 and 08 students claim that the concept of failure has nothing to do with language learning, a huge ratio of students implies that the fear of failure should be removed from the minds of students so that they may learn the language without any fear. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 116 figure:4 table 9 teacher should not ignore the ethnicity and academic background of every individual? frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent sd 2 3.4 3.6 3.6 sa 43 74.1 76.8 80.4 ag 11 19.0 19.6 100.0 total 56 96.6 100.0 missing system 2 3.4 total 58 100.0 language teacher should be impartial, but he should not ignore the academic background of his participants. every mind is different and need different food to grow, it is not wise to treat all students equally (karsten 2005)has said the same “over time, children's geographies have become more diverse. in addition to the traditional childhood of outdoor children, we distinguish indoor children and children of the backseat generation” teacher being the center of class and master of his arts should keep in mind that all students are important and it is important as well to have a close look on their academic background. approximately all the students agreed that individual attention is required. 43 students sa and 11 agreed whereas only 02 students in total disagreed that there is no need to explore the background of learner. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 117 figure: 5 table 10 my teacher plays very little role in making english an essay subject for me. frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent sd 5 8.6 8.9 8.9 da 8 13.8 14.3 23.2 sa 25 43.1 44.6 67.9 ag 18 31.0 32.1 100.0 total 56 96.6 100.0 missing system 2 3.4 total 58 100.0 english language teacher is different than other teachers in the sense that his continuous support and motivational approach induce the learners towards learning rapidly. they are more adaptive, they let students imitate them and involve them in conversation so that their confidence may build up (fairbanks, duffy et al. 2010). in this questions we got only 13 (sd+da) participants whereas remaining students nodded in affirmation that their teachers provide valuable assistance in their english skills. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 118 figure: 6 table 11 my personal affiliations distract me and i am unable to focus in my class. frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent sd 2 3.4 3.6 3.6 da 6 10.3 10.7 14.3 sa 29 50.0 51.8 66.1 ag 19 32.8 33.9 100.0 total 56 96.6 100.0 missing system 2 3.4 total 58 100.0 mind is everything what we think we become(prok 2016). we are aware of the roll of a teacher in the class but we cannot ignore the participation’s contribution at the same time. 29 sa and 19 ag picked the point that domestic issues and hindrances are a great obstacle in learning environment. students having established peace of mind are able to focus more as compared to those who are suffering from any socio-economic issue. it is pertinent to mention that only 08 students ignored the issue of domestic distractions, after getting results from different participants we may conclude that socioeconomic peace and stable background does matter. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 119 figure 7 table 12 learning should be given priority over preference. frequenc y percent valid percent cumulative percent sd 7 12.1 12.5 12.5 da 10 17.2 17.9 30.4 sa 17 29.3 30.4 60.7 ag 22 37.9 39.3 100.0 total 56 96.6 100.0 missi ng system 2 3.4 total 58 100.0 the point number 08 got fragmented answers, learning should be given preference over merely inculcating the ideas of passing the exams (delahaye and ehrich 2008) preferred that learning should be the center of teaching environment instead of focusing on exams. 22 students agreed that the sole purpose of education is learning this idea got 17 sa points whereas da and sa students are only 17 in total. it recommends that students want learning and student centered atmosphere. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 120 figure: 08 table 13 i am learning english because i have no other options. frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent sd 11 19.0 19.6 19.6 da 12 20.7 21.4 41.1 sa 16 27.6 28.6 69.6 ag 17 29.3 30.4 100.0 total 56 96.6 100.0 missing system 2 3.4 total 58 100.0 pakistan is one of the third world countries, we are following the patterns and footsteps of west so far, english being an official language of pakistan is enjoying extreme reputation and it is taught in every nook and corner of the country. 16 students sa that they are learning english because there is no other option available i.e. it is a compulsory subject for the students 17 students agreed that it is not possible for the students to get a good job if they are not hand in glove with english. 23 students disagreed that they are learning english as compulsion rather they have their taste and interest in english. figure: 9 table 14 classrooms discussions have polished my abilities. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 121 frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent sd 4 6.9 7.1 7.1 da 8 13.8 14.3 21.4 sa 28 48.3 50.0 71.4 ag 16 27.6 28.6 100.0 total 56 96.6 100.0 missing system 2 3.4 total 58 100.0 classrooms play very important and vital role in learning any language. class room discussions motivate the students and they take part in the discussions actively, they learn a lot in this way. active discussions encourage the students back to classes(walsh 2020). results show the same as 28 students sa and 16 ag with this point. merely 12 students gave different answer it shows the important of classrooms discussions. figure: 10 table 15 i am interested in english but nobody at home speaks english with me. frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent sd 7 12.1 12.5 12.5 da 2 3.4 3.6 16.1 sa 34 58.6 60.7 76.8 ag 13 22.4 23.2 100.0 total 56 96.6 100.0 missing system 2 3.4 total 58 100.0 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 122 english is not the first language of pakistan, students living in villages and cities have urdu and punjabi as their first language respectively. students have none at their home with whom they can speak english language and hence their communication level is down as compared to those having communicative atmosphere at home. 34 students sa and 13 agreed that they have nobody at home to support them, only 7 students strongly disagreed and 2 disagreed having required numbers of fellows at home who can speak and hence they are capable enough to improve their languages, it is the drawback of the students that they are living in the third world country and they are lacking this proficiency. hence the result recommends that it is high time to facilitate the students so that they may not face this difficulty anymore. figure: 11 table 16 av aids and motivational bibliographies when used in classroom inspires me a lot. frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent sd 9 15.5 16.1 16.1 da 10 17.2 17.9 33.9 sa 25 43.1 44.6 78.6 ag 12 20.7 21.4 100.0 total 56 96.6 100.0 missing system 2 3.4 total 58 100.0 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 3 | issue i | jan – june | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 123 audio visual aids play very important role in learning english language. it inspires many students. audio-visual enhanced social media tools can become important teaching resources to present the lessons in a simple, effective and interactive way to students. youths spend lots of time exploring social media tools such as 2go, face book, twitter, whatsapp and so on, thereby contributing significantly to the number of users of ict resources (olagbaju and popoola 2020). the ratio here implies that 25 students sa that inclusion of audio visual material is inevitable for them; 12 students agree furthermore on the same point. students having no or low background of technology have different outlook. they think it is better to have a class without multimedia or in traditional way. majority recommends that we should integrate av aids in english language classes. figure:12 conclusion we cannot ignore the importance of motivation along with other factors i.e. passion and zeal of the student, role of the teacher, environment and self-confidence. aforementioned results recommend that we cannot move further in learning if we ignore motivational concept and remove all elements leading towards anxiety. removal of anxiety demands dedicated mentors, refreshing courses of teachers and trips to educational sites. lack of student teacher coordination leads towards a dead end and our students are not able to speak and write english language properly after their intermediate. every year federal public service commission issues the report highlighting the confusing mindset, effects of poor english in essay and precise paper. this poor english leads to failure and effects bureaucracy and leading departments of the country. it is worth 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"anxiety and second/foreign language learning revisited." canadian journal for new scholars in education/revue canadienne des jeunes chercheures et chercheurs en education 1(1). @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 88 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 perceptions of madrassa students and teachers towards english language learning syed sajjad ali lecturer in english, department of english, numl peshawar ssali@numl.edu.pk hayat ullah lecturer in english, the fazlehaq college, mardan hayatfcm28@gmail.com dr akbar ali assistant professor department of english, fata university akbar@fu.edu.pk abstract the purpose of this descriptive research study is to find out the perceptions of students and teachers about the problems and challenges in learning and teaching of english language in madrassas located in urban area of district mardan. the main objectives of the study are to assess the attitude of both the students and teachers towards english language; to find out the required facilities for the teaching and learning of english and to put forward the recommendations of the students and teachers for the eradication of the problems and challenges to english language learning and teaching in madrassas. the population of the research study consist of all madrassas and all male students and teachers in urban madrassas in district mardan. the researchers use convenient sample for the selection of madrassas. selection of students is based on thirty percent proportionate sample; while teachers are selected on the basis of hundred percent proportionate samples accordingly. two separate questionnaires are the instrument for data collection. the questionnaires comprised on both closed and open ended items. the collected data were analyzed using percentage and thematic analysis. findings of the study revealed that there are no proper facilities for the teaching of english language. the results of this research study may be helpful for the policy makers to emphasize more on the importance of english language learning in madrassas across pakistan and khyber pakhtunkhwa in particular. key words: madrassas students; madrassas teachers; english language learning; english language teaching in madrassas; perceptions about english language mailto:ssali@numl.edu.pk mailto:akbar@fu.edu.pk 89 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 introduction english language plays a pivotal role in the process of teaching and learning. being an international language it is recognized and spoken in various countries. in pakistan the english language is given due importance on account of its status as an international language. english language has been declared as an official language in many countries as well as in pakistan. english has been adopted as an official language in english colonies e.g. australia, subcontinent, middle east, africa, australia, usa, ali (2014). teaching of english as a subject is considered as a compulsory subject in curriculum in pakistani educational policy. english is placed as major subject in pakistan in educational curriculum. similarly english language has great importance in dini madrassas as well. the govt. of pakistan has established a well-organized department for dini madarris in pakistan known as wifaq ul madarris. according to ahmed (2009), quoted by ghulam (2011), that “today, there are five distinct types of madrassas in pakistan, divided along sectarian and political line” (p. 2). the madrassas registered under wifaq ul madarris has devised curriculum for affiliated madrassas in which english language is also given importance. english as a subject in these madariss is being taught regularly. english is considered as a major subject in madrassas. as a matter of fact unfortunately there are many problems and challenges to the students and teachers in madrassas. in order to go with the world and advancement in technology and wide range of english language the need of learning english has become order of the day. english language is a dire need of the students in madrassas but due non availability of teachers and other facilities these students remained weak in english language. the purpose of this research paper was to investigate the core issues and problems the students and teachers faced in madrassas. after the incident of 9/11 the madrassas have been targeted and presented a place for extremism and terrorism. riaz, (2005). according to haqqani (2002), quoted by ghulam farooque laghari (2011), majority of the western writers have connected extremism and terrorism with pakistani madrassas. in fact madrassa propagate humanism, peace and harmony. madrassa has been a seat of learning in islamic education system in the past. in pakistan madrassa education system is a part of the three education system; private, public and madrassa 90 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 education system. unfortunately lack of facilities and of government ignorance, madrassa education system face difficulties and challenges. apart from all other problems, english language is also a big problem for the students in madrassas because of non-availability of facilities and english teachers. madrassas provides services to humanity. madrassas are contributing a lot in the field of islamic education by providing suitable atmosphere to the learners. it develops amongst the individual sense of responsibilities and harmony. it molds the personality of an individual. theses madrassas are the only place for grooming the personality according to quran and hadith. the importance of madrassas cannot be denied. it is the state responsibility to streamline theses madrassas and devise strategy for smooth running. unfortunately these madrassas have been ignored since long. the problems to madrassas need special consideration. according to ghulam farooq (2011), madrassa education imparts peace and condemns extremism. statement of the problems the aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions of madrassa students and teachers towards english language in district mardan. objectives the objectives of the study were: 1. to assess the attitude of both the students and teachers towards english language 2. to find out the required facilities for the teaching and learning of english 3. to put forward the recommendations of the students and teachers for the eradication of the problems and challenges to english language learning and teaching in madrassas. delimitations the study was delimited to: 1. dini madarssas in district mardan 2. students studying english language 3. english teachers methodology population 91 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 1. all madrassas in district mardan in urban area 2. all english teachers 3. all students studying english as a subject sample 1. 100% sampling was selected 2. 30% of the students were randomly selected 3. 100% teachers were selected instruments the instruments for data collection were questionnaires. tabulation and interpretations students’ response to the questionnaire table 1 kindly put “yes” or “no” against each item s. no statement yes no percentage % “yes” percentage % “no” total % 1. do you like to learn english language? 12 01 92.30% 7.70% 100% 2. do you prefer to learn english than other languages? 05 08 38.46% 61.53% 100 3. do you find your english text book interesting? 12 01 92.30% 7.70% 100 4. do you find english language attractive? 13 nil 100% 0% 100 5. do you think english learning is necessary for every one? 13 nil 100% 0% 100 6. do you have library in your madrassa? nil 13 0% 100% 100 92 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 7. do you feel comfortable in the class while learning english? 06 07 46.15% 53.86% 100 8. do you get home assignment regarding learning of english language? 13 nil 100% 0% 100 9. are you satisfied from your teachers who teach you english? 05 08 38.46% 61.53% 100 10. do you have internet access for learning english language? nil 13 0% 100% 100 table 1 show that majority of the students at madrassa consider english language attractive, they consider english language necessary for every one and they get home assignment on daily basis. all the students @ 100% responded “yes” to items no. 4, 5 and 8. there is no library nor do they have internet access in any of the target madrassa as shown in the table. all the students @ 100% responded “no” to item no.6. maximum students like to learn english language and they find their english book interesting. 12 students @ 92.30% responded in “yes” to items no. 1,3. only 5 students @38.46% responded to item no. 2 and 9 respectively as they prefer english language than others and they are not satisfied from teaching english language. the maximum numbers of students do not prefer learning of english language; they are not satisfied from english teachers. 8 students @ 61.53% responded “no” to items number 2 and 9. students do not feel comfortable in learning english. 07 students @ 53.86% out of 13 responded to item no.7. very less number of students dislikes learning of english language as well as consider english text book interesting. only 1 student @ 7.70% responded to items number 1 and 3 respectively. table 2 students’ response to open ended question: suggestions to overcome the problems and challenges in english language 93 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 s. no statements 1. reading is important but we can’t read english. 2. can’t read english 3. the teachers speaks in english, we cannot pronounce those sentences 4. english is taught only in class 5. outside the class we speak, pashto or urdu 6. we need to learn the language through computer or other device, which we do not have. 7. we like to learn english 8. environment problem 9. people make fun when we speak english in surrounding 10. do not know the basics 11. we don’t know tenses 12. we are deprived of writing, listening, and speaking which are necessary for learning english. 13. english is only confine to class, it is necessary to use english outside as well. 14. don’t know the basics which necessary for english language 15. want to learn english 16. don’t have ample time to learn english 17. want to learn but because of other book don’t have time. 18. want to get islamic education. 19. will try to learn english after islamic education 20. i prefer islamic education. 21. after islamic education will try to learn english 22. prefer islamic education 23. prefer islamic education 24. like to learn english language 25. face no difficulty 94 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 thematic analysis of the students’ response to the open ended question an open ended question was administered to the students in which they were given an open choice to write their problems and suggest a possible solution. their responses have been organized in above table. their statements show that they don’t know the basic, they have problem in reading. they even don’t know tenses. the students have no proper environment for learning of english language. some say that they do not have the required facilities, such as computer or other modern devices which are useful for learning of english language. majority of students responded that english language is only confine to classes. it should be in practice outside the class as well. they say that people make fun of those who speak english in daily routine. majority of the students responded that their first priority is getting islamic education. they do have liking for english language but they don’t have ample time to learn english. maximum of them responded that they will learn english language after getting islamic education. table 3 teachers’ response kindly put “yes” or “no” against each item s. no statement yes no percentage in “yes” percentage in “no” total % 1. do you like to teach english language? 08 nil 100% 0% 100 2. do you prefer to teach english than other languages? 05 03 62.5% 37.5% 100 3. do you find your english text book that u teach interesting? 08 nil 100% 0% 100 4. do you find english language attractive? 05 03 62.5% 37.5% 100 5. do you think english learning is necessary for every one? 05 03 62.5% 37.5% 100 95 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 6. do you have library in your madrassa? nil 08 0% 100% 100 7. do you feel comfortable in the class while teaching english? 05 03 62.5% 37.5% 100 8. do you give students home assignment? 08 nil 100% 0% 100 9. are you satisfied from your students’ performance to which you teach english? 08 nil 100% 0% 100 10. do you have internet access for teaching english language? nil 08 0% 100% 100 table 3 indicates that majority of teachers like to teach english language, they find the english text book interesting, they assign home work to their students and they are satisfied from the students’ performance in english language. all the teachers @ 100% responded “yes” to items number 1, 3, 8 and 9. the second maximum response was that teachers prefer to teach english than other languages, they find english language attractive and they feel comfortable while teaching english. 5 teachers @62.5% responded to each item number 2,4 and 7. there is no library or internet access at madrassa where they teach english language. all teachers @100% responded “no” to items number 6and 10. very less number of teachers prefers other language than english, they do not find english language attractive and they do not feel comfortable while teaching english language. 3 teachers @37.5% each responded to items number 2, 5 and 7. table 4 teachers’ response to the open ended item: 1. kindly put forward your suggestions to overcome the problems and challenges you face while teaching english language. s. no 1. lack of reading skill. 96 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 2. students are weak in reading 3. students are weak in writing 4. do not have good monitoring system in home work 5. environment problem 6. students of urban areas are not up to that standard to learn english 7. a lot of students belong to rural areas 8. students cannot take interest in english class 9. we must prepare our own syllabus 10. we should not import our syllabus from other countries, such as; usa, uk etc. 11. we need a syllabus which is according to the education system of pakistan. 12. english is one of the most spoken languages. 13. we should keep our education system and environment in mind before making a syllabus. 14. people send their children to madrassas who are nil among all of their children. 15. teaching to nil students is difficult 16. need english teachers 17. facilities are required 18. teachers want improvement in teaching of english language 19. english is a part of syllabus/ curricula 20. there is no proper mechanism in english teaching 21. govt. to facilitate these madrassas 22. teachers are already overburden due too many subjects, so cannot teach english 23. teachers are already overburden due too many subjects, so cannot teach english 24. teachers are interested to teach english the responses of the teachers to open ended item has been organized. the teachers’ responses show that students are weak in reading and writing skills. students have no proper 97 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 environment; their homework is not being monitored at home. students are not up to the standard to understand the english language properly. lack of interest in learning of english language of students is a problem. teachers are of the opinion that there should be a proper syllabus; the curricula should not be taken from other countries rather it should be according to the level and environment of our country. their responses show that parents send those students to madrassa who are weak in all respect. according to teachers, there is shortage of english teachers. teachers in madrassas are overburden they do not have resources and enough teachers to teach english language. according to them there is no proper mechanism. govt. must take interest to improve madrassa education and facilitate these madrassas. teachers take interest in teaching english language but they do not have facilities as well as they are overburden. findings on the basis of date collected from madrassa students’ and teachers’ responses it was found that:  that majority of the students at madrassa consider english language attractive.  the students consider english language necessary for everyone.  the students get home assignment on daily basis.  maximum students like to learn english language.  the students find their english book interesting.  there is no library in madrassas.  the students have no internet access in any of the target madrassa.  students are unaware of the basics of english language.  the students have no proper environment where they can learn english language easily.  it was found that english language is only confine to classes. there is no such practice in their daily life.  maximum of the students are interested in madrassa education. they do have liking for english language but their curriculum has been designed in such a way that they do not have time to learn english. the students gave maximum time to madrassa education (elem).  the teachers responded that: 98 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611  majority of teachers like to teach english language.  they teachers find the english text book interesting.  the teachers assign home work to their students.  teachers are satisfied from the students’ performance in english language.  maximum response was that teachers prefer to teach english than other languages.  the teachers find english language attractive.  the teachers feel comfortable while teaching english.  students are weak in reading and writing skills.  there is problem in syllabus. the syllabus should be designed according to the environment and standard of students.  teachers at madrassas are overburden.  there is less number of teachers.  the govt. to facilitate the madrassas. conclusion based on the data collected from the target population and analysis it is concluded that students at madrassa wish to learn english language. there is no problem with the text book, however there is no library facilities in madrassas. the students have no access to internet and other modern electronic devices. madrassa students prefer madrassa education than learning other languages. students at madrassa do have liking for learning english language but due to lack of facilities and shortage of time, they cannot learn the target language. english teachers like to teach english language. they gave homework also to their students. teachers are of the opinion that students are weak in reading and writing skills. it is also concluded that the curriculum needs to be designed according to the environment and requirement of the students as stated by their teachers. there is a shortage of teaching staff at madrassas. therefore, this is the responsibilities of the govt. to facilitate madrassas in all respect. recommendation on the basis of findings it is recommended that: 99 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 1. keeping in view advancement in technology and importance of english language, madrassas may be given proper guidance in learning of english language. 2. guidance and counseling is required for improvement in english language at madrassas. 3. madrassas may be provided all the facilities which are necessary for learning of english language. 4. the govt. to take serious step and devise a mechanism for smooth learning environment. 5. the curriculum may be devised according to the students’ level and surroundings. 6. library, internet access and other modern tools may be installed in madrassas to overcome the problems and challenges they face in learning of english language. references ali, s. ahmad, n. manzoor, n. & naseer, s. (2014). students’ perceptions about teaching english as compulsory subject at secondary level in punjab, pakistan. bulletin of business and economics, 3(1), 21-33. bhatti, a., pathan, h., tabieh, a., &amp; hassan, a., (2020). impact of learner-learner rapport on l2 learning: a study of public sector universities in sindh, pakistan. the asian efl journal,27 (4.6), 204-226. ghulam farooque laghari. (2011). perceptions of students towards madrassa system of education in pakistan. the s.u. jour. of ed. vol.41 issue 2011-12, pp.60-75 hassan, a., kazi, a. s., &amp; asmara shafqat, z. a. the impact of process writing on the language and attitude of pakistani english learners. asian efl journal, 27(4.3), 260277. hassan, a., n. d.-e.-a. (2015). language planning and language policy dilemma in pakistan. international journal of linguistics, literature and culture (linquallc), 2, no 4 moulton, j. (2008). madrassah education: what creative associates has learned. washington: creative associates international, inc. riaz, a. (2005). global jihad, sectarianism and the madrassas in pakistan. singapore: institute of defense and strategic studies 100 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 us saqlain, n., shafqat, a., &amp; hassan, a. (2020). perception analysis of english language teachers about use of contextualized text for teaching esp. the asian esp journal, 16(5.1), 275-299. @ 2020 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 79 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 plasticity and marginalization in the god of small things: a liquid modern reading dr. yasir arafat assistant professor of english, numl islamabad, pakistan yasirarafat1980@gmail.com maryam nadeem awan research scholar, department of english, numl islamabad, pakistan abstract the god of small things is set in the post-partition india which deals with the cultural and societal change and fluidity in the indian society caused under the influence of westernized culture and societal values, while predominantly dealing with the stereotypical, discriminatory and unfair treatment of certain gender and cast. the study is an attempt to look into how people tend to be seduced by some specific cultural values and discard some others even when they are moving towards being modernized, and in this case, under a group of colonizers whose so called agenda was to teach the uncivilized the civilized ways of life. the study is conducted under the idea of liquid modernity by zygmunt bauman from which two postulates are picked. the first one being the tendency of a constant change with in a society and how the idea of modernity was the cause of decline in societal norms while the individuals are seduced by the ways of the west. the second postulate picked from bauman’s liquid modernity is how he terms the society to be plastic, meaning that it is something that can constantly be reshaped regardless of where and in what state it is. another important objective of the paper is to highlight the ways in which the plastic society challenges the traditional power structures in which women and lower castes are marginalized and suppressed by patriarchal hierarchy and caste system. thus, the paper highlights the positive as well as negative impact of the liquid modern society and in this way this paper itself becomes a manifestation of liquid modernity in which there is no certainty or fixedness. the findings show that the characters in the selected novel are strongly influenced by the modern western values and their native culture is significantly altered by that of the english, both in positive and negative ways, and there are no fixed cultural values. keywords: marginalization, liquid modernity, zygmunt bauman, stereotypes, westernized, plastic 80 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 introduction arundhati roy’s the god of small things is a story based on the lives of twins brother and sister who are destroyed by the set notions and values of society that decide that who should be loved and who should not be. the “small things” mentioned in the topic are the cast discrimination and gender stereotypes as observed in india before and after partition. the story is set in ayemenem, which is a state in kerela, india. the story shifts between 1969 and 1993. ammu, in an attempt to escape her abusive father, goes to live with a distant aunt in calcutta, where she gets married to a man who she later on finds out to be an alcoholic. after giving birth to twins, rahel and estha, returns to live with her parents and brother. the antagonist of the novel here is baby kochamma, who is the sister of pappachi. she fell in love with an irish priest and converted to catholicism but could not get close to him, so she remained unmarried all her life. ammu’s brother had given divorce to his wife but on hearing of her second husband’s death, invites her and their daughter to spend christmas with them. baby kochamma encounters a group of communist protestors who make her end up hating them. estha is molested by a person working on a snack counter and that changes the perspective of the entire narrative. baby kochamma thinks that she has seen velutha among the protesters, who is among the untouchables and works in their factory. this makes her build self-proclaimed enmity towards him. meanwhile ammu is attracted towards him and both rahel and estha love him too. the children love him during the day while the mother loved him during the night. when ammu and velutha’s relationship is discovered, ammu is locked up and velutha is banished. in an accident sophie, rahel and estha’s cousin, drowns and baby kochamma tries to pin it on velutha. the twins do not second her statement at the police station. this makes baby kochamma tell her brother that they were the reason his daughter died and he kicks ammu and estha out of the house. estha is forced to live with his father and his mother died alone. in the end, when the twins are 31, they reunite and are of the view that no one has the capability of understanding them except their selves so they decide to mate while the novel is ended with a nostalgic recount of the love of ammu and velutha, which makes the theme come back in a circle, that “there is no set rule as to who should be loved and how much should one love another person”. 81 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the novel is a representation of a mix of different times, with multiple stories, ambiances and images from the past, which have been carefully mixed with the present, where they refer to the present that was almost 20 years ago, in addition to the future experiences. this blend of multiple time periods indicate the presence of non-linear narration that is a characteristic of postmodernism, which could also be defined as time play. this time play was used in order to make the complex amalgamation of past and present to be easily comprehendible. in the late 1900’s zygmunt bauman was considered to be the key theorist of postmodernity. in his book liquid modernity, he talks about a society which is largely in need to be domesticated, civilized and rationalized. this was required for a society to be controlled, uniformed and understood. the radical change that was required has the tendency to transform the traditions and the traditional foundation that a society stood on. according to bauman “change is the only permanence and uncertainty is the only certainty” (bauman 82). he used the term liquid modernity to refer to the constant change that he observed in the relationships and identities. instead of referring to the change as a transition to postmodernity, he has labelled the social life as a liquid form of the modernity that separates the modern and the pre modern era.when we talk about the liquid modernity, we refer to the change in the human tendency to be referred as pilgrims in the past and tourists in the present modern world. this shows the fluidity that is referred to as the liquid modernity. (social theory rewired) problem statement modern society is marked by a constant change in its values and orders. societal norms are fluid and rapidly being influenced. this fluidity has both positive and negative aspects. the novel indicates the “small things” that bring some certain and specific changes in a person’s life. the incidents in the novel change the perspective of the entire narrative and the incidents happen to shape the lives of characters and influence their decisions. the research focuses on the seductive tendencies of modernity and how modernity brings about changes in some aspects of a person’s life while it may leave the rest untouched. significance of the study the research will give us a different perspective as to how the decisions of a person can be influenced by the changes their views are undergoing, this will be able to give us an insight from two perspectives, the first one would be the glorification of the western ways and how their 82 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 seductive tendencies could cloud a person’s judgement, while the second one being plasticity of the behavioural patterns that keep on changing when a person is exposed to new perceptions. research objective 1. to discuss the ways in which there is a decline in the societal norms as the characters were influenced by the seductive tendencies of modernity as shown in the novel the god of small things? 2. to discuss the ways in which marginalization still practiced in the society is shown to have been challenged by the liquid modernity, given the fact that bauman considered all social structures, values and practices to be plastic. research questions 1. what are the ways in which seductive tendencies of modernity bring about a significant decline in the societal norms that have been observed in a society for a considerable period of time? 2. what are the ways in which the liquid modern society challenges the gender and caste based marginalization still practiced in the society while the society keeps on moving fluidly towards modernity? delimitation of the study this research is delimited to arundhati roy’s novel the god of small things. from theoretical perspective research is delimited to two postulates of zygmunt bauman’s concept of liquid modernity. the first one being the tendency of a constant change with in a society and how the idea of modernity was the cause of decline in societal norms while the individuals are seduced by the ways of the west. the second postulate picked from bauman’s liquid modernity is how he terms the society to be plastic, meaning that it is something that can constantly be reshaped regardless of where and in what state it is. (little, understanding society) literature review daniel little writes about zygmunt bauman’s idea of liquid modernity with emphasis on the changes that come about in the society and the fact that this change tends to take place more frequently in the modern world. daniel little is of the view that while there are multiple forms of modernity and modern life, there are some things that link them all together. the uniting factors being fragility, temporariness, vulnerability and the inclination to constant 83 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 change. he further states that being modern is directly proportional to agreeing to be modernized and that too obsessively. modernity is not the name of letting someone or something be. (little, varieties of social explanation kl 81) he further states that new structures keep on replacing the old ones and as soon as they are replaced, they are considered to be outdated and old fashioned while the new structures are considered to the modern way of going by things only till something new comes along. so there is no permanence in anything that may be happening anywhere. some time ago, to be modern meant to be at a point where it could be said that a particular thing or person has achieved the status of perfection. this has now changed so much that to be modern means to be “an infinity of improvement with no final state in sight and none desired.” (little, understanding society kl 82) jensen sass states that when we talk about the changes in a culture, we do not only refer to the things like painting, sculpture and literature. it is used to refer to the things like the feelings, the thinking and the behavioural patterns that are associated with an individual. he further states that when we are talking about changes that a culture undergoes, we are not referring to the changes that happen with the course of time, being under uncontrolled fluid modernity. it is something that happens as per the fashion and the trends of those times. (sass) this is the point where bauman talks about the society and its culture as an art and wonders if it can survive as he terms every single thing to be plastic, meaning that it can change at any given point in time, regardless of how new it may be. bauman writes that the class bound social stereotypes that they are uncanny like the facts of nature and any individual spends all his life trying to fit in by behaving in a certain way. in the same way, the gender stereotypes are also observed. (atkinson) even while they are a social construct, the stereotypes are set and they are set on the basis of the general practices in a society. the plasticity is clearly seen here as some people tend to adapt to the modern ways of treating a certain gender while some would not do this. the same thing can be observed when talking about the caste system. in the terms that being born into a certain caste is not a choice or an achievement so being treated on the basis of the caste is also a practice that is plastic in the sense that with the fluidity of modernity, some people accept the cast, even if they are considered to be among the lower ones, they are accepted by the people, while others continue to think of them as the inferior ones. 84 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 methodology and theoretical framework the design of this study is qualitative because the novel has been discussed descriptively from the perspective of the researcher while taking help from the ideas of social theorist zygmunt bauman. the method used for this research article is textual analysis. a qualitative research explores the selected text on the basis of subjective ideas and theories. it is used to comprehend the reasons and opinions or to simply do an analysis of the selected text. it tries to find solutions for the certain problems and helps to develop ideas for the research. the theory used as lens for this paper is liquid modernity produced by zygmunt bauman, taken from his book liquid modernity. he is considered to be one of the leading intellectuals whose works touch the sociological themes like modernity and the fluidity that tends to govern all the changes and the transitions of humans from old to new. he talks about a society which is largely in need to be domesticated, civilized and rationalized. this was required for a society to be controlled, uniformed and understood. the radical change that was required has the tendency to transform the traditions and the traditional foundation that a society stood on. he used the term liquid modernity to refer to the constant change that he observed in the relationships and identities. data analysis the novel is set in the times before and after partition. that was the time when the colonizers were trying to teach the indians new western ways of life. they were trying to bring them to the point where they were westernized to the extent that they forgot their own roots and lost their identity. this was easier for the colonizers because they were dominant and they had brought with them the new fashion, new language and new ways of life and those who were colonized were being trained into thinking that they knew nothing, they were wrong in everything that they did. so, with this, it was really easier to make the indians think that they are uncivilized and should be civilized. patriarchal dominance and the caste system have been an inseparable part of the indian culture and these ideas have been shown to be still in practice in the selected novel. however, under the influence of the liquid modernity, on one hand indian cultural values have been shown to be declining while on the other hand power structures maintained by these values have also been shown to be challenged as the characters of rahel and 85 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 estha break the “love laws that determine who should be loved, and how, and how much” (roy 16). decline in societal norms with the colonized trained into believing that they were outdated and not fashionable, it was easier to seduce them with the bright and shiny ways of the west. in the novel, the characters are indians, who are rich in culture. they have a set of norms that they have to follow. under the influence of the colonizers, the characters are seen doing things which would not have happened if they were not exposed to the modern ways of the west. baby kochamma had fallen for an irish priest, converted her religion and stayed unmarried just for her unrequited love. she considered her relationship with him, one sided love, to be the only thing of value in her life. after coming back from the convent, she found pleasure in making life hell for those around her. she had turned into a sadist and did not even care if she had to abuse the dead or the living which ended up severing family ties. chacko is the maternal uncle of the twins in the novel, he married a white female, who he had a child with. he later on divorced her because they did not seem to be compatible with each other. after the death of margaret’s husband chacko calls her back and she comes to live with her ex-husband that is strongly against the indian values. it also shows that values and norms are very flexible for men and upper classes because in case of ammu and valutha the deviation from the norms entails deadly consequences for them. estha and rahel, the main characters in the story, are fraternal twins. after being unable to find love or meaning in anything that they had in their lives, ended up accepting each other as the only ones who understood the other. they committed incest in the end. there committing incest is actually a rejection of and challenge to the societal norms and standards that caused the tragic sufferings of their mother ammu and velutha. here we see a positive influence of liquid modernity that some characters are able to challenge the structures of oppression. all these examples show that the indians deviated from the norms that were a part of their society since ages but after being introduced to the modernized ways of life, they were able to see newer possibilities, specifically the ones which were not previously possible, even in their wildest imaginations. marginalization 86 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the second issue at hand was marginalization on the basis of cast and gender. ammu fell in love with velutha, an untouchable. he was considered to be of the dishonourable and lower cast on the basis of the family that he was born in and his skin colour. he was brutally punished for his affair with ammu, who was an upper class divorced woman who had two children. if this act had been done by some upper class person then it would not have been that much serious. after velutha’s banishment, ammu was kicked out of her own home and was forced to let go off her own daughter as well. in contrast to this, when chacko divorced his wife and went back to her after the death of her husband and was able to live peacefully, with his family, within his own home. this shows that there was difference in the treatment of the males and the females. a male committing an unspeakable act was acceptable but for ammu being a women having physical relations with someone is something unforgettable and severely punishable. this shows that with the society moving towards modernity in a fluid, unfixed way, there was marginalization and unfairness in the treatment on the basis of the gender and caste. however, in the liquid society we see that these notions are strongly challenged by the characters of estha and rahel who reject every social standard or structure by committing incest and in a way take revenge of their mother’s sufferings and velutha’s murder. findings reading the text from the perspective of the liquid modernity confirms that any society has the capability to undergo changes, and there is no limit as to when they would reach the level of perfection. the society depicted in the selected novel is also going through constant change under the influence of western culture. this liquidity, flux and plasticity of the indian society is working in two ways. on one hand it is depriving indians of their old cultural values, leaving a nostalgic impact on minds of conservative indians. on other hand this cultural and societal liquidity is posing a challenge to the patriarchal and caste based structures of oppression. change, in this case, is fluid and nothing is permanent except the tendency of things to change. change takes place whenever there is a change in the fashion and whatever is presented in a new and refined way is said to be the flexible fluid level which always has room for improvement. alongwith this, there is a human tendency to not accept change whenever they do not think something is worth accepting. the colonizers othered the indians, and just for the sake of 87 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 being superior to someone, they othered the people who they, themselves, had termed as uncivilized. one the other hand the othered and oppressed indians would oppress and other the lower classes and women in their society while protesting against colonial oppression simultaneously. both these concepts are clearly penned down in the novel the god of small things. the novel clearly states the issues that were prevalent in the post-colonial indian society. it also shows that how some changes were accepted by the indians some others were resisted by them. references atkinson, will. “not all that was solid has melted into air (or liquid): a crituque of bauman on individualizaton and class in liquid modernity.” the sociological review. blackwell publishing, 2008. 56:1. bauman, zygmunt. liquid modernity. wiley,, 2000. little, daniel. understanding society. 03 may 2014. document. 29 november 2020. little, daniel. “varieties of social explanation.” little, daniel. varieties of social explanation. ann arbor, michigan, united states, 1991. roy, arundhati. the god of small things. calcutta: indialnk, india, 1997. sass, jensen. “zygmunt bauman: culture in a liquid modern world.” cambridge: polity, 2011. “social theory rewired.” group, member of the taylor & francis. routledge, 2016. wikipedia. july 2010. 29 11 2020. @ 2020 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 30 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 how satisfied are the english major students with their foundation english courses: an appraisal dr. usha sadasivan head, department of english, meenakshi college for women, chennai, india ushasadasivan14@gmail.com dr. s. vijayalakshmi associate professor of english, school of social sciences and languages, vellore, india svijayalakshmi@vit.ac.in dr. bhuvaneswari balachander assistant professor, department of electronics and communication engineering saveetha school of engineering, chennai, india bhuvaneswari@saveetha.com abstract the purpose of this study was to investigate and evaluate the level of satisfaction of the english major students with their foundation english course. to this end, a questionnaire was administered to students currently pursuing the course, as well as students who had completed the course. the motive was to compare the results of the two sets of responses to see if both sets of students felt the same regarding the foundation english curriculum. the questionnaire was selfadministered, through google forms. the study threw light on the responsibilities of educational institutions in understanding that higher education is a service industry. it also highlighted the need for educational institutions to realize that they need to satisfy needs and the expectations of students, parents and employers. these three are the main stakeholders in the education industry today. syllabus framers too have to accept that changes are imminent and make more than cosmetic changes to accommodate changes in the world outside. students should be roped into the curriculum framing committees as they know what they need and what is not being delivered to them .giving importance to aspirations of students is unavoidable. it is hoped that this study would throw light on the expectations of students so that necessary changes may be made in the curriculum and thereby bring about the desired learning outcomes. key words: student satisfactionfoundation coursescurriculum framing mailto:bhuvaneswari@saveetha.com 31 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 introduction colleges, especially those that come under the autonomous stream, have the freedom to choose their own texts and learning material. a lot of scope is provided for colleges to select texts which lead to desired learning outcomes. these colleges can use their freedom to focus on providing skills such as curiosity to learn, courage to face new situations, passion and interest to realize their potential, and to be adept at communication .attributes which are desired by the employer or higher education selection panel should be the learning outcome of any undergraduate program. the curriculum designing team should take into account how they can maximize the preparation of students for future requirements. the onus of preparing students for the world outside rests on the curriculum planners to make them industryready when they graduate. methodology research design the present study was to test if the existing foundation course english syllabus satisfies the needs of the students pursuing their major in english literature. the design was to administer a questionnaire to students currently pursuing the course, as well as students who had completed the course. participants a survey of students currently pursuing graduate from the undergraduate course in english literature, from a city college was undertaken. . the questionnaire was administered online to around 200 respondents. the questionnaire was self-administered and was distributed via google forms. the total number of respondents who returned the questionnaire was 112 currently pursuing the course and 50 who had completed the course. the questions used were of the likert type, to test the attitudes of the respondents. instrumentation the methodology to be adopted is the comparative analysis type to compare the responses of those undergoing the course , with responses of recent graduates of the undergraduate course in b a english literature .the aim of the analysis was to see if the two sets of respondents showed similarities in their responses, in order to check how satisfied they were with the foundation 32 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 programme , that they had undertaken , as part of their undergraduate course. this study gains relevance especially against the backdrop of getting employment after graduation. hypothesis  foundation courses in english at undergraduate level provide necessary job skills.  foundation english courses are interesting for students.  english major students are satisfied with the content of the foundation english courses. review of literature potari and jaworski (2002) state that teachers engage in different domains of activity as they teach, one of them being sensitivity to student needs. this sensitivity to students can also operate in different domains. teachers can reveal sensitivity through questioning and seeking conceptual explanations. education today is not merely board method of imparting knowledge and filling the heads of students with tried and tested formulae. educational institutions have begun to clearly understand and increasingly recognize that higher education is a 'service industry' and that greater emphasis has to be given to satisfying the expectations of their customers, i.e. students (deshields, jr. et al., 2005). skills that could be introduced into the existing curriculum can be taught by tweaking the existing lesson material to highlight industry-specific skills. skills which can be explored and which are not too difficult to manage with existing teacher resources and which incidentally have a focus on employability are listed below:  communication skills  journalistic skills  analytical skills  verbal ability skills  blogging skills  basic computer skills 33 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611  interview skills  speech writing  project writing  performance based assignments  projects to promote team work  work place settings simulations  creative writing workshops the difficulties that could arise in the implementation of far-reaching changes is that, teachers especially those that are new to the professions may find it difficult to integrate skill development into their regular teaching. they need to be given fewer classes and more time to adjust to the new requirements. another difficulty is, identifying students' strengths, interests and talents and integrating them into daily teaching practice. sometimes matching the contexts of the job market and student strengths is difficult, because it involves a better understanding of assets and resources within the community as well as other socio-cultural dimensions. curriculum planners have to assess the needs of students and re-invent their methods by finding a new one or rework an existing one on a continual basis. what is required is the identification of the needs of the students, which is what the questionnaire aims to do. once the needs of students are identified, they have to be matched with the needs of the employers when they seek employment. the curriculum has to therefore offer a via channel which links the two and makes them more industry-ready. the existing curriculum of the foundation course in english typically has a literature component consisting of prose, poetry, short stories, short fiction as well as longer fiction novellas, novels, autobiography, and plays. texts are chosen from typically representative writers of the age or genre. together with these texts they are given training in writing skills and grammar and composition to improve their language skills. the syllabus reformers typically juggle the literature , grammar and composition items without any serious changes actually being made because the existing syllabus is tried and tested, 34 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 having been successfully implemented for decades. not much serious changes are made to take into account the changing needs of the world outside which has seen drastic changes especially in the past few years. most of the syllabus framers are unwilling to accept that changes are imminent and make only cosmetic changes. students should also be roped into the syllabus framing committees. they have to identify what results are to be reached, then choose texts which bring about that end. the foundation course in english has an enviable position as one of a kind. no other course is offered to all students across all disciplines. this makes the responsibility of all those handling the course, all the more greater. a whole generation of students is entrusted in the care of the teachers and syllabus framers of this course and they have to shake off their cloak of comfort, and make complete and thorough changes. it will be difficult at first to completely overhaul the syllabus, but once set in motion, the next time around it will be easier to handle. the world outside requires from the fresh graduates, a great degree of understanding and an enormous amount of maturity, and industry readiness that seems almost impossible. recruiters expect the educational institutions to provide work skills training and send out fully equipped students who are ready to be lapped up by the employers. when this is the requirement of the world, it becomes the imperative duty of the educational institutions to rise up to the challenge and offer what is needed. the questionnaire the items in the questionnaire utilized the likert scale with predictor variables such as strongly disagree , disagree , agree, strongly agree; and extremely good, good, moderate, poor . samples for the surveythe samples were a representative sample of those undergoing the english major course of study and were taken to be representative of the opinion of the entire student population undergoing the same course of study. it represents the opinions of a niche set of students, but can still be considered a sample of typical opinions of students of the same age and demographics. 162 students returned the questionnaire, which was selfadministered via google forms, of which 112 were students currently pursuing the course and 50 who had recently completed the course. analysis of data 35 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 important & boring important & interesting not important but interesting not important but boring important & boring important & interesting not important but interesting not important but boring completed 13 35 2 0 pursuing 10 101 1 0 how did you feel about your english classes in college ? figure 1 of those pursuing the course, 101/112 found it important and interesting, 10/112 found it important and boring only one responded that it was not important but interesting. from this we understand that 111/112, that is 99% found the existing syllabus important. not even one respondent found it unimportant, the responses of the students who had recently completed 13/50 found it important and boring while 35/50 found it important and interesting and only 2/50/found it as not important but interesting. from those responses we can infer that 96% found it important with 26% finding it boring and 70% finding it interesting. not even one respondent found it unimportant this question shows beyond doubt that the students who had completed the course as well as those who are undergoing the course find the syllabus interesting. what should be changed in the foundation course english curriculum that you studied ? 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 pursuing completed more focus on life skills more of literature, less of language skills more of language skills, less of literature more emphasis on functional use of language more of contemporary relevant topics in literature and language 36 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 figure 2 pursuing 28 13 29 16 26 completed 12 5 13 9 11 to the question as to what should be changed in the existing syllabus, 28/112 felt that more focus should be on life skills while 12/50 of those completed felt the same. while 13/112 of those pursuing felt that there should be more literature and less of language skills 5/50 of those completed felt the same. 29/112 felt there should be more of language skills and less of literature while 13/50 of those who had completed the course felt the same regarding language skills. . 16/112 of those that were pursuing the course felt that more emphasis should be on functional use of language while 9/50 of those completed felt the same. 26/112 of the respondents from those pursuing the course felt that there should be more contemporary relevant topics in literature and language while 11/50 of those that had completed felt the same. do you think writing skills can be improved by reading literary classics ? 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 yes no maybe yes, 58 no , 10 maybe, 44 yes, 18 no , 14 maybe, 18 pursuing completed figure 3 to the question if writing skills can be improved by reading literary classics. 51.9 % said yes and 39% said maybe .of those that had completed 36% said yes and the same percentage said maybe. only 9% of those pursuing said writing skills could not be improved by reading literary classics, while 28% of those that had completed said no, which was three times more than the 37 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 responses of those who are currently pursuing the course. do you feel the curriculum should focus more on some of the employability enhancing skills ? 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 strongly agree agree neutral disagree strongly disagree 0 62 28 20 2 27 16 6 1 0 column1 completed pursuing figure 4 pursuing completed strongly agree 0 27 agree 62 16 neutral 28 6 disagree 20 1 strongly disagree 2 0 to the question if the curriculum of the foundation course should focus on some of the employability enhancing skills the responses show that 55% of those pursuing the course wanted employment skills to be incorporated into the curriculum. 83% of those who had completed the course held the opinion that necessary employment enhancement skills need to be incorporated into the curriculum and this is especially significant as they are now in the world outside seeking employment and feel the need more than those currently pursuing the course. were you satisfied with the methodology adopted in the implementation of the curriculum ? 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 not at all satisfied somewhat satisfied satisfied very satisfied 6 56 48 2 12 15 18 4 pursuing completed figure 5 38 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the responses to the question about whether they satisfied with the methodology employed in the implementation of the curriculum we may infer from the data received that 54 % of those who had completed and 55.4% of those pursuing the course were not satisfied with the methodology adopted. are communication skills developed by your foundation english courses in college ? 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 pursuing completed 27 8 59 24 22 13 4 5 to a great extent to some extent satisfactory not at all figure 6 to a great extent to some extent satis factory no t at all purs uing 27 59 22 4 com pleted 8 24 13 5 to the question whether communication skills were developed by their foundation courses in college 24 % of those that were currently pursuing the course said to a great extent, 52.67% to some extent and 19.6 % found it satisfactory. only 3.57 % were of the opinion that these skills are not developed. of the responses from those that had completed the course, 16 % felt that it developed communication skills to a great extent,48% to some extent, 26% found it satisfactory, while 10% found that it did not develop communication skills at all. 39 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the responses of those who completed the course appear to be more relevant as they are in the world outside where the skills they had mastered in college will be of use while seeking employment or in going up in the careers. summary of findings the analysis of the responses threw up some interesting observations. there were similar thinking among the students who had recently completed the course and those currently pursuing the course in that both groups of students found the foundation course interesting as well as important which proves beyond doubt that the course as such was not without its merits, only changes had to be brought in. the responses to the question on whether they found the foundation course important and interesting, 99% of the respondents who are pursuing the course found the existing syllabus important . similarly from the responses of the students who had recently completed we can infer that 96% found it important . not even one respondent found it unimportant .this question states beyond doubt that the students who had completed the course as well as those who are undergoing the course find the foundation syllabus important and interesting. what they needed were certain skill enhancement changes to be incorporated to the question regarding what should be changed in the existing syllabus , we find a similar trend in the answers of both those who are currently pursuing and those that had recently completed the course. 25% of those pursuing felt that more focus should be on life skills while 24 % of those completed felt the same. 25.89 % of those pursuing felt there should be more language skills and less literature while 26% of those who had completed the course felt the same regarding language skills. .23.2 % of the respondents from those pursuing the course felt that there should be more contemporary relevant topics in literature and language , while 22% of those that had completed felt the same. to the question of whether writing skills could be improved by reading literary classics, 9% of those pursuing said it did not. 28% of those that had completed said no , which shows that these students having stepped out of college, found the literary classics that were offered as part of the foundation course, was not helping their writing in real-life situation. 40 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 again to another question, we find that most of the students pursuing the course thought that the curriculum-improved communication skills, 48% of those that had completed the course felt the same while 10% found that it did not develop communication skills at all. this 10 % is of relevance because these are the students who have gone out into the employment world and it is here that they will be needing the skills they should have been taught in college as part of their foundation courses. verification of hypothesis hypothesis 1-foundation courses in english at the undergraduate level provide necessary job skills. not proved as 83% wanted more of employment enhancement skills to be incorporated into the curriculum. hypothesis 2foundation english courses are interesting for students.stands provedas almost 99% of respondents said they found it interesting hypothesis 3english major students are satisfied with the content of the foundation english courses not proved conclusively as both sets of respondents wanted changes to be brought in the curriculum. recommendations the curriculum planners in the future need to keep in mind that employment opportunities as well as interest of students need to be kept in mind while framing the curriculum. needs of students vary with situations and over time and syllabi have to be continually upgraded to suit existing needs. students need to be actively involved in the curriculum planning. conclusion the education planners should come out of obsolete ways of thinking and formulate new curricula taking into account the information technology revolution, quality of education, stakeholder expectations. bibliography benchmarking student satisfaction in higher education based on the ecsi methodology, proceedings of the conference on tqm for higher education institutions (verona, 41 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 university of verona). garcía-aracil, a. 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(2009). @ 2020 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080022000013518 https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.1983.0026 https://www.researchgate.net/deref/http%3a%2f%2fdx.doi.org%2f10.1080%2f08841241.2017.1311980?_sg%5b0%5d=vv9lplyxpi8-k3pwfgoyhwfuw6odl2c9hv7xuoqh_fvadyc5vjiw3xs1mek5oiflzrf31xr4l7u0wqjnnan9_goeyq.xkenhdoghovnvpbkwnxmuruf1zhjjlyw9dial-jbqxgjjr-5eydde8zpei_tj_ebtcbfyigqxbyjtt-qc3owyq university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 37 an analysis of the impact of hindi language on the language use of young pakistani females amna fajar m. phil scholar, university of lahore, lahore dr. sikander ali associate professor, the university of lahore, lahore abstract this study investigates the hindi language impact on pakistani young females’ language. the young generation of a country is considered as a strong pillar for national development. the purpose of this study is to analyze the major effects of watching indian dramas on the language of pakistan's young females. for this study, the researcher has selected two colleges and used the qualitative method that involves close-ended questions. in the sampling process, the non-probability sampling technique has been used which includes judgmental sampling. for the study, 70 samples from the target population have been collected. the study records students’ normal t.v watching hours, their preference for using the hindi language words in their daily routine, and the place of their acknowledgment about these words. the results show that efforts of indian media for cultivating their culture in pakistan is somehow getting successful and in that purpose the greed of cable operators and negligence of pemra is at the peak. students have taken the phenomena of using hindi language into their daily routine as normal one without realizing that the utilization of the hindi language is adversely impacting their native language (urdu) and again taking them back towards the period/era of colonization. keywords: young females, impact of hindi dramas, pakistani language. 1. introduction a language is a systematic and structured way of communication; it enables people to communicate with each other. “every community has its own set of languages, it is an obvious factor that when two languages have contact with each other, they influence or impact each other” (bloomfield, p. 12). 1.1 background of the study “digital and broadcast media plays a vital role in our everyday lives and people are so much habitual of its usage that one is lost without any of these networks” (hayes, p. 5).in this modern age, private media takes a very important part in pakistani community. considerations about the influence / impacts of media always intensify when a new communication technology is implemented in society, because technology always has some positive or negative implications. pakistani society is in a perilous zone. cable tv viewing is no longer limited to any class. it is cheap in price and easy to access, that is the main reason of the high amount of its viewership. pakistani children are more conscious of hindu culture and hindi language than their own language and culture because of their excess exposure university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 38 towards indian media; children blend hindi words in urdu and use them in their daily routine conversations. indian dramas have a damaging influence on pakistani media, language, culture and general public in pakistan. crucial fact is that the influence of indian dramas is so high, no matter how far we advance, it will take a long time to take off its negative impact. pakistan is a muslim country but sadly due to the cult of modernization and westernization, people have adopted western and indian culture. indian dramas have a significantly adverse impact on our language as pakistani people spend much of their time watching indian television as compared to local (pakistani) channels. they like to watch star plus, sony tv, zee tv etc. females overlook their household chores and spend time watching star plus dramas. people talk about these dramas at their dining tables, throughout travel and even at their workplace. 1.2 statement of the problem this study highlights the actual reason or motive of pakistani females to use/ incorporate hindi language as their source of communication in their personal or professional life. the purpose is to give the description of reasons about pakistani peoples ‘selection of hindi words rather than using their own pakistani (native) cultural or language words. 1.3 aims and objectives 1. to investigate the effect of indian dramas on the viewer’s native language. 2. to find out which channels lead to the learning of hindi language that is adopted by pakistani young females. 3. to analysis, the young pakistani female’s phenomena of the use of hindi dialogues /wordsin their daily lives. 1.4 research questions the questions for this research purpose are  how the indian dramas are affecting one’s first/ native language?  which channel leads to the learning process of the hindi language?  how the young pakistani females taken the phenomena of the use of hindi dialogues in their daily lives? 1.5 significance of the study this study is important and helpful in understanding the impact of indian dramas on the verbal communication process and social interaction in pakistani society. today, the young generation is more concerned and focused on using hindi words and forgetting the roots of their own cultural (native / pakistani) language. this study highlights the factors that have the solid impact on the hindi language use especially by females in their professional or personal life. 1.6 delimitation of the study the collection of data from all the females of pakistan is delimited because of the large number of population; one is not able to reach to all the female population of the university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 39 country that is why data is collected from limited population of two colleges of lahore city. ethics for the collection of data are kept in mind. 2 literature review electronic media is a powerful source of spreading any information, norms, culture or traditions. people update themselves with social events through electronic media. in the 21st century, “language, culture and media are a part of society. cultural difference is considered as the main issue of inter-cultural communication” (ashfaq, 2028:5) media serve to represent things depend on the demand. media is free and acts as a guard because it influences the people thoughts, language and lifestyle. in media, dramas are important as they are a source of entertainment it indicates a culture, its beauty, its language and uniqueness that attracts people towards it. 2.1 dramas and their impact on people creating a drama is an art that involves multiple people effort and a story. since many years’ dramas are a part of human life especially for women, whenever they get free time they switch on the t.v and watch their favorite serial."this source of entertainment attracts viewers and relaxes them after their daily life’s hectic routine” (yousaf, 2014).many countries around the world produce dramas like america, south korea, iran, turkey, australia, indonesia, india, japan, china and last but not least pakistan. dramas not only act as a source of entertainment, but also help to promote the country's culture. india has been producing dramas for decades. the very first indian drama was telecasted in 1985. a study on the effects of dish antenna expresses that; in a pakistani society, dish antennas are the source of shaping socio-cultural values and language effects. this study highlighted that due to the high amount of on-air hindi dramas people are taking islamic culture as conservative one (hassan, khalid, & ali, 2015, p. 3). “zia (2003) considered it as the major reason for cable grow with feasible access, low in cost, exposure to satellite channels and a source of entertainment for television viewers”(mahmood, 2018). shafiq implies that “the number of private satellite channels increased, but for the public, ptv did not create any new and interesting programmers. the quality of the programs had declined. citizens wanted to watch zee tv with the advent of the dish antenna and loved bbc. no at the same time there are ten channels in the urdu language in comparison with ptv” (shah & aziz, 2017, p. 6). as time passes, social life is changing because of the online media networks, now people want to discuss various dramas at mealtime. this change in our society is mainly due to massive exposure of the indian media. the impact of indian tv shows seems to be slowly nipping at the heels of the pakistan national language (urdu). even the way one speak, has changed. “sonia gandhi once said in an interview that india has won the cultural war against pakistan since the pakistani youth may not know the names of their great historic personalities but they surely know the names of famous indian actors” (batool, 2017).different rituals and customs celebrated in pakistan are not part of the pakistani / islamic culture, but because of the popularity of indian media in pakistan, these customs have become part of pakistani culture and replaced pakistani local rituals, customs and traditions. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 40 today, “people watch indian programs and many hindi words are being adopted by the people in the society. in everyday communication, they use hindi words, e.g. “didi (sister)”, “jeeja (brother in law)”, “shanty (sakoon)”, “vishwas (trust)", namaste (hello)”, “praja (people)”,“sapna(dream)” etc. in pakistan, variety of programs on television is broadcasted through cable and satellite channels” (majeed, 2018). the cable operators mostly prefer to show english films and cartoons dubbed in hindi language, which is one of the main reasons for its influence in the common pakistani's language.“the dubbing of hollywood movies in the hindi language is also the reason for the increasingly high amount of viewers and people are adopting hindi language” (juni, 2014, p. 2). 2.2 theory of cultivation the theory of cultivation is basically a socio-cultural theory which argues that the behaviors of a viewer are mainly shaped by what they watch on television. in its most simplistic form, “cultivation theory argues that television is responsible for influencing or 'cultivating' viewers’ views of social reality. the collective influence of large television viewers’ exposure over time gradually influences people and their understanding of social reality. the more people watch t.v; regarding anything, the more they adopt that thing in their practical life” (shrum, 2017, p. 3). 3. research methodology in this study, the research methodology uses to find the results of the study with the help of representatives of data collection of the participants and its procedure of analysis. this study includes a quantitative method that consists of close-ended questions. the target population for data collection is young pakistani females because more than men, females prefer to watch television. “researchers believe that the social difference between male and female create that discrimination in their communication as females are supposed to talk more to maintain a balance in the relationship than boys. males prefer to watch the news whereas females prefer to watch television that is far away from reality and less the fatigue of their daily routine work” (bailey, 2014). the nonprobability sampling technique which includes judgmental sampling is used for this study. the purpose of selecting this sampling (judgmental sampling) technique is that the researcher is aware of the area from which data is easy to collect in a more authentic form. the target people are young females from 17-24 years old because in young age, females are less concerned about what they say, as it is considered as the carefree age whereas adult women prefer to be conscious in the selection of words (schwartz, 2010).70 samples are collected from the population. the participants in the data collection are the female students of lcwu (lahore college for women university) and qmc (queen marry college lahore). 4. data analysis in this study, the questionnaire consists upon closed ended questions. the study of statistical data for each element in the questionnaire is provided in the form of tables. these university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 41 tables display the ratios, proportions and combined ratios of the sample responses. for easy visual inspection even the bar charts of the tables are sketched. table no 4.1 what is your age? frequency percentage (%) cumulative percent 15 18 61.6 88 88 19 25 8.4 12 100 more than 25 0 0 total 70 100 result 88% of participants are between 15 -18 year’s age, 12 % are between 18 – 25 years, whereas 0 % are the ones who are more than 25 % in their age. table no 4.2 q. what is the level of your education? frequency percentage (%) cumulative percentage intermediate 62.3 89 98 undergraduate 7.7 11 100.0 post-graduate 0 0 total 70 100.0 15 18 88% 18 25 12% more than 25 0% 15 18 18 25 more than 25 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 42 result 89% participants answer that they are the intermediate students, 11% participants answer that they are undergraduate students, whereas 0% are the post-graduate students. table no 4.3 q: what is your second language? frequency percentage (%) cumulative percentage punjabi 16.1 23 23 hindi 0 0 23 english 29.4 42 65 urdu 24.5 35 100.0 total 70 100.0 result 42% of participants take english as their second language, 35% consider the urdu language as their second language, 23 % of students take the punjabi language as their second language whereas 0 % declares hindi as their second language. table no 4.4 q: how often you watch television in spare time? frequency percentage (%) cumulative percentage 1-3 hours 14 20 20 4-6 hours 49 70 90 more than 6hours 7 10 100.0 total 70 100.0 intermediate 89% undergradute 11% post-graduate 0% intermediate undergradute post-graduate punjabi 23% hindi 0%english 42% urdu 35% punjabi hindi english urdu university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 43 result 70% of participants prefer to watch television for 4 – 6 hours to spend their spare time, 20 % of participants prefer to watch it 13 hours whereas 10 % of participants prefer to watch it for more than 6 hours. table no 4.5 q: what you prefer to watch in your spare time? frequency percentage (%) cumulative percent seasons 5.9 8 8 dramas 59.5 85 93 movies 4.9 7 100.0 total 70 100.0 result 85% of participants prefer to watch dramas on the television, 7% students answer that they prefer to watch movies broadcasted on the television, whereas 8 % of students answer that they like to watch seasons more than dramas and movies. table no 4.6 q: which industrial drama you prefer to watch in your spare time? frequency percentage (%) cumulative percentage pakistani 29.4 42 42 indian 40.6 58 100.0 total 70 100.0 1 3 hours 20% 4 6hours 70% more than 6 hours 10% 1 3 hours 4 6hours more than 6 hours seasons 8% dramas 85% movies 7% seasons dramas movies university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 44 result 58% of students prefer to watch indian dramas on t.v in their spare time whereas 42% of students retrieve that they prefer to watch pakistani dramas on t.v more than indian dramas. table no 4.7 q: do you ever use hindi phrase or dialogues like “sanskar”? frequency percentage (%) cumulative percentage yes 49 70 70 no 4.2 6 76 sometimes 6.3 9 85 mostly 10.5 15 100.0 total 70 100.0 result 70% of participants retrieve with yes that they prefer to use the hindi language, 15 % of students say that they mostly prefer to use the hindi proverbs in their lives, 9 % of students prefer to use it sometimes whereas 6 % do not prefer to utilize it in their daily lives. table no 4.8 q: do you use hindi dialogues at your professional level? pakistani 42% indian 58% pakistani indian yes 70% no 6% sometim es 9% mostly 15% yes no sometimes mostly university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 45 frequency percentage (%) cumulative percentage yes 14 20 20 no 38.5 55 75 sometimes 11.9 17 92 mostly 5.6 8 100.0 total 70 100.0 result 55% participants do not prefer to use the hindi language at their professional level, 20 % like to utilize it even at their professional level, 17% like to use it sometimes at their workplace, whereas 8 % mostly depend upon the use of the hindi language even at their professional place. table no 4.9 q: with whom you prefer to speak hindi words more? frequency percentage (%) cumulative percentage friends 65.8 94 94 family 2.8 4 98 colleagues 1.4 2 100.0 total 70 100.0 result friends 94% family 4% colleagu es 2% friends family colleagues yes 20% no 55% someti mes 17% mostly 8% yes no sometimes mostly university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 46 94% of participants prefer to use the hindi language with their friends, 4 % prefer to use it with their families, whereas 2% of the participants like to utilize the hindi language with their colleagues. table no 4.10 q: how do you take this phenomenon of using hindi words in your daily life? frequency percentage (%) cumulative percentage good 54.6 78 78 bad 11.2 16 94 neutral 4.2 6 100.0 total 70 100.0 result 78% of participants taking the phenomena of using the hindi language in a good way, 16 % consider that using the hindi language is not good whereas 6% take this question as a neutral one. table no 4.11 q: how the indian dramas are affecting one’s first/ native language? frequency percentage (%) cumulative percentage yes 38.5 55 55 no 19.6 28 83 maybe 11.9 17 100.0 total 70 100.0 yes 62% no 31% maybe 7% yes no maybe good 78% bad 16% neutral 6% good bad neutral university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 47 result 62% of participants think that yes using the hindi language is affecting their first language perception and usage, 31 % participants disagree with this perspective that the hindi language is not able to affect their first language, whereas 7 % participants take these questions in the neutral way they support both phenomena of yes and no. table no 4.12 q: from which place you get familiar with hindi words? frequency percentage (%) cumulative percentage dramas 63 90 55 movies 7 10 100.0 real life 0 0 total 70 100.0 dramas 90% movies 10% real life 0% dramas movies real life star plus 88% zee t.v 7% sony 5% star plus zee t.v sony university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 48 result 90% of participants consider that they learn hindi language words from dramas more than any place as compare to it 10 % of participants consider that they learn words from movies whereas 0% think that they learn it from real life. table no 4.13 q: which channel leads to the learning process of the hindi language? frequency percentage (%) cumulative percentage star plus 61.6 88 88 zee t. v 4.9 7 95 sony 3.5 5 100.0 total 70 100.0 result 88% of participants consider that the star plus is the channel which usually the progressive one in promoting the hindi language, 7 % of participants think that the zee t.v is the foremost channel of promoting the hindi language whereas 5 % of participants give thiscreditof promoting the hindi language to sony channel. table no 4.14 q: how the young pakistani females taken the phenomena of the use of hindi dialogues in their daily lives?? good bad because it is cool. because it is not our cultural language. it is increasing our knowledge about different languages. it is destroying our own language concept. we are becoming multilingual. we are dragging our language towards the position of a dead language. frequency percentage (%) cumulative percentage good 50.4 72 72 bad 19.6 28 100.0 total 70 100.0 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 49 result 62% of participants answer that it is not bad to use any other language to communicate, some support it that the use of the hindi language makes them feel cool that they are using a different language from the native one,31 % consider that it is not good to use the hindi language on any perspective because the utilization of the hindi language makes us drag our own language towards the dead one, some take it as not a cultural thing because the pakistani culture is different from hindi a person is supposed to utilize only their own cultural language. 5) discussion this study clarifies that the high amount of cable t.v viewership affects the language of youth especially the language of young pakistani females. the study highlights that youngest females spend their 46 hours watching t.v. the results signify that the youth of pakistan is somehow fascinated by indian dramas and indian culture depicted in these dramas and this major exposure is affecting their language, culture and their identity. they try to somehow adopt the hindu culture, use the hindi language as fun without realizing the fact that this process is affecting their own language,whereas some students prefer to watch 13 hours t.v on a daily basis and at that moment they like to watch pakistani dramas more than the indian ones.they consider that watching indian dramas affect their socio-cultural identity, their religion, and language which is not good to be considered in pakistani society that is why they prefer to watch pakistani channels more than the indian ones. more than 45% of the population prefers to use hindi words in their daily life with their family, friends and in their social circle whereas some restrict its usage to some specific persons. the participants consider that they have learned these words from watching indian yes 62% no 31% maybe 7% yes no maybe university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 50 dramas. mostly, participants consider that star plus are the main promoter of the hindi language because they watch dramas on this channel more frequently than zee t.v and sony. the result clearly indicates that the hindi language is slowly creeping in to the language of pakistani youth and they are mindlessly using it without any realization that this process is affecting their own language as well as the social, cultural identity of their nation. the pakistani youth is under the influence of other cultures and the actual promoters of these cultures are the cable operators and dish antennas providers and distributers. this is an alarming sign to pakistani media operators that due to the airing of hindi dramas on cable and dish antenna network, pakistani youth is getting destroyed and side by side becoming a source of promotions of indian language and culture. 6. conclusion this study concludes that young pakistani females frequently use the hindi language in their daily routine with their friends, family and colleagues. they consider that the use of a different language makes them sound cool amongst their peers. the major source of learning these indian proverbs, phrases and dialogues are the indian dramas that are on air in t.v and cable net. most young females frequently watch t.v for more than 4 hours; they observe a different language and culture implied it into their lives. one thing is highlighted as a positive point that some of the young females taken hindi drama viewership as a good practice because they consider it against their culture and religion. the government needs to take positive steps regarding the spread of the hindi language. the wide use of hindi language in pakistani society is a sign that pakistanis are moving towards the time of their colonization again; as they are colonizing themselves tothe indians. pakistan is a country that people got many years ago for the sake of islam and for the freedom of performing the religious duties, it is again getting into the hands of nonmuslims. pemra which is responsible for on-air materials on t.v in pakistan banned hindi channels on t.v in august 2019, but some cable operators are on-airing them in an illegal way. pemra needs to be aware of those cable operators and take strict action against them so that the pakistani youth can be liberated from the clutches of indian media war and pakistani culture and language can get their dignity and due respect in the society and the world. references ashfaq , a. 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(2014). impact of indian dramas on interaction behavior of female. journal of humanities and social science. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 1 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 seeing things within and beyond the mirror: an analysis of virginia woolf’s “the lady in the looking glass: a reflection” kainat zeb lecturer in english, national university of modern languages (numl) peshawar campus pakistan kainat@numl.edu.pk mehnaz lecturer in english, national university of modern languages (numl) peshawar campus pakistan mehkhan@numl.edu.pk abstract virginia woolf a highly appreciated writer both for her literary-critical insight and innovative writing techniques explores the role and character of women in society to reveal the truth and reality of their nature. woolf in her works surfaces forth the inner discomfort of apparently integrated and a whole individual. in “the lady in the looking glass: a reflection” (1929), woolf employs the stream of consciousness technique to communicate the thoughts of a narrator who ponders an image of isabella tyson to unveil the nature of truth and reality of her person by opening the intricate layers of her appearance. this paper explores the concept of the split self with reference to the character of isabella to see the impact of the other on/in the construction of self. lacan’s concept of mirror stage is used as a theoretical framework to see how isabella’s character is put in the external symbolic order and is alienated from its own history to examine how the self can be conceptualized and effected by the interplay of various forces and the inside form in and through other. this study demonstrates that isabella’s self-image is the distorted product of the ideal ego and ego ideal and is made and changed by acting towards others to make them believe what they see in her as true of her. keywords: lacan, mirror, ego ideal, ideal ego, identity, self, other introduction “for there is never anywhere to go but in.” the early decades of the twentieth century are marked by a “wave of experimentalism in british short fiction” and have observed significant changes in the conception of art and literature. mailto:kainat@numl.edu.pk mailto:mehkhan@numl.edu.pk 2 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 (benzel and hoberman, 2004). the short story provided a proper medium of a narrative experiment for henry james, james joyce, and virginia woolf to reflect on the change in nature of the artist and the art. woolf’s important contribution in this regard is her stream of consciousness technique, to excavate something more profound below the surface of appearances. critics have often interpreted woolf’s short fiction in the context of her essays (baldwin, head 2004.) but susan dick (2003) in her introduction to woolf’s collected shorter fiction records the line of separation between woolf’s fiction and her essays in a very reasonable way, and states that stories such as three pictures and memoirs of novelist cross the margins between sketch, story, and essay. woolf in the art of biography considers the role of creative imagination and believes that it is the creative imagination that ultimately separates art proper from biography (woolf, 1967). her presentation of the problem of the imagination is often read in terms of the irresolvable tension between binary opposites in the current criticism of woolf’s imagination in short fiction (d’hoker, 2008). in this regard her short story “the lady in the looking glass” is significant that explores the role of a woman in social context with the help of the creative power of imagination which is a significant concept in woolf’s aesthetics and is a more truthful and crucial factor in the representation of life itself (woolf, 1966). joanne trautman banks (2004) explores woolf short fiction in terms of binary opposites such as “life and art, the self and the not-self, subjectivity, and objectivity, appearance and reality, and vision and fact” (17) and julia briggs (2004) in her critical discussion of “the lady in the looking glass”, notices a chain of binary opposites of imagination and reality, life and art; words and pictures; room and garden; light and shadow; inside and outside; change and stillness” (175). while the tension between the two opposite poles is not easy to resolve, we will nevertheless try in this paper to pin down woolf’s position with regard to her power of creative imagination in the light of the concepts of self and other in somewhat more precise way. how does the binaries of the self or the other woolf privilege in her story? what does woolf’s story reveal about the real and the imagined image of the main character? what does the story tell us about the societal or personal restrictions imposed on a woman to keep balance between the role and responsibility assigned? and what is the wielded psychological dimension of the sympathetic imagination of woolf in the portrayal of the main character? these are some of the questions which are considered in this paper. 3 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 theoretical framework to virginia’s short story, ideas by lacanian mirror concept which shows the double or different side of the object offers a useful theoretical framework for analysis to pin down the tension between the self and the other to reveal about the limits and the power of the other in forming or deforming self. for lacan looking shapes identity and looking means looking at. lacan stresses that mirror image gives the infant a chance to see and perceive itself as a unity by enabling him to anticipate a state of subjective completion thus image guides human development as infant identifies with a body image and respects this image as its own. mirror-stage states the development of the ego in terms of the alluded feeling of a unified image taken by the subject in the outer world as something ideal, as an ideal ego and blinds him to everything that does not fit the image. the understanding of one’s own identity develops in perceiving one as identical to oneself and arises the claim of the drive ‘’thou art that” (lacan, 1949/2006a, p.80). the imaginary misrecognition activates the ego in a fictional direction before its social determination. this méconnaissance (lacan, 1949) or misrecognition is compounded when the baby contrasts what it sees with the actual body in taking the subject position of the image and looking back on its actual self. this reflects itself as inferior and imperfect, thus cementing the trauma of imperfection and self-loathing, by exaggerating the difference a subject develops the desire to become the unattainable ideal. boundary formation of identity creates a sense of loss by separating the image as distinct other and develops an ultimate desire to regain the connected wholeness. lacan describes the process of mirroring as the beginning of one’s experience of identity which is actually set at the level of desire. the logic behind the development of one’s own identity or mirror image is not that it is the sole solution to inner chaos but it is a means to cherish the other’s peculiar desire as humans construct their identity through identification with the desire of the other. the “other” can be social order, society, or can be embodied in concrete persons. the individual identity is the relational construction, changing constantly as the other is not stable. (bertens 2008). as a result, he experiences stress, being divided between and through the conflicting desires of the other. lacan terms this process as alienation. he claims that the process of identification is symbolically meditated creation of the self-image. it is the process of adoption of ego to perfect self-image by turning it into ideal ego as 4 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 subject earns from the discourse of the other or the outer world. ego assessing potential gains and losses of satisfaction in light of possible effects of various courses of action feels both loved and satisfactory in relation to the other. lacan (1976/1998) says that subject desire becomes the desire of the other which brings organization into a relationship and through identification with ego-ideal he seeks to maximize satisfaction and correspondingly minimize pain/dissatisfaction. basing on lacan assumption that the self is the experience of alienation and is composed of and based on the offer and expectations of the other, in this paper i analyze the influence of forces within and without on the subjective experiences of one as ‘oneself’ in “the lady in the looking glass”. results and discussion central to woolf’s writings is the looking glass motif which functions variously to reflect the self or alternative selves to envision the tension between the individual’s private self and public personae. the gaze and looking glass is a frequent topic in feminist literature; it has been related to power, identity, sexuality, and gender construction. freud considers the erotic aspect of gazing of the spectator and foucault relates power and powerlessness with observing and being observed in western culture. in her fiction, woolf, by pushing the boundaries of realistic fiction, explores the disintegration between the image and self to show the other within a subject. in “the lady in the looking glass”, mirror and women are linked and the narrator's voyage through looking glass takes the reader to the inner desert of isabella’s self. woolf uses specular language and imagery in the story; she involves gaze to indicate the thoughts of the narrator by describing how her mistress and her belongings tell the story of her lost reflection. the beginning of the narrative of the split self occurs when the narrator sees the reflection of her mistress in the mirror providing her with the ideal completeness; the looking glass here signifies isabella's self as a visual object but quickly it shatters its completeness being misread as a unified object. as mirror image makes the person able to see different notions of self so woolf uses a looking glass in her work as a metaphor for the lady, to examine her reflection in a looking glass to see her divided self or one figure with many levels of character. she uses the stream-of-consciousness technique to understand the lady by the imaginative musing of the narrator guessing about the life of isabella tyson. we see isabella through the change in thoughts of the narrator and follow her mind as it wanders to and fro. we 5 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 in this manner see how real thoughts occur and get a profound understanding of isabella that is not likely to get under conventional narrative styles. sitting in the drawing-room of a house, an unnamed narrator describes the exterior scenes of the house that can be seen reflected in a mirror in the hall. lady’s very appearance invites the narrator to imagine the inner life of her. though her speculations are at first fairly self-effacingly presented by providing detail about the interior and exterior of the house they rapidly give way to daring declarations about the characters’ inner and outer realities, her secrets. the looking-glass is, here, held up to capture the interior states of isabelle tyson of what no one knows even the narrator doesn’t know. the image reflected in a glass is two dimensional and flat; when looking at an object, one can only see the mirror image of its surface but cannot see what’s within the object; in the same way, the reflection of the lady does not reflect the true depth of hers. the mirror creates a sense of order and stability to the objects of the room and the world it reflects but a person's character cannot be captured in one still image rather the role of the other demands to change and to be in constant motion. the narrator encounter with her looking glass image signifies the moment of discovery or recognition of her mistress, she looks into the mirror of the room, where the images of the garden, room, and isabella present a different look and seems as if she has no single and actual look of her own. woolf uses the simple act of looking into a mirror as a haunting metaphor for isabella's divided self. the narrative begins with an account of a vacant room reflected in a mirror situated in a dressing room, with isabella tyson having left into the garden to gather flowers. one can see the contrast of the character through the exterior and interior of the house; exterior which reflects the part which is seen by the world, a looking glass image or a mask hiding the turbulence beneath one fixed expression, on the other hand interior reflects the deep interior of the self-hidden from the outer world perpetually adapting and changing contrast to the outer image of the house which is serene still and peaceful. the interior is a world of flux. it’s depicted as a lively environment that is continuously in a state of movement from one form to another. the play of light and flash of reflections in the room is obtained as the movement of small creatures and the garden outside 6 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 as reflected in the mirror is paradoxically still. the animal images and the play of light and shade give a sense of hidden depths, of things that cannot be seen from the surface. in the story, the external and internal images of the self are widely different and by no means corresponding to each other. the narrator hitherto feels a vital want to learn new information about her hostess and searches for a certain image of her to record her fear and fascination with the looking glass image. lacan says that in the mirror a child sees a unified and ordered image of himself but because this image remains separate from the self and outside, it is alienating as well as pleasing. the child experiences totality just in reflection not in his body. lacan explains more that this reflection of himself is disrupted by the symbolic world of social relations and the child gradually develops his own identity when he approximates more with the social ideal of the whole self. but on the other hand, feminist theorist argue it is difficult for a female child to make progress beyond the mirror stage as for her the world has gendered meaning where looking and being looked at may cause a difference in her image and herself. woolf in this story demonstrates not only how a woman identifies with her construction by society, but also to what length she will go if necessary, to manufacture her looking glass image. isabella imagines the stable self as a source of power rather than a measure of powerlessness that’s why she pictures herself rich, successful, and distinguished, dressed in her expensive and fashionable clothes in the lower garden not allowing us a glimpse into the more private aspects of her character. the narrator wants to see the contents of her secreted nadirs for “how little, after all these years, one knew about her.” she begins a lyrical account of her, providing a sight of the furnishings of her life and ponders which kind of flowers will best define her, and realizes that even after knowing her for many years such judgments are pointless because they do not relate an unfailing truth about her inner real self. there are some facts, but no real knowledge of isabella’s inner being: “it was absurd, it was monstrous. if she concealed so much and knew so much one must prize her open with the first tool that came to hand ” (216). we can say that isabella develops her social self through the gaze of other and social exposure. her looking glass self is confined to its social milieu as it depends on the way people behave and react towards her. crucial for isabell’s identity is the concept of others or the other, 7 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 which links her strongly to the environment, to the social: for lacan, we need the recognition of others to arrive at what we experience as our identity. we become subjects ourselves by the views and perspectives of others (bertens 2008). our ‘subjectivity’ is constructed in interaction with ‘others’ who are different from us. mirror image is important to show “the appearances of the double, in which psychical realities, however heterogeneous, are manifested” lacan (2000, 46). the intensity of isabella’s inner struggle saves her for the real pleasure which was treasured by the standards of the ego ideal. the identity of isabella is constructed in self seen totality through alienating her from her real self. the mirror is an apt metaphor: the reflection in the mirror just reflects isabella but not truly her. the description of the mirror images, the room further emphasizes isabella’s fragmentation. thus the narrator sees no unifying image in the glass but only finds her further divided into the objects of room and garden. she uses mirror imagery of the reflecting objects to narrate the character's life and thoughts. the subject and abject relationship are complicated here because the real person in the mirror becomes the object of the subject. from the images of the house we learn not only the physical aspects of the house, but the impressions they leave as well as the furniture seems to have a greater understanding of isabella. the narrator continues with the minute description of the interior of the room, furniture, and the letters that are kept secret within the drawers and cabinets of the room, seem to know more of isabella than her. the narrator's response to reflection suggests that she is incapable of integrating other images of her into a coherent self or identity. her staring at images does not reveal the wholeness but decomposition, distortion, and disintegration of her mistress’s self. the narrator's attention is then shifted from the house to its mistress, isabella tyson. first, she thinks about isabella based on her behavior and appearance: "she suggested the fantastic and the tremulous convolvulus" she then reviews the facts about isabella's life: that she is single, rich and travels extensively and furnished her house with beautiful objects from her travels as if these things embody the lady herself and could yield up valuable information about the richness of her life tell the reader everything one needs to know. the narrator then starts a rich chain of thoughts about isabella’s innermost self, about life and death, happiness, and regret. she also fancifully compares isabella to the fantastic, beautiful and elegant, flowers she is cutting, and she links isabella’s thoughts to the dancing light in the drawing-room. yet the narrator realizes at the same time that the metaphors 8 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 will not do, “for they come like the convolvulus itself trembling between one’s eyes and the truth” (215), and this is not satisfactory and she begins to wonder what might be hiding profound deep within the little drawers of isabella's mind. the double-voiced discourse changes from outer to inner reality, from within to beyond the mirror image, and the narrator gradually realizes the point that there is a great gap between her appearance and reality. the distance between the mirror and where she stands symbolizes the gulf between her reality and appearance and finally, isabella is revealed to be “perfectly empty” and to have “no thoughts” at all (219) when suddenly the view in the mirror changes dramatically and the postman delivers a number of letters onto the hall table.it is at this point that the narrator's speculations are interfered with by the mail delivery, an occurrence that changes the picture under contemplation and leads the narrator down a track of thought. the letters are imagined, when the mail is delivered, as “tablets graven with eternal truth; if one could read them, one would know everything there was to be known about isabella, yes, and about life, too” (222). the letters are seen like marble tablets establishing a new visual significance, and the narrator thinks their contents might disclose further about isabella’s character. as in “the lady in the looking glass” the narrator of woolf’s work longs for the transcendent secret knowledge in the tablets, and even perhaps believes that that truth exists, but she is unable to access or decipher it. the narrator longed to make attempt to fully and definitively represent the reality of tyson who possesses some treasure, she realizes that one must look for more refined tools to uncover the true person as she is considered much deeper than originally thought. as woolf writes there, “in the chambers of the mind and heart of the woman who was, physically, touching her, were stood, like the treasures in the tombs of kings, tablets bearing sacred inscriptions, which if one could spell them out, would teach one everything, but they would never be offered openly, never made public” (50). and finally, as isabella makes her way back to the house and finds her letters, the narrator then has a new vision of the truth about isabella as she believes to see then the true woman. she considers what isabella talks about and comprehends that this can't in fact encompass the whole person, as she says: "it was her profounder state of being that one wanted to catch and turn to words". and in her the narrator finds nothing. the closed drawer with hidden letters emphasizes her alienated, narcissistic relation to her veiled self. for the narrator, here, the momentary illusion 9 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 of her whole self fades and the strong independent woman becomes merely an old empty woman; the beautiful woman with a lovely house and exciting life is nothing but empty. she isn’t thinking magnificent thoughts at all; she has no ideal life, no friends; and the letters are all utility bills – which isabella doesn’t even bother to open. the letters reveal the life of isabella, as they have no more significance than mere bills, and reveals that she is “empty.” woolf write in the stream of consciousness technique to see clearly which seems difficult and then isabella getting "larger and larger in the looking glass, more and more completely the person", to provide the whole picture giving a deeper understanding of her and "brings in some new element the past reflection into the true object; ‘everything dropped from her all that one had called the creeper and the convolvulus’. here was the woman herself crushing the picture of her imagined life revealing the truth quite different. the narrator imagines isabella’s petty dinner-table conversation, her looks, and facts about her life but her spiritual side—the “profounder state of being . . . what one calls happiness or unhappiness” (223)—remains elusive. the narrator who continues to gain insight into the interior self by providing us with the material details of all the colors of the woman, ends with “old and angular,” as “perfectly empty” an image of isabella who herself remains absent in her own sketch. by describing the garden, flowers, the light, and shadow, her reflection in the mirror, woolf foreshadows the cleavage in herself to convey that her life was meaningless and she was slowly breathing in the death of her real self. actually, the long-term suffocating spinster life leads her to confuse her inner and outer reality and to develop a split personality, never identifying whether there is a real self-belonging to her. she attempts throughout her life for her desirability and existence in order to survive successfully as a spinster, and opts to an extreme solution of compromising her private self for the public and in a result turns life to the desert. more than fifty years of her isolation from her real self and domestic seclusion contribute to her lack of knowledge of her real happiness and she lives a life full of painful laughter. she learns how to deal with the outer world but forgets how to deal with her inner emptiness. in this way, the narrator does succeed to explore a real person whose inner life is empty. conclusion woolf makes the narrator see the reflection, her ‘othered’ self, a distorted version of isabella by the mirror image which throughout the story symbolically depicts a stable, unified, and 10 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 polished woman who constructs her ideal ego from the ego ideal imposed by existing social structures. the disparity between her private and public selves makes the narrator doubt her stable self. in order to retain her identity, she has to provide the spectator with socially accepted spectacle until the carefully made-up psychological structure collapse distorting the image, blurs the narrator's vision of it. the story suggests that isabella has no identity and she herself disappears as the narrator searches for her real self in the looking glass. references baldwin, d. (1989). virginia woolf. a study of the short fiction. boston: twayne. benzel, kathryn n., and ruth hoberman. (2004) “introduction.” in kathryn n. benzel and ruth hoberman , trespassing boundaries, virginia woolf’s short fiction. london: palgrave macmillan. bertens, h. (2008). literary theory: the basics. 2nd ed. oxon: routledge. briggs, julia. (2004). “‘cut deep and scored thick with meaning’: frame and focus in woolf’s later short stories.” in kathryn n. benzel and ruth hoberman, trespassing boundaries, virginia woolf’s short fiction. london: palgrave macmillan, 2004. 175-191. dick, s. (2003). “editor’s introduction”. in: virginia woolf. a haunted house. the complete shorter fiction. ed. susan dick. london: vintage, 2003. lacan, j. (1998). the seminar 1964: book 11. the four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis (a. sheridan, trans.). reading, uk: vintage. (original work published 1973) lacan, j. (2000). “the mirror stage” in identity: a reader. ed. paul du gay et al. london: sage publications ltd. 44–50. lacan, j. (2005). le séminaire 1975–1976: livre 23. le sinthome. [the seminar 1975–1976: book 23. the sinthome]. paris: seuil. lacan, j. (2006a). the mirror stage as formative of the function of the i. in b. fink (trans.), ecrits, the first complete edition in english (pp. 75–81). new york: norton. (original work published 1949) 11 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 trautmann banks, j. (2004) “through a glass, longingly” in kathryn n. benzel and ruth hoberman. trespassing boundaries. virginia woolf’s short fiction. london: palgrave macmillan. 17-24. ullah, k. (2021). lack of tenderness: the main culprit for the relationship between husband and wife in lady chatterley’s lover. university of chitral journal of linguistics & literature, 1(i), 71-76. doi:10.33195/jll.v1ii.151 woolf, v. (1966). “modern fiction”, collected essays. volume ii.ed. leonard woolf. london: hogarth, 103-110. woolf, v. (1967). “the art of biography”, collected essays. volume iv. ed. leonard woolf. london: hogarth, 221-228. @ 2020 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distriuted under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). a critical discourse analysis of socio-psychological factors in taufiq rafat’s “wedding in the flood” 78 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 a critical discourse analysis of socio-psychological factors in taufiq rafat’s “wedding in the flood” muhammad amjad riphah international university, faisalabad, pakistan mamjadfsd@gmail.com adnan tahir university of okara, okara, pakistan muhammad ahmad punjab college, faisalabad, pakistan abstract people use language for different social practices in different contexts and perspectives, and discourse analysts examine these social practices for better understanding of the discourse. the language used by a poet is different from the language used by common people; the poetic diction helps to understand a poet’s literary style, his ideology, and the use of descriptive language. this article focuses on exposing the socio-psychological factors through examining the use of language in a free verse poem ‘wedding in the flood’ by taufiq rafat who tried to present different aspects of pakistani culture in the poem. the socio-psychological factors combine the social (family, society, wealth, religion) and the psychological factors (feelings, thoughts, actions, beliefs) that play an important role in shaping the personality of an individual, and the characters in the poem are the best examples of it. this analysis is based on fairclough’s conceptions in cda that claims of an inter-link between ideologies and texts, and this link cannot be separated because there are many ways to interpret texts, and the socio-psychological theory (20121) also combines many social and psychological factors of human life. many researchers did the stylistic analysis of the poem, but nothing has been done to highlight its socio-psychological factors through cda. keywords: cda, wedding, pakistani culture, socio-psychological factors 1.introduction background of the study cda is a set of problem-oriented and multidisciplinary methods commonly used in educational research…, and “discourse can be taken as a multimodal social practice” (rogers, 2011). this a critical discourse analysis of socio-psychological factors in taufiq rafat’s “wedding in the flood” 79 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 growing interdisciplinary approach has its own ideology to study practical use of language in different contexts focusing on the social practices of language (fairclough & wodak, 1997), and these practices have their own purposes in different social situations. according to wodak and meyer (2009), “discourse studies have at least seven dimensions in common” without any of which the text will not be communicative. common people use language for different social practices, but a poet enjoys a unique status and freedom among the users of language…poetic language mostly violates or deviates from the general language rules (leech 1969), and the discourse analysts examine the use of language for better understanding of the discourse. he critically studies the linguistic choices and their various aspects to understand the use of language behind the text. the focus is on constructing or exposing realities by using logical arguments or counterarguments. discourse is always meaningful according to different interpretations in different contexts and perspectives (amjad, 2018). despite all that, gaps of ideas in discourse are always there which the researchers try to fill because the meaning of a sentence can be changed by placing the words, phrases, sentences in a different world. a sentence in a book of psychology can be interpreted differently from a sentence in literature. moreover, the socio-psychological theory (2021), according to businessjargons.com, asserts that individuals and society are interlinked; an individual strives to meet the needs of the society and the society helps him to attain his goals, and the personality of an individual is determined through this interaction. critical discourse analysis emphasizes that ideas, facts, and knowledge are not static, but change while the discourse(s) change. it is a methodology that enables a vigorous assessment of what is meant when language is used to describe and explain something. cultural identity, diversity and activities, long-standing and time-honoured traditions, religious and widely-held beliefs, social justice and disorder, financial difficulties and success, increase and reduction in human values – build a bit bourgeois, an egalitarian or a permissive society that can be different from other civilized and democratic societies in the world. after a long-standing practice, the socio-psychological factors come into being and the people in that particular society act accordingly. many researchers focused on the stylistic analysis of wedding in the flood to investigate the true nature and possible effects of linguistic features so that the readers can appreciate the writer’s skills to use language, but nothing has yet been done either a critical discourse analysis of socio-psychological factors in taufiq rafat’s “wedding in the flood” 80 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 by stylisticians or discourse analysts, to highlight the socio-psychological factors in the poem. taufiq rafat holds a unique status among pakistani english poets because of his style of depicting pakistani culture, and his major work the arrival of the monsoon is a memorable acknowledgement of it. the poem “wedding in the flood” has been taken from this major work for discourse analysis of socio-psychological factors. significance and purpose of the study the study focused on the discourse analysis of ‘wedding in the flood’ according to fairclough’s concepts of an inter-link between ideologies and texts, and this link cannot be broken because there are many ways to interpret texts. there are different aspects of human life in this poem, but this study only focuses on exploring socio-psychological factors of human life presented in the poem through different characters. many researchers made serious efforts to conduct stylistic analysis of the poem in different contexts, but nothing has yet been done in this context of cda. in this way, the present study filled the research gap and contributed to the existing knowledge of the research community through the discourse analysis of sociopsychological factors of human life presented in the poem. research questions this study critically analyzed only one important aspect of human life through the following research question. 1. what are the important socio-psychological factors in the poem? 2. how did the poet present different aspects of socio-psychological factors? 2. review of literature critical discourse analysis is a qualitative analytical study for critically describing, interpreting and explaining the ways in which discourses construct, maintain and legitimize social inequalities. van dijk (1998) believes that cda and the studies of written and spoken texts have close connections that elaborate the discursive sources of power, dominance, bias and inequality. fairclough (1993) developed a three-dimensional framework for studying discourse – analysis of spoken and written language texts that is the description, analysis of its processing a critical discourse analysis of socio-psychological factors in taufiq rafat’s “wedding in the flood” 81 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 that is interpretation and social analysis that is explanation. thus, cda focuses on establishing logical connections among discourse, social practices, and their structures that a layman cannot understand. all social practices are possible because of language that fulfils the communicative purposes (fairclough, 1995), and the language users perform their functions in different language structures. cda tries to explore the links between structures and their social functions. moreover, the socio-psychological factors of human life combine the social (family, society, wealth, religion) and the psychological factors (feelings, thoughts, actions, beliefs) that play an important role in shaping the personality of an individual that we can see through different characters in the poem. cda is a field of great interest for the international linguistic community to make intellectual efforts to do discourse analysis of famous speeches, newspapers, and a piece of literary work to unfold the hidden meanings and realities. many researchers have done stylistic analysis of wedding in the flood, but there is nothing noticeable on this poem in cda. this study is a deliberate effort to contribute to the existing knowledge by filling the research gap. the main analytical tool of this study is the "three-dimensional method of discourse analysis" by fairclough namely the written or spoken language text, discourse, social and cultural practices. 3.research methodology the researcher planned to analyse the poem ‘wedding in the flood’ by observing the references with a stamp of socio-psychological factors clearly seen through the characters, and their impacts on the social class where the marriage was celebrated. only the qualitative paradigm was used for analysis through fairclough’s model of "three-dimensional method of discourse analysis." 4.data analysis the data analysis was conducted focusing on the study questions of socio-psychological factors of human life. socio-psychological factors in the poem a critical discourse analysis of socio-psychological factors in taufiq rafat’s “wedding in the flood” 82 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the analysis of the poem highlights the socio-psychological factors of human life through pakistani cultural references in the poem that has a specific context. the most important verses from the poem with their critical discourse analysis are stated below to understand the socio-psychological factors behind the text. a) they are taking my girl away forever, sobs the bride’s mother, as the procession forms slowly to the whine of the clarinet. she was the shy one. how will she fare in that cold house, among these strangers? this has been a long and difficult day. in every society worldwide, the love and affection of mothers are exemplary, and they are considered more intense than that of other blood relations. mothers are always worried about the betterment of their children from the very first day. moreover, girls are closer to their mothers, and they share their secrets, feelings, and problems that they cannot share with their fathers, brothers and other relatives. so, it is a naturally emotional reaction of a mother at the time of her daughter’s marriage to think of her future life in a new house. it is also a social and cultural factor, particularly in a pakistani society of middle, lower-middle and poor class, to express love and emotions by weeping, shedding tears or crying on such occasion; it is disliked if someone does not express such emotions, even fathers and brothers do so, but the strongest and matchless emotional expression is of a real mother, and the opening lines paint a true picture of it. there is a long complaining cry from a musical instrument and an expression of sadness from the mother. the mothers know almost everything about their daughters, so they can confirm the important factors of their daughters’ personalities that the girls of such social classes can be nervous or timid in the company of other people. based on her experience about the nature of her daughter, the mother is worried about her daughter’s performance in a specific way in a particular situation of the new house where she is being taken for ever; the house where there is no one who has warm and strong feelings for her at this moment. love, likeness, and feelings of sympathy are related to some blood relations and friends that develop gradually and cannot be a critical discourse analysis of socio-psychological factors in taufiq rafat’s “wedding in the flood” 83 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 expected from the strangers. because the bride is not emotionally attached and knows the people in the new house where she is going to live, so the first day with these people in that new house is a difficult one. when we talk about people from other parts of the world with different cultures, traditions and socio-psychological background, we find different kinds of behaviours and reactions on such martial occasions, but we see a strong touch of pakistani culture, tradition and socio-psychological factor, where parents choose a match for their daughters with a lot of fear and prayers, in the opening lines of the poem; the opening lines show a mother’s love, affection and worries about the future life of her daughter. while describing social psychology of different human relations, the poet put the relation of a mother on the top. this important status of mothers is not only related to pakistani culture, tradition and socio-psychological factors but also to the islamic culture where the respectful status of a mother is on the top in every corner of the world. b) ...as they help the bride into the palankeen. the girl has been licking too many pots… after painting a natural scene of a rainy day, the poet gives many socio-psychological references of arranging the marriage lunch in the open, the bride is taken to the palanquin at the time of departure that is symbol of great respect and licking pot while eating meals. a cultural idiom ‘pot licking’ also gives a culturally specific meaning in a pakistani society; for example, the girl is from a religious family, and she licks the pots after meals as recommended in islamic teachings; she and her mother cook very delicious foods, so they lick the pots at the end of their meals. if it is not so, how can one lick the pot after meals? in a cultural context, it is believed that licking pots after meals can cause too much rain at the time of marriage. rain because of pot licking, the few items given to the girl as her dowry that also shows the financial and social status of the girl’s family, the fear and worries of the mother and bearing the bride’s palanquin on shoulders are socio-psychological factors of a pakistani society. c) i like the look of her hennaed hands, gloats the bridegroom, as he glimpses a critical discourse analysis of socio-psychological factors in taufiq rafat’s “wedding in the flood” 84 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 her slim fingers gripping the palankeen’s side. if only her face matches her hands, and she gives me no mother-in-law problems, …it was my luck to get a pot-licking wench. after the intense feelings and worries of the bride’s mother, the second character with the strongest feelings about the bride is the husband who is thinking about the bride in another way. in an open society, the socio-psychological factors might be different, but in a pakistani society where males and females were not allowed and appreciated to mix up and interact freely, the young boys and girls waste much of their energy and time thinking about opposite genders and sex related activities. the bridegroom’s thinking about the bride’s hennaed hands, slim fingers and her face gives him great pleasure and satisfaction, and it is an authentic proof of socio-psychological factor of the society. in many cultures, there can be many complications in a married life if the girl is not beautiful. the poet expresses the strong feelings of the bridegroom by using the words ‘if only’ that is used to express a ‘wish’ regretfully – the face of the bride should be as beautiful as her hands, and she should not bring any problem because of her mother. the bride’s mother is also considered a problem creating character in pakistani culture because the guidance of the mother-in-law is directly related to the peaceful and happy life of the bridegroom. some girls take private tuition from their mothers, family members or some friends, and they act accordingly in their new house and spoil their married life. the dowry of a girl is not very important for a bridegroom as it is important for some other members of the family. even if it is, the boy can forget it easily if the girl is beautiful because there is nothing as much important in the life of a bridegroom as the beauty of the bride, and all the mutual marital activities related to the beauty of a girl. the use of word ‘wench’ shows that the bridegroom is a little bit angry because of bad weather and getting late; he might think of being in his bedroom earlier. the use of this word also shows the social class and mental approach of the bridegroom. he could have used the word ‘bride, girl, lady’ or else, but he used an old-fashioned and offensive word that, according to https://www.merriam-webster.com, refers to a young girl, a woman or a female prostitute, a female servant, a girl or a woman of a socially low class. it also a critical discourse analysis of socio-psychological factors in taufiq rafat’s “wedding in the flood” 85 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 shows that the bridegroom might not be a man of good moral character. we can judge his character and personality through his feelings about hennaed hands and slim fingers that he liked, his mental approach to think about dowry and the use of this word ‘wench’ for a young girl who is his bride, and who is going to be a respectable member of his family. all these are good examples of socio-psychological factors of a pakistani society. d) it is dark in the palankeen, thinks the bride… …what sort of a man is my husband? after the painting of the mother’s and the bridegroom’s characters and their feelings, the poet speaks of the bride’s mind – the most important, fearful, worried and central character in the poem. the bride has a chain of thoughts in her mind; she thinks about getting dark, the leaking of palanquin and her wet feet because of raining, but she cannot tell anyone about them. she looks through the curtain and cannot find even a single familiar face whom she can talk about her uneasiness because of cold and scary moments at that time. at the same time, she is thinking about her cot, tin trunk and a mirror-glass that will be destroyed in the rain. she thinks about her future life in her husband’s house, so she says, ‘what sort of a man is my husband?’ the focus of the bridegroom is the beauty of the bride; the focus of the bride is the character of the bridegroom. if her husband is a man of character, a man of principal, she is safe to lead a happy life; she will not be a stranger among the strangers in a new house because her husband will be there to lead and guide her in every difficult situation and lead a happy and respectful life. in a pakistani socio-psychological framework, a good husband, in fact, is believed to be a symbol of power and respect at the back of a loyal and obedient wife, so the bride is thinking about her husband. e) they might have given a bullock at least… all the things that she will use! a critical discourse analysis of socio-psychological factors in taufiq rafat’s “wedding in the flood” 86 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 every character shows a different picture of the socio-psychological factors of human life by the lexical choices according to their level of social and psychological maturity. fathers are advanced in age, experienced in family matters, financially mature and think about the betterment of their children. the father of the bridegroom seems to complain in a bad-tempered way about the dowry given to the bride because he may think that a valuable dowry can help to make his son’s financial position better. that is why, he desires of a bullock that can be used for ploughing – to make their financial position better. he is not happy at all to see a cot, a tin trunk and a looking glass because these things are of a little value and for the personal use of the bride; these things will bring no better change to his family. we can see that the father thinks about the betterment of his son and family, but he does not think about the financial condition, limitation of the bride’s family that is a kind of selfishness and greediness. it is all because of the sociopsychological factors of human life prevailing in the pakistani society of that time. f) …we are late by an hour, or perhaps two. but whoever heard of a marriage party arriving on time? …and a wedding party always pays extra. …oh what a consummation is here: …the coy bride is truly wedded at last. the socio-psychological factors made the bridegroom’s father think about pot-licking of the bride because of which there was a lot of rain, the ferryman ask them to be on time because marriage parties are always late, the ferryman wait and the father think of paying some extra money on such a happy occasion because of being late. talking about the unpleasant weather, the river, their homeward journey and the impacts of weather on their marriage procession, the poet used two important words that help to understand the cultural and psychological meanings. from the words ‘oh what a consummation is here:’ the readers may understand that the action a critical discourse analysis of socio-psychological factors in taufiq rafat’s “wedding in the flood” 87 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 of making a marriage has been completed after such a difficult journey of the marriage procession through the river in the rain but using the word ‘consummation’ does not support this idea. moreover, the use of ‘is here’ with ‘consummation’ gives an ‘exclamation of amazement’ even without ‘oh what’ in the beginning of the statement. the series of actions mentioned after this statement with a colon sign in the end have nothing to do with the consummation of a happy and successful marriage. the husband’s feelings about the girl when he was looking at her hands, thinking about her face beauty, the girl’s perception of the bridegroom as her husband, the mental satisfaction of the bridegroom and the bride are very important because all these actions will lead to a happy sexual relationship – mental and physical satisfaction – and that will be the ‘consummation’ of the marriage. another meaningful word used by the poet is ‘coy’ with ‘bride.’ no one knows the truth and reality; the bride can be shy and modest, but the poet does not seem to believe that. the word ‘coy’ means making a pretence of shyness or modesty that is really alluring. the shyness and modesty of a bride can be true, natural, tricky, or deceptive; no one knows the reality, but the poet preferred to convey a negative meaning on purpose. he could have used some other words; the bride’s mother used the word ‘shy’ for her daughter in line four of the poem. all the characters are of different age and level of maturity, but we can see that maturity is not related to the age; maturity means manners. all these socio-psychological factors of human life are very important in different societies worldwide; they have strong roots in social and psychological development of an individual and a society as a whole. 5. findings a) the free-verse poem ‘wedding in the flood’ describes different cultural and social aspects of pakistani society, but the socio-psychological factors of human life in a pakistani society have only been taken for this research study. b) the most important and noticeable character is the bride’s mother who is too much worried about the married life of her daughter because there can be many problems in the life of a bride if the bridegroom and his family members are not cooperative. moreover, the quality and value of dowry can also cause negative impacts on the married life of a girl, and it is clearly mentioned in the poem. a critical discourse analysis of socio-psychological factors in taufiq rafat’s “wedding in the flood” 88 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 c) the most important thing for the bridegroom is the beauty of the bride that can help her to be an eye start for her husband, and he can ignore many things that are generally not ignorable for him because of some socio-psychological factors. even a greedy bridegroom can ignore the value of dowry if the bride is beautiful and seductive, but some of the family members usually do not; the bridegroom’s conditional remarks about the dowry and his father’s expectation are the best example it. d) the bridegroom’s father has nothing to with the dowry of his daughter-in-law, but he looks worried about it because he may think that the valuable dowry, as he was expecting a bullock for ploughing, can help to make his son’s financial position better. a marriage and a valuable dowry have nothing to do with the financial support of the bridegroom. e) the innocent and dove-like character at this stage is only the still and silent bride; experiences can change this opinion in the future. she is also thinking like her mother; the mother thinks about the strangers in the new house with whom the bride is going to live her future life; the bride thinks about her husband saying, ‘what sort of a man is my husband?’ she seems to believe if her husband is a good person, if he is a man of character, if he is a man of principal, it will not be difficult at all to live with the strangers in the new house of her husband. this is believed that such a way of thinking, as seen through different characters, is because of the socio-psychological factors in a pakistani society. f) the ferryman knows the consequences of being late when crossing a river in such a bad weather, so he seems to be punctual and tells the bridegroom’s father to come back on time. on the contrary, the bridegroom’s father thinks about it a little, and he believes that the ferryman will wait because he will be paid extra. the father does not link the punctuality with a moral issue, with something embarrassing, with something the society does not like, but he links it with paying some extra money because of being late and that is all. this is another picture of the society with a stamp of socio-psychological factors on it. g) the socio-psychological factors related to the idea of pot licking, using the words ‘wench, consummation and coy’ are far from the reality. pot licking has nothing to do with bad weather and raining; the word ‘wench’ is not suitable for a bride; the word ‘consummation’ is a good one to express an idea related to marriage, but the word has not been a critical discourse analysis of socio-psychological factors in taufiq rafat’s “wedding in the flood” 89 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 used positively in a proper place. similarly, the word ‘coy’ shows the use of a dreadful pun when talking about a newly married bride; it does not give the due respect to the bride socially, legally and religiously, and all that is due to socio-psychological factors of a pakistani society at that time that came into being after long-standing social practices. h) the discourse analysis and its findings show that the researcher has successfully answered the research questions focusing on the socio-psychological factors of human life presented in the poem through different characters. conclusion discourse analysis is a broad research field to study written or spoken language focusing on its relation to social context, and it helps to understand how language is used in real life situations, the purposes, and effects of using different types of language choices. after going through the text of ‘wedding in the flood,’ the researcher has concluded that the poem is full of remarkable references that are because of the socio-psychological factors of human life in pakistani society. these socio-psychological factors include the worries and restlessness of bride’s mother about the future life her daughter, the possible consequences of the worthless dowry, the bridegroom’s focus on bride’s face beauty and its conditional link to the dowry, the expectations and feelings of the bride about her husband’s character and personality, the bridegroom’s father who is desperately thinking of the worthless dowry, paying extra to the ferryman because of being unpunctual or late, referring the bride as a pot licking wench, coy bride and sarcastic remark on the concept of consummation of marriage. all these are the references that clearly bear the stamp of socio-psychological factors of human life on them. these socio-psychological factors come into being after long-standing practices in a particular society, and then the people in that particular society act accordingly. references amjad, m. (2018). a discourse analysis of canadian pm’s speech after new zealand christchurch mosque shootings. university of chitral journal of linguistics & literature, vol. 2, issue ii.dijk, t. a. ideology and discourse. barcelona: pompeu a critical discourse analysis of socio-psychological factors in taufiq rafat’s “wedding in the flood” 90 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 fabra university. retrieved from http://www.discourses.org/unpublishedarticles/ideology%20and%20discourse.pdf fairclough, n. (1993). discourse and social change. cambridge: blackwell publishing fairclough, n. (1995). critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language. london: longman publisher fairclough, n., & wodak, r. (1997). critical discourse analysis, in t.a. van dijk (ed.) discourse as social interaction. london: sage, 258-284 leech, g. n. (1969). a linguistic guide to english poetry. new york, ny: longman rogers, r. (2011). an introduction to critical discourse analysis. london: routledge socio-psychological theory (2021). retrieved from https://businessjargons.com/sociopsychological-theory.html titscher, s., meyer, m.; wodak, r.; & vetter, e. (2000) methods of text and discourse analysis. london: sage. wodak, r., & mayer, m. (2009). critical discourse analysis: history, agenda, theory, and methodology 1. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265678850 @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). http://www.discourses.org/unpublishedarticles/ideology%20and%20discourse.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265678850 43 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 an intersectional feminist reading of bapsi sidhwa's water numaira hamid khan department of intercultural anglophone studies (english department) university of bayreuth, germany abstract intersectionality has been recognized and widely taken by interdisciplinary fields that include cultural studies, american studies, and media studies to demonstrate a range of social issues. it focuses on the experiences of people in a different social and political context. the intersectional framework confronts significant social division axes that include race, class, gender, and disability that function together and influence each other. these social axes operate the power structures of a particular society that can cause inequality and discrimination. in literary studies, women representation is no more confined to european and american academic writings. within the feminist framework, the south asian fiction writers also demonstrate a feminist approach in their works. pakistani authors have indicated religion's exploitation as one of the central intersectional tropes in their literary work. bapsi sidhwa's is one of the prominent feminist voices from pakistan in diasporic english literature. one of her novels, water (2006), is based on deepa mehta's award-winning film, explores the life of the marginal and subaltern hindu widows in india. the novel provides an insight into the intersectional nature of the indian hindu widows in a patriarchal society of a subcontinent where different power domains hold and impose dominant hierarchies. the paper's objective is to highlight the intersection of religion, gender, caste and politics against the backdrop of the indian anti-colonial movement. it shows how power relations can manipulate cultural norms and use religion as a powerful tool to establish its hegemonic control over these marginalized widows who suffer as silent victims. keywords: intersectionality, feminist studies, power structures & literature (1) human experiences reveal that every event indicates various factors that create and trigger complex discrimination among different communities. the popular idea of commitment to social justice and equity is a systematic discourse. however, the underlying structures that are responsible for providing justice, equity to diversity are seldom articulated. according to the political and social climate, hierarchies are established that frame policy 44 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 concerned with structures of injustice and power manipulation. the emergence of the concept of intersectionality as a conceptual tool reflects power struggles that counter various oppressions. one of the scholars, sirma bilge, mentions thornton dill & zambrano (2009) in one of her writings, intersectionality undone, elaborate the concept of intersectionality as "a theory and praxis, an analytical and political tool elaborated by less powerful social actors facing multiple minoritization (…) (bilge:410). people political, social, and cultural lives operate on various axes and the organization of power shape or manipulate these structures that can bring havoc in a particular set up. with the growing concern for the issues of differences among women, intersectionality aims to address and recognize multiple positions of everyday lives. the term intersectionality is coined initially by kimberle crenshaw in 1989, who contributed to both feminist and anti-racist discourse by highlighting the black women experiences. it touches the interconnection of various forms of exclusion and subordination by making the power relations visible and crucial to all those interconnections. in today's world, women studies are not merely limited to focus on gender. it captures multiple identities, reasons of exclusion and experiences of subordination. kathy davis, in one of her articles, intersectionality as a buzzword, defines the concept as "(it is) the interaction between gender, race, and other categories of difference in individual lives, social practices, institutional arrangements, and cultural ideologies and the outcomes of these interactions in terms of power" (davis:68). despite the theoretical complexities of intersectionality, it plays a significant role in the field of feminist analysis. the reason for the success of intersectionality within the feminist theory, in the words of kathy davis, is that" (its) focus on a pervasive and fundamental concern in feminist theory, its provision of novelty (…) for further critique and elaboration" (davis:169). the issues of differences among women in the backdrop of feminism have been addressed on two different strands. the framework of intersectionality addresses these strands by focusing on various categories of inequality that reveals women marginalization. within western feminist inquiry, the first strand focuses on race, class, and gender that affect women of colour within white supremacy and poverty-stricken women's struggle. however, the emphasis on power relations or power structures in women's social lives where race, class, and gender interact is the second strand's focus. these different axes or categories are intertwined, providing a centrality to know differences and diversity issues. 45 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 (ii) the term intersectionality has been widely recognized in various places and locations. it is a well-established principle in feminist studies. in the words of patricia hill collins and sirma bilge, "intersectionality as an analytical tool gives people better access to the complexity of the world and themselves" (collins & bilge:2). however, the multiple dimensions of social life expand the analysis that demands a complex and challenging methodological approach. despite certain ambiguities and complexity in methodology, in the words of leslie mccall, "the overall methodology is feminist and interdisciplinary in orientation, but the methods and specific subject matters(..)because particular methods are an approach to particular subject matters" (mccall:1795). thus, every social and political life is shaped and understood by various factors. similarly, women from various contexts have distinctive experiences and have multiple reasons for subordination in diverse social locations. for instance, the black woman's experience from a gender perspective focused on white women and race studies reveals the struggle against black men. in the words of patricia hill collins and sirma bilge, "black women's use of intersectionality as an analytical tool emerged in response to these challenges" (collins & bilge:03). in this way, every lived experience is distinct from conflicting dynamics. like the social division of class, race, gender, and ethnicity are not confined to america and european nations. similarly, the study of intersectionality as an analytic tool is not a new phenomenon. one of the prominent examples from 19th century colonial india is the published online work (2015) of savitribai phule (1831-1897) titled six reasons every indian feminist must remember. deepika serma mentions about phule that "(…) she got the intersectionality. the phule's vision of social equality included fighting against the subjugation of women (…)" (collins& bilge:04). this woman is regarded as a firstgeneration modern indian feminist who struggled with various social divisions that include caste, gender, religion, or class. patricia, sirma further asserts that "her political activism encompassed intersecting categories of social division -she didn't just pick one" (collins & bilge:04). her efforts include a protest shaving the heads of hindu widows. she struggled for widow's remarriage in 1853 and initiated shelter for abandoned pregnant widows. thus, 46 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 people from diverse backgrounds use intersectionality as an analytic tool in various ways to articulate a range of social issues. furthermore, the different analysis categories include race, class, gender, nation, or religion, which shows social division. in the words of patricia," they are categories that gain meaning from power relations of racism, sexism (…) and class exploitation" (collins & bilge:07). thus, power relations are interconnected and contribute to forming these divisions. the four intertwined domains of power are interpersonal, disciplinary, cultural and structural. the core ideas of intersectional frameworks vary from project to project. however, the six core ideas provide a platform for thinking from an intersectional perspective: inequality, relationality, power, social context, complexity, and social justice. one of the prominent literary scholars, zia ahmed, in one of his articles," pakistan feminist fiction and the empowerment of women", mentions that "fiction is born out of the society (…), the representation of women emerges as the most significant aspect for the writers of english fiction as a part of feminism" (ahmed: 90). the modern western writers like virginia woolf's "a room of one's own" (1929) and henrick ibsen's "a doll's house" (1879) or jane austen remarkable writings are among the prominent english fiction to develop a feminist awakening. the feminism trend gets a new dimension over the years, which is also visible in south asian literature written in english. the writers from this region are not unconscious of the dire need to address women discrimination and make the feminist approach evident in their writings. zia ahmed mentions ashcroft, a literary scholar who says that "literature offers one of the most important ways in which these new perceptions are expressed, and it is in their writings (…) that the day-today realities experienced by the colonized peoples have been most powerfully encoded and so profoundly influential" (ahmed: 91). from intersectionality's lens, an overwhelming silence and struggle of the sub-continent context women can be understood. the writers have portrayed these women characters who suffer due to religion, gender, social and cultural impositions. zia ahmed mentions sara sueri, who says, "women bodies were twice colonized, first by the british and then by the men in the indo pak subcontinent" (ahmed:92). spivak, a feminist scholar, call this silent majority group of women "subaltern". writers like bapsi sidhwa, mohsin hamid, arundhati roy, talat abbasi or bharati mukherji are significant south asian writers. the constant effort in portraying and unveiling 47 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 women's sufferings in their writings establish a resistance within these marginalized groups. bapsi sidhwa is one of the prominent feminist voices from pakistan in the world of diasporic english literature. one of her novels, water (2006), is based on deepa mehta's awardwinning film that explores the marginal and subaltern hindu widows' life in india. the story provides an insight into the intersectional nature of the indian hindu widows in a patriarchal society of a subcontinent where different power domains hold and impose dominant hierarchies. it shows how power relations can manipulate cultural norms and use religion as a powerful tool to establish its hegemonic control over these marginalized widows who suffer as silent victims. it also focuses on how some women resist and challenge religious sanctions and empower themselves for progress and change. (iii) "in our shared grief, we are all sisters here, and this ashram is our only refuge". (water: 52) the study of contemporary feminism within a framework of intersectionality brings forth the systematic power structures that lead to women's exclusion on multiple dimensions. chandra mohanty, in one of her articles under western eyes: feminist scholarship and colonial discourse, mentions beverly lindsay, who states that "linguistic and cultural differences exist between vietnamese and black american women, but both groups are the victim of race, sex and class" (mohanty:339). so, intersectionality's phenomenon uncovers the variety of cases and categories that makes these women "powerless". zia ahmed mentions mohanty, who asserts that "third world women, like western women, are produced as subjects in historically and culturally specific ways by the societies in which they live and act as agents" (ahmed:92). in this way, south asian marginalized women's experiences also reveal specific privileged positioning and power networks responsible for their exclusion and oppression. in any context, women are positioned within a structured network of power relations that leads to oppression and struggle. the following textual analysis of the novel water by bapsi sidhwa is based on interpersonal, disciplinary, cultural, and structural interconnected domains of power that use intersectionality as an analytic tool in feminist studies. interpersonal domain of power 48 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 to examine the power structures in a particular context, the awareness and understanding of historical complexities, political and social knowledge are essential. the power through the kinship structure is usually exercised in the oppression of women in the sub-continent. mohanty mentions elisabeth cowie, who suggests that "women as women are not located within family (…) it is in the family, as an effect of kinship structures, that women as women are constructed, defined within and by the group" (mohanty:342). the kinship structures usually position men as a father, brother or husband in a privileged status to control women's lives as their wife, mother, sister, or daughter. the novel opens with the same familial structure model where a dominating husband, somanth persuaded his wife bhagya to let their six-year-old daughter marry a forty-fouryear-old, hira lal. somnath said to his wife that, "you are the wife and daughter of brahmin priests, surely you are aware of our traditions. outside of marriage, the wife has no recognized existence in our tradition". (water:15). he further says about daughters that they are usually considered as "the burden of responsibility" (water: 15). on the one hand, as a daughter, a woman's position seems to be of no value, she is merely a "burden", and on the other hand, the apparent status of a woman as a wife seems to be respectable. however, the submission of bhagya constructs an entirely different view of a woman as a wife. she is an obedient wife who is bound by the man-made tradition and confesses that "it will be as you say-you are her father" (water: 15). somanth pressurized his wife by giving religious reference that "in the brahmanical tradition (…), a woman is recognized as a person only when she is one with her husband. only then does she become a sumangali, an auspicious woman, and a saubhgyavati, a fortunate woman". (water:14). these kinship structures suggest power relations about people's lives, who are advantaged and disadvantaged within interpersonal and a familial power domain. thus, women positioned within the domestic system, regardless of being a wife, daughter or mother, are marginalized. "…. the parents of a traditional hindu bride have no rights over their daughter once she has been gifted to the bridegroom". (water:28). the age-old customs that depict the controversial and deplorable state of widows in india during 1935 illustrate the patriarchal power structures. within different domains of power, the positioning of women in family and society is compelling and suggestive. disciplinary domain of power 49 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 when it comes to the power structure and functioning, people find themselves encountering different positions and treatment. within the disciplinary domain of ashram (place for hindu widows), power operates when there is a binary division of domination and exploitation. in a place like an ashram, madhumati, who was "clearly the ruler of the dilapidated ashram" (water:51), dominates the other widows. a playful chuiya at the age of nine was abandoned and transferred to a miserable ashram (a place for widows), "her cries were interrupted by a loud command. quiet! shut her mouth" (water:51). madhumati, a vicious widow within a stern authority, operates the place and discipline other widows. the writer depicts widows' miserable lives like chuyia, kalyani, madhumati, shakuntala, kunti and pattirajji. these main women characters, including others, were destined to suffer in the same plight, but madhumati, the ashram's head, defines other widows' position. the profound scholars patricia and sirma writes that "power is better conceptualized as a relationship (…) than as a static entity. power is not a thing to be gained or lost (…) it constitutes a relationship" (collins & bilge: 28). thus, madhumati seems to be a distinctive category to power differences within a community of widows. it gives an inclusive viewing of a disciplinary domain of power. as bua told chuyia," ( madhumati) family donated to a temple in the city: that's why "fatty" is the head of the ashram" (water:56). the power structures within the ashram also reveal the reasons for subjugation. these widows became the victim of forced patriarchal demands on their body by giving reference to the hindus holy texts and compelling them to fulfil the physical need of landlords and priests. at kalyani's young age death, shakuntala told narayan that, "disguised as religion, it's just about money" (water: 209), and it is evident in all the ill practices. shakuntala, one of the most powerful characters of the novel, before realizing and discovering the hypocrisy in the name of religion, used to follow what scriptures say, "she had never questioned the belief in the dharma shastra that widowhood was the punishment for a sinful existence in the past, (…)" (water:66). the feeling of repentance imposed on her and other widows further disintegrate them. chandra mohanty mentions that "patriarchy is always necessarily male dominance, and the religious, legal, economic and familial systems are implicitly assumed to be constructed by men" (mohanty:350). the novel reinforces mohanty's idea of male domination in a familial structure. despite bhagya strong reservations, her husband somanth 50 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 decided to marry her six-year-old daughter to a forty-four-year man. furthermore, he leaves her grieving daughter in the ashram, a place for widows, where all widows undergo hardships and humiliations. chuyia pleaded to her father that, "baba don't leave me. somanth stood helpless, resigned to his fate and fate of his daughter" (water:50). the rigid conventions and orthodox beliefs in a patriarchal kinship system mainly designate or positioned a man as a husband, brother, father, or son who apply specific disciplinary rules on their family that includes only women, and men are exempted from everything. like chuyia father, the shakuntala brothers also abandon their sister into the ashram. "(shakuntala) brothers made arrangements for her to go to the ashram (…)" (water:176). regardless of their differing positions, "power is automatically defined in binary terms: people who have it (men) and people who don't have it (women)" (mohanty:344). cultural domain of power the novel depicts that certain cultural, religious, and ideological specificities are responsible for marginalizing a group of hindu windows and making them powerless. the intersectional analysis focuses that social inequality, power and a particular social context are interconnected. in the words of patricia& sirma, "fairness is elusive in unequal societies where the rule may seem fair, yet differentially enforced through discriminatory practices" (collins& bilge:29). similarly, the orthodox, tradition-bound indian society is structured on religion that makes and implement inhuman rules and practices only on women. bapsi sidhwa gives an insight into such deep-rooted violence and ill practices on hindu widows in her novel water. the writer displays bhagyas similar concerned for her daughter future. she knows that "(….) in barhamin culture, once widowed, a woman was deprived of her useful function in society (…) she ceased to exist as a person (…) there was no place for her in the community, and she was viewed as a threat to society" ( water:32 ). in hindu tradition, the widows had limited choices. during the colonial era, the britishers abolished one of the ill practices of sati, burning a widow alive with her dead husband. one of the analysis on spivak essay can subaltern speak? by eleanor ross who writes about this ill practice that "the ritual of sati (burning of widows alive) is represented as removing the widow's identity: she exists in relation to her deceased husband, who retains his "power beyond the grave". (ross: 387). unfortunately, even after the abolishment of sati, women's subjugation continued but in a different form. the fundamental religious and 51 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 cultural complexities characterize the lives of these hindu widows that define men as "subjects who perpetrate violence" (mohanty:339). . the setting of water depicts an era of 1938 when the subcontinent was under colonial rule. the muslims and hindus of the subcontinent were struggling for freedom from the britishers. however, the hindu widows are deprived of fundamental human rights and are further dragged into the deplorable state for the rest of their lives in the ashram. these women were bound to believe, as madhumati said to chuyia that, "our holy book says a wife is a part of her husband while he is alive. (…) and when our husbands die (…) wives also half die". (water:52). it is reinforced when one of the characters, shakuntala, became a widow,"(her) head was shaved to remove the sin and pollution in her hair (…) as she (her mother-in-law) broke the glass bangles and ripped off the mangal sutra from her neck in the first rites marking her passage into widowhood". (water: 175). the novel reveals that the unthinking adherence to the religious scriptures only disintegrates these women. it increases the cultural domain of power. thus, "social inequalities that are fairly produced are socially just "(collins& bilge:11). the novel mainly exposes the cultural environment of power, which is triggered by the manipulation of religion. fathers and brothers took their daughter and sister to the ashram despite knowing the place's distress and severance. structural domain of power the intersectional analysis within academic and political context reveals that the black women movement emphasized the structures that cause inequality. they focused on the role of power relations that operate within specific organizations and institutions responsible for marginalizing women on various levels. in one of the articles towards a field of intersectionality studies: theory, applications and praxis, crenshaw states that "(…) the overlapping structures of subordination revealed how certain groups of women were made particularly vulnerable to abuse (…) (sumi, crenshaw & mccall:797). similarly, the novel water reveals a sheer failure of the religious institution (ashram, a place for widows) that normalizes hindu widows' exclusion. such "structural intersectionality" seems to reach the largely unchecked powers that normalized unjust domination. in one of the articles, p sobharani mentions halting, who introduced and defined structural violence in 1969 that "(it is) an avoidable impairment of fundamental human need" (sobharani:691) 52 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 one of the heartbreaking stories of shakuntla depicts structural violence. she was initially mistreated by her in-laws when she became a widow at thirty and was later dragged by her brothers into the ashram. "……(she) could cover her body with only a piece of white cloth, she was essentially slowly starved (…) was limited to one meal a day (…) had to sleep on the ground". (water: 175). she blindly followed religious scriptures and endured familial and ashram ill-treatment considering "widowhood" a punishment for women. the ashram had a legal status with a tremendous influence of power relations that control all the widows physically and economically in the name of religion. a nine-year-old chuyia was brought to the ashram, who was instructed to wrap her body with an unstitched piece of white cloth. "you can't wear colours or stitched clothes", madhumati further said, "i told you widows are not permitted to wear stitched clothes". (water: 42). dr veena r llame writes in one of his articles bapsi sidhwa water: pang of widowhood, that "the condition of the widow is dreary as they become soft targets for men of the upper caste and priests" (dr veena: 922). these widows receive inhumane treatment either in the name of brahmanical tradition or religious manipulation. the helpless widows were forced to shave their heads, destined to suffer in isolation and compel to beg for their survival. "(the widows) …sat outside the temples in their white saris with their begging bowls. they had grown accustomed to begging as they had to the gruelling hours of singing in temple halls to earn a few coins and a fistful of rice" (water: 117). furthermore, "….in a singing ashram-temple (…) when a widow was too sick to perform, she starved" (water: 60). thus, the brahmin ideology is reduced to ideas that form and apply rules on women only. such doctrines seem to have legal protection, as corruption is oversight by government institutions and organizations. it also suggests empowerment of the ashram's structural system (a place for widows) that reflect violent oppression. (iv) using intersectionality as an analytic tool by many feminists are no more limited to black women, women of ethnic minorities or the marginalized one. one of the scholars, nira yuval-davis, mentions harraway in one of her articles power, intersectionality, and the politics of belonging, says, "epistemologically intersectionality can be described as the development of feminist standpoint theory(..)"(nira yuval: 3). with each new intersection, its open-end approach, the study provides a comprehensive and reflexive insight to various 53 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 inquiries. in the words of crenshaw, "using intersectionality(is)useful for understanding connections between individuals lived experiences, socially structured institutional arrangements and collective mobilizations" (kathy davis: 75). thus, the study aims to understand and analyze people's complex lives in a complex and challenging social context. people experience different forms of social inequality or see around themselves, and "recognizing social inequality is rarely caused by a single factor" (collins& bilge:26). kimberle crenshaw, in 1989 has introduced the term to address the discrimination and struggles of black women's experiences. however, crenshaw is not the first to address the women's subjugation and exclusion experiences within feminist discourse. the world feminist scholars from the atlantic and third world have highlighted women of colour's oppression and backgrounds. similarly, women's struggle across classes and cultures in feminist discourse may differ on a vision of equality, and every experience of oppression may vary. though race, class, gender, capitalism, or nation, among others, are intertwined or mutually constructed. however, religion is also one of the vital factors that also create or intersect the power system. mohanty mentions in under western eyes: revisited: feminist solidarity through anticapitalist struggles that "the rise of religious fundamentalisms with their deeply masculinist and often rhetoric poses a huge challenge for feminist struggles around the world" (mohanty: 508) the fiction writers from pakistan and india have also portrayed women's lives in preand post-partition of the subcontinent. the women are usually victimized under the strict laws of religion and society imposed by men. zia ahmed writes that "(women) are depicted (…) by the demons of social taboos which are man-made and used to control the lives of women" (ahmed: 92). he further states that "the muslims and hindu religion further contributed to making these taboos even stronger" (ahmed:92). the novel water by bapsi sidhwa reflects power structures that are interpersonal, cultural, disciplinary, and structural. using intersectionality as a heuristic or analytic tool provides an insight into these domains that control women lives by manipulating religion. furthermore, it proves that the feminist debate within a framework of intersectionality has a significant place in pakistani fiction written in english. 54 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 works cited ahmed, zia. "pakistani feminist fiction and the empowerment of women." pakistaniaat: a journal of pakistan studies, vol:1, no:2,2009, pp: 90-102. arafat, yasir, sharjeel ahmad, & muntazar mehdi. " totalitarianism and colonial legacy: a postcolonial analysis of muhammad hanif’s a case of exploding mangoes." university of chitral journal of linguistics & literature [online], 4.i (2020): 31-37. web. 25 mar. 2021 bilge, s. "intersectionality undone saving intersectionality from feminist intersectionality studies. du bois rev, vol:10, no:2,2013, pp: 405–424. cho, sumi, kimberlé williams crenshaw, and leslie mccall. "toward a field of intersectionality studies: theory, applications, and praxis." signs: journal of women in culture and society, vol:38, no:4 2013, pp: 785-810. collins, patricia hill, and sirma bilge. intersectionality. polity press, 2016: pp:123. davis, kathy. "intersectionality as buzzword: a sociology of science perspective on what makes a feminist theory successful." feminist theory, vol:9, no:1 ,2008, pp: 67-85. ross, eleanor. "in" can the subaltern speak? ', spivak offers the sentence" white men are saving the brown women from brown men 'as one interpretation of the relationship between colonizer and colonized. how far does this sentence reflect the representations of british dealings with india in the texts you have studied?." the university of nottingham school of english studies vol:2,2009-2010,pp:385-395 ilame, veena r. "bapsi sidhwa's water: pangs of widowhood." international journal of english literature and social sciences: vol:5, no:4, 2020.pp:921-925. https://ijels.com/ mccall, leslie. "the complexity of intersectionality." signs: journal of women in culture and society, vol:30, no:3,2005, pp: 1771-1800. mohanty, chandra talpade. "under western eyes: feminist scholarship and colonial discourses." boundary, vol:2 ,1984, pp:333-358. https://ijels.com/ 55 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 mohanty, chandra talpade. "under western eyes" revisited: feminist solidarity through anticapitalist struggles." signs: journal of women in culture and society, vol:28, no:2,2003, pp: 499-535. rasool, s. h. et al. “subverting the british raj: delhi as a metaphor of resistance in ahmad ali’s twilight in delhi (1940)”, the discourse, vol 05,issue 02, july-dec, 2019 sidhwa, bapsi. water: a novel, milkweed editions,2006. sobharani, p. "widow's rebel against structural violence of patriarchy in bapsi sidhwas water: a critical outlook". research journal of english language and literatures, vol:5, no:1,2017.pp:691-693 yuval-davis, nira. "power, intersectionality and the politics of belonging.". freia. department of culture and global studies.no:75, 2011.pp:1-25 @ 2020 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 118 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 subjugation and the othering in bapsi sidwa’s the pakistani bride: a muted group theory (mgt) perspectives . raj wali khan ph.d. scholar in english, islamia college university peshawar rwalikhan@gmail.com syed sajjad ali lecturer in english numl peshawar campus ssali@numl.edu.pk hina abid m.phil scholar in english, university of lahore hinaabid254@gmail.com abstract the stringent patriarchal system and the intricacies of social conditioning, through coercion and ideological indoctrination concerning gender values, are peculiar to the kohistani culture. it must be explored before the emancipation of women in kohistani tribal society. bapsi sidwa’s the pakistani bride portrays a girl zaitoon’s life; a female subjected to patriarchal circumstances. she is treated, to some extent, the same way as in simon de bouvier's “the second sex”, however, the peculiarity of kohistani culture perhaps make it worse. the paper explores the deep causes of female subjugation and othering in society. moreover, the paper also advocates the female strengths and individuality implemented in contemporary kohistani culture by tracing its tenets according to muted group theory (mgt). keywords: marginalization, dominance, culture, patriarchy, language, religion hegemonic masculinity, muted group theory introduction society represents man and woman as separate identities, and this gender reality expands from cradle to the last breath of human life. stereotypes and traditions (kohistani & pashtun) have adverse effects on any society, and it becomes a drawback in the progression of society. some stereotypes and vicious values/ideals in culture are constantly inculcating and perpetuating within the minds of the masses. through generations, these stereotypes of male dominance, egotism, sovereignty, chauvinism, and female subordination and oppression are converged rapidly in mailto:rwalikhan@gmail.com mailto:ssali@numl.edu.pk 119 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 pashtun and kohistani cultures. the ideologies (set of ideas and ideals) basic to any community and its structure are under the control of the culture particularly. the constant backward and rural factors in lifestyle and their ideologies are building and de-constructing society in a binary nature. the male's domination in almost every aspect of human life had pushed the female to the periphery of society, considering them as inferiors and insignificant entities in the world, even that the communication system of that very culture is predominant by masculine language. gender communication differences are not only an important topic in the modern western world but have also remained a controversial debate in past, “when women challenged the wide use of masculine language in social and organizational settings in 1860” (kramarae, 2005; leaper & ayres, 2007b). a particular language points to a specific culture, hence if culture is male-dominated, the very language of culture might also favor males. the french feministic proponent beauvoir says, “this has always been a man’s world (beauvoir, 1997)”. hence, as mentioned before, the dominant class is also given privileges in language while inferior are left behind. many scholars like lawrence (1959), lakoff & lakoff (2004), and kellner (2010) have turned the academic spotlight on the ways that how culture reproduces social inequalities and dividing society into dominant and marginalized classes. as khan (2016) states “marginalization is powerlessness while dominance is the sign of powerfulness, simply, we can say male signifies dominance while female connotes marginalization in kohistani culture”. consequently, these stereotypes are framing and transferring these traditions to other generations, which results in female inferiority from generation to generation. women who belong to the kohistani culture have always been disappointed in their rights, as their culture is excessively imprudent and strict in so far it relates to females. kohistani culture reflects a woman as a commodity to fulfill a man’s lust and to keep her as a showpiece in his home. the same image is portrayed in bapsi sidwa’s the pakistani bride (2008) in which a girl zaitoon is victimized by the kohistani patriarchal system. literature review to deal with the problem of gender inequality in society, muted group theory (henceforth: mct) (ardener, 2008) is a handy kit for analyses and exploration of the marginalized and subordinate class of society. a dominant gender class of society (male) represents their ideas with 120 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 liberty and implies command over the thoughts and lingual behavior of a marginalized class (female). muted group theory deals with the gender communication system and gender lingualdisparity phenomenon and different aspects of gender inequality that vary in male and female class. genders are recognized due to the binary division of society into dominant and subordinate classes in society. kramarea, states that “people at the top of the societal hierarchy are the ones privileged to define what it means to a female or anything else in a given culture (kramarea, 1999)”. people, those are highly privileged and have dominancy and power in all matters; they force their decision in other people’s life accordingly. in other words, the mgt (2005) discusses the patterns and aspects (female suppression, use of force, and taboo language) of patriarchy that support the male hegemonic ideologies and women's perceived muteness. in the last decade of 2000, the mgt has gained considerations on raising voice on women's muteness/silence and subjugation in society. in a male-oriented society, where females are supposed to live as dependent on their male counterparts of the family and have no right to act according to their desires, ultimately their speech gets muted. the communication scholars kramarae (1981) and orbe (1994) had implemented a muted group theory to underpin women's perspectives and experiences in society. kramarae (2005) has pinpointed that the researchers are more interested in asking questions about the issues of women's subjugation in society, how women are grappling in their daily lives to get an equal position. mgt is a relevant theory in portraying the experiences of othering for females from the language, power, and patriarchy perspectives. mgt’s scholars argue that “women’s voices are less heard than men’s in parts because they are trying to express women’s experiences (henley & kramarae, 2001: 38)”. kramarae (2005: 55) has mentioned that “in many situations, women are more constrained than are men in what they can say, when and with what results. accepted language practices have been constructed primarily by men to express their experiences. this means that women are constrained (muted)”. according to kramarae (1981) language is the creation of men, so communication between men and women has not been on the same level. this is the language that defines absolute power among different groups of society, and it is the use of language that is required to maintain a powerful hold on others. 121 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the language is man-made and so far, easy for them (men) to communicate. kramarae (2001:21) has proposed that “women perceive the world differently from men because of women’s and men’s different experiences and activities rooted in the division of labor.” mgt discusses the communication patterns of those, who are relative to the non-dominant group. the female’s communication patterns and their language are assumed inferior as it lacks power. female voices and sounds are polite in communication (kellner, 2010; khan & faran, 2016) therefore, include them in the subordinate group. patriarchy is a socially and culturally allowed domination of men in families. this dominant position of men is given by culture and families, which are reckoned and recognized through male bloodlines in society. in a patriarchal system family, the father is given authority, he is the decision-maker of the family. he must decide on behalf of all family members. engels (2004) has confirmed that it is “the earliest system of domination by establishing patriarchy, which is the world-historical defeat of the female”. these lines are so powerful in elaborating on the females' defeat in world history in the name of dominance. patriarchy is also said to be defined as a political schema that distributes unequal power between the genders in the same society and culture (lakoff & lakoff 2001). the heads of these political organizations are men and try to take over women in their houses. patriarchy as engel believes is the “ideologies of inequity (patriarchy) and the practice of violence are inextricably linked”. to say this is to clearly define the strong link between patriarchy and domestic violence on females. a strict patriarchal system could be discerned in afghanistan under the taliban’s rule, where females are not allowed to openly go to markets, and they are instructed to cover every inch of their skin while going out. furthermore, females were not allowed to get an education and were treated in a subordination position. this relation of dominance and subordination is the creation of a patriarchal system. beauvoir (1949) has introduced the concept of the other vividly in her book the second sex. the term the other can be easily interpreted and comprehend as a relationship between master and slave. the concept of othering is defined as a process in which entities do not set up in equal relationships. one entity is the powerful always and dominant while the rest of the entities are included in fewer priorities. being a female in a patriarchal society has established a relationship 122 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 of dominance and subordination, which simply leads to define a female as the other. asian females are mostly deprived of their rights, and they fall into the category of othering. many female authors have written about this condition of females in their books, as simone de beauvoir(1949:467) the early exponent of females says in her book, “no one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or scornful than the man, who is anxious about his virility ”. she further adds, “her wings are cut, and then she is blamed for not knowing how to fly…. ”. simone de beauvoir on page number (468) has elucidates clearly, how tough it is for females to handle their husbands because the chief and foremost men of the family always depict themselves in a clear dominant position. as she says “ to catch a husband is an art, to hold him is a job”. these words clearly state the position of a female for striving to keep his husband in a good relationship in the home, which is no less than doing a 24-hour job for her kissack (2011:545) has pinpointed that “thus, assigned to a set of language rules that marginalizes their words, women are doubly restricted from expressing their voice”. the women are not allowed to express their language and voice. the language rules are organized by the male gender of society. kissack (2010) in his research conceptually seeks to find the answers to women's status in organizations. organizations are extremely patriarchal in their nature and masculine language spread its claws in creating gender disparity. kissack's (2011) findings concentrate on the textual polarity of males and the authenticity of females, hence females are deprived to write their views in language. the critical aspects of these findings are also the basic assumptions of the mgt. methodology and theoretical framework the study is purely qualitative in nature because the text has been analyzed descriptively from the perspective of muted group theory (mgt)(see for detail, griffin, 2003; kramarae, 1981; treichler & kramarae, 1983). the research article has applied a textual analysis method to reach specific meanings according to the subjective theory. the theory of kramarae (2005) postulates that a language is a man-made construction that is a handy way to control and pursued the female accordingly, sometimes by force or by trick. this tool empowers the male to construct and reconstruct the social phenomenon for their purpose. kramarae, one of the leading scholars in the communication theory, believes to change the status 123 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 of women (lower group) in society, the change of language is very essential in society because the language and ideas of women are always overlooked by the male. analysis of the pakistani bride the pakistani bride (sidhwa, 2008) is a novel about a girl’s life zaitoon written by a female proponent bapsi sidhwa. she wrote this novel in her early 20’s during her trip to the tribal mountains area. on her way, sidhwa encountered a true story about the atrocities of a tribal girl. she has portrayed particularly the story of a girl zaitoon, who was being sexually subjugated and oppressed in her life. as the theme deals with a girl named zaitoon, she takes refuge under qasim during the subcontinent’s partition. zaitoon loses her parents during the massive massacre that occurred at the time of migration. qasim a tribal man saves her life and takes her to lahore, where they spent the next fifteen in an urban area. he raises zaitoon as her daughter. whenzaitoon reaches puberty, qasim decides to marry zaitoon to a tribal boy sakhi belonging to his region. also, zaitoon’s marriage may strengthen his relationship with his tribe. the pakistani bride (2008, tpb henceforth) depicts different elements and characteristics of geographically and culturally different areas like lahore city and the barren tribal area of the kohistani mountains. zaitoon, who is brought up within the urban lifestyle, cannot manage to adjust herself to the rustic area of the mountains. the story unfolds the indescribable fluctuations and physical torments of zaitoon’s life after getting married to an uneducated and uncivilized person. the brutal and rigid cultural and linguistic behaviors (language use) of tribal men in the mountains left zaitoon bewildered. she became the utmost victim of female discrimination and humiliation by her husband sakhi. finally, when zaitoon loses her patience, she decides to stand against those atrocities and runs away from arduous married life. in the novel, zaitoon is shown to confront many oppressive situations while living her miserable married life. it is because she is subjected to the patriarchal rule of kohistan. the kohistani culture further suppresses and represses a woman due to its geographic location, illiteracy, and male-dominated tribal tenets. to deal with the phenomenon of subjugation the early part of the novel introduces another pathetic girl, afshan, who is the recompensed prize to qasim’s father from afshan’s father for not 124 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 paying back the debt. this female trade dilemma of an atrocious culture, which clearly shows the bitter appalling, and heartsaddened situations of females in a patriarchal culture. men having their rule over women and women are being traded as animals or commodities of daily lives. critics like farrukh khan (1996) states, “such a transaction reveals the status of a woman as nothing more than a bargaining commodity, whose role as such has already been decided” (tpb:142). as qasim’s father tells the debt matter in flushed anger to his son and qasim’s remarks are evident to prove the fierce nature of a tribal little young boy. “you know because of the bad feeling between me and resham khan? it is because of a loan i made him last year. he hasn’t made me yet.the boy spat knowingly. looking up from his ancient gun, he met his father’s gaze with theatrical intensity. i will kill him with this gun, he announced, his hazel eyes flashed” (tpb1:1). the young boy reflects the fanatic cultural roots that are inherited in their blood from generation to generation. the zealot and fierce behavior of killing people on mere affairs of money and property is the common business of their lives. male domination and sovereignty are the landmark characteristic of their strict culture, where women are undoubtedly no less than equal to animals. qasim’s father replies soothingly to his son; “resham khan has promised us with his daughter……the boy was a still little young, but the offer was too good to pass on” (tpb: 2). the bargaining of a girl afshan has demonstrated, how ruthless the laws of tribal culture work. a man not being able to pay off his debt is accorded to trade her daughter as a useful commodity and accepted by another family proudly. the will of a girl is not important, neither at the time of bargaining nor at the time of marriage settlement: “thrice she was asked if she would accept qasim, the son of arbab, as her husband and thrice an old aunt murmured ‘yes’ on her behalf (tpb: 8)”. when afshan saw qasim, she was bewildered as she was married to a young boy. 1 tpb:1 means the pakistani bride page:1 125 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 “the girl did not know whether to laugh or cry. she had been told that her groom was very young, but she had thought that he would be, like herself, at least fifteen. she began to laugh, while tears of disappointment slid down her cheeks. she laughed uncontrollably” (tpb:10). here her all-girly desires are also compromised. it is portrayed here, how women are marginalized in kohistani's patriarchal society. they have no right in the decision-making process of their own lives. they are snatched from the power of decision-making since they are born as daughters. qasim khan left his village after the deaths of his children and wife and went to delhi in search of a new life, where he was confronted bitterly with a sikh, and the battle went worst on arguments. the sikh abused qasim khan and his tribe by saying, “you filthy son of a muslim mountain hog (tpb: 16)”. the words were a severe insult to qasim’s tribe and religion, so in response, qasim to save the pride of his culture and tribe suffocated that sikh to death. this extremist male supremacy and pride of tribes are the legacy of kohistani's people which is inculcated into the minds of young boys from their very childhood. they feel no guilt and criminality to kill someone in the name of pride. as bapsi sidhwa has portrayed in the novel defining the nature of tribal people: “a simple man from a primitive warring tribe, his impulses were as direct and concentrated as pinpoints of heat. no subtle concessions to reason or consequence tempered his fierce capacity to love or hate, to lavish loyalty or pity. each emotion arose spontaneously and without complication, and was rein enforced by racial tradition, tribal honor, and superstition. generations had carried it that way in his volatile kohistani blood (tpb: 23).” from the perspective of patriarchy, it is valid to discuss the education system, which is the most important jewel for any girl in any nation, but in male-dominant cultures, women are also banished from cherishing this right. the pakistani bride shows the education system for females in the novel is itself patriarchal and involves a process of othering. the education imparted to females also creates boundaries and partitions in gender and shoves females to domestic slavery and subservience. 126 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 this kind of educational training is so interweaved with the culture and tradition, that females do not comprehend its consequences and push themselves to obey men's class blindly. the way females should be dressed, eat, fashion, and talk; all these characteristics of females are monitored cautiously and are observed under high restrictions of cultural and moral codes. females are observed under strict principles of eastern culture. but on the whole, girls are not to be accorded to get an education as there is no beneficial use of their education in the view of society. this issue was also retained with zaitoon’s life. she was not considered appropriate to get worldly knowledge and education. after getting five years of education in school, zaitoon’s education was hatched, as it was not considered important for the girls to get high education. mariam, in whose supervision zaitoon is guarded in lahore, also says even being a woman herself, “now that she’s learned to read the holy quran, what will she do with more reading and writing_ boil and drink it? she is not going to become a baboo or an officer/, no, allah willing, she’ll get married and have children (tpb: 42).” these typical patriarchal notions are brutal as to make a girl slave and to sustain her only to domestic works. as brons (2015) declares in his study “othering, an analysis”, about this double standard attitude of society “i understand now that nothing but otherness killed jews, and it began with naming them, by reducing them to the other. then everything became possible. even the worst atrocities like concentration camps or the slaughtering of civilians in croatia or bosnia”. so, these are the extremist ways to exploit an existing personality and distort her according to their perspectives. zaitoon on the behalf of all other domestic girls is portrayed as the ultimate prey of society that is being divided into a binary system. societies in which girls are considered to have useless minds for education because society does not accept educated girls. a patriarchal society which has based on a typical stereotype, that a woman who gets literate and educated becomes a liberal mind and forgets her duties. society held a view that the education of girls and their intellect are the actual hindrances in their upcoming peaceful married life. the girls are only beneficial for domestic duties and perceiving kids are their sole duty. these are the patriarchal ties to bend a woman on her knees throughout her life. in the next few lines of the pakistani bride, mariam further puts forward her views about female education. 127 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 “poor child….had she a mother she’d be learning to cook and sew…..does qasim bhai think he’s rearing a boy? he ought to give some thought to her marriage….who’d want an educated…?”(tpb: 42). and the way she further proclaims! “the pathan doesn’t realize she is in the hot plains of punjab__ everything ripens early here…she’ll be safe only at her mother-in-law’s”(tpb: 42). the difference in gender disparity is clearly shown through mariam’s dialogues. how bluntly, she is exclaiming that a girl is to be brought up only for marriage purposes. no one wants and requires an educated girl rather than one, who knows how to do domestic slavery. and the woman is only secured and has only one shelter after reaching puberty is the home of her husband. kramarae (2005:23) has strongly proposed her views about marginalized groups (female) in society. according to kramarae “they have less or no power to explain what they think and desire and similarly females are desired to merge in the mainstream culture of men”. females are being muted by applying these patriarchal notions and subservience. society is imparted in two binary positions of men and women; women own the less considered fellowship in this group. so, they have to mute their mouths and shut the door of their desires. that’s why afshan has to compromise on choosing her life partner and unfortunately, she became part of the subordinate class of society. the voice and experiences of the minimal class are squeezed beneath the terror of the dominant class. men and women dwell under different and unequal rules of society. women are not to be cherished their desires but men are the happiest creature to do according to their will. as zaitoon reaches the age of puberty, she is administered not to play and walks like a girl as she was a day before. now she must act as a sensible mature girl. she is no more allowed to talk to a man and to play with her age mates. as mariam warns her in a conversation saying, “you are now a woman. don’t play with the boys and don’t allow any man to touch you. this is why i wear a burka”(tpb: 45). 128 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 another strong patriarchal concept to apply to women is the concept of burka. as soon as a girl reaches puberty the strict notions of society are imposed only on her. they are restricted not to play with the boys and to cover themselves properly. now the burka is another patriarchal tool used by men in society to oppress their muslim females. being an islamic woman, you must hide from the forbidden eyes but the dominant men have made this thing imposed and compulsory for every girl. men are liberal and independent to indulge in every good and bad activity while women are to be kept under thick veils and forbidden from the world outside. being in a subordinate position, women have no option only to mute their mouths. this is the main drawback of a culture according to kramarae, where women are the sole victim and obliged to others against their consensus. niut & rosenthal (2009) state that “a hierarchy creates an uneven social system, through which some groups are dominant and others subordinate.” hierarchal and uneven social systems have become the shallow base of society. so, to keep this system in the form of a female’s voice has always been kept in boxes and does not let the voice come out by the dominant gender male class. women are not even allowed to wear garments of their own choice. lawrance(1959:55-56) has mentioned that “…..by imposing confining garments on women, or by otherwise hobbling her, the man was enabled almost universally to keep her in a state of inferiority and subjugation to him as a personal possession”. the mgt deals with the fact that a language is the ultimate key holder of power in any culture. this point of theory deals correctly with the lingual behavior of sakhi in tpb. he uses extremely abusive and vulgar language to his wife. zaitoon has no option to resist him and sakhi keeps on beating her. zaitoon, at last, starts pleading with him and asking for mercy. she kept on saying ‘forgive me’ to let herself escape from his beating. but sakhi went in a mood to kill her and put aside her pleading. he was furious enough to kill her. his wrath gets more flame on considering, what if anyone of his tribe saw zaitoon doing this act of waving. he says,“what if someone had witnessed his ultimate humiliation?” “he aimed a swift kick between her legs, and she fell back. sakhi kicked her again and again and pain stabbed through her. she heard herself screaming (tpb: 161)”. 129 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 conclusion the patriarchal notions are artfully interwoven with the political power for male sovereignty. in a culture, where women are supposed and recognized with their soft facial and language expressions, serving their obedience to the fullest to a male. women are no less than treated parallel to the beautiful and delicate showpiece to sustain in a home with negligence. their voices are neglected; their emotions and desires are malicious and have no worth listening to. just like the woman in the study zaitoon. there may be many zaitoons, afshans being subjugated to peculiar stringent kohistani culture. the emancipation of women like zaitoon could be brought about by awareness and education. references engle, l. b. 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(1983). women's talk in the ivory tower. communication quarterly, 31(2), 118-132. @ 2020 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 131 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 a postcolonial reading of nikolai gogol’s taras bulba dr ali salami assistant professor, university of tehran salami.a@ut.ac.ir midia mohammadi ma graduate and researcher, university of tehran midiamohammadi@ut.ac.ir abstract the sixteenth-century cossacks became the favourite topic of ukrainian authors of the nineteenth century who dealt with national and individual identity issues. nikolai gogol, the celebrated russian author who had ukrainian origin and was born in a cossack village, wrote the epic romance of taras bulba, which narrated the story of cossacks and their struggle for preserving their independence. while the work has been previously studied under the light of postcolonial theoretical framework, using the concepts developed by homi bhabha to scrutinize the situation and the destiny of the two main hybrid characters, taras bulba’s sons, takes a step further and reveals the deeply ingrained anxiety and ambivalence in the cossack mentality. the article focuses on the two main hybrid characters who choose divergent paths upon encountering the conflict brought to them by the imperial power. keywords: national identity, identity crisis, littlerussianness, nikolai gogol 1. introduction nikolai gogol’s historical magnum opus taras bulba (1842) has been known as “his only fiction that glorifies russian nationalism” (bojanowska 255) and there have been many debates over its context and interpretation especially because there exist two versions of it. the 1835 edition was a glorification of ukraine, but then through a russification process, the 1842 version “demonstrates the distance that gogol travelled in his national allegiance as a writer”(bojanowska 257). the novel was inspired by the cossack tale of taras bulba, a leader who values cossack’s integrity above everything else. the narrative is the story of the cossack individuals and their struggle to maintain their national identity against the cultural conflicts created by the powerful imperial countries surrounding them. while the characterization of taras bulba’s sons is mailto:salami.a@ut.ac.ir mailto:midiamohammadi@ut.ac.ir 132 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 exemplary, “serious critics of gogol have never found taras bulba particularly interesting, perhaps because of its fame as an adventure yarn” (grimstad 117). this epic-romance was also inspired by gogol’s self-initiated quest during his twenties when he started to search for his cossack roots and ukrainian national identity. on the journey to explore his origin, he started writing ukrainian tales besides studying the history of the rus’, from which he borrowed many parts of the plot and setting of taras bulba. (plokhy 57) the work nevertheless played a significant role in “establishing a model of the russian-cossack hero.” (yoon 431) furthermore, the narrative has provided a rich background for further study of its hybrid characters stuck in the third space created by the cultural conflict brought to them by the imperialistic power. scrutinizing the situation of the cossack brothers, whose endings are both heartbreakingly tragic despite having chosen two divergent paths, is examining the situation of the subjugated subject and an attempt to see whether it is possible to escape the hybridity and identity crisis triumphantly. 2. gogol in search of lost identity nikolai vasilievich gogol (1809-1852), the ukrainian-russian genius whose ukrainian origin crawled into his soul upon arriving st. petersburg in 1828, started writing “ukrainian tales based largely on folklore sources” (plokhy 57) in 1829. gogol, as a genius, had realised that it was necessary to make peace with his origin in order to create an individual identity that could continue writing marvellous fiction. the pattern seems to have been repeated by the twentieth-century genius author, james joyce. his treatment of dublin when he found it necessary to write about the city he had rejected was somehow similar to gogol’s career path. joyce produced dubliners (1914) in order to move on and the alienated gogol published the 1835 ukrainian version of taras bulba only to russify its narrative some years later. gogol could never only reside in one literary tradition but his alienation was sublimated into productive, original masterpieces that earned the writer his reputation. gogol characterised himself as an alien. as far back as his school days he had been isolated and enigmatic…he made his professional début in russian literature as an ‘alien’, and turned a drawback, his rather inadequate knowledge of russian, to good account by writing the early ukrainian tales in a language that shifts constantly back and forth between russian and ukrainian. (čiževsky 480) 133 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 gogol, like every other ukrainian, had to face anxiety in resisting what yevhen malaniuk calls “malorosianstvo or littlerussianness” (shkandrij 246), which assumed that ukrainians were little russians. this russian imperial assumption destroyed ukrainian national identity by denying the diversity and the distinguishing characteristics of ukrainian native culture. malanuik’s explanation about this “unwelcome, forced hybridity” mainly refers to gogol’s case as a ukrainian author to point out to the “cultural-national suicide” (qtd in shkandrij 246) that was caused by little russian mentality a term applied to the inferiority complex experienced by ukrainians who admire russians and prefer to leave their ukrainian distinctiveness for imperial tradition and culture (encyclopedia of ukraine). the anxiety and ambivalence that gogol was experiencing, the quest for finding a stable identity, and the haze of confusion that followed every intellectual ukrainian at that time, sent him to search deeper in the past. donal fanger in the creation of nikolai gogol (1979), points to gogol’s burden as a hybrid character who was highly influenced by the romantic notion of individualism and writes: modernity, variety, and pluralism were a personal burden and a personal threat from which he dreamed of escape into an ideal society where membership already conferred dignity, morality became a simple matter of loyalty, individualism was punished as treason, the earth gave abundant nourishment without labor, and divine order manifested itself through the colossal harmonies of a public art that sustained man even as it dwarfed him. indeed, these themes-all but the last, which had as yet no embodiment in russia-can be found in gogol’s literary work of the period…escape from solitary selfhood, as george ivask has claimed, may well be the fundamental pathos and impulse of gogol’s imaginative life. (65-66) gogol’s name in ukrainian was “mykola hohol” (shkandrij 105) and while he has been discussed as a subject who has tried to “part from his attachment to ukraine” (105), no success in fully reaching that goal can be pointed out. yuliya ilchuk, in an article titled “nikolai gogol’s self-fashioning in the 1830s” (2016) scrutinises gogol in a postcolonial perspective where she uses bhabha’s theoretization of mimicry to draw out “gogol’s complex self-fashioning during and immediately after the publication of his ukrainian tales.” (204) according to her, gogol adopts the russian language and cultural behaviour to “gain inclusion into the diverse imperial and national spaces of russia.” (204) gogol overcame his confusions masterfully, and by writing taras 134 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 bulba he produced one of the most idiosyncratic narratives which “appealed most to those readers who were most baffled by gogol’s originality.” (fanger 99) his hybridity was sublimated into idiosyncrasy by “shifting peculiarly personal connections...and the frequent ambivalence those connections reveal.” (fanger 109) taras bulba distances itself from ukrainian tales that gogol was writing which delineated peaceful rural places, their residents and customs. the historical novel, which aligned itself with romance epics by using devices of hyperbole and exaggeration, became a masterpiece that authors and critics could not resist responding to. gogol had started reading the history of the rus’ since 1829, and in 1830 he started working on a “historical novel titled get’ man” (plokhy 57), which he never completed. his dikanka tales or evenings on a farm near dikanka (1829-32) show how he started collecting and reconstructing ukrainian culture, customs and holiday traditions. he started exploring his identity consciously and as a person whose “ancestors were partly polish but chiefly cossack” (rozdestvensky 81) his adventurous soul did not dwell in one place. “gogol’s interest in ukrainian history dates back to his nizhyn years…but he worked on it most intensively in his capacity as a scholar between 1833 and 1835” (bojanowska 122). taras bulba owes a lot to gogol’s new studies in history and “in this story gogol’s historianism is at its height” (strakhovsky, 367). he visited many places in his lifetime and became a cosmopolitan whose universal knowledge had quite a significant impact on his literary perspective and writing. gogol’s “on teaching world history” shows his erudition and knowledge of world history. he depicts the outline of his teaching and expresses that after treating the history of the world as a whole, it would be necessary to “take to pieces separately the history of all the countries and nations which comprise the huge mechanism of universal history” (qtd in rozdestvensky 87). according to gogol’s correspondence to m. pogodin, he had started writing the history of ukraine, and it was “progressing” (rozdestvensky 82). however, in a letter to sreznevskij in 1834, he expressed “his disappointment with the available chronicles” (grabowics 175), which led him to leave the project unfinished. after years of studying and searching, gogol rejected all chauvinistic feelings in a letter to a.o. smirnova in 1844 and stated: i do not know whether my soul is ukrainian or russian. but i do know that i will not concede preference to a ukrainian before a russian, nor to a russian before a ukrainian. 135 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 both natures are so generously endowed by god and, as if by design, each of them separately contains what is lacking in the other; this is an obvious indication that they should complement each other. for this the very histories of their past are unlike each other in order that they should develop different forces of character so as to compose later, when merging together, something most unique and perfect in all mankind (qtd in strakhovsky 369) 3. the cossacks and their codes the strictness of the cossacks of taras bulba could be regarded as a way to guard their national identity against imperial poland. ukrainian national consciousness consisted of “loyalty to native language, affirmation of historical traditions, and defense of the rus’ religious inheritance .” (chynczewska-hennel 379) the masculinity found in cossack culture and their codes of brotherhood are not values to be dismissed, and “the failure to embody the laws of masculinity, to affirm the power of these laws and one’s achievement of them is a source for the characters of confusion and pain.”(grimstad, 118) it is a matter of importance to remember that the nationality discussed in this context is not the same as the nationality in its english sense and hennel defines the “national consciousness” of cossacks in her own words: national consciousness is a phenomenon belonging to the sphere of social psychology, manifested by individuals or by groups of people. it is an expression of the existence of a nation in a certain phase of its development, and it constitutes a necessary condition of its existence. national consciousness is formed under the influence of determinants such as the sense of community of language, of historical tradition (including a community of laws and customs), and of religion; the need to create a popular hero (a moral ideal); a community of territory; a desire for independent statehood. not all of these determinants are absolutely necessary, nor is the presence of one or two sufficient. all of them change through time. (379) the binary opposition created by the dominant imperial countries started showing symptoms in the literature. “polish literature “orientalised” ukraine, just as russian literature orientalised the caucasus and, to a degree, ukraine” (shkandrij 30). the political situation of poland and russia through centuries formed the ukrainian’s attitude toward the imperial powers and the anti-polish attitudes of nineteenth-century russian literature were the result of “two polish insurrections of 1830-31 and 1863” (shkandrij 30). the 136 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 ambivalence found in gogol’s nationalistic perspectives is nevertheless a symptom of hybridity that is innate in ukrainian individuals. he was fully aware of the dichotomy that existed among different nations and in the heart of a group. however, according to ilchuk, the ambivalence found in gogol’s different attitudes toward the imperial power is a sly way through which the genius author “escaped identification in terms of “either”/“or” and creatively played out this ambiguity in his self-fashioning” (205). grambowicz points out to the consul of decision making in taras bulba and their decision to fight the turkish or the polish which shows the lack of a consensus and further division among the cossacks. “the distinction between the cossack world and that of the settled toilers is only the first of the dichotomies” (grambowicz 177). 4. the defeated cossack brothers bojanowska’s comprehensive study on gogol’s nationalism which is compiled in the prize-winning nikolai gogol: between ukrainian and russian nationalism (2007), acknowledges the ukrainians’ critique of his “self-russification” (6) and also the other hypothesis which regards gogol as a purely russified ukrainian who only wrote in russian. she then finds taras bulba to “mark a crucial turn for gogol, as he sacrifices his ukrainian nationalism on the altar of the russian one” (256). however, bojanowska points to gogol’s unpublished fragments which carry an utterly opposite view expressed in taras bulba that “affirm the exact opposite view of ukrainian history, making the russians into ukraine’s enemies and the poles into its kinsmen and allies” (258). the ambivalence found in gogol’s views is not very far from andrii’s and can be explained in postcolonial terms developed by homi bhabha. the ambivalence was first developed in psychoanalysis and bhabha translated it into colonial discourse to express “the complex mix of attraction and repulsion that characterises the relationship between coloniser and colonised” (ashcroft 10). this ambivalence is internalised in each individual and has created a love-hate attitude toward the other side. thus, ambivalence threatens the colonial domination in the fluctuation it brings to the relationship between the coloniser and the colonised. despite having earned a reputation as a postcolonial theoretician, homi bhabha’s developed notions in the colonial discourse have plied so many other approaches that have become universally inclusive. the subjugated subject in this article is stereotyped, disarmed, and considered inferior while the dominancy attempts to devour it. gogol’s depiction of cossacks and their rebellion against imperial poland is emblematic. as an independent group whose values of 137 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 honour and brotherhood had been treated with ambivalence through centuries, the zaporozhian cossacks represented the liminality. as stated by shkandrij, “on the one hand, their services to the empire were lauded...on the other hand, they were treated with suspicion and situated where their escape abroad would be difficult.” (5) the group which was once treated as a partner in fights, were seen as a threat as soon as the great fights were over and new lands were established; and “hundreds of thousands of free peasants and cossacks were thrown into another form of slavery – serfdom – or suffered from the imposed system of tsarist military colonies.”(28) this slavery created a binary opposition of “civilised imperial countries/inferior cossacks (ukrainians)”. once a nation is put into the dichotomy of imperial/other, the inferiority complex crawls into every corner of their culture and psyche. to defeat the inferiority complex, one cannot simply deny their subjugation and stick to their stance. according to bhabha’s own words, the hybridity, which is the outcome of the interaction of different cultures, is a “historical necessity” (1994 28). he does not regard hybridity as an impurity but a productive characteristic, and although andrii’s acceptance of his hybridity leads to his death, it is still regarded as the only means through which he finds access to free will. clarence manning, in his “nicolai gogol” (1926) criticises the author for depicting the love affair between the cossack andrii and the polish lady since “taras bulba is a man’s book” (577). yet, he fails to see the significance of andrii’s situation as a hybrid character who is trapped in a cultural conflict and deprived of his own individuality. yoon finds the root of this conflict in gogol’s adapting of “western individualism” (437) that allows the character of andrii to be mobile in his liminal space. strong asserts the same thing in his article and states that “though certainly a very original writer, gogol was, after all, a professional literary man and could not help being aware of contemporary european trends in literature” (538). he goes on to write that “despite the fact that gogol personally seemed to prefer the classics…definite elements of later writers, particularly the romantics, are to be found in his works” (538). gogol’s knowledge of the romantic works draws our attention to one of the most celebrated concepts about the romantic movement: individualism. andrii, who can be compared to gogol himself in terms of hybridity, has studied in the seminary and adapted the western individualism and freedom. in contrast to ostap, his brother, andrii cannot make peace with his cossack heritage and his love for the polish noble lady, detaches him from the imposed duty of fighting for his fatherland. 138 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 andrii’s fighting with the polish instead of standing opposed to them is not an act of submission but a way to show his bravery and also individualism. the hybridity, which might be regarded as the dominance of a culture considered superior, is actually a dialogic space for the individual to find himself away from the imposed cultural hegemonies of either side. hybridisation is a dialogic process through which a variety of cultures interact. it could be concluded in michael syrotinski’s words in deconstruction and the postcolonial (2007) that finds hybridity as “a fluid, catch-all counter-hegemonic means of reaffirming identity over and against essentialising discourses of ethnicity or nationalism.” (25) the hybridity found in taras bulba is not only limited to the characterisation of andrii but the work itself which is an amalgam of western romanticism and cossack myth in style and context. in “gogol’s taras bulba and the illiad” (1965), carl proffer finds the elements of ancient epic in the 1842 edition, the final version of the work. he situates the polish lady as a parallel to helen in illiad. furthermore the article finds andrii akin to paris who has “shown his treachery by taking helen into troy” (149). andrii and his brother, ostap, are both hybrid characters who choose different paths regarding nationalism. despite sharing some affinities in their personalities, the bulba brothers are rather different, as depicted by gogol at the beginning of the novel. in chapter two, taras bulba and his sons are riding in silence, it is revealed how his sons spent twelve years in kiev and received the education they deserved as sons of a leader. while ostap’s mere issue had been studying logic and theology to “harden his character, and give him that firmness which distinguished the cossacks” (gogol ch.2), andrii’s wild soul and his need for love had always distinguished him from other cossacks. he (andrii) carefully concealed this impulse of his passionate young soul from his comrades, because in that age it was held shameful and dishonourable for a cossack to think of love and a wife before he had tasted battle. (gogol ch.2) ostap is also condemned to conceal his liberal thoughts since he seeks to construct his identity upon cossack's values. his ultimate goal is to satisfy his father and comrades and be a good cossack; however, his education in kiev has impacted him. when ostap finds andrii’s corpse he feels sorry for his brother and tends to honour him by giving him the proper burial prohibited by their father (gogol ch.11). ostap and andrii are both brave souls in search of their identities. 139 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 ostap aligns himself with his father and other cossacks to defend their national identity, but andrii’s love for the polish lady creates a necessity to choose between love and duty and precisely between his free will and social hegemonies. bhabha’s hybridity notion states that the subject caught in the liminal space cannot escape his situation without facing an identity crisis. according to syrotinski, bhabha suggests “two concepts of hybridity, not one” (28), which makes hybridity have another signified besides “cultural diversity” and that is “cultural difference” and owes its meaning to derrida’s “différance”. applying deconstruction to the postcolonial discourse, bhabha finds the relations between the colonised and the coloniser not “reducible to variations of traditional binary oppositions of power” (syrotinksi 28). while cultural diversity suggests culture’s being static and homogenous entities, the cultural difference becomes “the process of the enunciation of culture as ‘knowledgeable’, authoritative, adequate to the construction of systems of cultural identification” (bhabha 34). ostap can be categorised as one of the “numerous gogolian characters” who “attempt to signify their lives through the acquisition of rank, position, articles of clothing, epaulettes, carriages, acquaintance with persons of higher status, and other symbols that separate them from others” (kelly 306). andrii on the other hand, “embraces western values of his own free will” (yoon 438). andrii’s rebellious nature leads him to leave his cossack comrades and enter the beautiful polish city for the love of the polish lady. as stated by yoon, his “sensitivity eagerly responds to the sensual effects, but he is unable to grasp the presence of death that lurks beneath the beauty” (435). the cossacks of taras bulba regard the polish as the “other” to deny how they are themselves viewed as the “other” by the imperial power. as it has been discussed, “in taras bulha, a cossack’s first duty and first honour is to be true to comradeship (tovarishchestvo); moreover, to let down another member of the all-male brotherhood is equated with the betrayal of the ‘nationalist’ cause (grimstad 120). the rigid value of brotherhood acts as a defence mechanism against the anxiety brought to the subjugated subject upon showing resistance toward the coloniser. the novel examines the lives of hybrid characters who reside within the borders and deal with their identity in the third space. the cossack myth holds within itself the characteristics of ukrainian national identity that gogol was seeking to examine at the time he was writing the narrative. despite having strict rules and rigid values of brotherhood and moral duty, cossacks are depicted as an independent group of men who guard their tradition and culture against the imperial 140 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 dominancy in the area. at first, ostap and andrii are both absorbed by the exotic ways their people live as they “embraced their new life, forgetting their home, the seminary, and everything that had troubled their souls. they were fascinated by the wild ways of the sech and the rough code of justice, which at times struck them as too harsh in such a willful republic” (gogol ch.3). being a true cossack at heart, andrii’s desire to guard his free will is paradoxically more akin to the free spirit of cossacks rather than his brother’s obedience. bojanowska points to the fact that “first and foremost, a cossack cherishes the freedom of his will and hates any external constraints, either political or social. unlike the catholic knights, gogol writes, the cossacks did not bother with vows, fasts, or the mortification of the flesh” (141). the cossacks are distinguished from other warriors by their desire to stay free of commitment and this reveals taras’s unforgiving manner to be caused by the anxiety of resisting the imperial power at the moment. andrii’s ironic execution by the hand of his own father is the climax of their story as a nation in the midst of anxiety when they are trying to resist the imperial power and deny the dialogic nature of culture as stated by bhaba. gogol masterfully “subverts the nationalism of his novel by injecting it with irony, a mode that is radically incompatible with nationalistic discourse.” (bojanowska 243) the irony situates in the fact that despite the idea of fighting for preserving national values, cossacks have manipulated their autonomy with drawing a line between themselves and the “other” which prevents them from acting as freely as true cossacks. ostap and andrii both bravely make their best efforts to remain real cossacks but since there is no liberty in the face of hegemony, they are both defeated in the end. although the love of the polish lady catalyses andrii’s rebellion, the signs are foreshadowed. when taras watches andrii’s style of fighting, he witnesses how he “driven by a burning passion, faced situations that a levelheaded, rational man never could, his crazed onslaught bringing about miracles that bewildered even the most battle-tried warriors.” (gogol ch.5) andrei gets easily bored and cannot follow the rules as expected, especially when he is required to show patience and “endure everything”. (gogol ch.5) while ostap makes his best effort to stay on the safe side, andrii’s adventurous temperament gets him killed for ignoring cossack codes of moral duty and brotherhood. andrii does not run away from his murder, who happens to be his father and “obedient as a child, he dismounted, and stood before taras more dead than alive.” (gogol 141 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 ch.9) although death is at hand, andrii cannot ask for forgiveness since he has totally melted in the culture of the enemy. “andrii was white as a sheet; his lips moved gently, and he uttered a name; but it was not the name of his native land, nor of his mother, nor his brother; it was the name of the beautiful pole.” (gogol ch.9) ostap’s ending is no more glorious than his rebellious brother. his last words also show no contentment with the cossack codes but express his ultimate goal to be recognised by his own people so that he could escape the identity crisis without paying the price. at the beginning, he bears the tortures but he is finally broken and in his last moments he does not cry out nationalistic phrases but only wishes that he could be witnessed by his father so that he could be acknoweledged for his sacrifice o god! all strangers, all unknown faces! if only some of his relatives had been present at his death! he would not have cared to hear the sobs and anguish of his poor, weak mother, nor the unreasoning cries of a wife, tearing her hair and beating her white breast; but he would have liked to see a strong man who might refresh him with a word of wisdom, and cheer his end. and his strength failed him, and he cried in the weakness of his soul, “father! where are you? do you hear?” (gogol ch.11) 5. conclusion hegemonies of an imperial power establish binary oppositions by which a group of people are considered the “other” and situated in the inferior position. in the liminality created out of the space shared by both sides, hybrid characters come into existence who feel alienated as they cannot reside in only one of these cultures because they belong to both sides. bulba brothers come from the same background and have received the same education, making them native cossacks who have tasted the enemy's culture. while due to their different attitudes in life, they might seem far apart, both brothers are cossacks at heart who view the situation more realistically than their father but are finally forced to take sides. the need for validation and belonging to a group can be traced to both of these characters. although ostap’s real thoughts are concealed in between the lines of gogol’s ironic pen, he seems to be the only one who understands andrii’s struggle and choice. the hybrid characters of taras bulba, therefore, cannot escape their tragic fate. however, taras and his men are the ones who have to bear the ignominious defeat by getting unconsciously 142 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 manipulated because their prejudice does not let them be wise enough to vanquish their anxiety upon facing the imperial power. works cited ashcroft, bill, gareth griffiths, and helen tiffin. post-colonial studies: the key concepts. london: routledge, 2000. bhabha, homi k. the location of culture. , 2004. bojanowska, edyta m. nikolai gogol: between ukrainian and russian nationalism. cambridge, mass: harvard university press, 2007. chynczewska-hennel, teresa. “the national consciousness of ukrainian nobles and cossacks from the end of the sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century.” harvard ukrainian studies, vol. 10, no. 3/4, 1986, pp. 377–392. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/41036263. čiževsky, dmitry. “the unknown gogol’.” the slavonic and east european review, vol. 30, no. 75, 1952, pp. 476–493. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/4204347. fanger, donald. 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www.jstor.org/stable/20058302. @ 2020 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). http://www.jstor.org/stable/20620995 http://www.jstor.org/stable/4201994 http://www.jstor.org/stable/1770001 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3001211 http://www.jstor.org/stable/20058302 vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 71 a postmodernist intertextual reading of kalanithi’s when breath becomes air dr. ayesha ashraf assistant professor, department of english language and literature, university of jhang awan.ayesha@rocketmail.com prof. dr. munawar iqbal ahmad chair english department, air university, islamabad dr. saba zaidi assistant professor, department of english language and literature, sbk women’s university quetta abstract the present research paper attempts an intertextual reading of when breath becomes air by paul kalanithi, an indian-american neurosurgeon and a writer. the term intertextuality was originally coined by julia kristeva and it refers to the presence of one or more text/s within a text. it rejects the idea of the closure of meaning and it demonstrates the dialogic state of a text. the current research study is significant as it aims to provide a better understanding of the interdisciplinary connection of fiction with that of any non-fiction text. it further highlights that the use of allusions, reminiscences, aphorisms, and quotations, and aphorisms in the novels that call for many interpretations. the current study has applies the theoretical perspective of postmodern historiographic metafiction proposed by linda hutcheon in her book poetic’s of postmodernism: history, theory, fiction (2003). this research uses intertextuality as a tool to analyze the selected text. early on, the memoir has been studied with respect to limited perspectives; however, the present study aims to analyze it in the light of postmodernism that refers to a trend of plurality, uncertainty, metafiction, fragmentation, identity crisis, pastiche and intertextuality. the research objective explores the extent to which the writer interweaves fiction into historical texts to generate a postmodern blend in a single narrative. this research is qualitative and descriptive, while textual analysis has been used as a research method. this research ends with the findings and recommendations for the future research. keywords: postmodernism, linda hutcheon, historiographic metafiction, when breath becomes air, intertextuality mailto:awan.ayesha@rocketmail.com vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 72 1. introduction postmodernism, at present, represents the contemporary world with all its characteristics and its influence on an individual’s life. there are many theorists namely linda hutcheon, jurgen habermas, ihab hassan, jean-francois lyotard, fredric jameson and jean baudrillard who have proposed their understanding of postmodernism. though, their attempts could not define the movement in an absolute way as this trend is still in practice and ongoing, hence, it is always vulnerable to change. lyotard in his the postmodern condition states that it is not a new movement rather it emerged after modernism as a consequence of materialistic progress and scientific advancements. he refers to postmodernism as a movement that shows an ‘incredulity towards metanarrativs’ (ⅹⅹⅳ), as it challenges the existing perceptions and thought patterns which are based on claims of objectivity and truth. the philosophical theory of postmodernism involves a plurality of forms/styles, pastiche, uncertainty, rootlessness of belief systems, skepticism towards universal truth values and knowledge. the emphasis is more on subject then content, illusion then reality and fragmentation then continuation. another renowned postmodern canadian theorist named linda hutcheon was born in 1947. currently, she is serving as a professor of english in university of toronto. her famous books include a poetics of postmodernism, a theory of adaptation, history, theory, fiction, narcissistic narrative, irony’s edge, and a theory of parody. she in her book poetic’s of postmodernism: history, theory, fiction coins the term ‘historiographic metafiction’ for those novels which reconstruct and retell past by fusing fiction and reality through discursive strategies. “she further asserts that fiction and history are not fixed products but, in fact, both are in a continuous process of making. she calls such postmodern mixture of fiction and history as historiographic metafiction that combines the ‘constructedness’ and ‘story-telling’ together” (ashraf & farooq 395). intertextuality highlights the inter-connectedness of various texts and it refers to the process, in which, the reception and interpretation of a given text depends upon the reader’s knowledge of other texts. graham allen describes intertextuality, “texts, whether they are literary or nonliterary, as viewed by modern theorists, as lacking in any kind of independent meaning. they are what theorists now call intertextual” (1). it reveals that no single text can have an independent and separate identity rather every text takes a bit from the other texts and, in this way, it also vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 73 presents itself to be taken in future. the present research study analyzes the memoir when breath becomes air as an embodiment of intertextuality that serves as a bridge to connect nonfiction with literature. paul sudhir arul kalanithi was born on april 1st 1977, and he died at young age of 36 years on march 9th, 2015 due to fatal lung cancer. he was an indian-american neurosurgeon and also a graduate in english literature and a writer. his book entitled when breath becomes air is a memoir that is based on the narration of all the significant events happened in his life and it also records his illness and his struggle to the battling stage iv metastatic lung cancer. this book was posthumously published in 2016. “in 2016, this novel sold a million copies and was placed second among amazon’s best sellers, after “harry potter and the cursed child” (gamerman 2016). it remained on the new york times non-fiction best seller list for several weeks. 2. literature review a research study entitled “perspectives on postmodernism and historical fiction” states that, “ihab hassan browses history looking for mentions of this term and finds it used for the first time in 1934 by federico de onís in his antología de la poesía española e hispanoamericana” (233). the principal significance of postmodernism lies in the idea that it unites various art systems, or assimilates their features to create new genres, ideas and tendencies in literature. the postmodern literature combines all features of aesthetical systems such as ancient and modern art, west and east tradition, and mass and elite class. it transforms the conception of authorreader idea as now the author becomes the observer and his aim is not to dictate his values to his reader, and he also sketches a different hero now. the hero, in postmodernist literature, doesn’t demonstrate a perfect behavior while the boundaries among rules, values, imagination and reality get blurred. through the use of intertextuality, the reader participates in an intertextual dialogue with the text that requires his active intellectual and imaginative understanding to discover the ties of one text with the other texts. the reader’s intertextual interaction leads to the transformation of triangle i.e. the text, the author and the reader. r. barthes defines: every text is an intertext; other texts are present in it at various levels in more or less recognizable forms: the texts of preceding cultures and the texts of the surrounding culture. each text is a new fabric woven from old quotes. fragments of cultural codes, formulas, rhythmic structures, fragments of social idioms, etc.—all of them are absorbed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/indian_americans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/neurosurgery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/when_breath_becomes_air https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/when_breath_becomes_air https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/memoir https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/metastasis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lung_cancer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/the_new_york_times https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lists_of_the_new_york_times_non-fiction_best_sellers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lists_of_the_new_york_times_non-fiction_best_sellers vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 74 by the text and mixed in it, because the language exists prior to and around the text. as a prerequisite for any text, intertextuality cannot be reduced to the problem of sources and influences; it is a common field of anonymous formulas, the origin of which is rarely to be found, unconscious or automatic citations given without the quotation marks (p. 78). h.abrams and geoffrey galt harpham in a glossary of literary terms define, “the term intertextuality, popularized especially by julia kristeva, is used to signify the multiple ways in which any one literary text is in fact made up of other texts, by means of its open or convert citations and allusions” (401). julia kristeva, a french linguist, coined this term ‘intertextuality’ in her essay “word, dialogue and novel” in 1966 and according to her any text can be seen with reference to two axes: a horizontal axis and a vertical one. the horizontal axis relates the actual writer to the reader while the vertical axis relates the text to other texts. as the word written, in any text, not only belong to the writing subject but also the addressee, similarly any given text belongs to both the author and the reader. there are few other theorists like mikhail bakhtin and roland barthe who also have contributed in the development of this concept of intertextuality. some other theorists such as kjersti flottum, oswald ducrot and henning nolk associate it with the technique of polyphony as a text, through intertextuality, generates many voices. in fact, the meaningful collection and arrangement of words in any given text give way to the “transposition of one (or several) sign system(s) into another” (kristeva 59-60). a text cannot exist in complete isolation from other texts, images, words, code, model or fragment and intertextuality prevails almost in every genre. most magazines or newspapers contain cartoons or pictures, similarly texts on the computer also show combination of various graphics, texts, film, audio and video chat and motion pictures. there are some theorists like michael riffaterre who consider that intertextuality is significant to “fill out the text’s gaps”(57). intertextuality creates an atmosphere for meaning-making on an individual level that denies the received interpretations and the common understanding of the text. in fact, “when exposed to fiction, we undergo a literary experience in which we are given opportunities to interpret the content” (mackey np). intertextual references can be intended as well as unintended as lodge claims that, “some theorists believe that intertextuality is the very condition of literature, that all texts are woven from the tissues of other texts whether their authors know it or not” (98–99). as mentioned that vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 75 the term ‘intertextuality’ is used differently in different contexts but in this research study, the actual kristevian understanding of intertextuality is applied. this study attempts to find the artistic use of intertextuality in the sense conveyed by lowell edmunds in intertextuality and the reading of roman poetry, he comments, “the various ways in which one text can signal its relation to another came to be seen not in static terms of imitation and influence but as artistic devices that have the same status as figures of speech or anything else in the poet’s stylistics repertory” (1). the researchers triyoga and apriyana, in their study presented in a conference, discuss the positive and negative manifestation of death as depicted in the novel when breath becomes air from a psychological perspective. the researchers analyze the main character in terms of his positive and negative reception of death and it demonstrates that he always has a passion to find the meaning of life. they assert, “the novel suggests that death happens to all human beings in the world. there is no exception and no one can avoid death. kalanithi knows that fighting death is a losing battle and that death always wins upon the war with humans” (183). according to the researchers, the negative attitudes towards death are fear and hopelessness while positive attitudes are continuous determination and hard work to fulfill the dream. similarly martin in his review of when breath becomes air highlights that kalanithi was diagnosed with lung cancer that completely transformed his personality. after the diagnosis, he became the patient and faced same existential crisis but tried to face the hard phase of his life. he comments, “his love for books and language only grew as he completed his ba and ma at stanford. kalanithi was unsatisfied with the answers he’d amassed regarding life and death. he believed the answer rested at the intersection of morality, literature, philosophy, and biology” (120-121). similarly, nesby and johansen analyze kalanithi’s when breath becomes air from the perspective of significance of illness stories and their impact on human mind. the researchers have evaluated the novel through the theoretical approach of rita felski’s the uses of literature to explore the four defined objectives i.e. recognition, enchantment, knowledge and shock. they assert: we soon also found that recognition, enchantment, knowledge and shock were concepts that were relevant used in connection with kalanithi´s own experience of becoming ill vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 76 and being a patient. the concepts, therefore, seem most useful for reflections on both the reader’s response and the author drives of the pathography genre” (189). 3. research methodology the present study is descriptive and qualitative. the data comprises of breath becomes air, a memoir of paul kalanithi’s life and his strong struggle against cancer. julia kristeva’s intertextuality has been used as a research method that focuses on the extracts taken from other works that transform, develop, affirm or negate the story of the memoir. she “insists that a text...cannot exist as a hermetic or self-sufficient whole, and so does not function as a closed system” (1). this research uses the theoretical framework of historiographic metafiction, proposed by linda hutcheon who challenges the coherent and traditional representation of history and narrative. she in historiographic metafiction: parody and the intertextuality of history states, “in reality facts exist in discontinuity, as: in fact, that teller—of story or history— also constructs those very facts by giving a particular meaning to events. facts do not speak for themselves in either form of narrative: the tellers speak for them, making” (73). this research is organized and carried systematically through divisions i.e. introduction, literature review, analysis and discussion, conclusion, findings and works cited. the primary data used in this study is when breath becomes air while secondary data comprises of various books, research journals, theses, and articles. 4. research questions on the basis of research objectives, this study investigates the following questions: 1. how does when breath becomes air utilize the phenomenon of intertextuality to facilitate the connection between an autobiographical memoir and various existing historical, cultural and literary texts? 2. how does the intertextual form of the selected memoir exhibit postmodern characteristics of uncertainty, fragmentation and pastiche? 5. analysis and discussion paul kalanithi, in his novel, incorporates various intertextual references while narrating the story about his life, illness, struggle to fight the disease, and family life etc. a reader may recognize vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 77 various generic traits and differences in his memoir which are extracted sometimes from poetry, fiction or non-fiction. in fact, this reflection ascertains the universality of texts and their influential presence in the life human beings in general and of the writer in particular. through intertextuality, a text shows affiliation towards other texts in various ways such as a total transformation might occur due to parody of an existing text. the other way transforms a text completely to re-write the story in a new way. the memoir represents the following postmodern characteristics with the help of intertextual references that are taken from various works of different genres. 5.1. uncertainty about life through intertextual reference of samuel beckett’s waiting for godot, kalanithi expresses his profound distrust on the concepts of life and death. the text writes, “birth and death had been merely abstract concepts. maybe beckett’s pozzo is right. maybe life is merely an “instant,” too brief to consider” (66). he loses reliability on life because of an incident that happens in hospital that a twin pair of babies dies in less than twenty-four hours’ time. when kalanithi hears this news he gets shocked, “in that moment, i could only think of samuel beckett, that one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second” (65). in this way, he agrees to beckett’s representation of life’s philosophy that is based on uncertainty and waiting for some help i.e. god/godot. e. a. tsurganova comments on the same connection between one text to that of a prior one as he asserts: “intertextuality means the “intertextual interaction, correlation with other specific text where each text is seen as the result of assimilation and transformation of another text, as a part of the “cultural text” (qtd by dzhundubayeva, 297). similarly, the memoir refers to plurality of ideas through connecting with fictional and nonfictional texts. for instance, it refers to shep nuland’s how we die who happens to be kalanithi and lucy (kalanithi’s wife) teacher in the yale school of medicine. kalanithi writes, “few books i had read so directly and wholly addressed that fundamental fact of existence: all organisms, whether goldfish or grandchild, die” (52). by remembering past texts, kalanithi provides his own commentary on the text while leaving no room for verification and this approach coincides with huthceon’s theory of metafiction i.e. fiction within fiction. saeed and zain quote: vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 78 hutcheon (2004) contends that historiographic metafiction is one of the postmodern perspectives to study such works in which historical setting, accounts and voices are presented in such a far-fetched and fictional way that nothing can be extracted as absolute or final truth except for the infinite voice of fiction, that is, metafiction. (np) he seems so impressed with nuland’s description of mortality of life with reference to his grandmother’s illness and “in particular the description of his grandmother’s illness, and how that one passage so perfectly illuminated the ways in which the personal, medical, and spiritual all intermingled”(52). finally, her fatal heart failure made nuland remember thomas browne’s religio medici (the religion of a doctor). it is a spiritual and psychological self-portrait that reflects upon the christian tenants of faith, hope and charity, the existence of hell, the judgment, and the resurrection. kalanithi quotes from how we die, “with what strife and pains we come into the world we know not, but it is commonly no easy matter to get out of it” (53). later, by giving intertextual reference, he modifies the same thought as proposed by darwin and nietzshe about the constant determination and struggle to face the hardships of life. unfortunately, very soon the fear of death occupies his nerves again, and for that he gets solace from reading english literature. “i began reading literature again: solzhenitsyn’s cancer ward, b.s johnson’s the unfortunates, tolstoy’s ivan ilyich, nagel’s mind and cosmos, woolf, kafka, montaigne, frost, greville, memoirs of cancer patients—anything by anyone who had ever written about mortality” (148). he metaphorically compares his own life with t.s eliot’s the waste land to express his utter hopelessness about any resurrection. in this way, by referring, relating and connecting two texts together demonstrate a dialogical process, “literary texts, in this dialogic process can question, alter and even modify the previous texts” (sarkar, nutan, and seshadry sarkar 274). similarly, kalanithi not only represents his feelings towards life but also the uncertainty in his doctors. for instance, when he inquires the doctor emma about the result of his treatment he sees hopelessness on her face. “you have five good years left” she said, but without the authoritative tone of an oracle, without the confidence of a true believer” (193). he, as a doctor and a patient at the same time, is familiar with this hopelessness and he states, “doctors, it turns out, need hope, too” (194). 5.2. fragmented character https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/resurrection vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 79 kalanithi, as a student of english literature, seems to be impressed by many famous writers and poets as he says, “for my thesis, i studied the work of walt whitman, a poet who, a century before, was possessed by the same questions that haunted me” (40). like whitman, kalanithi expresses his strong desire to know the philosophy behind the term “physiological-spiritual man” (ibid). he expresses postmodern uncertainty about the demarcation between various fields of knowledge or learning because somehow a central focal point connects all of them. he remains unable to find the answer to his question, “i could only conclude that whitman had had no better luck than the rest of us but at least the ways in which he’d failed were illuminating” (40). his confusion provokes him to find a way that connects his knowledge of medicine to that of philosophy and literature. he refers to his phd advisor who tells him that it would be a difficult task for him as literature experts mostly react to science. “i wasn’t sure where my life was headed. my thesis “whitman and the medicalization of personality” was well-received, but it was unorthodox” (40). he, in his thesis, treats neuroscience as literary criticism and combined it with the history of psychiatry. after the diagnosis, kalanithi starts reading about lung cancer but, at the same time, he wants to avoid little or excessive knowledge. here he refers to alexander pope; one of the renowned english poets in 18th century, “a little learning is a dangerous thing;/ drink deep, or taste not the pierian spring” (126). he is confused due to abundance of knowledge that is why, finally, he leaves the matter to surgeons. kalanithi faces postmodern identity crises where it has become difficult for him to distinguish himself between a doctor and a patient. he is playing both the roles and then is a part of role reversal too. “periods of identity crises are times of intense self-questioning, self-discovery and often doubt. those who question are in crises. they need help” (heidi 35). at times he seems hopeful and alive at heart but on other occasions he loses all hopes by experiencing the fear and closeness of death. he is confused to comprehend the meaning of hope, “the word hope first appeared in english about a thousand years ago, denoting some combination of confidence and desire” (133) he says, “but what i desired—life—was not what i was confident about” (ibid). with the passage of time, kalanithi becomes strong to face the hard phase of illness and bear the thought of departing from his family. “it had occurred to me that darwin and nietzsche agreed on one thing: the defining characteristic of the organism is striving. describing life otherwise was like painting a tiger without stripes” (143). his character gets fragmented owing to different vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 80 thoughts with respect to his illness, “i know that i was going to die, but it felt like someone had taken away my credit card and i was having to learn how to budget” (160). later, he shows his helplessness in fight against cancer, “maybe i’d been cursed by a greek god” (183). at the later stage, he seems to lose all his hope about recovery, “over the course of the day i began to deteriorate, my diarrhea rapidly worsening. my kidneys began to fail. my mouth became so dry i could not speak or swallow” (188). his physical organs almost started dying and he reached at fatal stage. his physical and mental senses began to deteriorate “i began losing track of events and time” (190). he was unable to comprehend the doctors’ explanation regarding his treatment “i wobbled in and out of coherence” (ibid). he feels like floating in the wave of pain and relief, he tries to calm down by relaxing his nerves. “as the darkness of delirium descended again, i finally relaxed” (191). however, with the constant support of his wife lucy, parents and colleagues, he seems determine for a recovery “i am ready to get back to physical therapy and start recovering” (192). after getting repeated therapies, the treatment does not seem successful that raises many doubts in his mind. he does not want to lose his life because he loves his passion i.e. to treat patients, for his beloved wife, and for their expected baby. his thought gets broken as he narrates “phrases of doubt fell from my mouth” (193). 5.3. discursive blend the selected memoir is a combination of various genres to create a postmodern pluralistic narrative, and it resists the single genre based art, be it music, painting, literature etc. the memoir when breath becomes air incorporates pastiche by mixing up different genres like science, medicine, art, literature, and film etc. kalanithi says, “i recalled henry adams trying to compare the scientific force of the combustion engine and the existential force of the virgin mary” (157). later in the memoir, kalanithi talks about religious beliefs by referring to few authors and texts, for instance, while emphasizing the uncertainties of metaphysics he takes the conversation to atheism. he is of the view that atheism can be defined on two essential grounds. “the prototypical atheist, then, is graham greene’s commandment from the power and the glory, whose atheism comes from a revelation of the absence of god” (170). than he moves on to define the second type “real atheism” by quoting the nobel prize winner french biologist jacques monod, “ the ancient covenant is in pieces; man at last knows that he is alone in the unfeeling immensity of the universe, out of which he emerged only by chance” (ibid). he vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 81 presents his point of view regarding the existing of god that this is a reality that seems delusional even if it comes with empirical evidence. unlike atheists, he highlights the strong impact of significant values of christianity like redemption, sacrifice, justice, mercy and forgiveness on his personality. “there is a tension in the bible between justice and mercy, between the old testament and the new testament” (171), he says, “the main message of jesus, i believed, is that mercy trumps justice every time” (ibid). kalanithi’s medical treatment becomes uncertain with the sudden cure and later appearance of the tumor, and the very painful chemotherapy, as the final solution, forces him to refer to t.s eliot. “but at my back in a cold blast i hear/ the rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear” (174). his cumbersome journey also demonstrates the unbearable treatment of cancer not for himself only but for every patient. this gives a message to consider the worth of a healthy life because a human being does not know what can happen to him in next moment. however kalanithi does not lose hope and he, as a neurosurgeon, also maintains his passion to serve the patients. in this way, he familiarizes the readers with specific medical terminology used for brain illness like “i spent an extra couple of minutes with a patient, mr. r. he had developed a rare syndrome, called gerstmann’s, where i had removed his brain tumor” (175). by reading such medical experiences, the readers construct the bridge between literature/memoir/narrative and the outside reality i.e. hospital/medicine. hutcheon in “canadian historiographic metafiction” comments on the same very idea, “we, as readers, make the link between life and art, between the processes of the reception and the creation of texts: the act of reading participates in (and indeed posits or infers) the act of textual production” (228). later on, he performs another operation on an elderly man with compressed nerves and degenerated spine, “i began to remove the lamina, the back wall of the vertebrae, whose bony overgrowths, along with ligaments beneath, were compressing the nerves” (176). he managed to perform the operation so well “as if there had been no surgery at all” (177). after the successful surgery, he sooths his nerves by listening songs “i put getz/gilberto on the radio, and the soft, sonorous sounds of a saxophone filled the room” (178). as the narrative progresses, it is seen that kalanithi’s emotions and hopes do transform with the passage of time, as he expresses; “king lear’s gloucester may complain about human fate as “flies to wanton boys”. but now i lived in a different world, a world that was more greek tragedy than shakespeare” (180). vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 82 through intertextual reference of william shakespeare’s plays, kalanithi goes back to classical tragedy of oedipus, “no amount of effort can help oedipus and his parents escape their fate” (ibid). he compares his own fate with that of oedipus that both were put in a situation of powerlessness and “their only access to the forces controlling their lives is through the oracles and seers, those given divine vision”(181). similarly, the medical terminology/jargon reflects the specific use of labels in the context of hospital, for instance, during one his fits, kalanithi is taken to hospital. the text writes, “i was in pain, while a pantheon of specialists was brought together to help: medical intensivists, nephrologists, gastroenterologists, endocrinologists, infectious disease specialists, neurosurgeons, general oncologists, thoracic oncologists, otolaryngologists” (189). the novel also mentions numerous few medical terminologies specific for drugs, treatment and therapies such as nsaids, avastin, bronchoscopic biopsy, targetable mutation, iv tube, tarceva drug, molecular therapy, gi problem, metastases, and wicos (who is the captain of this ship) etc. 6. conclusion the particular study has found that the autobiographical memoir when breath becomes air is a work of historiographic metafiction as it is based on citations taken from various works that prove that every text is a new tissue of past citations. the study shows that writing is always a process of re-writing which foregrounds the bits of the texts that it both places and dis-places. the study also supports the view that most of the texts are intertextual in nature and this very phenomenon is natural in the world of arts. the memoir is unique as it represents a distinct combination of various intertexts which formulate a multi-faceted interaction of one text with the other texts within the literary matrix. kalanithi has used the technique of intertextuality in terms of different quotations, metaphoric presence to develop his character, story and narration of his life. moreover, through intertextuality the narrative relates and fuses various genres to demonstrate the blurring of boundaries in a postmodern work. kalanithi’s memoir is full of philosophy, science and spirituality that can be explored by fresh scholars. vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 83 works cited abrams, m.h. and geoffrey galt harpham. a glossary of literary terms. 10th ed. cengage learning, 2014. pp. 401 allen, graham. intertextuality. routledge, 2011. barthes, roland. “texte.//encyclopaedia universalis.” (1973): 78. chirobocea, olivia. “perspectives on postmodernism and the historical fiction.” journal of romanian literary studies 10 (2017): 233-242. dzhundubayeva, alla abdrakhmanovna. “intertextuality as a postmodern narrative strategy in the novelette the burning war of the mind by tolen abdikov.” rev. eur. stud. 7 (2015): 296. edmunds, lowell. intertextuality and the reading of roman poetry. jhu press, 2001. gamerman e. a book on life and death becomes a best seller. the wall street journal, 2016, 19 dec. https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-book-on-life-and-death-becomes-a-bestseller1482167354 retrieved 18 nov 2018 heidi anne e. mesmer (1998) living with uncertainty: a postmodern look at constructing identity within the pds, teaching education, 10:1, 3544, doi: 10.1080/1047621980100106 hutcheon, linda. “canadian historiographic metafiction.” essays on canadian writing 30 (1984): 228-238 hutcheon, linda. “historiographic metafiction parody and the intertextuality of history.” johns hopkins university, 1989. hutcheon, linda. a poetics of postmodernism: history, theory, fiction. routledge, 2003. kalanithi, paul. when breath becomes air. random house, 2016. kristeva, julia. revolution in poetic language. columbia university press, 1984. lodge, david. the art of fiction. random house, 2012. mackey, margaret. narrative pleasures in young adult novels, films and video games. springer, 2011. martin, andi. review of when breath becomes air, by paul kalanithi. canadian journal on aging, vol.36, no.1, 2017, p.120-121. project muse muse.jhu.edu/article/648494 https://doi.org/10.1080/1047621980100106 vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 84 nesby, linda hamrin, and may-lill johansen. “why do we read illness stories? paul kalanithi’s when breath becomes air (2016) read in the light of rita felski.” (2019). riffaterre, michael. “compulsory reader response: the intertextual drive.” intertextuality: theories and practices (1990): 56-78. sarkar, nutan, and seshadry sarkar. “kamila shamsie’s burnt shadows and em forster’s a passage to india: a study of intertextuality.” ijrar-international journal of research and analytical reviews (ijrar) 7.1 (2020): 272-282. saeed, amna, and zain fatima. “texts within text: an intertextual study of elif shafak's the forty rules of love.” numl journal of critical inquiry 16.1 (2018). @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 81 female racial and linguistic exploitation through economics: a marxist feminist analysis of kamila shamsie’s selected works mirza noman shamas university of lahore gujrat campus department of english language and literature mnomans761@gmail.com zobia ehsan department of english language and literature university of lahore gujrat campus zobiaehsan@gmail.com abstract regardless of quality education, alteration of conservative era into modernization and escalating the streamers of gender equality, women are still standing at the verge of being victim of cruelty, injustice, malice, forced marriages, sexual violence and hatred. the law enforcement agencies themselves become part of exploiting women’s rights, co-modifying them and reinforcing the stereotype in this patriarchal society. when discussing the fate of women it matters less whether they are the women of east or west. culture change, place change, traditions and values change, but the thing that never change is the behavior of community towards women. however, women are going to become abandoned or protagonist, it depends upon the inner courage of women. for an instance, women become helpless and start feeling them as the caged birds that can never flew independently. on the other hand, some women refuse to become the part of darkness and decide to become spark in nightfall. moreover, pakistan is land of tremendous examples about such women. since the dawn history of human beings, subjugation towards the identity of women’s status has been observed in different communities and cultures. additionally, this subjugation is deeply rooted and exists on a large scale in pakistani society. therefore, this proposed study is the splendid reflection of this acrimonious datum by ascertaining our point of view with the bounteous examples from the stories of “burnt shadows”, “broken verses” and “home fire” by kamila shamsie. this study will be a milestone for presenting the women’s condition in pakistan and clearing the depiction that in developing countries like pakistan, women are only victims of cruelty. for this purpose, marxist’s interpellation theory was used to enlighten the feminist, race and language analysis by using the primary and secondary sources for data collection. results concluded on the basis detailed analysis of all the novels explain that the systematic flow in the lives of women that is hidden in the generosity of world that can rampant the prestige of humanity up to great extent. key words: marxist feminism, women condition, world war, 11 september mailto:mnomans761@gmail.com mailto:zobiaehsan@gmail.com university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 82 1. introduction high qualification, countless fields of study, limitless opportunities for work, latest technology and marvelous innovations are the basic tools of present era (collins and halverson, 2010). however, while discussing the women conditions, there is still darkness in both eastern and western world. forced marriages, sexual violence, forced labor; brutality and gender discrimination are the terrible realities of women lives, without differentiating them as eastern or western women (doezema, 2001; forster, and bruley, 2019). every woman wants to live at her full by enjoying all the equal rights to men. they want freedom, kindness and polite behavior. it is well known misunderstanding that women of eastern world including iran, pakistan, afghanistan, iraq and turkey are being the victim of cruelty while the women of western world are enjoying their privileges at fullest (ginsburg, 1991; marsman, 2003). however, many researchers have explained the fact that reality is opposite to this. discrimination is found in every society and every culture, as there is still need of improvement (lila, 2001; weber, 2003). discrimination is having the same meaning as do the patriarchy. patriarchy is the culture where all rights are bestowed with the leader of the family and that remain the father. so, power remains stuck with the males and every deed or task would be performed with the permission of man (father). this phenomenon highlights the fact of gender discrimination. however, this spectacle disturbs the social behavior, religious attributes, economic standards, cultural values, political esteem and ultimately, downfall of the world starts. therefore, authors try to aware the people by writing the fictional stories on these types of topics to alarm the situation. similarly, in our research we have used two stories to explain the point of view of these authors about the social and economic conditions of the women in pakistan (keifer-boyd, and smith-shank, 2006; khan, 2017; suharni, and ekalestari, 2019). throughout the history of world, many writers with their philosophy of lives and their artistic languages have defined the nature of human beings with the help of different genres of literature; thus literature has to be considered as the mirror of the society (akhtar et al., 2019; sheikh et al., 2019). world has produced numerous writers for instance william shakespeare, thomas hardy, jane austen, oscar wilde, robert browning, christopher marlowe, e.m. fosrter, thomas gray, and so on who contribute their lives to solve the issues of common people through their literary works which are the production of their keenly observation. similarly, pakistani society has produced several writers such as fatima bhutto, kamila shamsie, j.j baloch, azhar noonari, allama i.i. kazi, amar jaleel and so on, who share their philosophical knowledge in their works to give voice to the suppressed people. kamila shamsie is also pakistani writer who talk about women’s rights and how women are suppressed by fallacious norms of society. human beings are divided into multiple classes, mainly high class and low class (bashir and guzzo, 2019; iftikhar and awan, 2019). in every class, people face many socioeconomic and political problems and have grave influence on them. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 83 however, people are also classified in terms of gender. this classification is socially constructed where men and women are being mentioned. from the emergence of the world to now, the influence of men over women is overwhelmed (gill et al., 2018). man is regarded the supreme creature on the face of the earth. he is regarded as the bread winner of a family. men also participate in worldly affairs, for instance, business, science, technology and so on. on the other hand, women are bound in domestic work. their social significance is not appreciated in a patriarchal society (rafay et al., 2016; umer et al., 2016). they are restricted to serve their males and tend children and animals. it describes that women are likely treated animals because their rational faculty is disregarded in a male oriented society. in south asian society, the statuses of women under male dominated society were also marginalized, and their lives and wishes were controlled by their men (khan et al., 2018). meanwhile, they were also oppressed and colonized by the colonizers at the time of colonization. their due rights were not shared with respect to men at that time. the role of women was not extended or equal to men. this suggests the idea that women were subjugated by the hands of men before and after the time of colonization. the exploitation of women is also practiced in the existing conditions (shah and khurshid, 2019). in pakistan, women are sexually abused and being massacred into every nook and cranny. in pakistan, the conduct of men towards women is highly condemnable. women are suffering in every walk of life. they are deemed as an object and puppet and are also forced to do everything with the will of men (ansari, 2019). their will against male in every form like a mother, sister, and wife is controlled by men. they are deprived of their rights in every institution of a society. the rights of education, matchmaking, are the most prevalent problems in pakistan are hurdle in the path women empowerment. women are deemed fragile being and a matter of respect and reverence for men in a male based society of pakistan. women are also used an object in viable hoardings and societal gatherings where beauty of women is used to sell things in a hefty amount (hongdao et al., 2018). however, the products of industrialists and market holders are used with the tag of women’s portraits in order to attract countless customers. it sounds that women in every business of life are misrepresented and they are used as a center of men’s benefits. moreover, the attitude of men in a patriarchal society is used to exercise the power for controlling and suppressing women to present women as slaves and worthless creature who are mainly created to worship and serve men (awan, 2017; hansen, 2019). the status of men in an androcentric society reveals that women are not born free to enjoy the countless blessings of nature in the world. with respect to biological division, women are equal partner of a society to enjoy blissful blessings of god but socially constructed taboos and dogmas are shackles of women freedom. thus, women are suppressed by men to exert the domination and make them dependent in every way of life. however, in some instances women become stronger and courageous than before whenever, they are being exploited. then, they become unbeatable in every walk of life. however, there is no researcher or scientist who has illuminated this university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 84 marvelous aspect of women’s life. thus, our current research is a milestone to unveil this important facet of pakistani women’s life. 2. literature review in pakistan, women have remained under the influence of men. women’s’ sentiments are also controlled by men in pakistani society. women are treated as pet animals who only obey the hegemonic commands of their husbands without their assent (rind and sangi, 2016; khan, 2020; mcnojia, et al., 2020). although broadcasting is considered as an important tool to bring awareness in a society, the pakistani social media presents the negative image of women by manipulating their status in order to suppress their voice (ali and ab ul hassan, 2016; farooq et al., 2020). in commercial trade, the bad picture of woman which creates the negative image in a society has been showed to mesmerize the attention of clients. the depiction of women in advertisements shows that women are worthless creatures having no role to participate in worldly affairs (huda and ali, 2015; zafar and arafat, 2016). women must not be discriminated on the basis of ethnicity, caste, gender or any other patriarchal norm that preaches their subjugation. habib et al., (2013) had done research on the novel, my feudal lord in 2013. the novel describes the personal life of tehmina durrani who faces multiples problems in her home caused by her husband. in her home, she is bitterly treated and served like a slave by her husband named, ghulam mustafa khar. she depicts her life as a poor creature who cannot share her sentiments and emotions to her husband. she also criticizes her husband who is a towering political personality who protects rights of public but is entirely failed to give her due rights of a wife. she has written the novel mainly to highlight sufferings and woes of women in third world countries like pakistan. similarly, bag and roy, (2012) elucidates that women are mentally tortured and their lives are controlled by male dominated society of india, and they have no authority to express their own wishes. the identity of women has been shown in miserable conditions in the research. the researchers have depicted the picture of those women who are forcedly sent to brothels without their consent, such types of suppression with the identity of women has been displayed to show the atrocity of male oriented society towards women. in india, thousands of child abuse cases have been recorded in which teenager girls have been thrown to prostitutions forcefully. women in india and throughout the world is also subjugated in the name of arrange marriages. the researchers also display the negative role media in which women are indirectly subjugated through erotic advertisements. in my view, this negative role and picture of woman used by the researcher must have minimized in order to focus more of the reason and crime. media uses the identity of women as a tool to get the attention of clients by portraying dark side of women. biased media helps to make strong male-centered society by depicting women as a tool of university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 85 attention. the researchers indicate that biased media and domestic violence towards the identity of women is a part of women subjugation. pakistani women are strongly affected by the rigid and traditional dogmas where they are under the mercy of men. vani, the most critical practice in pakistan in which women are handed over to other family without their will just to compensate a murder of opposite party (baghal et al., 2019; shah et al., 2019). this traditional practice is a hot debate in pakistani society particularly in pathan tribe where women are handed over like animals in a busy market in a fixed price. the law of jungle in a society is mainly exercised to control women. the lack of education in third world countries like pakistan is a huge problem of women sufferings. it can be overcome by prescribing equal rights of human beings without making differences in terms of gender differences (munir and akhtar, 2014). the researcher has taken out a qualitative analysis. umer et al., (2016) in their research study has evaluated education, culture and its authorization. culture and education in the modern era play an important role to make a developed and great nation. the researcher analyzed in his study how the education has been gendered by male dominated society of baloch tribes in which women are not allowed to get education though it is their basic right. gendered view of education is one type of women subjugation which has been discussed by the researcher. according to the researcher, baloch people consider themselves brave, and callous, but women are treated as week creation. they rule their ladies and daughter under their commands and do not allow them to acquire the proper education. they always try to keep women under the sole of their shoes as they cannot get education and empowerment. such type of women suppression and gender biasness can been observed in different parts of balochistan, pakistan. islamic and universal laws are treasured and used as means to treat women equally without gender disparity. they sternly prevent to violate it but men do not follow because they entertain their power and influence over women. researchers have analyzed that traditional rules are deadly formulated just to exploit the status and dignity of women (bangash, et al., 2019). women are not allowed to go against the set of constructed rules because it hurts the feelings of men’s prestige and honor. the researchers of this article further expound that women are not asked to marry with their will and are forcedly married in pakistan which is a deadly sin. if women go against the set of norms are killed out of honor (bangash et al., 2017). these killings are very common in backward area of pakistan where women are in yoke of slavery. the practice of honor killing by men is merely to seek prestige and dignity which is completely ill practices (moghissi, 2005; lodhi and siddiqui, 2014). roy`s novel, the god of small things, displays the concept of androcentric society. the researcher evaluates the feminist perspective of the novel to show the hegemony of men over women in the southern part of india. the researcher in his research discusses that women`s university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 86 concept as other, because their lives are controlled by will of men (tickell, 2003). the concept of other can be observed at the time colonization when women also were oppressed and colonized. similarly, women in the southern part of india have no freedom and their lives are censored by their men who implement rigid dogmas and cultural restriction over them as they always live under the dominance of men (dingwaney needham, 2005). actually, these all fabricated rituals which can be seen in the novel are made by male-centered society to oppress the status of women. the researcher shows stereotypical and biased approach of south indian males who think that those women who reject the proposal of arrange marriage, they are disgrace. same thing happens with ammu, a mouthpiece character of roy, when she rejects arrange marriage everyone consider her a disgrace women and daughter and she seeks for divorce in the novel (david saldívar, 2007; roy, 2009). not only she has been considered as disgraced daughter, but also she has no permission to continue her study. such type of suppression gives birth to evilness in the society and it becomes dangerous for the identity of women. on the other hand, chacko is free from all the restriction of society, he marries a lady whom he likes and he gets education from abroad. these physical gendered biasness are used to treat women as poor creation and they are subjugated every corner of the world. in this research, both white and black woman must have been highlighted as the target of oppression as both are being criticized either for their ethnicities or for their gender. male dominated society and old traditions strongly affect the status of women unfortunately the both mentioned aspects can be seen in pakistani society where status of woman is in danger (shaikh et al., 2019). male oriented society and old traditions are the product of lack of awareness and misinterpretation of religion in which men have been shown as hegemonic identity of world. basically, these are fabricated laws which are made for self-interest to control women; such misinterpreted concepts are mostly observed in pathan tribes where women have wishes and desires (ahmed and wahab, 2019). in some pathan tribes, father gives their girls to resolve blood without their consent which such action shows that women are treated as pet animals. pathan tribe calls it vani means to hand over a girl to resolve the blood, but it is worthless act of pakistani society. this act has ruined the lives many teenager girls and women and their rights have been suppressed in the name of fallacious honor (munir and akhtar, 2014). however, the researcher must also present a methodical solution to the deep-rooted problem that exists in the society at such a large scale. 3. objectives  the current research aims to critically analyze exploitation of women`s status in pakistani society under the light of kamila shamsie’s novels, “burnt shadows”, “broken verses” and “home fire” by using feminist approach.  present study purposes to provide the courageous model for the women of conservative society to believe themselves and raise their voice against cruelty. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 87  the research intends to evaluate suppression of women’s identity with the help of kamila shamsie’s novels, “burnt shadows”, “broken verses” and “home fire” as a literature of women subjugation 4. research questions /hypothesis  how does kamila shamsie portray the exploitation of women’s status in pakistani society with reference to her novels, “burnt shadows”, “broken verses” and “home fire”?  how does the writer express the suppression of women`s identity in her respective novels being a case study of philosophy of feminism and social subjectivity?  how do pakistani women cope with the hardships of societies and struggles for provision of prosperity by accepting various bad names? 5. purpose of study/justification/significance of the research until now innumerable research has been done to highlight the poor condition of women in pakistan, however, no one has put the spotlight to highlight the other aspect of life of pakistani women. the current research task carries its own importance as the philosophy of marxist feminism and subjugation aims to destroy negative stereotypes of male oriented society about women. current research is helpful for the readers to provide the clear depiction about feminism along with sufferings of women. moreover, this study will also act as courageous model for the women of conservative society to believe themselves and raise their voice against cruelty. the current research is significant enough to unveil how the identity of women has been suppressed before and after annexation throughout the history of mankind. the research is fruitful for researchers who conduct their research works in the relevant domain. it is also helpful to understand the significance of women status and to strengthen voice of suppressed women in male based society. 6. research design our research area is related to the qualitative frame work as it comprised of the study of human nature and life attributes. therefore, following the strauss and corbin, (1998) definition for qualitative analysis we have used it for explaining our words and phrases that are used in the selected novels. additionally, marxist feminist approach is used to explain the data analysis as this approach is highly supportive for explaining and interpretation of the women condition with respective to the living societies. 6.1 data collection data collection is comprised of 2 sources named as primary data source along with secondary data source. our first source is consists of above mentioned marvelous novels:  “burnt shadows”  “broken verses” university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 88  “home fire” similarly, the later mentioned source is encompassing of all the papers and research articles that play a supportive role for explaining our theme of research including the background of above mentioned novels. furthermore, various libraries work and notes were also included to ease and enlighten our research after reading the publications and novels time and again. 7. model of analysis as our research comprised of three novels that are written in context form, following the descriptive data analysis technique of hakim, (2004), descriptive analysis was made to differentiate the lives of pakistani women. additionally, marxist feminism and social subjugation is philosophical theory; it contains different aspects such as awareness of socioeconomic, political and basic rights of women in andocentric society. feminist approach talks of the suppressed people who are controlled and their rights are snatched. it claims that the status of women has been undermined in the third world countries. in the essay ideology and ideological state apparatus, the author advances towards the concern of social subjectivity amidst the social building this is raised conferring to the ideologies of capitalist system. furthermore, he portrays creation’s gendered interpretation of existence in which he claims that capitalist male dominated society has familiarized established gender, gendered education, gendered careers and so on. he tries to display the miseries of lower class throughout the world in his philosophy. these elements are helpful to evaluate selected data from concerned novels. the characters of all the three novels, “burnt shadows”, “broken verses” and “home fire” are analyzed under the light of methodology. the method has assisted to evaluate the status of women from all the selected of novels, and it is helpful to understand the concept of double marginalization of women`s identity in pakistani society. 7.1 data analysis by following the descriptive data analysis technique of hakim, (2004), data has elaborated. kamila shamsie, a young enthusiastic writer, has the power to beautifully describe the positive as well as negative aspects of our society, more specifically pakistan. she is well own for being the passionate writer of present era. in her selected novels, she has described the untold realities of various areas of pakistan, where women are being the victims of cruelty, discrimination, hatred and vindictiveness. following heartbreaking context is from the novel to clear the picture: 7.2 data analysis for “burnt shadows” by kamila shamsie as she was dying, hiroko's mother had called the chairman's wife to her bedside with a single request: protect my husband against himself. there was even less place in wartime japan for an iconoclastic artist than for magazines about modern girls. for a long time, the chairman's wife had carried out her promise, persuading her husband to regard matsui tanaka's outbursts against the military and the emperor as a symbol of a husband's mourning that was so profound it had unhinged him. but in the spring, matsui university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 89 tanaka had been walking past a neighborhood house and saw the cherry blossom festooning it to commemorate the sacrifice of the fifteen-year-old boy who had died in a kamikaze attack. without saying a word hiroko who was walking silently beside him matsui tanaka darted forward, pulling out a book of matches from the pocket of his trousers, and set fire to the cherry blossom. seconds later he lay bloodied on the ground. [......] and the next day three things happened: the military police came to take her father to prison, the principal of the school where she taught german told her she was dismissed,[......]the chairman was waiting to tell her she had been conscripted to work at one of the munitions factories”. (burnt shadows by kamila shamsie, 2009, pp. 13,14) the above explained text citation explains the poor condition of women; the author explains that women remain suffering in every era of life. sometimes, they remain cry for their respect and sometimes they beg for the life of their loved ones. the above explained text citation is the prettiest example of this bitter reality. the main character of the story suffers a lot from the very start and then, after sometime become the hard stone in front of all hardships and restrictions. once, the woman who was crying for mercy and shelter, become strong enough that she feels useless to be supported in any field of life. . the entire nation was under severe subjugation under british rule including male and female, yet man had a liberty to do whatever they wish. however women did not have such choices inside or outside the home. women deteriorated by two sides, first, the patriarchal nature society in sub-continent and secondly all people were under british colonialism. a meek creature cannot demand anything; even basic needs were left unfulfilled. there was big difference between the education of a boy and a girl, a girl is educated in confined environment and is being thought islamic education. however, boys are sent to boarding schools and colleges, they are provided them special consideration. male members of society were allowed to choose their desired and pertinent field, while girls were deprived from such prosperous and privileged activities. women were forced to marry to those who are completely unfamiliar to her, the same was done to her mother, at the age of thirty, and she got married to haughty and aggressive natured man, who already divorced more than three wives. a male member of society has a right to get marry several times, however, a woman’s thought of getting married is deemed as a sin. how unusual that notion is where women are completely exploited even in marriages. so, marxist feminist is condemning such unworthy and inappropriate practices, and she is demanding equal rights at every cost. 7.3 data analysis for “broken verses” by kamila shamsie the next day it's virginia woolf who wafts through. hers is acuriously insistent presence; take your eyes off her for a moment and the next thing you know she's rearranging your syntax as though it were cutlery improperly laid out for a seven-course university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 90 meal with some foreign dignitary who disdains your nation's table manners.” (broken verses by kamila shamsie, pp. 26, 27) similarly, the other novel of our study is highly significant for explaining the phenomenon of feminism. the author explains well the poor condition of poor both physically and mentally. she says that women are designed to work from dawn to dusk both in homes as well as in offices. however, the only thing that they get in return is the disrespect, bad words and bad eyes that try to x-ray them by crossing their covers. moreover, she explains well the dilemma of the society towards women. she says that during the war and other disasters the most helpless and poor creature that affected the most is women. they become afraid to lose respect, being attacked by the warriors to fulfill their grubby desires by crushing the innocent women. in addition, the men used to threat them that they will harm to their men, if they did not do whatever they say. 7.4 data analysis for “home fire” by kamila shamsie: furthermore, the third novel is the prettiest example that explains beautifully the worse condition of women in every era. she says with heavy heart that it is the disgusting fact of the society that they become happy and celebrates the birth of boys and become morn out when heard the news of birth of baby girl. following quotation is the disheartened fact for explaining this bitter and sad fact about our society. “for girls, becoming women was inevitability; for boys, becoming men was ambition” (home fire by kamila shamsie, pages 16) therefore, it is well known fact that women were suffering a lot in every walk of life. however, even after the change of time, nothing changes for women. the above explained context is a clear example of conservative thinking of men towards women. they are agreed to sacrifice the life of women in the name of respect and honor. they are considered nothing but the useless material that can be used according to the mood of men otherwise they must remain quiet whatever they are suffering through. 8. conclusion all articles are the acrimonious representation of the women condition in eastern and western worlds. there is countless difference on the name of culture such as dress, food and religion, however, the thing that is common is cruelty for women. nevertheless, they pass through the same set of destitutions. women are still facing many adversities in all over the world by different ways. they are the victims of both physical and spiritual violations. they work at home from dawn to dusk and then being beaten up by the males of their houses. they take care of homes, relations, and children, as well as well work in the offices. there is neither any shelter nor any good reward for them. therefore, it’s not wrong to say that there is no differentiation university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 91 that these are the women of eastern or western world. both eastern and western world are failed to secure the basic rights of women. there is immediate need to take certain steps that safeguard the women’s right all around the globe. there is need to let them realize their inner strength and make them realize that whenever, they recognize their forte they can beat the whole world. today, women are working in every field of life; however they face the difficulty of being harassment at all place of work. they are unable to accomplish the respect that is their right. to move freely and enjoy the freedom is basic requisite of every human being. they need to wear, eat and live peacefully in every corner of the world. however, somewhere they are compelled to get marry with the hatred person and somewhere; they are being compelled to live as prisoners. the alarming situation becomes when they become the victims of beasts who either throw acid to them or make them target of rape. every moment, news remains echoing of either suicide attempts by women themselves to get rid of basted life or they are being murdered on the name of ego and respect. there is neither world of kind nor generosity for the most fragile creature of the world. however, both eastern and western world is at the verge of destruction, if we have to save them, we have to give the women their appropriate position and rights to live with dignity in the world of generosity. references ahmed, s. and wahab, j.a., 2019. paradox of women empowerment: the representations of women in television dramas in pakistan. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 9(10). ahmad, sidra. “determination of socio-economic conditions through wealth and material possessions: a marxist critique of mansfield’s doll’s house." university of chitral journal of linguistics & literature [online], 3.i (2019): 42-51. web. 25 mar. 2021 akhtar, m.s., ayub, a. and anwar, m.s.m., 2019. an analytical study on women’s empowerment regarding decision making: a case study of pakistan. the governmentannual research journal of political science., 7(7). ali, s. and ab ul hassan, a., 2016. representation of women and pakistani media: mapping objectification phenomena in tv commercials. journal of social sciences & humanities (1994-7046), 24(2). ansari, k.y., 2019. citizens' role in nation branding: a case of pakistan in terms of women rights and girls' education. journal of media studies, 29(1). awan, s.z., 2017. punjabi women in the changing socio-cultural environmental of pakistan: 1977-2012 (doctoral dissertation, university of the punjab, lahore). bag, k.k. and roy, p.b., 2012. changing face of women exploitation in india. international journal of social science tomorrow, 1(1), pp.1-6. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 92 baghal, m.g.u., tunio, s. and sheikh, m., 2019. an analytical study of the critical situation faced by women at working place and legislation policies in pakistan perspective. the government-annual research journal of political science., 7(7). bangash, a.k., 2017. an overview of the religious perspective of honour killing in federally administered tribal areas (fata) of pakistan. al-idah| shaykh zayed islamic centre, university of peshawar, 34(1), pp.104-118. bangash, a.k., zafar, m.y., ullah, k. and bibi, f., 2019. the other side of the coin: honour killing in tribal areas of pakistan. pakistan journal of social sciences (pjss), 39(2). bashir, s. and guzzo, k.b., 2019. pakistani women’s perceived spousal concordance on desired family size and birth intendedness. david saldívar, j., 2007. unsettling race, coloniality, and caste: anzaldúa's borderlands/la frontera, martinez's parrot in the oven, and roy's the god of small things. cultural studies, 21(2-3), pp.339-367. dingwaney needham, a., 2005. ‘the small voice of history’in arundhati roy's the god of small things. interventions, 7(3), pp.369-391. doezema, jo. 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(2018). contemporary issues of radical temper in leonard ikerionwu’s heroes of change: a marxist study. university of chitral journal of linguistics & literature, 1(i), 1-13. doi:10.33195/jll.v1ii.145 rafay, b., habib, b., tariq, u. and ali, a.a., 2016. analysis on the social legislation and women empowerment in pakistan: comparative study of democratic governments and dictatorship periods (1947-2012). journal of the research society of pakistan, 53(1). rind, u.k. and sangi, m.k., 2016. mapping out gender power: a bourdieuan approach to tehmina durrani's my feudal lord. elf annual research journal, 18, pp.247-264. roy, b., 2009. the title of the god of small things: a subversive salvo. anq: a quarterly journal of short articles, notes and reviews, 22(3), pp.56-64. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 94 shah, m.a.a., özel, g., jamal, f. and awan, s.t., 2019. the social and economic problems of home-based and outdoor working women in punjab, pakistan. e-journal of international and comparative labour studies, 8(2). shah, p. and khurshid, a., 2019. muslim womanhood, education, and empowerment: ethnographic reflections from pakistan and india. gender and education, 31(4), pp.458474. shaikh, e.k.z., channa, z.h. and mirza, a., 2019. empirical determinations of female enrolment trends in traditional verses non-traditional fields of study in pakistan. asia pacific-annual research journal of far east & south east asia, 34. sheikh, a.a., ali, f., suleman, n., ali, h. and munir, h., 2019. feminist stylistics: female representations in contemporary stories by pakistani writers. dilemas contemporáneos: educación, política y valores, 6. suharni, any, and susi ekalestari. "motives of struggles in khaled hosseini’s novel a thousand splendid suns." journal of language 1.1, 2019. tickell, a., 2003. the god of small things: arundhati roy’s postcolonial cosmopolitanism. the journal of commonwealth literature, 38(1), pp.73-89. umer, s., othman, z. and hassan, k.b.h., 2016. socio-cultural obstacles to women's participation in politics, in rural areas of balochistan, pakistan. international journal of business and social science, 7(10). weber, charlotte e. making common cause? western and middle eastern feminists in the international women’s movement, 1911-1948. diss. the ohio state university, 2003. zafar, a. and arafat, y., 2016. more on televised media less in power: a case study of women participation in prime time satiric shows on dunya tv. stud, 5(3). @ 2020 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 107 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 a world of defamiliar realities: the chairs, endgame and no exit noorul basar lecturer, government college swabi amjad saleem assistant professor, depart of english and applied linguistics university of peshawar abstract this paper suggests that the three playwrights, eugene ionesco, samuel beckett, and jean-paul sartre in their plays the chairs, endgame and no exit, respectively, create a defamiliar reality that gives authenticity and new meaning to life. it puts forward the view that these playwrights use different modern techniques to achieve their purpose; they experiment with stage techniques by using the technique of defamiliarization and surrealism. the paper presents a summary of the views of different critics about the content and form of these plays and contests their views by suggesting that the plays are not meaningless or absurd but only different. it proposes that the audience or readers do not see that which they often see in traditional theatre. the plays, rather, lay bare the possibilities of a more meaningful and authentic life by detaching the readers’ minds from the automated, habitual, and monotonous world they live in. key terms: defamiliarization, surrealism, existentialism, phenomenology, absurdism introduction samuel beckett, eugene ionesco and jean-paul sartre in their plays endgame, the chairs and no exit, respectively, reconstruct a new reality that gives a new meaning to life by detaching whatever they create on the stage from its habitual and automated state. they realize this purpose through certain innovations in theatre and drama. since these playwrights belong to the literary and philosophical movement of modernism, they make use of the modern theatrical and dramatic techniques to achieve this purpose of renewing the phenomenon of the world so that life may be given a new meaning. traditionally, the plays of these playwrights have been criticized and judged in terms of the existential dilemmas that men and women face in the modern world. it is conventionally believed that the subject-matter of these plays is nothingness 108 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 and absurd human situation. yet, structural study suggests that the plays do convey a philosophy and meaning but in way different from how the traditional drama conveyed meaning and philosophy. traditional drama, like the drama of shakespeare, represented or imagined a real or life-like situation on which the laws of probability and necessity could be applied. in other words, the subject-matter of traditional drama was quite close to what we call real life. however, beckett, ionesco and sartre do not seem to have thought of meaning and purpose in terms of how the traditional dramatists thought of it. their preoccupation is more with form than with subjectmatter. nonetheless, renewal in form is a renewal in the subject-matter. this paper proposes that the new reality in the plays of the selected playwrights is constructed through the formalist technique of defamilirization propounded by russian formalist viktor shklovsky. it theorizes that the approach of these playwrights towards the use of this technique is different from each other. they approach it through other modern artistic instruments of form-renewal and innovation. ionesco defamiliarizes the so-called real by experimenting with stage and theatre while beckett and sartre do it by using surrealistic stage images and objects. theoretical framework ‘defamaliarization’ was an artistic and formalist technique propounded by viktor shklovsky. according to shklovsky: the technique of art is to make objects ‘unfamiliar’, to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged. art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of an object; the object is not important… after we see an object several times, we begin to recognize it. the object is in front of us and we know about it, but we do not see it – hence we cannot say anything significant about it. art removes objects from the automatism of perception in several ways. (shklovsky 24) ‘defamiliarization’ removes objects from their automated, habitual and traditional state and renews them. the renewal is necessary because it makes the objects reappear in their original state. the originality does not lie in the objectivity of the objects. it lies in the renewed perception in the mind of the reader or audiences. it makes the objects significant and meaningful in a new way. the new perception is a product of a differential relation between the 109 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 automated or habitual state of the objects and their defamiliar or renewed state. the renewed perception differs from the habitual perception and defers it too. this difference and rejection is possible only when the audiences are not emotionally involved in the dramatic performance. the little distance between them and the performance enables them to make use of their judgment. this paper uses this technique to analyse the selected plays of the selected dramatists. analysis ionesco is known for his experimentation with stage techniques. he shuns the traditional and realistic method of making characters appear on the stage, the way they do in real life. the most controversial and oft-read book on beckett’s and inonesco’s dramaturgy is martin esslin’s book theatre of the absurd (1961). esslin labels beckett’s and ionesco’s theatre as the ‘theatre of the absurd’ because he thinks that their plays present the absurd human situation. this absurdity of the human situation, according to esslin, is the theme of ionesco’s and beckett’s plays. it is not only the subject-matter that makes their plays absurd but other characteristics as well. the absurdity of human situation, says esslin, can be found in the plays of sartre as well; but sartre’s treatment of it is quite logical and linguistically lucid while “the theatre of the absurd strives to express its sense of the senselessness of human condition and the inadequacy of the rational approach by the open abandonment of rational devices and discursive thought.” (esslin 24) it is by virtue of intuition and instinct that these dramatists capture this situation. they do not comment about the absurdity of human situation; they merely ‘’present’’ it through explicit stage images (25). esslin is quite critical of the view that a clear and solid interpretation can be derived by analyzing beckett’s plays. he is of the view that such an interpretation is possible only in the plays of those dramatists who have a clear philosophical and moral position, and who have an intention of transforming their philosophy and moral views into a wellconstructed theme through the use of plot and character. but beckett, he claims, had no such content beforehand. his plays lack plot and his characters are merely puppets (44-45). there is a fundamental problem with esslin’s view about beckett’s plays. he places beckett along with other dramatists in a new theatrical movement, yet the criteria of meaning for him is the traditional way of writing plays in terms of translating some moral view or philosophy into plot 110 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 and characters as if meaning derives only from social objective realities. if beckett is complex and difficult, so is shakespeare; he himself claims it. but saying that beckett has no philosophy is a view much criticized by critics later on. the revolt against tradition does not make beckett’s plays empty of any philosophical or even moral view. another fundamental flaw in esslin’s argument is that he considers drama as a representative art; but, as expounded earlier, dramatic art is not representational. dramatic art becomes even more immaterial in the hands of beckett and ionesco. michael guest in his article “paul ricoeur and watching endgame” explains that esslin judges beckett’s plays by considering them as a representational art. he states that “esslin proposes that a cataclysmic event [in endgame] has placed the characters in their present situation” (michael 72). esslin puts endgame in some historical reality which, he thinks, is part of the life of the watcher. he speaks as if the play is the representation of some historical reality. but there is no evidence in the play that such event really occurred. the idea of ‘nemesis’ is therefore invalid (72). in the case of ionesco, his view is different: esslin first prioritizes human condition over art and ideology and then suggests that ionesco’s plays are the expression of that human condition. he claims that ionesco revolted against social realism so that he may depict the true reality of human condition. this claim is not rooted only in individualism but in the expressive theory of art as well. it would not be wrong to say that he thinks of ionesco as a formalist because he states that “ [f]ormal experiment, ionesco argues, is more closely concerned with reality than social realism” (32). there is a sense in which he says it but it is a contradiction to label ionesco as the dramatist of the new movement of ‘the theatre of the absurd’ and then place him again among the formalists. esslin suggests that ionesco rejects the traditional use of language because he does not aim at representing the so-called social reality (132). it appears that esslin puts beckett and ionesco together in one and the same movement not in terms of dramatic theory but in terms of the use of language and the treatment of the subject-matter. he argues that the theme of the plays of beckett and ionesco along with a few others is the ‘absurd human situation’ and that these dramatists use language “as merely one―sometimes dominant, sometimes submerged―component of its multidimensional poetic imagery” (406). his view that beckett’s and ionesco’s plays cannot be studied by focusing on one particular dramatic or 111 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 theatrical element is appreciable; but his attempt to reduce these plays into nothing but an expression or a representation of meaninglessness is contradictory in that he first endorses the view that these plays are complex and then reduces them with a simple approach to the category of ‘absurdism’. claiming that beckett always begins with his own consciousness rather than with any established truth, he judges that beckett’s existential concepts are more genuine than sartre’s because he derives them through his own consciousness. beckett, therefore, is the most consistent existentialist. following heidegger, esslin states that beckett considers his own “being-there-in-the-world” or his own experience as the criteria for reaching after any concept (esslin 14-15). form belongs to the domain of literature, and the content obviously is the philosophy the plays embody. garin dowd in his book abstract machine: samuel beckett and philosophy after deleuze and guattare (2007) devotes a considerable part to this predicament. deleuze is of the view that a renewal in form is hard to achieve without having achieved the renewal of content. he gives priority to content in that “[i]t is what one has to say, what one thinks one has to say, that imposes new forms.” (qtd in dowd 25) but philosophy, deleuze thinks, has not undergone revolutions like literature and science. it is static, and its content revolves around a few dominant figures like plato and kant (25). garin dowd quotes these lines from an interview of deleuze based on the topic of his interest in literature. dowd puts the question exactly the way it is asked in the interview and directly quotes the lines without commenting on them. however, what dowd suggests is quite clear: he seems to be countering deleuze’s view by suggesting that beckett through his new dramatic form renews the content of philosophy. it is, therefore, the linguistic aspect of dramatic art that gains much weight. dowd praises beckett’s ability to disfigure the traditional language stylistically and structurally. literature and philosophy, in this regard, becomes converged, for the renewal in the latter owes its possibility to the renewal in the former. therefore, literature becomes prior to philosophy. dowd concludes it systematically: “despite this convergence literature is in a privileged position with regard to philosophy, in that the problem of formal renewal is more urgently and frequently addressed by literary authors.” (26-27) there is a sense in which dowd makes this convergence explicit. beckett’s plays are 112 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 appreciated much for the new form that imposes newness on the content. it connects his art quite successfully to ionesco’s and even sartre’s in terms of formal ingenuity. following dowd’s argument, it is relevant to see how the philosophy contained in form and content is comprehended by the audience. michael guest in his article “paul ricoeur and watching endgame” deals with this relation from a phenomenological and hermeneutic perspective by analyzing beckett’s play endgame. his concept seems to be quite similar to the structuralist view of structure or narrative when he explains ricoeur’s view of narrative and states, unlike esslin, that the characters in endgame are not puppets: rather, “their very existence is by virtue of and subject to a complex and paradoxical temporal ‘action’ of narration that manifests itself in the audience’s perception of their action and dialogue.” (guest 69) binding the dialogue and action of the characters with the perception of the audience is a phenomenological approach. hermeneutics draws on the argument that the text (in this context, the dramatic performance) contains a schema of meaning in which there are certain lacunas or a “semiotic void” filled by the role of the audience (69). saussure’s structural linguistics also maintains that signifier and signified in a sign are just like the two sides of the same paper; and signified lies in the mind of the listener. the watcher, therefore, is in no way detached from the performance. he has a role to play in this process. the watcher is not concerned with anything other than what happens on the stage, what he hears from the characters and his own perception of them. it is through this phenomenological view that michael criticized esslin. he states that “esslin proposes that a cataclysmic event [in endgame] has placed the characters in their present situation” (72). esslin puts endgame in some historical reality which, he thinks, is part of the life of the watcher. he speaks as if the play is the representation of some historical reality. but there is no evidence in the play that such event really occurred. the idea of ‘nemesis’ is therefore invalid (72). what michael seems to be establishing is the phenomenological idea that the past is nothing. it is only the present experience of the mind with whatever it encounters that matters. his idea that beckett focuses on the experience of consciousness in his plays paves way for what is known as a ‘synchronic’ or structural study of beckett’s plays; only the dramatic performance and the audience watching it is what should be studied and analyzed without taking any historical reality or any intention of the writer into consideration. 113 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 ionesco had affiliations with the new artistic school of formalism, and formalism had many things in common with structuralism. the chairs seems to be influenced by some of the ideas propounded by the formalist school of thought. ionesco experiments with stage techniques for a purpose. the invisibility of the guests in the chairs is an example of this experimentation. it not only renews the form of drama but explains the connection between audiences and performance as well. in the context of sartre, the dramatic performance as a whole (the signifier) and the audiences (the signified) seemed to be interwoven because sartre does not experiment with dramatic form as much as ionesco and beckett do. ionesco, on the other hand, keeps the audiences at a little distance by ‘defamiliarizing’ the appearance of the guests on the stage. thus, the invisible appearance of the guests on the stage in the chairs defamaliarizes the characters’ dramatic role making the perception of the audiences changed. they are not given what they expected; and this aesthetic shock keeps them at a distance to think about the unusual appearance of the characters on the stage. the invisibility of the other characters is made visible by virtue of the performance of the old man and old woman. it seems like the old man and the old woman otherize themselves to differ from and defer their existential angst. they distance themselves for a while from the inauthenticity of their own selves to defamiliarize the nature of human relationships. this idea can well be explained after observing the performance of the old man when the invisible colonel appears on the stage. the old man hurries to the door when the doorbell rings, and the stage directions of ionesco regarding the performance of the old man inform us: he hurries, opens door no. 2, and the invisible colonel enters. perhaps it would be useful for us to hear discreetly several trumpet notes, several phrases like ‘hail the chief’. when he opens the door and sees the invisible colonel, the old man stiffens into a respectful position of attention. he lifts his hand vaguely towards his forehead, so as to roughly sketch a solute. he presses the invisible hand that the invisible colonel gives him, bending forward ceremoniously, then straightening up again. (9) the colonel neither speaks nor is he visible to the audiences, yet the audiences know that he has arrived. the whole story comes to the audiences only through the performance of the old man and old woman. it is the old man who creates the identity of the colonel by acting before 114 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 him like a soldier lower in rank would do before the colonel. the significant point here is that the old man creates this identity of the colonel by virtue of a differential relation that occurs between the invisibility of the colonel and language. it is announced in language that the colonel has arrived, but his picturization gets reflected only in the performance of the old man at the door. the invisibility of the colonel is in opposition to the announcement of his arrival in language; and then by virtue of his dramatic performance, the old man signifies this invisibility before the audiences. thus, what language conveys is deferred by the invisibly of the colonel – the invisibility that becomes visibility in the performance of the old man. from the perspective of ionesco’s dramatic art, this fact holds much importance because, as mentioned in the introduction, ionesco wanted to bring the real into light. the real, he thought, “is in its unreality”. it is for this reason that richard n. coe calls ionesco’s theatre a “pure theatre” the meaning and goal of which is that “truth is a tale told without words to people who cannot hear it.” (qtd. in schechner 65) the people cannot hear this truth but they are enabled to understand it. thus defamiliarizing what is usually considered as real by making it unreal brings about a change in ‘the collective consciousness’ of the audiences who are given time to judge it by distancing them from the dramatic performance. beckett’s endgame is marked by such a defimiliar aura that the audiences do not seem to be much involved. in the very beginning, we are informed that the picture hanging on the wall has its face towards the wall. it is symbolic of the fact that beckett is never going to show anything clearly to the audiences. there are so many pauses in the dialogues of the characters and so much subjectivity that they all seem to be addressing only each other and not the audiences. the yellow light adds to the death-like situation in such a manner that everything else seems to be dead and perished. everything seems to be in its last moment. nonetheless, the presence of the audiences cannot be completely ignored. hamm tells clov: “imagine if a rational being came back to earth, wouldn’t he be liable to get ideas into his head if he observed us long enough… to think perhaps it won’t all have been for nothing!” (108) these lines quite well explain that their situation if observed has something meaningful to offer. no matter how absurd and disordered their situation is, it is not devoid of the possibility of being observed with a purpose. this way, beckett seems to be not completely ignorant of the audiences. whatever 115 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 happens on the stage does not happen for nothing as hamm admits. so, the meaningless babbling of the characters is sometimes contrasted with the meaningful phrases or sentences that they utter. without presenting the absurdity of life, it is not possible to understand the meaning of life. this theatrical distance in beckett serves the purpose of detaching the audiences from what is commonplace so that their attention may be diverted towards something new and defamiliar. the defamiliar reality presented before the audiences enable them to think differently of the world so that automated and habitual phenomenon that has always been the cause of meaninglessness and purposelessness may be renewed in such a manner that new meanings are derived from it. in endgame, time and space do not appear to be ordinary concepts, as those that are much exhausted in philosophy. rather, they are made defimiliar and detached from their ordinary burden of meanings to give them new meanings. for example, when hamm asks clove what time it is, he replies: “the same as usual” (94). it appears that beckett considers time only an internal psychological phenomenon. before beckett, bergson had already divided time into internal time and external time. this confusion was one of the major concerns of modern literary writers. subjectivity or individuality was the most important feature of modernism. among all modernist playwrights, beckett is the most subjective. it is his focus on the individual’s private and subjective condition that makes him treat time as a psychological phenomenon. it must be kept in mind that time and space may appear as illusions in beckett’s drama, but these illusions from a phenomenological perspective are rooted in intuition. following what was explained in the previous paragraph, it appears that “the thing in itself” in the drama of beckett does not count. for example, when clov peeps through the magnifier to observe the world beyond the window, hamm asks him what he sees there; clov tells him ‘zero’. this explains how the thing in itself is zero in beckett’s drama; the objective existence of objects is put to question here. it is only the phenomenon of things that beckett concerns himself with. this dramatic quality makes beckett different from sartre in whose plays the objective world not only exists objectively, but it has precedence also over the phenomenon. however, it does not suggest that beckett is too subjective or solipsistic. the phenomenon is the phenomenon of the world, and if it is the phenomenon of the world, it cannot be said that it is only consciousness that shapes this phenomenon. what beckett does is only to unveil the truth behind the psychological and 116 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 subjective existence of an individual. he creates a differential relation between phenomenon and noumena because phenomenon differs considerably from noumena though phenomenon is but the phenomenon of noumena. beckett does this by using the avante garde technique of surrealism. by using this technique, beckett defamiliarizes these concepts to detach them from their habitual and automated states. making the stage-world surrealistic, he becomes able to deal with his concept of time and space. following the same existentialist phenomenology, beckett’s philosophy of meaning is different from sartre. sartre defines meaning in terms of being-foritself and being-in-itself while beckett rejects sartrean objectivity by considering time and space as subjective and intuitive entities. this quality makes beckett truly modern in his dramatic approach. in no exit, the mere consciousness of garcine (being-for-itself) encounters the world (objects) and in this encounter negates the world by getting the awareness that he is what the world is not and the world is what he is not. the negation is possible only in this relation; and in this negation he differs from the world as he makes the world differ from himself. same is the case with his relation to the valet. though he first encounters the valet as an object, but then the actions of the valet inform him that his perception of the valet is not what the actions of the valet are. through this differential and negative relation of garcine to the actions of the valet, garcine’s perception about the valet gets changed; he gets the awareness that the valet is not identical with other objects around him though the valet is still not a pure subject for him like his own because the authentic experience of existence belongs only to subject itself. thus the valet is presented with the defamiliar and new image of garcine. his perception is renewed and is blessed with a new meaning. this contrasting relation between garcine and the valet is marked by an aura of surrealism; the valet does not have eyelids at all, and garcine’s eyelids are ‘atrophied’. the valet is linked to garcine in such manner that a surreal effect is created through a structural contrast between the two characters. therefore, just like beckett does, sartre also uses surrealism to make a new and defimiliar reality. conclusion this paper focused on the defamiliar realities created in the chairs, endgame and no exit by ionesco, beckett and sartre respectively. the impact of different modern movements and 117 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 philosophies was analysed thoroughly both at the level of theory and literature. it was proposed that the three dramatists use the artistic and literary techniques of modernism to create a defamiliar reality. the major arguments of prominent critics such as martin esslin were contested; through the lenses of theoretical constructs such as defamiliarization, existentialism and phenomenology, it was concluded that the plays are by no means absurd or meaningless. they do convey a philosophy or meaning that gets unfolded when we look at these plays in terms of the new realities created in them and do not consider them as a representational art. it was found out that the three dramatists differ from one another in many ways; but one characteristic remains common among them―they deal with the basic problems of existence in such a manner that an estrangement from what is ordinary is made possible by presenting before the audience new world of meaning and possibilities. they in this way try to make the lives of the audience authentic and more meaningful. works cited beckett, samuel. “endgame.” samuel beckett: the complete dramatic works. london; boston: faber and faber, 1986. pp. 93-134. print dowd, garin. abstract machine: samuel beckett and philosophy after deleuze and guattare. new york, 2007. amsterdum. pdf esslin, martin. the theatre of the absurd .. london: eyre & spottiswoode, 1961. pdf. guest, michael. “paul ricoeur and watching endgame”. samuel beckett’s endgame. ed. mark s. byron. new york: armsterdum, 2007. 69-98. pdf ionesco, eugène, and donald watson. the chairs: a tragic farce. 1957. pdf sartre, jean-paul. no exit and three other plays. new york, vintage books, 1957. pdf shklovsky, viktor. “art as technique.” twentieth-century literary theory. ed. k. m. newton. london: macmillan, 1988. pp. 23-25. print @ 2020 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 85 the study of islamic feminism; mapping in laila aboulela’s the translator mahnoor shahid mufti university of management and technology, lahore mahnoormuftiofficial@gmail.com zarmeena khan lecturer at university of central punjab zarmeena.khan@ucp.edu.pk abstract this paper aims to make personality analysis in the characters of sammar, nahla, mahasen, and yasmin from leila aboulela’s no vel the translator under the lens of islamic feminism, which was first, named by margot in 2002. in this research the rules and regulations and rights which are set for the betterment of the women by allah almighty himself are being discussed in the light of sunnah, hadith and qur’an which is also taken as the sacred text. different words, phrases and expressions are interpreted on the basis of religion and culture. under this term it is believed that islam has provided women with all sorts of rights consisting even of those which one could not even imagine, it gives the message of equality and also commands its believers to protect them like a treasure but also gives a free will to them. where the society wants to treat them differently and creates such roots in the mind of people that a man’s conscious and unconscious simultaneously control his personality; his actions as well as his discourse for treating muslim women as inferior to them thus since childhood all sorts of knowledge, discourse, myths, stories, beliefs, art, literature, fairy tales and culture etc. influence their unconscious mind. in the translator leila aboulela in a unique way explains these archetypes through the life of her protagonist and that how religion in being intertwined by culture and that how much a lady specially have to fight for using her shariya rights. to show that there is need to unveil certain mysteries in the universe, which hold connections and ties among different phenomenon. key words: leila aboulela’s the translator, culture intertwined with religion, islamic feminism, shariya rights i feminism is essentially a variety of political movements, ideologies, and social movements that share a typical goal: to outline, establish, and win political, economic, personal, and social equality of sexes. this includes seeking to ascertain academic and skilled mailto:mahnoormuftiofficial@gmail.com mailto:zarmeena.khan@ucp.edu.pk vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 86 opportunities for ladies that are as capable as men. it’s been centuries since women are suppressed by males, they are kept away from important centers like, eco nomic, politics, and especially from writing, they are considered as imperfect man because they lack of a pe nis which is considered to be a pen and thus only men can write. they were considering superior because they create immortal thing (which is literature) and women create mortal thing (that is a human being). common words used to address a woman by this male dominated society were irrational, emotional and others, which traced their path of someone who does not have their own “i’dentity (as said by lacan where ‘i’ depicts self) they are the subjects of men, just used for their sexual pleasures, and as the second class citizen. jane tompkins in her essay me and my shadow concluded this entire movement as: “what engages me is the way women are used as extensions of man, for their pleasures, their devices as their servants, otherwise the western world does not or rarely give rights to women and also considers and treats them as nothing which makes western world as having no woman. ” (tompkins). jane tompkins’ statement is a depiction the state of women at that time. men were considered as heroes but they forget that heroes are born by the heroes not by the slaves. they labeled women as an object of physical attraction towards oneself and that it is the only objective of a women’s life. additionally, as we know that when a movement starts many of the critics, writers etc. takes part in it to spread the voice of voiceless. similarly as the time passed many critics took part in this movement like showalter, gilbert and guber, simon de beauvoir, helen cixous, including feminist writers like virginia wolf, george eliot, sylvia plath etc. to show and to revolt the stereotypical notion about woman abounded in the literary canon. gradually but slowly things begin to change. law became a helping hand of women as well, woman begin to take part in many of the male dominated fields like economics, politics, writing etc. to spread their voice and to show what they really feel and who they really are, and now in this present time it’s reaction is lucid comparatively more than men, women are successful. while we are mentioning about feminism, which is unfurl everywhere in this world there is another term or we can say erudition which is 1400 years old and which was given especially for muslim women. muslims are 24% of the total population in numbers and are increasing day by day. in the present time islam is the second largest religion which is being followed where first is christianity. like every other religion islam is also having some sets vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 87 or we can standards of responsibility, respect, rights and regulations for every gender. it can be traced that islam goes back to the time when adam and eve first stepped in this world. it is assumed that since then the conflict between genders and the way each gender should be treated was started. when we talk about islam and woman gender in 2002 critic magrot badran coined the term islamic feminism to address the rights and feministic approach of islam. she defines it as: “as a standard combination of islam and feminism which advocates the feminist discourses according to the rights and rules under muslim paradigm” (badran) as mentioned above by margot badran, muslim paradigm in most simplified terms means the path showed by the allah almighty himself along with the holy prophet (s.a.w.w) which is stored in sunnah, hadith and quran. just like every religion islam teaches its followers to respect each and every creation of allah. therefore they have been assigned with different sets of rights and rules to follow. when we think about islam the first image that arises in our mind is of a woman being confined and thus a question arises about how women must be in islam? we live in an era where islamophobia is popular due to the image of the muslims around the globe. the stereotypical image of muslims portrays them as people who are authorized for wrong doing along with gender biasness being a prominent issue. world critically believes that islam is a religion that confines womanhood. it is commonly anticipated that its women have no free will. whereas in reality secular feminism itself wants rights equivalent to the set of rights and respect given to the muslim women. we can also see that how these anticipations are baseless because on the vary surface level of islamic knowledge one can trace that when a muslim woman is born she is al-rehmat (blessing from allah), when she turns into someone’s wife she completes his deen (religion), and when she gives birth to the child she is having al-jannah (paradise) under her feet. this is not only the respect given to women but a clear depiction of their status in islam as well. throughout the detailed reading of islam we can find many such evidence of women having higher status then the men of their society. moreover, before discussing about the topics related to the islamic teachings one point should be cleared that there are two approaches for islamic teaching first is the cultural teaching; where religion is tamed according to the cultural preference. as the example of this vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 88 we can see that in our society women are preferred to be modest and often a verse from quran’s chapter 24 of surah-al noor (the light) in the verse 30 is recited which states “say to the believing women that: they should cast down their glances and guard their private parts (by being chaste)…” which is the second half part of the quranic verse, the first part of this verse states “say to the believing men that: they should cast down their glances and guard their private parts (by being chaste). this is better for them.” this example does not only show that how hypocrisy works in our society but also portrays that how our culture subjugates women in the name of islam. the second is type of the teaching is the transcript teaching; the actual religious teaching that is preserved in sunnah, hadith and quran. it’s been more than three decades where the new era of scholarship has been appeared primarily by the question of gender justice and methodological amelioration's. this study consists of the critical revisits and analyze things into its components which are dominated by the religious interpretations, to show the patriarchal elements and decimatory against wom en and aims to produce new knowledge that will make an ease for gender equality and justice within the islamic paradigm. this study predominantly focuses on the muslim women and muslim female scholars from all around the world and from different cultures like south african, american, canadian, pakistani, indian, chinese etc. and this new scholarship has be en named as the islamic feminism. furthermore, when we mention islamic feminism through the lens of quran, hadith and sunnah we are talking about the transcript teaching. a question arises over here is that what islam basically say about both genders and their treatment? the answer lies in the history of islam itself. before islam officially came into being and before the holy prophet (s.a.w.w), there came 1, 23999 prophets to preach islam, but none of them could do it as well as muhammad (s.a.w.w) did. in the preislamic period women were treated in an inhumane way. they were beaten brutally, daughters were buried alive, and were used as prostitutes. after the arrival of the holy prophet (s.a.w.w) and islam, things changed drastically. especially the standards and sets of respect, rules and regulations for women, quran mentions about the duties of men and woman and their rights as "and for women are rights over men similar to those of men over women." (the holy quran)[2:228]. vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 89 as mentioned in the verse above, it is lucid that islam does not promote the slash system; person on the right side is superior then the left one. this is not the only time when quran mentions woman having same rights as men. our holy prophet and the beloved messenger of allah (s.a.w.w) while addressing muslims on the occasion of his farewell pilgrimage, warned the people against the values which he feared would be neglected after him and considers women’s right as one of the important issues about whom he said: “o people, it is true that you have certain rights concerning you women, but they also have rights over you” later he (s.a.w.w) added “remember you have taken them as your wives, only under allah subhanatallah’s trust and with his permission” and later he again added "observe your duty to allah in respect to the women, and treat them well.” (at-tirmidhī). through the mentioned above hadith, we can observe that the holy prophet (s.a.w.w) has preached allah’s message to treat everyone equal , no one is superior to anyone and especially treat women with respect and love, which portrays that in islam they are considered as the crown of men. while sharing the sayings of our beloved holy prophet and of allah and of quran, sunnah and hadith. the question arises over here is that ar e these only sayings or these should be applied by muslims as well? answer to this question can be traced through a keen analysis of our surroundings and self. islam has always promoted peace, value of one’s individuality and self. throughout the history we find countless figures promoting transcript teachings including women who have ruled the world when west was still dominated by men and their brutal behavior towards women was considered normal which could be traced in the work of writers like marry wollstonecraft, sarah scott, and fanny burney etc. while talking about women empowerment one of the major problems that have been recorded over the centuries is about women being protected by men. in islam this role of security even though has been given to men but women are not have been restricted of doing the same. we can see many muslim women, who have worked as shields even for many of the brave kings as an example we can mention women like urdubegis who fought battles and were the shield of kings like shahjahan who are also mentioned in the kishori lal’s book the mughal harem. mentioning about women and battles we cannot neglect these kashmiri turks, habshi and tatar women called urdubegis. the world knows that what kind of power did vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 90 the king shahjahan and his empire had. while mentioning his power kishori lal in his book the mughal harem explains his powers secret as urdubeigs. they were the group of kashmiri, habshi, tatar and turk women who were assigned to shield the emperor and the zanan khana of the mughal mahal. additionally, lal also elaborates about the life of mughal ladies. they lived in a different mahal which was also called as harem it had only women. different rooms were allocated for each and every princess because they observed purdah and thus the administration of their living was entirely run by ladies and khuwajasarah’s. this administration had over 5000 servants and noble women under the vision of akbar who organized zana n khana. the task for its protection was given to habshi’s, turk’s, tatar and kashmiri women because they did not observe purdah. many of these women were purchased as slaves and were trained for this position with the training of weapon combat, specifical ly lance and archery, a great deal was spend on them by mughal which paid them off. as mughal emperors spends great deal of their leisure in zanan khana, these women used to protect them while they were asleep. these ladies were terribly skillful warriors, in 1719 farrukhsiyar hid in his harem fearing his life, and the armed guards of mahal readied themselves for battle likewise, as another example we can see the life of hazrat khawlah bint al-azwar (r.a); who was a warrior, a nurse, a companion of our holy prophet (s.a.w.w), a noble sister and a daughter. she was skilled in such a way that in many battles when she covered her face people used to take her as khalid bin waleed. thus often islam is also considered as a feminist religion because of the rights and liberation which it gives to women. it says that women are not just for the household chores but they can fulfill any imaginable criteria of excellence. it is evitable in many muslim households the treatment of ladies or women is based on love and respect. even though just like exceptional cases there is only two to three percent of total muslim population which does not follow the path showed to them by the holy prophet. these exceptional cases are somehow given more media coverage, which depicts the wrong essence of islam and islamic teaching. ii we live in a society where since childhood women are taught to be pure, never even talk to a man; have command over each and every household chore. they h ave been prepared vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 91 to be a commodity of men who will then have a right to treat them the way they want to. just like the jahiliya (which literally means barbarism); the pre-islamic period. likewise, fatema mernissi in her book beyond the veil discusses this time of the jahiliya, as “where unbridled, narcissistic, sexual consumerism ruled and women were reduced men to anonymous sexual commodities and denied them the right to fatherhood” (mernissi). shedding light over the brutal and inhume experiences of women in pre-islamic period mernissi’ statement gives a vivid picture of women at that time. including treatments like being treated as commodities, used as prostitutes, beaten for no reason, the man who had a girl as the new member of the family was mocked by the society and was forced to hide even his face before leaving his home. thus many of the girls were burned and buried alive, women were labeled as sex maniacs’, irrational and weak being; they believed that men were not emotionally weak personalities when it comes to the physical attractions between two sexes. also, mernissi in her book gives answer to this assumption of women being emotionally weak personalities as an attribute associated with the females of th e society. while arguing about this she explains it through the women’s charm mentioned in the garden of lovers a book which was written in the 13th century by imam ibn qayyim al -jawziya, meditating on the korean verses “he (god) created the human being we ak” interpreted as “man who is fragile because if he looks at the woman he cannot restrain himself” (mernissi). relating it through the transcript teaching of islam it can be observe that allah almighty himself commands that “ask your believing men to lower their gaze and ask your believing women to cover themselves” (the holy quran) moreover, naturally it can be observed that there is an attraction between men and women which can be felt by everyone but it cannot be considered as a base to state that one gender is superior emotionally then other. it is universally impossible for both of the sexes to control their tendencies and emotions. the basic concept of couples in islam is due to these different tendencies which are established so both the sexes co uld get along together as an example of this we can see that women are blessed with patience , sharp mind, critical evaluation, and strength therefore they give birth to a child. they have a tendency to observe any situation or speech more critically than men they are blessed with such mindsets that they vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 92 can easily trace the lie, frauds in oneself and that is the reason even in the militaries male officers when going to a secret mission are said to avoid female security guards. whereas, men are blessed with physical strength and focus but still unlike women they cannot control their emotions and maybe that’s the reason why when they are emotional they lose their sense of thinking. an arab scholar, dr mohammed hassan abdullah who has written one of the best books uses this quote of imam and added that, it is clear that male lacks self-sufficiency and needs a woman, which means that it is a universally promoted rule that the one who is lacking something would try to take control over the on e who is having it. the same thing that is happening with women as well now they are said to be imperfect because they lack a phallus but in reality they are complete because they are the one who give birth to another entity. this complexity of superiority could be summed up in marry wollstonecraft’s words which she used in her novel maria or the wrongs of the women that “women always had the worst of it, when law is to decide” (wollstonecraft) also, with the people who are in the support of this discourse their are also many critics that are against it, like a pakistani american scholar asma barlas, which rejects the un-taught patriarchy in quran and rejects the concept of islamic feminism because according to her it rejects the concept of feminism. in an article about the islamic feminism by mulki alsharmani mentions that instead, asma barlas introduces her project as a discourse that will project the new gender sensitive religious educations as performing her duties. her duty to god as a believing woman, not as engaging in feminism. mulki al-sharmani a finland based researcher in her article about islamic feminism mentions about the history of women and gender issues, which says that both of the discourses are totally different things but having same motive which is the betterment of the women in society. through the above mentioned examples we can observe that critics and scholars are having their own mixed opinions based on the different dimensions of islam feminism. though they meet at the same point but these two dimensions includes 1) the interpretation; quran, sunnah, and hadith are preserved in arabic, it is considered as one of the vast languages where every word can be interpreted in various perspectives. 2) what is the role of women in literature, and what literature says about muslim women what are i ts roots cannot vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 93 be traced?; many of the critics say that quran was the first literature in which women were mentioned as a free entity. these dimensions can be traced through amina wadud’s book quran and woman, in this book she talks about women salvation, from within the islamic world view. the uniqueness of this book is in its analysis of islamic worldview, based on the original source, which is the qur'an, and not on the secondary sources which are the interpretations and different literatures. mentioning women roles wadud argues “qur’an does not support a specific and stereotypical role for its characters, male or female” (wadud). based on cultural, social, historical or universally accepted female functions. qur’an is a moral history which proposes mora l values which are ““extra-historical” and “transcendental” in nature” (wadud). through this line wadud makes it clear that in qur’an if there is a reason for a specific incident than the universal “extra-historical” element gets excluded and makes it just as an history book in a limited sense of a recorded event. qur’an promotes the application of the precepts exemplified by the characters mentioned in the verse rather than merely giving a record. in the most simplified term we can say that qur’an remains to the character and the issue stating in order to present a moral principle without overburdening the reader. wadud adds, “qur’an gives just enough but not too much details in order to facilitate its purpose” (wadud). mentioning about the women in qur’an wadud stresses “readers who interpret the significance of the women cited in qur’an often come to the text with notions of appropriate functions for women. when these are supported on the surface of the qur’anic portrayal, they do not look further at the e xamples. this has led to a great deal of oversimplifications and contradictions when the perspective of individual exegete is superimposed to the qur’an itself.” (wadud). in this discussion of women in the qur’an and interpretation it is important to understand that difference between the women as an individual and women as the member of the society. for most part of the qur’anic consideration it can be traced that women centers their relationship on earth with the social system. however qur’an focuses on a n individual, whether male or female, in exactly the same manner because qur’an says that the relationship between allah and the individual is not based on gender terms. it is evident to address an individual qur’an uses the term nafs. “allah does not tax a nafs beyond its scope. for it (is only) that which has earned and against it (is only) that which deserved” (the holy quran). vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 94 there is no distinction between male and female with regard to individual capacity with regard to their relationship with allah. with regard to their personal aspiration they are also the same. this is important to understand because in every society, it’s been centuries since people have assumed that both sexes are “different not merely on the basic anatomy but in elusive qualities of spirit, soul and ability. they are not supposed to do the same things, think the same, dream the same, and desire the same” (wadud) this social difference determines the difference between men and women; they conclude these differences as an indicati on of different values as well. however, there is no such indication that the qur’an intends for us to understand that there is a primordial distinction between men and women. such interpretations are the reason for men being treated as fully human and women as less human than a man. the most troubling is the tendency to attribute these interpretations to the qur’an itself rather than to the author who hold them. these authors and their interpretation encourages the stereotypes about men and women, which also justify the restrictions placed on th e woman’s right to pursue personal happiness within the context of islam. to revolt this false representation of islam and islamic law muslim writers have decided raise their voices and show the true face of society. one of such works is the translator by laila aboulela. in which she discusses the conflict between the rights given to women in islam and cultural practices negating them through the character of sammar, nahla, yasmin and mahasen. iii starting from the protagonist herself, sammar is a strong headed woman. her character has been used to trace some of the important hypocritical elements of society while introducing true spirits of islam. she is a widow, her husband died in a car accident. sammar was married to her maternal cousin trarig. she apparentl y shared a beautiful bond with her mother-in-law based on respect and love but in reality this bond was based on compromises sammar made to keep her relationship with tarig healthy. she was a puppet in mahasen’s hand “an obedient niece, letting mahasen how you (she) should dress, how you (she) should make your (her) hair. you were happy with that, content, waiting for the day you would take away her only son” (leila abuleila). it is said that marriage is a bond between two people who would start a new beginning of their life together but in our society it is more like a vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 95 contract where a woman is taken as an object to be exploited, who would neglect herself to please people around and taking care of the child she has been married with. however this is often taken as a polite act of love in order to attain acceptance but it is against islamic teachings. a daughter-in-law has no need to obey anyone from her in-laws. in any matter major or minor unless they advise her to accomplish something which is required by or deny her to accomplish that is haraam. they do not have the privilege to drive her to do anything like how to cook, clean, dress etc. unless it is for her gui dance “the best among you is the one who treats his daughter-in-law equivalent to their daughter indeed that place (house) is best among other” (at-tirmidhī). similarly, after tarig’s death, mahasen showed the ugliest face of the society. she blamed sammar of “you killed my son” (leila aboulela), which is a common practice in our society. widows are subjugated to an extant where they lose their all ties with this world; they are labeled as unblessed and are forced to live a life of grief; without re alizing that there is no power on earth that can plan death other than allah. sammar being able to understand her rights given to her by allah almighty wanted to marry again to ahmed ali yaseen “he’s religious… and feels a duty towards widows” (leila aboulela). sammar asks permission from mahasen to get marry with ahmed but she forbids her saying “nine months have not yet passed, you want to get married again... and to whom? a semi illiterate with two wives and children of your age. i’ll never give permission for something like this. from what sort of clay you have been made of? explain to me? explain what you think you’re going to do” (leila aboulela). mahasen’s reaction and treatment towards sammar is the perfect depiction of how women are subjugating women. negotiating the fact that according to islamic law a widow can get re-marry without consulting anyone. mahasen decided to suppress her voice and ignore the statement of quran where allah almighty himself mentions “and those who are taken in death among you and leave wives behind – they (the wives, shall) wait for four months and ten (days). and when they have fulfilled their terms, than there is no blame upon you for what they do with themselves in an acceptable manner. and allah is (fully) acquainted with what you do” ( (the holy quran). similarly, the hypocrisy of the society about the re -marrying and about the equality is also shown by the characters of rae and tarig. rae who is a middle eastern islamic scholar vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 96 in a scottish university and is the boss of sammar, is divorced and had two wives but throughout the novel not even once he was questioned on being divorced even of having a daughter, and even in the novel he also says to sammar that “i was afraid you were married. i would have deserved that...” (leila aboulela) which mean that he wanted get married to her. for a man it was as easy as cake but for a woman it is way too difficult to put her thoughts and also her practicing of religion in front of someone. whereas, tarig who was also the cousin sammar, shows the true practicing will of a man; as the one who is after each and every decision for himself and other members of his family. sammar was always the puppet of mahasen and tarig, they were making decisions for her and she was just allowed to say yes. this pressure was to an extent that sammar wanted her child to die. which unveils another aspect of our society where women are forced to have a child after her marriage. they are not even consulted whether they want to have a child or not and if they aren’t having a child within a year they are labeled as nulliparous. to unfurl this essence of the society, imagery of “froth, ugly froth” (leila aboulela) has been used to portray the condition of women in the society. this froth is the representation of the pressure a woman face in her daily life, giving voice “that could be rise if she started to speak” (leila aboulela). this voice raising for rights has been used to portray that how often other women and men of the society subjugate the voices that are raising. this also portrays the misleading of islamic law and teaching, along with religion being twisted with culture. as an example of this can be seen in our own culture and religion where the pakistani’s follow the culture of indian’s and not only the culture but even their concepts about both sexes. whereas, in islam women are considered as the crown of men and not equivalent to them. in many scenario’s women are being preferred over men as an example of this we can see that in islam women are having financial advantage, their share is though conside red as less but when calculated through the amount of share’s they get, it is way ahead to the share of men. their fortune is just their fortune, which means that if you have gifted something to her that it belongs to her only, no one can even borrow it fr om her. men are not even allowed to ask about how much she has or if he can have a share from her wealth. vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 97 similarly, talking about the status of a good woman in our so called islamic society. yasmin’s character has been used to shed light over an important issue of modesty. yasmin is rae’s secretary “her parents were from pakistan but she was born and had lived all her life in different parts of britain… she generalizes the third world and its people in her statement using “‘we’, where, ‘we’” (leila aboulela). in an episode where sammar and yasmin went to meet rae at his place. rae mentions about cultural sensitivity; being aware of cultural differences and similarities between people exist without assigning them value --positive or negative. mentioning about a case in high court where an asian woman was awarded with thousands of pounds damages, against her husband. he slandered her by suggesting that she was not virgin before marriage. “the grounds for the case were that the insult was very serious in her community” (leila aboulela). yasmin adds “yes, we prize virginity” (leila aboulela). it represents the scale on which a woman’s modesty is being measured in pakistani society or in any other country which is related to their virginity rather than their character. most importantly a man dragging a woman on such issues to the court screams about the harassment and suppression a woman goes through on daily bases on a mere hint of being so called culprit . whenever modesty or virginity is being mentioned it is always related to women and their hijab in our society. but in islam while addressing hijab or modesty it does not address women but men first. islam places the primary responsibility on wearing a hi jab on men not on women. this point is critical to understand. hijab or headscarf is much more than covering your hair and men needs to realize this. at the genesis of the hijab discussion quran commands men to not to stare at women and not to be promiscuous. quran mentions “tell the believing men to lower [some] their gaze (not look at women’s beauty other than those who are legal for them) and guard their private parts. that is purer for them. indeed, allah is acquainted with what they do.” (surah nur, 30) this verse rebukes forced laws on women that claims women must cover themselves, they should not avoid provocative attires which can attract men’s attention. it destroys rape culture because it exclusively commands men first to reform themselves. it demolishes men’s complaints about women modesty. similar scenario can be illustrated from the life of our beloved holy prophet (s.a.w.w) when he (s.a.w.w) rode with his companion al fadl bin abbas. a woman strikingly beautiful approached the prophet to seek guidance on a religious matter. al fadl begins to stare at her beauty. noting this prophet (s.a.w.w) did not vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 98 scold the woman for immodest dressing. instead he (s.a.w.w) “reached his hand behind al fadl catching his chin and turned his face on the other side so he would not gaze at her” (attirmidhī). through this example we can see that islam has demolished all these cultural made concepts of women being modest, where their modesty is being related to their virginity. if virginity would be celebrated then the holy prophet (s.a.w.w) would not have been married to a widow, who was 15years elder than him and had children as well. whereas we can also analysis that while mentioning about private parts both of the sexes are commanded to guard them. aboulela while mentioning about society and girls reputation adds, “a girls reputation is fragile as a match stick, a woman’s honor is labeled by the idol people, what determined the giving holding back, is your own willingness… a girl’s honor… your father will kill you … your brother will beat you up… ” (leila aboulela) above mentioned quote reveals, the solution of this and says that no one will remember who did what and what was the reputation of yours but a woman should know what she can do for herself. she must be willing enough to stand for herself and to use her own mind instead of letting people decide for her. we live in a world where the opposite this condition is and rae pints out this as; “many of the men like chekov says woman pines over man when she is deprived of the company, and when deprived over the company of woman, man becomes stupid” (leila aboulela), women are objectified and are labeled as a product and as a being which is longing for just love and wants a man who will complete her lacks, and men are born sensible and are rational till they meet a woman and lose their senses. secondly, sammar’s love for rae and also the soon realization that he has a loss of faith which sammar holds sacred is basically the representation of the true spirit of islam. sammar having the right to live her life as she wants to also give her a right to choose her partner. sammar still asks him to embrace islam which he denies even though he also claims to love her “and do not know what kind of sickness it would be to be away from” (leila aboulela), and says that he has studied islam for the sake of politics and to examine middle eastern world. he is not sure whether he would follow islam as his religion although each and every person wants to know when he will be converting t o islam. sammar who thinks according to the true teachings of islam, realized that it is against islamic teaching which states “and do not marry the idolatresses until they believe, and certainly a believing maid is vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 99 better than an idolatress woman, even though she should please you; and do not give (believing women) in marriage to idolaters until they believe, and certainly a believing servant is better than an idolater, even though he should please you; these invite to the fire, and allah invites to the garden and to forgiveness by his will, and makes clear his communications to men, that they may be mindful.” (the holy quran), she cannot marry rae until he converts. instead of forcing him too she decides to leave him behind and move on. even though it seems weird that why muslim man can marry a non-muslim woman but not vice versa. it is because muslims are commanded to respect each other and spread kindness and love which includes all past prophets and their religion (christianity and jews). similar is the relationship between a husband and wife should be. but when a non muslim marries a muslim woman, her faith can be a source of discomfort due to their different believes. and the teachings they had. thus it is better for muslim women to practice their religion and be with the believer. moreover, talking about marriage and women, another character mentioned in the novel with this aspect cannot be neglected. nahla, she is the neighbor of sammar in khartoum. she is getting married and shares with sammar that she has not informed her elders about her marriage being a love marriage, for them it is an arrange marriage. this shows anot her right of women being neglected in the society. according to islamic teaching “when your daughter says that she want to get married from her choice. accept it. do not call her shameless or disobedient. she has asked for her right which allah has given h er.” (at-tirmidhī).whereas societies take it as an offence and their daughters as a rebel against their norms and culture, and force them to subjugate their voices. subjugating women’s voice in many scenarios is haraam especially when it is related to her life. women in islam are given free will and they have a right to practice it. iv to sum put the idea i can say that the decisions sammar took in her life showed that even though people judge muslims through the lens of islamophobia which is currently very popular due to the image of the muslims in the world. muslims are portrayed as conservative for their women and promotes gender biasness. world critically believes that islam is a religion that confines womanhood, it is very commonly heard that it restrict s them to cover themselves even if they do not want to, it gives them no right if they want to marry four men, vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 100 they are restricted to step out of the house, it is a conservative life style for women and not for men, they are not treated equally as men and are just for the sake of their men’s pleasure. similarly, it is also said that islamic women are the victim of the terrorism as well, but through the character of sammar all these allegations are proved wrong and also that the women in the western society are following the paths which was shown by the holy prophet (s.a.w.w) by the command of allah almighty himself 1400 years ago . it leads towards the path of betterment and protection but it is due to his creation which had mixed the culture and has destroyed its pure essence now people rely on others tongues more than quran, sunnah and hadith. it can be concluded that leila aboulela shows the true face of our society through her characters as it is the similar is the case that is with even our own society where the women cannot or demand to use shariya because the society mentions only one thing and that is allah has command to command children to respect their elders no matter what even if they are wrong instead of correcting them just accept what they are saying, has damaged the soul of teachings for women rights. neglecting all those rights islam gives to women. the hypocritical face of the society has been unveiled since it can be seen that it is our culture that suppresses a woman not islam. bibliography abbas, mujahid, and asma kashif shahzad. "the personal is political: a feministic analysis of pakistani political autogynographies." university of chitral journal of linguistics & literature 4.ii (2021): 12-29. at-tirmidhī, abū ʿīsā muḥammad ibn ʿīsā as-sulamī aḍ-ḍarīr al-būghī. the true collection sunan al-tirmithi 1-4. 2008. softcopy. badran, margot. feminism in islam: secular and religious convergences. 2009. bayt, ahlul. al-islam.org. n.d. <https://www.al-islam.org/hijab-muslim-womens-dress-islamicor-cultural-sayyid-muhammad-rizvi/quran-and-hijab>. khan, numaira hamid. "an intersectional feminist reading of bapsi sidhwa's water." university of chitral journal of linguistics & literature 4.ii (2021): 43-55. leila aboulela. the translator. united kingdom: grove press black cat imprint, 1999. paperback. https://www.al-islam.org/hijab-muslim-womens-dress-islamic-or-cultural-sayyid-muhammad-rizvi/quran-and-hijab https://www.al-islam.org/hijab-muslim-womens-dress-islamic-or-cultural-sayyid-muhammad-rizvi/quran-and-hijab vol. 3 | issue ii | july – dec | 2019 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 101 mernissi, fatema. beyond the veil. massachusetts, 1975. the holy quran. shamas, mirza noman, and zobia hussain. "female racial and linguistic exploitation through economics: a marxist feminist analysis of kamila shamsie’s selected works." university of chitral journal of linguistics & literature 4.i (2020): 81-94. tirmidhi, iman hafiz abu eisa mohammad ibn eisa at. jami' at-tirmidhi. maktaba dar-ussalam, king fahd national library catalog-in-publication data, 2007. tompskin, jane. "me and my shadow." the johns hopkins university press (2014). wadud, amina. qur'an and woman. oxford university press, 1999. paperback. wollstonecraft, mary. maria, or the wrongs of woman. 1798. zainab, noreen. "repression, isolation and paranoia: a psychoanalytic feminist study of ‘the nightmare’by rukhsana ahmad." university of chitral journal of linguistics & literature 1.i (2018): 47-59. @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 12 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the personal is political: a feministic analysis of pakistani political autogynographies mujahid abbas lecturer, department of humanities, comsats university islamabad, vehari campus mujahid@cuivehari.edu.pk asma kashif shahzad assistant professor, department of humanities, comsats university islamabad, vehari campus asmashahzad@cuivehari.edu.pk abstract this present research analyses benazir bhutto's daughter of the east (1989) and fatima bhutto's songs of blood and sword: a daughter's memoir (2011) to explore how pakistani women, belonging to elite political families, are politically conscious while engaging their fathers' stories in their autobiographies. the autobiographies share specific characteristics: both the narrators belong to the same bhutto family, and their self-narratives are predominantly father clear; both texts are written after their fathers' political assassination, and the narrators have tried to defend their father's political vulnerable image; the word "daughter" in each of the subtitles emphasizes the idea of filiation. the narrators reflect their political consciousness by defending and praising their fathers' political actions and elaborate on how national politics' political implications have affected their personal and political familial lives. highlighting the importance of political education, benazir distrusts outdated politics of compromises and narrates that the political profession requires sacrifices. being a politician, one has to compromise even with the murderers of one's (her) father. benazir condemns patriarchy and mentions that daughters can inherit their father's political legacy like sons. meanwhile, fatima criticizes benazir that she is the usurper of her father's political legacy and does not follow her political principles. fatima's self-narrative challenges benazir's political claims made in her autobiography. both the narrators look gendersensitive and condemn patriarchy even though both of them try to defend their fathers. benazir and fatima discuss their personal and private matters publicly for political reasons, as manifested through the text. keywords: autobiography, political consciousness, personal and political, second wave of feminism mailto:mujahid@cuivehari.edu.pk mailto:asmashahzad@cuivehari.edu.pk 13 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 introduction the autobiographers, benazir bhutto and fatima bhutto, belong to the same bhutto family clan under my study. benazir, the former prime minister of pakistan, is zulfikar ali bhutto, a pakistani politician who has served as president of pakistan from 1971 to 1973 and then as a prime minister of pakistan from 1973 to 1977. zulfikar was caught by zia's military regime and was executed in 1979 to authorise the murder of his political opponent, ahmad raza khan kasuri. benazir takes over the ppp (pakistan peoples party), her father's political party, after her father's death. she repeatedly imprisoned by the military coup and then exiled to britain in 1984. she returned to pakistan in 1986 and strengthened ppp from socialist to a liberal one that led her to victory in the 1988 election. benazir has served as prime minister of pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. fatima is the niece of benazir and the daughter of mir murtaza bhutto. murtaza, benazir's brother, was accused in approximately one hundred cases by the pakistani government under general zia's military regime. majorly he was alleged to making a terrorist organisation, al-zulfikar, which attempts on the life of available zia, and was accused in the high jacking of a plane. after a long self-exile when murtaza returned to pakistan under his sisters', benazir's, government, shot dead before their residence 70 clifton, karachi. forgetting all the accusations of her father, fatima cries out at her father's death and starts an investigation into the matters of her father's life and death. announcing benazir usurper, fatima claims that her father is the rightful inheritor of bhutto's political legacy. fatima and benazir have many points in common in their narratives. simultaneously, justifying their fathers' personal and political actions, both the narrators record and comment on the appalling history of pakistan. both the daughters reflect their political understanding while writing their fathers' political lives in a broader pakistani political context. under its classic banner, "the personal is political", the second wave of feminism led the charge for access to equal pay for equal work, child care, abortion rights and recognition of unpaid labour (seely, 2007, pp. 38-39). the personal matters (childbirth, abortion rights, marriages and family life etc.) are no more personal because the limitation on personal issues also limits women's rights. this idea is taken from the second wave of feminism (1960s) that raised the slogan "personal is political". the present study signifies that personal matters should 14 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 be personal and not discussed in public are wrong. personal life and its issues have political implications. in short, personal and political spheres affect each other and are overlapping. the term autogynography stands for the only autobiographies written by women. in feminist terms, the kind of autobiography under the present study may be categorized as atuogynography that is a term that domna stanton uses in the 1980s for the recognition of autobiographies written by females. in the female autograph (1984), she brings to light the canonical recognition of female's autobiographies with male's writing. furthermore, the infix 'gyno' in the word autobiography emphasizes that the autobiographies written by females deal with the only problems and difficulties faced by women. theoretical framework of the study this paper aims at to evaluate the political consciousness of pakistani elite women from the perspective of "the personal is political", a second wave feminist slogan, developed mainly through the concept of intertextuality by reading julia kristeva's canonical book "desire in language: a semiotic approach to language and art" (1980). intertextuality is the reference of a social, media or literary text within another social, media or literary text. kristeva's concept of intertextuality is a revision or rework of bakhtin's notion of dialogism. according to bakhtin all discourses are in dialogue with each other rather, they are prior discourses or the discourses yet to come. dialogism is consisted on the dialogue between individuals, instead they are the authors or the characters of a literary text in a specific given context and social settings of that time (panchappa, 2011). women gather together during the second wave of feminism and engaged in what is known as "consciousness raising (cr)" (royce, 2011, p. 532). while sharing their personal, they have uncovered their stories' commonalities that made them understand their subjugation by the social structures (royce, 2011, p. 532; tong, 2009, p. 48; allen, 2000, p. 280; rosen, 2000, p. 197). second wave feminism embraced the premise of consciousness-raising to realise that the experiences of women that were understood as personal and private were connected to different forms of gender inequality and oppression; realisation of this fact made possible the analysis of political and collective actions. lee (2007) mentions that "as a focal point of second-wave activism, consciousness-raising was the first step toward women's emancipation from patriarchy, 15 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 which feminists deemed ubiquitous" (p. 165). according to lee, consciousness-raising was the first step in forming women's independent thought without any influence of patriarchy. those small groups have given women an identity separate from men. they were free to share their experiences as an independent thinker rather than as stereotypical object in the patriarchal society. women started recognising their social worth and their deserved place in society. allen (2000) emphasised that women should teach themselves "to think independently" so that they can achieve more than that of therapeutic relief (pp. 280-281). the principal purpose of consciousness-raising was to develop a theory that was "rooted in concrete experience" (p. 277). the formation of the theory was vital because it aided the apprehension of totality of the female's condition. the most important contribution of the second wave of feminism was the slogan "the personal is political" that has captured the most controversial and distinctive problem of politicising the lives of ordinary women. the slogan "the personal is political" was first coined by a feminist activist and civil right worker carol hanisch (2000), in 1968. rosan (2000) notes, "by this, she [hanisch] meant to convey the then shocking idea that there were political dimensions to private life, that power relation shaped life in marriage, in the kitchen, the bedroom, the nursery, and at work" (p. 196). second wave feminists insisted that among the other oppressions of women, the primary and fundamental oppression is men's control over women's self-esteem, self-identity and selfrespect. the second wave of feminism that is started in 1960's emphasised the personal and political which means that, like men women also have their own free will and choice to share their personal and private matters in public (mortenson, 2011, pp. 529-530; tong, 2009, p. 49; seely, 2007, pp. 38-39; williams, 2001, p. 94; walters, 2005, p.137). the word political here means what to share in the public and what to hold. analysis of daughter of the east the autogynographers have incorporated multiple voices in their narratives while contesting their fathers' authentic image. benazir has written almost two-third of the book daughter of the east (1989) from her own memory and there is short time lapse between the occurrence of the events and her narration. she narrates her struggle for power and democracy 16 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 soon after its success. she depends on her memory to report the events she experienced. however, she narrates only those events that have some meaning in the "contemporary context" (passerini, 1987, p. 127). she intends to validate her narrative by introducing other voices. smith and watson (1998) state that bakhtin's theory of dialogism support the claim of multiple voices in autobiographical texts (p. 30). though the life narratives are biased and written to glorify father, benazir includes numerous voices in her narrative to validate her father's positive image. she has in her narrative the voice of her father, party workers, political friends, political leaders around the world, political prisoners, army officers and the voice of her mother. besides interviews of individuals belonging to different spheres of life, she includes letters, historical references, references from the noble quran, instances from the life of prophet muhammad (pbuh). various other voices accompany the voice of benazir in the construction of her father's as well as her own identity. other voices in the narrative co-construct and glorify both the father and the daughter's images. benazir relates herself to different personalities and their attributes to identify with them. although her book is dedicated to her father yet she claims herself to be the daughter of the whole east. the technique of compare and contrast marks benazir's narrative. benazir identifies herself with different religious characters to construct her muslim identity. she compares and identifies her personal traits with those of bibi khadija (r.a.), bibi zeinab (r.a.) and bibi aisha (r.a.). she employs religious discourse to glorify her father's image since she labels her father as a mystic and a martyr. while constructing her political identity, she alludes to the contemporary political discourse and relates herself to indira gandhy, sirimavo bandaranaike and fatima jinnah. on account of her political achievements, she compares herself with indira gandhy. being a victim father's daughter, she compares herself with kathleen kennedy and mujib's daughters. she contrasts her father's governance period to zia's period of dictatorship and points out the differences. she praises her father and gives historical references that yahya khan, a military dictator, asked her father "to save pakistan" when dacca was about to fall in the war of 1971 (p. 55). she contrasts her father's political credibility to nixon's, an american president, who loses his "credibility" and was "hated" by his people (p. 73). 17 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 further, she narrates in confessional form and accepts her heart's dark motives. she confesses the political tactics that she uses to overturn zia's dictatorship. she says to her party members, "let's go to the mazaars to pray . . . believing the regime which was pounding islamislam-islam into everyone's heads wouldn't dare arrest us while we prayed at the tombs of our saints" (p. 125). her narrative takes turn from daughter's father perspective to father's daughter perspective. she praises her father and is proud of his political achievements and the fact that she is being identified concerning her father. benazir's narrative reflects her political understanding and consciousness. she asserts that political profession requires sacrifices and being a politician, one has to compromise even with the murderers of one's (her) father. she criticises self-centeredness in politics and does not compromise on merit for the party's political decisions. she states that political education is necessary to keep pace with politics's risky life. she confesses her diplomatic decisions in her narrative. she recounts her father's political victories and mentions her own political insights. after her father's death, she was forced to accept whatever was happening at that time in national politics. she makes compromises with zia's military regime and says "fine" to their terms (p. 25). "consciousness-raising" as the focal point of second wave of feminism is the first step toward women's liberation from patriarchy (lee, 2007, p. 165). politically conscious benazir takes the diplomatic path to defeat the dictatorship. she is well aware of the regime's power and does not want to give it a pretext to harm her political aspirations since she believes that politics does not remain a "one side" game (p. 301). she adopts a "strategy" that does not directly antagonise the regime, because she does not want the regime to disrupt her political plans. in a way, she has no other choice but to come to terms with the regime. benazir stresses on the importance of political education and understanding and distrusts the outdated political system. sluga (2014) is of the view that we can't let our "prejudices fall aside in our flight upward" to pure reflective thought (p. 166). he continues that our shared prejudices are themselves political that inevitably occur in our minds. benazir believes the politics which is free from "prejudices" and shortsightedness (benazir, 1989, p. 62). her narrative is filled with prejudice against the military regime that started at the time of her father's imprisonment that further heightened by her father's hanging. she belongs to "new generation" 18 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 and wants to forget the complexes and disagreements of past generations and condemns the selfcentered old political leaders in her who take her as "a silly little girl" (p. 26). she does not take undue political advantage by using any unfair means. she does not want to do politics at the cost of her father's name as she denies all together her uncle murtaza's suggestion to exhume the body of her father for political gains, but she refuses since "now he's free. let him rest in peace" (p. 15). benazir understands more about pakistan while studying government at harvard rather than living there. she gives importance to the political actions and decisions authorised by the law. she takes part in the party's political decisions and speaks her mind. after assessing the country's political temperature, she makes her decisions with confidence. she argues that the politics is a game of "confidence" if someone loses it, defeat will be the fate (p. 26). like mukhtar mai, benazir emphasises education that it is the only way to recognise one's own rights and duties. education makes one conscious to one's political consciousness and gives the confidence to claim one's rights. benazir has gained confidence in politics due to her degrees in government from harvard and oxford and from the political lessons taught by her father that were based on his experience. she learns that it is the constitution that enforces laws in the country. she supports the politics of law and does not compromise on "merit" (p. 267) without caring if somebody leaves the party or remains in the party. she withholds that "nothing is permanent" in politics (p. 269). people join and leave the party but she does not compromise on merit. benazir is conscious about the risks involved in politics but she argues that the "emancipation of the people of pakistan" is more important for her than anything else (p. 243). she counts her political sacrifices for the people and does not hesitate to go into "prison" to better people (p. 243). widmalm (2016) affirms that her father urged her to come into politics and finally to act upon his advice she sacrifices everything for pakistan in the form of her death. she wisely uses the political tactics of opposition while criticising them. when zia was introducing islamization in pakistan and public meetings were banned, she suggests, "let's go to the mazaars to pray . . . believing the regime which was pounding islam-islam-islam into everyone's heads wouldn't dare arrest us while we prayed at the tombs of our saints" (p. 125). she is aware of her weak political 19 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 position and tries to sound as "calm" as possible to keep pace with those old members whom she refers as "old uncles" in her narrative (p. 267). she mentions in her narrative the greed and selfcenteredness of old political party members. raza (2014) notes that zulfikar's children were ditched by the loyalist "uncles" of the party. raza continues that benazir was wary of old uncles and taught her children to beware of opportunist uncles who pose to be their companions. she always values the democratic perspective in her political decisions and makes it the party's slogan. she develops consensus among her party members. she does not force decisions on the party members but puts forward her thoughts and let other members of the party "decide" (p. 330). in benazir's narrative, the male characters are found dependent on a brave female. benazir looks at defending her father and brothers in the course of narrative literally. she wants to be with her father to protect him when commandos get into their house for mr. bhutto. after the arrest of her father her younger brother shah was also held by the army who asks benazir for help and she "shouts" at the soldier to leave him, that he is her brother (p 107). she takes the dead body of her brother shah in pakistan by risking her own life to fulfill his lost wish, to be buried in pakistan. benazir tirelessly fights the "trumped-up charges" (p. 5) against her father by zia's military regime and she is brave enough to face death for the survival of her father's concept of "democracy" (p. 196). although benazir is raised with "no discrimination" to her brothers (p. 32) and has brought up in a family that gives equal chances to boys and girls yet, she senses the patriarchal thought of the community she was living in. she condemns patriarchy and male "chauvinistic" thought (p. 65), but her narrative is not free from patriarchal effects. tong's (2009) argues that women cannot experience themselves as unique being because of the "sexual status, role, and temperament" that is constructed under patriarchy (p. 52). benazir's personal life is also affected by the patriarchy. she narrates that the male chauvinistic thought also drives her marriage decision, that a single woman is a "suspect" in a male patriarchal society (p. 353). her decision of marriage was the sacrifice of her personal freedom. she decides to marry with the purpose to 20 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 put down the unspoken reservations that a single woman might be too "neurotic to lead the country, or too aggressive, or too timid" (p. 353). benazir herself becomes an iconic figure in front of the whole world because at first she is the "first woman ever elected head of an islamic nation". secondly, she fights a brave political war with the military dictator and restores democracy (derr, macnair & naranjo-huebl, 2005, p. 320). skard (2015) mentions that benazir's official visits with her infant boy symbolise "beauty, power and motherhood" (p. 128). benazir condemns the negative gender stereotypes attached to women. the female characters in her narrative are courageous and determinant, like men. she recalls begum rana's determination who resists wild beatings and refuses to give false testimony that benazir is a member of al-zulfikar, a terrorist organisation. begum bhatti confesses, in her interview, that army officers "held cigarettes to our arms until we could smell the burning of our own flesh" (p. 191). nasira, another political prisoner, bears the "electric shocks" but does not betray the trust of benazir (p. 191). benazir defends the honour of women and gives them an identity independent to men. when a cambridge graduate asks benazir that "marriage would give you (benazir) a new dimension" then she replies "i restrained myself from saying that a woman doesn't need marriage to give herself a new dimension." in fact, it would be "an honour for a man" to marry her (p. 355). she portrays that women are not submissive creature but can bear oppressors' brunt. benazir takes over her father's political legacy—an exceptional example in traditional pakistani society. her father's ring that he, zulfikar ali bhutto, wants to "go to benazir" after his death, symbolises her father's intention to pass his political legacy to his daughter, benazir (p. 9). she inherits her father's political legacy in shattered condition and introduces a new wave of ambition in pakistani people. where benazir becomes an orphan after her father's death, she becomes the caretaker of the "orphan" nation left by her father at the same time (p. 168). being the eldest, she legitimises her inheritance of political legacy that her parents has given her "charge" to look after the family matters after them (p. 33). she takes her responsibility as an elder sister and tries to keep calm in her brothers and sister's life after her father's demise. benazir has inverted many things in her familial life and the world of politics. she is the first 21 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 woman who is democratically elected as head of any muslim country and even ahead of most western countries. she has eliminated the gender stereotypes associated with daughter. analysis of songs of blood and sword: a daughter's memoir fatima's narrative can be divided into three major parts. one part deals with bhutto's family's history, and specifically, it glorifies her grandfather, zulfikar ali bhutto. the second part of the book provides a detailed background to her father's struggle to avenge zia's military government that hanged his father. in the third part of the book, fatima defends her father's political legacy and unveils the corruption of her aunt benazir and her husband's (zardari's) government. while defending her father's actions and choices she maintains her own individuality. she comes up with her individual choices, likings and dislikings. she defines herself as independent 6from her father. she relates herself to her father only on physical grounds as she mentions that most of her father's friends in their interviews mention that i resemble my father. still, her claim of such relational identity to her father becomes vague when she mentions that she has also been complimented in her childhood that she is "just like" her aunt benazir, the woman she dislikes the most (p. 269). fatima is well aware of her father's risky life, and she wants to be safe if something happens to him. she asks her father about her guardianship because she does not want to go her biological mother, fowzia. she defends her father's choice to divorce her mother that it was all about to do with her uncle shah's death. to some extent, fatima is convinced of the accusation of raehana (fowzia's sister, and the wife of her uncle shahnawaz) for her uncle's murder which leaves her father in pain and helplessness. she mentions that she was introduced with very grown-up words by her father in her childhood like the word divorce. her father sat her down and tried to understand her meanings of divorce. fatima's unusual childhood was surrounded by the grown-ups, other than the family members, because of her father's choice of self-exile. as a child she was conscious that things around her were not normal, her grandfather was assassinated and with her father she was in exile. fatima narrates that her heart was too filled with her father's love, on which she "selfishly" depended and couldn't gave some space to her mother (p. 264). although her narrative gives the impression that she has lost maternal love, she couldn't connect emotionally to her mother. she did not want 22 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 to know others about her biological mother, fowzia. she develops her identity as a bhutto family's "firstborn grandchild" (p. 269), which gives her a distinctive position in the family. further, she mentions that though she had sensed the tension between her father and aunt benazir, she did not take her father's side because she has her own relationship with her aunt (p. 269). fatima comes out with different identities with different names as she narrates that her father called her "fatushki" when they were being funny and joking around, "fati" when they were being serious and intellectual and "fatima" when he father was angry at her (p. 271). after mentioning her identities, she cites her intellectual identity. when her father asked her to pray for palestinians because they were also homeless like them, she replies that if i ask god to send palestinians back to their home, what if he "forgets about us?" (p. 271). fatima does not compromise on her self and its feelings. she does not want to look embarrassed in front of others. she is furious with her father when he infuriates her in front of her new friend, so she threatens to send him to fowzia. in another instance at school, when she hears gunshots, she tells the boys to lay on the ground because she is afraid of looking afraid. fatima narrates that benazir has sought power at the cost of her brothers' and father's lives. she compromises their political murders and does not open any inquiry of their murder cases. jacques vergès, a french lawyer who was hired for the shahnawaz murder case, explains to fatima that "i wanted to make a big scandal about shah's murder . . . but benazir was against it" and she didn't want to fight the pakistani intelligence service and the cia. murtaza was always convinced that they were behind his brother's death (p. 258). fatima gives the reason for benazir's disapproval to the inquiry of shah's murder since her power was based on cia and pakistani intelligence service and she did not want to lose it. fatima analyses that the benefit from shahnawaz's death she could get was nothing "i had ever imagined before" (p. 257), and she further mentions that but "i knew, from experience, that anything is possible in the bhutto family" (p. 257). her platform is dependent on populism (benazir, 1994, p. 196) and she can die for her father's concept of democratic leadership (fatima, 2011, p. 289). however, she is reluctant to democratise and strengthen her organisation. benazir is posing to benefit from it will be the daughter of a democratic parent has just. fatima criticises democracy, calling it a slogan rather than a governance style in pakistan (p. 241). for the sake of gaining power, benazir bends 23 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 her father's murderers' fingers like the oath of office takes ghulam ishaq khan, who served under the zia regime as the chairman of the senate like this. he was first to be the governor of sindh and, having signed the death warrant of her father, remains in power under her first-term administration (p. 237). it's unthinkable for fatima to work with her father's assassins. fatima blames benazir to work with general zia because he was killed in a plane crash. influence was given to her brother's assassins, waj durrani and shoaib suddle, who assisted in his (their) death (p. 416). fatima points out benazir's insensitivity when she bars her mother from visiting her husband's grave—an act that even general zia's junta had never done (p. 347). ghinwa tells fatima that under benazir's government, her mother, police open fire at nusrat and barely missed her and killed two boys who secured mrs bhutto's life (p. 347). skard (2015) mentions that according to anderson, benazir felt betrayed by her mother when she preferred her son murtaza for her husband's political legacy. nusrat speaks to "new york times" that benazir talks a lot about democracy, "but she's become a little dictator. i can't forgive her" (p. 348). benazir justifies her shooting orders by claiming that there were "raw agents" firing at "us" in the crowed protesting for ms nusrat's right to visit the grave (p. 349). fatima here makes the point that there is no difference between police and benazir, that benazir has used the inclusive pronoun "us" for police. according to fatima, police was just complying with benazir's orders and it was the same police who brutally assassinates her father. nusrat continues speaking to new york times and shares that "benazir tells a lot of lies", and she has become "paranoid about her brother (murtaza)" (p. 349). fatima's criticism of benazir is because of the exploitation of her father's right to inheritance at her hands. fatima shows the incompetency of benazir as a political leader as she becomes overexcited over the hijacking of the plane and makes a mistake of making jubilant calls to her friends that "we did it . . . we finally got them (military regime)" and immediately police arrives and arrests nusrat and benazir. after her arrest she backtracks that "it wasn't 'our people'" and she is not involved in the hijacking. fatima ironically writes that benazir became "innocent," a "muslim aung san suu kyi, a pakistani gandhi" at the cost of her brothers who were declared as terrorists (p. 229). 24 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 fatima mentions that it was not only benazir's brothers and mother who suffered at her hands but she also created difficulties for her nieces fatima and sassi. sassi, her cousin and shahnawaz's daughter, wants to visit her father's grave in pakistan. still, benazir and many others on her side do not want us "finally getting together" like our fathers (p. 256). she points out that benazir does not "allowed" us to meet our grandmother (p. 421). she asks her aunt about all her wrongdoings with her father but "she never answered" (p. 420) her questions. her pain at her father's killing is comparable to benazir's. benazir torn apart at her father's assassination, cannot feel what she is doing with murtaza and his daughter (fatima). one of her father's sisters benazir inherits her father's political legacy and the other sanam files a case against fatima's younger step-brother zulfi, ghinwa and fatima for the ownership of property (p. 421). fatima discloses her aunts' "silly" act of secret smoking with leather hand gloves on and covered hairs with wet towel to save their nails and hair from the smoke (p. 86). the more she discovers benazir's rivalry for her father, the more she becomes distanced from her aunt (p. 361). fatima's disliking her aunt becomes more evident when expresses her desire not to live in "benazir's old room", even she does not want to live with her things and asks her grandmother if her aunt could come and "take her things" (p. 334). fatima concludes that the legacy benazir has left behind is just corrupt and seeks a dynastic elite politics (p. 433). almost one-third of fatima's autogynography is dedicated to her grandfather mr. zulfikar ali bhutto. fatima narrates that zulfikar was a spirited and intellectually determinant politician (p. 57). she sheds light on her grandfather's political genius. begum mazari's voice adds more adjectives to her grandfather's character and informs that zulfikar was a very "progressive" man who had broken many pakistani culture taboos. he is the first in his family who takes his wife everywhere with him, even on "state trips" (p. 55). she is proud of her grandfather's dissent of us policy in vietnam. fatima believes that power and violence both together conspire so that injustice prevails. her grandfather was not a power seeker, but he resigned from his foreign minister's post in his protest against general ayub's acceptance of the tashkent declaration. it renders him a hero in the eyes of the pakistani people. his resignation expands his popularity among the political activists, ordinary people, students and workers (p. 68). fatima admires that under zulfikar's leadership, pakistan has enjoyed the most substantial period of the pak-chinese 25 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 relationship. he opens pakistan foreign policy to numerous other muslim and asian states (p. 108). fatima mentions that "politics is nothing if not personal" (p. 114). zulfikar ignores his personal interests and seeks to amend the injustices of "feudalism" by introducing land reforms (p. 113). fatima praises her grandfather's political vision and gives reasons for the downfall of his government. she incorporates sardar marri's voice, who tells fatima that "bhutto was no different from hitler" because of his operation in baluchistan on the shah of iran's persuasion (p. 118). fatima writes that zulfikar lost his power and popularity with his own hands by fighting against the ordinary pakistanis who were the source of his "ultimate strength" (p. 119). fatima's narrative is based on the reciprocatory role of genders. although women are more affected by their assigned gendered roles, fatima believes that men have also been as badly victims as women, with the difference that men's issues go unnoticed. since the beginning of her childhood, benazir kept an eye on murtaza and wanted the same that he had. fatima notes the sibling rivalry found between her father and benazir by including her narrative's anonymous voice. zulfikar's old family friend observes that benazir wanted the same toys that mir had. her parents try to make her understand that boys' toys are different from the girls', but she insisted. benazir snatches toys from her father in childhood and, later on, she confiscates his right to political inheritance in adulthood. like benazir, fatima does not construct her muslim identity. still, she comes out as a westernised woman when she suggests her father that he should feature somewhere in his party's manifesto the "abortion freedoms as well as free access to contraceptives" (p. 390). further, she suggests her father that there should also be "aids awareness and treatment programmes" (p. 390). fatima was 12 years old when she offers her father about abortion freedom and it is quite young age to understand the issues like abortion freedom. in fact, it is her gender sensitivity that she claims for women the right to their own bodies. she raises her voice for women that they should be free to make choices regarding their own reproduction and sexuality. further, she mentions that women should have a right to access the services, medicine and information needed to support their choices regarding their reproduction. the denial of women's control over their own bodies sustains women's sexual, social, economic and political subordination. ruether (2012) supports fatima's argument that patriarchy means "the subordination of women's bodies, 26 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 sexuality, and reproduction to male ownership and control" (p. 305). burrowes (1996) mentions that according to rosalind miles, patriarchy denies women's fundamental human needs like their freedom, control, autonomy and the fundamental right of "control over their own bodies" (p. 137). fatima projects her femininity as at the age of fourteen when she starts wearing lipstick but her father disagrees that she is pretty young for that but she insists that she is now grown up as she will be "fourteen" that year (p. 392). conclusion benazir's political consciousness enables her to secure herself the prime minister's title for two terms. benazir cannot take an independent career and submits to her father's choice of a political career. she is aware of politics’ risky life, but she takes the risk that her father took, and that finally takes her own life. many other women in her narrative stand by her side and raise their voice for zia's military regime's unjust treatment. although benazir portrays herself as a strong woman, yet she wants an escape from the dreadful memories of her father's imprisonment, death and her own detentions at the hands of the dictatorship. she bears the brunt of dictator's injustices but does not leave the pursuit of her father's dreams. fatima defends her father's political legacy and holds her aunt benazir as the usurper of the inheritance right of her dad. she narrates her aunt's corruption and insensitivity and her husband, zardari. she praises her father's diplomatic strategies with two-fold effects; in the first, her father is not in favour of violence. in the second, her father has diplomatic insights for political leadership. fatima praises her grandfather's political achievement and then relates them to her father's. she constructs her father's relational identity with her grandfather zulfikar on account of his political successes. on the other hand, she narrates the conflicts of benazir's politics with that of her grandfather, zulfikar. besides her father's political and diplomatic genius, fatima portrays a humble image of her father. both the narrators have used the narrative strategies that best suit their purposes according to the context of their writing as smith and watson (2006) hold that autobiographical narratives are motivated by particular audiences, desires and contexts of publication. the autogynographies are marked by non-chronological order because of the subsequent interruptions by different persons and their anecdotes. the reader cannot relate to or connect the 27 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 various events narrated in the books. jelinek (2004) explains that women begin their selfnarratives in chronological order but it soon disappears usually unconscious interruptions by the "anecdotes, even out of order, and all kinds of insertions-letters, articles, even descriptions by others" (pp. 187-88). multiple voices support and validate the arguments of the narrator. at the same time, they cease the coherence of their narrative. benazir and fatima record their inner realities at the demise of their fathers in their narratives. the significant feature of these autogynographies is the element of universal women's feelings to defend their father's image. these autogynographers externalise their inner experience and subvert patriarchal stereotypes. the female autobiographers claim their kinship in the narratives and seek to disrupt the culture's production of the daughter and her relegation to the private sphere. they subvert those power hierarchies that only a man is supposed to stand against. the context of the autogynographies reveals various experiences within which women are forced to live. the study provides a vital perspective on how women construct their self, identity, reality, truth and world out of the web of relationships. though these autogynographers sometimes exaggerate while praising their fathers, yet they reveal some facts. references allen, p. (2000). the small group process. in b. a. crow (ed.), radical feminism: a documentary reader (pp. 277-281). new york: new york university press. bhutto, b. (1989). daughter of the east. london: hamish hamilton. bhutto, f. (2011). songs of blood and sword: a daughter's memoir. new york: penguin books. burrowes, r. j. (1996). the strategy of nonviolent defense: a gandhian approach. albany: state university of new york press. derr, m. k., macnair, r., & naranjo-huebl, l. (2005). prolife feminism: yesterday and today. kansas city: feminism and nonviolence studies association. hanisch, c. (2000). the personal is political. in b. a. crow (ed.), radical feminism: a documentary reader (pp. 113-116). new york: new york university press. jelinek, e. c. (2004). tradition of women's autobiography. new jersey: xlibris corporation. 28 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 khaliq, r., & khan, m. (2018). genderlect styles: analysis of ibsen’s “a doll’s house” from the perspective of gender differences in language use. university of chitral journal of linguistics & literature, 1(i), 36-46. doi:10.33195/jll.v1ii.148 kristeva, j. (1980) desire in language: a semiotic approach to language and art. trans. t. gora, a. jardine & l. s. roudiez, ed. l. s. roudiez. new york: columbia university press, print. lee, t. m. l. (2007). rethinking the personal and the political: feminist activism and civic engagement. hypatia, 22, (4), 163-179. mortenson, j. (2011). "femininity," social construction of.in m. z. stange, c. k. oyster & j. sloan (eds.), encyclopedia of women in today's world(pp. 528531). thousand oaks, calif: sage reference. panchappa r. w. (2011). mikhail bakhtin's dialogism and intertextuality: a perspective. indian streams research journal. 1, 4, 37-41. passerini, l. 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(2012). twentieth-century feminist and womanist ethics: sexism and god-talk. in g. w. forell & j. m. childs (eds.), christian social teachings: a reader in christian social ethics from the bible to the present. philadelphia, pa: fortress. seely, m. (2007). fight like a girl: how to be a fearless feminist. new york: new yorkuniversity press. skard, t. (2015). women of power: half a century of female presidents and prime ministers worldwide. bristol: policy press. 29 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 sluga, h. (2014). politics and the search for the common good. cambridge: cambridge university press. smith, s., & watson, j. (2006). introduction: living in public. in s. smith & j. watson (eds.), before they could vote: american women's autobiographical writing (pp. 3-24). madison, wis: university of wisconsin press. smith, s. (1998). performativity, autobiographical practice, resistance. in s. smith & j. watson (eds.), women, autobiography, theory: a reader (pp. 108-115). stanton, d. c., & plottel, j. p. (1984). the female autograph. new york: new york literary forum. tong, r. (2009). feminist thought: a more comprehensive introduction. boulder: westview press. walters, m. (2005). feminism: a very short introduction. oxford: oxford university press. widmalm, s. (2016). political tolerance in the global south. london: routledge. williams, j. a. (2001). the personal is political: thinking through the clinton/lewinsky/starr affair. political science & politics, 34, 1, 93-98. @ 2020 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). a postcolonial critique 14 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 celebrating indigenous culture and identity in bapsi sidhwa’s ice candy man: a postcolonial critique zahid abbas (phd scholar), university of sindh zahidabbas0@gmail.com dr. muhammad tufail chandio assistant professor and incharge department of english, university of sindh mtufail@usindh.edu.pk abstract to justify colonialism and perpetuate colonial rule the colonizers appropriated their political, cultural, academic, literary, and linguistic supremacy which left a tinge of mimicry and hybridity among the natives. the colonizers, being in the centre, employed colonial discourse, eurocentric historic construct, western education system, english language, missionary and creative literature to portray the periphery, the colonized, as uncivilized, accultured, incompetent, uncouth and diabolical evils. to rebut this, the postcolonial writers rejected colonialist ideology and cultural supremacy by asserting native culture, identity, language, and societal values. they disassociated themselves from cultural imperialism and celebrated their indigenous culture. this study analyses the portrayal of celebration of the indigenous culture and identity in bapsi sidhwa’s novel ice candy man (1988-89) from the vantage point of postcolonial theory. it has been found that sidhwa celebrates indigenous culture, identity, tradition, language, and localization in the novel. to this effect, she employs code-mixing to add indigenous semantics, delineates characters from the locality, asserts her pakistaniness and objectifies pakistani leadership and narrative in the novel and thus she continues to live as a postcolonial writer. key words: celebration of indigenous, colonialist ideology, hybridity, identity, mimicry, oppression 1. introduction there is a projection of racial and cultural superiority in the western colonialist ideology. the colonialist discourse asserts the superiority of the western civilization, culture, politics, education, and language system, which is rebutted by the contentions and tenets of mailto:zahidabbas0@gmail.com mailto:mtufail@usindh.edu.pk a postcolonial critique 15 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 postcolonialism. postcolonial writers project and celebrate their own indigenous culture, language, and identity. bapsi sidhwa, a pakistani parsi postcolonial writer of the indian subcontinent, celebrates different aspects of her culture and identity in her debut novel ice candy man (1988-1989). set during the partition of the indian subcontinent into two independent states i.e. pakistan and india, the novel particularly celebrates local characters, local language and different dimensions of the character of shanta. 1. 2. research questions the undertaken study aims at an in-depth analysis of the selected text of ice candy man to answer following research questions from the vantage point of postcolonial literary discourse. 1. how does sidhwa portray colonialist ideology, identity and culture in ice candy man through characters? 2. how does the writer portray indigenous culture and identity in the selected novel? 3. how does the writer portray native characters in the selected novel? 2. literature review a vast array of scholarship is available on ice candy man. shaheed (1991), being a connoisseur of the indian subcontinent culture, critiques the novel from the perspectives of feminism and patriarchy. similarly, ehsan (2016) asserts that the novel deals with the various aspects of the land and culture, but the most important delineation is the destruction of human beings in history. obviously, the destructive tone is very much explicit in the novel. shahraz (2001) asserts that merely limiting the scope of the novel to the partition issue will be a misreading of the text. he adds that the novel has many nuances, and it invites modern readers to approach the text to explore the implicit aspects of the text. however, syed (2004) has confined the scope of the novel to partition or feminist perspectives. contrary to it, the present study aims to analyse and establish that ice candy man is not merely limited to above mentioned issues, which in fact is a misreading of the novel. in order to fill the gap, the study aims to analyse how the issues such as celebration of the indigenous culture and identity are taken up in the text of the novel. a postcolonial critique 16 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 marger (2000) is of the view that postcolonial theory also underpins the question of identity. because of the colonial discourse and eurocentric historical construct, the west stands at advantage in all walks of life even in literature whereas the depiction of colonized subjects in their texts remains compromised. it is the time, as asserted by merger, that around the globe the supremacy of the west has been both admitted and questioned as well. although the colonial era is ended yet the colonized identity still lingers on in ex-colonies. this identity of being colonized has influenced the colonized individuals in economic, social, religious as well as political spheres of life. the double-faced entry of colonizers in colonized territory is both volunteer and forced. at second point the colonizing powers influence the indigenous cultures by either altering them or destroying them completely. the third point is related to the colonized who tend to be governed by the colonial ideology. the crux of this entire phenomenon is that all these factors contribute towards governing the colonized by the dint of racist ideology coined and coerced by colonizers. memmi (1965) asserts that colonization and colonialism are actually about the supremacy and cultural hierarchy of the west. the metropolitan is considered to be the center of attention around the globe that is the form of colonization. the center holds the things and remains dominant in the world and rules over colonised territories. the rule of metropolitan is not for a specific period in different walks of life but for an extended period of time to rule over the entities called as “others”. there are certain demarcations such as cultural, racial and political inequalities or economic and political dependence between the colonizers and colonized. the colonial ideology is maintained by different means and ways such as enslavement, occupation of native land, imposition of certain laws, use of physical force, exploitation of labour resources and also by objective murders which further means that colonisers do not have any emotional connections to the victims in colonised world, and thus celebrate the superiority of their indigenous culture over the colonized. however, the postcolonialism is diametrically opposite to the colonialism and it celebrates the indigenous cultures and makes colonized aware that they are not inferior to the colonizers in any walk of life and hence proving them to be equal to them. 3. methodology a postcolonial critique 17 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the undertaken qualitative study has been conducted to analyse the portrayal of the celebration of indigenousness in ice candy man from postcolonial theoretical perspective. the data have been reviewed from the text of the novel with the help of close-reading technique (johnson, 2004; kain, 1998). close reading technique helps to deconstruct any phenomenon by analysing text from semantics, syntax, pragmatics, structure, narrative etc. point of view (mcclennen, 2001). since epistemologically the study belongs to constructivism therefore interpretivism has been used as a theoretical perspective to better analyse and understand the phenomenon undertaken for the study (gray, 2004). the text of the novel will be reviewed to analyse the portrayal of the colonial ideology, culture, identity, the celebration of indigenous culture and identity and the delineation of native characters. 4. theoretical framework the postcolonial literature refers to the literature written during or after the colonization, whereas the postcolonial theory re-examines the history of colonialism and presents the critique of the literature produced in the ex-colonies during and after the western colonization (masood, 2019). to justify the act of colonisation, the colonizers produced literature to belittle, malign and manipulate the stature and stand of the colonized subjects and presented them as uncivilized, uncultured, uncouth, uncanny and unruly. to rebut this, the colonized launched the movements for freedom and independence. besides, the literature they produced predominantly dealt with the questions of culture, identity, ethnicity, gender, race and all related to indigenous things (conelly, 2000). habib (2017) in his book hegel and empire: from post colonialism to globalism establishes that there are four fundamental aims of postcolonial theory. at first, it is to deal with the history of colonialism from the perspective of colonized. secondly, it determines the influence in cultural, political, and economic sphere of life on both colonizers and colonized. thirdly, the process of decolonization also falls under the category of postcolonial theory. the fourth point regarding the very nature of postcolonialism is the construction of identity from the perspective of colonization. moreover, the participation in the political liberation goals, having equal access to material resources as well as circulation of cultural identities fall under the category of postcolonialism. a postcolonial critique 18 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 donal carbaugh (2001) relates the issue of identity as the most prominent theme and perspective in postcolonial theory. he asserts that a great deal of debate has been put about the effect of colonialism. peters (2007) contends “at the season of decolonization, when imperial identities were decentred, the subject of identity became a basic and noticeable topic” (p.7). there is a link between man’s indigenous identity and his “self”. this linkage or connection leaves the individual into the realm of instability. it leaves that individual into a space that belongs to nowhere or makes him and individual of having no place. 5. data analysis and discussion 5.1. the portrayal of colonialist ideology, superiority and british culture in ice candy man sidhwa’s fiction works basically deal with both pre and postcolonial period of the indian subcontinent. she vividly portrays characters from the subcontinent with their complexities of life especially after the independence. one or the other way, sidhwa has been considered to rewrite the history of the subcontinent presented from the eurocentric perspective of british colonisation. ice candy man grapples with the ground realities of the colonial world where the british colonizers celebrate their culture and treat the individuals of the colonized part of world as mere “others”. according to fanon’s wretched of the earth (1963), the colonisers manipulate resources and consider human beings other than british as immoral, uneducated, uncivilized, and marginalized and much more that is negative in the strict sense of the word. even, in ice candy man it is depicted that the people living in the indian subcontinent are not aware of what happens in their house. it is proved when colonel barucha during the clinical examination of a sick child enquires the father when the child has got cold. the father is completely ignorant and unaware of the facts. the doctor addresses the father, when father asks every single detail of the child from the mother, “she didn’t, tell you? are you a father or a barber? and you all want pakistan? how will you govern a country when you don’t know what goes on in your own house?” (sidhwa, 1998, p.13). colonel barucha is a famous doctor and head of the local parsi community. he treats lenny, the narrator of the story, a poliostricken girl. barucha is very critical of the people of his own community and more specifically the people of the subcontinent and considers them as incapable. they are meant to be slaves a postcolonial critique 19 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 and colonized as they do not have the capacity to govern and have a country of their own. the british or colonizers are with a mentality to rule and exploit. they are of the views that the movements for liberation and freedom from imperialism will end in smoke without yielding any fruit. it will bring chaos to their own world. this is evident in the claim of col. barucha who warns the parsis of the consequences of swaraj, ''hindus, muslims and even the sikhs are going to jockey for power: and if you jokers jump into the middle you'll be mingled into chutney!” (sidhwa, 1998, p.34). 5.2 celebration of parsi perspective in ice candy man sidhwa’s dealing with history is more complex than it appears in the novel. being from the parsi community, she rewrites the history not only from the pakistani perspective but also from the parsi perspective as well. while dealing with the history, she feels proud to be a parsi and presents parsi characters as witty and wise. she comments at time when the parsi community was “kicked out of persia” and they “sailed to india”. after waiting for four days on the indian coast they were visited by the grand vazir, with a glass of milk filled to the brim, symbolizing that the land was full and prosperous and in no need of “outsiders with different religion and alien ways to disturb the harmony.” however, the parsi forefathers, intelligently, “stirred a teaspoon of sugar into the milk and sent it back,” symbolizing that the parsis “would get absorbed into his country like sugar in the milk. and with their decency and industry sweeten the lives of his subject” (sidhwa, 1998, p.27). this account establishes that how parsi community got settled in india with their wit. thus, the portrayal of their wit and intelligence in the novel marks the celebration of an indigenous trait. contrary to the above discussion portraying a threat to the parsi culture while getting absorbed in an alien culture, they remain true to their culture as well. they are found committed to their homeland culture even after getting assimilated into the host land culture. 5.3 celebration of indigenous in terms of language ashcroft et al. (1989) postulates that the indigenous writers employed english language, the language of the colonizers or centre, for twofold reasons: to deny its status as a sole metropolitan means of communication and to coin its new use, with reappropriation, to address the centre while recording their protest. while doing so, they abrogate its linguistic a postcolonial critique 20 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 standards, context and aesthetic sophistication. this “abrogation” and “appropriation” of linguistic phenomenon, which is termed as “indigenous decolonization” is a logical repercussion of the colonialism, and the postcolonial writers employ it very effectively. achebe contends, “i feel that the english language will be able to carry the weight of my african experience” (whitekar & miska, 2007, p.47). sidhwa’s text is evident to this linguistic appropriation to convey the indigenous experience. she juxtaposes local semantics in her novel. the attempt to use indigenous words contains a mindful purpose that is to give importance to the native language. she makes the empire aware that writing in pure english has nothing to do with fame, popularity of work and its social acceptance. the use of indigenous words and language does not establish the inadequacy of sidhwa’s english language competence and acquisition. but she intentionally opts for this code mixing: “her eyes twinkling concern, in her grey going out ‘saari’” (sidhwa, 1998, p.8). at another point in the novel she expresses, “a woman in a shabby black ‘burka’ holds the child” (p.12). similarly, “far away i hear a siren tee-too” (p.21). the words like churails, little english baba (p.25) “angrez, shalwar kameez, array baba, dafa ho, bachao, badmash,” are indigenous words which sidhwa uses with much ease. she is not reluctant in using these words at all as they celebrate her indigenous thirst. at the same time, use of these indigenous words has twofold purposes: the first, to celebrates the indigenous culture, identity and language and the second, to convey a candid postcolonial message to the empire that she is never impressed by english language. the essence that the local word ‘badmash’ implicates cannot be conveyed by ‘robber’ in english. lenny comments, “shanta bibi, you are punjabi, aren’t you? ‘for the most part’, ayah agrees warily. “then why don’t you wear punjabi clothes? i have never seen you in salwar-kamize” (sidhwa, 1998, p.28). all these words are derived from the local language and hence it has been celebrated in the novel. 5.4 celebration of the indigenous in terms of local characters sidhwa has delineated characters taken from the local culture and settings. they belong to hindu, muslim and parsi communities. lenny, the narrator of the novel, is a parsi girl. she serves for the biographical references of sidhwa herself and embodies symbolical parsi presence. shanta, the heroine of the novel, belongs to hindu community. the word “shanta” is a postcolonial critique 21 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 derived from the hindi word shanti which means peace. she embodies symbolical peace to many suitors irrespective of their castes and religions. she is equally loved by individuals of all communities. in addition, many other characters belong to indigenous muslim, hindu and parsi communities, and they take pride in celebrating their communal rites, cultural rituals and traditions of the subcontinent. the character of ice candy man represents every tom, dick and harry as he is a popsicle seller, whose presence is phenomenal at every local premise. 5.5 sidhwa’s portrayal of pakistani perspective in ice candy man sidhwa presents an indigenous pakistani perspective in ice candy man. the agenda that has been pinpointed in the novel was expressed earlier in an interview with david montenegro where sidhwa illustrated that literature on the partition of the subcontinent written by either british or indian writers was tinged with personal bias. she reiterated that those writers were basically unfair to pakistan. given to the injustice and bias, sidhwa took her pen to remove these marks of unfairness and partiality. she asserted that facts always speak themselves and she found the real facts and presented her experiences in ice candy man. the unfairness to pakistanis, distorted portrayal of muslims and misrepresentation of history are the factors sidhwa seems highly concerned about. she not only questions and refutes the validity of negative labels attached to pakistani national heroes, but she also vividly highlights the duality of indians. the leaders like quaid-e-azam are celebrated for their commitment and vision in the text that shows sidhwa is very much ceremonial of her pakistani roots. she shows jinnah saying, “you are free. you are free to go to your temples, your mosque, or any other place of worship in the state of pakistan. you may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of state…etc…etc…pakistan zindabad!” (sidhwa, 1998, p.144). this establishes her affiliation with pakistan and her take on regarding the pakistani perspective in ice candy man. 5.6 celebrating the character of jinnah and demystifying nehru and gandhi it has been noticed that the british and indian historians have neglected the character of jinnah and celebrated hindu indigenous heroes. they have mystified the images of gandhi and nehru. however, ice candy man demystifies these characters and jinnah has been revived and celebrated. the text of ice candy man reveals that sublime image of gandhi has been a postcolonial critique 22 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 totally undercut against the construction of british and indian historians. when he is seen through the eyes of seven years old polio-stricken girl, “he is small, dark, shriveled, and old. he looks just like hari, our gardener, except he has a disgruntled, disgusted and irritable look; and no one would dare pull his dhoti!” (sidhwa, 1998, p.42). this image is totally against the portrayal of gandhi in british discourse. there, he is presented as a political figure and tycoon of politics. but the celebration of indigenous culture, being a pakistani, living in muslim country founded by jinnah it is unbearable for sidhwa to accept the image presented by indians and english. similarly, character of nehru is nothing but a shrewd person. the seven years old narrator finds nehru as a “a shrewd politician who despite all the efforts of jinnah will walk off with lion’s share. he is a sly one. he’s got mountbatten eating out of his one hand and english’s wife out of his other what not…. he’s the one to watch” (sidhwa, 1998, p.35). the image of jinnah has been restored as a national hero and liberator against those negative images presented in indian and english books. thus, ice candy man essentializes the celebration of local heroes who have long been ignored or othered. 5.7 celebrating parsi-muslim relationship in ice candy man sidhwa neutralizes the depiction of historical facts in ice candy man. she puts the burden of bloodshed, violence and atrocities inflicted upon the migrating people equally on the shoulders of hindus, muslims, and sikhs. however, she establishes that it was not muslims who initiated violence or bloodshed, but they reciprocated after being the victims. being a pakistani writer, her sympathies are with muslim victims. the attack on muslim villages by sikhs in punjab is seen through the eyes of a muslim child rana, it invokes empathy and compassion for muslims. in an interview with david montenegro (1990), sidhwa observes, “the sikhs perpetrated the much greater brutality they wanted punjab to be divided. a peasant is rooted in his soil. the only way to uproot him was to kill him or scare him out of his wits” (sidhwa, 1998, p.51). she is very candid, and her sympathies are with muslims rather than with any other community and she celebrates her pakistaniness. jajja (2012) establishes that ice candy man can be coined as ‘an attempt’ to present pakistani perspective by a parsi writer that shows her inclination towards muslim community and her sympathy and compassion for muslims. at the same time the brutality inflicted on the muslims during migration reflects her a postcolonial critique 23 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 objectively sympathetic outlook towards the muslim community. sidhwa illustrates, “a train from gurudaspur has just come in… everyone in it is dead butchered. they are all muslim” (sidhwa, 1998, p.149). 5.8 sidhwa’s justification for writing in the language of colonizers when sidhwa’s writings are analysed from the postcolonial perspective, a feature that celebrates indigenous language and justifies the use of english is very interesting. the language is the basic preoccupation of colonizers when it is chosen for writing a discourse. this element is nothing but reverence for colonizer’s language by neglecting the local languages. writing in the language of colonizers gives a great deal of range for social acceptance as a writer. the stance provided by chinua achebe and ngugi is worth mentioning as both write in english vernacular. ngugi, in his earlier works used to write in english language but later he left writing in english and switched to the native language. ngugi puts forward some reasons for preferring the native language to english: “language has always been used by colonizers to mentally and spiritually control colonized. the mental universe of colonized is dominated due to crucial weapon of language” (ngugi, 2004, p. 22). he further argues that by continuously writing in the language of colonizers one is colonized on cultural level and enriches the european cultures instead of enriching his own. but point of view presented by african writer achebe who agrees with thiong’o when he argues, “i feel that the english language will be able to carry the weight of my african experience. but it will be a new english with the full communion of ancestral home” (thiong'o, p.286). the same assumption of achebe applies to the writings of sidhwa who uses english with full communion of ancestral home. her english is new with the code mixing of indigenous words. there is indigenous touch in her use of english language, which shows her love for locality and mother language. she leaves several words as untranslated from the native language such as “pahailwan, a wrestler”, "choorail, witch”, “shabash, well-done!”, “gharkimurgi dal barabar, a neighbour's beans are tastier than house-hold chickens”, “khutputli, puppet”, “mamajee, uncle”. these words are basically cultural signs. for example, the word of kotha that is translated as roof but is a place of prostitutes. there is gap between the two words of kotha and roof so sidhwa uses the local words to maintain their essence. the a postcolonial critique 24 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 untranslated words are part of the strategy of the postcolonial writers to highlight the cultural difference. 5.9 celebration of muslim culture and poetry in ice candy man in postcolonial terms, various strategies have been adopted to celebrate indigenous traits. it is noteworthy to portray that the novel ice candy man also celebrates the muslim culture as well. the text of the novel is rich with multiple quotes from urdu poets. even the novel opens with the verse of iqbal’s poem shikwa (a complaint to god). the lines are: “shall i hear the lament of nightingale, submissively lending my ear? am i the rose to suffer its cry in silence years after year? the fire of verse gives me courage and bids me no more to be faint with dust in my mouth i am abject: to god i make complaint sometimes you favour our rivals then sometimes with us you are free i am sorry to say it so boldly. you are no less fickle than me” (sidhwa, 1998, p.1) these quotes portray anticolonial stance and love for local cultures and climate. the lines from iqbal’s poetry at the beginning of the chapter thirteen of ice candy man are: “the times have changed; the world has changed its mind the european's mystery is erased the secret of his conjuring tricks is known the frankish wizard stands and looks amazed” (sidhwa, 1998, p. 107) sidhwa’s love for poetry, especially of muslim poets represents that she is more inclined towards the portrayal of muslim culture in their literature. on the other hand, this inclination reflects that the novel ice candy man celebrates muslim culture and portrays it as rational, inspirational, and related to its civilization. 6. conclusion the study unfolds how ice candy man celebrates the indigenous culture, language, custom and belief system. sidhwa has successfully questioned the version of subcontinent, the partition, pakistan, jinnah, and the ways of living of individuals provided by indian and british historians. she has presented an alternate version of history based on her own perspective a postcolonial critique 25 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 mainly pakistani. she pays tribute to the muslim poets like iqbal and celebrates their sublimity of thought. she uses the local language and original words with their local and indigenous essence. moreover, using english vernacular is justified when she loads this language with her experiences of history. she celebrates her own identity as being parsi and advocates the whole parsi community and feels proud to be an individual from a witty nation. her writing is tinted with compassion for muslims who endured the atrocities of the partition, and she deeply owns their loss and pain. the portrayal of local and indigenous characters shows that she is inclined towards the native locality. she loves peace and condemns the chaos and violence taking place at the time of partition. she cannot see individuals being humiliated, dragged, and ultimately killed especially muslims. in all respects, she celebrates her local things and rejects the colonial mindset rather criticizes their mentality. the portrayal of local masses as colonized, periphery and marginalized is same as they are being judged in unfavourable light and prison. sidhwa in this sense has done a great job as she has given them a tongue that helps them to assert their own identity. she makes the west aware by her use of indigenous things that those whom they think as colonized are not worthless. moreover, they are vocal and candid to argue and claim their identity as well as inherited indigenous civilization. references ashcroft, b., griffiths, g., & tiffin, h. (1989). the empire writes back. london and new york. carbaugh, d., berry, m., & nurmikari-berry, m. (2006). coding personhood through cultural terms and practices: silence and quietude as a finnish “natural way of being”. journal of language and social psychology, 25(3), 203-220. gray, d. e. (2004). doing research in the real world. sage. habib, m. a. r. (2017). hegel and empire: from postcolonialism to globalism. springer. jajja, m. a. (2012). sidhwa's portrayal of the partition: an independent perspective. journal of educational research 15 (2), 1027-9776. johnson, r. (2004). what is close reading? mantex. juneja, o. p., salat, m. f., & mohan, c. (1991). looking at our particular world: an interview with rudy wiebe. a postcolonial critique 26 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 kain, p. (1998). how to do a close reading. writing center at harvard university. kraus, w. (2006). the narrative negotiation of identity and belonging. narrative inquiry, 16(1), 103-111. marger, m. n. (2014). race and ethnic relations: american and global perspectives. cengage learning. mcclennen, s. a. (2001). how to do a close reading. dr. mcclennen´s close reading guide. the pennsylvania state university. memmi, a. (2013). the colonizer and the colonized. routledge. montenegro, d., & sidhwa, b. (1990). bapsi sidhwa: an interview. the massachusetts review, 31(4), 513-533. pozo, m. (2004). an interview with ngugi wa thiong'o. st. john's university humanities review, 2. rowell, c. h. (1990). an interview with chinua achebe. callaloo, 13(1), 86-101. shaheed, f. (1991). the cultural articulation of patriarchy. in f. zafar (eds.), finding our way: readings on women in pakistan (pp.135-158). pakistan: asr publications. shahraz, q. (2001). the holy woman. pakistan: black amber books. shahraz, q. (2003). typhoon. london: black amber books limited. sidhwa, b. (1998). ice candy man. india: penguin books ltd. spivak, c. g. (1999). a critique of post-colonial reason: towards a history of the vanishing present. cambridge: harvard university press. syed, a. (2004). these codes of honour. dawn. thiong'o, n. (1992). decolonising the mind: the politics of language in african literature. east african publishers. thiong'o, n. (2004). beyond nativism: an interview with ngùgî wa thiong'o. research in african literatures, 161-167. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 128 an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective noor mehboob ms applied linguistics research scholar, fast national university, lahore dr. urooj fatima alvi assistant professor/coordinator english department university of education, lahore abstract the current study conducts a qualitative analysis of tweets based on hate speech directed at women in the pakistani context using van dijk's socio-cognitive approach (2016). the research's objective is to ascertain how cognition, social conditions, and discourse contribute to the establishment of a system that discriminates against women. the research employs dijk's (2016) socio-cognitive approach to investigate the language of tweets. using twitter, ten tweets are collected as examples of hate speech. these tweets are from some of pakistan's most powerful female journalists, politicians, and actresses. the research begins by examining the discursive structures that discriminate against women and then examines how cognitive structures shape this discourse. finally, the discourse's social function is established. the analysis of tweets reveals that discourse is shaped by the tweeters' individual mental models and social cognition. additionally, it was determined that sexist ideology is embedded in tweeters' mental models and socio-culturally shared knowledge, in which women are negatively represented. according to that they are viewed as objects of physical pleasure and are evaluated negatively based on their appearance rather than their ability, talent, hard work, or intelligence. such an ideology breeds derogatory and discriminatory tweets, eventually resulting in a maledominated society. male-dominated society, sexist ideology, and sexist speech combine to create a system that discriminates against women. keywords: hate speech tweets, critical discourse analysis, socio-cognitive approach introduction according to nik & esposito (2018), web participation has revolutionized the way we communicate and connect. teenagers share information and connect with others through various platforms of social media communication including twitter, instagram and facebook, an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 129 whatsapp, and others. social media has many advantages and disadvantages. one of its major flaws is hate speech, also known as “cyber hate”. social media is rife with extremist and intolerant views, the use of derogatory or discriminatory language based on ethnicity, religion, nationality, race, or any other identity factor. likewise, online hate against women is becoming a major social issue, according to recent media reports. the current study conducts a qualitative analysis of hate speech tweets directed at women in the pakistani context using a critical discourse analysis methodology. the study makes use of van dijk's socio-cognitive approach (2016) focusing on the psychological side. he makes a point of emphasizing the triad of discourse, cognition, and society. according to the sociocognitive perspective, the relationships between social and discourse structures are mediated by cognitive processes. only the mental representations of language users as individuals and social members can establish a link between social and discourse structures (wodak & meyer, 2009). van dijk argues that cognitive mediation is necessary to understand that how complex societal structures influence the structures of discourse. such mediation can be characterized as shared knowledge and ideologies which exist in the minds of the individuals of a group and influence the mental models, eventually controlling the structures of the discourse. the research explicitly describes discourse structures i.e. metaphors, lexicon, word order, implications, and presuppositions, etc. in hate speech tweets, and then determines how cognitive structures shape this discourse. research objectives the following objectives are addressed in the research i. to describe discourse structures in hate speech tweets systematically and explicitly, including lexicon, metaphors, word order, implications, presuppositions, and topics. ii. to elucidate the role of individual mental models and socially shared knowledge in mediating between hate speech discourse structures and complex societal structures. iii. to ascertain the extent to which cognition, social conditions, and discourse contribute to the establishment of a system that discriminates against women. research questions the study is guided by the following research questions: an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 130 a. what are the discourse structures in hate speech tweets which discriminate against women? b. how do cognitive structures influence the content of hate speech tweets? c. how do cognition, social conditions, and discourse all contribute to the establishment of a discriminatory and victimizing system for women? research gap the study analyses hate speech tweets directed towards women using van dijk's sociocognitive approach. the cognitive idea has previously been explored in racist, anti-racist, and political speech, but no relationship between cognitive structures and discourse or societal structures has been established in hate speech against women. in addition, in the pakistani context, the use of hate speech against women on social media is increasing; nevertheless, there is relatively little research in this area. as a result, the goal of this study is to look at the cognitive and sociocultural processes that underpin this discourse. literature review the socio-cognitive approach (sca) critical discourse studies relate discourse structures with social structures, but an important dimension was missing known as the ‘sociocognitive dimension’. in sociocognitive discourse studies (scds), social structures are related to discourse structures by using the sociocognitive interface. according to dijk (1998a, 1998b, 2001, 2008, 2014 and 2016) sociocognitive discourse studies are related to the ongoing communicative event, social cognition, and ideologies and attitudes which exist in the minds of language users as members of the social group. the sociocognitive approach of van dijk is known as the ‘discoursecognition-society triangle” (wodak & meyer, 2009, p. 64) dijk (2016) investigated the cognitive basis of telegraph editorial regarding immigration in the uk. dijk conducted this research to know that why the text in the editorial had such a specific structure. the journalist of the editorial while writing it presupposed knowledge and particular ideological beliefs. the discourse structure in the editorial was actually controlled by the event, context, and mental models. the headline of the editorial summarized that the journalist has a positive attitude towards the actions of the government. positive appraisal terms and metaphors in the editorial an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 131 depicted that the journalist has a positive mental model about that event. so, basically in this research, dijk (2016) investigated how the discourse structure of a journalist is related to his cognition and society. he analyzed racist and anti-racist discourse in terms of the discoursecognition-society triangle. his research revealed that individual mental models and social cognition mediate between discourse and societal structures. he proved that the cognitive component is essential to cda. socially shared knowledge plays an important role in the production and comprehension of discourse. dijk stated that to understand that how societal structures influence discourse structures, the mediation of cognition is necessary. “such mediation is defined in terms of the shared knowledge and ideologies of group members and how they influence mental models that finally control the structures of individual discourse”(wodak & meyer, 2009, p. 70). likewise, ghachem (2015) attempted to highlight the social representations hidden in the discourse of the leader of the british conservative party. for this purpose, he selected david cameron’s pre-election addresses back in 2010. the methodological framework used in this research was again the sociocognitive approach and systematic functional linguistics (sfl). the research explored that cameron interacted with the audience with common underlying beliefs, ideology, and knowledge. his discourse was shaped to win the votes and to ensure people that they share the same ideologies. critical discourse analysis of hate speech tweets against women spallaccia (2018) conducted qualitative research for the analysis of online misogyny on twitter and facebook. according to her, misogynistic speech is ignored by most analysts. most of the researches focuses on xenophobic and racist content and ignores such crucial issues. the researcher used feminist critical discourse analysis to analyze the misogynistic hate speech. it focuses on the qualitative analysis of online abuse faced by six women belonging to three different countries i.e. australia, italy, and the usa. analyzing the discourse, patriarchal ideologies were reaffirmed. it also revolved around different types of discrimination and gender prejudice hidden in discourse and suggested the use of effective educational tools which tackle this serious issue so that women can have a respectful conversation online. an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 132 elias & gurbanova (2018) analyzed the linguistic features of sexist hate speech on social media in the tanzanian context. they discovered how gender preconceptions are reflected in social media conversation. to analyse the discourse, this study used a content analysis and critical discourse analysis technique and data was collected from the accounts of celebrities and public figures to discover the sexism in tanzanian society. darweesh & abdullah (2016) investigated that language is a tool that is sometimes used to discriminate and abuse individuals of a particular group or society. it is also used to discriminate against women by portraying them negatively in society. in study, the authors analyzed the sexist speech of donald trump following the methodology of critical discourse analysis. it revealed trump’s sexist ideology that eventually results in producing sexist discourse. the structural, lexical, and rhetorical methods that result in the formation of discriminating and disparaging discourse were explored. to analyze trump’s opinions the author used van dijk’s socio-cognitive framework (2006) and mills’ model of sexism (2008). according to this research, trump’s ideology reflected males as superior and women as inferior. to devalue women trump has used several lexical and rhetorical strategies. in his utterances, metaphors and lexicons having negative implications are explored. the reviewed studies indicate that research has been conducted to investigate the cognitive notion in political speeches, racist and anti-racist discourse, but so far this aspect isn’t investigated in hate speech against women. some researchers have analyzed hate speech against women using the methodology of critical discourse analysis but the socio-cognitive aspect is not being explored yet. materials and methods the study is qualitative and empirical by collecting and interpreting non-numerical data. it utilizes user-generated content (tweets) as a research sample. twitter data reveals that prominent pakistani female politicians, journalists, and actors are the targets of hate speech. a total of ten tweets was gathered as examples of hate speech. these tweets were about powerful pakistani female journalists, politicians, and actors. the research referred to these tweets as tweets 1,2,3, etc. the research used the sampling technique of maximum variation to gain more insight into the target phenomenon. it is a type of purposive sampling that relies on the an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 133 researcher's judgment. it is used to investigate perspectives ranging from the typical to the extreme. no specific type of hate speech tweets was targeted for collection. the sample was not collected based on the victim's age, social class, or occupation. approach for data analysis the tweets data were analyzed by using the socio-cognitive approach by van dijk (2016) comprising of three basic levels. firstly, it focused on the discourse structures of usergenerated hate speech tweets such as the characteristics of discourse structures like topic, lexicon, metaphors, syntax, word order, implications, pronouns, etc. secondly, underlying individual mental models and shared ideologies and attitudes which shaped the discourse structures. finally, it was investigated that how cognition, social conditions, and discourse contribute towards the establishment of a system where women are discriminated. findings and discussion tweet 1 the socio-cognitive discourse analysis of the tweets indicates that hate speech against women is controlled by individual mental models and the social cognition of the tweeters. the sexist mindset and attitude of the tweeters, who objectify and trivialize women based on their gender and appearance, has influenced this conversation. the examination of the tweets reveals how discourse, society, and cognition form a triad that results in a system that discriminates against women. the topic of the tweet is related to mehwish hayyat (a famous pakistani celebrity) being awarded the third-highest civilian award sitara-i-imtiaz. discursive structures an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 134 the tweet comprises mainly two sentences, both the sentences are active voice. in an active voice sentence, the stress is laid on the subject of the sentence. so here, the stress is on ‘mehwish hayyat’. the use of words ‘sitara-i-imtiaz and ‘uncle imtiaz' creates a rhyming scheme within a tweet to grab the attention of the readers. the technique of satire is being used by the tweeter. in general, the tweet seems to fall in the humorous category but in reality, it derives contempt from the person reading the tweet. at the end of the tweet ‘hash tags’ are used to lay emphasis on the topic of the tweet. cognitive structures the tweet is produced based on the context model of the tweeter who knows the situation and gives his opinion according to his interpretation of the situation. the current mental model of the tweeter about the event is negative. the use of the negative appraisal term ‘doesn’t deserve’ reflects the negative opinion about the event in the event model. the use of satire ‘she deserves uncle imtiaz depicts the negative aspect of his mental model about mehwish hayyat being awarded the third-highest civilian award. socioculturally shared knowledge is presupposed in the production and comprehension of this tweet regarding what women usually deserve in society. the tweet is based on a social norm that women actually deserve ‘man’, not a third highest civilian award. such a norm is part of the underlying ideologies and attitudes of the tweeter. social function the tweet makes use of satire and functions in deriving contempt and hatred from the readers for the actress. it implies that women are weaker and are not eligible for notable awards. in a male-dominated pakistani society, power is exercised through discourse by portraying women as trivial beings. such sexist ideology is part of socioculturally shared knowledge. tweet 2 an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 135 this tweet is related to shireen mazari, who is currently a federal minister of human rights. discursive structures the tweeter uses the negative lexicalization ‘shameless woman’ to represent shireen mazari. the tweet begins with a negative clause. firstly, he emphasizes ‘what she is not’ and then on ‘what she is. the tweeter exclaims that mazari is equal to a man. an exclamatory mark is used to lay emphasis and to grab the attention of the readers. the addresser makes use of a rhetorical device known as antithesis to attain a contrasting effect. first of all the tweeter negates that mazari is a woman but then at the end of a sentence he uses the term woman for her. so, he has placed two contrasting ideas parallel to one another. cognitive structures specific knowledge related to shireen mazari is presupposed in the production of this discourse. based on that knowledge the tweeter uses negative lexicalization for mazari, this negative lexicalization depicts the negative aspects of his mental model related to mazari. similarly, the use of antithesis also demonstrates a negative representation of mazari in the mental model of the tweeter. the tweet is based on a norm that a woman who tries to be equal to a man is not actually a woman and is a shameless creature. such norm is part of the ideology of the individual and sociocultural beliefs. it is implicitly stated that mazari is shameless just because she tries to be equal to a man. this implicit information is not in the discourse and exists in the underlying mental models of the tweeter. based on sociocultural knowledge, the mental model of tweeter differentiates between tasks and behavior of men and women within a society. the overall meaning of the tweet is negative. social function male dominance is transparent in the discursive and cognitive structures of the discourse. in the pakistani context, a woman who tries to be equal to a man is considered shameless. this tweet discriminates against the female politician by using discriminatory and derogatory terms. an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 136 tweet 3 this comment appears under the tweet of a pakistani actress. discursive structures the tweeter uses the negative term for the actress. the metaphor ‘sex bomb’ refers to a sexually attractive woman. in this tweet, the actress is objectified as she is viewed as a mere object of sexual desire. sex bomb is a slang word in the english language. cognitive structures the metaphor ‘sex bomb’ reflects the negative aspect of the mental model regarding women. in the mental model of the tweeter, an actress is an object of sexual and physical desire. he does not view her talent or personality. he views the actress as a slab of meat who exists only for male consumption. the tweeter evaluates the actress based on her sexual appeal. this indicates that in his mental model and socioculturally shared knowledge women are sexual objects. social function socioculturally shared knowledge is presupposed in the production of this discourse. the tweeter according to his mental model and social cognition views women as an object of physical pleasure. he does not evaluate women based on their personality and talent. when a woman is viewed as a dehumanized sexual object of the commodity and this eventually results in violence against the woman resulting in humiliation, harassment, and sexual assault. tweet 4 this tweet is related to shireen mazari who is currently federal minister of human rights. an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 137 discursive structures the tweeter has used an insulting metaphor ‘clown’ for a female politician. ‘why is this clown our human rights minister’ is a rhetorical question which does not prompt an answer. it actually lays emphasis on a point and makes a reader contemplate. the deictic expression ‘this is used to refer to shireen mazari. ‘check out the colorful wig on her head’ is an irony. the tweeter used this statement to show contempt and hatred towards her physical appearance. ‘she is representing pakistan?’ is an ironic rhetorical question. this question does not demand an answer from the readers. the implicit meaning in this question is that she should not be representing pakistan as she is not capable enough. cognitive structures a large amount of knowledge related to sheeren mazari is presupposed in the production of this discourse. the deictic expression ‘this’ refers to a presupposed information in the context model. the use of the metaphor ‘clown’ shows the negative aspects of the mental model of the tweeter. the word clown is used for a fool or comic entertainer with an unsophisticated appearance. so, negative connotations are attached to it when used for someone who is not a professional clown. according to social cognition and the individual mental model of the tweeter, the physical appearance of a woman matters more than her talent and intelligence. therefore, the tweeter negatively evaluates her based on her appearance. the tweeter delivers implicit meaning through words based on his context model according to the current situation. the pragmatic and semantic models shape the ironical statements of the tweeter. social function socioculturally shared knowledge is presupposed in the production of this discourse. according to social cognition and individual mental model, the tweeter views the female politician as an object. he negatively evaluates her based on her appearance and uses a derogatory term for her. such a norm is part of society where women are seen as mere objects and are evaluated based on their looks. this tweet results in discriminating women within a society based on their looks. an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 138 tweet 5 “she along with her mother obtained the seat for national assembly by stooping down to new lows.. don’t expect anything sane and literate from these shameless puppets” this tweet is related to a well-known pakistani politician maryam aurangzeb and her mother tahira aurangzeb, both are the members of national assembly. discursive structures here in the tweet, the tweeter makes use of the metaphor ‘stooping down’ for both the female politicians. here, stooping down means to do something which is morally and ethically wrong. similarly, the metaphor ‘puppets’ is used to indicate that both women are controlled by some external force. these metaphors have negative implications. to delineate these two female politicians the tweeter has used negative lexicalization ‘shameless puppets’. the syntax of the sentence indicates that the stress is mainly on ‘she’ i.e. maryam aurangzeb. words sane, literate, and puppets are capitalized to lay stress on them or to capture the attention of the readers. cognitive structures a vast amount of political knowledge is presupposed in the production of this tweet. the metaphors ‘puppets’ and ‘stooped down’ indicate the negative aspects of the mental model by representing the negative characteristics of female politicians. use of the word ‘puppet’ indicates that in the mental model of the tweeter women are controllable beings. the tweet is basically based on two significant norms, first one is that female politicians gain success by losing their moral values. the second one is that they are puppets controlled by some external force and are objects or commodities. the tweeter emphasizes that the fore-mentioned politicians are submissive. such norms are part of the underlying ideologies and attitudes of a tweeter regarding women. negative lexicalization like ‘shameless’ reveals the negative mental model of the tweeter regarding female politicians. the use of the phrase ‘new low’ presupposes that there were such disappointing acts by these female politicians in the past. in this way, this activates the old mental model of the readers. social function an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 139 this tweet deteriorates the positive image of female pakistani politicians by implicitly portraying that they have to sacrifice their good morals to gain a seat in national assembly. so, in the context model of the readers, female politicians are trivialized. this tweet strengthens male domination within a society by characterizing women as a misfit in politics. tweet 6 this tweet is related to one of the most popular pakistani actresses. discursive structures this tweet comprises two words. the tweeter uses the metaphor ‘bitch’ to exploit the identity of the actress. this metaphor is modified by the adjective ‘vulgar’ that shows the intensity of hatred towards the addressee. the word ‘bitch’ is a curse word used in the english language. negative connotations are attached to it. in this context, it implicitly means an indecent, vulgar, or malicious woman. cognitive structures the use of negative terms ‘vulgar bitch’ represents the negative aspects of the mental model of the tweeter. negative connotations are attached to the word ‘bitch’ and these connotations are not explicit in the discourse. they are present in the underlying mental models of the addresser and the readers. readers having the same socio-cultural knowledge can understand it. the tweet is based on the norm that female actresses are indecent and vulgar individuals of society. such a norm is part of the underlying ideology of the tweeter. the overall negative opinion of the tweeter about the actress is represented in his mental model. social function the discursive and cognitive structures of the tweet function in the humiliation of the actress. it provokes verbal and physical violence against actresses. the tweeter exercises power through the tweet and targets the actress. in a male-dominated pakistani society, females an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 140 working in media are considered vulgar. on the other hand, this concept is not associated with males working in media. so, this tweet functions in discrimination against women. tweet 7 this tweet appears as a reply to bakhtawar bhutto zardari’s tweet. semiotic structures the tweeter has used a hand gesture to show contempt and hatred towards the addressee. in the pakistani context, this middle finger gesture is considered extremely obscene when used for women. the person receiving the gesture is threatened, sexually harassed, or intimidated in this way. the gesture is used to dehumanize and trivialize the female politician. it is frequently used against females on social media to sexually harass them. cognitive structures the use of this gesture indicates a negative attitude towards the female politician. such an attitude is part of the sexist ideology of the tweeter. in the mental model of the tweeter, a woman is seen as a sexual object used to accomplish the physical desires of men. socioculturally shared knowledge is also presupposed in the production of this discourse. the tweeter has knowledge that in the pakistani context, this gesture can intimidate or threaten a woman. so, he uses it to silent the opinion of a female politician. it indicates a negative aspect of the mental model of the tweeter regarding women. social function an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 141 the sexist ideology of the tweeter is reflected in this discourse. such a discourse can incite physical and verbal abuse against women. it also encourages sexual harassment, eventually leading to sexual assault. the tweet signals that the dominant and powerful group within a society is the ‘male group’ which can intimidate, threaten, and sexually abuse the weaker ‘female group’. tweet 8 this tweet targets a female pakistani politician maryam aurangzaib. discursive and semiotic structures the tweet comprises two pictures and a caption. the caption ‘maryam orangzaib is that you?’ is a rhetorical question that does not require an answer from the addressee. the literary device of satire has been used in the tweet. the purpose of the tweet is to make fun of the female politician and to derive contempt from the readers. in the pictures, the physical appearance of the political figure is being ridiculed. the two pictures are juxtaposed to derive similarity in appearance. an overall negative meaning is delivered through the tweet. in the pakistani context, a comparison of a woman with a bull has negative connotations. cognitive structures the tweet makes use of satire, where contempt is derived from the readers by making fun of the political figure. so, this knowledge of the use of language according to the situation exists in the context model of the tweeter. the use of satire indicates the negative aspect of the an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 142 mental model of the tweeter regarding maryam aurangzaib. the implicit meaning is not apparent in the tweet but is present in the underlying mental model of the tweeter. the readers sharing the same sociocultural knowledge will be able to comprehend the implicit meaning based on their mental model. the tweet reflects the tweeter’s ideology where he negatively evaluates the female politician based on her looks. hence, treats her as an object or commodity. social function it is an example of user-generated content in which women are bullied based on their looks. it shows that in pakistani context women are seen as an object, ranked based on their physical appearance. it results in derogatory terms against women and eventually stimulates violence against women. sociocultural knowledge and individual mental models influence the discourse produced in this tweet. tweet 9 this comment appears on the official twitter account of pakistani actress ‘mehwish hayyat’ who won the third-highest civilian award ‘sitara-i-imtiaz. discursive structures the tweeter makes use of the derogatory and offensive metaphor ‘thot’ for the actress. negative lexicalization is used to delineate her. that is the acronym for ‘that hoe over there’ and is extremely derogatory in nature. the prepositional phrase ‘with dirty heart’ acts as an adjective and describes the noun phrase ‘pure thot’. it overall indicates an extremely an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 143 offensive meaning. the sentence is not complete, as it only comprises phrases. this kind of syntactical structure is commonly used in social media discourse where language is used informally most of the time. cognitive structures the tweeter presupposes specific knowledge related to the actress and then formulates his own opinion based on underlying ideologies and socioculturally shared knowledge. the tweet indicates an overall negative opinion about the actress in the mental model. the metaphor ‘thot’ shows the negative aspect of the mental model. the actress is described as ‘thot’ because of a general sociocultural knowledge related to the profession of acting. in the mental model of tweeter actresses are submissive and objectified individuals. the tweet is based on a social norm that actresses do not have good moral values and they lower themselves ethically to gain fame. this norm is part of individual mental models and socio-culturally shared knowledge between groups or individuals within a group. social function the tweeter uses offensive language for the actress to humiliate her. the discursive and cognitive structures demonstrate that actresses are considered unethical individuals within pakistani society. immorality is associated with the females working in this field. it discriminates and humiliates the actress. it encourages the use of offensive language for the actresses. tweet 10 federal minister of human rights, shireen mazari is targeted in this tweet. discursive structures the tweeter makes use of the metaphor ‘trolley’ to describe shireen mazari. in the pakistani context, when this word is used for a woman it has negative connotations. in this an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 144 context, a trolley means a person who is obese or overweight. so, negative lexicalization is used in this tweet. it portrays the body shame against woman. cognitive structures the use of the metaphor ‘trolley’ to describe the female politician shows the negative aspect of the mental model. similarly, the connotative meaning of the trolley is not implicit in the discourse. it exists in the underlying mental model of the tweeter. the readers having the same sociocultural knowledge can comprehend the implicit meaning. the tweet demonstrates the attitude of the tweeter towards the female politician. in the mental model of the tweeter, the way a female politician looks is more important than her performance. this is an attitude part of his sexist ideology. social function this tweet indicates how women are devalued based on their looks in a society where women are seen as an object. they are judged only on the basis of their appearance. such discourse eventually results in body shaming and humiliation of women within a society. conclusion the present research explored how discourse, cognition, and society form a triad resulting in a system where women are discriminated against. the results indicated that discourse in hate speech tweets is actually controlled by cognitive and societal structures. it highlighted the discursive structures like metaphors, negative implications, syntax, word order, satire, deictic expressions, adverbs, adjectives, presuppositions, negative connotations, and rhetorical questions which are examples of hate speech. the tweeters used offensive, derogatory and discriminatory discourse for various public figures, politicians, actresses, and journalists. such discourse is dominated by the speakers' sexist mindset, which views women as inferior and objectifies them based on their appearance. women in pakistani society are considered as objects to fulfil physical wants, according to the above-mentioned discussion. they are discriminated against because they are judged on their appearance and gender rather than their ability, intelligence, and competence. these ideals are part of the tweeters' mental model and social cognition. the study also revealed how context models influence dialogue. in pakistani society, the tweets foment hostility and discrimination towards women. this hostility leads to physical abuse, verbal abuse, an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 145 sexual harassment, and sexual assault against women, eventually leading to a male-dominated culture where women are discriminated against. the findings of this study may be useful to social scientists, humanitarians, and activists because they expose the root causes of violence and prejudice against women. knowing what's causing the problem will eventually lead to remedies. due to time restrictions, the sample size was kept minimal in this study. by extending the sample size, future researchers will be able to acquire a better understanding of this phenomenon. furthermore, the cognitive aspect can be thoroughly investigated, which can aid in the comprehension of complicated human behaviours and discourse. references darweesh, a. d., & abdullah, n. m. 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(2018). relocating gender stereotypes online: critical analysis of sexist hate speech in selected social media. proceedings of the international conference on language phenomena in multimodal communication (klua 2018). doi:10.2991/klua-18.2018.40 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1118939.pdf an analysis of hate speech tweets against women from a socio-cognitive discourse perspective university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 146 ghachem, i. (2015). a sociocognitive approach to agency framing in david cameron’s 2010 pre-election discourse. critical approaches to discourse analysis across disciplines, 7(2), 263-282.http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/journals/cadaad/wpcontent/uploads/2015/08/volume-7_ghachem.pdf khosarvinik, m., & esposito, e. (2018). online hate, digital discourse and critique: exploring digitally-mediated discursive practices of gender-based hostility. special issue on narrating hostility, challenging hostile narratives, 14(1), 45–68. doi: 10.1515/lpp-2018-0003 wodak, r., & meyer, m. (2009). methods for critical discourse analysis (2nd ed.). london: sage. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 52 analysis of existential perspectives in bapsi sidhwa’s water naik alam graduate in bs english literature and linguistics national university of modern languages (numl) islamabad, pakistan sahilsabbah2244@gmail.com abstract the great philosopher jean-jacques rousseau asserts, “man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains”. it is a fact, since the very beginning, humans have always been captives in the hands of their cultures, , religions, laws, and norms. these constraints always confine human freedom. . consequently, these ever injustices with humans pushed the philosophers of 20th century to raise their voices against such injustices which snatch humans’ freedom. as a result, existentialist movement came about , and started suggesting humans to get freedom from all constraints in society. this research aimed to analyze the dominant perspectives of existentialism in bapsi sidwa’s novel, the researcher had to analytically study existentialism in the novel, and to study the contents of the novel under study through the lens of existentialist theory. the method in this study was qualitative in nature. the researcher has referred to the instances from the novel to bring forward the underlying theme in the novel. the text of the novel was taken by the researcher as a sample. the researcher has found that the novel is about the wretched lives of widows in the traditional brahminical societies in india. following their beliefs and traditions the traditional brahminical societies, mal-treat their widows, and snatch their freedom even in modern times. moreover, in the novel, the researcher discerned, that not only widows, women, but also men are doomed to sufferings, miseries, and traumas in the names of moribund, and obsolete norms and beliefs in such traditional societies. key words: existentialism, norms, traditions, india, suffering, freedom, brahmin, widows 1. introduction existentialism is a philosophy that concerns the idea of an individual’s existence, freedom, the choice to live his/her life, and self-responsibility. it asserts that humans must be free to make their own conclusions, and meanings in their lives. moreover, they strive to make university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 53 logical verdicts while living in this meaningless and absurd world. existentialism asserts to allow human thinking and existence to define itself. it rejects all the norms, beliefs, cultures, and traditions, it only emphases an individual’s own choice of whatsoever s(he) makes of their life. this concept emerged during the late and mid-19th century .and reached its peak in france during the mid-20th century. according to jean-paul sartre, one of the pioneers of existentialism “existence precedes essence”. this means first humans exist and then they try to make meanings of their lives. humans try to find meaning in their lives by opting to do many things. for example, they sometimes follow religions to give meaning to their lives, sometimes, they follow different dogmas, traditions, and norms to make their existence meaningful. moreover, he says life has no meaning, it is absurd, but humans try to make it meaningful. besides that, in one of his 1946 woks, he asserts, “existentialism is humanism”. the pioneers of the theory of existentialism were: soren kierkegaard, karl jaspers, friedrich nietzsche, edmund husser franz kafka, and fyodor dostoevsky. bapsi sidwa is a pakistaniamerican novelist. she was born on 11 august 1938 in gujarat pakistan to parsi family. she writes in english and resides in the united states. she is best known for her collaborative work with indo-canadian filmmaker deepa mehta. her most famous novels are the 1991 novel ice candy man and her 2006 novel water moreover, a documentary about sidwa’s life called "bapsi: silences of my life" is currently in production and is expected to release in 2021. coming to the research, especially in india in hindus societies, why something happens in a person’s life without their consent, and when they don’t want and need its happenstance at all?. what makes it happen?, can it be god?, or it may be assumed to happen as a result of the sins of past lives as a penance?. such heart-piercing and thorny questions are frequently asked in the under study novel by bapsi sidwa. water as the fifth novel of the writer, is based on the film ‘water’ by an indo-canadian filmmaker, deepa mehta. the setting of the novel is india, and the year is 1938, that is nine years prior to india’s independence from the shackles of colonialism. moreover, it is based on the mal-treatment of hindu widows in traditional societies. the novel is an account of the struggles of a kid of just eight years old, chuya. chuya is made to marry a forty four year old widower. more unfortunately, misfortune shortly and very quickly surrounds , that her husband dies of a disease. consequently, by following the norms, she is left at a widows' ashram( a building in which widows are kept). in the ashram, chuya is compelled to be devoid of any sort of activity which might arouse the guilty self in university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 54 her. however, the non-conformist, and resistive chuya, gradually begins to accept her fate , however, at instantly she defies many thing there. moreover, inadvertently, she also influences other widows in the ashram, and in a sense becomes a source of change in the lives around her. when the elegant prostitute, kalyani, a widow falls in love with an elite class a young gandhian, narayan, the prohibited affair poses a dangerous threat to the hindu tradition, and to the affairs of the ashram, and to its hypocrisy. for chuya and kalyan, to keep things normal and to get out of the quagmire of this place, they have to take steps and do something like a sacrifice beyond their imaginations and potentials. 1.1 problem statement life has no meaning in itself, to give meanings to their lives, humans try to find meaning in cultures, religions, and laws. hindu brahmin widows are not allowed to remarry for the rest of their lives. it does not matter how young they are. the study will focus on the grievances of the miserable widows in brahmin societies in india, in the novel, “water”. 1.2 research objectives  to analyze the theme of existential humanism in the novel water.  to examine the contents of the selected novel in - light of the theory of existentialism.  the major aim of this research is to analyze how in traditional, brahmanical indian societies widows, and women are doomed to sufferings, miseries, and traumas. 1.3 research questions  how is the theme of existential humanism depicted in the novel water by bapsi sidhwa?  why and how cultures, and religions curtail human freedom? 1.4 significance of the study the researcher will explore the concept of existential humanism in the novel. the selected theme is very paramount and crucial in modern times as well. one of the greatest tragedies of humans is that, they don’t make decisions to live their lives according to their own ways, rather they follow the already existing obsolete and paleolithic traditional systems. we see that people are killing each other in the name of religion, culture, nationality, ethnicity, and norms. even these days, the miserable hindu widows are doomed to live the same lives as is presented in the novel. owing to religious beliefs and other social confinements people are compelled and encumbered to live other lives, not theirs. moreover, this research aims to assist the students university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 55 of literature in acquiring a complete knowledge of the philosophy of existentialism in general and existential humanism in particular, in the context of this work. 1.5 delimitations as existentialism is a very vast field, and has various disciplines like agnostic existentialism, existential anarchism, atheistic existentialism, cosmism, feminist existentialism, theatre of absurd, and etc. this research analyzes existential humanism through sartre’s perspectives in the contents of the novel ‘water’ . 2. literature review sartre deemed that human beings live in constant anguish, not mainly because life is miserable, but because we are ‘condemned to be free’. since the circumstances of our birth and upbringing are out of our control, he reasons that once we attain self-awareness ( and we all do eventually), we have to make choices —that define our very ‘essence’. sartre's theory of existentialism states that “existence precedes essence”, that is only by existing and acting a certain way, we give meaning to our lives. according to him, there is no fixed design for how a human being should be and no god to give us a purpose. therefore, the onus for defining ourselves, and by extension humanity, falls squarely on our shoulders. this lack of pre-defined purpose along with an 'absurd' existence that presents to us infinite choices is what sartre attributes to the “anguish of freedom”. with nothing to restrict us, we have the choice to take actions to become who we want to be and lead the life we want to live. according to sartre, each choice we make defines us while at the same time revealing to us what we think a human being should be. and this incredible burden of responsibility that the free man has to bear is what relegates him to constant anguish.consequently, detailed illustrations of existentialist themes are more often drawn from the works of sartre” (olson, pg. 8). this section of the literature review will provide some major works and articles related to this philosophy.the theme of existentialism is being discussed by different writers in their novels. . in his 1938 novel “nausea”, jan paul sartre asserts that every person has entire freedom in life, he or she has the ability to choose different ways at different moments in their lives. he says the ultimate choice should be to choose to bethat means one’s existence. and that means a person should value his/her existence above everything else. he further says this choice should be common to everyone. at the close of this novel, roquentin prefers his choice for existence over nothingness. through this novel, sartre is trying to portray that life has itself no meaning, humans must be free to create meanings in their lives. moreover, he says that one university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 56 should never wait for a god to help them because for him there exists no god. all in all, he requests people to have their responsibilities to make meanings of their meaningless and absurd lives on this planet. in his journal, ‘existentialism and christian humanism: joseph pieper’s critique of sartre revisited ” ( richey, 2015) asserts, sartre’s goal was “to draw all of the conclusions inferred by a consistently atheistic point of view,”.(77) that means sartre believes in complete of humans without any influence of god and cultures. pieper, in the words of bernard schumacher, “wanted to think through the ultimate consequences of the metaphysics of creation on the level of human nature, death, hope, love, leisure, the virtues, tradition, and philosophy.”(78) but in order to think through these ultimate consequences, indeed, in order to think about the world at all, pieper believed, the fundamental platonic concept of a nature or essence, capable of being known in some real (if not exhaustive) way was necessary. and such an intelligible nature, in turn, demands for its existence the christian notion of a creator(richey, 2015). a research conducted by (amanat & rehman, 2015,) sheds light on the status of the women in society especially on the pitiful life of the widows. it explores the various aspects of the men’s authority and the women’s subjugation. they used the theory of feminism to conduct this research in which the men marginalize women by various ways. there are various ways by which the men marginalize women and sexuality is one of them. the research further explores that the women are assaulted sexually but this assault does not let them suffer only physically, but also shapes their entire lives. their present is determined by their sexual past. my research will explore not only women but also men suffer in societies, owing to their beliefs and cultures. (wshleman, 2011)elaborates the idea of absurdism which is strongly attached with the philosophy of existentialism, in the stanford encyclopaedia of philosophy. absurdism rejects every theological, scientific, and metaphysical answer to the meaning of human existence. according to the french writer, albert camus, when the human desire of order confronts the irrationality of the universe then the result is “absurdity”, although humans keep on seeking the meaning in this world, however, in truth, there is no meaning. in his famous philosophical essay “the myth of sisyphus” he portrays the meaningless labor of sisyphus who rolls up a rock to the mountain only to roll it back down again, and it continues in an endless cycle. this task of sisyphus entails the monotonous reality of an individual's existence. sisyphus embraces university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 57 the “futility and hopeless labor” (camus , 2017) camus asserts that one must prefer to consider sisyphus happy, indulged in the absurd activity of rolling the boulder. as he said, “all sisyphus’s silent joy is contained therein. his fate belongs to him. his rock is his thing” (camus, 1942) thus, according to camus, in order to cope with the absurdity of life, one has to embrace it. (nagel, 1971). in her article ( (jabeen,2011) “a comparative feministic analysis of bapsi sidhwa’s novels” has tried to unravel both the overt and covert forms of female exploitation within the patriarchal society as presented by sidhwa in her fiction. this research project focuses mainly on sidhwa‘s three famous novels, namely water, ice-candy man and the bride which present the subjugation and marginalization of women from 1938 till 1975. sidhwa‘s novel water demonstrates the miserable condition of hindu widows before partition. water explores female suffering under unfair religious rules levied against widows as well as female oppression through forced prostitution. these widows were exploited in the name of religion and forced to live in the pathetic living conditions. her novel ice-candy man shows the huge massacres and destruction due to partition. it showed women as vulnerable targets during partition. ice candy man highlights how female sexuality is targeted as the main source of exploitation and revenge during the turbulent times of the 1947 partition. the bride shows the women’s suppression in the name of patriarchal traditions and shows the women’s enslavement even after the so called partition. the bride gives a detailed analysis off male manipulation in the name of cultural values and the tribal culture of pakistan. these novels illustrate the patriarchal system which snatches a woman‘s right to live her life according to her own will. my research will analyze how men are also being suppressed in societies in the name of religion, and culture (jabeen, 2011). a study conducted by (tan, plowman, & hancock, 2007) on samuel beckett’s play ‘happy days’ depicts the absurdity and mundaneness of life. there is a female character named winnie in that play who’s entirely devoid of meaning in her life and stuck in the mud, which may depict people's unavoidable monotonous life. this situation shows that how life has no apparent meaning and everything happening around is quite irrational. so, she accepts her position and believes that it is a valuable lifestyle despite being stuck in such a hopeless situation. (li, sun 2020 ) discerned george orwell’s 1984, which depicts a character, winston living in a fictional totalitarian state where screens and microphones track everybody's actions. winston begins to become cynical of society and its members and is therefore considered a “thought university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 58 criminal”. winston keeps pursuing liberation, but all his efforts are futile. in the end, he is being threatened by rats, so he surrenders and becomes faithful to the state. “thus, value lessness exists in the individual, and even though winston has fought to prove the meaning of his existence, his efforts go vain.” (pg. 18) kierkegaard, in his book "the sickness unto death”(kierkegaard, hong, & hong, 1980)depicts human beings as being shackled between two conflicting forces: the finite and the infinite. to get dominated by the finite, individuals become depressed and anxious because the course of life appears to be stuck in a particular position. infinite, on the other hand, has multiple options on what one should become, but in truth no one becomes anything. finding a balance between these two powers is a kind of path to “selfhood” but it evokes anxiety and desperation as there is no standard way, and one must “walk without meeting one single traveler” (fear and trembling, pg. 76). one who manages the balance between finite and infinite sustains “selfhood”. kierkegaard believed that if an individual goes through three stages, he can find the "true self": the aesthetic stage, the ethical stage, and the religious stage. he has emphasized the last stage, that is to have all faith in god, the highest standard of existence is this stage near kierkegaard. (rempel, n.d) samuel beckett’s waiting for godot represents the characters who wait in some sort of spiritual force, that is ‘godot’, to come and enlighten their existence, though he never comes. this idea depicts the common human tendency to wait for universe to offer them meaning instead of creating their own. they just exist, ignoring the freedom of choice. friedrich nietzsche, believed that religion is only a diversionary tactic from the actual fact that we are alone in a world where we have to develop our own beliefs. nietzsche stated that “nihilism strongly asserts that the world and especially humans have no purposes. individuals holding nihilism as their conviction believe in nothing, and have no purpose, and have an impulse to destroy his or her self.” (barett, 2002) (nisa, 2017) explains how ernest hemingway, in his short story, ‘a clean, welllighted place’ depicts his nihilistic world view by illustrating an old man, for whom life was meaningless. hemingway suggests that life is meaningless and that in a great sea of nothingness, man is an insignificant speck. one major character of the story makes this idea more prominent by saying that “it was all a nothing and man was a nothing too.” (hemingway, 1933) he uses the word 'nada' in prayer to mean nothingness, which also university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 59 demonstrates that religion is also just nothing, to which many people turn to find value and meaning. on the other hand, (solihah, winarko, afiahayati, & hartati, 2017) give us the gregor’s representation of nothingness in kafka’s ‘the metamorphosis’. gregor’s own characteristics such as less intelligence, laziness brings him in to the position of nothingness. the researcher has found out that his own pessimistic and negative characteristics caused him the feelings of being meaningless. so, he refused his existence and starts living in a locked room. moreover, the most relevant existentialist theme is death. “… death is just a fellow existence.” (heidegger, 2014, pp 302). martin heidegger believed that knowledge of death indicates the meaning of life or existence. we indulge in trivialities of life and continue to avoid death which makes us feel “inauthentic” (shariatinia, n.d.). albert camus’s existential protagonist, meursault, in ‘the stranger’ remains detached from societal standards, religion and exercises absolute freedom until his execution. after murdering an arab he is imprisoned and asked to accept god's presence, but he refuses to accept what he is being told and chooses to die instead. for him, life holds no greater meaning, and death can liberate him from the insignificance of existence. (md islam, 2018). in contrast with the philosophy of camus, sartre claims that although life has no established meaning, it can be created by the individual oneself. he states that “life has no meaning a priori. before you come alive, life is nothing” (sartre,1943). when a man discovers that he has no predetermined meaning and he is utterly liberated, this notion leads him to anguish. as he believed that man has no defined meaning so he should create his own values and choices and shape his life. “we are left alone, without excuse” (sartre,1946). man will make what he really is by making choices instead of staying what he is now, this is often called "subjectivity." he believed that everything starts from the inside of a person, so there is no such “objective” thing about what a human being is or should be, “subjectivity” must be the starting point. to conclude this part, it may be said that, all the above mentioned writers have one notion in common regarding the theory of existentialism and that is, they all insist on an individual’s to have his/her own choices in life. no man should be confined or forced to live at others’ whims and wishes. people should create their own meaning of life through their own personal choices, actions, and responsibilities. however, they have all talked about human university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 60 existence generally, but they have not known the fact that in humans women are more prone to suffer, and become captives in the hands of this patriarchal and harsh society. this research will be more women-oriented, and it will focus on the existential crises women face. as it is said life is harsh for men, but harshest for women. 3. research methodology 3.1. theoretical framework the researcher has used sartre’s existential humanistic theory to analyze the contents of existential humanism in the selected novel. existentialism is a movement in philosophy and literature that concerns the existence, freedom, and choice of an individual. it emerged in the mid-to-late 19th century, however it reached its pinnacle in the mid-20th century in france. it declares that humans try to create and define their own meaning in life, and strive to have rational decisions despite living in an irrational universe. it emphasizes the question of human existence and the notion that there is no purpose or meaning at the bottom of existence. it holds the conviction that there is no god, or any other transcendent force, the only remaining way to counter this absurdity( and hence to find meaning in life) is acknowledging and embracing existence. however, the researcher has analyzed the contents of the novel through sartre’s perspectives of existential humanism. for sartre existentialism is humanism. he asserted this in 1945 in his lecture at the club maintenant in paris. by this he means that humans should be entirely free to live their lives. for him no culture, religion, and god exist. his philosophy is the philosophy of existence. as he claims, “existence precedes essence”. of teachings (p.26). sartre believes in complete freedom of human beings. for this he urges humans to free themselves from the doctrines of cultures, religions, and traditions. 3.2. research design the research is qualitative in nature.it is from general to specific. it has analyzed the cases of chuya, kalyani, and narayan. the researcher for primary source has thoroughly studied the text of the novel and critically examined the selected theme in it. secondary sources will be used in the form of online articles. by using the theoretical frame work of jean-paul sartre’s existential humanism, the researcher will explore the core perspectives of existential humanism in the novel water. 3.3. research method university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 61 the method used for the study is content analysis. the researcher has referred to the instances from the novel to bring forward the underlying theme of the novel. by using this research design, the researcher will analyze the contents of jean-paul sartre’s perspectives of existential humanism in the very novel. 3.4 sample the researcher has read the text of the novel thoroughly and has analysed jean-paul sartre’s perspectives of existential humanism in it. 4. content analysis literature studies life and society; it also shows the relationship between humans and their societies and environments. the novel is one of the genres of literature, and it is a long, fictional narrative that depicts intimate human experiences. in novels, we come to know about lives other than our own with different norms, traditions, cultures, beliefs, and places. above all, novels talk life of man and his concerns particularly related to religion, politics, economics, norms, cultures, and most importantly social issues. pakistani english literature is very rich in depicting the lives of people in the country and abroad. bapsi sidwa is very vocal and bold when it comes to women's rights. all her novels do highlight the plights of women in societies. including her novel, “the ice candy man”, this novel is no exception. in “water” , the novel under study she too seems to be very much immersed in the wretched indian widows and their horrible and appalling conditions. she leaves no stone unturned to unfold the injustices and cruelties inflicted upon the wretched widows in traditional indian societies in the name of religion, culture, norms, and laws. the questions which the researcher has highlighted have been answered with the help of selected data from the very novel by the very novelist, bapsi sidwa in. the novel ‘water’ the story is set in 1938 when the colonial india was against mahatma gandhi's rise to popularity. back during those days, child marriages were considered common practice. widows had a very dire and pitiable position in society where they were considered as half alive human beings. they were expected and forced to spend their entire lives only in penance, poverty, and in the worship of god. however, widow-remarriages were legalized by the then colonial laws, but they were not practiced in letters and were considered taboos. the story of the novel begins with a six-year-old girl named chuya, who resides with her parents in a small village on the bengal-bihar border. her totally carefree life drifts to an end when she is married to hira lal, a forty-four-year-old widower. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 62 coming to analyze data from the text: “hira lal’s mother longs our chuya to marry hira lal” ( page, 5), he said. this line is asserted by somnath to his wife bhagya. he is the father of chuya. this line shows that, at the very beginning of the novel, how much the society of chuya was obsessed with the idea and culture of marriage-hood. as hira lal is a forty-yearold widower and the chuya is just six at the moment. however, her father turns ecstatic that, hiral lal’s mother wants their daughter to marry her son. how pitiful the situation, is shown in the fact that instead of showing reluctance, somnath is very thrilled to announce this news to his wretched wife, the mother of chuya. after hearing this heart-wrenching news from her husband, bhagya the mother of chuya goes very sad, thinking that, her daughter is too young to get married. she deems this is chuya’s playing time in her life. however, all her objections go in vain. as she is a woman no one listens to her. the thing to be pondered on is, why have humans made marriage more than important in one’s life? we see chuya is only six, she is not even able to know what is a marriage. here we chuya’s life decisions are made by her society, her tradition, and her parents, unfortunately, not by herself. moreover, in her infanthood, her freedom is snatched from her. this is sheer existential crises, and we need to be more existentialists here that, we should stop such brutal actions happening anywhere around us. we must speak against all the odds occurring in our societies. we must not leave the weak and powerless segment of our society at the mercy of moribund, obsolete, and palaeolithic traditions and dogmas. “they don’t want a dowry; they will pay for the wedding. she will be well cared for. hira lal’s mother is a kind woman. she will be good to our girl”. ( page, 5,6). in these lines chuya’s father is addressing her mother, he is trying to get her convinced that, she needs not be worried. because he says, no dowry is demanded from the bridegroom’s side. moreover, he says to his wife that, all the expenses for the wedding will be met by the bridegroom’s family. besides that, he says that hira lal’s mother is a very kind woman, and their daughter will be well taken care of. the irony here is that, if a father himself is not conscious of taking care of his daughter, then who else is even supposed to and expected to do so. it is seen that, just for having no dowry and being paid for his daughter’s marriage, somnath is taking the crucial decisions of his poor little daughter’s life. and the hypocrisy and stupidity is that, to his wife, he is showing and trying to be sure that, their daughter will be well cared for in her new home. “he’s not bad looking. the family is of noble brahmin lineage. we should be honored”.( page,6) here these lines from chuya’s father show that how much their society is university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 63 driven by the illogical societal standards. why marry people for their good looks and noble family origins?. is it not injustice with poor little chuya that, she is being married just to earn a name for her father at the cost of even her carefree childhood life and her freedom. the writer conveys the idea how cruelties are done in the name of man-made standards like marriage, honor, and family. “ a girl is destined to leave her parents’ home early or she will bring disgrace to it. she is safe and happy only in her husband’s care”. ( page,6). again somnath, the father of chuya seems to be much possessive with the idea of marriage. why is it so?. who sets such standards in our societies, that, even every human being(men and women both) is restless and anxious to follow and go by them. the point is that what makes somnath think and believe that, his daughter will bring disgrace to his family if she remains unmarried.. in addition to that, he says that his daughter is safe and happy only in her husband’s home. the point to be noticed is, how his daughter can be safe and happy in someone else’s home if she is not so at her own home. by giving a reference from brahminical traditions to his wife, somnath further says, “a woman is recognized as a person only when she is one with her husband. only then does she become a sumangali, an auspicious woman, and saubhagyavati, a fortunate woman” ( page, 6). these lines from somnath show , how cruel, unkind, and illogical men have turned while following their beliefs, traditions, and norms. it is evident from these lines, how desperate people in such traditional societies become when they don’t see their daughters getting married. and it can make us imagine what can be the conditions of unmarried women in such societies. from these lines, it is shown that unmarried women and unmarried little girls are not even considered human beings. this means they do not have any identity, or a life of their own. how can women in such societies be free to make their own choices where even men are powerless, compelled, and encumbered before their norms, beliefs, and cultures. it shows how much people are driven by their socially constructed realities. they cannot imagine going against their traditions; it seems they value their cultures and beliefs more than they value human beings. it is absolutely pathetic. “you are the wife and daughter of brahmin priests; surely you are aware of our traditions, a woman’s role in life is to get married and have sons. that is why she is created to have sons! and that is all!” (page, 7) somnath utters these lines when he is continuously resisted and disagreed by his wife on the idea of getting their daughter married. we see that every now and then he is trying to convince his wife with their university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 64 brahminical traditions that, it is indispensable for brahmin women to get married as quickly as possible. as if for them getting their women married is the most sacred job on earth. moreover, it seems from the remarks of somnath that, in such societies, women are considered objects to produce babies. likewise, in such cultures, marriage becomes the greatest aim and purpose of women. consequently, they are tended to lose their individual identity, freedom, and responsibility. furthermore, when somnath says that, women are created to beget sons, how prejudiced he seems. because why a woman is only expected to have sons. this shows extreme bias, resentment, and prejudice towards women in such societies. as we know it is not in a woman’s power to give birth to sons or daughrers. “i don’t want to leave you and baba, i don’t want to leave mohan-bhaiyya and prasad bhaiyya or tun-tun. i will have no one to play with” (page, 14) these lines are uttered by poor six-year-old chuya on her wedding day. it is utterly clear that what is being done to her is completely against her will. she is just a child who wants to play with her brothers and her cat. on the other hand, her father is quite proud and satisfied to see his six-year-old daughter marrying a forty-four-year-old widower. when such things happen existential humanism mourns. as we see the little chuya’s decisions are not taken by herself, but by her society and her father. she does not want to marry, she cries. but there was no one to listen to her. as this practice of child marriages was so common there, and her reaction before everyone there was quite commendable. “your husband is dead. you are a widow now” (page, 27) these lines are addressed to chuya by her father. in traditional brahmin hindus, it is a ritual that, girls go to their husbands’ house after two years of their marriages. during the time after chuya’s marriage to hira lal, he becomes ill and dies. now when he dies the real miseries and sufferings fall upon her. as she becomes an untouchable being, a widow. when she hears it, she does not even take it seriously. because she did not know what awaited her. now her father also turns sad and regretful. it seems they were entirely at the mercy of their cultures, beliefs, and norms. “and when our husbands die, god helps us, the wives also half die”. she paused for effect and sighed dramatically. “so, how can a poor half-dead woman feel any pain?” she asked, not really thinking and expecting an answer. chuya, tears still slipping down her face, raised her head, and between sniffles, replied with a child’s innocent logic, “because she is half alive?. (page, 36). as chuya is a widow now, she has been deposited to an ashram ( a building where widows are kept forever). when she enters the ashram, she cries so loudly, she university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 65 is utterly shocked to see other widows there. meanwhile, a fat and robust lady, madhumati appears and tries to soothe chuya and everyone around. as she was the lady who was ruling and running the ashram. she started saying that, their holy books say, wives are part of their husbands when the husbands are alive. she further instructs them that, why to cry and feel any pain, when they are already half dead. to her assertions, chuya replies they must feel pain because they are half alive. what nonsense is in believing that, women are half dead when their husbands are dead? these atrocities are done to widows even in these modern times.. it is absolutely against human dignity. why widows are treated that way. they have the same feelings, urges, instincts, and emotions as other humans have. so why to treat them with no compassion. these are the questions and realities bapsi sidwa is trying to bring to limelight in the novel. “you cannot wear colors or stitched clothes”.( page, 28) when her husband dies, at the funeral party a hired woman pulls down her skirt and pulls her ( chuya’s) blouse up over her neck and says that she cannot wear any colourful clothes or any stitched clothes. she can only wear the specific white clothes of widows forever. moreover, in the ashram, the widows have to have their heads shaved, as it is believed that, if a single drop of water falls upon their hair, it pains their husbands' soul. besides that, the widows are given two times meal, and the food to be eaten must be cold, not hot, in order not to arouse sexual desires in the windows. “ ma, caste does not matter to me. you should know that by now”. (page 118) . kalyani was one of the young widows in the ashram. she was very beautiful. an elite class gandhian man narayan falls in love with her. so much so that, he wants to marry her. now, when he reveals this fact to his mother, his mother asks questions like, if the girl is brahmin or not, to her surprise kalyani was a widow. on her assertions, narayan rises up as an existentialist character who goes against the traditional ways and thoughts as he says caste does not matter to him. it shows that not only women are suppressed in societies but men are also restricted to do anything of their own choice and will. they also have to grapple with the moribund norms, beliefs, and cultural values. “your father will not like this insult, it is smack to our faces, we have done everything for you, yet you do not trust us to make the right choice for you?” ( page,118) bhagwati, the mother of narayan tells this to narayan when he says he will marry a nonbrahmin girl. how harsh society is towards both men and women?. his mother clearly says that they will make the right choice for their son. we know that marriage is a personal matter, it must be taken university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 66 personally. why to make other people’s choices, where will their choice go?. this is a sheer existentialist situation that, someone’s life decisions are made by others. this is how traditions, norms, beliefs, and cultural values control and confine people. both men and women, altogether. “hai bhagwan! you are serious! how will we show our face to the world, gandhi has turned you into a lunatic! marry a widow? how can you even think of it? it is a sin! you should know that!” (page, 119). when narayan reveals the fact that he is going to marry a widow, his mother bursts out with surprise, and rage. as it was most unexpected to hear such a thing, that was unimaginable for the family. consequently, she blames gandhi that, it is the influence of him that, her son has grown lunatic and thinking of doing such a forbidden thing. as mahatma gandhi was the harbinger of peace and was struggling hard to free the widows to get them remarried. oh, god! what will happen to your sisters? have you thought of that? who will marry them? no one wants a girl whose family spits on tradition and religion (page, 119). narayan takes his flute and begins to play , it was usual of narayan, and his mother quickly reaches and snatches the flute from him..and says, it is a belief of traditional brahmins that, music is forbidden and it should not be played at one’s home. and it is also believed that if a family is not religious and traditional it is despised and frowned upon by other families. resultantly, girls of such families are not sought for marriages. consequently, the whole family has to suffer. through the analysis of the contents of the novel, it is evident that, existential humanism is depicted in it by bapsi sidwa. it is also evident through the characters of chuya, narayan, and kalyani, how cultures, traditions, and religion snatch and confiscate their individuality, existence, and freedom. 5. conclusion human beings have always been captives in the hands of their beliefs, traditions, norms, and values. so much so that, these values sometimes become more valuable than human lives. these values snatch freedom and existence from humans. bapsi sidwa in this novel has shown the same picture of an indian traditional brahmin society, how cruel societies have grown that, they forget the basic human rights. through the characters of chuya and narayan, she the author has beautifully portrayed that societies are atrocious not only towards women but towards men as well. that’s why the researcher has taken the theory of existential humanism from the perspectives of sartre to look into the matter more profoundly. as existentialism university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 67 asserts, to allow human thinking and existence to define itself. it rejects all the norms, beliefs, cultures, and traditions, it only emphases an individual’s own choice of whatsoever s(he) makes of their life. it focuses on an individual’s freedom, his/her own choices in life, his/her existence, and his/her personal responsibility. as sartre puts it, “existence precedes essence”. references amanat, a., &rehman, i. u. 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(2011, january). ronald aronson, camus and sarter: the story of a friendship and the quarrel that ended it. sartre and camus: a historic confrontation. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/50246265_ronald_aronson. @ 2020 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). a discourse approach to spoken and written narratives 42 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 a discourse approach to spoken and written narratives: pedagogical implications for efl learners ms. qurrat-ul-ain department of english, national university of modern languages, islamabad dr. yasir hussain department of english, national university of modern languages, islamabad dr. fasih-ur-rehman department of english, khushal khan khattak university, karak abstract recent research on the analysis of spoken discourse (halliday, 1985, mccarthy, 1998) shows that spoken language also has a consistent structure and in many respects, it does have the language patterns as that of written english. thus, it proves that both spoken and written language have a describable structure. the aim of this study is to explore some discourse features of both spoken and written english and their pedagogical implication. for this purpose, two texts: a spontaneous speech (recorded and transcribed) and then a short-written poem are analyzed at both micro and macro level of discourse. as both texts have narrative content, labov’s model of narrative analysis is applied to identify their organizing pattern. similarities and differences in the discourse features of both texts are also examined. some pedagogical implications of such an analysis are also suggested to language teachers; so that they can improve students’ language competence skills by adopting discourse-based teaching strategies. keywords: discourse, pedagogy, efl learners, written discourse 1. introduction richard nordquist (2014) defines discourse analysis as “the study of the ways in which language is used in texts’ contexts”. it developed in the 1970s, discourse analysis "concerns itself with the use of language in a running discourse, continued over a number of sentences, and involving the interaction of speaker (or writer) and auditor (or reader) in a specific situational context, and within a framework of social and cultural conventions" (m.h. abrams and g.g. harpham, a glossary of literary terms, 2005). in linguistics, it is used to define a language which is beyond the level of sentence. discourse analysis (da) is a modern discipline of the social sciences that covers a wide variety of different approaches related to applied linguistics and language education such as sociology: conversational a discourse approach to spoken and written narratives 43 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 analysis (schegloff and sacks, 1973) sociolinguistics: ethnography (hymes, 1974), variation theory by labov (1972), philosophy: speech act theory (austin, 1962) education classroom discourse (sinclair and coulthard, 1975), linguistics: systemic functional linguistics (halliday, 1976) all these approaches have made a significant contribution to the understanding of discourse. the present study, however, focuses on the labov’s research on narrative within variation theory. the researcher took two texts of spoken and written english, analysed their micro and macro level features. as both texts have narrative content, therefore, labov’s description of the narrative analysis has been applied. labov states (1972) that the ‘overall structure’ of a fully formed narrative of personal experience can be divided into six elements: abstract, orientation, complication, evaluation, resolution and coda. the researcher used these six elements as explained by labov, and then applied at the both texts for their macro level analysis. 2. literature review 2.1 abstract this is the optional element in the story at the beginning which summarizes the entire story. bell (1991) believes “that an abstract is not obligatory in narrative writing. the writer has the “option whether to include an abstract or not in writing his narrative”. abstract not only tells the audience what the story is about but also summarizes the purpose of the story as well. 2.2 orientation (labov, 1972) defines that “the orientation identifies the place, time, characters, and their activities and is usually introduced at the onset of stories”. it is normally narrated in past progressive tense to make the audience understand the narrated events. labov also emphasizes on the ‘placement’ of orientation by saying “it is theoretically possible for all free orientation clauses to be placed at the beginning of the narrative, but in practice, we find much of this material at strategic points later on”. (pp. 364-365). if mentioned later in the narrative, it can serve the purpose of both as an evaluation or create suspense by suspending the resolution. a discourse approach to spoken and written narratives 44 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 2.3 complication this is the longest part of the narrative, consisting of temporal sequence of events and culminating the action. it may embed orientation and evaluation. junqueira (2010) states “it is the backbone of the story formed by the sequence of narrative clauses that reports a next event in response to a potential question” as labov defines “and what happened then?” afsar (2008) argues that complicating action may have various other types of clauses e.g. free and evaluative to describe the narrative action. 2.4 evaluation according to labov (1972), “evaluation is one of the most important aspects of stories because it is used by the narrators to indicate the point of the narrative, its raison d‘être: what it was told, and what the narrator is getting at” (p. 366). evaluation is narrator’s attitude towards narrative and a good narrator knows how to keep his audience attentive by narrating interesting, unusual parts of the story. afsar (2008) states that evaluation as an effective component of narration operates at both macro and micro level of the text. 2.5 resolution this element of narrative focuses on “what finally happened”. junqueira (2010) states that “it often starts with the last narrative clause of the complicating action, explaining how the complication was solved” it finally releases the suspense. 2.6 coda coda is also an optional element; it points about narrative as a whole. codas appear in free clauses at the end of the story, signal the end of the story as well. they intend to return from the narrative time to present as afsar (2008) states that “by means of a coda, the narrator can bridge the gap between the end of the story and the present.” 3. research methodology the following section presents the spoken and written text, which is analyzed at both micro and macro level, similarities and differences in discourse features of both texts are also examined. text 1: spontaneous speech by fasih a discourse approach to spoken and written narratives 45 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 fasih is the co-researcher, who was requested to narrate an interesting recent event. he was kind enough to accept the request. this conversation took place at co-researcher’s own home, when fasih was asked to narrate the event. the researcher recorded this spontaneous speech in her cell phone and then transcribed later. the conversation started with the question of the researcher: researcher: so, what are you going to tell me? fasih: umm…well..it’s about my recent flight to gilgit. researcher: ok, is it funny or interesting? fasih: well…you can say..it;s both… researcher: ok, let’s start then… fasih: ok. text 1: transcribed passage my flight to gilgit ok..that was basically the morning of 4th april, this month..i had to leave to gilgit in order to start an assignment of 15 days there…so…it was i think..it was around 9..8..8.. in the morning..i left for the airport and i reached the…airport around 9… from 9 uptill.. 10..i waited and then the flight was announced…so…i boarded on the plane..we.. took off.. and..we started towards gilgit..and we ma..made a flight of..i think 45 minutes..th.th..the aeroplane crew.. they served us with some eatables and..in the beginning i was not really willing to have something to eat or drink..but ultimately after 40 minutes.. of flight i started taking my… a..small little burger with a biscuit and..one banana..and then... all of a sudden this..captan announced that ladies and gentlemen we don’t have the possibility to land in gilgit so we are going back.. that was for me. because that was my first ever flight and the first ever flight to gilgit as well..and..i was enjoying…hh..view..out:side... we came back. i came back home. 05 10 15 20 23 a discourse approach to spoken and written narratives 46 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 for next three days…i continuously visited airport…and..flights got cancelled…and..th..th..this was really disappointing for me..i have no possibility to reach gilgit..and..i don’t know for how long will i continue to… keep visiting the airport …and missing my flights..or not in fact missing my flights but having them cancelled ..or not having the possibility to reach my destination… or… or tomorrow i will be going once again…or even day after tomorrow …let’s see how it goes…(unhhm) researcher: keep your fingers crossed…and thank you very much. fasih: my pleasure! 3.1 key used for the transcription the transcription techniques were devised by gill jefferson, however in transcribing text 1, the researcher used transcribing conventions which are adapted from van dijk (1997). 3.1.1 punctuation full stops: for pauses, one for a short pause, two or three for longer pauses. capital letters: for proper names. colons: for prolonged syllables. capitalization: for highly stressed syllables non verbal sounds: into brackets.(sniffs) indecipherable: words which are not clear are put in the brackets. breathing indicators: marked by hh, a period followed by hh marks an inhalation. 3.2 analysis at a micro level the conversation took place at the co-researcher’s home. the researcher requested the co-researcher to narrate an interesting event from his life which will be recorded for an analysis. the conversation held in the drawing room of the co-researcher’s home which was a discourse approach to spoken and written narratives 47 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 vacant and there was no interruption at the time of recording. therefore, no interference can be observed in the transcription. however, when the conversation ended, both narrator and narrattee checked the audio recording to avoid any problem in retrieving the data for the analysis. there are several spoken features at micro level which can be observed in this transcribed spoken text. table 1: list of features of spoken language features examples cohesive devices so (l,2,5), then( l,10), because (l,13), or (21, 22) contractions don’t (l,11,19), didn’t (15), let’s ( 23) co-ordination “and” has been used 10 times, as the most frequent spoken feature in the text. delexical vebs have(l,8,11), made ( l,6), taking (9) dexis that (l,1), this( l,1,11,13) discourse markers ok (l,1) false starts ..it was around 9..8..8.. in the morning (l, 3) fillers ma…ma (l,6,18), th..th (l,7) less grammatical sentences i started taking my… a..small little burger with a biscuit and..one banana (l,10) repitition the digit 8 is repeated in (l,3) sentence adverbial basically( l, 1), really (l,8), continuously (l,16), even (l,22), ultimately (l,9) in the next section, the researcher chose a written narrative text and analysed its characteristics at both micro and macro level. text 2: poem the road not taken by robert frost a discourse approach to spoken and written narratives 48 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry i could not travel both and be one traveler, long i stood and looked down one as far as i could to where it bent in the undergrowth; then took the other, as just as fair and having perhaps the better claim, because it was grassy and wanted wear; though as for that, the passing there had worn them really about the same, and both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black oh, i kept the first for another day! yet knowing how way leads on to way, i doubted if i should ever come back. i shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: two roads diverged in a wood, and i, i took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. 5 10 15 20 3.3. the road not taken: analysis at a micro level some characteristics of written language are summarized in the following table: table 2: list of features of written language features examples non –finite clauses passing (l,9), knowing(l,14), telling (l,16) relative clause that (l,5), where (l,20) cohesive devices then (l,6), because (l,8), though (l,9) adverbial clause as far as (l,4), as just as(l,6), if (l,15), because (l,8) a discourse approach to spoken and written narratives 49 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 co-ordination and, being the most frequently used feature, has been used for 7 times in the poem. fronting be one traveler, long i stood (l,3) both that morning equally lay (l,11) 3.4. comparison of both texts at micro level table 1 and 2 show features of spoken and written language at micro level, though not comprehensive, but a representation of some aspects of both spoken and written english language. table 1 shows that spoken text gives less dense information, it is informal, unplanned, interactive and ideas are less logically organized. as it is a spontaneous speech, it is replete with pauses and fillers. narrator stresses to emphasize the particular words, low and high intonation patterns and some breathing indicators are also there. sometimes repetition, self correction, false starts are also observed. such features differentiate spoken texts from that of written text. table 2 shows the features of written text which is well planned, organized and the information is very densely packed in. relative clauses, non finite verbs and cohesive devices are also found in the written text. as the written text is also a narrative poem, therefore it shares some features of spoken language as well. both texts have co-ordination “and” which occurred most frequently. personal pronoun “i” has also been used in both narrative texts. linkers are also used in both texts as well as discourse markers. both texts have narrative clauses which have simple 3.5. analysis at a macro-level: narrative structure both spoken and written texts have been structurally organized and compared at macro level by applying the labov’s modal of narrative analysis. table 3: comparison of spoken and written narratives narrative structure text 1: a spontaneous text 2: a poem a discourse approach to spoken and written narratives 50 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 speech abstract [conversation before the narration starts] researcher: so,what are you going to tell me? fasih: umm…well..it’s about my recent flight to gilgit. [the title] the road not taken orientation [time, place and situation is distributed from l1 to l5] ..that was basically the morning of 4th april (l,1) …8.. in the morning..i left for the airport and i reached the airport around 9(l,4) two roads diverged in a yellow wood (l,1) complicating action [sequence of temporal actions have also been distributed] some examples of narrative sequence are: i boarded on the plane..we took off.. and..we started towards gilgit..and we ma..made a flight of..i think 45 minutes(l,6) ... all of a sudden this..captan announced that ladies and gentlemen we don’t have the possibility to land in gilgit so we are going back(l,11) and sorry i could not travel both(l,2) and be one traveler, long i stood(l,3) and looked down one as far as i could(l,4) to where it bent in the undergrowth;(l,5) then took the other(l,6) oh, i kept the first for another day!(l,13) evaluation that was for me. because that was my first ever flight and the first ever flight to gilgit as well..and..i was enjoying…hh..view yet knowing how way leads on to way, i doubted if i should ever come back.(l,15) a discourse approach to spoken and written narratives 51 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 outside...(l,14) resolution i came back home.(l,15) i took the one less traveled by(l,19) coda let’s see how it goes…(l,22) and the closing conversation can as also be considered as coda. and that has made all the difference.(l,20).lk table 3 clearly draws the comparison between spoken and written narrative, highlights the labovian characteristics of narrative. both narratives have an abstract, though in the spontaneous speech it occurs during conversation, when the narrator mention about his “flight to gilgit” which took place before the actual narration started. however, in the written poem, the title “the road not taken” tells us about the poem, it answers the question that what will be told in the poem. as afsar (2008:10) mentions that orientation occurs before the first narrative clause, identifies the time, place and situation of the event. in both texts orientation has been defined e.g. when the narrator tells about time when he left for the airport, even date is also mentioned “that was basically the morning of 4th april…8.. in the morning..i left for the airport”. similarly, the poet also mentions the place “two roads diverged in a yellow wood”. complicating action consists of temporal sequence of events which culminates the main events in simple past form and lead up to the maximum sequence of the events as explained by junqueira (2010:18). text 1 shows distribution of complicating action throughout the speech. some examples are; “left”, “reached” “waited”, “ announced”, “ boarded”, “ took”, “ started”, “served” “announced”. text 2 also answers the question “what happened then” by using narrative clauses in simple past e.g. “could”, “stood”, “looked”, “bent” , “took” , “kept”. next element evaluation is the most important part of a narrative, which shows the narrator’s attitude towards narrative. junqueira (2010:19) states that “evaluation draw attention to interesting aspects or the story or unusual parts; in this way, the audience keeps listening and it allows the narrator to continue telling his/her story”. text 1 has been evaluated a discourse approach to spoken and written narratives 52 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 when the narrator comments “that was for me. because that was my first ever flight and the first ever flight to gilgit as well..and..i was enjoying…hh..view outside...”. text 2 also gives the instance of evaluation when narrator mentions about the choices he had been given, “yet knowing how way leads on to way, i doubted if i should ever come back.”resolution answers “what finally happened”? it releases the suspense. text 1 finally resolves when narrator tells that “i came back home”. similarly in text 2 i “took the one less traveled by” functions as resolution. the last element in labov’s narrative analysis is coda, which is an optional element, found in free clauses and signals the end of story. codas bridge the gap between the end of the story world and the present moment. as the narrator comes to present moment when he utters “let’s see how it goes” and the closing conversation between the participants can also be considered as coda. text 2 also brings the audience back to the point at which they entered the narrative with this instance “and that has made all the difference”. 4. findings the analysis of above-mentioned texts shows the features of spoken and written language at both micro and macro level. it compares the features of both narratives. it also focuses on the features which are common in both spoken and written texts, especially when the written text follows the spoken context. this phenomenon was ignored initially in linguistics, when the entire focus was on written language and spoken language was considered as formless and ungrammatical. however, recent research on the analysis of spoken discourse (halliday, 1985, mccarthy, 1998) shows that spoken language also has a consistent structure and in many respects, it does have the language patterning as that of written english. spoken language is the refection of written language. it derives from the written transcriptions of conversation. apparently, it may appear ‘formless’ but beneath its surface, it is well organized and grammatically intricate. as the above analysis shows that both spoken and written discourse have consistent and describable structures, with different complexities reflecting the different functions of speech and writing. therefore, language teachers should be aware of this relationship between a discourse approach to spoken and written narratives 53 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 spoken and written language. they should encourage students to get to know the special qualities of spoken language and to accord ‘validity’ to both spoken and written formulations of language. 5. finale: pedagogical implications discourse analysis describes how language is structured in different contexts of use. this approach, if adopted, by the teachers of foreign language learners will enable them to devise materials and strategies according to their students’ needs. thus, teachers provide different opportunities to second language learners to improve their language competency. labov’s modal of narrative analysis is an influential work in language teaching, which can help learners in improving their literary competence. as this modal describes the structure of spoken discourse and gives essential elements of a fully formed narrative, can be very beneficial in language teaching in multiple ways: • it will give the foundation for the interpretation of the texts and their key elements of language. • it will improve students’ pragmatic and communicative competence. • this narrative structure will develop in learners, the ability to look for patterns through discourse in language. • narratives impact language learning and acquisition process as they will give students exposure and motivation. thus, by adopting discourse based teaching strategies or following any languagebased analysis in the classroom, language competency can be developed which is the primary goal of the language teachers. references afsar, a. (2008). a discourse approach to spoken and written english and its implication for teaching of english as a second or foreign language. kashmir journal of language research, 11(1). 12. a discourse approach to spoken and written narratives 54 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 angelo o. tubac, s. s. (2014). the labovian functional categories in the written personal narratives. retrieved from scribd: http://www.scribd.com/doc/22445563/the-labovianfunctional-categories. bell, a. (1991). the language of news media. oxford: blackwell. frost, r. (2013). robert frost poems. retrieved from examplesinpoetry.com: http://www.examplesinpoetry.com/robert-frost-poems-examples. junqueira, l. d. (2010). narrative analysis of oral personal experience across two languages and cultures: brazilian portuguese and american english. retrieved fromhttp://acumen.lib.ua.edu/content/u0015/0000001/0000214/u0015_0000001_0000214 .pdf. labov, w. (1972). language in the inner city:studies in the black english vernacular. philadelphia: university of pennsyivania press. mccarthy, m. j. (1991). discourse analysis for language teachers. cambridge: cambridge university press. nordquist, r. (2014). discourse analysis. retrieved from about.com: http://grammar.about.com/od/d/g/discanalysisterm.htm. william labov, j. w. (1967). “narrative analysis”. essays on the verbal and visual arts, ed. j. helm, 12-44. seattle: university of washington press. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 88 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 media’s voice in the noise of covid-19 outbreak in the united states sahar javed m.phil. scholar (applied linguistics) university of management and technology, pakistan. saharyousaf77@gmail.com abstract this research explores the effect of media broadcasting during the covid-19 outbreak in the united states. to find out facts and figures related to broadcasting news, a methodology based on corpus linguistics and cda is used for analyzing data. the data is taken from the covid-19 corpus by sketch engine, where verb collocates of the keyword “pandemic” were chosen to reveal prosodies behind the covid-19 outbreak. moreover, verb collocates were categorized into four themes e.g. coronavirus outbreak, coronavirus transmission, death toll, and isolation. the frequencies of these categories are investigated through english corpora, which is a monitor corpus, giving regular updates on the covid-19 situation. while two highly frequent verb collocates “pandemic caused and pandemic occurs” are analyzed in more detail by checking out concordances in a qualitative way. the study sheds light on the media’s positive role in making people aware of the deadliest outcomes of coronavirus. however, fear of misinformation remains, which can be resolved by accessing authentic media sources and by neglecting conspiracy theories. keywords: cda, corpus linguistics, covid-19 corpus by sketch engine, english corpora 1 introduction according to wang, horby et al. (2020), wuhan, china, and hubei province turned to be the focal point of pneumonia outburst in december 2019 without any cause, elevating concentrated attention not only in china but worldwide. immediate steps were taken by chinese health authorities to control and describe the disease by isolating the infected and non-infected patients, closely screening the contacts of people, clinical and epidemiological data study of patients, and by developing diagnostic procedures of disease. the development of covid-19 matched with sars (respiratory disorder), which flared up in 2003 brought by an alternative form of coronavirus and killing 349 patients out of 5327 in china due to confirmed infection. therefore, web-based social networking, for example, twitter, facebook, and instagram became essential wellsprings of data. they were likewise vehicles for counterfeit news and disinformation. media has been perceived mailto:saharyousaf77@gmail.com 89 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 as an amazing power of forming how we experience the world and ourselves. as coronavirus has turned the world upside down and it is rambling everywhere. so, here the role of media matters a lot that how it is portraying this worldwide pandemic. no doubt that media has played a pivotal role in creating awareness among people. it educated people about symptoms, precautions, and preventive measures of covid-19. moreover, social distancing, isolation, and quarantine were the most aired terms on social media as safety tips and to stop transmission of disease from an infected person. but, indeed, misinformation was also spreading through social media creating mental health issues among listeners. social media was narrated as the main source of getting immediate updates about covid19. after a research study, the researchers found that almost 82.0% of people use social media as an information source and that anxiety leads them to mental health issues. while the reason behind these issues is disinformation bombarded by media that made people confused about real circumstances and created fear among them. many people also expressed their feelings of nervousness, anxiety, unknown fear, and worry on media (gao, zheng et al. 2020). in another study, 673 tweets were taken, out of which 66% were posted through informal sources while 19.2% were verified by twitter accounts.91.2% content in these tweets was containing serious matters, 81.4% of tweets provided unpretentious information, almost 70% of information was related to medical, while some tweets were manipulating the correct information. the study revealed that the rate of misinformation was 33.8% via informal sources 31.0% via unverified accounts on twitter (kouzy, abi jaoude et al. 2020). 2 literature review during the covid-19 crisis, media became the primary source of information across the globe. many researchers investigated the contribution of social media to society to find out its positive and negative effects. a few investigations are as follows: ahmad and murad (2020) studied the impact of social media broadcasting during covid19 in iraq. the researchers carried out an online questionnaire survey and the sample of the study was 516 social media users. after analyzing the data through spss software, the researchers reported that the majority of social media users experienced psychological anxiety due to media broadcasting. even though the researchers have very aptly carried out this research by creating 90 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 awareness about the negative role of social media, but the researchers should have explored the positive role of media to make their research more fruitful. in another study, the researchers examined the prevalence of mental health problems among chinese citizens due to media’s broadcasting during the covid-19 situation. they conducted an online survey, and the sample of the study was 4872 respondents, taken from 31 provinces of china. the findings revealed that the majority of chinese citizens were exposed to mental health problems due to social media exposure and these findings further put implications on the chinese government to eradicate the root cause of these mental health problems (gao, zheng et al. 2020). in this research, the researchers have found the percentage of people suffering from mental health issues, but they have not discussed the root cause of these issues. hence, this research could be more informative by further investigating the root of these mental health issues among people. naeem (2021) investigated the thinking of people about social media and its role in creating fear among people. for this purpose, the researcher took data from 34 participants owing active social media accounts. the participants were contacted through telephones and their opinions were recorded. the findings revealed that lack of expert opinion, logic, and communication in media broadcasting resulted in creating panic among people. therefore, the researcher has aptly carried out this study by digging out the reasons for panic among social media users. (zhao and zhou 2020) aimed to explore the relationship between social media use and mental health issues during covid-19. they conducted an online questionnaire survey and the sample of the study was 512 chinese college students. regression studies revealed that a higher level of social media use was connected with poor mental health because the depression rate was high among social media users. hence, it can be inferred from this study that social media is responsible for the mental stress of people. but the positive role of media became overshadowed in this study, and it is the prime responsibility of the researchers to give credit to media’s role in creating awareness among people. 3 methodology the methodology is corpus-based intermingled with corpus-driven approaches, the first one tests the already existing hypothesis while the second one scrutinizes the most salient and frequent data see (tognini-bonelli 2001). in this article, the focus of the researcher is on the word “pandemic” in the covid-19 corpus by sketch engine. as this word is loaming everywhere 91 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 nowadays creating a sense of fear and pessimism among masses. so, this is the most suitable and relevant word for in-depth analysis to understand its sketch among people. and to answer the research questions, a word sketch of the pandemic is obtained by using covid-19 corpus processed by sketch engine into an open research dataset (kilgarriff, rychly et al. 2004). sketch engine permits corpora to be transferred onto an online database by tagging it grammatically to get collocates that are grammatically interrelated. according to guentner (1993)"sketch" shows up just periodically as an equivalent word for drawing or plan under the headings "painting," "drawing," and "structure”. to get more fruitful results, the researcher used a mixed-method approach (mautner 2016). in the end, the two most frequent words collocating with pandemic are analyzed in depth. these word clusters are “pandemic occurs” and “pandemic caused”. both are the same terms and further investigations are done based on concordances to reveal prosodies related to them. rationale of the study in past studies, the researchers investigated the negative role of media in creating mental health issues, stress, anxiety, and depression among people by using online questionnaires, surveys, and interviews. but none of them discussed the positive and informative role of social media, which is discussed in this research study by using corpus tools. research questions q. 1. what do the collocates of the word “pandemic” reveal about its outbreak in the u.s? q. 2. how is the role media portrayed during the pandemic outbreak in the u.s? 4 discussion the main objective of getting collocates during data analysis is to check media’s broadcasting in u. s, because it was the most severely impacted country, with the highest number of covid-19 cases and deaths. therefore, the word ‘pandemic’ is taken as a keyword for making further revelations about coronavirus outbreak in america. so being independent of most frequent collocates, verb collocates are chosen with the word “pandemic” which is used as a noun in the corpus (28,935-word tokens). the verbs with pandemic as a subject are containing 6000 (21.37 per million) word tokens while verbs with pandemic as objects are containing 4926 (17.55 per million) word tokens. 92 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 table 1. verbs with pandemic as subject verbs with pandemic as object collocates frequency salience pose 51 7.2 pandemic poses occur 376 7.17 pandemic occurs progress 40 7.13 the pandemic progressed emerge 69 7.01 pandemic emerged begin 68 6.89 pandemic began highlight 57 6.85 pandemic highlighted the unfold 21 6.65 as the pandemic unfolds spread 42 6.6 pandemic spreading plan 21 6.52 influenza pandemic plans arise 37 6.37 pandemic arose kill 20 6.3 pandemic killed threaten 17 6.23 pandemics threaten hit 15 6.18 pandemic hit originate 23 6.16 collocates frequency salience declare 163 9.12 declared a pandemic become 198 8.08 become a pandemic cause 1097 7.95 pandemic caused combat 48 7.5 combat influenza pandemics mitigate 46 7.45 mitigate an influenza pandemic face 54 7.26 facing a pandemic avert 26 7.23 avert pandemics confront 26 7.23 confront the next pandemic originate 33 7.18 pandemic originated in spark 22 7.06 sparking a pandemic manage 49 6.93 manage an influenza pandemic emerge 118 6.86 emerging pandemic end 19 6.56 pandemic ended fight 18 6.55 93 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 pandemic originating continue 39 6.15 pandemic continues to start 34 6.1 pandemic started affect 84 6.06 affected by the pandemic fight pandemics prevent 165 6.4 prevent pandemics trigger 60 6.35 trigger a pandemic control 102 6.3 control the pandemic occur 41 6.18 pandemics occurred in believe 25 6.18 pandemic is believed to have here salience is indicating log dice, which is a typicality score to check the strength of collocates. a higher log dice score indicates stronger collocates. while a low score indicates that collocates also combine with other words see (rychlý 2008).in the table above, the salient and more or less frequent subsets of verb collocation are providing strong preliminary indications concerning the main topics of the word “pandemic” as a noun (baker 2004). both forms of verb collocation are divided into the four thematic categories in table 2. after categorizing the collocates, their relative frequencies are determined that are shown in the form of the pie chart. the figure below is showing the lexically rich category of “coronavirus outbreak” with a 74% relative frequency. while other three categories are lexically poor with the following relative frequencies e.g. isolation 17%, death toll 3%, and coronavirus transmission 6%. the greater frequency of “coronavirus outbreak” sheds light on the disastrous consequences faced by people throughout the world and especially by people in the united states. pie chart. frequency distribution of categorized verb collocates coronavirus outbreak 74% 6% death toll 3% isolation 17% 94 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 table 2. categorized verb collocates of noun pandemic categories examples coronavirus outbreak pandemic poses, pandemic occurs, pandemic progressed, pandemic emerged, pandemic began, pandemic highlighted the, pandemic originating, pandemic started, declared a pandemic become a pandemic, a pandemic caused, pandemic originated in emerging pandemic, the pandemic is believed to have, pandemic occurred in, sparking a pandemic, as the pandemic unfolds coronavirus transmission pandemic spreading, influenza pandemic plans, pandemic continues to, affected by the pandemic death toll pandemic killed, pandemic hit, pandemic threaten, pandemic arose isolation mitigate an influenza pandemic, manage an influenza pandemic, prevent pandemics, fight pandemics, control the pandemic, combat influenza pandemics, trigger a pandemic, pandemic ended, confront the next pandemic, avert pandemics 4.1 coronavirus outbreak all verbs in this category are related to origin, emergence, beginning, and outburst of coronavirus affecting the economy, education, industries, trade, traveling, labor with physical and mental health. according to guo, cao et al. (2020), the severe acute respiratory tract epidemic firstly ruined wuhan city of china, perhaps identified with the seafood market. a few examinations anticipated bat to be the ultimate reason for transmitting this repository disorder. notwithstanding, it’s not confirmed yet that sars-cov-2 rooted out from the seafood market. to get a detailed analysis of this outbreak, the collocation of “coronavirus outbreak” was monitored through coronavirus corpus https://www.english-corpora.org/. this corpus grows continuously in size as it regularly updates its data according to current scenarios. therefore, this research study has been carried out on the corpus of 400 million words taken from 20 countries updated on may 21, 2020. the usage of collocation “coronavirus outbreak” starting from jan1, 2020 to june 21, 2020, was recorded in the form frequencies and https://www.english-corpora.org/ 95 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 shown below in the form of a graph. and the findings are further enriched with news headlines aired during the peak time of covid-19. the graph has shown that this word was noisiest on march 21, 2020, after which everything went under lockdown leading to catastrophic consequences. it started in december and went to its peak level with an unimaginable outburst in mid of march after which the frequency of this outbreak lowered down each day. if medical progression and intensity of risk are taken under consideration, then we will see different and confusing scenarios. as the number of infected cases, deaths, and recovered cases changed every day declaring former news to be out of date and creating a question mark among the masses. in this flickering situation, it’s very challenging for the media to convince people and win their trust. graph 1. frequencies of coronavirus outbreak at different intervals. the entire world stopped with the sudden news of this outburst and fear of death arose among them. the fear of people was fair, as this novel pandemic had no vaccine and only symptoms of the disease were cured through medicines. it’s quite astonishing that a disease starting from the corner of a small city spread everywhere and people who wanted to save themselves need to adopt social distancing. as a result, “stay home, stay safe” became a slogan worldwide. example 1. is a glimpse of some news headlines before this outbreak on 20-03-20 us. example 1. news updates washingtonpost.com the world is grappling with its responses to an onslaught of disinformation around the coronavirus outbreak. well before the epidemic, however, human rights groups and free speech activists 2 1 0 8 3 3 8 9 2 4 0 9 2 9 8 5 7 3 7 3 8 5 8 7 1 4 1 8 8 8 1 2 2 6 4 6 3 5 2 9 5 3 9 1 3 3 4 5 6 3 2 3 6 2 3 6 3 2 2 4 7 1 2 6 9 https://www.english-corpora.org/corona/x4.asp?rs=&t=31728994&id=15426325349 https://www.english-corpora.org/corona/x4.asp?t=31729063&id=15429089583 96 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 jpost.com countries closing their borders and canceling all their flights as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. # " due to reduction and cancellation of flights all over the world and according to goolsbee (2020), after so many deaths in strings in the united states, there is an ultimate reason to be worried about as this outburst plunged the stock market completely. people are fearful about their health and nobody is going to the dentists, schools, gyms, restaurants by saying a big no to traveling, which ultimately leads to a worse economic situation in the u.s. andres vinelli (2020) investigated that many manufacturing industries and plants temporarily closed in the mid of march, affecting the transport of goods and disrupting supply chains which disrupted their income and the overall economy. the pandemic affected every country worldwide but some countries suffered to their peak limit and the united states is one of them. the epicenter of this outburst was new york and 42% of deaths along with 30% total cases were reported in three main cities e.g. connecticut, new york, and new jersey in starting days of june, however, it is also reported that the number of cases is dropping with time in these cities. in addition, other populous cities in u.s e.g. illinois, california, and texas were also reported with the highest cases (adeline, jin et al. 2020). graph 2. frequencies of coronavirus cases in the united states new york was reported with more than 2.4 million cases on june 26, 2020, which was a peak level. graph 2. has shown the peak number of cases in five states in the u.s on june 26, 2020 (elflein 2020). 0 50000 100000 150000 200000 250000 300000 350000 400000 new york california new jersey illinois texas 390415 201114 170196 139434 134558 series2 series1 https://www.english-corpora.org/corona/x4.asp?t=31729038&id=15429075152 97 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 4.2 coronavirus transmission all verbs in this category are related to the spreading and transmission of the coronavirus pandemic. as flu, tiredness, chest pain, shortness of breath, sore throat, dry cough, and conjunctivitis, etc. are the symptoms of this pandemic whose human-to-human transmission was confirmed through laboratory tests in wuhan (li, guan et al. 2020). moreover, lau, li et al. (2012) studied the interspecies transmission of coronavirus in bats as this pandemic infects animals by adopting new hosts. according to elflein (2020), covid-19 was an epidemic and suddenly it took the shape of the pandemic as it was declared by who on march 11, 2020. the term pandemic alludes to different flare-ups of an irresistible ailment undermining various pieces of the world simultaneously; when the transmission is this boundless, it can never again be followed back to the nation where it started. the quantity of covid-19 cases was over 9.7 million and it influenced around 210 nations and domains. the vast majority who contracted the infection endured mellow manifestations, for example, a hack, a cold, or a high temperature. whereas, in increasingly serious cases, the disease caused breathing challenges and even pneumonia. covid-19 influences individuals, yet those at higher hazard incorporate more seasoned people and individuals with previous ailments, including diabetes, coronary illness, and lung malady. example 2. news updates older woman with health problems. # inmates are feeling under threat, and describe conditions they say are rife with risk. # " the anxiety is through the roof here, " said deepan budlakoti, imprisoned at the ottawa-carleton detention centre, a provincial jail. " we're being locked down here left, right and center. when we do get time out, everyone runs for the showers and we end up with 20 guys in one shower. hardly sanitary. " # public health officials have recommended people keep at least two meters apart to prevent coronavirus transmission, but that's impossible in narrow cells and cellblocks that house at least 20 inmates (theglobeandmail.com, march 20, 2020). the frequencies of this collocation through the same coronavirus corpus revealed that it was the 8th most frequent collocate on jan 1, 2020, but with time it went to its highest peak with a frequency of 86 on march 21, 2020, which was also a peak time of the covid-19 outbreak. the graph is like a flickering flame of a candle that burnt to its full intensity in the mid of march by transmitting this infection to many more. the frequency of this word cluster is describing that it https://www.english-corpora.org/corona/x4.asp?t=51556576&id=15433167090 98 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 was talk of the town, somewhere in a positive sense or maybe in a pessimistic sense. and media played its role in creating awareness among the masses about its symptoms and transmission. graph 3. frequencies of “coronavirus transmission” over time as of april 14, new york remained the epicenter of coronavirus cases in the united states, with 10,834 deaths and more than 200,000 confirmed cases. however, experts warned through media sources that several different cities and states are quickly becoming trouble locations of this havoc. 4. 3 death toll the verb collocates (pandemic killed, pandemic hit, pandemic threaten, affected by pandemic) are highlighting the disastrous consequences of this deadliest pandemic which swallowed many lives without taking a burp, and still, it was not known that where it was going to end. graph 4. has shown that this death toll gained intensity in march but still, there was no expected stable situation because the situation used to worsen on and off in no time. 8 18 10 11 24 52 86 81 53 57 36 61 78 99 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 graph 4. frequencies of “death toll” over time according to www.statista.com, the most affected countries of covid-19 were the us, spain, italy, russia, uk, etc. a survey conducted on june 26, 2020, reported that there have been more than 124,400 demises identified with the deadliest virus in the united states. there have been around 31,300 demises in the territory of new york, more than some other state in the nation – new york was additionally the state with the most noteworthy cases of covid-19. the death toll in new york was 31 301, in new jersey 14 872, in massachusetts 7 962, in illinois 6810, etc. families, companions, associates, friends, and family, and network individuals lament for every individual who has been lost due to this illness. news headlines of different sources also underlined the outcomes of this catastrophe. example 3. news updates # even bigger challenges for jewish burial rituals could lie ahead. in italy, where the coronavirus has hit hard, funerals for some victims reportedly have been postponed. if the coronavirus death toll grows in the united states or israel, finding enough volunteers to guard bodies before burial, as jewish ritual requires, could become difficult (jpost.com, march 20, 2020). 4.4 isolation the collocates of this category ultimately indexed “isolation” as the only way to alleviate the impact of this deadliest pandemic e.g. the verb collocates (mitigate an influenza pandemic, manage an influenza pandemic, prevent pandemics, fight pandemics, control the pandemic, combat influenza pandemics) are emphasizing on preventive measures of coronavirus. the paramedical staff of every country and also the news channels advised people to maintain social distancing and adopt isolation if they feel symptoms of virus e.g. flu, cough, fever, etc. “isolation” 1 0 3 2 1 1 7 7 8 1 1 7 9 1 1 6 0 5 1 1 7 3 5 2 2 0 4 6 1 4 4 6 3 9 3 5 5 4 2 9 3 5 2 6 7 2 3 3 9 9 2 2 4 4 2 1 2 7 1 1 1 4 http://www.statista.com/ 100 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 commonly occurs in hospitals to segregate ill patients from healthy one. the room where patients were isolated could be equipped with aerosols to create negative pressure and lessen the transmission of disease. while in the case of sars cov control on transmission was achieved without applying negative pressure. but it must be kept in mind that isolation is only effective if the patient is diagnosed at an early stage of the virus (wilder-smith and freedman 2020). example 4. news updates # the latest figures from the japanese health ministry bring to 621 the number of people on board the ship who have the virus, according to japanese media. those testing positive will be taken to isolation facilities or hospitals depending on their level of symptoms, while those who have tested negative are finally being freed. # people whose travel companion contracted the virus have been asked to serve out an additional 14-days quarantine, starting from the date at which their cabin-mate was removed from the ship (washingtonpost.com, march 20, 2020). the news updates delivered a clear concept of isolation upon positive covid-19 results whereas social distancing was compulsory for everyone no matter whether the person’s test was positive or negative. graph 5. frequency distribution of “isolation” over time graph 5. has shown the highest frequency of the word ‘isolation’ (10989 times) on march 21, 2020, which was a peak time of covid-19 outburst as many died and many were infected with the emerging concept of quarantine. earlier these words of isolation and quarantine were perceived in a horrible way that people who were infected got more depressed by it rather than by the disease itself. but again, it was the media that stressed this word again and again for the safety of people. kunst (2020), reportedly surveyed that 69% of participants in the united states maintained social 1314 1452 868 1097 3478 4901 10989 8299 6451 5170 4865 4273 3765 2824 3380 2379 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 series1 series2 101 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 distancing after the covid-19 outbreak. the population of the survey was from uk, germany, and the u. s comprising 2137 participants, and conducting days of the survey were from may 25 to 31, 2020. according to it out of 69% of participants in the united states,77% participants mostly used to stay at home,73% participants used to wash their hands more, 66% wear masks, while going out, 65% avoided restaurants and bars, 62% rarely shopped, 52% rarely traveled, 52% did online shopping, 43% maintained cleanliness at home and 36% lessened the use of cash and public transport. 4. 5. media’s contribution the above-mentioned analysis has displayed a general view, but to enrich this research, the two most frequent collocates of pandemic (pandemic occurs, a pandemic caused) are examined in depth by finding out concordance lines. the concordance analysis revealed that after the covid19 outbreak entire media was anxious about the occurrence of coronavirus and destruction caused by it. to find out the role of media in portraying the situation of covid-19, 20 concordance lines of both collocates are monitored that revealed that the entire focus of media was to create awareness among people about the alarming situation of a pandemic that burdened paramedical staff and doctors. as it was difficult for them to treat so many patients of the same disease without any vaccine. so people were asked to take preventive measures otherwise viruses could spread everywhere in the world. hua and shaw (2020) expressed the media’s role by saying that each episode on media will be joined by a sort of tidal wave of data, yet in addition inside this data you generally have deception, bits of gossip, and so forth. table 3. concordances of “pandemic occurs” if the next pandemic occurs, it is expected that 20% of the global population will become ill, nearly 30 million will be hospitalized and a quarter of these would die within a few months of its attack [ 5 ]. current stockpiling of antiviral drugs will also be in short supply and their efficiency will be limited once a pandemic occurs. imagine a new worldwide influenza pandemic occurs and this pandemic reaches the netherlands furthermore, in view of an increased world population (two billion in 1918, six billion in 2006) as well as the increased speed and frequency of travel, once a pandemic occurs, the virus will spread rapidly throughout the world, possibly reaching all continents in less than 3 months. 102 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 this information may be modified once a pandemic occurs ) • fever for four to five days and not starting to get better (or getting worse) the concordance lines in table 3. have shown that this fact cannot be denied that despite getting awareness to combat against novel coronavirus, people got afraid of it as media aired 24/7 about catastrophic outcomes of this disease. as this disease was declared as a global threat and themes that came out of concordances were fever, influenza, tiredness, dry cough, social distancing, increased infection rate, destruction of the economy, fear and pessimism, the transmission of the virus, and worldwide deaths. but this awareness was also necessary for the healthy lives of people. therefore, wrecks and havocs of covid-19 were highlighted in concordances so that people take preventive measures. table 4. concordances of “pandemic caused” in the event of a pandemic caused by a novel respiratory virus, social distancing is one of the few effective interventions for reducing transmission and infection before vaccines or other prophylactic interventions become available. many countries have banned groups and gatherings as part of their response to the pandemic caused by the coronavirus, sars-cov-2 the pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2) has resulted in several thousand deaths worldwide in just a few months.</s> <s>the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2) poses a global threat. we asked how physicians might react if a pandemic caused an increased risk of infection to themselves or their family, and whether they would be willing to continue work as suggested in pandemic plans. the collocates of the word pandemic revealed its severe outcomes globally. as this destruction happened worldwide, so it was the media’s duty to broadcast facts and figures for convincing people to maintain social distancing and take preventive measures. the above concordances have shown true efforts of media that discussed symptoms, number of cases, deaths and safety measures to prevent the disease. hence, the media’s role was also positive despite just tagging it as the main reason for psychological depression. this fact also cannot be denied that there were many rumors about the origin, transmission, and cure of coronavirus that caused severe 103 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 mental illness among people. as abbasi (2020), penned down on a web page that numerous fabulous and dubious cases have been made about covid-19, for example, the infection being delivered as a natural weapon in a lab in china, that it is spread by 5g remote innovation, and even that very rich person, bill gates made the illness himself. a portion of these schemes has had genuine results. many radio towers, thought to convey 5g innovation, have been assaulted and harmed in britain and the netherlands. by following these theories people started taking alternative pseudoscience treatments instead of proper medication. another conspiracy was made regarding bill gates and american pharmaceutical companies that they got profit from this pandemic. but if people want to lessen the impact of these conspiracies then they need to use the most trusted web domains. deception on the covid-19 illness was abounding in the united states, many americans believed the government and the mainstream media are the chief perpetrators. furthermore, a gallup survey was conducted by roper (2020) to find out the source that americans accept is the wellspring of bogus or deluding data on the emergency of a novel coronavirus, the trump organization was named as the major deceptive on-screen character by 47 percent of respondents. however, depoux, martin et al. (2020) stated deceiving bits of gossip and paranoid fears about the source circled the globe matched with fear, intolerance, and the mass purchase of face veils are all closely linked to the new infodemia. therefore, in the united states media broadcasted 24/7 about severe outcomes of this outbreak to force people to take preventive measures. as there are always two sides of a coin, so it's true that misinformation took more power and created confusion among the masses. in that case, it was the responsibility of people to use more authentic sources to know about the covid-19 situation. clement (2020) surveyed on june 18, in the united states, and explored the domain of media, which is tools.usps.com as the most famous government space in june 2020, where there were more than 314 visits in 1 month. interestingly, during the first multi-day period 107.66 million people visited the website of cdc, during the equivalent interval of time in march 2020. the cdc is the most confessed in the wellspring of data for the u.s, open in regards to the current covid-19 flare-up, trailed by other government and general wellbeing sites. 104 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii| july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 graph 7. most trusted media sources in the united states this research aimed to check the crucial role played by news media during the covid-19 crisis. as media is the only important source that provides people information about the havoc and crisis of coronavirus. free news associations assist individuals with understanding the emergency, they even try their level best to help government authorities, and other incredible entertainers to represent how they react to the emergency, both as far as the proficiency of their reaction and regarding how straightforward and honest they were in an emergency. 5 conclusion the exploration of collocates and concordance lines of media reports, surveys, and broadcasting news in the covid-19 corpus and investigation of frequencies through english corpora illuminated the crucial role of media in creating awareness among people. as media makes sure that people are informed with quintessential news items to get their trust and the above studies have also shown that a greater percentage trusts media the analysis highlighted the positive and informative role of media and the findings of the study suggested people to develop trust in authentic media sources to prevent mental illness. so, it is the responsibility of social media users to not trust every rumor about covid-19 and confirm that news before spreading them further. references abbasi, h. 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"social media use and mental health during the covid‐19 pandemic: moderator role of disaster stressor and mediator role of negative affect." applied psychology: health and well‐being 12(4): 1019-1038. @ 2020 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). negotiating conflict: regional and national identities in contemporary pakistani fiction in english 1 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 negotiating conflict: regional and national identities in contemporary pakistani fiction in english1 dr. syed hanif rasool assistant professor, department of english, khushal khan khattak university, karak, khyber pakhtunkhwa syedhanifrasool@kkkuk.edu.pk abstract pakistan has frequently been viewed as a stronghold of islamic radicals, often being overlooked that various trends of both dormant and obvious conflicts exist between the politics of religion and region. whereas the former is mainly controlled by the state, the latter is generally influenced by language and ethnicity. the state’s monolithic notion of national identity, from the country’s birth in 1947 to the present, has overshadowed the regional identities mainly the pashtuns, baluchis, and sindhis, and disregarded the minority credos such as shias, parsis, ahmadis, hindus and christians. this article aims to overview how contemporary pakistani fiction in english spotlights images of a fragmented national-self, underlining plights of the aforementioned marginalised groups exhibiting a strong resistance to hidebound national identity. reviewing the selected fiction of bapsi sidhwa, sara suleri, kamila shamsie, nadeem aslam, bina shah, and jamil ahmad, this paper attempts to foreground the socio-cultural and political valuation of the regional identities. keywords: regional identities, fragmented national-self, prevailing power discourses, contemporary pakistani fiction in english (cpfe), subversive 1. introduction politics of religion backed by the separatist muslim identity has often been glorified by the official historiography in pakistan. on the contrary, politics of region emerging from the region’s diversified indigenous identities have usually been marginalized and disregarded by pakistan’s state narrative (chambers, 2011, p. 123). however, contemporary pakistani fiction in english (henceforth called cpfe), in line with south asian fiction in general, has substantially been 1 initially this paper was presented at the second iiui-uncw conference on “local cities, foreign capitals: finding the local anchor in the global cultures” held from 9 to 11 october 2017 at faisal mosque campus of international islamic university, islamabad. this revised and improved version of the paper is published here for the first time. mailto:syedhanifrasool@kkkuk.edu.pk negotiating conflict: regional and national identities in contemporary pakistani fiction in english 2 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 marked as an attempt to rewrite the muslim identity based on creed (rasool & khalis, 2019, p. 62). in many of the oppressed societies such as that of pakistan, fiction seems to be an influential channel through which a ‘genuine historical event’ is documented (waterman, 2015, p. 156). cpfe manages to create what waterman calls ‘historical fiction’ (2015, p. 156). arguably, cpfe fills the gap created by the state historiography hinging on the politics of religion and thereby marginalizing the local and regional identities, gender equality, and class struggle in the country. literature is generally considered as a fine product of the time and place in which it is written. at the same time, it is an influential tool that leaves imprints on both time and clime. the socio-cultural and political issues of the time are negotiated in a literary text to evaluate them in the light of various contemporary influences and discursive practices. literary depiction reciprocates social and political activities of the time in which the text is produced. similarly, freedom, resistance, deviance, and defiance essentially develop a broader understanding of the culture and society in which the text is produced. montrose calls this reciprocity ‘historicity of text’ and ‘textuality of history’ (barry, 2009, p. 165-181). the interplay of multiple discourses in a literary text defies the notion of a universal spirit of an age working in a literary text. the text is studied in the light of co-text constituted varied aspects and artefacts shaped by and in turn shape the culture in which they emerge. arts and literature, besides their aesthetics, are vulnerable to the influences of history, material conditions and socio-cultural dynamics. it can be argued that ‘aesthetic forms are highly sensitive sites of social, political, and even economic conflicts; as such, they can reveal contradictions in social conditions and foster a standpoint for a materialist critique of them’ (gregory, 2007, pp. 130-34). scholarly criticism of cpfe usually displays nationalist or elitist narratives of pakistani society. for example, critiques of pakistani fiction by scholars such as ali ahmad kharal, munnawar iqbal ahmad, nighat sultana while discussing cpfe maintain a muslim nationalist narrative by overlooking politics of region and minority. contrary to the critical scholarship, this article underscores how cpfe recounts perception of pakistani society by rehierarchising the regional identities. negotiating conflict: regional and national identities in contemporary pakistani fiction in english 3 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 2. identities in conflict: a pakistan case pakistan has frequently been viewed as a stronghold of islam, islam ka qilla (fort of islam) in the state narrative. however, parallel to this notion, there have been various trends, symbolising both explicit and implicit conflicts, existing between the perspectives of religion and region. whereas the former are mainly controlled by the state, the latter are influenced by language, literature, and class. the socio-political ethos of pakistani society, being deeply rooted in pluralistic and eclectic values, represents a broad humanistic outlook of history, reflected in the secular aspects of the contemporary art and literature (cilano, 2013, p. 1-2). since pakistan movement was predominantly guided by a separatist muslim identity, the state intelligentsia subsequently engineered a paradigm of national identity based on islam, urdu, and the ideology of pakistan. regional identities, on the other hand, are generally rooted in the languages other than urdu and the marginalized creeds other than the majoritarian sunni sect. contrary to the state’s monolithic identity, these regional/indigenous identities have been frequently perceived as threats to the mainstream state ideology. evidently, the narrative of national identity forms a fragmented national-self failing to fit well into the socio-cultural ethos of pakistani society. the state narrative has traditionally tended to silence regional identities, regional languages and regional literatures, minorities, women, and laity. 3. images of a fragmented national self in contemporary pakistani fiction in english (cpfe) whereas pakistan’s overemphasized notions of national identity and nationhood have generally overshadowed the country’s regional and marginal dynamics, regional identities such as those of pashtuns, sindhis, and baluchis, and minorities such as parsis, shias, ahmadis, christians, and hindus have been marginalized and otherized. notwithstanding the state’s islamist nationalist narrative projected by the country’s oligarchy, pakistan’s regional identities have drawn the attention of several works of cpfe. howbeit, literary scholars have largely ignored the importance of those fiction that explore issues of the marginalized regional identities. it can be argued that from partition to the present, regional identities have been clouded by the prevailing national identity. nevertheless, contemporary pakistani fiction in english attempts negotiating conflict: regional and national identities in contemporary pakistani fiction in english 4 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 to fill some of this gap. regional images are quite obvious in cpfe, as they exhibit strong resistance to an imaginary monolithic islamist national identity. the present study aims to bring critical attention of the scholars to the socio-cultural and political valuation of the regional identities through a broad survey of contemporary pakistani fiction in english with a particular focus on the writings of bapsi sidhwa, sara suleri, nadeem aslam, kamila shamsie, bina shah, and jamil ahmad. circumnavigating the cpfe, one immediately observes that bapsi sidhwa stands preeminent as ‘the first pakistan-resident’ english novelist who received international literary fame and acclaim (shamsie, 2017). she writes about the margin and has remarkably unmuted the silences of the regional and peripheral voices. her fiction is marked by the cultural impact of islam rather than by muslim identity. she is regarded as a ‘secular’ and ‘agnostic’ person, but at the same time she carries ‘a muslim civilizational heritage’ (claire, 2011, p. 124). explicating further, claire quotes malak (2011) that ‘islam constitutes not only a cardinal component of muslims’ identity but also becomes a prominent feature in the identity of the non-muslims (be they hindus, zoroastrians, jews, or christians) who happen to live in muslim communities’ (p. 124). muneeza shamsie (2017) considers sidhwa as ‘the first to give the ‘homegrown’ pakistanienglish novel a clear, contemporary voice’ (p. 195). being a part of the parsi/zoroastrian community, sidhwa is particularly interested in ‘the history and changing social and political structures of her community’ in her novels (shamsie, 2017, p. 195). her novels the crow eater (1979), the bride (1982) ice-candy-man (1988) (published in us as cracking india), an american brat (1993) and water (2006) – that sidhwa developed into a novel from deepa mehta’s famous screenplay, water – vividly underscores the plights of regional ethnicities, minority identities, marginalized poor classes, tribal communities, and particularly women. sidhwa gets literary fame during zia’s restraining regime characterized by the so-called islamisation, disregarding every regional identity in favour of umma, relegating pakistan’s cultural, political and religious minorities and sects. she captures this oppressive regime in an american brat (shamsie, 2017). negotiating conflict: regional and national identities in contemporary pakistani fiction in english 5 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 sidhwa’s first novel the crow eaters (1978) is mainly about her own marginalized community. the novel asserts sidhwa’s ‘strong sense’ of marginalized community (shamsie, 2017). in her interview to bilal mushtaq, she regards the crow eaters as the ever first novel on the parsi community. she says that at first even the parsis did not accept it because of her realistic depiction of incorrigible character of faredoon junglewalla (2005, p. 25-27). similarly, sidhwa’s characterization of putli (which means ‘puppet’ in urdu) brings forth her concerns for the marginalised women in pakistani society. the predicament of pakistani women, shackled to patriarchal traditions and male-oriented norms, and” treated as chattels” is daringly articulated in three of her novels: the bride (also published as the pakistani bride), cracking india, and an american brat (jussawalla, 2003, p. 261). images of regional identities appear much affectionately in the bride which depicts yet another marginalized community, the kohistani tribe, which is split in the lands between pakistan and afghanistan. the bride approaches another important theme of migration and displacement which is otherwise side-lined in the official state narrative of the country in the interests of the nationhood. migration at the time of partition, for instance, witnessed the worst kinds of brutality, atrocities, killing, mutilations, and rapes the human race would ever have come across in modern history. sidhwa provides her keen insight into several displacements and movements, including the rural subalterns moving to the cities for labour. both in her the bride and water, sidhwa lashes out, though much vigorously in water, at ‘the social hypocrisy’ of pakistani society, particularly related to women folk (shamsie, 2017). the issues of ‘institutionalized prostitution’, ‘child bride/child widow’ and women’s plight and pains are consolidated in both ice candy man/ cracking india and water (shamsie, 2017, pp. 202-207). hailing from karachi and having grown up in lahore, sara suleri belongs to a family which migrated from india. with meatless days (1989), she pioneered ‘life writings’ or what shamsie calls ‘creative memoir’ in cpfe (2017, p. 243). the narrative art and creative subtleties of sara suleri, according to ambreen hai, repudiate “chronological or teleological sequence, eschewing the formal conventions of official national historiography” and thus pointing at the history of common and seemingly disregarded people (2003, p. 273). muneeza shamsie views meatless days as a memoir of a personal loss that gradually configures and entwines with national negotiating conflict: regional and national identities in contemporary pakistani fiction in english 6 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 and political tragedies; the personal is woven in nine autobiographical sketches and the political ranges from the independence to the ‘fall of bhutto government and the imposition of a fanatical religious ethos by zia’s dictatorial regime’ which transformed the liberal and secular face of pakistan (2017, p. 244). meatless days opens many windows on the enclosure of history in pakistan. sara brings several images of fragmented nationalself before us and the pictures are vivid and candidly portrayed. sara is preoccupied with ‘the questions of what gets concealed by the official historical discourse and by individual recollections of the past’ (julietta singh, quoted in shamsie, 2017, p. 244). she entwines her households with the socio-political drama of the country. the images of women of her households appear in a unique domestic milieu that is different from the concept of women in the west. suleri’s text is inundated with commonalities of life and certainties of living and she widens her fictional range from home to humanity. the commingling of her family memories to the bitter national memories aggrandizes the scope of her lively prose. it is what shamsie sees in her text which is ‘played out against a quiet, disruptive undertone of violence and death, where the act of writing, of translating memories into words, become an act of defiance’ (2017, p. 248) shamsie adds that the metaphor of translating memories is further ‘specifically’ addressed in her boys will be boys (2004) (2017, p. 248). it is revealed from meatless days that suleri’s father wanted to write an autobiography, with a title ‘boys will be boys’ which he could not write; later, after the death of her father in 2004, suleri used this phrase as a title for her second creative memoir, boys will be boys: a daughter’s elegy (2014, p. 250). sprinkling the events and memories of her father’s journalism, his projects, and his life, suleri opens some covert episodes of our national tragi-comedy. referring to pakistan’s enthusiastic immersion in the politics of the cold war in 1980s, suleri, while accompanying her father z. a. suleri with general zia during the latter’s visit to the us, recalls president carter commenting on general zia as ‘a very religious man’ (shamsie muneeza, 2017, p. 250). suleri foregrounds pakistan’s involvement in afghanistan as a devoted ally of the us against the soviet union. this illegitimate involvement brought scores of evil to pakistan including violence, sectarianism, terrorism, and proliferation of millions of refugees, drugs and guns into khyber pakhtunkhwa (then nwfp), fata, baluchistan, and karachi in particular and negotiating conflict: regional and national identities in contemporary pakistani fiction in english 7 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the entire country in general. alluding to the region’s tolerant past when religion symbolised harmony, peace and respect for the other’s opinion, suleri highlights how pakistan’s deliberate engagement in the west’s baked afghan jihad during general zia’s regime entwined the country in the quagmire of others’ war and manufactured intolerant and retrogressive approach towards the region’s conventional cultural diversity and religious variance. to suleri, all this was done in the name of religion, islamisation, muslim identity, and ‘godliness’ (shamsie, 2017, p. 250). during the cold war followed by afghan jihad, or more precisely, during the last two decades of the twentieth century, cpfe gradually received an international critical acclaim, focusing on the themes of wars, migration, minorities, and global political issues. a new breed of writers emerged, following the footprints of the pioneers of pakistani fiction in english: like zulfiqar ghose, bapsi sidhwa, tariq ali, and hanif kureishi. adam zameenzad, nadeem aslam, kamila shamsie, bina shah and jamil ahmad belong to this young generation of cpfe. in 1993 nadeem aslam emerged on the literary scene with a political debut titled season of rainbirds (henceforth called season). the novel is set against the background of political oppression of general zia regime. aslam approached a different reality that emphasizes political assertion and a strong temperament of dissent. being son of a leftist socialist political worker, progressive poet and filmmaker mian muhammad aslam, nadeem aslam imbibed progressive literary traits from home. thanks to this socio-political zeal and different perception of reality, he explores ‘the rise of religious extremism, bigotry, and marginalization of minorities.’ aslam establishes a debate between the liberal, humane, and tolerant values of islam and the politically motivated jihadi muslim ideology (shamsie, 2017, p. 360). in season, aslam looks at power violating people’s fundamental rights and affecting the laity’s lives. delineating the contours of power in zia’s regime surging the politics of religious extremism, aslam recounts the conflict between a tolerant and an extremist islam depicted in the novel by two clerics: the traditional and old fashioned maulana hafeez and the power hungry, conflict monger, fire breathing politicized maulana dawood (rasool & khalis 2019, p. 69). foregrounding the retrogressive nexus of the politicized clerics and landlords, aslam spotlights the plights of pakistan’s laity. commenting on aslam’s depiction of the oppressive regime of general zia, muneeza shamsie writes; ‘aslam highlights the treatment of women and minorities by zia ul haq’s regime and the manner in which zia used negotiating conflict: regional and national identities in contemporary pakistani fiction in english 8 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 religious extremism as a lever of political oppression, in the name of piety, across pakistan’s glaring class divide (2017, p. 363). aslam’s second novel maps for lost lovers (2004) comes after a gap of almost a decade. continuing with the themes of cruelty, injustice, bigotry, and ignorance, aslam sets the novel in an imaginary english town dasht-etanhaeii (the dessert of loneliness), mapping the sociocultural oppression faced by the weak and marginalized segments of the society. aslam’s third novel, the wasted vigil (henceforth called vigil), published in 2008, was set in pakistan and afghanistan. in vigil, aslam looks at the aftermath of the soviet occupation of afghanistan, the rise of taliban, the post 9/11 scenario in the region, and war on terror and the ensuing atrocities and oppression. muneeza shamsie claims that vigil is ‘the only pakistani english novel to explore the chilling world view of a religious extremist and the manner in which ‘terror cells’ proliferate (2017, p. 370). skilfully, opening the nexus between the warlords, religious extremists, and major players of the game of war in the region, vigil highlights the plight of women unjustly identified with sin and temptation under the oppressive rule of the religious extremists. aslam’s fifth novel the golden legend continues highlighting predicaments of the educated middleclass protagonists oppressed and threatened by the religious fanatics and pakistan’s deep state. set in a fictitious pakistani city of “zamana” (time), legend recounts multiple layers of tragedies: accidental killing of an architect massud by some american when the latter was being followed by the armed motorbike riders; the grief of massud’s widow nargis who is forced by the state’s security agencies not to demand a trial and to accept the american’s offer of blood money; and the innocent killing of grace, the christian maid of massud and nargis by a fanatic; the murder of an upright judge who condemned grace’s killer; and the ensuing senseless violence, terror and trauma faced by nargis and grace’s daughter helen. whereas “nargis and massud’s home echoes their dream of a just multi-faith and multi-cultural society”, the laity suffers due to the state’s entanglement in the alien wars causing the growth of politicised religious extremism in pakistan (shamsie, 2020, p.667). like nadeem aslam, kamila shamsie also inherits certain very obvious literary sensibilities from her family. born in karachi in a family of writers, shamsie weaves her fiction negotiating conflict: regional and national identities in contemporary pakistani fiction in english 9 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 in politics and place. deeply preoccupied with karachi, her fiction is caught in the web of sociopolitical issues faced by the country from the first partition in 1947 to the second partition in 1971 and the aftermaths of both. her characters are mainly elites but her themes and motifs emphasis issues and concerns of pakistan’s margins. debuting in 1998 with in the city by the sea (henceforth called sea), kamila shamsie recounts how karachi, once called a city of light, has turned into a place triumphed by death and violence. the city that once used to home the homeless pakistanis is now ‘a place’ where in the streets death prevails and air is heavy with blood and gunpowder (shamsie, k. 2004, p. 38). occupied with the notions war and displacement, shamsie regards zia’s oppressive and disastrous regime, lethal to diversity and tolerance, keeping vigil on every subversive act and move of the socio-political groups of pakistan’s margin. in the novel, even an eleven-year-old hasan knows why his uncle is under house arrest. highlighting the country’s political unrest, shamsie relates how zia’s preoccupation with the monolithic concept of nationhood disregarded the country’s regional socio-cultural and ethnic sensitivities. contrary to the pre-zia karachi generally characterized as a mini pakistan, shamsie underlines the karachi during zia regime exemplifying the fragmented national-self splitting into ethnic communities and sects clashing against each other. in sea, the city is divided by the politics of religion and politics solidified national identity. extending the argument of the aforementioned split, shamsie in her next novel salt and saffron (2000) looks at the miseries of partition and the pain of broken and fragmented identities. epitomizing the contest of identities in her kartography (2002), shamsie reimagines the ethnic conflicts that resulted in the second partition in 1971. after that, in broken verses (2005), she brings a comprehensive survey of the class struggle during the regimes of ayyub, bhutto, zia and musharraf, recounting the long struggle of pakistan’s progressive intellectual minority against the state’s oppression. in her next novel, a god in every stone (2014), shamsie brings images from peshawar, a city on the margin, a city that has traditionally been considered a city of the others when the contours of mainstream muslim nationalist narrative are shaped and foregrounded. exploring the grandeur and splendour of peshawar with deep historical and archaeological insight, shamsie uses the city as a metaphor of resistance to and defiance of the oppressive regimes. she highlights the 1930 massacre of the qissa khani bazar when the unarmed red shirts were brutally massacred negotiating conflict: regional and national identities in contemporary pakistani fiction in english 10 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 by the british forces. this event like another massacre of the red shirts at babarha, charsadda, in august 1948, has been not only marginalised but also silenced in the mainstream discourses of the state. shamsie subverts the separatist muslim narrative espoused by the muslim league foregrounding the miseries of the red shirts who have traditionally been viewed as anti-centre. engaged with the malignant issues of karachi like shamsie, bina shah revolves around what muneeza shamsie calls ‘the tales of power and powerlessness’ (2017, p. 428). all her three novels are set in a multi-ethnic cosmopolitan karachi. her debut novel, while they dream in blue (2001), brings the workings of multi-ethnic conflict to the fore. shah touches upon the class struggle and economic realities of the poverty-ridden city of karachi. she continues to find her tales in the socio-cultural and multi-ethnic quagmire of karachi in her second novel, the 786 cybercafe (2004). the islamic numerology of 786 for the most frequently uttered devotional prayer of initiation bismillah (in the name of god) gives in words of shah a ‘scientific and religious’ touch to the cybercafe (2004, p. 33). from degradation of the beggar boy of while they dream in blue, bina shah describes the burgeoning poverty of karachi in her third novel slum child (2010). here shah also touches upon the plights of minorities in pakistan (shamsie, m. 2017, p. 430). her last novel, a season for martyrs (2014), came after several editing of her earlier version which was published as an italian translation in 2010. shah steps into the rural sindh. here some very important events of pakistani history like the execution of pir of pagaro by the british during the world war ii, the execution of zulfiqar ali bhutto in 1979, and the assassination of benazir bhutto in 2007 “are brought to life by small anecdotes and details” (shamsie, m. 2017, p. 431). jamil ahmad’s sole debut the wandering falcon (2011) is set in the margin of the tribal frontiers of baluchistan and fata. the story unfolds the plights of tribal baluch and pashtun communities. jamil opens a usual insight into the closures of these baluch and pashtun tribes fragmented on the borders spread among pakistan, afghanistan, and iran. the description of the miserable tribes waves between the subtleties and sensitivities of jamil’s narrative approach. although the lands and spaces of pashtun and baluch regions appear inhospitable in the novel, the emotions and feelings of these tribes on the margins are delicately hospitable. mapping the rugged landscape, jamil uses a vivid imagery that leaves a lasting impact and that gives life to the negotiating conflict: regional and national identities in contemporary pakistani fiction in english 11 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 sufferings of the people. jamil opens the story of ‘a wandering tribal falcon’ tor baz, which means ‘black falcon’ in pashto. the very first sentence of the novel takes us into the region hardly ever mentioned in the mainstream narratives. ‘in the tangle of crumbling, weather-beaten and broken hills, where the borders of iran, pakistan, and afghanistan meet, is a military outpost manned by about two score soldiers’ (2011, p. 1). the landscape is so deadly that it bears “no habitation” and ‘no vegetation’ and ‘no water’ and ‘nature has not remained content merely at this’ because she has also created ‘the dreaded’ wind that blows ‘clouds of alkali-laden dust and sand so thick that men can merely breathe or open their eyes when they happen to get caught in it’ (ahmad, 2011, p. 1). jamil further moves on to the often neglected, disregarded, unvoiced, warruined pashtuns and baluch of the most neglected and barren region of pakistan. 4. conclusion the aforementioned survey has attempted to underscore how cpfe has given expression to the muffled regional and marginalized voices. cpfe has thus maintained an alternative and subversive version of the socio-political realities of pakistan offering a contrast to the mainstream muslim nationalist narratives. it has been argued that whereas the centrist state imposes an ideology which foregrounds a political separatist shade of religion, cpfe brings into the limelight politics of region, language, and class. cpfe also brings to the fore the fragmented national self which frequently comes into conflict with the politics of region, language and class. whereas the state’s monolithic and fossilized version of nationhood has overruled the socio-cultural continuity of the region, cpfe has emphasized the realities of region, language and class viewing them as more substantive components of the socio-cultural ethos of pakistani society. references ahmad, j. 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(2015). where worlds collide, pakistani fiction in the new millennium. karachi: oxford university press. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/26/featuresreviews.guardianreview17 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/26/featuresreviews.guardianreview17 negotiating conflict: regional and national identities in contemporary pakistani fiction in english 13 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). critical discourse analysis 57 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 critical discourse analysis of khadim hussain rizvi’s anti-france speeches sanna asghar ph.d. scholar (linguistics) department of english language and literature, university of lahore, lahore sannaasghar@yahoo.com abstract discourse is directly connected to human emotions and feelings. the use of language and selection of words reflects the inner feeling of a person when he/she is hurt religiously. the same thing happened when france projected prophet muhammad (p.b.u.h) cartoons. this was shocking news for the whole ummah because it hurt all muslims of the world. khadim hussain rizvi has shown resistance against france and recorded his protest to ban french products. the government of pakistan assured him to fulfill this demand in the specified period. he became the voice of the whole nation. this research paper is a critical investigation of the discourses used by rizvi in his speeches against france. two of rizvi’s speeches have been analyzed to show how, through the use of language, he motivates and persuades his followers to comply with his cause, and also how he manipulates his audience through the use of emotions in his speeches. the purpose was also to critically analyze the underlying ideologies and implied meanings in rizvi’s selected speeches. fairclough’s (1995) model of critical discourse analysis was considered liable to interpret the speeches critically in terms of discourse evaluation. the research was purely qualitative, which provided a descriptive analysis of both speeches by applying fairclough's model. based on the study's findings, it can be concluded that rizvi used these approaches efficiently and widely. keywords: critical discourse analysis, fairclough’s model, france, khadim hussain rizvi speeches introduction the offensive cartoons about prophet muhammad (p.b.u.h) and islam have been republished by french satirical magazine ‘charlie hebdo’ that triggered a deadly assault on the magazine in 2015, an act that will be seen by some as a contribution to free expression mailto:sannaasghar@yahoo.com critical discourse analysis 58 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 and by others as triggering hatred among the muslim minorities in france and the muslims all over the world (onishi, 2020). history teacher samuel paty showed his students some cartoons of prophet muhammad (p.b.u.h) published in a french magazine as part of a class on free expression. this act triggered the muslim minorities living in france who were already being oppressed. the cartoons of prophet muhammad (p.b.u.h) triggered protests in muslim nations which culminated in french goods being boycotted (onishi, 2020). khadim hussain rizvi, a wheelchair confined islamic scholar and politician, former head, and founder of ‘tehreek-e-labaik ya rasool allah’ (tlyra) led protests all over pakistan against the printing of caricatures of the holy prophet in france and the french president emmanuel macron for declaring this act freedom of speech and for a boycott of french products and the expulsion of the french ambassador. rizvi, a hafiz-e-quran, sheikh-ul-hadith, and a great admirer of the poets allama muhammad iqbal and ahmed raza khan barelvi was a subversive speaker and had a hypnotic grip upon his supporters. he saw himself as the guardian of any change against the blasphemy law and ‘hurmat-erasool’ (prophet muhammad’s honor) (ali, 2017). rizvi began his career as the khateeb at lahore’s pir makki masjid. his ability as a zealous speaker, who was fluent in urdu, punjabi, arabic, and persian, inspired his supporters and roused them to the extent that they would follow him blindly. being a revolutionary maulana, he spoke for the oppressed and at the same time a religious preacher who brilliantly presented the ‘deen’ in relation to ‘duniya’ (mahmood, 2018). language, a social phenomenon has been long considered a means of communication. language is learned to communicate with one another, to construct the actual world around us as well as the possible worlds in the mind. and thus, any study of language should be the study of language in use. however, not everyone sees the study of language as “an inquiry into the way language is used--other than that expressed by conventional means” (widdowson, 1975). this is the primary reason for choosing khadim hussain rizvi’s speeches against france as discourse (language in use) with an attempt to prove that seeing and analyzing these speeches as a discoursea communicative and critical discourse analysis 59 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 interpersonal process we can go to the heart of transcript speeches to uncover the intended messages. language is a social tool; it conveys messages and serves to convey people’s ideas. and language is used to materialize thoughts, concretize purposes it can be employed dexterously and wittingly to exert power over others. power exists in the language used, and the use of power is attained through ideology embedded in the language lexically and syntactically. this study analyzes two speeches of khadim hussain rizvi delivered against france. this study investigated the convincing tactics of khadim hussain rizvi’s public speaking, how he expresses his religious emotions and the hidden ideology in his speech through the use of language. the analysis is based on norman fairclough’s suppositions in critical discourse analysis. he claims that “ideologies reside in texts” that “it is not possible to ‘read off’ ideologies from texts” and that “texts are open to diverse interpretations” (fairclough, 1995). the theoretical and analytical framework of critical discourse analysis given by norman fairclough is the analytical framework chosen for the analysis of khadim hussain rizvi’s speeches against france. aims by doing a critical discourse analysis of his speeches the researcher intended to find answers to the following questions: • how khadim hussain rizvi has portrayed his religious emotions through a bilingual representation of language? • how are the ideology and power reflected lexically and syntactically in rizvi’s selected speeches? • what linguistic strategies does the speaker use to get his ideologies across? significance of the study the research project aims to highlight the language used in khadim hussain rizvi’s anti-france speeches. it will help the reader to understand how through the use of emotional language, he manipulates his audience. critical discourse analysis 60 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 this research is unique as no study has been conducted on khadim hussain rizvi's anti-france speeches as far as critical discourse analysis is concerned. limitations of the study the speeches were delivered by khadim hussain rizvi in urdu and punjabi, which are available on youtube with english subtitles. the study is restricted to just two of his speeches against france. by doing the cda of khadim hussain rizvi's speeches, the analyzer has tried to see his use of power behind spoken words, hence, being able to clarify how language is used to convey emotions, to embody power and the relation between them. in these speeches, khadim hussain rizvi addresses the common public. literature review the discourse, whether written or oral is said to be a multidimensional structure. it is layered with various meanings, conveying the speaker’s ideologies, thoughts, and ideas (alonso, 2014). discourse analysis discourse analysis is the “study of language in use” (brown & yule, 1983). according to mccarthy (1991), discourse analysis studies “the relationship between language and the contexts in which it is used”. it studies how people use both formal and contextual links to make their discourse (written and spoken) coherent i.e. purposive, meaningful, and unified. critical discourse analysis cda falls under critical applied linguistics. the 1970s witnessed as well as the flourish of this approach with the salient works of fowler, kress, and trew, 1979; foucault, 1972; pechew, 1975, etc. the attention then was shifted not only to texts, the production process, the interpretation process but also their relations to societal impulses and structures. famous linguists such as van dijk (1985), fairclough (1989), and wodak (ed.) (2001) in their works set out the main assumptions, principles as well as procedures of what then became known as critical linguistics. by the 1990s, the label cda came into existence. definition of cda critical discourse analysis 61 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 critical discourse analysis is“a type of analytical research that deals with the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context” (van dijk, 1998). cda, according to wodak (2002), "cannot be considered as a holistic or closed paradigm, and its research is diverse, [and] originate from rather distinct theoretical foundations and oriented toward quite different data and approaches" (wodak, 2002 p.12). aim of conducting a cda corson (2000) notes that the purpose of the cda is to investigate relationships of power between a piece of discourse and larger social and cultural formations. this contemporary approach aims to examine the latent ideological bias or prejudices embedded in discourse and expose them. three elements in cda, namely critical, discourse, and analysis let us look at the three elements of cda, namely critical, discourse, and analysis to see how they are defined in cda. in cda,' critical’ refers to power relationships. as for discourse, cda sees discourse as a form of social practices, constituting other elements of social practices as well as being shared by them. starting from such perception cda sees discourse always involve power and ideologies (wodak & ludwig, 1999). and the analysis of discourse is, necessary, the analysis of language in use. theoretical framework and methodology of cda fairclough’s (1995) model of critical discourse analysis has been utilized as the theoretical framework. it is a three-dimensional structure that attempts to map three different ways of analysis onto one another. it analyses all kinds of texts, discourse practices, which include text creation, dissemination and consumption processes, and also discursive events. in cda, the primary focus is on the concealed relationship among the discourse practice, events, and text. it also focuses on the socio-cultural context in which a text is produced. from the socio-cultural context, which influenced the creation of the text, the undisclosed agenda of any text must be seen (fairclough, 1989). critical discourse analysis 62 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 analytical model proposed by norman fairclough analyzing khadim hussain rizvi’s speeches under the light of cda, this study has followed the steps set forth by norman fairclough; thus his analytical model is discussed in this section. he claimed the connection between language and power and contend that discourse is a social activity. fairclough, widely known as the founding father of the cda. fairclough (1992) suggests that a text's critical discourse analysis should go through the three stages of classification, interpretation of the text-interaction relationship, and clarification of the interaction-social context relationship. in this approach, he differentiates between three kinds of value that a text can have. the first is the experiential value, in which the perception of the natural and social world of the text creator is expressed in the form of personal awareness and beliefs through the content. the second is the relational value in which social relationships are formed in the discourse through the text. the third is the expressive value, in which the text producer assesses an element of reality. according to fairclough (1992), these principles decide the choice of vocabulary, grammar, and textual structures that constitute the formal features of a text. he believes that language helps to create unique political positions that involve unequal power relations. therefore, fairclough's cda framework goes beyond analyzing a text's lexical and grammatical relationships and serves as an agent to comprehend the attitudinal and social interactions underlying the composition of a certain discourse as a way of reform. political discourse schaffner (1996) is of the view that linguists have been interested in the linguistic forms used in political discourse to convey politically important messages to addresses to serve a particular purpose. schaffner (1996), sauer (1996), and fairclough (1996) argue that linguistic structures can be related to broader contexts of communicative settings and political roles through the study of political speeches in political discourse. therefore, they support the use of cda as an integrated process. political speeches critical discourse analysis 63 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 political speeches can have the following characteristics based on functional and thematic criteria: the speeches are part of the product of politics. their subject matter is mostly linked to politics. and in most instances, they are intended for a large audience (chilton, 2004). the speakers of political speeches are generally politicians. in this study, khadim hussain rizvi, who was a politician cum religious scholar and founder of the political party, tehreek-i-labbaik ya rasool allah (tlyra), his speeches against france have been analyzed. a linguistic analysis of a political speech is believed to be successful when it relates the details of linguistic behavior of that leader demonstrated in the discourse to the overall context in which the speech is born, or to put simply, relates linguistic structures, items to larger contexts of communicative backgrounds and political functions. hence, political speech can be used to identify the ideological principles, and via which making prominent the power of a government agency and the political authority behind them. bughio (2014) conducted a critical discourse analysis of benazir bhutto’s last speech on 27 december 2007 before her assassination. this study aimed to critically examine the fundamental ideologies in benazir bhutto's electoral campaign address. this research determined the ideological basis of the speech of benazir bhutto. the findings of the study indicate that politicians manipulate the public's minds through the use of rhetorical strategies in their addresses to the nation. the purpose of ahmed's (2014) research was to find out the hidden agendas behind the terms politicians use in political speeches through cda. this study explored several chunks of nawaz sharif's speech when he was prime minister and the drone attacks in particular. by analyzing the speech, the researcher has tried to uncover the concealed ideologies and put the real purpose behind those utterances in front of the public. munir (2014) analyzed a few selected speeches of benazir bhutto. this research examined a female political leader's political discourse when she held the position of the prime minister of an islamic country. this study found a two-fold power relationship, that is, the relationship with the weak and the relationship with the (other) dominant. critical discourse analysis 64 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the study done by ghilzai et al. (2017) investigated the persuasive techniques used by imran khan in his political speech. the research aimed to find out the linguistic tools used in imran khan's speech to project his political ideology. this speech highlights the main obstacles to the development of pakistan. in this speech, imran khan promises to restore pakistan through justice that is given to all. shahzadi (2018) analyzed the dharna 2014 speeches of imran khan and tahir-ulqadri. in these speeches, she explored the two-dimensional power play (fairclough, 1989). textual analysis and fairclough’s (1989) model of cda have been used for analyzing the data. the results show that social activities can shape and form discourses. the study will encourage pakistan's public to understand their politicians by understanding the sense that language conveys in terms of the notion of power. shahzadi et al. (2019), in their study, have examined and exposed the power play of tahir-ul-qadri, in his dharna 2014 speeches. in this research, all the dharna speeches of tahir-ul-qadri were examined. the results showed that discourses had the potential to shape and be generated by social activities. a lot of research have been done on the speeches of pakistani politicians from the perspective of cda. an extensive literature survey suggests that no research has been done on khadim hussain rizvi’s speeches from the perspective of cda. therefore, it is of relevance to do a critical discourse analysis of khadim hussain rizvi’s speeches. methodology research design it was purely qualitative research. textual analysis has been used for analyzing the data. the rationale for using textual analysis is that it will help in an in-depth analysis of the speeches under consideration. fairclough’s (1995) model of critical discourse analysis has been used for analyzing the speeches. research population the research population is khadim hussain rizvi’s two speeches against france which are available on youtube. the selected two speeches are: critical discourse analysis 65 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 • imran khan declare jihad against france (imran khan france ke khilaf jihad ka elan karo 2020, oct 24). • tlp karachi march in honour of prophet muhammad (p.b.u.h) (tlp namoos e risalat (p.b.u.h) march karachi 2020, nov 11). data collection two oral texts of khadim hussain rizvi’s speeches have been selected. his addresses to the common masses are in urdu and punjabi, which are available on youtube with english subtitles. chunks have been taken from his selected speeches against france and a detailed analysis has been done of these speeches. analyzing khadim hussain rizvi’s speeches in the light of cda the analysis is done as follows: 1. linguistic features of the speech are described. a general textual description of the speech is made in terms of lexis and syntax to find out what and how the power and ideology are encoded. 2. the speech is portrayed as a part of a social process, to see how it is determined by social forms and what reproductive effects it can have on those forms. analysis of the linguistic elements used in khadim hussain rizvi’s speeches the deployment of pronouns in khadim hussain rizvi’s speeches beard (2000) thinks that in putting over a piece of political persuasion, pronoun reference is often relevant. he, therefore, argues that it is worth looking at the pronouns that politicians use in their speeches because they make a major contribution to the overall effect. the study of political speeches starts with the basic pronouns that the speaker has selected. according to fairclough (1989) pronouns are “certain values that are encoded in different formal aspects of language”. the text of the chosen speeches is replete with pronouns. the way (personal) pronouns are used in the text and the philosophy they encode are analyzed. the choice of the pronouns he uses in his speech reflects his emotions. the pronouns used in the selected speeches of khadim hussain rizvi are ‘i’, ‘our’, ‘you’, ‘we, ‘us’, and ‘they’. critical discourse analysis 66 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 for example: “tum ne dakah daala hamare voto per, hum ne kya ehtijaj kiyah, kuch bi nai kiya.....” “you robbed us of our votes, we did not protest, we did nothing….’ “….sadaah tm ne rehna hain, hazoor ka din to aana he aana hain.” ‘…. even if you live forever, the day of prophet muhammad (p.b.u.h) is coming.” here the speaker (khadim hussain rizvi) referred to prime minister imran khan as ‘you’. in urdu and punjabi ‘you’ can be used in two different ways. the formal one is ‘tumhara’ and the informal one is ‘tum’. the speaker uses ‘tum’ constantly while referring to the prime minister. here ‘you’ is used to express his anger, bluntness, and rudeness. this shows that the speaker does not respect the prime minister. he also implies that the elections were not fair. another example of the use of pronouns is: “hazoor de dushmano ko dhamke na laga sak da, oo safeer we na kad sake murka main pura rasta aa sooch da aya safir we na kad sakaa. france dey wich rayn wala musalmano ehtijaj karan, amrika da musalman ehtijaj karan, jirah mulk bana he hazoor de naa tou huwa aaj sanu ehtijaj he ehtijaj karnah payaa, aab iska baad apho faisla kar na hoga bahatar saal mein apne kaisa log aghay layah? jo sadah labaik kol honed na tay asee ana wad ke rakhdana se” “we cannot forgive the enemies of prophet muhammad. when we were traveling here, i was thinking the whole waywe were not able to send back the french ambassador. the muslims residing in france can protest. muslims living in france can protest. this nation which was built in the name of the prophet we are not allowed to protest! now ‘we’ have to make a decision. what kind of leaders have been leading us for 72 years? if labaik was the ruling party we would have executed them”. in the above extract from his speech, the use of ‘we’ and ‘us’ reflects the use of ‘we’ and ‘us’ to show the audience and himself as one and all having the same opinion. he clarifies his thoughts through the use of ‘i’ – so he can convey his message to his followers and motivate them to respond to his call. he further encourages his followers by saying that if they were the rulers they would have executed them. critical discourse analysis 67 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the following extract is also replete with pronouns. “hazoor ke ummat, hazoor se pyar kitna.agli call aise ho gee ke log bahatar saal ke tehrik bhool jaya ga …... na hum gariftariyoon se darne wale hain. na kisi goondgardi sedarne waaale hain. hamari bus aik kal. unnah jaanah! unnah jannah! unnah jannah!” “how much do the followers of prophet muhammad (p.b.u.h) love him? the next call will make the public forget the history of the last 72 years …..we are not scared of being arrested. we are not scared of bullets. we are not scared of hooligans. we have just one call. they have to go! they have to go! they have to go!” here the speaker arises the love of prophet muhammad by questioning their faith – this will keep the followers ignited to their cause. the speaker is speaking for the audience by referring to the audience and speaker as ‘we’, “they’ means the french. decision-making is in the hands of the speaker. his decision is the final say. analysis of modality (modal verbs) modality is said to be of grammatical features of texts which have both relational and expressive values. modality is also to do with the speaker’s authority and depending on what direction authority is oriented. rizvi’s authority can be seen in his speeches when he expresses his opinion clearly and has the support of his audience. in the speeches analyzed for this study, rizvi has only used the modals ‘will’ and ‘would’. for example: “ainda bi daakah maroo ga” “you will rob us of our rights in the future as well”. the speaker takes the opportunity to express what they would have done if they were in power. for example: “….jo sadahe labaik kol honed na tay asee ana wad ke rakh dena se” “--if labaik had the decision making we would have executed them”. rizvi motivates his audience by their love for the prophet. his usage of the modal ‘will’ shows his determination. critical discourse analysis 68 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 for example: “hazoor ke ummat ko, hazoor se pyar kitnah. agli call aise ho ge ke log bahatar saal ke tehreek bhool jaya ga” “how much do the followers of prophet muhammad (p.b.u.h) love him? the next call will make the public forget the history of the last 72 years. his statements are clarified with the usage of ‘will’. for example: “shala buzdalaan koo kabi neend naa away” “inshaallah the cowards will never sleep peacefully” another very good example is “…… koi cheez le kar ja” “……. you will have something to account for” here the speaker is using his authoritative position to get the message through. this quality convinces his followers to follow him blindly on each occasion. mode of the sentence according to fairclough (2001), the mode of a sentence is one among the variety of grammatical features of a text that have relational values. in rizvi’s speeches, the mode of imperative and grammatical question has only been used when he asks his supporters regarding their love for prophet muhammad (p.b.u.h). mostly, his speeches are in the mode of declarative. he intends to tell his supporters how he will declare jihad against the french. he is in the position of a giver, providing the supporters (the receiver) with the strategies that he will deploy to overcome the obstacles. declarative helps rizvi to exert his power over his supporters in an indirect way. he is in a position to pass out the information, to have the right to include or exclude information in the discourse and the public is expected to be receivers. however, he has persuasively done his job. rizvi code switches between urdu and punjabi in the selected speeches. when he gets too emotional he resorts to punjabi. for example: critical discourse analysis 69 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 “ …… hum ilaan a jihad kar rahe hain, aur kufir paira thalein na aye, to sanuu naph lena…….” “ …... we declare jihad! hold us responsible if the non-believers will not be trodden upon …...” abusive language khadim hussain rizvi has used negative words to convey negative images for the ruling party and the french. for example: “haramzada aur haramzadoo ka sadar, ay tee google de report hain ke sath fesad duniya wich harami france wich zyada paida honda hain. haramzada tu hazoor ke bare baat kar ta hain, hazoor ke bare baat karta hain, hazoor ke bare baat karta hain, hum jawabdee hain hamare bare mein baat kar na. elan e jihad karo is ke khilaaf” “that bastard and the leaders of bastards. google reports that 60% more bastards are born in france than in the rest of the world. that bastard has the guts to speak against our prophet, speak against our prophet, speak against our prophet. we are answerable and have to make a decision. declare war against him”. here the french are being called bastards to degrade them. the french president is the leader of bastards and a call for war against him has been declared. this gives a negative image to the french nation. khadim hussain rizvi uses the word ‘sweeper’ to abuse the french and their supporters to degrade them to the lowest level – in this way pleasing the audience who will be manipulated for his aims. ‘sab logah de awaaz franci chura tak we jaye, chura de yaar tak we jaaya, jo kehta hain ke hum france ke saath hain – us chura tak we jai” “our voices must be heard by the french sweeper, the sweeper’s friends should also hear us, the british foreign minister another sweeper, who says that he is with the french’. he is portraying and calling the leaders cowards. “shala buzddalaah ko kabi neend na away” ‘inshaallah, the cowards will never sleep peacefully’. critical discourse analysis 70 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 in his speeches, the leaders are portrayed as liars and dacoits. “tum ne daaka maara voto par’ ‘you robbed us of our votes” the intelligence agencies are being portrayed through his speech as spreading wrong information. “ye tumhare agency ne tumhee batayya ke hum franci ambassy par hamla kerne ja rahe hain, hum ne yeh kabi socha bi nai. kyon jhooth bolta ho”. “your secret agencies have informed you that we are going to storm on the french embassy. we never even thought about it. why do you lie? rizvi is giving a negative image of the entire government network to the audience. the rulers are being questioned for being unjust. ‘aap ko kya masla hain hum se, woh kya dard hain, who bata, woh jo asal dard hain who batao’. ‘what is your problem with us? what is paining you, let us know? what is the real pain? khadim hussain rizvi shows negative vibes for prime minister imran khan. he is very sarcastic about his playing cricket and not understanding religion. this can be seen in the following extract. “cricket khel ka wazir-e-azam ban gaya ye hain ye. agar tmhe wazir-e-azam banna chatha tha to tum hazrat umar ke kadmo par chalta aur sub se pehle, deen ke samajh lena. kabi tou sahabah ko buzdil kehta hain jin ke thokar se do super powers gir gahee tum to kashmir ke madad na kar sakhe, tum sahabah ke baat karte ho’’ ‘you have become the prime minister while playing cricket. if you wanted to become the prime minister then you should have followed hazrat umar's and learned your religion very closely, you call the sahabah who kicked two super powers out cowards. you have not been able to help kashmir and you dare to criticize the sahabah”. lexical cohesive devices used in khadim hussain rizvi speeches lexical cohesion occurs when two words in a text are semantically related in terms of their meaning. lexical and pattern repetition is a dominant feature of political rhetoric. the selected speeches have repeated words and patterns – as rhetorical strategies. critical discourse analysis 71 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 word repetition word repetition helps connect values of sticking parts of the discourse, sentences of the discourse together to create coherence and cue the speaker’s ideology and intentions. repetition of words can create a kind of chain running through the discourse. repetition is being used by the speaker to arouse the audience. for example: “labaik ya rasool allah labaik ya rasool allah labaik ya rasool allah”. the speaker here arouses the audience through the call of the above slogan. the atmosphere echoes through his call. ‘………. unne jaana, unne jaana, unne jaana, unne jaana, unne jaana”. ‘………. they have to go! they have to go! they have to go! they have to go! here the speaker is encouraging the audience and asking them to keep their spirits high and is being reminded again and again that the french have to leave. “hum sub ka nabi hain’ “he is our prophet”. “he is our prophet” has been repeated six times. being a religious scholar cum politician, khadim hussain rizvi reminds the followers of their faith and the nearness of the prophet towards allah. repeating the same lines over and over again. with the use of ‘we,’ he gives importance to the audience and makes them feel that they are one and their decision is unanimous. in both, his speeches rizvi challenges prime minister imran khan to use arms against the enemy. he makes it sound so easy and gets the audience through the clever manipulation of language. for example; “aap ke pas atom bomb hain, aap ke pass ghauri missile hain, aap ke pass shaheen hain, aap ke pass abdali hain, aap ke pass hatif hain, aap ke pas ababil hain inko kaam mein lao”. critical discourse analysis 72 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 ‘you have the atom bomb, you have the ghauri missile, you have the shaheen, you have the abdali, you have the hatif you have the ababil bring them all to work”. he has counted all the weapons that the government brags off to lay stress through the use of language on his stance. “aaj france tanu challenge kar rayaa aur atom bomb ku rakhaan tusse. o atom bomb baar kadoo, bar kadoo atom bomb nu, haan gee, o baar kadoo atom bomb nu. elan e jihad karoo ,,,,,,”. “today france is challenging us. why have you kept the atom bomb? use the atom bomb, use the atom bomb, o yes use the atom bomb. declare jihad …..”. here, through the repetition of ‘use the atom bomb,’ he is expressing his emotions against france. social analysis in this next step, the focus of the analysis shifts from the specific features of the text to the relationship between the processes of the discourse – the processes of interpretation. according to fairclough (1995), we have an interpretation of the text and the interpretation of the context. in the first part, the analysis of the text is based primarily on formal linguistic features; this part will deal with the interpretation of the situational context. interpretation of the situational context to come to a deep understanding of the text, the text should be linked to its situational context (lukin, 2017). in the text, the situational/social context and the discursive meet, and they are explicitly related to each other. the situation would represent the unique combination of social members, events, relations, processes, or forces. the encounter between religious scholar cum politician khadim hussain rizvi and his audience would be instantiating abstract structures of his resistance against the immoral attitude of france towards the prophet muhammad (p.b.u.h). in other words, to decide to some great extent the language choice (including vocabulary, grammar, etc.) and the relations between khadim hussain rizvi and his supporters, in particular, i.e. who is in the higher power. the speech in such context might instantiate, more or less directly one type of social relations, the relation of dominance, politeness, or assertion, etc. all of these would entail the use of critical discourse analysis 73 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 some specific expression, choice of particular wordings, etc. the interpretation should then have to be based on these signaling signs. the analysis that does not resort to the situation (who is involved, what is going on, in what relation, and the role of language) will not be able to discover the true ideology, the power behind the spoken words. moreover, the physical situation is the cue to the interpretation process. in this the researcher tries to construct the speaker’s production process, this situational context is of big help. first, the researcher dealt with the question of ‘what is going on?’ the activity here is delivering a political speech based on socio-religious facts. the central topic of khadim hussain rizvi’s speeches is to arouse the public against the printing of caricatures of the holy prophet against france, the boycott of french products, and the expulsion of the french ambassador. in terms of ‘who is involved?’ you have to specify who is involved. the set of subject positions, of ‘who is involved’ is not the same in each situation. they differ according to the type of situation. the subject positions in this case are multidimensional. the first one derives from the political speech type. in this speech, khadim hussain rizvi is addressing the whole nation. the second dimension comes from the institution ascribing the social identities to the subjects who function within it. the speaker is in the position of a religious cum political leader delivering his speeches; the audience is in the position of ordinary people. thirdly, the discourse type also assigns the roles of the subjects in that situation. in a political speech-delivering situation there is no interaction between the speaker and the audience. therefore, the monologue on the part of the speaker is expected and the hearers take a passive role of recipients. conventionally, the speaker, as a political leader is assumed to have a higher position, to be a man of power, and thus, he is the one to decide the discourse type, the information is given; and from that privilege, he can portray his image, practice his power, and authoritativeness and imbue the audience with his ideology. in the speech, khadim hussain rizvi includes himself in the public but also sets himself aside when necessary to prove his power. critical discourse analysis 74 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the speaker is in the position that he knows that his words will be heard, read, and maybe analyzed by the audience, the hearers, etc. this also affects the language he uses in the speeches and the content of the discourse. the following extract shows this: “hum to jazbati nahi hain aur koi inteha pasand nahi hain …… inteha pasand woh hain jino ne sham ke andar bomaree ke, inteha pasand who hain jino ne eid waale din sadaam hussain ko phansi lagai …….. hum sirf apne mehboob-alai-salaat a salam ke baat kar rahe hain ….jab bi tmhare zubaan larkarathee hain islam ke baare mein larkharatee hain, apne zubaan ko kabu karo” “we are not emotional or fanatics…. people who bombed syria and hanged saddam hussain on eid are fanatics …..we are only talking about the honor of our prophet. whenever, you talk about islam your tongue slips. people need to keep control over their tongue”. this extract from rizvi’s speech clearly shows his intention and holds the attention of the audience. in terms of ‘in what relation’, the researcher looked at this aspect in connection with the question of ‘who is involved’. as said before, rizvi is in a higher position and thus, he is the one who has more power, and this power relation and social distance are realized, set up, and enacted in the situation of the discourse. in the discourse he presents his higher power, demonstrates his authoritativeness; yet the language is used persuasively with an attempt to integrate his ideologies into the public’s mind, to win people’s support. the next question is about the role of the language: ‘what is the role of language?’ language is used in this case to give information, to persuade people. most of the time, it is informative, representative, expressive, and commissive as well. conclusion in his speeches, rizvi has successfully portrayed his religious emotions through a bilingual representation of language. through the analysis of khadim hussain rizvi’s speech, the relationship between power, ideology, and language has been proven. people use language, encode their thoughts, their ideologies, etc. in there with a purpose in mind. to some their intention in communication is just for daily needs: exchanging, passing on, or acquiring information, while others use language for more complicated reasons. they embed critical discourse analysis 75 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 their ideologies in language; and via that expressing, demonstrating, and at the same time asserting their power. however, their power and ideology ridden language is realized in a persuasive way rather than coercive to influence the public and win them over, khadim hussain rizvi’s speeches fall into the second case. his speech is profuse with ideologies and power. being the head and founder of tehreek-e-labaik ya rasool allah he seeks various strategies to infuse people with his ideas, to gain their support and consent while presenting and claiming his power. in short, his speeches are an encounter between rizvi and the public. he is in a higher position of authority; the audience is the common public. at the societal level, the speech is the relation between the political leader and the public. he possesses the status of powerholder, but he uses his advantages dynamically, emotionally, and wittingly. rizvi exhibits the speaker’s ideologies which are realized via various structures and word use with an overall strategy of positive self – presentation and negative other– presentation. this study used the cda method, aiming to make clear the relationship between power, ideology, and language. this discourse was analyzed in its context to unravel the hidden power and embedded ideologies. through this study, it can be claimed that language is an effective, useful means to assert power, and because of that language can be taken advantage of to change, or to influence others’ minds. the researcher chose khadim hussain rizvi’s speeches and analyzed them under the light of cda with a clear awareness of the serious role of discourse in daily life as well as in society and the usefulness of the cda approach. through the analysis of political speeches, one can see that in the political arena, language has great power, and it proves its power by being a means for the speaker to present his ideology. political leaders, parties have power, high social positions, and a policy behind them. however, they must demonstrate their power in society. and language is an effective tool helping them to achieve this. discourse is a fertile land in which they pass out, disseminate, and also imbrue people with their ideologies by way of persuasion (in most cases). critical discourse analysis 76 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 references ahmed, s. (2014). critical discourse analysis of prime minister’s speeches on harmful aerial vehicles (drones). international journal of language and linguistics, 1(2), 37-44 ali, k. (2017, december 3). who is khadim hussain rizvi? https://www.dawn.com/news/1374182 alonso, p. (2014). a multi-dimensional approach to discourse coherence: from standardness to creativity. peter lang ag, internationaler verlag der wissenschaften. beard, a. (2000). the language of politics (pp. 1748-1752). london: routledge. brown, g., brown, g. d., brown, g. r., gillian, b., & yule, g. (1983). discourse analysis. cambridge university press. bughio, f. a. (2014). critical analysis of political discourse: a study of benazir bhutto’s last speech. balochistan journal of linguistics, 2, 79-95. chilton, p. (2004). analysing political discourse: theory and practice. routledge. corson, d. (2000). language diversity and education. routledge. fairclough, n. (1989) language and power (2nd ed.). england: pearson education ltd. fairclough, n. (1995) critical discourse analysis. london, longman. fairclough, n. (1992). discourse and social change (vol. 10). cambridge: polity press. ghilzai, s. a., din, a. u., & asghar, m. (2017). a critical discourse analysis of imran khan’s first speech in the parliament. perspectives in language, linguistics and media, 2, 149-167. lukin, a. (2017). ideology and the text-in-context relation. functional linguistics, 4(1), 117. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40554-017-0050-8 mccarthy, m. (1991). discourse analysis for language teachers. cambridge university press. mehmood, h. (2018, may 1). allama khadim hussain rizvi and rise of religious extremism 2.0 in pakistan. http://southasiajournal.net/khadim-hussain-rizvi-and-rise-ofreligious-extremism-2-0-in-pakistan munir, m. (2014). critical discourse analysis of benazir bhutto’s selected speeches. critical discourse analysis 77 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 onishi, n. (2020, sep1). charlie hebdo republishes cartoons that prompted deadly 2015 attack. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/01/world/europe/charlie-hebdo-cartoonstrial-france.html rizvi, a. (2020, oct 24). imran khan france ke khilaf jihad ka elan karo/latest bayan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpewdnt9vno rizvi, a. (2020, nov 11). tlp namoos e risalat (p.b.u.h). march karachi latest complete bayaan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnaje0tosp0 schaffner, c. (1996). political speeches and discourse analysis. current issues in language & society, 3(3), 201-204. shahzadi, s. (2018). critical discourse analysis of tahir-ul-qadri and imran khan’s dharna 2014 speeches: a comparative analysis (doctoral dissertation, comsats university islamabad, lahore campus.). shahzadi, s., hanif, m., & nusrat. (2019). a. critical discourse analysis of tahir-ul-qadri dharna 2014 speeches van dijk, t. a. (1998). ideology: a multidisciplinary approach. sage. van dijk, t. a. (1998). ideology: a multidisciplinary approach. sage. wodak, r., & ludwig, c. (1999). challenges in a changing world. passagen verlag. wodak, r. (2002). aspects of critical discourse analysis. zeitschrift für angewandte linguistik, 36(10), 5-31. widdowson, h. g. (1975). stylistics and the teaching of literature. taylor & francis. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 204 ‘politics is a game’: an analysis of cricket language used as metaphors in imran khan’s political speeches university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 ‘politics is a game’: an analysis of cricket language used as metaphors in imran khan’s political speeches shakir ullah phd scholar, department of english, air university, islamabad, pakistan shakirsbbu@gmail.com farzana masroor assistant professor, department of english, air university, islamabad, pakistan shahabullah lecturer, department of english, university of buner, pakistan abstract the dexterous use of language is crucial to convey feelings, emotions, likes, dislikes or to emphasize an idea. politicians are known for exercising their power through discourse, which is mostly carried out through the tool of persuasion which is the central key of political discourse that attracts the audience. persuasion can be carried out through the use of figurative language that is used for expressing complex ideas. the interesting use of figurative language in political discourse has become the centre of attention due to the vast implications of political discourse. this study analyses the metaphorical use of cricket language in the domain of politics in the political speeches of imran khan, the prime minister of pakistan. the whole attention was gathered around the specific parts of the political speeches delivered by him. for analyzing the data, the researchers applied lakoff and johnson (1980) work ‘metaphor we live by’ as the theoretical framework. the finding of the study showed that imran khan constantly uses cricket language in his political speeches for different purposes like positivity, negation, tribute/praising, patriotism, emphasizing rules and boasting/power showing. the results show his preoccupation with idiosyncratic language choices as it seems he considers politics as a game of choosing words. he specifically uses cricket language when he addresses the public and wants to recall his past, criticizes someone, shows his love towards the motherland, emphasises his fairness and impartiality. along with this, he also uses cricket language for pursuing foreigners. the study is significant for students of language as well as politics as it uncovers mapping of various domains to express a phenomenon. keywords: cricket language; political discourse; metaphors; political speeches mailto:shakirsbbu@gmail.com 205 ‘politics is a game’: an analysis of cricket language used as metaphors in imran khan’s political speeches university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 introduction political speeches and rhetorical use of language have become the centre of interest of many studies. politicians try to persuade their audience through the colourful use of language with the help of figures of speech like simile, metaphor, hyperbole, fun, and others. these figures of speech impart color to the meanings (ullah, zahra, khan, ahmad, & naz, 2021). chetia (2015) and talik (2007) state that the word metaphor is derived from the greek ‘metaphero’ which carries a word over or beyond. it is a transformation of one thing or an idea into another without any formal acknowledgement. it does not only explain things or ideas but gives a chance to the reader for imagination. according to van dijk (1998), political discourse is recognized by its speakers or authors. the study of political discourse encompasses the talk and text produced by political stakeholders, such as the president, prime minister, members of the parliament, political parties, and institutions that are linked to politics. politicians can be self-designated or appointed for making policy and are being paid for the activities they do politically. political discourse also signifies that every talk and text of a politician is not political. their talk and text would be political when they perform actions, such as ruling, governing, voting, protesting. for recognizing political text and context these categories are highly magnificent; societal domain, political systems, political values, political ideologies, political institutions, groups, actors, relations, process, actions, discourse and political cognition. therefore, this study focuses on the metaphoric use of language in political speeches delivered by pakistani prime minister imran khan. along with this, it is also important that after taking charge as pm, imran khan uses cricket language for various purposes that gives more emphasis to those purposes. the cricket language has also affected media as 92 news channels had the headline on 29 april 2019 ‘match took place among players in karachi’. here, the headline means that ‘people quarrelled during the gathering there in karachi’. rhetoric is the art of using language effectively that persuades the audience. for a long time, it is the centre of interest of many types of research that focus on rhetorical use in different aspects of everyday life. even it is considered as the cornerstone for communication. talik (2007) reflects that figurative language is used for emotional excitement. it makes the external world coloured and is used since the earliest time. van dijk (1998) suggests that rhetoric is 206 ‘politics is a game’: an analysis of cricket language used as metaphors in imran khan’s political speeches university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 mostly used in political discourse and it is also not surprising that it is used for persuading the audience. wodak (2009) reveals that politicians perform speeches and always use persuasive tactics and strategies for achieving their desired goals. deignan (1997) claims that metaphor has been the subject of a great volume of studies in the last two decades. regmi (2014) expresses that figures of speech are used for deepest expression conveyed through metaphors, similes, symbols, images and personifications. some speakers and writers are keen to make use of colourful language for their rhetoric. they attract their audience and readers through these selections of colourful words. he further stresses that these devices enhance the curiosity of learning a language. the usage of rhetorical devices creates a conducive environment. however, the present study focuses on cricket language in political speeches used as a metaphor that brings desired goals. according to charteris-black (2004), metaphors are extensively used by politicians and abundantly occur in newspapers and religious books. he further elaborates on the study of metaphors from different perspectives by different scholars. katrandjiev, velinov and radova (2016) worked on advertising slogans. in this study, they investigated various rhetorical figures and shed light on their effective use for the sake of meaning generation and gaining attraction. they explored that metaphorical use of language is frequently found in advertising slogans as compared to the rest of rhetorical figures. metaphors are commonly used in the everyday discourse of the people for communicating serious issues that affect their lives such as economy and power. they are mostly found in election campaigns, advertisements (chetai, 2015), courtrooms, educational materials and news reports. fairclough (2001) expresses that power can be exercised in two ways; one is a physical force that is time-consuming and the second one is changing the beliefs of the audience through language. that is why the second one is mostly preferred for controlling others. as chilton (2004) express that language is the oldest successful source for pursuing the masses used by specific individuals or group of people. metaphor (lakoff & johson, 1980) is considered as a persuasive tool of poetry for arousing the feelings of the audience. it is a collection of colourful words rather than a simple expression of language. the domain of metaphor however is not limited to language only; it is 207 ‘politics is a game’: an analysis of cricket language used as metaphors in imran khan’s political speeches university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 ubiquitous in everyday life (in expressions such as ‘life is money’), thought and action. based on linguistics evidence, our concepts are related to metaphors, and metaphors also structure our perception, thinking and action such as in expressions like “argument is war’ (lakoff & johson, 1980). here, the reference is not to the physical war, but the action in arguments. it is an understanding of one thing in terms of another. the use of words is not always poetic, rhetorical, and fanciful when expressing metaphors but it could be literal as well. as imran khan in his speech “, i want to play now”, does not mean that being a former cricket player he wants to play cricket again, but he refers to his political campaign that he is running and shows his intention to take part in the election. similarly, he says ‘don’t miss the ball’ in which he addresses the audience in a business matter, where he means to say ‘don’t miss the chance’. this way, he persuades his audience and offers them to come and take part in the business. for analyzing the data in a better way and getting better results, the work of lakoff and johnson (1980) ‘metaphors we live by’ was taken as a theoretical framework. metaphor is ubiquitous in activities performed by a human. it is not limited to language only. it is pervasive in action and thought as well. our conceptual system, our thinking and our action is likely to be metaphorical in nature. there are two domains in conceptual metaphor for explaining an idea or meaning of one thing through another. these two domains are the source and target domains. the source domain helps us in drawing metaphorical expressions and the target domain is the idea that is expressed through source domain mapping. deignan (1997) says that conceptual metaphors work according to the understanding of humans, beyond language, and are linguistically realized as metaphors. politicians use persuasive language and techniques to persuade their audience and get their futuristic goals. they understand the requirements of the surroundings and needs of the masses and use persuasive techniques accordingly. many types of research have documented the use of political speeches for creating a persuasive impact on the masses, where politicians make use of implicit means to convey their standpoints. uzma’s (2013) study is based on imran khan’s political speech, to uncover the means through which a political leader conveys his ideology using persuasive language. the study analyzed the speech thoroughly, which was delivered at shaukat khanam hospital two days before the 2013 election. the obtained results of 208 ‘politics is a game’: an analysis of cricket language used as metaphors in imran khan’s political speeches university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the study clarified that ik (imran khan) used certain persuasive devices to attain his desired political goals. in another study, naz, alvi and baseer (2012) researched benazir bhutto’s political speech. the study focused on the semantic turn which was analyzed through hallidian systemic functional linguistics. the researcher revealed that benazir bhutto mostly used linguistics terms to ensure the emotional and physical participation of her audience. furthermore, the research of al-hamad and al-shunnag (2011) studies syrian politicians’ speeches in which they used the figure of speeches for gaining political advantages. the authors analyzed four figures of speech: metaphor, simile, euphemism and personification that were found in their speeches. altikriti (2016) took obama’s victory speeches and investigated that he used contrastive speech acts. nourali, (2016) focused on the speeches of iraq and american presidents where stress was given on simile, metaphor, repetition, allusion, alliteration and parallelism. the results showed that iran’s president mostly used alliteration and the american president frequently used metaphor more than other persuasive devices. al-saeedi (2017) discussed donald trump’s inaugural speech which showed that for arising the emotion of the audience he used repetition to convey the idea and strategy more effectively. the above studies clearly indicate that political speeches have been a frequently researched site for studying the political leaders’ persuasive language. as fairclough (2001) claims, power is exercised through discourse. in the same vein, the present study takes imran khan’s political speeches, after being elected as the prime minister of pakistan and focuses on the use of cricket language in his speeches. this research analyses the use of metaphors from the domain of the game of cricket, which helps ik to gain the interest and attention of the audience while delivering his message. methodology the study takes the data only from prime minister of pakistan imran khan’s political speeches. it highlights only those specific parts of the speeches which are used metaphorically and convey hidden meaning or beyond the surface level which are used to garb the emotions and attention of the audience. here, the focus remains on the cricket language that has been used metaphorically. 209 ‘politics is a game’: an analysis of cricket language used as metaphors in imran khan’s political speeches university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the data focused only on those speeches that were delivered after taking the charge as pm of pakistan. most of his speeches were in urdu, being the national language of pakistan. speeches delivered in english version were taken directly, while speeches in urdu were translated into english for the purpose of analysis. it is also crucial to point out that despite being the pm, there is very little written version of the speeches available. therefore, all selected speeches for the data were first carefully listened to and then translated to english for better results. the aim of this paper is to investigate the cricket language used metaphorically in the political speeches of imran khan. the primary focus remains on investigating the specific parts of speeches that make use of this type of language for persuasive impact. the study also analyses various functions performed through the use of cricket language in his speeches. the focus of analysis takes into account the ideas which he conveys through cricket language. results and discussion firstly, all the metaphors were identified in which cricket language was used. therefore, all metaphoric expressions that were not related to the domain of cricket were excluded. secondly, for the purpose of analysis, the functional features associated with the discovered metaphors were identified and were categorised according to the functions. in every day as well as specialised contexts, people frequently use figurative language to make their message more effective. the use of metaphors for persuasion in political discourse is well documented. similarly, the metaphorical use of language is well reflected in imran khan’s political speeches. table 1 below provides the analysis of metaphors and their categorisation according to their functions as found in the data of this research. table: 1 metaphors categorization according to functional features functions examples positivity ➢ i combated for 22 years in the political ground. ➢ this is time, my last words to the investors, this is the time to come to pakistan 210 ‘politics is a game’: an analysis of cricket language used as metaphors in imran khan’s political speeches university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 when it is just going on the upswing, this is the time to invest in the country and do not miss the ball. negativity ➢ the twelfth man in politics whose wicket has been dropped. tribute/praising ➢ i also want to mention that those were team players who were doing politics for high goals. i pay compliment to both; ahsan rasheed and saloni bokhari. patriotism ➢ i and my nation will play/fight till the last ball. ➢ my sole aim is to win for my nation and to bring up my country. rule formulation ➢ a good captain must go over his team. ➢ he must stop one player and select another. boasting/power show ➢ i will combat all of them alone. ➢ so, this charter of democracy which lasted for ten years was broken by pti inswing yorker. ➢ i recently changed the batting order of my team and made some more changes. ➢ mehmood khan, i want to address you as well that you also keep a keen eye on your team. functional features politicians use figurative language to convince and persuade their audience for getting their desired goals. for instance, ‘i combated for 22 years in political ground’ was used in imran khan’s speech to show his struggle. he was a cricket player and now uses that language in the 211 ‘politics is a game’: an analysis of cricket language used as metaphors in imran khan’s political speeches university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 political field. as we know that the term ‘field’ may have been appropriate to talk about politics, but here, he uses the word ‘ground’ for politics that shows his intention towards cricket and therefore reflected in the language use. he used ground because when someone plays in the ground everybody sees him. the more visible metaphorical expression and mapping in the gaming world allow him to clearly map his struggle and journey in a symbolic way. the next example found in his speech is: ‘this is time, my last words to the investors, this is the time to come to pakistan when it is just going on the upswing, this is the time to invest in the country and do not miss the ball’. that excerpt is taken from the speech which he delivered in dubai and addressed investors. he speaks clearly that pakistan has a good time for investment and invited the investors to the country for investment as the country is going in the right direction. therefore, in order to convince them not to miss this golden opportunity/chance, he uses gaming vocabulary such as upswing for the right direction and ball for chance/opportunity. this transference from the domain of game to the domain of economy allows investors to concretise their actions and work towards the target. he also used cricket language for criticizing someone or to create a negative image of something in the audience mind. this kind of situation may demand implicit and indirect means and the use of cricketing metaphors facilitate the transference of ideas among domains in difficult situations. that’s why he takes the help of cricket language in the expressions like ‘the twelfth man in politics whose wicket has been dropped’. here, he used the twelfth man for maulana fazlurahman, an ex-parliamentarian from the opposition party, and used wicket for his seat that he has lost in the last election. imran khan criticizes maulana fazlurahman here and is of the view that he is no more able to run the country and take part in politics because he is an extra man. he tries to clear his position by saying that he even lost his political seat. alongside using the cricket language as a weapon for opponents to criticize them harshly, he also uses it as a token for praising something or someone politely by giving more emphasis on a specific thing or person: ‘i also want to mention that those were team players who were doing politics for high goals. i pay compliment to both; ahsan rasheed and saloni bokhari’. the purpose of using cricket language is to target those members of the party that are actively involved in political activities and have more contributions to the party. 212 ‘politics is a game’: an analysis of cricket language used as metaphors in imran khan’s political speeches university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 it is his ideology, as reflected through his speeches, to do best for his country and expects his citizens to do well as well. his expresses his strong feelings for the country through cricket language, for example, ‘i and my nation will play/fight till the last ball’, and ‘my sole aim is to win for my nation and bring up my country’. he shows patriotism and love for the country in these statements by claiming that he and his followers will fight till the last breath. he uses the last ball for the ‘last breath’. he glorifies his passion for the county by using cricket language and conjuring metaphors of the game to motivate the audience and express his enthusiasm for working for the welfare of the nation. this also acts as a symbol of victory and reminisces the audience of his world cup 1992 win which he gave to the country as a team captain. based on this usage of cricket language as metaphors he creates sympathy, establishes regularity and understanding among the citizens for the progress of the country. he further uses cricket language for establishing and formulating rules for himself as a leader. he delivered the speech after mna asad qaisar and mna shehriyar afridi of his his political party took charge of the office, and he told the public that ‘a good captain must go over his team’, and ‘he (good captain) must stop one player and select another’. in these sentences, he uses captain for leader and team for cabinet. he mentions clearly that politicians are not out of the circle of accountability as they are also responsible to follow the rules and there would be a check and balance upon their performance. he used word player for a ‘minister’ and told them if they fail to work on time they will be changed. there would be no relaxation for them. imran khan also uses cricket domain metaphors for showing his power. he uses this language very skillfully for indirect criticism and warning others. he uses some specific words for expressing his deep emotions in public like, ‘i will combat all of them alone’, ‘so, this charter of democracy which lasted for ten years was broken by pti inswing yorker’, ‘i recently changed the batting order of my team and made some more changes’, ‘mehmood khan, i want to address you as well that you also keep a keen eye on your team’. he just used one word combat that has deep meaning in the context that shows his power that he alone is enough for all the politicians that are against his party. further, he shows the power of his political party, addressing the ex-prime minister nawaz sharif and ex-president asif zardari that these both had collectively made a democracy that was really the centre of corruption, but that charter of 213 ‘politics is a game’: an analysis of cricket language used as metaphors in imran khan’s political speeches university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 corruption was broken by pti’s (pakistan tehreek insaf) inswing yorker. in-swing yorker clearly shows power because it is very hard to stop and take a side. along with this, he also warns the members of his pti party that he had taken charges of ministry from some of the ministers and demands some more efforts for the nation. he uses batting order for ministers selected for a profile and team for his political party. here, he addresses one of his party members (mehmood khan) and told him that he must evaluate his workers as well. to sum up the above discussion, it is observed that metaphors are not confined to the works of poetry and literature only, but used for multiple purposes by the speakers in everyday language as well politics to bring the desired goals, such as for imparting hidden ideas and notions, and for aesthetic pleasure. the whole discussion is replete with various purposes used by imran khan for conveying his ideas. if we pay heed to these metaphors, which are used for emphasis, sincerity, euphemism and to establish certain truths, these are quite revealing and are hard to avoid specifically in the political discourse. limitations of the study this study has specific limitations, along with its strengths of carrying out an in-depth metaphor analysis as a rhetorical device in political discourse. first, it is limited to the political speeches delivered by the pm of pakistan, imran khan, for most of the life he has been playing cricket and has a long career in that field. second, the data is limited to only those speeches that were delivered after being elected as a prime minister. thirdly, it is limited to analyzing language related to cricket only used in metaphorical ways. conclusion to conclude, the researchers explored metaphors in political speeches delivered by the pm of pakistan imran khan. the utmost focus remained here on the cricket language that was used as a metaphor that had different functions according to need and situation during his address to his audience. these metaphors were used for various functions in political discourse such as for expressing positivity, for harsh criticism of others, for emphasizing national ideology, fairness and equality under rules, and euphemism. this indicates that metaphors are not limited to a single field of literature. other than literary purposes, metaphors are used to fulfil various 214 ‘politics is a game’: an analysis of cricket language used as metaphors in imran khan’s political speeches university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 purposes in other domains according to situational dynamics such as politicals to further political goals including favouring one’s agenda. references al-hamad, m. q., & al-shunnag, m. a. 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(2009). lang and politics. english language: description, variation and context. 576-593. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 108 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” dr. amjad ali assistant professor, department of english, islamia college peshawar dr. rais gul lecturer, department of sociology, islamia college peshawar abstract this paper explores the syntactic and semantic configurations of expletives “it” and “there.” it attempts to show that expletives are not just syntactic fillers; they are semantic markers and are pragmatically bound nps that can be co-indexed with covert referents. the study follows a theoretical approach and applies bolinger’s (1977) meaning and form model to the syntactic configurations of expletives. the syntactic structures of expletives are based on the syntactic theories of generativist linguists, namely chomsky (1986). chomskyan syntactic theories describe the various formal characteristics of expletives without analyzing their semantic and pragmatic implications. this study premises that bolinger’s theoretical modal can fill these missing gaps and can provide a conclusive yet not final description of these gaps. the study recognizes expletives as discourse bound markers and authenticates their contextual and sociological significance. keywords: expletives, chomskyan syntactic structures, bolinger’s meaning and form 1. introduction in chomskyan modules, expletives or “pleonastic elements” (chomsky 1986, p. 91) are non-referential nps; that is, they are not co-indexed with any referent in the immediate context. such nps also bear no theta roles and hence are thetaless. arguments, according to theta theory, are assigned ɵ-roles by the predicates and as burzio (1986) says, “a verb (with an object) casemarks its object if and only if it θ-marks its subject (p.139),” expletives are not marked with any ɵ-role in english sentence. they feature in sentences in which “be” function as predicates. referring to burzio’s generalization, chomsky (1986) also contends, “a verb with a complement assigns case if and only if it θ-marks its subject (p.141).” expletives “it” and “there” are not casemarked by the predicates and are, therefore, recognized as dummies or slot fillers. since expletives “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 109 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 serve as syntactic fillers, they are not used in focused structures and cannot be subject to questions the way other theta-marked subjects can be questioned. this paper provides a linguistic account of expletives and attempts to describe the syntactic and semantic environment wherein expletives find expression. it also discusses the pragmatic considerations of expletives and uses bolinger’s (1977) meaning and form model to interpret the given dimensions which do not find a systematic description in the syntactic modules of chomsky. 2. literature review postal (1974) regards the insertion of expletives like “it” as pure syntactic requirement with no semantic implications. for him, the inclusion of “it” in meteorological predicates such as “rain, snow” and “sleet” is done as syntactic gap filler. this np, however, does not have any semantic consideration. carnie (2001) cites extended projection principle (epp) for the insertion of expletives. this principle makes the external argument (subject) an obligatory constituent of the clause. any clause that does not have a recognized subject is filtered out by epp, and hence, the addition of expletives assumes obligatory dimension in certain syntactic structures. baker (1995) considers existential “there” and “it” quite arbitrary and believe that “it” can replace “there” in certain dialects of english. hence (1) can be written as (2): 1. “there is a fly in my soup.” 2. “it is a fly in my soup.” the appearance of “expletives” followed by “be” does not follow from any grammatical properties of language and should best be viewed as “sentential idiom” whose meanings cannot be determined from the individual words of the combination. moreover, every sentence that has “there” as a subject should not be marked as expletive; it can be a locative phrase and can receive stress unlike expletive “there” which is always unstressed. 3. “thére is jones.” 4. ”thére goes your brother.” “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 110 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 cook & newson (2007) locate the insertion of expletives in the poor inflectional property of english. english does not admit inflected verbs in case of all subjects. it’s inflected when third persons singular feature as subjects. the projection of the subject does not find any morphological expression due to poorly inflected property of verb. this makes the phonological realization of subject obligatory in english. dummy subjects like “it” and “there” are inserted when the sentence lacks any realized np that can function as the subject of the sentence. 3. the syntax of expletive “it” syntactically, expletives are considered slot fillers. they are added as subjects when the predicate either does not require or does not have any explicit agent. the projection rule for expletive “it” can be expressed as (i). i. “it [be np]” as can be observed in (i), “it” as expletive is marked by verb “be” followed by np as complement. this projection rule yields a syntactic tree (ii). (ii) (ii) shows that “it” as an expletive is bound by predicate “be.” in other words, predicates “try” or “hit” cannot be the complements of expletive ‘it” because these predicates are dyadic and must take one external argument (subject) and one internal argument in the form of a complement. this explains the unacceptability of the following sentence. s np vp v np it be “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 111 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 5. *1“it tried that mary opened the door.” meteorological predicates like “rain, hail, snow etc.” and “time” bear null theta grade. they are, therefore, expressed with “it” as a syntactic argument. 6. “it snows.” 7. “it’s ten o’ clock.” 8. “it’s too hot today.” the pronominal “it” assumes a thetaless structure in such constructions because the mentioned predicates do not require any theta marked agentive subject. as stipulated in epp2, a clause without an overt subject is not syntactic viability. the insertion of expletive “it’ as a syntactic argument (subject) is done to satisfy epp. 3.1 semantic and pragmatic configurations of “it” bolinger (1980, p. 30), however, does not regard this insertion as a syntactic requirement only, and the idea that the real information is packaged in the verb “raining” and so the external argument bears zero theta also needs a more empirical support. 9. “it’s raining.” this expletive, however, has the same referential property as “it” in (10) wherein “it” has some obvious referent in the given context. 10. “it’s unsafe down here.” so the sentence (10) can be presented as (11) at the d3-level. 1 asterisks (*) mean unacceptability 2 according to epp, “all clauses must have subjects “carnie (2001, p. 173). a sentence without any theta-marked subject can acquire acceptability provided that this gap is filled in by an expletive. epp will subsequently not filter it out as unacceptable structure. 3 deep structure. “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 112 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 11. “this down-here situation is unsafe.” recognizing that an expletive “it” in (9) can be referential as in (10), nothing can be more coreferential than weather. reference to weather condition is also sometimes made as (12) instead of (13): 12. “is the outside condition one of rain?” 13. “is it raining out?” similarly, (14) and (15) can be taken as (16) and (17) respectively at the d-level: 14. “it’s ten o’clock.” 15. “it’s raining.” 16. “the time is ten ’o clock.” 17. “the rain is raining.” as can be seen in the above examples, the expletive “it” anaphorically stands for “time” and “rain” and, therefore, cannot be recognized as syntactically dummy fillers having no semantic significance. it does signify some known information and has anaphoric reference the way one can observe in (18) where “it” has a well-defined antecedent “general circumstances” as shown in (19). 18. “it’s too hot to work.” 19. “general circumstances are difficult for working.” hence, its anaphoric significance becomes as obvious as “her” in the following wherein it is very unlikely that mary will not stick out her own tongue: 20. “mary stuck out her tongue.” he (1977) further argues that numerous instances can be quoted which prove that the expletive “it” has some semantic consideration than being merely a grammatical plug-in marker. . “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 113 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 in (21), “it” has co-indexical relation with a referent already broached in the discourse and hence has a prior referent: 21. “i can understand it that the election hurt them.” similar observation can be made about (22) where the expletive “it” has almost a pronominal representation and refers to something in the discourse: 22. “it isn’t that he’s a republican that i find so objectionable.” in (22), the negation implies the denial of something affirmative because it is very unusual that a person may utter this sentence on his or her entry into the room. 3.2 extraposition exraposition, according to chomsky (2006, p. 44), is a phenomenon when “it” is introduced as a subject in a sentence that has another constituent as a subject as illustrated in the following examples: 23. “for him to understand this lecture is difficult.” 24. “it is difficult for him to understand this lecture.” in (24), the phrase” for him to understand this lecture” has been moved outside the subject position and has been replaced with expletive ‘it.” extraposition is a syntactic phenomenon that describes the meaningfulness of “it.” the use of expletive “it” is not considered a semantic possibility when cleaving of a sentence happens without any prior information. in an answer to a question (a), a person is not likely to say (b): 25. “where will she go?” 26. *“it is to canada that she will go.” however, in response to (27), (28) is likely: 27. “where did she go?” 28. “it was to canada that she went. the acceptability of (28) is due to the fact that “it” is inserted as a possible semantic marker for the prior information of where she went. the following two questions are not the same. (29). “who came?” (30). “who else came?” “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 114 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 (29) can be answered with an expletive structure as in (31) but (30) cannot be answered with “it” because (29) presupposes mutual understanding between the interlocutors which is missing in (30). in case of latter the arrival of the person is virtually out of the blue and hence the construction cannot take “it” as an anaphoric constituent for something which is thoroughly unexpected. 31. “it was john” 32. *“it was john.” the same applies to the following wherein “someone” lends known information to the sentence and actuates the use of “it” as a semantic filler. 33. “someone else came. ---yes, it was john.” a prior basis is assumed for the event that has already taken place and “it” is inserted in such constructions in order to describe the event as 34. “it was a pleasure to entertain you.” 35. “i had no trouble at all; it was easy to convince him.” the expletive “it” attains a pronominal status in situations like the following cleft structure (36) where it represents an understood antecedent. likewise, there is no overt antecedent in (37) and hence, the insertion of “it” as a semantic filler makes the sentence a questionable acceptance. 36. “it would be inexcusable that they should do such a thing.” 37. (?)“it would be inexcusable that they should run away.” moreover, just as “it” as a pronominal neuter is the formal counterpart of definite article “the,” the expletive “it” also bears the notion of specification in a given context. this is illustrated in example (38). 38. “did you hear it?” – did i hear what?” “did you hear the noise?” 39. “not for a minute did i believe the story (believe it) that john has disappeared.” the interface between “it” and “the” on the basis of definiteness validates the point that a shared knowledge about a pragmatically specified np actuates the use of pronominal “it” and the same applies to expletive “it” which is added not as a syntactic filler but a semantically meaningful “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 115 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 constituent for some specified nps. in (40), “it” may be taken to mean “i can’t stand john’s not being around.” 40. “i can’t stand it when john’s not around.” but in answer to the question (41), “it” may be interpreted as “i can’t stand this place when john’s not around.” 41. “why are you leaving?” -because i can’t stand it here.” it is even comparable to a demonstrative “this” in a situation like (p): 42. “it’s (this is) nice, isn’t it? –what’s nice?—sitting around and talking.” the phonological representation of covert referent is sometimes made within the clause itself as an afterthought as in (43) or something neuter like “things” as in (44): 43. “it’s tough when you have to work all day.” 44. “things are tough when you have to work all day.” chafe (1970, p. 101) observes that in constructions like (45), the expletive “it” is all encompassing in the sense that the possible antecedent is total environment, not an individual entity inside it. 45. “it’s hot.” in addition, “it” does not have any role in the semantic structure of the sentence. the sentence, if applied to john, will imply the ambient heat that john feels, not his inner sensation of heat. so the possible paraphrase of the sentence will be (46). 46. “it’s hot with respect to the experience of john.” for bolinger (1977, p. 78), “it” in (45) can be recognized as a pronominal that has “environment” as its antecedent in the manner that chafe (1970) describes it. however, chafe’s idea of totality needs modification although his idea of ambience sounds logical. looking it within this perspective, (45) can find s4-representation as 47 or 48. 47. “the weather is hot with respect to the experience of john.” 48. “john senses that it is hot.” if the idea of totality is not abandoned in favour of individuality, (49) can stand to mean (50). 49. “john is thirsty.” 50.* “it’s thirsty with respect to the experience of john.” 4 surface representation “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 116 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the oddity of (50) is attributable to the inappropriate analysis of expletive “it” within the totality experience. to sum up, “it” as an expletive is more semantic in its insertion and embraces diverse concepts like weather, time, circumstance or simply whatever is obvious by the nature of reality or the implications of context. if a comes up with (51), b is will interpret “it” as “a’s concern” as the referent of “it.” 51. “it’s over; he’s dead and i am free.” in much the same way, b will take “it” as the “state of john’s health” if a utters (52). 52. “john looks like a ghost—it’s terrible, but there’s no remedy for it.” pragmatic considerations may expand or contract the semantic dimension of “it.” the expletive “it” is a semantically loaded constituent and the generality of meanings, contends bolinger (1977) that it exhibits must not be described as a subject filler only. syntactic configurations must not be the predominant occupation while analyzing the expletive “it.” it is oversimplification of the issue to call it a syntactic filler because a deep analysis of the “it” shows that a covert antecedent always lurks in the background with every use of “it.” 4. “there” construction “there” as expletive features in a couple of syntactic structures. it dominantly comes as existential “there” and expresses the existence of an np/nps in a situation. different projection rules for existential “there” are given below. 4.1 the syntax of existential “there” (a). “there [be np locp]” as illustrated in (a), the existential “there” takes copula as v followed by a locative phrase as an adjunct. “there” in such constructions features as upper subject while the np that comes the complement of the np functions follows the verb “be” functions as lower subject. the subjectverb agreement is carried out between the verb and the np that serves as lower subject as given in (53) 53. “there is a sheep in the barn.” this rule yields figure (iii) as the tree diagram for (53). (iii) s np vp “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 117 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 “there” in such constructions also take pp/adverb phrase (adv.p5) as an obligatory adjunct. the second projection rule for existential “there” can be expressed as (b): (b). “there [be np vp pres part]” (b) means that existential “there” permits present participle as the complement of verb “be.” consider (54). 54. “there is a giraffe standing on the porch.” syntactic tree for (54) is (iv). (iv) 5 pp means prepositional phrase; adv.p stands for adverb phrase. there is in the barn np a sheep there is a giraffe np pro standing on the porch s np vp v s ՜ np vp “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 118 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 “there” construction also admits passive participle as a complement. this rule has been described as (c) and illustrated in (55). (c). “there [be np passp]” 55. “there was a purse found at the library.” (55) will yield figure (v) as the tree diagram. (v) in addition, there is yet another possible syntactic structure in which “be” takes definite np as a complement. d. “there [be np prop]” consider (56). 56. “there՜6 is a santa claus.” the tree diagram for (56) will be (vi). (vi) 6 accent marks indicate stress found at the library s np vp v s ՜ np vp np a purse was pro there s np vp v “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 119 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 in addition to the mentioned patterns, existential “there” can also appear in unaccusative7 predicate constructions. so we can write the fifth projection rule for “there” construction as (e): (e). “there [v unaccusative]” consider the sentence (61). 61. “a package arrived last week.” the np “a package” in (61) has no external theta role. “a package” originates as an object and is then raised to subject position to satisfy the case filter. “a package” here is not an agent but an np 7unaccusative verbs are those which lack an external argument and therefore cannot assign accusative case to their complement-np. unaccusative verbs such as “arrive” appear intransitive at the surface level but which has some properties of the transitive verbs. intransitive verbs cannot appear in “there” construction while unaccusative verbs can: 57. “there arrived a party from boston.” 58. *“there telephoned a party from boston.” moreover, intransitive verbs can take special objects which in a sense duplicates the meaning of the verb known as cognate objects: 59. “he died a terrible death.” unaccusative verbs, on the other hand, cannot take cognate objects, a property they share with transitive verbs. 60. *“he arrived an arrival.” (see cook & newson (2007, p. 123) np a santa claus is there “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 120 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 that itself undergoes the process of change in terms of position and has been moved to subject position in order to satisfy epp. (61) can be expressed as (62). 62. “there arrived a package last week.” this existential pattern cannot be used with every verb. so we can say (63), but not (64). 63. “three men bought a book.” 64. “*there three men bought book.” burzio (1986, p. 159) says that “there”-construction is restricted to one-argument verbs of movement and change of state: “arise, emerge, ensue, begin, exist, occur, follow.” 4.2 the formal structures of “there” cattell (2006, p. 185) considers existential “there” an np with zero ɵ-role. like “it,” expletive “there” is inserted when the sentence does not have any understood subject. it, however, does not act as external argument of the sentence and is therefore ɵ-less. the generative approach to “there” constructions is that it is a semantically empty constituent and its insertion is carried out with no semantic implications. its addition, therefore, is a purely syntactic phenomenon and is licensed under epp (cook & newson 2007, p. 87). moreover, as mentioned in projection rule (a), “there” constructions admit two subjects: upper and lower. though existential “there” appears as an upper subject, it is the lower subject that undergoes agreement with the verb. consider the following sentences. 65. “there is a student in the class.” 66. “there are students in the class.” in (65), the verb “is” appears in inflected form because the np following the verb is singular. the uninflected verb “are” in (66), however, is licensed by the plural np “students.” these examples show that existential “there” takes subject slot in the sentence but the true subject in both cases is the lower subject –the np that comes as the complement of the verb “be.” moreover, as illustrated in the projection rules above, “there” cannot occur with every predicate: 67. *“there offered to join the movement.” definite nps also do not occur in “there” construction: 68. *“there are they in the room.” “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 121 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 69. “there are some in the room.” 70. “there is somebody in the room.” 71. *“there is john in the room.” (68) and (71) both contain definite nps –they and john—and so the sentences have been marked ungrammatical. however, definite nps can be complement of “be” when one or more alternatives are suggested in response to a question. this usage has been illustrated in (72) and (73). (72) question: “who can we get to watch the children?” answer: “well, there's john.” (73)question: “what can we read to them?” answer: ‘well, there's this book, and there's the book about snow white, and there's fred's autobiography.” the italicized nps in (72) and (73) are all definite and their occurrence in “there” structures are due to pragmatic considerations –alternate questions in the present case. nps with universal quantifiers like “every, each, all” etc. also do not occur in “there” structures (baker 1995, p. 430). 74. “*there is every apple on the table.” 75. “*there is each flower in a pot.” 76. “*there are all guests in the lounge.” “there” constructions are syntactic variants for those structures wherein an indefinite np can be the external argument of the sentence. hence, these constructions offer a choice for speakers to use a more natural form (77) instead of less natural (78): 77. “there is a chair in the kitchen.” 78. (?)“a chair is in the kitchen.” but nps with universal quantifiers cannot serve as a subject in “there-less” construction. (74), for example, cannot take the following form: 79. “*every apple is on the table.” it must also be recognized that every sentence that starts with “there” must not be considered existential “there” constructions. regarding principle (d), the definite np can be the lower subject “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 122 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 but “there’ in such constructions, according to baker (1995, p 426), serves as a locative phrase. following this mode of analysis, “there” in (56) is locative, not existential. due to its locative nature, the sentence also does not take obligatory adjunct. 80. “*there is a santa clause in the room.” this locative “there” is also stressed while existential “there” is always unstressd. moreover, as haegeman (1994) contends, existential “there,” unlike place adjuncts, cannot be questioned: 81 (a). “i saw bill there last week.” 81 (b). “where did you see bill last week? “there.” 82. “*where are three horses escaping?” in 81(b), the locative “there” has been questioned while the same cannot be attempted about existential “there” as in (82). 4.3 bolinger on expletive “there” syntactically, the insertion or deletion of existential “there” is something optional and the constructions that take “there” can conveniently be expressed by assigning the subject slot to the lower subject as shown in case of sentence (53). 83. “the sheep is in the barn.” bolinger (1977, p. 91), however, views this insertion in a different perspective. for him existential “there” may be considered the extension of locative “there” with a meaning that refers to a generalized location. it is not a dummy operator or a redundant word but a fully functional word that can better be recognized by its absence in the sentence. the insertion of “there” as expletive is unmarkedly done in case of those events about which no prior assumptions are made. it is quite unnatural to start a story like (84): 84. *“in xanadu once lived a king.” rather the more natural form will be “there” construction as in (85): 85. “in xanadu there once lived a king.” the use of “there” assumes a mandatory dimension when no background knowledge has been provided about the scene and “there” presentative is introduced with the intention of orienting the listener to the scene. however, once the stage has been set and the scene established, then “there-less” presentative works well as in (86): “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 123 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 86. “in xanadu there once lived a king. near him lived a princess whose name was diana.” in (86), the first clause is “there” presentative because no prior knowledge is available about the scene, but the second clause is without “there” due to the availability of requisite knowledge about the scene. likewise, in an answer to a query (87), the listener may very likely say (88) because the question aims at identifying the person, not his presence which has already been established in the discourse. 87. “who’s in the next room?” 88. “john is.” contrary to this, the question (89) may receive the answer with “there” construction as (90). a question like this does not presume any prior information about the supper and hence, “there” presentative is an acceptable form for the description of such events. 89. “what’s for supper tonight?” 90. “there’s bread and beans.” similarly, “grocery” in (91) is to be taken literal but mental in (92): 91. “across the street is a grocery.” 92. “across the street there’s a grocery.” a construction like (92) foregrounds knowledge about the grocery in the consciousness of the listener. the more vivid an event is, the less likely “there’ construction becomes as illustrated in the examples below: 93. “out of nowhere appeared a mysterious figure.” 94. *“out of nowhere there appeared a mysterious figure.” “there” is inserted when something is out of sight and is unlikely to be referred to with a pointing gesture. if in a given situation, john has a pencil in his open palm extended forward and an eraser in his clenched fist holding behind his back, he will come up with (95): 95. “in my right hand is a pencil, and in my left there’s an eraser.” in (95), the listener cannot see the eraser, so “there” construction works better in this case. “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 124 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 but if john offers a book to harry, the book is before harry’s eyes, that’s why john is not likely to say (96) but will say (97). 96. *“here there is the book.” 97. “here is the book.” “there” construction is canonically used when an object is out of the sight and mind of the listener and the speaker desires to bring it into his/her consciousness. any pragmatic context for “there” is therefore an occasion for indefiniteness8: 98. *“in a house on a hill lived a ghost.” 99. “in a house on a hill there lived a ghost.” in (99), the determinate nps “a house, a hill” and “a ghost” are all indefinite owing to the determiner “a.” the sentence, therefore, is well expressed with “there” presentative. however, once the objects have been particularized with definite determiner “the,” “there” is no longer required as shown in (100). 100. “in the house on the hill lived a ghost.” “there” presentative in such a situation will add to the oddity of the structure, 101. *“in the house on the hill there lived a ghost.” the particularization of objects with “the” creates a type of island np9 situation for “there,” and the construction subsequently cannot find expression in existential “there” structure. the definiteness of nps also abolishes the need of bringing something into awareness or creating an abstract stage when the concrete one is missing. since “there” presentative works best in bringing 8 postal (1974, p. 369) also says that existential “there” takes indefinite np: “there is a man in your bed.” 9 this phenomenon, first observed by ross (1967), is also generally referred to as the complex np island phenomenon. just as there are restricted movements within the confines of islands, so islands in syntax are the same. a constituent cannot move out of an island but can move around within it. “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 125 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 something into consciousness, it is unusual to use it in situations where the identity of an object has already been identified with definite determiner “the.” the “there-less” presentative in (102) is acceptable provided that a ranger tells a party of picnickers about pragmatically defined tables that can even be pointed to. 102.“across the road are some picnic tables.” (103), on the other hand, will create a great deal of confusion. 103.*“ten miles down the road are some picnic tables.” sentence (103) will become logical if it is expressed in “there” construction. this will also dispel the vagueness of the holiday makers. syntactically, “there” as expletive admits passive participle as shown in (c), the passive structure, according to bolinger (1977, p. 103), is either agentless or the agent is appended as an afterthought. consider the following sentences. 104. “in the morning there were brought in, by the students, some half dozen boxes of books.” 105. *“in the morning there were brought in by the students some half dozen boxes of books.” in (105), the agent “by the students” has been expressed as an integral part, not as an afterthought. this leads to the ungrammaticality of the sentence. the same holds for (106) and (107)10. 106. “there were shown to us, by the diggers, several interesting specimens.” 107. *“there were shown to us by the diggers several interesting specimens.” 10 the corresponding active structures of (104) and (106) will be (108) and (109) respectively. 108. “in the morning there were some half dozen boxes of books the students brought in.” 109. “there were several interesting specimens the diggers showed to us.” “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 126 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the passive structures also follow the same paradigms that actives follow: indefinite nps (“some half dozen boxes of books” and “several interesting specimens”) and “there” with locative meaning. 5. conclusions the study derives the following conclusive findings about the expletive markers “it” and “there.” a. “it” as a syntactic argument is not a null np void of any theta grade. b. “it” is inserted with semantic considerations and has the referential property of pronominal “it” at d-structure. c. as expletive “it” bears prior information and hence takes an understood antecedent in the discourse. d. existential “there” marks events that carry no prior information. hence, its use assumes a sociological character. e. as expletive, “there” is recognized by indefinite nps, universal quantifiers and unaccusative verbs. f. determinate nps marked with “the” cannot be the complement of “be” in “there” constructions. this happens because a definite np can attain subject slot in a finite clause but indefinite nps marked with indefinite articles are characteristically expressed in “there” structures. certain grammatical contexts like alternate questions, however, admit definite nps in “there” constructions. g. “there” construction can undergo passive transformation provided that the transformed structures are either agentless or the agent is punctuated as an afterthought. references baker, c.l. (1995). english syntax. cambridge &london: mit press. bolinger, d. (1977). meaning and form. london and new york: longman group. bolinger, d. (1980). language-the loaded weapon: the use and abuse of language today. london and new york: routledge taylor & francis group. burzio, luigi (1986). italian syntax. dordrecht, holland: d. reidel publishing company. “expletives” as discourse markers: semantic and pragmatic considerations in “it” and “there” 127 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 carnie, a. (2000). syntax. malden, ma: blackwell publishing. cattell, r. (2006). an introduction to mind, consciousness and language. london: continuum. chafe, l. w. (1970). meaning and the structure of language. chicago and london: the university of chicago press. chomsky, n. (1986). knowledge of language: its nature, origin, and use. connecticut: praeger. cook, v. j. & newson, m. (2007). chomsky’s universal grammar: an introduction. (3rd ed.). malden, ma. blackwell publishing. haegeman, l. (1994). introduction to government and binding theory. (2nd ed.). malden, ma: blackwell publishing postal, m.p. (1974). on raising: one rule of english grammar and its theoretical implications. cambridge, ma: the mit press. ross, j. (1967). “on the cyclic nature of english pronominalization.” in to honor roman jakobson. new york: humanities. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 95 a qualitative investigation of the perceptions of madrassa students towards english language dr. aziz ahmad assistant professor, department of english, university of malakand azizahmad@uom.edu.pk gul-e-rukhsar department of english, university of malakand farah naz department of english, university of malakand abstract the value of english language has been on the rise since the united states of america became the superpower. english has become important and more like a universal language. in pakistan too, it plays significant role in educational as well as professional circles. it is used as the official language in pakistan. among the various educational streams in pakistan, one is madrassa. madrassas are religious seminaries; educational entities that impart religious education to students. the argument of this study is that these seminaries do not have effective teaching mechanism for english language teaching in their curriculum. this study intends to investigate the perceptions of students towards english language, who had been to madrassa or still going there as part-time students. the data is collected in the department of islamic studies, university of malakand. only enrolled students were included in the study. the number of respondents was ascertained from the departmental office and a total of 36 students were found qualified to participate in the study. the data was collected using interview method to investigate the views of the respondents about the importance of english language in educational and professional spheres. the significance of this study is that it highlights the need as well as reforms required in the curriculum. the study concluded that majority of students responded positively towards the need and value of english language for madrassa students and implementation of practical policies in this regard. keywords: english, students, pakistan, madrassa, perceptions, islamic studies, university of malakand introduction this research is undertaken to investigate the avenues to improve the quality of madrassa education. most importantly, it is an attempt to investigate the possible way outs and resources to subtly include english language learning and teachings in the traditional system of education in madrassas (anjum, 2017). mailto:azizahmad@uom.edu.pk university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 96 madrassa, plural madrassas, is an arabic word. in literal terms, it means a place for education; school either secular or religious (blanchard, 2007). it is believed that the birth of madrassa happened during 9th century in the muslim world (ali, 2009) and then the turks brought the system to the indian subcontinent. initially, the syllabi of madrassas included qur’an, hadith along with subjects like astronomy, mathematics and other human sciences. with the passage of time, the syllabi got restricted only to islamic teachings (iqbal & raza, 2015). the word madrassa is considered to be derived accurately from the arab vocab ‘dars’ which means ‘to study’ and since the word madrassa is an adverb of place therefore its complete literal meaning can be defined as ‘a place of study.’ thereby, in the islamic history madrassa is viewed by many as a foundation that serves as a primary medium for training religious education and to provide islamic teachings. as per the islamic testimony, the madrassa system was well considered as a carrier of knowledge. madrassas have always helped in providing an alternative to the western education system, while it simultaneously aided in providing due support for the islamic society to withstand (baugh, 2002). in the early years of the establishment of the madrassa education system, it held profound importance and held considerable value among the people. it was a place where significant issues and subject matters were discussed including topics from astronomy, science, physics, literature, architecture, and politics etc. hence, new things were learnd. nevertheless, madrassas provided the people with an opportunity to share ideas and to develop new and noteworthy wisdom. indeed it served the purpose of learning and spreading meaningful ideas and knowledge (anzar, 2003). however, over the past few years, this system of education which was once considered the most appropriate and the utmost credible source of education and knowledge has now deteriorated in its quality. multiple reasons are associated and attached with this notion. additionally, the misconception of madrassa education being limited to the religious education and knowledge is rather new and self-developed recently (bhattacharya, 2013). this notion has badly affected the image of muslim madrassas and hence harmed its development. these misconceptions have been developed lately even though the islamic history represents madrassa as such a learning institute where different subjects were discussed and information was exchanged. yet, the current madrassa system lacks behind in various aspects and has ruined the real image and value of madrassa education. the current curriculum taught at the madrassas also leads into another heated debate (douglass & shaikh, 2004). the role of curriculum in madrassa education system is rather shady and one of the reasons observed is that the curriculum is limited to the religious knowledge and expertise and seriously lacks any current knowledge of modern science related subjects. at the time of independence, there were around 200 madrassas in pakistan, which have now increased to 32,272 madrassas, according to pakistan education statistics 2015-16. the number is continuously on the increase. the syllabi of these traditional madrassas follow the standard of dars-i-nizami and other than shia madrassas, all of them teach hanafi fiqh, the texts of which are 500 years old if not more. the centuries old texts and restricted syllabus lead to stagnation of knowledge (rahman, 2005). the incident of september 11, 2001, sparked the need for madrassa reforms in the whole muslim world. the then president of pakistan, general pervez musharraf proposed to bring university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 97 reforms in the madrassa curricula, widening its scope and bringing madrassas to the mainstream of education (ali, 2012). among the various steps towards madrassa reforms, one was the madrassa reforms project (mrp). the aim of this project was to add subjects like english, general sciences and social sciences to the curricula of madrassas (zaidi, 2013). this project almost failed to achieve its objectives somewhat on part of severe opposition from madrassas but basically because of lack of preparation and determination in the implementation (iqbal & raza, 2015). other than that, the government has made several attempts to introduce madrassa reforms which have embraced only a tiny section of them (butt, 2012). the 32,272 madrassas in pakistan have an enrolment of 2.26 million students as per pes 201516, but this figure, as cited by certain newspapers, has reached above 3 million. moreover, madrassas have little or no space for english language learning or teaching (rahman, 1999). thus, the linguistic capital is accumulated in madrassas. the students rarely find means to compete in the english-oriented labour market and fall short of contributing their part in the country’s progress (ali, 2009). the books read and taught are written in urdu language and thereby the teacher too teaches the religious knowledge in the local language. the lack of contemporary requirement results in drop off in the standard of the entire program of study (hussain & qureshi, 2007). such resistance from secular subjects within the courses taught in the madrassa makes it difficult for the students to do well in their professional sphere as the curriculum has not been designed accordingly. scholars belonging to a specific school of thought believe that certain subject areas within the curriculum of madrassa education nurtures provocative behaviour which in result triggers extremism and fanaticism among madrassa students (bolton & kachru, 2006). therefore, the need for islamic education along with a balanced amount of modern education is required for the upward progress of this education system. religious teachings alone are not sufficient to survive in the current times of digital technology and innovation therefore the need to introduce english language along with some aspects of modern education is mandatory for the progress of madrassa’s (nunan, 2003). moreover, language has always been a medium for communicating ideas, thoughts and knowledge. it’s not only the chief source of communication but also something which makes us humans. the world has witnessed thousands of languages; all created with an intent to connect and communicate. just like other languages, english too is a language used originally by the british natives. however, as the british rule spread across the globe, their language progressed too. with the passage of time, english became more or less the primary or secondary language of multiple countries worldwide (coleman, 2010). likewise, pakistan has had a history of being ruled by the british rulers for over a century and thereby she too has suffered a lot from the after effects of british colonialism. this has not only influenced the political system of our state but also the linguistic standards within. in the current times, the importance of english language is ever increasing, hence the need for it to be learnd is essentially required (sarwar, 2001). nonetheless, english language holds considerable importance in the field of education. it is among the most spoken languages globally and thereby holds humongous worth. internationally, english holds great value and substance (nashruddin, 2015). in addition to this, english language is widely used and is dominant in most areas of communication. these are a few of the university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 98 major reasons why the mastery of english language is becoming a necessity of the current times and is an essential need for the progress and personal development of all nations. however, the madrassa does not tend to offer a thorough understanding of all important subject areas or languages and majorly sticks to the encouragement of arabic language. the restriction to a single language i.e. arabic halts its progression. this has been traditionally true as in the early times madrassas mostly served an opposite approach of the spiritual set in order to reduce the chances of english language and culture to spread within the subcontinent. english had been completely opposed by most of the islamic teachers; thinking of it as a western agenda, consequently refraining from its use (hussain & qureshi, 2007). in addition to this, english as a language was and is still perceived as a threat to islam by many fundamentalists and that is precisely how the madrassas have been able to maintain the love for arabic on spiritual basis. even though the national language of pakistan is urdu but english language has attained the status of official language within the state. the use and application of english language, therefore, is important not only within the education system but also in the professional sphere of life (bhattacharya, 2013). conversely, over the years the government has failed in developing policies to promote english language among the masses and that is one of the major reasons why a big chunk of the entire population cannot speak, write, read or understand english language. a relatively smaller segment is currently able to comprehend the language and most of the population remains ignorant. since colonial rule until 2009; urdu was declared to be the medium of communication for masses while english was limited to the elites as per the educational policy. until after 2009, evident changes were made within the national education policy, thereby the use of english was made compulsory for masses. nevertheless, this change still hasn’t been well implemented since there has been no check and balance of these madrassas and their accountability is doubtful. nevertheless the religious education institutes i.e. the madrassas fail to implement this change. madrassa education system seems to be unsuccessful in meeting the requirements of the current competitive times. its curriculum is thus unable to deal with the modern challenges and that is why the quality of students that it produces is relatively low as compared to other students. these students fail to make a mark in their professional careers and struggle in finding a place for employment. additionally, these students are unable to contribute in the mainstream economic activities and barely make the two ends meet. the madrassa education system does not provide possibilities to its students to progress in the professional sphere of life, thereby alienates the students from the true essentials of the viable life (coleman, 2010). the studies depict that the graduates of the madrassa education system are at a substantial loss within the job market as compared to their peers from other school systems as it is often believed that these madrassa student lack the necessary skills to compete in the hard-hitting job environment. these students have significant amount of deficiency in their communication, comprehension and social skills; therefore, fall behind others. they have almost narrow career opportunities and struggle to get better employment. these madrassas are marginalized due to the lack of using english language; therefore, the centrality of this language requires great focus. it is the need of the hour to empower these students in order to able them in setting up a stable and secure professional career. one cannot progress by excluding english but by including it within the system of education. likewise, this reflects the need for the integration of modern and traditional education within this system which university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 99 is principally needed to improve its standard. it is also observed that the facilities of english language within these madrassas are equal to none and they do not have the urge to work on it either. nevertheless, the teachings and learning of english as a language cannot be considered in a vacuum; instead, it needs to be scrutinized in the broader social context (nashruddin, 2015). additionally, there are multiple positive outcomes of including english language within the curriculum and madrassa education system. it would not only improve the literacy rate but would also enhance the competencies of these students. this language development would help them in their higher educational and professional career (bolton & kachru, 2006). this would also help in producing highly valued and qualified individuals within the competitive market. lastly, english language would help them in communicating with the world and would make them able to explore the unknown. hence, it will open doors for better avenues and opportunities. the increasing value of english language in our daily lives and its lack in the madrassas arises the grave need of english language reforms in madrassas. the reforms that were made in the past in madrassas acclaimed negative response with fault both on the part of the implementation process as well as the madrassa students and teachers. therefore, before implementing any new reforms it is necessary to understand the perceptions of the madrassa students (as well as teachers) and their level of acceptance towards any reforms in this regard, to avoid future failures. therefore, the current study has been designed to get an understanding of the perceptions of madrassa students about the importance of english language. research questions the current study is intended to answer the following research question: what are the perceptions of the madrassa students towards the role and importance of english language? objectives of the study the study aims to investigate the perceptions of the madrassa students about english in the context of its significance in educational and professional sphere. methods and procedure nature of the study this research study is qualitative in nature. it aims to investigate the perceptions of students about the role of english language, especially in educational and professional spheres. population and sampling target population of the study is madrassa graduate/students enrolled in department of islamic studies, university of malakand. the subjects belong to b.s, m.a and m.phil degree programmes. their general education before university varied from b.a to b.sc, m.a and diploma. the total number of the respondents was 36, out of which we were able to reach out to 26, due to the limitations of time and access. the rationale, for choosing these specific students, as population of the research, is that these madrassa students have a better experience of the life university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 100 outside madrassa. hence, they may better perceive the role and need of english language in their lives as islamic scholars. locale of the study the subjects are students of university of malakand, who went to madrassas mainly located in various villages and towns of malakand division and a number of them also went to mardassas in peshawar, islamabad, karachi, and punjab. tools of the data collection the data is collected through open-ended interview questions. we opted for this tool in order to get a large amount of in-depth data in short time and also because perceptions are psychological and requires in-depth understanding. analysis and ethical issues the collected data is analysed thematically, placing similar responses of the respondents under one theme and carrying out a discussion on it. considering the research ethics, a complete code is derived for the respondents, keeping their identities/names confidential. the codification is adapted from roney (2000). data analysis and discussion this section presents the main findings of the study and its analysis. inductive approach was adopted to collect data through interview method. the data in this section is analysed thematically, and discusses various themes arising from the participant’s views guided by the objectives of the study. direct responses of the participants are also coded based on the profundity and detail of their experience; direct quotations from the subjects are also included (see appendix for identification key). significance of english in preaching and communication english has become an important language to communicate all around the world. it is widely used among non-native speakers for interaction which makes it the most common language for communication worldwide. generally only one out of four users of english is the native speaker of the language (crystal, 2003). it has got the status of global language (crystal, 2003; gnutzmann, 1999) so, needed for interaction on international level. therefore, it has become the medium of intercultural communication (meierkord, 1996) and has become a universal language. through our study we find that majority of the subjects showed full awareness and agreement about the current status and importance of english language. and because of this status of universal language they wanted to learn english language in order to communicate around the world to preach the message of islam. one of the subjects said that islam is a true and humble religion. its message should be spread to the other nations of the world as well. and because of the universal role of english language, its learning is important (24m31_p1_10f). the informants also wanted to learn english language in order to understand and answer the objections that non-believers raise on islam. while answering a question about the importance of english language in communication, one of the respondent said that learning english to them is university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 101 important because ‘to explain our beliefs and thoughts perfectly to the non-muslim world and to make ourselves ready to defend ourselves with proper arguments and answers (26m26_p1_10f). greater number of participants considered english as an important and worth learning language for ulama and madrassa students. due to its current importance it has become a necessary or can be’ helpful for ulama to depend themselves impressively and preach the message of islam to the world. importance of english in higher education and profession english is used as a medium of instruction and documentation in universities worldwide. it has got the status of official language in pakistan. higher level examinations are also held in english language in pakistan.' passing examinations in english then opens doors to higher levels of studying and to employment opportunities (coleman 2010), as english is the most commonly used language in business world. almost 93% of the subjects said that it is impossible for a madrassa student to understand and fill the forms for admission at college and university level without doing any english language course. one of our subject mention an important point that 'this year 2000 candidates applied for m.phil islamyat, uom but only 22 passed and majority of them were non-madrassa students while there were majority of madrassa students among the overall candidates, the only reason for this was the lack of madrassa students in english even though they were/are more competent than non-madrassa students’ (25m30-p1-12c). in pakistan majority of the tests and interviews for higher education and jobs are conducted in english language or contain english as a compulsory portion. one of the respondent who completed her darsi nizami course which is equivalent to masters in islamyat and arabic language from jami ayesha siddiqa madrassa islamabad share her story that “i lost gold medal in b.s islamyat just because i am not good at english, and because of the english problem i had to take admission in b.s even though i am qualified for m.phil” (15f23b3-8a). many subjects even said that madrassa students are more competent in their subject than the students who did m.phil or masters in islamyat because they spent almost 10 to 12 years for learning those things but they always lag behind because of this incompetence in english language. as a subject said, “madrassa graduates always face great difficulty in their professional lives just because they don’t know/are not competent in english” (26m26-p1-8f). another respondent added, “even tests of specific posts like qarya and tajweed for madrassa students, are conducted in english language” (21f18-b1-6b). in countries like pakistan where english enjoys the status of official language one needs to have good communication skills in english before stepping into professional world. open doors to modern research and development around 86% of our subjects showed interest in learning english language and making it a part of madrassas curriculum because it is the language of modern development, computer, media, press, international travel and communication .most of research and studies in a given scientific field is published in english language. in education, at postgraduate level, undergraduate level and research level english is used nowadays. the status of global language made english a language of science. around 98% online scientific research papers are published in english. learning english is not only important to learn from others but also for publishing own work that will help it to recognized globally (rajwani & gohel 2012). the participants of our study university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 102 showed agreement on the point that through english they can get access to vast collection of knowledge. as one respondent said, “english open the doors to study the research advances and developments of other especially non-muslim countries” (24m31-p1-10g). inclination of madrassa students and teachers towards english through our study we find that large number of students and teachers are inclined towards learning english language. as a participant mention “my madrassa teacher asked me that if i teach him english, he will teach me further islamic knowledge in exchange. madrassa teachers and students are very inclined towards english but the lack of environment and funds are responsible for our lack in english” (12m22-mf-4d). other view regarding this is “majority of the madrassa students as well as teachers are very much inclined towards english because of its growing need in today’s life especially for islamic scholars and their responsibility of spreading the message of islam and tackling the anti-islam beliefs and notions of the non-muslim countries but madrassas can’t afford the wages of english teachers and the government do not supply us with enough funds or usually none at all” (26m26-p1-8f). according to british council report, the representatives of numerous madrassas in khyber pakhtunkhwa and [ex-]fata contended that english language is their basic need for advanced level education, government employment and as a door to knowledge present a bright and positive reflection of islam to the west, to spread the significance of islam and to be part of harmonious relationship among nations of the world (coleman, 2010). no importance of english for the life afterworld according to zaidi (2013), people in madrassa, traditionally, oppose the heavy changes in their system due to the fact that to them they only need prayer leaders and teachers. in their opinion, the prevailing curriculum is sufficient to provide that stuff. though we discussed the importance of english language from different perspectives and majority of our subjects showed full agreement with the fact that english language is necessary to move in the modern world. but some of our subjects showed disagreement with this view that being madrassa students we need any exposure to english language. according to them, “english language has its importance for worldly life but for the afterlife, it has no value at all” (11m20-b1-4b; 20m19-b1-3b). two of the subjects remain neutral in their views. they were aware of the importance of english language in current context but according to them, “no doubt english has become very important in today’s life but madrassas are basically for islamic knowledge and arabic so, english could be taught at higher level like ilm (education) but there is no particular need at primary level. one should learn only enough of english to get by in this life.’’ (21f18-b1-6b; 22f18-b1-4a). findings from the discussion of the major themes derived from the analysis of the data, the researchers have deduced the following findings: ➢ the analysis of the data collected results in the findings that majority (92%) the students of madrassas (as well as the teachers) are significantly inclined towards learning of english language. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 103 ➢ the students (100%) show full awareness towards the role and importance that english language has gained in today’s world. ➢ the subjects (92%) also showed complete understanding of the need of english language for education and profession in the current context of english as the lingua franca. ➢ around 85% of our subject showed interest in learning english language and making it a part of madrassas’ curriculum because it is the language of modern development, computer, media, press, international travel and communication. ➢ the subjects (92%) accept and show the need of english language teaching and learning for them in order to carry out their role as islamic scholars in particular. ➢ only 7% agreed that english should only be taught in higher levels of madrassas like ilm, since they don’t really need it before that. further, 7% said that there is no need of english language in the after life and it is the after life that they seek. conclusion thus, it becomes clear that english language has become a need for madrassa students and teachers to compete the challenges of the modern world. they need exposure to english language to upgrade their social status by getting opportunities to higher education and better employment because as english has gained a significant role in higher education and professional life. the findings of the study show that the majority of the subjects have positive perception towards english language and showed inclination towards learning english language, as they fully understand the need of english in educational and professional sphere. despite of their positive views and inclination, their syllabus does not include english language because of the scarcity of proper environment, funds and skilled teachers in english language. suggestions it is a well understood that the madrassa education system within pakistan needs further improvement and development. there are various loop holes and flaws within this system of education that needs to be worked out. therefore, some vital suggestions for its betterment and success are stated as follows: i. firstly, the government of pakistan needs to develop and simultaneously implement such educational policies which work on improving the curriculum taught within the madrassas. ii. the government should work on implementing both religious and formal education so that a balance is created within this system of education. iii. integration of contemporary and religious subjects i.e. the inclusion of subjects like english, mathematics, science, literature etc. should be done in order to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of this fragile education system. iv. professional development trainings should be provided to the madrassa teachers to enhance their skill set. v. workshops related to teaching-learning methods and communication skills can help making the teachers capable of improving the standard of students studying within the madrassa education system. vi. the introduction of english language since the preliminary stage should be made mandatory so that the students become well acquainted with the language. university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue i | jan – june | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 104 vii. english should be included within the curriculum and for this matter their course could be set by the government’s educational board so that all students studying in madrassas would acquire same education at an equivalent standard. redesigning of the syllabus would serve the purpose in this regard. viii. the registration of all madrassas should be ensured and significant steps should be taken in order to check its accountability. ix. effective literacy programs can be initiated by the government of pakistan in order to make improvements within the madrassa structure in order to make their students more competent and compatible with the modern requirements. x. lastly, by increasing financial and technical support, the government of pakistan can make these changes smooth for this system of religious education. references ali, s. h. (2009). islam and education: conflict and conformity in pakistan's madrassahs. karachi: oxford university press. anjum, u. (2017). assessing the need of modern education in madrassah system: a case study of madaris in lahore. arts and social sciences journal, 8(4), 286. doi 10.4172/2151-6200.1000286 baugh, a. c., & cable, t. (1993). a history of the english language. london: routledge. baugh, a. c., & cable, t. (2002). a history of the english language. london: routledge. baumgardner, r. j., kennedy, a. e., & shamim, f. (1993). the urduization of english in pakistan. in rj baumgardner (ed.), the english language in pakistan. karachi: pakistan. bem, d. j. (1972). self-perception theory1. in advances in experimental social psychology, 6, 162. blanchard, c. m. (2007). islamic religious schools, madrasas: background. crs report for congress. retrieved from https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/rs21654.pdf bolton, k., & kachru, b. b. (eds.). 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(2000). characteristics of effective middle level teachers: a case study of principal, teacher, and student perspectives (doctoral dissertation, temple university). sarwar, g. (2001). islamic education: its meaning problems & prospects. london: muslin educational trust. shamim, f. (2011). english as the language for development in pakistan: issues, challenges and possible solutions. dreams and realities: developing countries and the english language, 291-310. national education management information system nemis: academy of education planning and management aepam. (2013). government of pakistan. zaidi, s. m. a. (2013). madrassa education in pakistan: controversies, challenges and prospects. centre for international and strategic analysis sisa report, (3). @ 2017 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). fluid identity of the muslim migrants in america 27 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 fluid identity of the muslim migrants in america: a case study of hayat shah in ayad akhtar’s american dervish ghulam yasin research scholar in english literature, university of sindh, jamshoro pakistan ghulam.yasin@scholars.usindh.edu.pk dr. muhammad saeed nasir postdoctoral research fellow, the school of language, literature, music and visual culture, university of aberdeen, uk saeed125nasir@gmail.com sadia rahim phd scholar, department of english, women university multan sadiarahim87@gmail.com abstract the aim of this research is to deal with the fluid identities of the muslim migrants settled in america in general and in particular it explores how the conflicts between social and religious values push the protagonist hayat shah towards the loss of his personal and religious identity in ayad akhtar’s novel ‘american dervish’ (2012). it describes how the survival in a multicultural society particularly by the muslim migrants becomes painful. hayat shah firstly holds on his remnant tenets of islamic religion but later he is influenced by the charm of multicultural modern society of america and struggles in sustaining his muslim identity and finding his new identity for his personal settlement with the surroundings. in this way his identity becomes fluid and keeps on changing. the research concludes that the muslim migrant hayat couldn’t retain his muslim identity because he finds his survival only in the adaptation of new, broader, and multicultural settings. this crisis occurs because he has been struck in the issues like religion, mystic philosophy, and cultural conflicts right in his adolescence. it is examined through textual analysis that the journey of hayat shah for becoming a hafiz, and then a sufi or dervish comes to an end by availing a new identity of an american. the qualitative research is designed on descriptive analytic method by utilizing the approach of identity crisis presented by eric erickson. key words: religious identity, dervish, islam, jewish, migrant introduction the issue of identity is much debated in the field of literature particularly dealing with the marginalized and multicultural societies. identity has always been the underlying theme not only mailto:ghulam.yasin@scholars.usindh.edu.pk mailto:saeed125nasir@gmail.com mailto:sadiarahim87@gmail.com fluid identity of the muslim migrants in america 28 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 in the postcolonial literature but is also the part and parcel of post 09/11 literature. the term ‘identity’ is considered a polemic and not easy to define. now it has become the most discussed term by the scholars of social sciences and humanities in the recent years. it has been the center of debates in every sub-field of political science and much work has been done about identity politics along with the issues of gender and race. the concept of state identity has opened new horizons in this field at the international scenario but above all the questions of identity on the basis of gender, sexuality, race, nationality, ethnicity and culture have been raised in political theories on the name of liberalism or vice versa. identity is “the way individuals and groups define themselves and are defined by others on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, language, and culture” (deng, 1995, p. 1). ayad akhtar (b. 1970) is a pakistani-american dramatist, novelist, screenwriter, and an actor. he won the pulitzer prize for drama in 2013 with the presentation of his play ‘disgraced’. american dervish (2012) is the very first presentation by him and has also been published in more than 20 languages. according to ali (2015), “it is a message from the author to show to what extent it is so difficult to adhere to one's belief once they find themselves assimilating with other people of different beliefs and suffering because of their own creeds” (p. 85). he mentions that “i think every immigrant community, whether they’re defined by their faith or by their national identity, goes through this process of wrestling with what to hold on to and what to leave behind” (web, aditi sriram interviews ayad akhtar, 2 june 2014). the fluidity of identity in the study is concerned with the diverse perspectives of identity portrayed in the novel american dervish (2012). further these aspects of identity have no welldefined boundaries among them, because “identity is subject to change, modification, reinvention, and even questioning” (elgezeery, 2015, p. 125). this fluidity reflects almost in every character of the novel because they are endowed with their own fears, subjectivity, settlements, and selfhood while living in the same multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society. however, the study has been delimited to the voice of the protagonist hayat shah. the rationale behind it is obvious that hayat shah belongs to the muslim migrant pakistani family settled in america and his identity is in a continuous flow and flux. it is a supreme issue for him, as he has always been in an incessant quest for his physical and psychological identity throughout the novel. it is not only the journey of his fluid identity of the muslim migrants in america 29 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 personal identity but later it is concerned with his religion islam. it later turns into a spiritual journey where he wants to go but he loses everything at the end only to adjust him in the multi cultural american society. he only stands as an american not a dervish. identity and fluidity fluidity as narrated by the structuralists is quite different from hybridity because it is “a construct, a hybrid in its many forms and one that is predicated upon a ruse, a performance, a stade" (phipps, 2003, p. 10). the structuralists do not regard it as the agency of the subject but they consider it as an abstraction. it even may not identify its meaning or subjectivity, though it is an essential element of individuality and subjecthood. robinson (2007) claims that “human agency leads to a conception of a fluid-yet-fragile self-identity, a conception of community as context of value, and a conception of personal autonomy as situated autonomy” (p. 8). now this agency makes the identity of some character ‘fluid’ because no person may have the same characteristics or ideology forever. it always keeps on changing or developing into something new. it may also happen because of the change in living conditions and surroundings where the individuals struggle to exist. the concept of fluid identity emerges “[…] where one’s identity is liable to change and is influenced by external factors” (hongladarom, 2019, p. 2). robinson (2007) further connects it with the individuals’ “[…] identifications with multiple and often conflicting communities” (p. 8). furthermore, these conflicts develop from the discernments attained by the individuals from the juncture of different cultures and ethnicities. further postmodernists present identity with multiple perspectives that do not contain well defined boundaries. aaron balick (2014) relates that postmodern discourse “argues strongly against unitary expressions of self in favour of identities that are multiple, fluid, and decentered” (p. 145). here “decentered” might not be taken in the light of structuralism where subject is eliminated from the center. rather, it shows that the subject does not contain a single or central identity that may emphasize as a unitary and characteristic marker. in fact the character possesses multiple identities that depend upon the varied circumstances and different ways of thinking. grad and rojo (2008) present this fluidity with the “[…] complexity and context sensitivity of identities” because every character “even within one setting may appeal to a range of identities” (p. 5). in addition, they also argue that “fluidity does not call continuity into question” (p. 10). fluid identity of the muslim migrants in america 30 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 fluidity actually provides the ways of existence those help in adapting the lining of individuals within their cultures and societies. with the emerging concepts of globalization, the population of muslims is increasing rapidly in europe and america. in the last two decades, the existence of muslim minority has become much viewable in usa. the muslims and their religion are being refocused around the world after the tragedy of 9/11. the questions about their religion and identity are being raised, who are they? how is the religion islam? why are the muslims in particular extremists and fundamentalists? there is always a clash between the islamic culture and all other cultures of the world. it is because this religion of islam has its own different and separate identity. it cannot be amalgamated in any other culture or religion. if one tries to mix it up, it doesn’t work. such efforts may only result in bring the loss or crisis in identity. so, the muslims suffer from teething problems wherever they are living in a multicultural or multiethnic society. it becomes difficult to survive with their muslim identities and even it is harder for them to mix or chose the culture of others. theoretical framework eric ericson (1968) argues that religious identity provides strength to the ego identity. in other words, religious identity is an essential part of the ego identity. religious identity emphasizes the process of forming and developing ego or the personality of a person. the implementation of religious affairs in the life of a person plays a vital in developing the identity. it is because religion is the source of providing the most of human beliefs, ideas and ideologies those are further responsible for developing the human personality. according to erickson, the crisis in identity may occur due the conflicts and clashes striking with the set ideology of a person. the most unsafe age for this loss is the adolescence “a critical period of identity formation, in which individuals overcomes uncertainty, become more self-aware of their strengths and weaknesses” (buckingham, 2008, p. 2). according to kroger (2003), when the individuals reach at the age of adolescence, they have “very little sense of their identity; therefore, they are more prone to accept both positive and negative beliefs in their lives that leads to violent conflict in teenagers” (p. 207). moreover, james marcia (2013) also argues that adolescence consists neither of identity resolution nor of identity confusion in erickson’s proposal, but it is the stage where an individual explores and commits to an identity in the various domains of life including politics, occupation, fluid identity of the muslim migrants in america 31 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 religion, intimate relationship, friendship, and gender roles and beliefs regarding sexuality. further it elaborates how a committed individual may come out of the traumatic situation and may change his/her life. it also explains the role of parents and influential persons’ decisions, behaviors and actions in constructing or deteriorating the identity of an adolescent because the children are not mature enough to make their future decisions at this stage. justification of the research multicultural and multiethnic groups are found in the society of america. people all around the world migrate to usa for securing the bright future on different grounds. some people move for their financial wellbeing, some for education, and some with the purpose of living a life full of liberty and comforts. the american muslim community is considered devoted towards their core religious beliefs and practices and it is a vital part of their identities. in this regard the study explores the issues related to the muslim immigrants’ identity and how they become a separatist on the basis of their religion and culture in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural american society. moreover, how the parents are responsible either to form or deteriorate their children identity in a pluralistic society. so, the research would prove very significant to sort out all the reasons and issues which the muslim migrants face while living in america. literature review ali (2015) presents that the most influential among all the characters is hayat’s mentor mina. she wants to give him the identity of a hafiz and later as a dervish. his corporal love for mina also contributes for the downfall of his identity. his relationship with mina becomes worldlier than the spiritual one. further bryson (2012) is the director of islam and civil society project at the wither spoon institute in princeton and mentions that the novel ‘american dervish’ (2012) deals with the issues being faced by the immigrants and their struggle for survival in a multicultural society. the muslims’ culture is different from all other religions therefore their identities always conflict with the others as well. it is the culture of muslims to recite the verses in arabic at the wedding ceremony. when hayat after memorizing some part of the quran in english recites some verses in the ceremony. imam being present in the ceremony asks him to stop recitation in english because it is not being recited in arabic language that is directly connected with the religious identity of the muslims. fluid identity of the muslim migrants in america 32 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 crosby (2012) observes in her phd dissertation that "people experience identity through communication, meaning that identity is often framed in terms of enactments or how they express their identity to those around them” (p. 16). moreover, there are different factors such as religion, culture, country, and community having strong impact upon the identity of anyone. heike berner also notices that "culture, history, and ethnicity are three central and closely intertwined aspects which influence identity formation” (berner, 2003, p. 11). hooti (2011) believes in the importance of identity by saying that “the loss of identity and the quest for it has been the pervasive theme in contemporary american literature” (p. 69). the examples of african american writers are relevant in this regard. further the writers presenting multicultural american society also pay heed towards this issue. in addition, bassiri (2010) believes that the american muslims stand across the boundaries between whiteness and blackness conflicts through their dominant culture. in fact, this standing is between the civilization and primitivism in spite facing many challenges and complications such as muslim american, “[…] speak out of a poly-religious, poly-ethnic world in a poly-semous tongue, one which we have yet to comprehend” (p. 381). a pakistani author mohsin hamid has presented the fluid identity of the protagonist changez in his novel the reluctant fundamentalist (2007). changez has the greater similarities with hayat shah and is also stuck in a paradoxical situation in the multicultural society of america like him. like hayat, he is also in flux and is desired to fix his fluid identity as an american. they both are pakistani migrants and muslims by sect and religion. they both lose their identity because of the pressure they could not absorb in a multicultural american society. they both are young and forget their past identities of being a pakistani muslim and are merged in the american society. jamal (2006) believes that the novel ‘american dervish’ is the depiction of pluralism within islam, and it also brings forth a serious challenge to “monolithic essentialism” that does not provide any guarantee against “silencing the multivocality of the muslim articulation” (p. 1). in fact, she is of the view that hayat depicts a difference between the ways of islam and orders and further also he legalizes the hierarchies between them. so this sort of considerations and ideas bring conflicts in his personality and further crisis in identity. fluid identity of the muslim migrants in america 33 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 discussion according to chaal (2018) ayad akhtar stands against the slogan, “being a muslim bought a pain” and tackles the issues faced by the muslim migrants living in america. in fact, he as an author portrays the lives of american muslims “literarily, focusing on the muslims’ identity in the west, revealing the western perspective that associates islam with hostility and aggression” (p. 14) through his literary works. further in an interview with gabriel green (2013), akhtar particularly challenges the western discourse after 9/11 that presents the muslims as “other, which allows the west to justify its political practices and its sense of moral superiority” (baykara, 2021, p. 142). the prologue of the novel sets the mood of the author and of the upcoming events. hayat shah, the protagonist is much infatuated by the beauty and courtesy of his classmate rachel, a jewish girl. they both attend a lecture by professor edelstein on the subject title with "survey of islamic history in fifteen minutes" conducted by his german fellow regarding the holy book of muslim. the survey describes that “the bedrock muslim belief in the quran as the direct, unchanged, eternal word of god was a fiction” (akhtar, 2012, 62). only two muslim students ahmed and sahar are in the lecture with hayat. they cannot absorb it and quit the class in an anguish mood, but hayat remains sitting with rachel. he shows no concern for what is being said about his religion and quran because he has lost his muslim identity and is having no concern with it. the prologue of the novel describes the relationship of hayat with rachel a jewish girl and this relation exists and gets stronger till the epilogue. simply story between prologue and epilogue is a narration about his mentor mina, hayat is a narrator and rachel is a listener. rachel asks hayat to recount the story and he is stunned at this request: “i didn’t move. the fact was, i didn’t want to leave. i wanted to stay. i wanted to tell her” (akhtar, 2012, 132). if rachel does not ask hayat to recount the story of mina; there would have been no american dervish at all. american dervish (2012) in particular deals with the fluid identity of hayat shah, an american belonging to a pakistani migrant family. he is living with his father naveed shah and his mother muneer in milwaukee. naveed shah belongs to the first generation migrant and is having no concern with his religion. he always tries to adjust himself according to a new culture and wants to live the life of ease. he loves to adjust his identity according to the new social fluid identity of the muslim migrants in america 34 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 conditions and requirements. the mother muneer also shows no concerns with islam and even is more attracted towards the jewish philosophy. mina ali, another migratory from pakistan after being divorced by her husband, is the tutor of holy quran and also teaches the basics of islam to hayat. hayat shah being only a teenager is always influenced by the different philosophies being followed by the other characters around him. ali (2015) argues that “identity is not fixed and singular. it is fluid, multiple, relational and in process” (p. 80). similarly his identity also becomes fluid and keeps on changing because he has been struck in the complex issues like of religion, mystic philosophy and cultural conflicts. importantly there is no one to hold his hand strongly and guide him. so he fights as an individual and wants to discover himself “not only as a man, but as an american” (akhtar, 2012, p. 295). his fault is that he wants to survive in the multi-cultural society of america with his muslim identity that makes him a separatist. zaffar (2020) also argues, “this struggle for assimilation in america generates an internalized crisis of identity which creates a fracture in their hybrid existence” (p. 1). on the issue of religion, there exists a great conflict in the asian and multi-ethnic american societies. in asia, religion is an emotional element in the lives of people whereas it only a private affair of an individual in america. second hayat has not learnt religion islam by any religious scholar, only a female tutor is the source of his learning. further the real practices of his religion islam are contrary to the traditions and norms of a multicultural society where he is living. so, this conflict in the religious and social practices is the real cause of his identity crisis. as huang (2010) argues that "religion can play an important role in defining a person’s identity” (p. 31). further moody (2019) also illustrates that “the connection between religion, ethics, and the surrounding social world is one that seems unavoidable” (p. 25). hayat shah also could not learn the religion at home because of his parents’ lack of interest in religion though they both are the muslims by faith. his father is the character with a secularmind set and never likes to be limited within the norms of a religion. “hayat’s father, naveed, is a secular neurologist who thinks religion is for fools” (akhtar, 2012, 320). his mother not only ignores the religious beliefs and practices but even she is more inclined towards the jewish people. the family environment of hayat shah may be understood that they are a muslims family living fluid identity of the muslim migrants in america 35 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 in america. at one side, they are living as muslim and have maintained their muslim identity apparently. however, in contrast they are awestruck by the charm of multicultural and social conditions “his father and mother teach him to respect jewish. yet, he finds some contradictions in reality” (handayani, 2020, p. 54). hayat wants to attain the identity of a hafiz-e-quran because he considers his father a sinner and wants to save him from the wrath of god and torture in the hellfire. his mentor mina tells him "every hafiz earned not only his own place in paradise, but his parents’ as well. no matter how many drinks, no matter how many mistresses, father would be saved” (akhtar, 2012, p. 153). later this desire persuades him of coming closer to the god and becoming a sufi. though he does not know anything about it and begins to learn the philosophy of sufism again by his mentor mina. he requests allah almighty not to leave his father to be burnt and tortured in the hell-fire as the result of his disbeliefs and sinful life. "i saw father waving at me through the endless flames. i begged god to forgive him, to turn him away from his sins. i heard father’s cries of pain as the fires burned him” (akhtar, 2012, p. 320). mina persuades him for becoming a sufi or dervish because symbolically she is a sufi in her own self who bears all the sufferings in life with patience. she never seems complaining about the ill-deeds committed against her by her husband. she is the best choice to teach hayat shah for how to become a dervish. this struggle brings a conflict in the life of a young boy either he is to become only a dervish or an american dervish. she wants to teach him that life, death, pleasure, grief, palaces or prisons are all equal in the eyes of a dervish because he meditates nothing but the pathway to reach closer to god; “it’s about finding god now. in the everyday. here. with you. that’s what the sufis teach” (akhtar, 2012, p. 342). mina narrates him the story of a dervish who abandons the worldly pleasures for the sake of allah. he may attain the rank of a higher muslim with this identity because the dervish struggles to attain redemption and insight through humility rather than pride in being chosen by allah. moreover hayat shah compares the status of the chosen class of america with the typical exclusive class of minority working there and he finds a great gulf between the two. he also mistaken the word ‘dervish’ as ‘gurvish’ that reminds him of the school caretaker mr. gurvitz, sprawling a trash-cane on the wheels and representing the american waged folks. he thinks to fluid identity of the muslim migrants in america 36 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 deal with the gap separating him and mr. gurvitz, without questioning the hierarchy of this class. it represents two different classes and identities. secondly hayat considers him inferior to mr. gurvitz because of his american identity and working status and also does not find any reason of being superior to him on the basis of color, origin, and creed. so this sort of conflict in ideas contributes in developing the complexes and disorder in the personality of hayat shah. american dervish (2012) is in fact a mirror reflecting the community of the emigrants settled in america. though mina is the tutor of quran but she also wants to integrate herself as per demands of the american society. she changes her lifestyle to sustain the american identity which is to connect the opposite poles "her fashionable hairstyle made her a modern woman, an american woman” (akhtar, 2012, p. 69). the relation of hayat with his tutor of quran now does not remain only a spiritual but corporal also, “[…] adolescents must undergo a ‘crisis’ in which they address key questions about their values and ideals, their future occupation or career, and their sexual identity” (buckingham, 2008, p. 2). further he becomes more interested in her body when once he looks her nude body during taking a shower-bath. later mina shows love for the young boy and advises him by taking in her arms, “she took me into her arms, and all at once i felt it again: that exquisite shudder running along my limbs, up my back” (akhtar, 2012, p. 42). this sort of loving piece of advice is a mix up of both physical and religious motives. mina wants to look him a hafiz or a dervish but he is now much attracted towards her physical appearance. so, the relationship between the tutor and a hafiz pushes him towards a new identity of a young lover. moreover, the influence of a mother and the relationship of hayat with a jewish girl rachel also influence his muslim identity. he is dejected regarding his identity and finds it nowhere. he comes in the arms of a jew rachel to find solace. she is a game changer and tries to get him merged in the mixed american culture. second the bent of his mother towards jewish also influences his personality. her mother is desired to look hayat like the jews, “that’s why i’m bringing you up so differently […] the fact that nathan’s jewish is good thing. they understand how to respect women” (akhtar, 2012, p. 117). hayat takes it solemnly to grow the affectionate relations with rachel and feels free while living within her concerns. his brought up under the influence of jewish thought and his dealings with rachel drag him towards a new american fluid identity of the muslim migrants in america 37 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 identity. he realizes himself having a romantic soul and spirit; “it was in rachel’s arms – and it was with her love – that i finally discovered myself not only as a man, but as an american” (akhtar, 2012, p. 345). now he has lost all his past real identity attached with islam and feels comforts in the company of a jewish girl as an american. finally, the relationship of hayat with islam becomes ordinary, and he feels nothing different when he goes for prayers. no longer he means islam anything and says, “my heart yearned to pray. i put my hands out before me in the muslim style and tried to conjure the heartfelt fire i knew so well from back when mina lived with us. but my words rang hollow. like sounds spoken to the deaf, or worse, to no one at all” (akhtar, 2012, p. 333). things become worse day by day and before the epilogue, hayat wanted to talk to mina and to announce his loss of muslim identity or giving up of his religion practically: “i wanted to tell her [mina] that i had been giving up on islam little by little for years and that now there was barely anything left” (akhtar, 2012, p. 325). his desires to attain the identity of a hafiz and his relationship with the holy quran have also been lost. hayat simply says that he has just superficially touched the holy quran for the last ten years or so and has denied all the respect once he had for the religion.“i didn’t kiss the cover as i usually did. i just put the quran down on top of the other books […] it was the last quran i would touch for almost ten years” (akhtar, 2012, p. 157). based on several reasons, hayat shah could not become an american dervish. firstly, he abandons all the islamic values and teachings. he begins to trace out his identity with the jews, particularly rachel after negating the islamic values. his relationship with islam and its followers becomes weaker right after the death of his mentor mina. secondly, hayat loses his identity of dervish because of the failure of his dream. now his dream is not with the prophet during his prayers. "mina had said it was a great blessing to see the prophet in a dream, but there didn’t seem to be any blessing in mine. instead of staying and praying with him, i’d left” (akhtar, 2012, p. 229). thirdly, the father-son relationship also keeps him away from becoming the american dervish. he always considers his father a sinner moving towards the eternal hell. even he begins to keep an eye on the private affairs of his father. such torn relationships don’t provide him relief in the daily life. fluid identity of the muslim migrants in america 38 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 on the other hand, hayat shah also could not attain the identity of a hafiz due to some certain reasons. first, his tutor mina convinces him to learn quran in english with the view that all the deeds of a man are based upon his intentions, not in appearances. then souhef, the imam, develops a conflict and counters this point of view by telling hayat “you have to learn the holy book in our holy language for that. but don’t be discouraged. you have all the time in the world” (akhtar, 2012, p. 301). second, the relationship of hayat with his mentor mina converts from spiritual to corporal. this physical attachment further becomes stronger when hayat gets a chance to eye upon her naked body when she is taking bath. this naked image of her body becomes a turning point for his identity. “the image i thought i’d taught myself to forget would return, unbidden—her breasts; [. . .] i made fresh attempts to suppress the mental picture. to no avail. the more i resisted, the more persistent it proved” (akhtar, 2012, p. 161).third, hayat is somehow a mother fixated child. he is much closer to his mother than to his father. both his parents are much farther away from their islamic religion. it seems that his father has no belief in religion and mother is more inclined towards jews. in this way his mother’s bent towards the jewish people also affects his religious identity. the struggle of hayat shah in more than one identity like muslim identity (hafiz and dervish), national identity (american), lover (mina and rachel) and importantly his conflicts with parents indicate his identity crisis as well as hybridity described by homi. k. bhabha. this fluid identity brings people to rotate in the “in-between spaces of cultures called as third space by bhabha” (baykara, 2021, p. 141). conclusion the novel american dervish (2012) revolves around the protagonist, hayat shah. he is basically a teen age boy who lives with his pakistani migrated family in milwaukee’s rural area. the settings of the novel present the conditions of america in the era of 1980s. since the identity is not fixed or single in its nature but it is fluid, dynamic and multi-dimensional. everyone is appropriate and suitable for the 'fluidity' and 'multiplicity' of one’s own identity. the loss and fluidity of identity have been the prevalent themes in the novel. the author ayad akhtar successfully conveys a message through hayat shah that it is almost impossible to survive as an individual and containing individual belief and ideology in multicultural societies like of america. fluid identity of the muslim migrants in america 39 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 ayad akhtar has dexterously presented one of the well-wrought american novels. he becomes representative of the muslim migrants living in the western and american multicultural societies. he has vividly presented the problems they face there through hayat shah. hayat has not only lost his religious identity rather he has also started some resistance against his religion islam. once the resistance has been shown against the multicultural and multiethnic american society through the rigid behaviors of the muslim community as a whole, later the identity of hayat shah is shattered as an individual and he begins to resist the tenets of islam which he practices earlier. in this resistance, his journey towards becoming a muslim dervish ends with the identity of an american dervish. secondly hayat shah is young enough and influenced by different mature characters like his mentor, mina who wants to see his identity as hafiz and later as a dervish, his mother wants to grow him up like the jews, his father wants to see him an american. after being influenced by the american culture and religious behaviors of other characters he loses all his religious muslim identities like of a hafiz and a dervish and becomes closer to his only identity of an american. references akhtar, a. 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(2020). south asian muslim americans as model minorities: conflicted identities in mohsin hamid and ayad akhtar. university of waterloo, canada. http://hdl.handle.net/10012/16200 @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). http://www.acttheatre.org/downloads/ayadakhtarinterview.pdf https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12014 http://hdl.handle.net/10012/16200 middlemarch: dramatizing psychological dynamics of bodies and surroundings 279 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 middlemarch: dramatizing psychological dynamics of bodies and surroundings muhammad saqlain ph.d scholar zhengzhou university, zhengzhou, henan, china (saqlainkhan84@gmail.com) mst nilufer yasmin ph.d scholar zhengzhou university, zhengzhou, henan, china (nil.min2000@gmail.com) abstract middlemarch (1872), novel by george eliot projects weather, atmosphere, landscape, architecture, and other environmental elements. these environmental elements in the novel construct shape and participate in plot and significantly are functioning as dynamic participants in it affecting the lives of inhabitants of middlemarch in the background. eliot’s novel middlemarch under this study, exhibits a defining role between characters and their environments at the center instead of the periphery. as a literary text, middlemarch represents literal exchanges and interactions between bodies and their material surroundings. in eliot’s middlemarch, descriptions of weather, landscape, and atmospherics significantly dramatize psychological projection on the characters and their actions in the plot in contact with their surroundings. the denotative, literal function of ambient description works as a characterizing force in the text. this study examines the role of ambient description as author’s tool because it dramatizes psychological dynamics, as well as literal, material interactions between physical bodies and their surroundings. this study illuminates the notion how victorian novelists especially george eliot used the description of physical surroundings as a means of medium to establish debates of mutual effects on one another in context of organism-environment interaction. keywords: psychology, environment, medium, atmosphere, landscape and bodies introduction nineteenth-century novelists dealt description as a tool to dramatize the interactions between individuals and their environments. having influences by scientific works of jeanbaptiste lamarck’s philosophie zoologique (1809), auguste comte’s system of positive polity (1851), g.h. lewes’ the physiology of common life (1860), and herbert spencer’s social statics (1851), nineteenth century writers knew techniques to portray the human relationship with its physical environment as a relationship that complicate and interact with plot. middlemarch (1872) by george eliot is a mastery exception in victorian literary texts that shows mailto:saqlainkhan84@gmail.com mailto:nil.min2000@gmail.com middlemarch: dramatizing psychological dynamics of bodies and surroundings 280 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 that eliot employs environmental concept—“correspondence,” “medium,” “environment,” and “circumstance,” respectively—in her extra narration to dramatize psychological dynamics of bodies and surroundings which are affected and interrogated by these environmental concepts. eliot’s evocative description of weather and landscapes reveals the ways in which she understood the environment or “medium” as a powerful force that mediates both sexual and social affect comprising human psychology. in middlemarch, weather and atmospherics act as an ambient medium that facilitates sympathetic connection between characters, offering an alternative to the identification and abstraction-based theories of sympathy that dominate criticism of the victorian novel. theoretical framework of the study comte defines biological life in his book principles of psychology (1855) as “the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations” (comte, p. 374). lewes called it, the “medium”—as benign and supportive, rather than solely deterministic, and to reimagine it as something dynamically involved in all life and development, even on the scaled-down level of the individual life span. from comte’s “milieu” to lewes’s “medium,” from lyell’s “circumstances” to darwin’s “conditions of life” to spencer’s “environment,”, george eliot frequently referred to the circumambient social world of her characters as a “medium,”. robert louis stevenson would define romance as “the poetry of circumstance,” identifying the individual’s relationship with the physical world as the genre’s defining object of concern (stevenson, p. 250). as lewes asserts in a paraphrase of martineau’s translation of comte in 1852, that organism and medium are the two correlative ideas of life (stevenson, p. 666). eliot uses the term “medium” in middlemarch because she conjures an organic sense of physical surrounding. the term “environment” in contemporary usage tends to conjure either a sense of physical surroundings as deterministic pressure, or else as a vulnerable object requiring protection. victorian writers envision the physical environment as an object of desire, as a medium of perception and communication, or as a limiting constraint that enabled creativity. according to edmund yates registered in an 1880 article entitled “description in novels”, the conviction is gaining ground that man is not separated from his surroundings: he is part and parcel of the world he lives in a more intimate sense than the ancients appear to have imagined; middlemarch: dramatizing psychological dynamics of bodies and surroundings 281 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 and to separate him therefrom would be tantamount to depriving him of his best chance of being understood” (yates, p. 607). literature review landmark study the prose of things by cynthia wall (2007) locates in the eighteenthcentury novel the earliest efforts to capture what we now call “setting,” attributing the development of novelistic description to the rise of commodity culture and the emergence of new visual technologies. as wall notes, eighteenth century fiction describes ‘things’ only whereas its nineteenth-century counterpart presents us with settings and visualized spaces (wall, p. 1). in the victorian novel, we see something closer to what might be called “atmosphere”—not just individual objects but a sense that the physical spaces between bodies and objects is full rather than empty, suffused with detail and substance rather than an airless vacuum. for alison byerly (2013), the nineteenth-century novel seems to spawn an almost physical sense of presence within the fictional world, a sense of presence for victorian writers’ ability to create “a multisensory environment, that extends the participant’s own sensory participation so as to minimize the sense of boundary between self and environment” (byerly, p. 13). advent of industrial revolution and urbanization led british writers to project the physical world for the first time as something alien and alienable from human life and society, even as it was influenced and shaped by human activities and industry more visibly than ever before. as jonathan bate (1996) asserts that the alienation of city-dwelling as a social context provoked writers to use term ‘environment’ in a social context as an increasing awareness of industry’s tendency to alter the quality of our surroundings, even to influence the air we breathe. the word ‘environment’ emerged as a sign of that difference (bate, p. 431). hatice yurttaş (2017) in her essay “a desire in george eliot’s middlemarch” asserts that the female protagonists, in opposition with their environment, have to compromise with their dwellings because their desires can never be fulfilled within the exhibited conditions. while marriage and love can be depicted as pessimistic as that of rosamond and lydgate’s in middlemarch, there is also the implication that certain characters of a certain bent are more deserving of marital bliss as much as it can be gained in society as such (yurttas, p. 131). middlemarch: dramatizing psychological dynamics of bodies and surroundings 282 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 george eliot’s art and middlemarch eliot’s description as an art annexes and fuses seamlessly to her fiction’s narrative and psychological pull that to call the content of her descriptions “natural” in any ecological sense seems willfully perverse. her descriptive passages focusing on plants, trees, or landscape are ostentatiously filtered through individual or cultural consciousness that it seems more accurate to read them as representations of consciousness for which the content of the representation is relatively arbitrary. the clash of the physical worlds with their characters in eliot works dramatize the relationship between physical life and the material fabrics and substances that support and interact with it that take a psychological turn. george eliot expressed a similar conviction in an 1868 letter, asserting as the habit of her imagination to strive after as full a vision of the medium in which a character moves as of the character itself. to the advent of a conception of environmental phenomena as both in dynamic flux and intimately tied to the life of the individual, eliot in her fictional works responded with a newfound sense that the described backgrounds of the novel—phenomena like landscape, weather, and atmosphere—were no less vital to the unfolding of narrative than character or psychology. eliot’s description of the environs of dorothea and lydgate are less a collection of discrete visual details than a multisensory evocation of an ambient surround that strains towards a condition of total immersion with that surround, a merging of the narrating self with the very “moistness” of a surrounding environment. this sense of the individual’s relationship with a described environment as a relationship of immediate, sensory immersion is palpable at the conclusion of middlemarch, when dorothea’s epiphany of the landscape outside her window leads her to press beyond the visual towards a similarly immersive intimacy with the ambient world where the largeness of the world is felt and the narrator tells about her as a part of that involuntary palpitating life, and could neither look out on it from her shelter as a mere spectator, nor hide her eyes in selfish complaining (eliot, p. 788). this immersive quality of a described world was considered as environmental immediacy of its own aesthetic category as immersive, dynamic, multi-sensory environments in which both reader and character are immersed. this multisensory immersiveness is eliot’s art that was generated by a descriptive apparatus that imagines the novel’s action occurring in a totalized physical surround. sense of psychological or middlemarch: dramatizing psychological dynamics of bodies and surroundings 283 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 symbolic over determination is an aspect of eliotic description that critics have frequently remarked upon, both positively and skeptically. eliot used frequently the idea of a “medium” in which individuals move and live. the fluid atmospheres of middlemarch act as an ambient medium that is more communicative and complicates the environmentally-constricted model of agency outlined in the narrator’s aphoristic discourse in the novel’s final chapter. instead, it moves towards a model of interpersonal sympathy that is predicated on an awareness of a shared medium or environment. eliot’s descriptive practice is significant, both in its emphasis on the idea of a biologicalsounding “life” as the goal of her representational aims, and especially in its insistence on the link between the static detail of description and the dynamic development of plot. analysis and discussion middlemarch and dynamics of bodies and surroundings eliot’s middlemarch as a study contains environmental description as a central role which shapes a fictional world as the creation of a described environment as the newfound emphasis in the mid-century sciences on the environment. influenced by the theories of organism-environment interaction propounded by comte and spencer, eliot’s art is conjoining emotion with description works against the determinism associated with these positivist accounts by imagining characters’ interactions with their environments in an affective, rather than a strictly causal, register. in middlemarch, eliot uses the descriptive representation of environment to reimagine the novel’s central emotional categories, imagining environments that act alternately as objects around which emotion constellates or as conduits through which it travels. in middlemarch, eliot imagines a model of sympathy in which the recognition of a shared environment or “medium” plays a central role in the individual’s ability to sympathize with another; an environment acts as a communicative medium for sympathetic connection. the most basic point of kinship between humans and other living things is, for eliot, their dependence on a supporting environment—“the planetary organism” upon which human habitations look like barnacles, and which makes us aligned with environmental elements like building, burrowing house appropriating and shell-secreting” beings; beings that live by managing the boundary middlemarch: dramatizing psychological dynamics of bodies and surroundings 284 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 between the body and what lies outside it. for her, man is regarded as parasitic in front of huge limbs of mother earth (eliot, pp. 241-42). eliot’s detailed descriptions of the natural landscapes and small towns of the southwest coasts of england translate social and cultural existence into biological terms, re-naturalizing human habitations as an outgrowth of landscape, and comically reducing human existence to the level of invertebrate life. for elaine freedgood (2006), middlemarch exhibits a surprising absence of objects that are “just there,” as details of descriptions of domestic interiors—that nestle in the descriptive prose only to usher the observance of a fictional world without a symbolic or metaphoric plane. the objects that do appear—dorothea’s “poor dress,” a pierglass, a set of emeralds—are so over-freighted with symbolic meaning that they strain away from literal description and towards interpretation (freedgood, p. 114). freedgood identifies eliot’s treatment of objects and detail as the inauguration of a wider trend in realist fiction after 1870 in which “the distribution and therefore the interpretation of novelistic things in literary fiction becomes... less and less metonymic and contingent, and more and more metaphoric and apparently necessary” (p. 116). environmental constraints and middlemarch middlemarch is replete with the word ‘medium’ and eliot frequently uses the word “medium” to convey an agonistic relationship between an aspiring or desiring protagonist and a constraining social environment. thus, in an early chapter, dorothea seems suffering with passionate desire of knowing and to think, which in the unfriendly mediums of tipton and freshitt resulted in crying and red eyelids (eliot, p. 36). coerced by bulstrode into voting for mr. tyke against his better judgment, lydgate likewise resents the medium of middlemarch as a strength for him which proves petty (p. 175). both of these instances designate an inhospitable milieu in which the self struggles to find traction for its desires and ambitions. such positive instances of middlemarch’s “media” appear most frequently in scenes where characters from the novel’s multiple plot-lines momentarily cross paths, forging intense yet fleeting connections with people from outside of their immediate social universes. the first convergence of dorothea and lydgate’s plot lines during the first onset of casaubon’s illness, the two characters, barely acquainted, share an important moment of middlemarch: dramatizing psychological dynamics of bodies and surroundings 285 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 wordless, mutual understanding. although the vaguely specified “medium” here is no less muddied and “embroiled” than in the earlier passages, it also harbors flickers of “life,” and enables the transmission of feeling between individuals who would otherwise find one another opaque. while dorothea and lydgate’s sympathetic connection is predicated in part on their “kindred natures,” the narrator places much greater emphasis here on their “consciousness” of “the same embroiled medium” in which they move. the similitude that enables their sympathy is less the similitude of their natures, or their ability to imaginatively identify with one other’s admittedly very different internal states, than their recognition of a shared medium that imposes different hardships on both of them but also links them together in a common world. as j. hillis miller (1975) notes in his classic essay on middlemarch’s dominant metaphors, the novel’s processes of figuration develop to describe the subjective life of the individual, the relations of two persons within the social ‘medium,’ and the nature of that medium operates (miller, p. 132). the novel’s dominant metaphors, he points out, imagine the world of the novel and everything it includes as temporally deployed material complex—‘a labyrinth’, or flowing water, or a fabric, all of which work to imply that “a society is in some way like a material field” characterized by a “strict homogeneity between the large-scale and the small-scale grain or texture of things” (p. 129). the wide-ranging similitude implied by a society that can be compared to continuous, homogeneous “material complex” is difficult to reconcile with the strenuous negotiation of difference that is at the heart of eliot’s representations of sympathy, a negotiation that eliot’s narrators so often insist is no easy thing. an interest in the ability of milieu to accommodate difference is visible in eliot’s persistent emphasis on the media that surround characters—weather, physical landscape or more abstracted or figurative atmospherics—in scenes where characters from middlemarch’s different plot-lines meet for the first time. the atmosphere-suffused scenes between lydgate and casaubon, and between dorothea and lydgate, discussed above are both scenes of first meeting between their respective characters, indicating a connection between heightened atmospherics and the mechanics of the multi-plot novel. this connection between fluid media and multiplottedness is further enhanced by the narrator’s striking description of the scene, in the opening pages of book iv, in which the lonely dorothea views featherstone’s funeral from afar, middlemarch: dramatizing psychological dynamics of bodies and surroundings 286 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 seeing for the first time the motley group of middlemarchers with whom her story is to become entangled like a morning of may of burial of peter featherstone when a chill wind was blowing and locality of middlemarch where month of may was not frequently warm and sunny and the green mounds of lowick churchyard where the visible things were remarkably different, for there was a little crowd waiting to see the funeral (eliot, p. 303). the shifting sky and landscape here emphasize the material linking together of variety, providing a topography of dynamic, boundary-crossing flows. the limits of individual property are rendered permeable by the wind blowing, a motion that suggests both the erasure of individual boundaries, as well as a complex weaving together of social and biological life, as the garden and the churchyard bleed into one another. the airy medium of may air is a living, shifting atmosphere that links discrete locales and individuals, resisting confinement to any local or individual perspective. the vantage point actually belongs to dorothea, who views the scene from an upper window of lowick. the scene marks an important moment in dorothea’s developing sense of her relation to an outside world in that it is her first moment of visual contact with the world of middlemarch and its plots. the scene does remain with her psychologically, though, as the site of a dawning awareness that she exists in a multi-plot novel. the narrator strangely characterizes the effects of the scene on dorothea’s dawning awareness of her proximity to and potential involvement in other people’s lives by comparing it to the effect of vistas of landscape on perception and emotion. for her these scenes which make vital changes in our neighbors’ lot are but the background of our own. they are turned as associated for us with the epochs of our own history, and create a part of that unity which lies in our consciousness (p. 306). eliot’s superimposition of natural landscape onto an image of social relations collapses culture into nature, figuring the lives that unfold around our own as a natural environment or ecosystem. it also strangely substitutes the image of a pastoral landscape devoid of human figures working as an “aspect of the fields and trees” for the more specifically-described vista of the cemetery, the overarching sky, and the human figures that populate it. this elision of the distinction between natural and social environments works to suggest that responsiveness to material surroundings, including even such seemingly neutral phenomena as weather, constitutes a first step, a kind of ground tone, to the establishment of sympathy with other minds. middlemarch: dramatizing psychological dynamics of bodies and surroundings 287 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 narrative techniques and projection of environment as medium the unusual proleptic narration takes seemingly fleeting moments of interpersonal perception and elevates them above the temporal flow of plot, marking them as epochal events possessing a surplus of symbolic or affective significance that far exceeds their minimal function as narrative causes or effects. that these affectively-charged moments always involve a turn, not only towards another person or people, but also towards a physical environment, whether abstract in form of an “embroiled medium” or concrete as the “particular aspect of the fields and trees” to which the narrator compares the funeral scene. this indicates the extent to which responsiveness to environmental conditions figures in eliot’s understanding of the sympathetic connection that elevates momentary experience above the transient flow of everyday life. middlemarch’s descriptive techniques suggest a relationship to physical surroundings that do not correlate to ties of individual ownership or property, and which, moreover, is not in a dual relationship between a single individual and a landscape, but rather a relationship with multiple lines of connection, involving other individuals as well. kevin morrison (2011) has argued that middlemarch’s landscape description evokes a “dynamic of exchange between mind and landscape” that serves to create affective ties of affiliation for individuals with no indigenous, physical connection to a local community (morrison, p. 319). in this sense, eliot’s evocation of a manifold bond between self, landscape, and other selves is structurally similar to the modern environmental sensibility that, in harriet ritvo’s argument, became visible in victorian britain in which a collective indistinct new sense of possession arose that was distinguished by a sense that citizens of any nation should have some say in the constitution of prominent landscapes even if they held no formal title to the property in question (ritvo, p. 4). eliot’s use of environmental and atmospheric description to generate a sense of multiple relatedness is nowhere more evident than in her deployment of such description to coordinate middlemarch’s multiple plots. eliot’s narration of the scenes in which the novel shifts from one plot to another—particularly in the opening scenes of each book—frequently relies on invocations of the three-dimensionality of novelistic space through descriptions of weather and environmental conditions. the opening sentence of book xi enacts a careful spatial and temporal coordination of dorothea’s and raffles’s plots by situating them within the shared middlemarch: dramatizing psychological dynamics of bodies and surroundings 288 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 medium of weather. projecting weather in form of ‘delightful morning’ and dorothea’s abode at lowick manor is referring back to an environmental irony the narrator notes in the previous chapter, in which the undesirable presence of raffles is discordantly welcomed by the exuberant beauty of stone court’s environs. although eliot introduces the environmental conditions of stone court as a simple irony based on an inverted pathetic fallacy, her reference to it at the opening of book six takes on a more expansive significance. writing about weather in romantic poetry, jonathan bate (1996) claims that poetic weather works as both a mnemonic and an ecologic mean that works as prime means of linking spatiality and temporality (bate, p. 444). this is no less true of novelistic weather, which in eliot’s hands works not only as a metaphoric means of reflecting characters’ moods and feelings, but also as denotative evidence of multiple characters’ spatial and temporal cohabitation of a specific place and time. in this passage, weather helps to coordinate dorothea’s and bulstrode’s plots temporally, as well as to create a spatialized sense of a common universe, a common air, in which the novel’s multiple plots progress and converge. whereas in earlier scenes of atmospheric connection, the differences mediated by an environment are often chiefly ethical (the gap between self and other, writ large), in this moment of plot-transition eliot’s narrator develops the capacities of atmospheric connection to bridge the grittier, more material particularities of sociological difference as well, subtly flagging raffles’s lower-class status by implying that he is decidedly not a “guest worthy of the finest incense.” by choosing the language of diffusion and odors, the narrator knowingly erodes such distinctions, underlining the extent to which atmospheric scents, whether of hay or of incense, is spatially uncontainable and pervasive. symbolically reserved for sacred purposes though incense may be, its diffusive physical properties defy efforts to confine it to sacred spaces or recipients. if eliot’s atmospherics in the single-plot the mill on the floss tend often to envelop and isolate characters such as maggie and stephen in clouds of desire, middlemarch’s multiplottedness means that atmospheres more frequently push “impartially” against such isolation, linking characters who don’t necessarily wish to be linked and providing a tissue of connection that coordinates and contains multiple plots. the connection between environmental description and the linking of characters belonging to different social classes is nowhere more evident than in the scene where mr. brooke middlemarch: dramatizing psychological dynamics of bodies and surroundings 289 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 confronts his tenant dagley, a scene that contains both the narrator’s most self-conscious reflections on her descriptive practices, as well as one of the novel’s most painfully awkward scenes of cross-class contact. as in the funeral scene discussed above, the narrator turns to the language of visual tableau as a way of invoking the fine ethical distinction between recognizing and failing to recognize as real the other lives that hover in the background of our own. but whereas for dorothea, the scene of her middlemarch neighbors under a windy sky remains embedded in her mind as an intimation of the entwinement of her own plot with these of other characters, in this scene, eliot’s narrator explicitly warns of the tendency of such tableaux to have the opposite effect, by reifying other characters into picturesque works of art and placing them on the other side of an ontological distinction drawn between art and life rather than breathers of a common air. the narrator makes this point by describing freeman’s end with a visual specificity that many of her other descriptions in middlemarch lack like the old house, dormer windows, choked chimneys, the blocked porch, mouldering garden, an aged goat, and all these objects under the quiet light of a high marbled clouds sky would have made a sort of picture which we have all paused over. (eliot, p. 394) cataloging a list of discrete details that together compose the image of freeman’s end, narrator creates the most detailed description of any building, home, or landscape in eliot’s entire novel. this passage as an obstruction suggests that visuals of the description signify moral failure. here, the sharp focus of the description privileges the visual over other senses, and reduces environmental cues that might otherwise form a medium of connection between viewer and object to static, represented surface. conclusion as the concluding part of the study, this contrast between descriptions of the featherstone funeral and freeman’s end suggests is a paradox in eliot art of writing whereby aesthetic focus—directly and intently looking at or considering a person or object as the subject of an artwork—is somehow less productive of ethical recognition than is the vague awareness of other people as shadowy presences inhabiting the background of one’s own, very real, world. if aesthetic focus is produced by detailed visual description, the auratic perception that draws no middlemarch: dramatizing psychological dynamics of bodies and surroundings 290 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 sharp ontological line between the real and the virtual is produced, in middlemarch, by the evocation of a dynamic atmosphere that, however lightly, presses in upon the senses a feeling of one’s own material continuity with the bodies of others, whether real or fictional. this sensation of multiplottedness, as said earlier, thrives on details that record the contact or interactions between a body and a shared environment. thus the antidote eliot’s narrator offers to the illusory, picturesque description of the cottage is a set of details that replace the descriptions “quiet light of a sky marbled with high clouds” with a chastening sense of meteorological conditions as an ambient force that must be continually contended with. dorothea, too, protests her uncle’s disregard of the reality of his tenants’ poverty by mobilizing the language of vague physical sensation against picturesque visual detail. in the novel’s final pages, eliot takes the biological idiom of the medium in which her characters live and extends it to her readers in such a manner as to further erode the boundaries between the novel’s intraand extradiegetic space. the narrator positions the reader in direct relation to dorothea using the atmospheric language of diffusion and immersion. yet eliot’s narrator compensates for this evaporated medium by employing a language of atmospheric surround that encompasses both dorothea and a newly introduced “we”. situating reader and narrator in a common world with dorothea, eliot envisions her readers as the preparers of a new medium in which dorothea and those like her will enact their struggles. two sentences later, this relationship is inverted, and dorothea is now the diffusive benefactor of “you and me.” averring that dorothea’s spirit that had still its fine issues, the narrator ends with a phrase that the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistorical acts (middlemarch, p. 785). if this passage begins with a pessimistic statement about the determination of all creatures (dorothea included) by external environments and “media,” it nevertheless restores a version of historical agency by subsequently positioning dorothea as an influential factor in other individuals’ environments. the narrator’s sleight of hand inverts figure and ground, organism and environment, so that the determined entity is now presented as a determining factor. spirit, fine issues, incalculable diffusion: the atmospheric evanescence of eliot’s language at the novel’s close progressively effaces the boundary between inside and middlemarch: dramatizing psychological dynamics of bodies and surroundings 291 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 outside, text and reader, fiction and reality. the sympathetic relay between dorothea and “us” is dependent on a diffusion or suspension of fictional boundaries. references bate, j. 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(2017) “desire in george eliot’s middlemarch.” languages, cultures, and gender. ege university press, pp. 129-137 @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 330 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: using task-based reading to develop writing skills of esl learners shazia aziz assistant professor of english, comsats university islamabad, lahore campus shazia.aziz@cuilahore.edu.pk orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9566-5053 amna naveed assistant professor of english, comsats university islamabad, lahore campus orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9886-1543 dr mudassar m ahmad assistant professor, english language department, (yel & pyi), royal commission yanbu, saudi arabia orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5735-3558 abstract the connection between reading and writing has been acknowledged since long and explored through comprehension -based learning activities but not investigated substantially through empirical research into task-based reading activities. this study was carried out to explore the link between task-based reading activities and improvement in esl writing. the study was prompted by the need to inculcate the maximum level of writing proficiency in a limited time available for instruction in a 4 month semester. we experimented introducing task-based critical reading to explore its impact on the esl writing proficiency of pakistani esl learners at undergraduate level with computer science as their major. analysing students’ pre-test and post-test scores using wilcoxon signed rank test and t test revealed a significant improvement in the overall writing proficiency, content, organization, sentence structure (ss), grammar, punctuation, and spelling (gps) of students. the findings have important pedagogical implications for improving the learners’ writing proficiency by integrating task-based reading activities in esl teaching. the article also suggests some of the tasks that teachers can associate with reading in classrooms. it recommends making authentic reading material part of the esl syllabus everywhere in the world in order to equip learners with better writing skills essential for success in all subjects, higher studies, and research. keywords: taskbased language learning; proficiency; motivation; schemata; fluency; process-oriented approach; second language writing development 1.introduction pakistan is a multilingual country where around 73 regional languages (rehman, 2019) are spoken and urdu is the national language of the people of pakistan. hence, urdu is taught throughout the country as a compulsory language during the first https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9566-5053 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9886-1543 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5735-3558 towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 331 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 twelve years of education. alongside, english is taught as a compulsory subject to students from primary to undergraduate level in pakistani institutions and the content gradually increases in relevance to students’ majors. moreover, it is also a medium of instruction and the core language for research in all major areas including engineering, environmental science, media and communication, psychology, sociology, and business studies, to name a few (excluding majors in other languages like urdu, punjabi, etc.) in higher education. therefore, the higher education commission of pakistan has made it compulsory for universities to teach 3 to 4 courses in english during every undergraduate program that prepare students for academic and professional writing related to their areas along with improving their proficiency in all the four skills of english. at comsats (commission on science and technology for sustainable development in the south) university, students doing different majors are taught 3 to 4 of these courses: english comprehension and composition, functional english, technical report writing skills, writing and presentation skills, communication skills, business communication, and communication skills workshop. however, many students enrolled with a low to average level of proficiency need to be given more input in the target language than permitted by the time allocated to a semester; the course contents; and the traditional, instruction-based teaching that is mainly teachercentred with teacher lecturing on how to write and what to write. most of the students come from institutions that employ either grammar translation method or lecture method for teaching till intermediate level. the benefits of task-based teaching and introducing reading activities have been found by many researchers in second language recently in experimental studies. yundayani and rafli (2018)contend that task-based instructional materials significantly improve students’ writing skills for academic purposes by helping them overcome their difficulty in creating, developing and organizing ideas into a paragraph. similarly, kafipour, mahmoudi, and khojasteh (2018) propound that task-based approach is closely linked with communicative language teaching (clt), and hence it is characteristic of collaborative learning, learner centeredness, real-life interaction, and negotiation of meaning. they posit that it improves learners’ writing skills in a regional towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 332 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 medium milieu. hosseinpour and biria (2014)found that students working on collaborative tasks outperformed those working individually in content, vocabulary, grammar, and organization while writing. shaheen, et. al (2019) proposed a pedagogical framework for intercultural classes having pakistani and afghan students in a pakistani university based on input-oriented approach in combination with contextualized task based language teaching (ctblt) for desired academic outputs in a diverse class. this study set out to experiment the assumption that extensive reading coupled with task-based activities can cover up this gap and give students an ample amount of input in the limited time available in order to enable them to use the target language proficiently. hence, this action research was carried out to investigate the impact of the implementation of task-based reading in an esl classroom on the academic writing of undergraduate students studying the module english comprehension and composition at comsats university islamabad, lahore campus. keeping these benefits in mind, this study was carried out throughout a semester to investigate its effects on the participating students’ writing skills. several task-based reading activities were introduced during the whole semester and the results of pre-test and post-test were analyzed using wilcoxon signed rank test and t test to see its impact on the students’ overall writing proficiency, content, organization, sentence structure (ss), grammar, punctuation and spelling (gps). hence, the research questions investigated were: q1. does the implementation of task-based reading improve students’ writing performance in esl? q2. if yes, which of the five elements viz. (1) content; (2) organization; (3) sentence structure;(4) diction; and (5) grammar, punctuation, spelling show a significant improvement? 2.literature review esl writing proficiency is a problem for many students in pakistan where english is taught and learnt as a second language. writing in a second or foreign language is the most difficult skill to learn, and in most situations, the most important one for language learners to acquire in academic contexts (negari, 2011). despite this, it has found little place in research and pedagogy so far, especially in the context of towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 333 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 pakistan. ezza (2010) ascribes writing problems to employing outdated pedagogical resources and approaches. esl teachers have been practising different methods such as gtm, direct method and most recently followed corrective feedback (to name a few) for teaching and improving students’ writing. we believe that all these methods often compromised on the quantity of input at the disposal of students. hence, a remarkable improvement was observed only in rare cases. research on the efficacy of different methods of foreign or second language teaching have reached different findings.negari (2011), for example, concludes in one of the studies that the instruction of concept mapping strategy has a positive effect on efl learners’ writing achievements. whereas, de carvalho and briglia (2013) declare the concept of literacy as a basic element of foreign language teaching. however, the findings of huang and bailey (2016) reveal that instruction and reading strategies are important factors in determining long-term literacy outcomes. although writing practice accompanied with written feedback is considered effective and sufficient for the improvement of students’ writing by many educators; nevertheless the extant research reveals different results in this regard.(chuming, ruiying, & xiaoxiang, 2000; ferris, 1999; ferris & roberts, 2001; rahimi, 2009). truscott (1996,1999) is of the view that error feedback or grammar correction may harm the language learning skills of the students. another research (nusrat, ashraf, khan, aziz, & jabeen, 2019), conducted in the pakistani context concludes that indirect feedback improves learners’ writing skills. although pakistani secondary schools also keep experimenting with these pedagogical concepts depending on their institutional preferences, however, at university level, many students (despite having learnt english formally for 12 years) still lack proficiency in writing skills which calls for empirical research in this area. 2.1. reading-writing connection during the last decade, however, many researchers explored the positive effects of repeated or fluent reading on foreign language learners' writing skills(gorsuch & taguchi, 2008, 2010; taguchi, gorsuch, & sasamoto, 2006). with these developments, many private schools in pakistan started introducing readers for improving students’ proficiency in english in every class. towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 334 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 lee (2005)asserts that free voluntary reading is the only significant predictor of improved foreign language writing performance. however, it is a common observation that only a few students are intrinsically motivated to read voluntarily unless they are majoring in the literature of that language. hung and young (2015)contend that the use of e-reader is a tool for reciprocal peer review facilitates the efl students' process-based academic writing. we believe that acquiring fluency in any language requires a sufficient amount of input. this gives the idea that writing can be developed through reading and esl teachers need to explore how they can introduce effective and purposeful reading activities in elt classes. chen, chen, and sun (2010) propound that reading comprehension exercises are critical for developing strong writing skills of efl learners. however, due to resource constraints, limited opportunities for english learners to collaboratively practice reading comprehension and lack of accurate evaluation methods, english instructors rarely assess students’ literacy effectively. young (1993) suggests that cognitively, students benefit more from reading authentic texts, having cultural information written in english, than from reading edited texts. introducing authentic material has been found to be engaging and interesting as well. su (2007)affirms that efl learners appreciate if the instructor provides a wide range of authentic materials and class activities, and introduces tasks that allow students to interact with texts and each other in a flawless integration of the four language skills. many researches are in favour of linking reading with guided writing activities. lightbown, halter, white, and horst (2002),for example, found that comprehensionbased learning left some particular gaps in the written language of students and concluded that there is need for pedagogical guidance for the development of writing skills. lee and schallert (2016) assert that an individual can learn to write by extensive reading as well as by extensive writing, as reading and writing both involve some of the same sub-processes. yet, for improving writing, the reading-writing connection seems more evident for those second-language learners whose language proficiency exceeds a certain linguistic threshold. though a component of all these is included in each class curriculum in pakistan, the time constraint does not allow teachers to provide the students ample input purposefully. towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 335 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 zhang (2017) maintains that both reading-writing integrated tasks and comprehensive corrective feedback improve overall language, content, and organization scores of efl learners; and reading-writing integration tasks had a significant positive effect on language accuracy, content and language alignment.as well. greene (1992) states that when students read to write, they do it with a sense of authorship, knowing that they will be expected to produce texts of their own, they use the source text as a heuristic for structuring and developing their own ideas. he is of the view that if students are to read in the role of writers, teachers need to give them opportunities to write, and to enter conversations. li (2016)contends that in a reading-writing integrated situation, summarization tasks, efl writing instruction and assessment for improvement in academic writing performance help develop the writing of learners. tsou (2011) discovered significant improvements in most aspects of foreign language learners’ writing proficiency, except for sentence structure after introducing readers theater (rt) for a whole semester. rt gives students a purpose to interact in class, to work with others, and to read and write for an audience. these are valuable insights that informed this research to link purposeful tasks with reading in order to improve learners’ writing skills. reading and writing are both interlinked. they are structured arts and writing skill is not naturally acquired (ellis, 2003). interacting with each other, they create a text world, using the same cognitive structures (greene, 1992). reading plays a fundamental role in the development of the writing identity of the writer as zigo, derrico, and paley (2009) assert. one becomes a writer if one reads like a writer (smith, 1983). in l2 context, it is a common observation, too, that reading in the target language also equips the learners with the idiom of the target language by exposing them directly to input, thus helping them to produce fluent and accurate writing.silva (2001) believes in bringing reading systematically into writing classrooms, considering reading and writing both as active construction of meaning reciprocally. the text can be read with varying degrees of attention since comprehension of each section is not necessary. the significance of the main ideas and details becomes clearer as the student determines which ones further his or her purposes. this helps build schemata which, in turn, helps them is writing texts on similar topics. towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 336 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 despite these facts, writing skill has traditionally been downgraded to homework in l2 teaching due to time constraint, thus limiting the possibility of teacher guidance. in pakistan, a similar practice has been in vogue till recently. this was because, as escribano (1999) suggests, language was not considered a two-way tool with which a writer and a reader communicate and the content usually comprised of selected written texts followed by some explanation of particular vocabulary items, different grammar and vocabulary related exercises and comprehension questions, focusing on accuracy rather than fluency. the students required to create error-free text without giving any preference to the meaning of the finished product faced numerous hurdles as they were basically “writing to learn and not learning to write” (tribble, 1996)in this traditional product-oriented approach. 2.2. process-centred approach and task-based teaching process approaches have been accepted in esl/efl composition because of their two main elements: awareness and intervention (susser, 1994). language learning is a developmental process that promotes communication rather than acquisition of a product by practising grammar items (jeon & kaya, 2006) as in the presentation, practice, production (ppp) approach propounded by communicative methodology of language teaching. thus, effective language learning can be ensured by exposing learners to meaningful task-based activities with a focus on process rather than product (acar, 2006). task-based language teaching features a need-based content selection; introducing authentic texts with opportunities for learners to focus on language and the learning process; focus on communication in the target language; and learners’ experiences taken as important contributions to classroom learning and connecting classroom learning with performance outside the classroom (nunan, 2006). as nunan (2004) defines it, a task is a piece of classroom work involving learners to comprehend, manipulate, interact or produce in the target language with their attention on utilizing their grammatical knowledge to express meaning, focusing more on expressing meaning rather than manipulating form. ellis (2003) defines a task as a work plan requiring learners to pragmatically process language to achieve an outcome assessable in terms of real-life usage. it can employ various cognitive processes and skills. towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 337 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 willis and willis (2001) propound that contrary to grammatical exercises, tasks give learners freedom to use a variety of language structures to achieve outcomes without specifying forms in advance. as heffernan (2006) has it, writing in english requires expository style which includes an introduction having a thesis statement, followed by paragraphs having topic sentences, and examples that support the thesis, and a logical conclusion, students in the present study were given tasks to ensure that they notice these patterns in the structures of the essays and texts they read. escribano (1999) claims that text analysis and comparison of text characteristics help to build the schemata for writing practice. students need to be familiar with different discourse functions through extensive reading in order to be able to produce clear pieces of writing because clarity and comprehension are facilitated when writers take care of the readers’ expectations regarding the structure, content, development, organization and graphical appearance of texts. thus, a synthesis of writing and reading can be a model for teaching writing proficiency aiming at fluency, along with accuracy just as escribano (1999) proposes combining the objectives for teaching reading e.g., identifying the type of writing and its structure, locating main ideas, facts and logical connectors, deducing meaning and implied information and summarizing points and objectives of teaching writing e.g., writing clear paragraphs with a knowledge of topic sentence, using connectors and discourse markers, and keeping textual coherence in english courses. although the connection between reading and writing has been acknowledged by many researchers, there is dearth of research on practical application of this relationship. the present study is an attempt to bridge the gap between the theoretical proposition of this link and empirical classroom research. we assume that when tasks are associated with the reading material introduced in class, they give a purpose to learners and also help learners to focus on the details required in order to be better l2 writers. 3. methodology 3.1. rationale this quantitative, action research was prompted by the participating students’ need to be better academic writers in the course of a semester i.e., 4 months. we felt towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 338 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 that the undergraduate esl learners from pakistan, with computer science as their major, should be trained for writing better in the target language through a lot of practice in authentic reading texts from local as well as international sources i.e., english texts produced by non-native and native users of english. tasks were associated with these authentic texts in order to provide the students with external motivation of having a purpose to read the texts with a focus. it also gave opportunity for teacher guidance and helped learners notice the details in texts that they needed to in order to utilize them while writing. 3.2. research design this intervention based, qualitative research was carried out on two groups of undergraduate students studying in bachelor of computer science at comsats university islamabad, lahore campus. according to the university curriculum, all undergraduate students have to study a module in english titled english comprehension and composition as a compulsory requirement in semester 1. this module focuses on teaching all the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking. the purpose of the module is to prepare students for academic and professional communication in their programs of study and professionally after graduation. prior to this, at secondary school level, students are provided practice in essay writing, letter writing and paragraph writing. the study followed a preand posttest design in which students were required to write essays before and after the intervention. the first researcher conducted the pre and posttests and the instruction and intervention. the data were collected from two undergraduate classes on two stages of a semester. the total number of students in both the sections was 36. they had a background of 12 years of learning english as a second language at school and college level. their ages ranged from 18 to 20 with a mean of 19 years and standard deviation of 0.66. in the beginning of the semester, composition writing was introduced for the first time in class using tradition lecturing on what an essay is and how it needs to be written and as a pre-test they were made to write an essay. afterwards, the participants were exposed to a lot of reading material with taskbased activities during classes. at the end of the semester, they were required to write an essay on another topic as post-test. towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 339 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 3.3. setting there were 31 students who appeared for the post-test. hence, for comparison purposes, we analysed the pre-tests and post-tests of only those 31 students who appeared for both preand posttests. in this study, we used the tasks with a focus on meaning, considering grammar as a tool to express meaning as nunan’s definition (nunan, 2004, 2006)referred to in section 2.3 above suggests. moreover, since the participants of our study had had exposure to grammar for 12 years prior to studying this module, it was assumed that they have sufficient grammar knowledge to express meaning. therefore, the focus of tasks was to expose them to a variety of input material in the target language in order to equip them with a reasonable amount of fluency required to produce similar pieces of writing and also to examine whether this exposure also improves the form that they use in post-tests as an added advantage. for pre-test, both the classes were required to write a composition after traditional lecturing, discussion and brainstorming about what a composition consists of and how it should be written. once they had written the compositions, the compositions were evaluated. three neutral evaluators from the department of english were hired to evaluate the pre-tests and post-tests. to provide the evaluators a uniform standard for grading, the writing proficiency of these participants and to minimize subjectivity in assessment, we adapted the abington grading standards for writing to suit the purpose of the present study in its context. each item of the rubric that was to be marked in the test was explained to students before each test. the items were: (1) content, (2) organization, (3) sentence structure (ss), (4) diction, and (5) grammar, punctuation and spelling (gps). each item was allotted scores from 1-4 to rate performance, with the maximum score on each item being 4 and the total score being 20 for the composition if written flawlessly. to maintain impartiality in evaluation, participants’ names were removed from the scripts and they were numbered 1 to 31. the three evaluators were brainstormed in detail about the rubric. they assessed the participants’ work accordingly. the average of the scores given by three evaluators was used in order to minimize the unobserved interpersonal heterogeneity. the average scores were normalized so that they ranged between 0 (worst performance) and 4 (best performance). towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 340 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 after the pre-test, the learners were exposed to specific reading material similar to the ones they were supposed to produce in writing during the semester e.g., essays, paragraphs, letters, reports and paragraphs meant for comprehension; and a variety of tasks (given in table 1) were devised to be given with each reading material. the purpose was to ensure students’ in-depth understanding of the text through analyzing, brainstorming, skimming, scanning, previewing, critiquing, etc. while devising the tasks, the focus was to drive students’ attention to content and the final product i.e., overall fluency rather than the form or grammar utilized. the purpose was to test whether they also pay attention to form when reading to comprehend the meaning which would improve both form and meaning gradually till they appear for the post tests. frequent exposure to task-based reading material followed by purposeful tasks was incorporated into the existing english comprehension and composition module’s syllabus and was introduced three hours per week during the sixteen-week semester. 3.4. types of texts and tasks introduced in class the texts were taken fromarticles and editorial sections of the most widely read dailies including dawn and the news, css (central superior services) examination papers from the past and reading comprehension passages and sample candidates essays from ielts examination.the texts given to the students are considered to reflect a wide variability in terms of the quality of the language, effectiveness of communication, and level of academic rigor. as an illustration, there is a wide diversity in the quality of letters to the editors. sometimes seasoned writers and journalists voice their concerns through the letters to the editor. however, mostly the amateur writers express their ideas through these letters. the quality of the local newspapers is also not uniform. newspapers like dawn and the news are generally considered to be the best, followed by tribune and other english-language regional newspapers. in pakistan’s educational system, the css examination is considered to be the most challenging and rigorous. as the minimum threshold is 14 years of education, many candidates for this examination may only have average language skills. however, given the prestige that goes with passing this examination, and the privileges that employees in the css cadre enjoy, the best and the brightest candidates also are towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 341 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 attracted to this examination. consequently, most of the essays in the popular essay collections/books may be of general interest and are written in simple language. however, in some cases, the essays may be very technical and require advanced language skills to understand them. the sample css essays given to the students for practice may reflect an above average level of english language comprehension. the participants were also given a lot of other essays to read on their own and were also encouraged to find and read more on their own for building a huge schema for writing. tasks introduced after different reading texts ranged from the comprehension sub skills including skimming, scanning, previewing, and predicting to summarizing and overall understanding and evaluation of the texts read. these were in line with the recommendations of escribano, 1999; lightbown, halter, white, and horst (2002),ahmed & rajab 2015; chen, chen, and sun (2010).for teaching an in-depth understanding of the content and structure of the text introduced, they were asked to locate the topic sentence of given paragraphs. after making them read candidates’ sample essays from past papers of ielts, they were asked to locate the strengths and weaknesses of the essays, main errors, and also to grade them and tell what they would have added to the essay had they written it. a few essays were introduced as comprehension tasks and they were asked to find facts and opinions, infer something on the basis of their reading; comment on the author’s point of view and add their own; write the gist or main theme of the text; summary and rephrase some specific information. table 1 shows a list of the types of texts introduced and related tasks students were involved in. table 1: types of texts and tasks introduced in class types of authentic texts introduced types of tasks 1. articles from local newspaper skimming 2. letters to editor from local newspapers scanning 3. reading comprehension passages from ielts previewing i.e., guessing the contents of a piece of writing by just reading its title towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 342 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 4. samples of good and not so good essays written by candidates for ielts writing test (with bands ranging from 6 to 7) and followed by their critical analysis by learners locating topic sentence in a given paragraph 5. samples of essays for css competitive examination pakistan followed by analytical questions 1) giving a title to a piece of writing after reading it 2) in pairs, reading 5 different essays from ielts sample papers and answering the following: a) analyze the main elements/features of the essay b) discuss its strengths/weaknesses c) point out the errors or areas for improvement d) what would you have added had you written the essay? e) what grade would you give to the essay? 3) twenty different types of comprehension questions based on 5 different essays based on a) fact finding b) locating opinion c) inferences d) straightforward e) commenting on the author’s stance f) adding their own point of view on the same topic g) writing the main theme h) writing a summary i) rephrasing certain information at the end of the semester, a post-test was conducted which required the participants to write an essay on another topic. they were given three topics with a choice to write on any one of them. the essays written by the participants were evaluated again by the same evaluators. again, the average scores were calculated. the scores of the pre-test and post-tests were then analyzed using pairedsample wilcoxon signed rank test. wilcoxon signed rank test compares the mean ranks of the two scores in pre and post-test(gehan, 1965; woolson, 2007). since the variance of the scores of the students could also differ, we used t-test with satterthwaite towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 343 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 approximation to compare the scores of the students in the preand post-test period assuming unequal variance in the scores across both groups. the null hypothesis in case of two groups with unequal variances is that the two variances are different(de winter, 2013; zimmerman & zumbo, 1993). 4. results and discussion descriptive summary statistics of the five study variables namely (1) content, (2) organization, (3) sentence structure (ss), (4) diction, (5) grammar, punctuation and spellings (gps) as well as the test statistics comparing the pre-test and post-test performance of the students are given in table 2. table 2: summary statistics and wilcoxon signed rank test wilcoxon signed rank test t-test assuming unequal variance period obs mean sd min max z p df * t-value p_value content pre-test 31 2.914 0.63 1.67 4.00 2.589 0.096 58.672 2.8289 0.0064 post-test 31 3.333 0.54 2.33 4.00 organization pre-test 31 3 0.57 2.00 4.00 2.850 0.0044 56.7322 -3.2203 0.0021 post-test 31 3.42 0.45 2.67 4.00 ss pre-test 31 2.688 0.71 1.33 3.67 -4.292 0.0000 46.627 -5.2504 0.000 post-test 31 3.451 0.39 2.67 4.00 diction pre-test 31 2.623 0.63 1.33 3.67 -2.754 0.0059 57.0138 -3.0032 0.0040 post-test 31 3.054 0.50 2.00 4.00 gps pre-test 31 2.494 0.61 1.00 3.33 -4.180 0.0000 52.3129 -4.7855 0.000 post-test 31 3.129 0.41 2.33 3.67 * satterthwaite's degrees of freedom comparing the baseline scores in the pre-test period suggests that students performed best in organization with a mean score equal to 3 out of a maximum of four and performed worst on gps with the mean score equal to 2.49. a look at the minimum marks across all five indicators shows that the worst performance was in gps with the minimum score equal to 1. the maximum score is 4 (out of four) in content and organization. the wilcoxon signed rank test which compares the mean ranks of the two scores in pre and post-test shows that students made a statistically significant improvement in all five parameters (p < 0.01). since the minimum and maximum marks in both the periods are not similar, we additionally used t-test using satterthwaite's approximation which assumes unequal variance in two groups. the t-test also shows that students made a statistically significant improvement in all the parameters (p < 0.01). the difference in the average scores in the two periods across the five parameters is not uniform. the largest improvement in the mean scores in the preand towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 344 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 posttreatment is in ss (28.25%) followed by gps (25.70%). change in the score from pre-test to post-test in content, organization and diction was relatively smaller than ss and gps, and nearly similar otherwise (14.4%, 14.0% and 16.41% respectively). our findings are consistent with some previous studies like lee and schallert (2016), escribano (1999), li (2016) and zhang (2017) in proving that extensive reading especially when linked with purposeful tasks improves esl learners’ writing. a 28% increase in the ss score is a little surprising because the english and urdu sentence structures differ widely. urdu follows a subject-object-verb order and english follows a subject-verb-object order if we talk of the simplest and the most basic structure e.g., the urdu sentence: usne mujhe english parhai. |subject| |object| |object| |verb| which when translated word-for -word in english would look like: he me english taught. instead of the english structure he taught me english. |subject| | verb | |object| | object | at the pre-test stage, students with the grammar translation method background were, arguably, more heavily influenced by the structure of urdu sentences than the english sentences. what these students lacked was input in the target language through a direct method which was provided during intervention for this study and also made purposeful by introducing tasks related to the texts introduced. exposure to a huge amount of authentic reading material along with tasks helped them overcome the first language interference as far as sentence construction is concerned(krashen, 1985; willis & willis, 2001). intensive reading also equipped them with the fluency required in sentence construction in the target language without referring to grammatical rules working behind them(su, 2007). given the smallest mean score in gps in the pre-test period, more than 25% improvement in the gps mean score in the post-test is encouraging. this supports our assumption that when focusing on details required by the tasks introduced like locating specific information, writing the gist, finding errors and point out areas of improvement towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 345 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 in the given texts, the learners will also notice the form and structure of the text as an added advantage and will be able to reproduce them in their own l2 writing (willis & willis, 2001). this also implies that this component of a fl or 2nd language does not necessarily require explicit pedagogical instruction at undergraduate level if the instructor introduces sufficient amount of input in the form of reading material in a taskbased milieu (zhang, 2017).taskbased reading can thus provide a quick solution to the needs of the students under study who have limited proficiency but require to achieve a good level of proficiency in one semester in order to be able to study the advanced courses of technical english in next semesters and for other subjects also whose medium of instruction is english. 5. conclusion the findings of the study suggest that excessive exposure to reading material in the target language through task-based activities has a positive effect on the writing performance of esl learners. the study recommends that esl instructors must include task-based activities as a compulsory component of their teaching methodology in order to improve the writing efficacy of the learners. keeping in view the limited time available in a semester for improving writing, task-based approach can prove to be a good strategy to expose learners to maximum possible target language input, and thus, ensure a quick improvement in performance. for maximizing input, flipped learning can also be sometimes utilized (aziz, et al.2021) such that the reading material is given for home and the activities and tasks are introduced in class. though task-based teaching is strongly recommended as a big portion of any writing module, it should be accompanied with other activities or material specifically meant to enhance the diction and grammatical competence of the learners e.g., the tasks related to finding errors in the given text samples and asking them to improve upon them proved very effective during this study. similarly, reading authentic texts and writing their gist or summary and interpreting the writer’s stance turned out to be very productive. this study, therefore, attempts to prove that teaching writing through task-based reading is an important pedagogical instrument for the development of academic writing performance of second language learners. it also recommends adding ample reading material as an essential and substantial component of syllabus wherever efl/esl pedagogy is done in towards a more effective second language writing pedagogy: ... 346 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 26173611 the world to better equip the learners with the skill required in other 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(2009). book walk: works that move our teaching forward: developing personal literacies: writing through reading. english education, 41(2), 177-186. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.1993.tb01180.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.1993.tb01180.x https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1362168815623291 an analytical study of women objectification in in other rooms, other wonders 49 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 an analytical study of women objectification in in other rooms, other wonders faheem arshad lecturer, department of english, university of sargodha, sargodha, pakistan faheem.arshad@uos.edu.pk nimra nawaz research student, department of english, university of sargodha, sargodha, pakistan nimraanawaz@gmail.com inayatullah kakepoto professor, department of english, quaid-e-awam university of engineering science & technology, nawabshah kinayat@quest.edu.pk abstract the objectification of women is a communal problem in every developed and underdeveloped society of the world. women make a major population of the world, and serve the society in multidimensional modes, but still they are considered feeble to men. the subject of women objectification has remained focus of various researchers globally. this research focused three short stories drawn from “in other rooms, other wonders” of daniyal mueenuddin to bring forward disparities and inequalities prevailing in patriarchal society of pakistan. additionally, it investigated the impact of these inequalities and injustices on downtrodden women of pakistan. the objectification of women is such a discrimination that women are subjected to undergo in a patriarchal social set up. this study analyzes the objectification of women through the lenses of female characters selected from three short stories. this study uses theoretical frameworks of martha nussbaum and rae langton’s to draw outcomes for this study. study findings exhibit that female characters undergo objectification and are treated as things by male in a male dominated strata of pakistan. keywords: women objectification, gender, patriarchy, oppression, feminism 1. introduction daniyal mueenuddin is a pakistani-american writer. his book, ‘in other rooms, other wonders’ received a prize in 2009. for his best writings, he has been honored with many awards. ‘in other rooms, other wonders’ is a short story, comprising eight interconnected stories. the writer in these short stories, has presented complexities of a feudal culture and stratified pakistani society, where some groups due to high status and affluent positions enjoy all privileges and luxuries of life and exploit the working class, especially women. these stories also shed light on the plight of women of lower social strata who become the victim of double oppression; firstly, as female, secondly being poor. the writer observed the prevalent social realities of a patriarchal pakistani society very vividly and penned them down explicitly. the mailto:faheem.arshad@uos.edu.pk mailto:nimraanawaz@gmail.com mailto:kinayat@quest.edu.pk an analytical study of women objectification in in other rooms, other wonders 50 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 anthology of these stories provide ample examples of women subjugation, subservience, and objectification. in certain instances, women seem to be reduced to the status of an object. the fall of women to the status of an object gives authority to influential men to exercise their power and authority on women. hence, the lack of choices reduces women to mere objects in a patriarchal world, overly dominated by men. this research involves three short stories namely, ‘saleema’, ‘provide, provide’, and ‘in other rooms, other wonders’, to explore the women objectification. 1.1. study objectives the objectives of this research are as: • to investigate the subtle means of objectification of women • to explore all the implicit and explicit ways through which women are marginalized by men in a patriarchal society. 2. literature review this section focuses on critical viewpoints of various feminists on the objectification of women. many feminists consider objectification of women as an aftermath of oppression that had been happening to women over the centuries. “this links the idea of oppression with that of objectification: when women are treated as tools, they are treated as things, items lacking in agency” (langton, 2004, p.285). “sexual objectification is but one form of gender oppression” (fredrickson& roberts, 1997, p.174). women have been objectified and treated as an object in male dominated society for the last many decades. the concept of objectification has been discussed and debated by various feminist writers over the years. dworkin, mackinnon, kant, nussbaum, and langton are prominent writers among them. they consider women objectification as dehumanization and degradation of women. “from a feminist perspective, the prevailing conception of gender is understood as an ideological structure that divides people into two classes, men and women, based on a hierarchical relation of domination and subordination” (lazar, 2005, p.7). hence, women are subjected to suppression through varied ways and means. portrayal of female characters in literature is significantly shaped by gender inequality and injustice. “in the portrayal of society, the representation of women emerges as the most significant aspect for the writers of english fiction as part of feminism’’ (ahmed, 2009, p. 90). “indeed, conflicts over gender and class weave together the entirety of human history” (mojab, an analytical study of women objectification in in other rooms, other wonders 51 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 2015). “socialism and feminism are two greatest movements today. the one aims to eradicate poverty, and the other to destroy servitude among women. both are world movements. no matter, how backward the nation can be, you will find a revolutionist there preaching that poverty is unnecessary, and that a great organization is working to destroy private capital and to build a co-operative commonwealth. furthermore, throughout western civilization, and even in the heart of the orient, you also find the woman revolutionist telling her enslaved sisters of the effort among women to attain their freedom, to gain the right to live, not according to men, but according to their own, conception of happiness and right” (ovington, 1914, p.143). “history has shown that men have always held all the concrete powers; from patriarchy’s earliest times they have deemed it useful to keep woman in a state of dependence; their codes were set up against her; she was thus, concretely established as the other” (de beauvoir, 2010, p.193). “women as a class are those individuals who are viewed and treated as objects for the satisfaction of men’s desire. in short, women are the sexually objectified, men the objectifiers” (haslanger, 2012, p.38). “central to the establishment of social roles for both women and men is the commodification of women, who were the property of men until quite late in human history. daughters could fetch a bride-price, or be sold as slaves. later, with the emergence of class systems, lower-class women were often sexually exploited by upper-class men, and if the upper-class men were at the same time white colonial masters, a race dimension appears on top of the gender and class issue” (majstorović & lassen, 2011, p.2). “not only female colonized bodies were the object of observation and control, but also working-class women’s bodies were the target of middle-class and state regulation in victorian times” (romero ruiz, 2012, p.7). “dehumanization is real. it happens in real life; it happens to stigmatized people. it has happened to us, to women. we say that women are objectified” (dworkin, 1993). “being a woman is similar to being a man’s property; a property that he can give to whom he wishes to” (bari, 2014, p.11). “feminist thought, moreover, has typically represented men’s sexual objectification of women as not a trivial but a central problem in women’s lives, and the opposition to it as at the very heart of feminist politics” (nussbaum, 1995, p.250). “taking the body as an object has always been a double-edged sword for feminists, for women have traditionally been defined as the body. over the mind/body opposition that informs our thinking has been superimposed the male/female dichotomy, so that mind is associated with male and body with female” (romero ruiz, 2012, p.11). an analytical study of women objectification in in other rooms, other wonders 52 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 “to objectify is to make into and treat something that is not an object as an object which can be used, manipulated, controlled, and known through its physical properties” (calogero, 2012, p. 574). “objectification occurs when a human being, through social means, is made less than human, turned into a thing or commodity, bought and sold” (dworkin, 2000, p. 30-31). “sexual objectification has a crucial relationship to male supremacy. sexual objectification is not rooted in the natural order of things either; rather, sexual objectification is a habit that develops, because it has an important function in creating, maintaining, and expressing male supremacy” (stoltenberg, 1989, p. 41). “to be sexually objectified means having a social meaning imposed on your being that defines you as to sexually used….and then using you that way” (mackinnon, 1989, p. 327). “sexual objectification occurs whenever a woman’s body, body parts, or sexual function are separated out from her person, reduced to the status of mere instruments, or regarded as if they were capable of representing her” (bartky, 1990, p. 35). the objectification theory proposed by roberts and fredrickson (1997) highlights the social and psychological impact of sexual objectification in a woman’s life. according to this theory, women of color encounter double objectification, because, they are not only sexually objectified, but racially as well. due to sexual objectification, women also undergo self-objectification and start evaluating themselves according to the observer’s eye and the society’s beauty standards. however, the aim of the objectification theory by roberts and fredrickson is only limited to the psychological sufferings that a woman may face in a culture where her body is evaluated and objectified. “this phallogocentric system of thought creates a social structure in which men, positioned at the center as subjects, possess power whereas; women are not only deprived of agency but are marginalized as mere objects in social, political, economic and religious discourses” (salam, 2011, p. 17). “while men were remembered for their bravery and war achievements, it was the women who were immortalized for their beauty, for their control over others through the objectification of their bodies such” (balraj, 2015, p. 70). “ah, but the mystery of man is of the mind...whereas that of the woman is of the body” (atwood, 1976, p. 166). “in the book in other rooms other wonders all the characters in pakistani society work for their economic prosperity and stability” (waheed, 2017, p. 289). “the women in these stories often use sex to prey on the men, and they do so with abandon at best and rage at worst in this patriarchal, hierarchical society, it is their sharpest weapon” (sofer, 2009). “it won’t be an analytical study of women objectification in in other rooms, other wonders 53 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 wrong to say that mueenuddin succeeds in recreating a world where threads of longing, loss and unfettered love are intertwined with those of corruption, hunger for power and pursuit of economic happiness surpassing moral sensibility of every kind” (shah, 2018). here, most important is the author’s exploration of what happens to women in the pakistani society. if they are born into privileged class (as harouni’s daughters are) they become suppressors of the first order. and if they are born poor, they have but one asset-their body and the chance to offer itand it must be used wisely” (nisar, p. 3). 3. data collection the data for this study comes from a short story collection, in other rooms, other wonders by daniyal mueenuddin. we selected three short stories from the anthology. the female protagonists of the three chosen short stories were analyzed, with special focus as portrayed in the stories. 4. theoretical framework this research is purely qualitative in nature based upon the objectification framework advocated by martha nussbaum and rae langton. the short stories taken from daniyal mueenuddin’s book ‘in other rooms, other wonders’ have been analyzed from the frame of reference of objectification. 5. analysis and discussion martha nussbaum, an eminent philosopher and a feminist proposed a framework to describe the concept of objectification. “i suggest that in all cases of objectification what is at issue is a question of treating one thing as another: one is treating as an object what is really not an object, what is, in fact, a human being” (nussbaum, 1995, p. 256-257). she posits the following seven features of treating a person as a thing: 1. instrumentality 2. denial of autonomy 3. inertness 4. fungibility 5. violability an analytical study of women objectification in in other rooms, other wonders 54 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 6. ownership 7. subjectivity rae langton further expanded the framework of objectification given by nussbaum adding three more features in her framework. “i take this to be a particularly helpful proposal about what ‘object’ amounts to, in the notion of ‘treating as an object’, and this is, in my view, at least half the story. the other half, as we shall see, rests not on what an ‘object’ is, but on what ‘treating as’, amounts to” (langton, 2009, p. 226). langton puts forward the following three features of objectification: 8. reduction to body 9. reduction to appearance 10. silencing 5.1 objectification of women in the short stories the female protagonists of the short stories selected for the present study undergo an objectification by male characters. these stories revolve around the lives of three female characters, saleema, zainab, and husna and their struggle to make themselves identified and acknowledged by male characters. 5.1.1 saleema in this short story, the character of ‘saleema’ represents the gendered disparities and she has been presented as a play object or a sex toy for the male characters. “her father became a heroin addict, and died of it, her mother slept around for money and favors, and she herself at fourteen became the plaything of a small landowner’s son.” (mueenduddin, 2009, p.17). saleema opened her eyes in an impoverished family. she had been seeing the criminal and corrupt activities of her parents since her childhood. while opening up her past and background before rafik, she said “what shall i say? i was brought up with slaps and harsh words we had nothing, we were poor” (mueenduddin, 2009, p.35). hence, her exposure to dark realities and dark experiences since her childhood made her sensual (left her with no other option but to tread the promiscuous life path inadvertently). “these experiences had not cracked her hard skin, but made her sensual, unscrupulous-and romantic” (mueenduddin, 2009, p.17). being a daughter and a wife of a poor man, she had always been yearning for the riches and valuables of life. she wanted to jump the ladder of the social class. she extended the illegitimate relationships with hassan and rafik for economic security, but all in vain since she could not an analytical study of women objectification in in other rooms, other wonders 55 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 lead a life of a virtuous woman and neither hassan nor rafik loved her with purity, rather they fulfilled their physical desires from her and left her alone. 5.1.2 “provide, provide” ‘provide, provide’ unveils the issues of gender, power, politics and feudal culture of pakistan. the character of chaudhry nabi baksh jaglani is the embodiment of corruption and exploitation. unfortunately, the feudal try to become the lord of the laborer by taking everything in his hand. the same happens in the story “provide, provide”. chaudhry nabi baksh jaglani tries to become the lord of the people of dunyapur, a small town of south punjab. he not only mints the money by deceiving his master, mr. k. k. harouni, but also gratifies his physical needs by extending an illegal relationship with a poor maid, zainab. 5.2 “in other rooms, other wonders” it is a story of a girl named husna, who is in search of a job. for this purpose, she meets the retired civil servant and landlord, mr. k. k. harouni with the reference of his estranged wife. k. k. harouni first accepts her as a secretary, and then as his mistress. the two of them gets involved into a passionate relationship-relationship through which k. k. fulfills his sensual desires and husna fulfills her economic, social, and emotional needs. this short story unveils the plight of a woman in a patriarchal society. we see that male masters are exploiting the female characters in this short story. the voice of the fair sex seems to be controlled and suppressed by male counterparts. 6. nussbaum and langton framework of objectification 6.1. instrumentality the idea of instrumentality presumes that “the objectifier treats the object as a tool of his or her purposes” (nussbam, 1995, p.57). and i’m lonely, sarwat. you’re in karachi, kamila is in new york, and rehana has barely spoken to me in ten years. my friends are dying off or don’t go out anymore. she keeps me company. she’s no genius, if you like, but she can play cards and so on. (mueenuddin, 2009, p.119) the above excerpt has been taken from the short story ‘in other rooms, other wonders’. the text reveals that it contains the concept of instrumentality-one of the features of objectification. k. k. harrouni being an elite and a powerful man uses husna for his an analytical study of women objectification in in other rooms, other wonders 56 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 emotional and physical desires. here, the character of k. k. harrouni objectifies husna and reduces her to the status of an object. 6. 2. denial of autonomy the concept of denial of autonomy assumes that “the objectifier treats the object as lacking in autonomy and selfdetermination” (nussbam, 1995, p.57). female protagonist has been subjected to the denial of autonomy. the below excerpt is from the short story “saleema”. saleema is a story of a girl who becomes a plaything of a suitor who takes her to lahore in a service to the landlord-k. k. harrouni. in this short story, the character of saleema is a play object or sex toy for the male characters. “then a suitor appeared, strutting the village on leave from his job in the city, and plucked her off to lahore” (mueenuddin, 2009, p. 17). the text reveals that saleema has been reduced to the status of an object. the objectifier, the suitor exercises his position of strength and male power treats her like an object that lacks an independence and liberty. 6. 3. inertness the next element, inertness, which according to nussbaum means “the objectifier treats the object as lacking in agency, and perhaps also in activity. (nussbam, 1995, p.57). k. k. harrouni’s daughter ridicules husna for her low family connections and makes her feel useless and worthless. in a reaction to harrouni’s daughter prejudiced behavior, husna talks to harrouni in a loud tone and demands respect and a status equal to her daughter. in response, harrouni says: “i can’t have you speak like this,’ said k.k., removing the mask, his face drawn and imposing. ‘you’re upsetting me’. he spoke in a measured voice. ‘you’ve upset me’” (mueenuddin, 2009, p. 120). in these lines, the character of k. k. harrouni seems to control husna according to his own whims and fancies and not giving any importance or attention to her emotions, rather he degrades her to a status of an object. 6. 4. fungibility nussbaum narrated fungibility means “the objectifier treats the object as interchangeable (a) with other objects of the same type, and/or (b) with objects of other types” (nussbam, 1995, p.57). an analytical study of women objectification in in other rooms, other wonders 57 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 saleema takes refuge in love affair with rafik who is one of the drivers of harrouni’s family. although rafik is already married, aged with solemnity and respected being loyal servant yet he falls abruptly in love with saleema. nevertheless, one day, a letter from rafik’s first wife, stating all the routine matters and updates makes him feel guilty and blameworthy. every single word written in the letter makes him remember the sacrifices that his first wife and children are doing and rafik plans to go back to his village and thinks to get reunited with his family. saleema shows her resentment on this decision, to which rafik replies; my wife is sixty years old, little girl. she and i have been together for almost fifty. she stood by me, she bore me two sons, she kept my house, my honor has always been perfectly safe in her hands. ‘honor.’ saleema began to cry. ‘that’s bad. you’re tiring of me and this situation. imagine how it feels for me. (mueenuddin, 2009, p. 43) these lines unfold the concept of fungibility. here rafik being an objectifier treats ‘saleema’ as an interchangeable object. for him, saleema is an alternative for a pastime and a tool of recreation. 6. 5. violability the idea behind ‘violability’ is that “the objectifier treats the object as lacking in boundaryintegrity, as something that it is permissible to break up, smash, break into” (nussbam, 1995, p. 57). the below excerpt depicts that how male master is exploiting and objectifying the subservient female character. harrouni in a conversation with his daughter says that husna is here whenever i need her. this shows that female character lacks an integrity and worth and is reduced to the status of an object. “at my age, what i need is companionship, and husna can give that to me. riffat can only come for tea or for a few hours, but husna is here whenever i need her” (mueenuddin, 2009, p. 119). 6. 6. ownership the idea of ownership assumes that “the objectifier treats the object as something that is owned by another, can be bought or sold, etc.” (nussbam, 1995, p.57). the following two excerpts have been taken from the short story, “provide, provide.’’ in this story, the character of zainab depicts that how powerless women become an object or an attractive commodity for the men to gratify their physical needs. “i need you to be here in the house whenever i’m here” (mueenuddin, 2009, p.62). an analytical study of women objectification in in other rooms, other wonders 58 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 “she brought any of her things, clothes and jewelry, her makeup, and put them about the house. seeing these little tokens of her presence made him happy, made him feel that he possessed her” (mueenuddin, 2009, p.66). the text reveals that a woman is being objectified by a male counterpart. here, the character of jaglani is the objectifier and zainab is reduced to the status of an object. 6. 7. subjectivity according to nussbaum’s framework of objectification, subjectivity means “the objectifier treats the object as something whose experience and feelings (if any) need not be taken into account” (nussbam, 1995, p.57). zainab had a love for children, but unfortunately, she could not conceive a child. this very thought of being barren and an infertile woman consumed her thoughts. she wanted a child, therefore requests her husband to adopt a child. the below stated lines divulge that her husband treats her like an object and does not give an account to her feelings and emotions. i never begged, but now i’ll beg from you. i’ll bow down. i beg you, give me one of your sons’ children to bring up. shabir has three daughters. the little one, give me her. he has his sons, he’ll still have them and the other girls. the little one is only a few months old, she won’t even know that i’m not her real mother. give her to me, i beg you, and i’ll never ask for anything again.’ she began to cry, through her teeth. ‘i beg you, i beg you, i beg you. i’ve served you. i belong to you; you know i do. give me the little girl. shabir doesn’t even want her, you know he doesn’t.’ he refused. ‘i can’t, my family doesn’t know we’re married” (mueenuddin, 2009, p. 68). 6. 8. reduction to body according to langton, reduction of body takes place when “one treats it as identified with its body, or body parts” (langton, 2009, p. 228-229). the following lines from the short story, “provide, provide” show that the female protagonist, zainab is being reduced to the status of an object by the male counterpart. “her head scarf would slip down to her shoulders, and he admired her thick black hair, braided and oiled” (mueenuddin, 2009, p. 57). 6. 9. reduction to appearance reduction to appearance occurs when “one treats it primarily in terms of how it looks, or how it appears to the senses” (langton, 2009, p.228-229). the below excerpt has been taken an analytical study of women objectification in in other rooms, other wonders 59 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 from the short story, “provide, provide.” in this short story, female character is depicted and treated as an object or a play toy for the male character. the female protagonist has not been depicted as an intellectual being or the one with the agency and autonomy, rather a mere play toy to satisfy the emotional and physical impulse of the male counterpart. “zainab by contrast knew how to please him. she wore no scent, but bathed always before he came home and wore attractive clothes” (mueenuddin, 2009, p. 57-58). 6. 10. silencing silencing takes place when “one treats it as silent, lacking the capacity to speak” (langton, 2009, p. 228-229). these lines have been taken from the short story, “provide, provide”. the female protagonist, zainab is kept silent in this short story. we can hardly expect any linguistic freedom from her. most of the times; she is even unable to communicate her basic needs and necessities. and when she finally musters up courage to speak before her master, she was silenced instantly. “stop,’ he called. he spoke in the voice he might have used with a servant” (mueenuddin, 2009, p. 58). here, the character of chaudhry nabi baksh jaglani is an objectifier and the female character of zainab is an object. 8. findings and conclusion the detailed analysis of the text reveals that women are expected to do all the domestic chores and to fulfill the bodily desires of men. it also shows the dependence of women on men. the power, authority and agency have been associated with male, whereas; submission and subservience are associated with females. the male characters are presented as the paragon of supremacy, authority and power and female characters as their reliant. male are considered as individuals, whereas; women are considered as bodies. the analysis of the selected short stories also reveals the patriarchal social system that lies in the backdrop of the selected short stories. in pakistani society, male hold all power and dominance, and women are entrapped in the patriarchal web. they are always in the struggle of getting themselves free from patriarchy. women are subjugated under the chains of patriarchal social system. from the very childhood, women are socialized in a male dominated society that they are unable to express their true desires linguistically. in addition, they live with unexpressed and ungratified desires. they are considered as the alien members of the an analytical study of women objectification in in other rooms, other wonders 60 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 family and are never given sense of ownership. the character of ‘saleema’, ‘zainab’ and ‘husna’ depicts how women in a patriarchal world are mere an object or an attractive commodity for men. in daniyal mueenduddin’s short story collection, women are presented as sufferers in patriarchal world. the analysis of the short stories presents the stratified pakistani society that is destroyed by feudal culture and male dominant approach and attitude. these short stories reveal the brutality of the privileged class and sufferings of the poor class. in these short stories, we see women who are double oppressed and exploited because of two reasons. first, she is a woman, and second, she belongs to a lower socio-economic class. hence, from the analysis of these stories, it is concluded that the features of objectification given by martha nussbaum and rae langton are present in the short stories written by daniyal mueenuddin and objectification of women takes place in the three selected short stories of the study. references ahmed, z. 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(2017). marxist reading of daniyal mueenuddin’s short stories of his book “in other rooms other wonders”. the criterion: an international journal in english, 8(7), 287-297. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). anatomizing ideology below the clause: 258 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 anatomizing ideology below the clause: the transitivity analysis of iqbal’s mukalma jibra.īl-o-iblīs (gabriel and lucifer) dr. asifa qasim assistant professor, department of english & translation studies, qassim university, ksa dr. zareena qasim assistant professor, department of english, university of sargodha, pakistan aqsa arshad m.phil scholar, department of english, university of sargodha, pakistan abstract this paper aims at exploring how ideology is construed in a text and how the text bears significant meaning potentials. drawing on systemic-functional linguistics (halliday and matthiessen, 2014), particularly on the transitivity analysis, it examines how language serves in terms of two folds of structural social semiotics and ideology representation. the study probes out how the constituent analysis (transitivity analysis) could be significant in unfolding the meaning potential of a text. the data was taken from the text of the poem ‘jibra.īl -o-iblīs'. the data was comprised of the twenty-two sentences taken from the text of the poem which was later transliterated and translated for the purpose of analysis. the purposive sampling tool has been significantly helpful in the excerption of data, and a mixed-method approach has been employed in terms of analysis. findings suggested that the poem reflects five process types which were material, mental, verbal, relational, and existential and the participants been detected were actor, goal, scope, range, beneficiary, target, senser, phenomenon, verbiage, sayer, token, value, attribute, carrier, and existent. also, the types of circumstance detected in the analysis were circumstance of manner, location, role, contingency, angle, cause, accompaniment, and extent. to configure the dominant process type, bungin’s statistical approach (2001) was employed. it is acknowledged that the dominant process type in the poem was the verbal process (47%) and the subsequent was the material process (27%). findings also foreshadow that poem's meaning potential is blueprinted on a spiritual aura which is being communicated mainly through the verbal process and material process subsequently. this paper focuses only on the transitivity analysis the future research could be done about interpersonal or textual metafunction analysis of the poem. keywords: transitivity analysis, halliday, ideologies, jibra.īl-o-iblīs, systemic functional linguistics introduction whatever is presented or uttered around the universe, expresses, or is expressed at the yardstick of a specific ideological standpoint. ideologies could find a residence in any discourse anatomizing ideology below the clause: 259 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 because a venue is required on behalf of ideologies to be unveiled. discourses are thought to occur across cultures and can therefore be comprehended through the interaction of societal context, conducts, agents, and societal norms. ideology also acts as a link between sociological construction and interpersonal comprehension. and two of the greatest methods of articulating the ideologies are verse/s (poetry) and reasoning (philosophy). the poets communicate ideologies through verses, and the rationalist through exposition, welcoming cosmos around into their domain of correspondence as they attempt to handle those extraordinary existential inquiries that have grasped us since days of yore. and when poetry yokes together with ration it becomes more opulent. iqbal’s poetry is the admixture of both reason and rhetoric. through his writing, he examines the numerous crosscurrents and ideological pluralities from a sociocultural viewpoint. ideologies are, at their most simplistic level, depictions of actions framed from perspectives in the context of a valid concern for maintaining inconsistency in force relations and predominance. this paper is an endeavor to explore ideologies from a newly emerging perspective which is ‘systemic functional linguistics’. the paper considers iqbal’s dialogue poem “mukalma jibra.īl-o-iblīs (gabriel and lucifer) taken from the eminent collection “bal-ejibra.īl / gabriel's wing" for analysis. the poem is about a conversation between jibra.īl and iblīs talking about the great guilt done by iblīs and the consequences of that guilt. the paper channelizes halliday's experiential metafunction, transitivity analysis, in particular, to probe the ideological mainframe being presented in the poem through catching sight of the meaning potential of the lexical stretches being presented in the poem. findings illustrate that the poem’s meaning potential and the lamina of ideologies could be probed out below the clause by utilizing the transitivity analysis propounded by halliday (2014) since the target of systematic study (sfl), especially the transitivity analysis, is to determine and uncover the association amongst the drifts and lexemes which expounds on the ways in which meaning is organized in a discourse. literature review under the inspiration of firth 1890; robins, 1967; sampson, 1980; butler, 1985; martin, 1992; eggins, 1994; matthiessen,1995; thompson, 1996; martin & rose, 2003; to stipulate a anatomizing ideology below the clause: 260 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 few, and the theory of language, halliday (1978) developed systemic functional linguistics (sfl) from of the school of linguistics, london. this new perspective has been based on a twofold system and structure and the multi-structural strand. firth's theory of language (1890) argues that the structures and the systems are contemporary and that both are the foils for each other when it comes to scrutinizing the meaning potential. hassan (1996) followed the same stance in sfl to establish the social semiotics in her "language and verbal arts" whereby she argues that the meaning comes from the experience of an individual. halliday (1973) puts that transitivity is a range of alternatives through which any interlocutor registers his experience about the outer world's processes and the interior domain about his perception, accompanied with the participant involved in these processes and their associated circumstances. nguyen, 2012; wulansari, & waluyo 2016; qasim et. al. 2018; ezzina, 2016; darani, 2014; to adduce a few, analyzed the poems on transitivity scepter to probe the semiotic structures and to bring the meaning potential out. poetry is one of the most musical and popular genres in the world. and it is considered a prime source of expressing emotion, ideologies, and ration. iqbal's "mukalma jibra.īl-o-iblīs” has been studied from religious and philosophical perspectives by khan, 2010; ahmed, 2015; shah & tahir 2019; muhammad & khan, 2020; to quote a few. the previous studies have been confined upon how quranic narratives are an impactful element in the poem, how the poem serves in theosophical and cosmic blueprinting, or how goethe has been incarnated in the poem, and the character portrayal of lucifer, etc. but no significant study has been done with the perspective of sfl. since the poem, mukalma jibra.īl-o-iblīs has not been analyzed from any of the systemic functional linguistics perspectives so there was no significant literature found for the review. methodological framework this paper probes out meaning architecture in the poem “jibra.īl -o-iblīs/ gabriel and lucifer” by taking halliday’s ‘transitivity model’ of systemic functional grammar (sfg) into consideration. the research samples were extracted from “baal-e-jibra.īl / gabriel’s wing (1935),” one of the eminent collections of dr. muhammad iqbal. the poem was carefully transliterated and translated by the researcher after the rudimentary readings. the summation of twenty-two sentences was taken from the poem after purposive sampling. the basic paradigm of anatomizing ideology below the clause: 261 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 this study was to analyze the poem at two general levels. the first level was to analyze the ‘transitivity’ blueprints incarnated in the lexical arrangement of the poem. and secondly, probing the meaning potential in the poem by anatomizing the lexemes used employing halliday’s ‘systemic functional linguistics’ (2014) model. the study follows both qualitative and quantitative analysis paradigms (a mixed-method approach) to interpret the data. transitivity analysis brings to light the intended meaning of an utterer, depending upon three labels of transitivity: process, participants, and circumstances, and how they interact in a clause. considering halliday’s systemic functional grammar (sfg), ideational metafunction. this study is aimed at enciphering the answers to the following questions: 1. what sort of processes, participants and circumstances are there in the poem? 2. what is/are the dominant process type/s in the poem? 3. what does the transitivity pattern reveal about the spiritual aura in the meaning potential of the poem? theoretical mainframe whatever is composed or uttered in this cosmos is revealed or interpreted within a specific conceptual perspective. ideologies can take up dwelling in any discourse, but the ideologies require a point to thrive. and that point is known as ‘language’. language is the yardstick that serves as a backbone to human communication. albeit language is not merely a descriptive tool or a bridge through communication but is also a means of social representation. the errand of systemic functional analysis (sfa), especially transitivity analysis, is to configure and locate the associations among meanings and lexical strains that record the association of lexical items highlighted in a discourse. traditional grammar view transitivity as a grammatical feature that indicates if a verb takes a direct object or not. if a verb takes a direct object then it is called a transitive verb, on the other hand, if it does not take a direct object it is known as an intransitive verb. halliday in his book “an introduction to functional grammar” gives a distinguished view of transitivity. according to him, "direct object” is not given prime consideration. halliday introduced 3 metafunctions of language amongst which the experiential metafunction has mainly been premised upon 'transitivity system,' which is further composed of 6 process types (material process, mental process, relational process, behavioral anatomizing ideology below the clause: 262 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 process, verbal process, and existential process). each process type is premised on 3 grammatical assets which assist to describe the truth of the universe surrounding it. the three grammatical assets of transitivity are termed participant, process, and circumstance. these labels are the markers of potential functions performed by a language in terms of meaning construction, social interaction, and ideological construction, below the clause. these labels uncover that how a lexical stretch is used to create a meaning potential and how that meaning potential is realized. language is used as a system that serves as a portfolio to unfold ideologies above the clause, around the clause, and below the clause. fig. 1: transitivity labels & their respective divisions analysis of related data the data comprises of the transliteration and translation of dr. muhammad iqbal’s poem [mukalma] “jibra.īl -o-iblīs/ gabriel and lucifer” which is being written in the famous collection "bal-e-jibra.īl / gabriel’s wing” (1935). the poem is penned in iqbal's peculiar dialogic format, with the archangel gabriel versus lucifer converse. both factions are diametrically averse the first is an archangel who embodies fidelity to each of god's edicts in sacred scripture and is assigned with the sublime responsibility of giving enlightenment to god's messengers (as mentioned in speculated religions' history). the alter side reflects the anatomizing ideology below the clause: 263 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 personification of malevolent; a creature who though was not an angel but a fire-made creature (a jinn) but have had been allotted a very sublime rank by lord (allah) as the 'chief angel' because of his virtues and obedience. and later on, he has been cast out of heavens because of the disobedience he has done against lord's orders which were about bowing to adam. and, ended up being reaping the title which became a homonym to evil, and the rank of man's eternal opponent. so, the dialogue is set between an old 'honorary angel' and the current one the first step of the analysis was to transliterate the poem and label it on clause and sentence level. according to halliday, a clause is the center of all functions. so, the whole poem was bifurcated into clauses, and then different processes, and participants were marked with the help of transitivity to give a clearer interpretation (fig. 2). the next step of the analysis was to bifurcate and translate the transliteration on sentence rank (fig 2.1). transitivity analysis the next step was to do transitivity analysis to get insights into the research questions. crystal (2004) defines transitivity as a grammatical categorization for analyzing a lexical stretch, depending on the interrelationship between both the verb and the contingent constituents (p. 494). since the poem taken for analysis was a dialogue poem so the data is primarily parsed in two basic layers the first transitivity layer is about the elliptical verbal process happening below the clause in each lexical stretch having only participants. the second and subsequent layer/s has/have more process/es which have been identified and marked below: fig 3. jibra.īl: hamdam-e-dairīna kaisā hai jahān-e-rañg-o-bū? (line 1) jibra.īl: [hey] old pal how is the world of color and fragrance? sayer verbiage old pal how is the world of color and fragrance token circ. (manner) pr: rel; ident value fig 3. illustrates the verbal process which further is led towards the identifying relational process. the only participant in the first layer of the clause is verbiage while in the second layer there is a variety of participants such as token and value as well as circumstance of manner. anatomizing ideology below the clause: 264 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the stanza above reflects that jibra.īl / gabriel strikes up a discussion with iblīs/ lucifer by inquiring on happenings in the sphere of "shade and aroma," (the physical realm). iqbal's decision to commence the debate in this particular manner implies a few things. angels are not believed to have volition in the traditional muslim faith. it is considered that they are being created entirely to worship the glory [allah] and to perform the commands that are being directed by lord, to them. so, the dialogue is giving a two-dimensional reflection. firstly, either lord has commanded jibra.īl to initiate this conversation. secondly, rather jibra.īl have had a personal will to some extent which is allowing him to have a conversation with an old comrade. the appellation "old pal" alludes to iblīs' former prominent stature among the angels. although the quran deems iblīs an "obvious foe" of mankind, jibra.īl recounts an era where things were diverse. fig 4. iblīs: soz-o-sāz o dard o daaġh o justujū o aarzū (line 2) iblīs: [full of] sadness and happiness, ailment and stigma, constant seeking and constant desiring sayer verbiage sadness and happiness, ailment and stigma, constant seeking and constant desiring phepr: mental; emotive nomena fig. 4 represents the same two layers of transitivity as being discussed above. the first layer has a verbal process in it and the only participant of this layer of lexical stretch is verbiage. in the second layer, there is an emotive mental transitivity process involved, as depicted by the verb "constant seeking". and the only participant of the transitivity process running in this particular lexical stretch is phenomena, which is visible on either side of the process. the lexical stretch depicts that iblīs in answer portrays the cosmos in paradoxical stead: both a wellspring of anguish or misery as well as a resource of yearning or aspiration. the poet is again sketching straightforwardly from qur’ānic concepts, which symbolize the realm as a venue wherein believers would be trialed by tragedy through fortune or maybe on their lives, as well as a venue wherein anything which exists only a digression from the real-life: the life of hereafter. iblīs anatomizing ideology below the clause: 265 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 depicts the cosmos in conflicting hues as a source of grief and suffering as well as a source of desire and aspiration. lord has sentenced iblīs to such dreadful conditions for the rest of his life. he was applauding these circumstances. fig 5. jibra.īl: har ghaḍī aflāk par rahtī hai terī guftugū (line 3) jibra.īl: [well] each moment thy mention is made in the celestial world sayer verbiage each moment thy mention is made in the celestial world circ. (location) token pr: rel; ident value fig. 5 denotes that the initial transitivity process prevalent in the above-mentioned lexical stretch is a verbal process having only one participant: the verbiage. the second layer of transitivity is having an obvious identifying relational process having a verbal group complex “mention is made”. the participants involved in this process are token and value as well as circumstance of location. through this utterance made by jibra.īl/ gabriel it is acknowledged that iblīs/ lucifer is grist for the gossip in heavenly realms. fig 6. kyā nahīñ mumkin/ ki terā chaak dāman ho rafū? (line 4) [jibra.īl] can't thine tattered garment be mended back? [sayer] verbiage can’t thine tattered garment be mended back? pr: existential existent thine tattered garment be mended back? beneficiary goal pr: material range fig. 6 displays the same 1st layer of transitivity having elliptical verbal process as well as sayer. the only apparent participant in this clause is verbiage. the second layer reflects the existential process having existent as the only participant. the third layer shows the material process through "be mended". the participants involved in the process are beneficiary, goal, and range. this clause quintessence of the prior clause reflecting that jibra.īl is rather interested anatomizing ideology below the clause: 266 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 to know whether his old comrade has a desire to come back by uttering “kyā nahīñ mumkin/ ki terā chaak dāman ho rafū?/ can't thine tattered garment be mended back?” in the urdu language the lexical stretch: tattered garment be mended back, is used metaphorically for asking if one has a lament on his ills. fig 7. iblīs: aah ai jibrīl tū vāqif nahīñ is raaz se (line 5) iblīs: sigh o archangel, thou aren’t acquainted with this clandestine sayer verbiage sigh o archangel thou aren’t acquainted with this clandestine existent pr: existential circ. (manner) fig 7. depicts bilayered transitivity reflected in verbal and existential processes subsequently. and the participant involved is existent as well as circumstance of manner. it is also visible that the interpersonal element of modality "sigh" is being omitted from the analysis. the lexical stretch points towards the religious notion of 'secret/s' which is/are revealed on lord's [allah] will, on the chosen ones. poet is subversively relating to the sufist clichés by emphasizing that iblīs had accumulated insights from his own and rather than having been united with the divine, iblīs' knowledge of mysteries had befallen him under an absolute antagonism to the almighty. fig 8. kar gayā sarmast/ mujh ko/tuut kar merā subū (line 6) [iblīs]: that my broken jorum/ has intoxicated me/ before its breaching [sayer]: verbiage that my broken jorum has intoxicated me before beaching benefic iary pr: material goal/ carrier pr: rel; attrib. attribute beneficiary circ. (contin -gency) pr: material fig 8. reflects that in the 2nd layer line 6 has three clauses working in it. the 1st layer is as usual the same having implicit verbal process and sayer. the only explicit participant in the excerpt is verbiage. in the 1st clause of the 2nd layer, the material process is involved, having beneficiary and goal as participants. the 2nd clause has an attributive relational process involved anatomizing ideology below the clause: 267 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 in it, having carrier and attribute as participants. while the 3rd clause has explicitly the material process involved in it having the circumstance of contingency as the accompanying constituent. it is also visible that “that” is an interpersonal item in mood analysis and has no role in transitivity analysis so "that" is being skipped from the analysis. this excerpt is again a quintessence of the previous line, sharing the same meaning potential of the prior excerpt. fig 9. ab yahāñ merī guzar mumkin nahīñ,/ mumkin nahīñ (line 7) [iblīs:] hither, now my coexistence isn’t convincible, /isn’t convincible [sayer] verbiage hither, now my coexistence isn’t convincible isn’t convincible cir. (location) carrier circ. (contingency) pr: rel; attrib. attribute pr: rel; attrib. attribute fig. 9 is reflecting the same two layers as being discussed before. also, the analysis reflects that line 7 has two clauses under the 1st layer of transitivity which is showing an elliptical verbal process as well as sayer. the only explicit constituent in this layer is verbiage. the 2nd layer unfolds two clauses. the 1st clause has an attributive relational process accompanied with the carrier and attribute as participants, as well as the circumstance of location and contingency. while the 2nd clause shares the same attributive relational process accompanied with the attribute as a participant. this lexical stretch depicts that the dialogue has now swapped beyond discussing iblīs' present residence to the heavenly realm to recounting his previous residence on the celestial world. he puts in the next excerpt that i see no necessity for returning to such a "silent" world because for me it is nothing more than a devoid, to return. fig 10. kis qadar ḳhāmosh hai ye ālam-e-be-kāḳh-o-kū (line 8) [iblīs:] how utterly taciturn is this world without riches [sayer] verbiage how utterly taciturn is this world without riches value pr: rel; ident. token circ. (contingency) anatomizing ideology below the clause: 268 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 fig. 10 reflects the remnant of iblīs' conversation in correlation to the stanza. the analysis shows that the lexical stretch has two predefined layers of transitivity. the 1st layer has an elliptical verbal process as well as an implicit sayer. the only explicit constituent in this layer is verbiage. the 2nd layer unfolds the identifying relational process accompanied with token and value as the participants. and the circumstance of contingency. to characterize iblīs' contrast between the two worlds, iqbal utilizes the term "ḳhāmosh". the heavenly realms ain't just "quiet," they're also drab, monotonous, and devoid of any significance or goal. returning to the poem's first sentence, they have no "hue or aroma," here's wherein the poem starts unfolding meaning potential. the poet is demonstrating that iblīs has no remorse for his current situation, rather he is proud of being in this world of sounds and hues. fig. 11. jis kī naumīdī se ho soz-e-darūn-e-kā.enāt (line 9) [iblīs:] the one whose despair could give birth to the passion in the universe [sayer] verbiage the one whose despair could give birth to the passion in the universe actor pr: material goal circ. (location) the excerpt above [fig. 11] is also reminiscent of prior excerpts. the analysis depicts the 2 folds of processes the 1st layer has the same elliptical verbal process as well as an implicit sayer, as above. and subsequently, the only explicit constituent in this layer is verbiage. the 2nd layer unfolds the material process accompanied with actor and goal as the participants. and the circumstance of location. the line depicts a very deep meaning and that is “the concept of taqnatū” which is being elaborated in the upcoming line whereby iblīs argues that for the exuberance of man to exist someone has to be pessimistic in return. so, iblīs should persist the revolt in opposition to god, amid absolute despondency, since that is helpful for mankind. fig 12. us ke haq meñ taqnatū achchhā hai yā lā-taqnatū? (line 10) [iblīs:] in his rectitude, disappointment is better or vice versa? [sayer] verbiage in his rectitude, disappointment is better or vice versa? anatomizing ideology below the clause: 269 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 circ. (location) carrier pr: rel; attributive attribute the fig. 11 shows the very same two layers of transitivity reflecting the verbal process and the attributive relational process, subsequently. and the participants are subsequently, the verbiage in 1st layer and carrier and attribute in 2nd layer. also, the 2nd layer consists of the circumstance of location. the excerpt above reflects the qur’ānic concepts being mentioned in surah az-zumar, ayat 53. “ ِ ِة ّللاَّ ْحما which indicates the lord's commands to the man ”َلا تاْقناُطوا ِمن رَّ on "not to get hopeless" as it's the essence of satan's nature. fig 13. jibra.īl: kho diye inkār se tū ne maqāmāt-e-buland (line 11) jibra.īl: thou lost the high-ranks by dint of denial sayer verbiage thou lost the high-ranks by dint of denial actor pr: material goal the figure above represents that after the initial layer of the verbal process there is a sublayer of material process accompanied with two participants: actor and goal. also, it is visible that line 11 contains a rankshifting clause (the high-ranks by dint of denial) carrying the meaning potential via nominalization. this excerpt is the response of the archangel to lucifer's digression. the excerpt is demonstrating a sort of regret by archangel on behalf of lucifer's disobedience. as in the traditional point of view, the angels have no free will, while lucifer was a fire-being (a jin), who have had free will yet lord has kept lucifer dear to him because of his conduct as a dedicated believer. but the whole cherishing [by lord] ended up in disobedience and exile [of satan]. fig 14. chashm-e-yazdāñ meñ farishtoñ kī rahī kyā aabrū? (line 12) [jibra.īl:] what decency been left out for angels in divine’s eye [because of you] [sayer] verbiage what decency been left out for angels in divine’s eye [because of you] scope pr: material goal circ. (angle) the figure above shows the same predetermined layers of transitivity where the only explicit constituent is verbiage. while the 2nd layer is comprised up of a material process anatomizing ideology below the clause: 270 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 accompanied by the circumstance of angle and two participants: scope and goal. the line elucidates a very visible meaning potential in the form of complaint and a call down from archangel, upon the act of disobedience performed by lucifer (the ex-contemporary). fig 15. iblīs: hai mirī jur.at se musht-e-ḳhāk meñ/ zauq-e-numū (line 13) iblīs: [just] because of my audacity the handful of dust has/ potential to grow sayer verbiage [just] because of my audacity the handful of dust has potential to grow cir. (cause) actor pr: material beneficiary pr: material the line above [13] reflects the iblīs/ lucifer as an explicit participant in the implicit verbal process, accompanied by verbiage. the 2nd layer of analysis depicts the material process ongoing in the two clauses which are functioning in the stanza line. the process in both clauses is collectively accompanied by the circumstance of cause as well as the participants: actor and beneficiary. the line reflects iblīs as an enthusiastic participant in mankind's growth, instead of a hindrance to it. but at the same time, the poet is able to manage the traditional viewpoint about lucifer as being 'an arrogant creature' as reflected in the words "musht-e-ḳhāk/ handful of dust" [referring to mankind], etc. fig 16. meray fitne jāma-e-aql-o-ḳhirad kā tār-o-pū (line 14) [iblīs:] my deviltries are warp and woof to their apparel of wisdom and rationality [sayer] verbiage my deviltries are warp and woof to their apparel of wisdom and rationality existent pr: existential circ. (manner) the table above reflects the implicitness of the verbal process as the line above is a sequel of the former line/s. the verbal process prevalent in the first layer of the transitivity analysis denotes only one active/ explicit participant which is serving as an emblem to the whole process. the 2nd layer reflects the existential process accompanied by the existent and circumstance of manner. the transitivity analysis lay bare the meaning potential of the excerpt, anatomizing ideology below the clause: 271 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 reflecting that how commodity or ideology is floating and flowing in the poem. the lexical item “fitne/ deviltries" is a very rich religious jargon depicting the act which could make one lose his/her faith. the lexical item seems to bring out the negative connotation but the analysis reflects that the real meaning potential reflects that lucifer is referring to the provocation which brings the quest to man's mind and results in logic and reasoning. also, the analysis unveils the rankshifting clause which is being nominalized to emphasize a certain meaning potential: “warp and woof to their apparel of wisdom and rationality”. fig 17. dekhtā hai tū faqat sāhil se razm-e-ḳhair-o-shar (line 15) [iblīs:] thou merely witness the combat of good versus evil, from coast [sayer] verbiage thou merely witness the combat of good versus evil. from coast actor cir. (manner) pr: material goal circ. (location) the above table denotes the elliptical nature of the verbal process in fig 17. the analysis reflects the two layers of transitivity foregrounded in the line. unfolding the 2nd layer, it is apparent that the material process is involved in the 2nd layer, accompanied by the circumstance of location and participants: actor and goal. poet invokes the sea about the cosmos which occurs with the violent tides and cyclones ("tufaan") in the core and tranquility on the margins, signified via coasts ("sahil"). fig 18. kaun tūfāñ ke tamāñche khā rahā hai maiñ ki tū? (line 16) [iblīs:] while who is experiencing storm's blowsyou or i? [sayer] verbiage while who is experiencing storm’s blowsyou or i? senser pr: mental phenomenon cir. (manner) as the figure describes, the elliptical verbal process is involved in the first layer, having the only verbiage as an active and explicit participant. the 2nd layer of transitivity analysis marks the mental process accompanied by the circumstance of manner; senser, and phenomena as a participant. and, the interpersonal element (“while”) in the clause, has been omitted from the analysis. also, the analysis reflects the nominalization of the word blow, to emphasize creating a anatomizing ideology below the clause: 272 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 distinct meaning potential. iblīs chastises jibra.īl yet again by uttering that jibra.īl, as an archangel, can sit on the podium and enjoy the show, whilst iblīs is the only one to bear a load of anguish himself. and apart from complying and enjoy, what else does jibra.īl intent? the poet simultaneously decries the stance in the utterance of lucifer that things could only exist in binaries when it comes to the earthly realm, otherwise survival is impossible. also, lucifer imposes on archangel that since he is not among the sufferers so he has no right to put commentary on him. fig 19. khizr bhī be-dast-o-pā ilyās bhī be-dast-o-pā (line 17) [iblīs:] [besides me] khizar is resourceless, illyas too helpless [sayer] verbiage khizar is resourceless, illyas too helpless carrier pr: rel; attributive attribute circ. (accompaniment) the fig. above illustrates the implicit verbal process in 1st layer of transitivity analysis. while the 2nd layer contains the attributive relational process accompanied by the circumstance of accompaniment, and the participants: carrier and attribute. the analysis reflects that the two participants khizar (a.s) and ilyas (a.s) (biblical equivalent of elyssa) have been explicated with the attribute of being “resourceless” while khizar (a.s), in muslim tradition, is considered as one of the most insightful prophets of almighty as mentioned in the chapter number eighteen of quran wherein there is a whole narration of moses' quest and his meeting with 'the wise' khizar (a.s). similarly, ilyas/ elyssa is also considered the great master of knowledge. in islamic tradition, both these prophets are being considered as the 'keepers of water' as in tradition it is said that they have drunk the water of life as commanded by allah and now are performing their duty on water. the use of lexical stretch "yam-ba-yam dariyā-ba-dariyā jū-ba-jū,” in the next line, depicts that how satan being an ex-subordinate to lord is more knowledgeable and dominant. fig 20. mere tūfāñ yam-ba-yam dariyā-ba-dariyā jū-ba-jū (line 18) [iblīs:] my deluges strike sea by sea, river to river, and stream by stream [sayer] verbiage anatomizing ideology below the clause: 273 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 my deluges strike sea by sea, river to river, and stream by stream actor pr: material circ. (location/extent) the fig. above demonstrates the same 1st layer transitivity analysis as that of the former figure. the 2nd layer depicts the material process accompanied by the circumstance of location/extent and actor as the only participant. there is an apparent case of the nominalized clause in the excerpt depicting the emphasis in the stanza in terms of demonstrating meaning potential. the analysis indicates that how lucifer has commanded over worldly affairs. fig 21. gar kabhī ḳhalvat mayassar ho/ to pūchh allāh se (line 19) [iblīs:] if [thou] ever found seclusion,/ then ask lord: [sayer] verbiage if [thou] ever found seclusion, then ask lord: scope pr: material goal pr: verbal target since this particular lexical stretch [line 19] is also the sequel of the utterance of dialogue so it shares the same 1st layer of transitivity analysis alike the previous line. and the 2nd layer of analysis uncovers that line 19 of the poem is comprising two processes: the material process and the verbal process. the collective participants involved in both clauses are scope, goal, and target. the analysis shows that the clause is reflecting the question "whose blood melded colors within the tale of adam?" as inquired by lucifer to jibra.īl. this lexical stretch is probably the latter component of the resolution posed in the poem's first line. for him, the heavenly domain, or skies, was too inert and stagnant. fig 22. qissa-e-ādam ko rañgīñ kar gayā kis kā lahū? (line 20) [iblīs:] whose blood dyed the story of adam? [sayer] verbiage whose blood dyed the story of adam? actor pr: material goal the figure above denotes the elliptical verbal process in the 1st layer of analysis denoting the verbal action. while the 2nd layer comprises the material process having two participants alongside actor and goal. this line [20] is the pursuing stanza of the previous stanza which is sharing the same meaning potential as the former line does, telling about the arrogant question anatomizing ideology below the clause: 274 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 asked by lucifer to make it more emphatic that adam's fame is existent just because of lucifer and his mischiefs. fig 23. maiñ khataktā huuñ dil-e-yazdāñ meñ kāñte kī tarah (line 21) [iblīs:] i rankle in the heart of lord, as a thorn [sayer] verbiage i rankle in the heart of lord, as a thorn actor pr: material goal circ. (manner) the fig. 23 denotes that the 1st layer comprises the very same elliptical verbal process as being discussed before showing the proceedings in speech. while 2nd layer denotes material process through the word "rankle". the process is the second layer is accompanied with circumstance of manner as well as the participants: actor and goal. this is the mightiest line of the whole poem denoting the extreme pride of iblīs in terms of enmity or rivalry. he says to jibri that i am the one who has dared to earn the opposition against lord, i am the courageous one to disobey the divine, and so i have a supreme which you can't see or enjoy. the concept here could be related to the line in milton's paradise lost, book i, line 263: "better to rein in hell than serve in heaven" (milton, 2018). fig 24. tū faqat allāh-hū, allāh-hū, allāh-hū (line 22) [iblīs:] whilst thou merely [recites] allah o, allah; allah o, allah; allah o, allah [sayer] verbiage whilst thou merely [recites] allah o, allah; allah o, allah; allah o, allah sayer circ. (role) [pr: verbal] verbiage this last line of the poem is the quintessence of the whole poem showing the implicit verbal process in the first layer of analysis having only one explicit constituent. and, the subsequent analysis unfolds another ongoing implicit verbal process in the 2nd layer of analysis surrounded by circumstance of role as well as sayer and verbiage as the participants. the line although depicts a double emphasis on the speech in this line via the double incarnation of verbal process. but it is obvious that more emphasis is laid upon the last word configured under anatomizing ideology below the clause: 275 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 verbiage which is being nominalized as "allāh-hū, allāh-hū, allāh-hū”. the nominalization in this last constituent of clause could also be corresponded with the same thrice mentioning of ‘da’ and ‘shantih’ (line 429-430) as being mentioned by eliot in the very last line of his waste land (eliot, 2013). also, the figure above reflects the omission of an interpersonal constituent of modality (adjunct) "whilst" from the analysis to give a flat focus on ideational meanings whirling around the poem. findings and discussion humans employ language to articulate the sentiments as well as communicating their experiences of the surrounding universe (thompson, 2004). nguyen (2012) says that language contains an enchanting characteristic, according to gee's opinion (2005): whenever human beings utter or compose; they customize whatever they ought to imply to suit that context. the study was initiated to engrave the answers to research questions comprising the query on elements of transitivity found in the poem, the ratio of the process types, and the ideological aura of the transitivity serving in meaning potential. the findings show that 5 types of processes are detected in the poem (material, mental, verbal, relational, and existential) while no trace of behavioral process was found. the participants unveiled out in the poem are actor, goal, scope, range, beneficiary, target, senser, phenomenon, verbiage, sayer, token, value, attribute, carrier and existent. subsequently, the circumstance types being found in the poem were circumstance of manner, location, role, contingency, angle, cause, accompaniment, and extent. to probe out the frequencies of the transitivity constituents bungin’s statistical approach is being employed (2001, p. 189): fig. 25 transitivity summary of the poem anatomizing ideology below the clause: 276 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 no. process types f percentage 1. material 14 27% 2. mental 2 4% 3. verbal (both explicit & implicit) 24 47% 4. relational: identifying 3 5.8% attributive 5 9.8% 5. existential 3 5.8% 6. behavioral 0 --- total 51 100% the calculations reflect that the most dominant process type in the poem was the verbal process (47%) and the subsequent was the material process (27%). the analysis reveals that the poem's meaning potential is blueprinted on a spiritual aura which is being communicated mainly through the verbal process and material process subsequently. since the poem is in dialogue form so the dominant process is the verbal process, while significant ideologies are being depicted through the (mainly) material process and other process types subsequently. conclusion discourses transpire throughout the civilization and are only intelligible by integrating the nature of the interaction of interpersonal context, expression, performer, and social stratification. in transitivity analysis, process types determine the dimension of discourse i.e material process show physical action, etc. the intersection underlying sociological architecture and interpersonal perception are served by ideology. and, unfolding the functional elements above, beyond, and around the clause give it a new dimension that serves fundamentally in detecting the meaning potential of a lexical stretch. the poem is a mystical inauguration penned by dr. muhammad iqbal which sheds light on the muslim philosophical insights through the depiction of gabriel and lucifer. the poem is written in a normic as well as deviational incarnation. besides a discourse seen amongst angels and lord, (for instance qur'an) or amongst allah and adam, (for instance rumi's mathnavi) this poem sets a dialogue amongst two contemporaries: the archangel (the chief angel) and the lucifer (the ex-chief angel). and, the anatomizing ideology below the clause: 277 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 poem seems to reflect the angles’ ignorance upon the potential of man as archangel is shown asking about the reconciliation while lucifer is interested in bringing man by and by into the conversation. the poem reflects the spiritual and religious aura through its word construct as explored by transitivity analysis. the previous studies on the poem have been confined upon how quranic narratives are an impactful element in the poem, how the poem serves in theosophical and cosmic blueprinting, or how goethe has been incarnated in the poem, and the character portrayal of lucifer, etc. but no significant study has been done with the perspective of sfl. this paper has probed out that how meaning potential is incarnated through words in a clause. this paper has focuses only on the transitivity analysis, the future research could be done about ergativity or interpersonal or textual metafunction analysis of the poem. references ahmed, t. (2015). satan in the poetry of dr. iqbal: an overview. international journal of innovative research and development, 4(2). butler, c. s., & butler, c. (1985). systemic linguistics: theory and applications. batsford books. darani, l. h. (2014). persuasive style and its realization through transitivity analysis: a sfl perspective. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 158, 179-186. david, c. (2004). the language revolution. eliot, t. s. (2013). the wasteland (liveright classics). ww norton & company. ezzina, r. (2016). transitivity analysis of «the crying lot of 49» by thomas pynchon. international journal of humanities and cultural studies (ijhcs) issn 23565926, 2(3), 283-292. firth, j. r. (1957). applications of general linguistics. transactions of the philological society, 56(1), 1-14. halliday, m. a. k., & matthiessen, c. m. (2013). halliday's introduction to functional grammar. routledge. iqbal, m. (1935). baal-e-jibreel by muhammad iqbal. goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9631968-baal-e-jibreel https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9631968-baal-e-jibreel anatomizing ideology below the clause: 278 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 khan, s. (2010). bridge between east and west--iqbal and goethe. language in india, 10(9). milton, j. (2018). paradise lost (pp. 163-178). arc, amsterdam university press. muhammad, s., & khan, n. a. (2020). impact of qur’anic narratives on jalalud-din rumi and allama iqbal. iḥyāʾalʿulūm-journal of department of quran o sunnah, 20(2). nguyen, h. t. (2012). transitivity analysis of “heroic mother” by hoa pham. international journal of english linguistics, 2(4). paul gee, j. (2005). an introduction to discourse analysis: theory and method. qasim, h. m., talaat, m., khushi, q., & azher, m. (2018). linguistic choices in hamid’s moth smoke: a transitivity analysis. international journal of english linguistics, 8(3), 303317. robins, r. h. (1967). a short history of linguistics. london and harlow. sampson, g. (1980). schools of linguistics schools of linguistics schools of linguistics. shah, m. i., & tahir, a. r. (2019). theosophical cosmologies and iqbal’s contribution: cosmos as sentient entity. thompson, g. (2004). introducing functional grammar. london: edward arnold. wulansari, a., & waluyo, s. (2016). meaning behind the poem: an analysis of transitivity of poems in romanticism period. prosiding prasasti, 171-176. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). global englishes constructs in language teaching: a review of facebook materials 91 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 global englishes constructs in language teaching: a review of facebook materials marghoob ahmad phd scholar, department of linguistics, the islamia university of bahawalpur, pakistan marghoob.hmd@gmail.com dr. mamuna ghani director, executive training center (etc) the islamia university of bahawalpur, pakistan drghani2009@yahoo.com abstract the rising paradigm of global englishes (ge) was faced with native-speaker norms and the principle of diversity therein called upon global contents when there was paucity of globallyoriented language materials and typical models hardly meet the future demands of language learners in pakistan. at the state-level, many varities of englishes were not in priority list of legislation. in this scenario, this study was a systematic review of global englishes constructs operating in facebook materials. twenty-five facebook posts of different englishes were selected opting judgmental sampling and axial coding was affixed to analyse thematic patterns in data. findings evinced the function of ge constructs coalesced in facebook material, and this bonding directed to shape comparative cultural topics for ge instruction which was a joint venture limelighting the deep concerns of l2 speakers assailing l1 cultural, social and economic hegemony global englishes-informed instruction was a useful approach to develop linguistic proficiency of students, and facebook materials were a good source to plan diverse englishes and their constructs for prospective students in pakistan. american english, british english, new zealand english, pakistani english, thai english, and indian english were dissected in a review of facebook materials which could be integrated in language teaching. the study was useful in developing an insight into ge constructs to be a source of cross-cultural knowledge helping to nurture multilingual speakers. the synthesis suggested an action plan for content and language integrated learning (clil) in line with inclusivity of ge as a teaching paradigm. keywords: clil, facebook materials, global englishes constructs, a review, language teaching introduction global englishes (ge) as inclusive research had affected numerous pedagogical practices (cameron & galloway, 2019) and its demand was rising fast across the world. to be mailto:marghoob.hmd@gmail.com global englishes constructs in language teaching: a review of facebook materials 92 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 a ground-breaking move in language teaching, the adaptation of ge as a teaching paradigm was very high among multilingual teachers. galloway & rose (2019; p.10,13) called upon it a new shift founded on the theoretical impressions from englishes worldwide. world englishes (we) began as a linguistic and sociolinguistic school of study in the 1970s and 1980s linked primarily with the codification of linguistic variation with special interest in englishes of former british colonies because englishisation and globalization escorted an emergence of educational policies globally in regions possessing no historic bond to english-speaking nations. in consideration of galloway and rose (2019; p.6,7) ge perspective overlapped with the ideologies of translanguaging showcasing linguistic hybridity and helped to inform our understanding of how speakers of english as a global lingua franca used their multilingual or translingual repertoires for communication drawing on all of their linguistic resources. the centrality of flexible norms in ge frames resonated with recent work on transnational mobility. (see i.e. guo & maitra, 2017; p.80) the use of global lingua franca continued to shape directions towards pedagogical concerns by offering possibilities for breaking free from fixed native-speaker’s norms (see i.e. rose, mckinley and galloway, 2021; pp. 157-189). ortega (2013) was of the firm view that multilingual turn impacted the field with a similar magnitude as the social turn in the 1990s contemplating sla to move away from its cognitive and positivist origins incorporated more social, individualistic and non-traditional perspectives in sla. thus, multilingualism also challenged previous conceptions of sla within wider fields (review i.e. galloway & numajiri, 2020; p.121). however, teacher education was the key factor in ensuring sustained innovation in diverse materials on the need for transformative change in language teaching with regard to elf as reported by dewey & patsko (2018; p.441). kirkpatrick (2012; p.121) truly claimed that a multicompetent english teacher was far more suitable role model for learners than a monolingual native speaker, and within a ge perspective, the transnational prospect of ge sat with transnationalism and like elf summoned the inflexible boundaries of languages. widdowson (2012, p.3) reckoned more innovations for learners that new cultures were making an appearance at full tilt in each instance of language usage particularly in lingua franca contexts where speakers brought contrastive expectations and experiences to the speech community. students benefited from more fluid, diverse and multiple forms of the language instruction and some of this fluidity could be gained through the exposure of englishes while global englishes constructs in language teaching: a review of facebook materials 93 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 diversity could also be attained through awareness raising. in the later of these studies, an explicit pedagogical task involving debate over singlish and the speak good english movement in singapore sustained to shape students and their standard language ideology. ge as a teaching paradigm configurated the role of globally-oriented language materials in the ‘internationalized’ and ‘englishized’ higher education. galloway and rose (2021; p.33) truly affirmed that global contents had to impart by language teachers to support the students. the innovation in language teaching materials was a complex process and without inclusive research in multiple contexts, it was onerous to evaluate whether the goals could be achieved in view of galloway & ruegg (2020). galloway & numajiri (2020, p.121) candidly reported that global englishes‐related newness in materials had to administer through teachers’ professional training, and for sustained progress, preservice and in‐service teachers were to ensure adoption of global englishes materials by exchanging knowledge of their chosen variety. galloway and rose (2018; p.14) also accurately affirmed that by listening to their classmates’ presentations, the task raised students’ awareness of variation in english, and attitudes of students differed from standard models presented in typical language material in japan, and they were of the convinced opinion to evaluate an innovative pedagogical task to raise awareness of global englishes and to summon standard language ideology in an english language classroom (see i.e. rose & galloway, 2019; p. 10,13). thus, any evaluation of language materials in respect of ge had flexibility in terms of tasks, activities and operations. an assessment of materials needed to enter on what was implied in terms of pedagogical beliefs. both galloway and rose (2019; p.9) firmly agreed with the want for cross-cultural materials to meet the demands of english learners who communicated more with other non-native speakers than with native speakers of english. syrbe has accomplished her exploratory analysis of four major textbook series via an adapted ge framework. masuhara and tomlinson also assessed textbooks in united kingdom claiming ge to be used for materials’ research for practioners and it also resembled a close-look evaluation. ge orientation was used to examine textbooks at a practical level, and was intended for practioners’ levels where the assigned score was used for ranking and an evaluation method was applied in place of a more rigorous method for practioners as the three-step evaluation exactly recommended by galloway (2018; p.3) who opted a second procedure of in-depth analysis which used specific and countable features of the textbook as proxy measures for a global englishes constructs in language teaching: a review of facebook materials 94 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 larger construct. in order to show how ge as an inclusive research was utilized to elicit other types of data within textbooks. it followed methodological epistemologies of content analysis and this was similar to analysis conducted by syrbe. a good ge material portrayed culture as created in communities of practice, and learners did not join an english-using culture but co-creating it. galloway (2018; p.14) exactly noted that material writers were encouraging to draw on such opportunities for learners to reflect on their encounters how communication between those from diverse lingua-cultural backgrounds differed to predetermine native english speaker norms. in consideration of galloway and rose (2019; p.10) ge constructs discerned the value of not only hiring qualified teachers regardless of native status but also what teachers of different l1 could bring to learners, and so on spotted a need to draw upon a wider range of sources from global usage of english language today, however, elt industry was still propped up by anglocentric publications, and both further truly believed the need to perceive learners’ linguistic repertoire as an extremely important resource for learning. accordingly, the wanted change to move away from traditional materials of elt to a ge contents was a speedy alteration in how we conceptualized students’ wants in multilingual classroom. thus, it was central to a paradigm shift in english language teaching which was an accurate move in assessment perspectives by which outcomes of ge instruction were measured. ergo, galloway and rose (2019; p.7) steadily noted that ge as a teaching paradigm was not proposed as a superior approach but it summoned the assumptions about english that pervaded into teaching practices, and saturated teaching materials by permeating into the ideologies of learners and called for a re-evaluation of current practices in the light of the changing sociolinguistic usage of the language. ge emphasized awareness activities of language variation including register and genre variation and its courses aimed at nurturing students’ control over dominant writing norms, diversity of language, and openness to nondominant forms (review i.e. tardy, reed, slinkard & lamance, 2020). with ge contents, students developed tolerance for language diversity comprehending the angles that other varieties were practically hybridized or dehegemonized across nations. (see i.e. boonsuk, ambele & mckinley, 2021) thus, in describing the function of language materials, bncc serialized the necessary competences, skills and contents to be covered in the curriculum, which were organized into five pillars: orality, reading, writing, linguistic knowledge and intercultural dimension. apart from the well-known language skills of reading and writing, orality encompasses listening, oral interaction and oral production. global englishes constructs in language teaching: a review of facebook materials 95 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 linguistic knowledge is expanded into grammar and vocabulary, and the last pillar intercultural dimension deals with interculturality from an elf perspective. a digitally-enhanced learning context creates a number of possibilities for english learners to express their ideas, feelings and values as propounded precisely by franco (2021, p.63). thus, in ge context, language materials imparted the target language culture and incorporated multiple international cultures, because it would assist learners to negotiate their understandings of the interlocutors’ values, and largely influenced their cognition and affective attitudes toward themselves, other people and society. (review i.e. franco, 2021; p.63) language materials had to address different voices and cultural perspectives to enable english learners to figure out different cultural values. from the eil perspective, textbooks also had to integrate a diversity of english learners’ racial and cultural backgrounds by empowering them to identify various voices. the current language materials did not pay sufficient attention to incorporate different cultural values in multiple cultures and were strictly limited to native english-speaking cultures. textbook writers were to consider the variability by helping learners to utilize their familiar cultural experiences and facilitated their identification with varieties of english (see i.e. franco, 2021; p.63). carrillo and flores (2020) noted the need for a comprehensive view of pedagogy that integrates technology to support teaching and learning. similarly, onyema et al. (2020) examined the impact of covid-19 on language instruction in different countries. planning a language material is a systematic way of designing, executing, and evaluating the whole process of research and learning to use specific goals, utilizing research findings in human communication, and employing a combination of human and nonhuman resources to create more effective learning. (e.g. see rahmati, izadpanah, & shahnavaz, 2021) language material was an attempt towards inclusivity reflecting multicultural views, and could perpetuate a culture learning and otherwise of discrimination and social exclusion. by identifying the need for an alternative approach, one had to focus on inclusion and diversity. (see i.e. bollas, 2021) the more pragmatic materials in english textbooks were pivotal since they were the major references used in classroom whether the pragmatic content as required in the curriculum was fulfilled. (see i.e. siswantara and ariffin, 2021), the local and neutral culture topics had functioned as templates to contextualize target and global cultures in language teaching classrooms in order to develop students’ intercultural awareness of local, target, and global cultures. (see i.e. marwa, cahyono, latief, & prayogo 2021) the implications of the actual use of english in china’s workplace for language teaching reform in global englishes constructs in language teaching: a review of facebook materials 96 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the context of english as a lingua franca (elf) had to gear towards using english communicatively. language teaching curriculum and pedagogies had to focus more broadly on improving students’ communication skills instead of narrowly measuring whether they had successfully adhered to lexico-grammatical accuracy pertaining to standard english norms. the native-speaker-based pedagogical model of language teaching would have enriched judiciously selected indigenized variants as long as meaning was not adversely affected. language reforms were absolutely crucial to ensure a steady supply of properly trained and resourceful language teachers. (see i.e. deyuan he, david cs li (2021). on this account, we had contributed to fill this critical void in literature, and in the light of multifarious angles that tend to promote ge instruction with multilingual language materials, we had tried to explore ge constructs operating in facebook materials. it was deeply important to investigate how successfully facebook materials could be used in ge instruction in the setting of pakistani classrooms. many rural & urban students had no ingress to ge instruction impeding their productivity (ahmad, ghani, malik, 2020). therefore, this study attempted to explore global englishes constructs operating in facebook materials. the study addressed the following research questions: research questions • what are global englishes constructs operating in facebook materials? • what are the implications of facebook materials for language teaching? research methodology qualitative paradigm was set in motion to explore global englishes constructs operating in facebook materials. the key informants were facebook posts (fp) sampled on the basis of researcher’s own judgment. the context differed in meanings. our inclusion criteria for facebook posts was that it must be a post from englishes worldwide. it must be a facebook post in the year 2020-2021. macaro’s method of systematic review was adopted with the aim to develop language materials for ge instruction. in total, this procedure identified twenty-five facebook posts from different englishes. in analysing data, lexical items were decoded for thematic patterns and global contents were dissected from facebook materials. axial coding was applied for meaning, events, reality, and activities. categories surfacing repeatedly were interconnected and findings had been connected with research objectives. (ahmad, ghani, malik, 2020) in data analysis, questions were addressed as an illustration what was the unit of text in data? who was centrally acting therein? what were the main activities in data? where global englishes constructs in language teaching: a review of facebook materials 97 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 were links in data? in interpreting data, meanings were found to answer questions in findings and connections were seen in data pieces. data was interpreted by addressing four questions. what was deeply important in data? why was it significant? what was to be learned from it? so, what? the facebook data was selectively transcribed which revealed a number of constructs related to ge. lexical items loaded with global contents were coded, categorized and analysed. a set of themes surfaced which directed us to shape diverse topics for ge instruction paving the way to chalk out an evidence-driven advice about global englishes-informed instruction using multilingual materials from facebook. both results and findings had been discovered from facebook data and discussion and conclusion parts were reported. (gay, 1996) data analysis (f.p-1) my christmas in a war zone christmas in vietnam was like another day with the exception of warm food, powdered potatoes, canned turkey, extra c-rations, and home-made hooch (fermented dried fruit turned alcohol). mail was a rare treat given the fact that it rarely arrived. care packages came from nice mothers and was shared by the recipient often willingly. fizzies (a wafer you dropped into stagnant water) was a real treat killing the awful taste of canvas confined aqua. no. christmas was just another day for the third marine amphibious force. we lived hard and we were spartans. tough conditions made for tough warriors we lived……… (steve gotlieb) the lexical items in data set reflects usage of american english as powerful inner circle variety. the signifiers “celeberating christmas in vietnam; warm food; powdered potatoes; c-rations; home-made hooch; care packages from nice mothers; & marine amphibious force” are really important in this facebook post. they have signified the challenging living conditions made for tough u.s warriors in war zone. all christian pupils and teachers in universities are engaged in it. the main reality in these signifiers is allusion to vietnam cause and celebration of christmas by warriors in war. findings include trends in vietnam, needs, effects, conditions and treatments of soldiers for whom christmas day is to be wished and enjoyed like any other day with warm eatables for soldiers living hard as they are spartans and it is linked with problem and questions of study. necessary provisions are needed global englishes constructs in language teaching: a review of facebook materials 98 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 to incorporate these global englishes constructs available in facebook materials as an innovation in curriculum for developing students’ linguistic competency through american english and the same denotes valuable implications to equip students on peculiar american cultural traits and complexes. (f.p-2) the temples…churches…& mosques are closed since eight months……… those who survived………. those who succumbed………. even god creates his own plan……. who knows…who is next? (bidhunandan dash) the lexical items from data set demonstrates the usage of indian english by a speaker exposing a condition of lockdown during covid-19. the signifiers “closed churches, mosques, temples; survived; succumbed; god; & who is next?” are really important in this post, and they have signified a complete closure during deadly pandemic. religious institutions have stopped performing their functions. some people are the victims of deadly virus, others have luckily been survived during pandemic. man is destined to be a puppet having no choice of his own in indian mind set and nobody knows about his turn when it is coming. all social activities are under strict lockdown in pandemic. finding demonstrates global constructs in data i.e. religious institutions, different religions, powers of god, life & death during a pandemic are explicitly connected with research problem and questions. the global constructs within indian english is a gateway of cultural materials which can be integrated in global englishes-informed syllabus for teaching multilingual students. provisions are needed to be made about global contents from indian english available on facebook in order to develop multicompetent speakers by language teachers. global constructs operating in indian english implicate greatly the usage of its cultural materials as teaching topics for prospective language learners in multilingual classrooms. (f.p-3) atleast something positive in the dark days of covid-19. by the grace of allah, i managed to arrange phd public defence of noveen javaid who has been declared now dr. noveen javaid by the external examiners. i congratulate her and dr. sohail saeed and the little master abdullah. i global englishes constructs in language teaching: a review of facebook materials 99 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 am glad to share that 5 phd faculty members are serving in the department of english linguistics. out of 5,4 members are my supervisees. my special thanks to dr. habibullah pathan, and dr. samina sarwat for sparing their time to be the examiners for today’s event. i am grateful to allah subhanallah taalla that he enabled me to serve my nation and country. (mamuna ghani) in this data set, lexical items show the usage of pakistani english by a speaker manifesting academic activities in phd public defence during covid-19. the signifiers “allah subhanallah taalla; positive; dark days; phd public defence; external examiners; little master; & faculty members” are really important in this post, and they signify speaker’s tribute to god who is all powerful and seeks divine inspiration in accomplishing the activities of phd public defence. universities, teachers and students are mainly engaged in this activity. the major reality in signifiers is university preparedness plans which answer research question and problem. the academic activities in phd public defence programme have been influential in pakistani english and a rich academic manifestation, and from facebook materials, these global englishes constructs can be integrated in language curriculum for multilingual students in face-to-face or digital teaching by instructors. provisions are also direly needed about instructional materials available in pakistani english on facebook to be made by universities and phd public defence related facebook topics have profound implications for language learners in pakistan. (f.p-4) alhamdulillah, ended with memorable accomplishments, the english proficiency development session for students at islamic studies demonstration school was organized to cultivate quality global citizens amid linguacultural diversity. the training session entitled: “english language learning in the 21st century: a route to global citizenship” lasted four days. throughout these days, the students had the opportunity to learn english through a variety of activities aligned with the enhancement of necessary 21st-century skills, including teamwork, problem-solving, critical thinking, global awareness, and respect for and acceptance of linguacultural diversity. (yusuf joseph) global englishes constructs in language teaching: a review of facebook materials 100 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 in this data set, the lexical items represent thai english serializing academic activities executed in english proficiency sessions. the signifiers “alhamdulillah; english proficiency; global citizens; linguacultural diversity; 21st-century skills; team work; problemsolving; critical thinking; & global awareness” refer to diverse & global materials which can be used for the purpose of nurturing multicompetent speakers in a society. universities, teachers and pupils are centrally engaged in sifting global materials. the major activity in these signifiers is capacity building through english proficiency activities for esp learners in thai english. finding is the capacity building for quality progression in thai english usage which is connected with research question and problem. global constructs in thai english is a rich source of cultural learning which can be incorporated in syllabus by language teachers for developing english proficiency of esp learners in pakistani universities, and the same also has deep-rooted implications for teaching thai english to esp learners of pakistan in order to make the prospective students as global citizens within pakistan. (f.p-5) so, after the end of the chinese new year celebration and break, our spring semester is actually starting today (2 march). however, we are still not on campus, as instead we were advised to stay put in our home countries until further notice and do our teaching and other work online (you know, because of the virus). attending the webinar ‘adapting quickly to teaching online’ (offered by one of the departments of the university of harvard) right now. very useful, you can attend it too. (bill batziakas) in this data set, the lexical items used by a speaker from british english are showing academic activities in english language teaching and learning online during covid-19. the signifiers “chinese new year; spring semester; work online; virus; & webinar” are really important because they signify teaching and learning online during covid-19. universities, teachers and pupils are centrally engaged in it. finding is the capacity of teachers engaged in online mode of teaching to language learners which is connected with research question and problem, and british english is adopted as a native model by language teachers in outer and expanding circles. so, global englishes constructs in facebook material available online are a global englishes constructs in language teaching: a review of facebook materials 101 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 cultural treasure which can be exchanged through british english adaptations and the same can be integrated in syllabus for language teaching to esp learners and it has greater implications for developing linguacultural diversity among esp learners of pakistan. (f.p-6) i’ve never been a very community-minded person-i suppose i’ve never felt i had much i could offer to others. but more and more i think community is vitally important-amongst the turmoil produced by covid, the rise of extremist right-wing groups, climate change, polarization in the distribution of wealth—i see people doing good things, unselfish things, helping others. i want to help others too, but i have been unsure how to go about this. then i thought one thing i know a bit abouti ‘ve been teaching it at university for many years-is creative writing. i have a phd in it, i have a couple of books, i publish poems, book reviews, essays. so maybe i can help people with that. if you are an aspiring writer, or a published writer, and you have some poems, or short stories, maybe a novel or a collection of essays that you want help with, i’m here for you. (tim upperton) in this data, the speaker uses new zealand english to show his determination to help the community people amid covid-19 with rich creative writing skills. the signifiers “community-minded; covid turmoil; extremist right wing; climate change; polarization; wealth distribution; unselfish things; helping others; creative writing; publishing poems; book reviews; essays; short stories; & writing novels” are deeply important and they signify community service, pledged by the speaker who is phd in creative writing, during covid-19 pandemic. people engaged in community service are centrally engaged in it. the major activities in these lexical items are community service and creative writing activities for esp learners using new zealand english, and the same as inner circle variety is associated with research question and problem. teaching creative writing to esp learners through new zealand english has greater implications in pakistan. teachers and universities are direly needed to make necessary provisions for using global englishes constructs operating in global englishes constructs in language teaching: a review of facebook materials 102 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 facebook materials available online from new zealand english for developing linguistic proficiency of esp learners with in pakistan. results and findings we have identified global englishes constructs operating in facebook materials during data analysis, and the comparative cultural topics can be serialized in table of specification charts with measurable objectives by language teachers. we have observed the constructs of american english in facebook materials i.e. celeberating christmas in war, benefits of warm food, eating powdered potatoes, c-rations in u.s military, importance of care packages from nice mothers, and understanding marine amphibious force. we have noted global topics in indian english i.e. closed temples, churches & mosques, life, death, and god’s plans. we have perceived global issues in pakistani english i.e. positivity, dark days of covid, importance of phd public defence, roles of external examiners, religion and teaching. we have identified global themes in thai english as english proficiency, global citizens, linguacultural diversity, 21st century skills, team work and global awareness. we have explored constructs in british english such as chinese new year, spring semesters, working online, covid-19 virus and webinars. we have also got an insight of global constructs moving in new zealand english like community-minded people, turmoil of covid-19, climate change, polarization, wealth distribution, helping others, creative writing, publishing poems, and book reviews. we have also perceived the reported contentions of pennycook (2007) who has adduced the diversity of english rapidly increasing around the world, and the strong views of ortega (2013) have highlighted multilingual turn overlapping with global englishes frames which are calling for a sharp transformation in elt. in our quest for global englishes constructs from a systematic review of facebook material, we have also diagnosed accentuating global englishes moves asking for a dire need to break away from practices of presenting constant regional cultures in textbooks as contexts for language learning by hands of language teachers. the central reality is global englishes approach in elt which is not an alternative step but an ideology used to inform rather than direct teaching in twenty-first century. for students’ learning and teaching english through online mode or face-to-face instruction, we have observed a dire need for teachers to choose global englishes ideology for language instruction, and universities to execute provisions regarding it tools for application of global englishes theory to multilingual global englishes constructs in language teaching: a review of facebook materials 103 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 students in pakistan and the same can prove to be a healthy activity to play and progress with global englishes approach. discussion and conclusion we have discovered issues of content and language integrated learning (clil) and perceived ways to maximize global englishes-informed language teaching with limitations. we have also believed widely to incorporate these identified constructs in global englishesinformed curriculum during face-to-face or digital teaching to multilingual students. the frames of world englishes i.e. american english, british english, new zealand english, pakistani english, thai english and indian english are observed in facebook materials that can easily be integrated in global englishes-oriented teaching. global englishes constructs have been fascinating for englishisation of higher education in pakistani universities, and the endpoint is provisions to be made by language planners by codifying global englishes as an inclusive research and teaching paradigm by opting multicultural topics from many englishes available on facebook in order to develop multicompetent speakers in pakistan. galloway (2011, 2013) has asserted global englishes to be a sounding shift in curriculum. galloway & rose (2019) have also contended that english is being accorded the status of a foreign language due to the reasons of globalization and intra-national usage. kumaravadivelu vocalizes an epistemic break calling on present practices ill-fitting in elt. for rural & urban students of pakistan, the lacking of access to global englishes instruction impedes their productivity (ahmad, ghani, malik, 2020). canagarajah and garcia have believed overlapping of global englishes with translanguaging. the multilingual turn also strongly overlaps with global englishes calling for a transformation in elt and akin calls have been cropping up within sla reported by ortega (2013). an uncontroversial segment of wanted change to move away from traditional approaches thereof elt to a global englishes set up is a speedy transposition in how we conceptualize students’ wants in language classroom, global englishes perspective does not look for a replacement of one standard with another and is not proposed as a superior teaching approach but it summons the assumptions about english that pervade into teaching practices and saturate teaching materials by permeating into the ideologies of learners. the findings of this study suggest that global englishes-informed instruction has been a useful approach to develop linguistic proficiency of students on a large scale, and facebook materials are a good source to plan diverse englishes and their constructs for multicompetent students in global englishes constructs in language teaching: a review of facebook materials 104 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 pakistan. it can minimize digital divide and inequality. the suitable approach to cover limitations of this mode of teaching is to overcome perceived obstacles and to develop preparedness plans along with necessary it tools. the study implicates a dire need to unfold capacity building of teachers by way of global englishes-oriented training to promote globalization and internationalization. references ahmad, m. ghani, m. & malik, a. 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germany, sn soc sci a springer nature journal 1:91 https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00088-8 @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.520 https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00088-8 “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma 187 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma aziz ur rehman assistant professor of english gdc wari lecturer.aziz@gmail.com riaz hussain lecturer in english, islamia college, peshawar riazamazai@gmail.com noor ul basar lecturer in english, hed, kp noorswabiann@gmail.com abstract this paper explores “difference” as locus for changing power relations in jane austen’s major novel emma. while austen’s pre-occupation with courtships has been under scholarly investigations, it has not been properly considered as tool of resistance: one that strives to displace power from physical force to a discursive one. this displacement is a strategic struggle of middle-class ascendency over aristocracy in a changing english milieu. the study examines courtships within two foucauldian frameworks. the first one is disciplinary that aims to regulate sexual practices like panopticon---an apparatus of power, producing normative/heterosexual identity through surveillance. embedded in the first is the second approach that examines the very assumptions of the panoptic discourse through ‘micro techniques of power’. it is the ability of her characters (especially the female) to reject not only undesirable sexual advances but desirable proposals as well that transform their otherwise passive and docile bodies into subjects to be reckoned with. in doing so, austen does transform signs of class and rank into forms of expression as pre-requisite for any exchange. this paper is an attempt to look into the power dynamics in the novel from a different angle---the angle of difference impacted by power/knowledge and discourse. two sites of contestation are analyzed: the first played between emma woodhouse and mr. knightly, and the second between mrs. elton and jane fairfax. this transformation can explicitly be viewed in her novel emma. foucauldian insights are certainly innovative to a well-read austen. keywords: difference, discourse, panopticon, power/knowledge introduction mailto:lecturer.aziz@gmail.com mailto:riazamazai@gmail.com mailto:noorswabiann@gmail.com “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma 188 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 where austen’s critics tend to take her subject matter at face value and read her novels primarily about courtship and marriage, we argue that in doing so she is saying something very important about the foundation of modern political economy namely who may be included and who must be kept out or be marginalized in order for its fabric to endure. in fact, the very subject matter allows austen to make women’s right of refusal that is to say “no” into an important form of socio-economic power. similarly, while austen’s scholars have debated whether austen is progressive or traditional, her understanding on these abstract phenomena in everyday life shows that she is a cultural critic that ironically scrutinizes cultural norms, revealing them as products of discourse rather than of truth, while also investigating the tools the characters use to substantiate or challenge these conventions. in this way, she tries to imagine new techniques of resistance to social norms by privileging some characters over others. in austen’s estimation of her characters’ decisions and choices of finding happiness, she rejects some uses of power as abusive and esteems others in their ability to resist and follow norms that will bring a sense of happiness to characters. the impact of power seen in the ‘truth’ of the marriage myth in pride and prejudice can be equally identified in the definition and construction of identity in austen’s novel emma. this novel offers a striking model of the ways in which characters shape and reshape identities in hierarchy of relations that privilege and empower them in opposition to others. in austen’s emma, from the title character down to the bateses and the coles, there is a war for power or resistance to the dominant and powerful ones. this struggle for shaping identities and power is not strictly in class or gender terms as there are cases where individuals from the same gender and class are at war (emma woodhouse and mr. knightley in terms of gender, mrs. elton and jane fairfax in terms of class). regardless of class and gender, however, the strategies for dominance and resistance are diverse and varied. the strategies themselves are often resistant to the understanding of austen’s casual readers. austen’s predecessors like daniel defoe and samuel richardson only provide sketches of subjectivity and do not articulate its full potentials that mark the novels of austen and the bronte sisters. women novelists do their best in asserting that woman can attain ‘desire’, can achieve the position of subject in discourse and can construct herself. even in the works of “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma 189 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 women, the forces of culture and patriarchy can be seen which locate women merely an object and not a desiring subject. they are pictured as ‘the other’ as object of discourse and not ‘the other’ as agent in discourse. however, within the given space they do succeed in examining the power and significance of the individual expression. they identify the moral threat women face at the behest of cultural forces viewing them as passive and submissive. the female protagonists symbolize the emergence of middle-class sensibility, which is detrimental to aristocratic power. placing class struggle in sexual terms appears politically convenient, as armstrong believes, “novels rewarding self-assertion on part of those in inferior position undoubtedly provided the middle-class readership with a fable for their own emergence” (50). the reflection of middleclass desire is not specifically physical and sexual but political and economic as well. emma demonstrates the truth of self as a powerful discursive moment, one which locates itself as norm in the discourse of marriage and propriety. despite holding that truth as secret for a long time, austen finally has emma urged to divulge it as natural truth, one that is reflective of her subjectivity. foucault argues that a discourse is continually under contention from competing discourses, wherein domination and resistance are constantly playing in local relations of power, and authority is finally shaped by resistance to it (history 94). we argue that the novel is a demonstration of this foucauldian premise in two ways: first the inner truth (sex) seems resistant to classical knowledge which relies on visible manifestations. the romantic discourses, symbolizing transition on the other hand, is dark and mysterious. foucault contrasts classicism to modernism that starts at the beginning of nineteenth century which of course is the onset of english romanticism. in emma, the protagonist uses harriet as vehicle for her sexual drive and at the end shifts it back to be told from her own body. austen seems to locate sex as something to be known as truth of middle-class value. second, in the novel, characters are using discourse for the construction of identities. this twofold reclamation of power is explored to know whether austen questions normative values through an analysis of power and its truth. theoretical framework difference in western thinking implies a lack of value and defiance to norms. michel foucault’s histories specifically illustrate this lack as characterizing those who appear different. “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma 190 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 this difference entails a threat to those unattached to fixed hierarchies (boyne, 1990). difference thus is a potential threat as it lies outside the prescribed knowledge domain that controls subjects under its gaze. derrida’s analysis of presence looks at hierarchy as a delusion upheld by power. it is delusional in that it excludes the possibility that other fictional structures may not engender. foucault is applicable to the emergence of resistance as he provokes the inevitability of power at all levels of social life. derrida’s position against the undue privilege of presence, against the illusory belief that representation is inferior and as such unneeded, can be seen as a critique of all unqualified oppositions in western thoughts. binaries such as reason and emotion, visible and invisible, good and bad, truth and falsehood, nature and culture, speech and writing, man and woman, are to derrida not just substitutions, but a privileging of one of the binary over the other as original, authentic and the other as insignificant and unoriginal. derrida puts it “one of the two terms governs the other...to deconstruct the opposition...is to overturn the hierarchy at a given moment” (positions 42). derrida’s deconstruction recommends a reversal of the binaries, and a privilege to the unprivileged. foucault’s theory of power/knowledge and discourse also attempts something like deconstructing fixity and truth. foucault’s power is not something possessed by an individual or groups; nor can it be taken for something to be distributed among them. foucault covertly challenges the idea of men’s control of power over women. for foucault, there is nothing outside power from where it can be decided as to who should have it. thus knowledge too cannot be impartial in the sense of remaining external to the sphere of power. this model of power reinforces foucault’s multiplicity. it is because power ‘comes from everywhere’ is apt to qualify that “where there is power there is resistance” (history 95). this is an implicit endorsement of derrida’s deconstruction. power is a matter of difference as it does not walk a single route, but is viewed as capillary, spreading through discourses, bodies and relationships, in the metaphor of a network (power/knowledge 22). there are multiple knowledges, and politics is played for grasping these knowledges. this implies that there is no single truth but many. this plurality for foucault signifies that truth be seen as a thing produced and not revealed. keeping plurality in mind, this study attempts to read emma as a novel rich in power relations with the possibility of opposition and difference. this difference can be interpreted as indifference as well as deferral. emma’s “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma 191 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 difference from tradition and customs generates counter values that stand against the established order—patriarchy. analysis in emma, austen scrutinizes the prevailing power and its myths such as the truth of patriarchy and the powerlessness of the female – upheld by the reigning discourses. in her angst to excavate the unspoken truth of women, she takes on the very thing foucault stresses new historians to do–the revelation of the other history that runs under the prevalent historiography (after foucault, 121-2). traditional history cannot be accurately understood without the particular history of women. this history can be reexamined in the traditional practices of marriage which austen seems to revisit. while marriage as norm is traditional and historical, in austen, this affords a political and counter-reading. austen’s novel does not represent forms of subjectivity that already exist as such. by providing a readership’s access to the inner workings of subjectivity and how an individual learns to regulate his/her emotions and read the emotions of others, the novel produces a form of subjectivity, or self, that literate populations came to regard as their own. how a discourse construes the difference between males and females determines marriage rules, distribution of property, those governing the organization of the household (what women can wear, where they can go, whether they can be subjected to corporal punishment, their authority over children, and education). however, the investigation of desire per se is not the intended subject of analysis here. conversely, this paper explores the very politics of dominance and subversion played in the name of sexuality. nancy armstrong aptly puts this dimension in arguing “foucault alone shifts the investigation of sexuality away from the nature of desire to its political uses” (desire 9). foucault doesn’t try to explain the biological difference between male and female but is rather interested in how that difference is interpreted and used for purposes of political organization. his notion of sexuality makes desire by definition resistant to the status quo. the game of power is played in marriage which is a minor component of sexuality. as identified, power is not without contestation or resistance. in austen, resistance means indifference, or turning away. as pointed, resistance is more creative when it is not simply oppositional in relation to authority—when, that is, it surprises by doing something else, and something not “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma 192 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 forbidden but not exactly authorized either. there is no one better than austen at turning rebellion into an error in understanding (e.g., harriett smith), which the heroine aids and abets, only to realize that she has committed a gross misreading of character and caused a social kerfuffle because she is intellectually vain. emma is read as a conflict between different discourses of individual and society, invisible and visible, female self and masculine network embodied variously by emma woodhouse, mr. knightley, mrs. elton, frank, jane, and others. the discourse between emma and mr. knightley is explored first as a tension between self and society through insights from foucault’s discipline and punish: the birth of prison (hereafter discipline). this work explores the effect of knowledge and power on the characters of emma and knightley; likewise, it expands this effect through strategies of discipline as a form of power. in the second part, strategies of dominance and resistance are explored in the characters of mrs. elton and jane fairfax. in his influential text, the order of things, foucault argues that an historical era is characterized by a system of knowledge that regulates thoughts within that period. the writers of a given era are governed by the same knowledge and they employ “the same rules to define the objects proper to their own study, to form their concepts, to build their theories” (xi). foucault talks of three broad historical systems of thoughts: the renaissance, the classical, and the modern. jane austen appears to be writing in the transition from classical to the modern period which is equated by critics to the romantic period. a shift for foucault signifies a reformation of knowledge and the methods by which an era knows itself and how it constitutes the very meaning of things. foucault’s discipline explores the political implication of such organization of knowledge. discipline likewise studies the intimate relation between knowledge and power: the way a historical period looks at the world as an object of knowledge also signifies how that world is controlled, sustained, and manipulated. in a sense, knowledge and power are closely connected to each other, or to say, epistemology and politics are inextricably linked. this is manifested by the intrinsic dispositions of various characters in the novel as analyzed below. knightly, emma’s ideological adversary, as foucauldian panoptic is placed in a position from where he can see every body. the tower in the panopticon (prison house) is located in the center from where to see without being seen. even if the controlling authority is absent, the “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma 193 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 inmates in the prison cells internalize the discipline. the game episode in the novel locates knightley in the very position where the panoptic device is placed. the disciplinary gaze is installed through some inventions in the design, “…an architecture that would operate to transform individuals: to act on those it shelters, to provide hold on their conduct, to carry the effects of power right to them, to make it possible to know them, to alter them” (discipline 172). austen very well describes his position, “by acting uninterested, knightley would appear disinterested as well. but his surreptitious behavior undermines the notion of disinterested reading. seeing without appearing to observe, reading without appearing to read, knightley at once admits and suppresses this duplicity” (428). his objection to frank stems somewhat from fear that the latter may seize the role of master reader. knightley alone wants to reserve this right “…to read every body’s character” to be “…so placed as to see them all” (emma 124, 287). the question arises as why there is a tension in austen’s novels between order and individualism or between reason and passion. the balance between these oppositions is quite strange in her novels. harding argues that austen follows the humor traditions in portraying minor characters like allan and mrs. elton, characters who cannot act without revealing dominant passion (“regulated hatred” 83-105). passion is usually displayed but it assumes special significance in austen’s novels when remains hidden. austen is believed to be without much passion which seems less accurate. in austen’s world, passion is the most significant fact to be seen in characters’ behavior. however, locating it requires efforts since it lies hidden within the self and is quite resistant to both expression and sight. mariana’s cry that “…if i could but know his heart everything would become easy” (sense and sensibility 345), shows the significance of passion. her characters must know the heart which is not an easy task. hence, while the end of austen’s novels seems to reinstate a classical order, the overall execution of plot validates a romantic type interpretation in search of depth and meaning. her novels present a constant tension between truth and surface for any extra dependence on classical interpretation because her heroines’ experiences defy a complete classical approach. as stated, foucault postulates a thorough agreement between a mode of knowledge and its object of study. in austen, romantic depths create an essential challenge to classical knowledge, a challenge that is difficult for austen to overlook. a connoisseur of the art of “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma 194 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 judging feelings, she fails to know the secret of frank and jane. she admits her failure to know frank by the end of the novel. the failure to know oneself has been portrayed as a moral decline by the author. attainment of thorough knowledge between two selves---“that full and perfect confidence which her disposition was more ready to welcome” leads the novel to a happy culmination (emma 435). though ideal, emma does not afford such openness during the course of the plot. many truths are lying hidden even from the protagonist. the novel keeps the secret of frank’s engagement till the end. the same observation with slight difference has been made by miller as well: “…if all her characters behaved according to mr. knightley’s principle---as, morally jane austen thinks they should have---there would be no source of narratability” (narrative 40). more clearly, the novel exists so long there is mystery, and ceases when it is dispelled. the novel still might have been a classical piece but not a perfect one where the revelation of individual subject is concerned. emma thus seems a romantic novel with tenacity to attain full knowledge of the characters. the self’s own passion must be recognized for a full selfknowledge and discovery. the submission of knightley to passion’s concealments signifies austen’s regard for the ways of the heart. it is because exteriors for her never reflect full truth. this very fact has been emphatically described by austen’s narrator: seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken; but where, as in this case, though the conduct is mistaken, the feelings are not, it may not be very material---mr. knightley could not impute to emma a more relenting heart than she possessed, or a heart more disposed to accept of his. (emma 432) this is perfectly in line with foucault’s fundamental idea: the constitution of the subject comes about in the postclassical mode of knowledge. foucault’s notion of subject and object makes his argument clear. for foucault, a subject of knowledge defines its object of knowledge. thus while science as subject has its object the study of natural phenomena, this study and its object varies from era to era. similarly, once the truth of a person is located, then its subsequent analysis and critique becomes easy. foucault considers man as an object of knowledge of a vast range of subjects. he himself becomes a subject in so far studying himself, his inner life. likewise, he becomes an object when he is investigated by others with knowledge. his self “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma 195 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 becomes a mystery or point of knowledge and austen’s placement of complex characters at that level becomes the source of interest for the readers. insight becomes the key to sight in searching the hidden truth in austen’s novels, specifically emma. as mentioned, foucault’s discipline explores knowledge’s pursuits of characters with depths. knowledge is supposed to discipline the disorderly passion, to make the unruly subject come under the control of power. the modern human sciences like psychology, anthropology, and psychiatry guarantee public access to the most private and intimate thoughts and feelings. foucault traces these developments at length in his history as well. the identification of feelings and emotions as the significant locus of knowledge generates a new field where power aims to intervene. in the classical episteme, power does not bother to intervene in people’s intimate lives as they are not considered significant. the private arena is not taken to be a zone of reality. only an individual’s public and social position is scrutinized by power for knowing and maintaining reality. austen upholds classical commitment in her depiction of certain imperfect characters (like mr. woodhouse) because of their known place in society. she presents them in gentle and affectionate ways because of their recognized order in the narrative by a classical standard. in opposing a gender role materially and psychologically, emma, the heroine, disrupts the “configuration of power [which] constructs the subject and the other, that binary relation between ‘men’ and ‘women,’ and the internal stability of those terms” (butler, p. viii). emma’s transgression is not solely reflected in her action and personal interaction against her normative society. her interactions with the would-be suitors like knightley, elton, and churchill reveal her gross miscalculation of their perceptions of her. it is this romantic mode of existence that serves a defiance to be assessed clearly by knightley. her difference is also seen in the sense of deferral as she delays her marriage to knightley. this deferral is resistance in that it creates its own sense of value against the terms of subjectivity defined by patriarchy. while the power dynamics are seen in her continual defiance of sexual negotiation with knightley, the discussion ahead analyzes a woman’s tacit resistance to another woman’s discursive power. according to foucault’s view of identity, there is not fixed principle that governs the positions of different sexes; identities are fluid. it is not mandatory that patriarchy shall always be propagated by men and vice versa. there is an equally valid possibility that the same role may “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma 196 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 be performed by any subject irrespective of his or her gender. while some of austen’s scholars look at her works from postcolonial perspective, restructuring the argument through foucault’s knowledge/power dynamic shows the ways in which austen anticipates the creation of truth and identity. in so doing, she also demonstrates the influence and techniques of power’s productive experiences. foucault’s relevance to general theory is vast and to postcolonial is significantly vaster. edward said, a celebrated postcolonialist, owes much to foucault in framing his arguments in his orientalism. said recognizes foucault’s influence in his article “foucault: a critical reader. similarly, said’s “jane austen and empire” helps scholars to reconsider austen’s impact on english culture specifically in its colonial undertakings. whereas said’s analysis is based on austen’s mansfield park, it can be accurately applied to emma as well. there are characters and scenes where discourse plays its role in establishing hegemony. while the preceding discussion involves the relationship of power between emma and mr. knightley, this analysis looks at the characters of mrs. elton and jane fairfax. mrs. elton constantly tries to authorize and maintain her self-identity through dictatorial speech, reflecting the colonial scheme through the appropriation of an “other,” which in this case is jane fairfax. the panoptic role played by knightley is played here by mrs. elton. mrs. elton’s panoptic gaze is directed towards jane fairfax in disciplining her in ways that are imposing and in this term colonial. as apposed, jane fairfax does not seem to accept that hegemony of the dominant. through her effective communicative strategies she resists mrs. elton. thus she responds to power in her own ways although not pronounced but not compliant either. jane’s secret correspondence and engagement to frank churchill upsets mrs. elton’s discursive power. parallel to the counter-discourse slave narratives, jane’s letters, finally shown only through frank’s letter to emma, affords her a practice for resisting mrs. elton to script her identity. foucault’s “arts of existence” is one way of countering normative schemes of creating and assigning subjectivity. jeffrey nealon’s interpretation of foucault’s “arts of existence” is that they “not only allow us to become self-determining agents, but also provide the grounds for us to challenge and resist power structures” (8). specific acts essential for existence promote an individual’s sense of self. jane’s communication in the form of writing corresponds to foucault’s “arts of existence”. since “power is everywhere” across power relations, austen encourages “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma 197 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 writing as tool to resist or counter speech acts in shaping one’s social identity. it offers the difference not in binary sense but as difference in its own right. she attempts to claim her indifference through writing much like derrida’s binary of writing vs. speech. pickett argues, “through practical engagement it is possible to work upon the self, and to create more space for self-creation apart from the political world” (foucault 460). as a system of communication, writing in the form of letters, facilitates self-expression when speaking is rude and unbearable. jane letters communicate her tacit resistance. jane fairfax concerns with letters as mode of communication turn substantial as mrs. elton’s speaking power intensifies. in their rendering dominance and resistance, austen seems to fictionalize an existence that is unbalanced. this instability has been explored, contested and being restored. similarly, there are political and class conventions as well. there are several challenging social conventions characterized within austen’s fictions, specifically in emma. thus, austen’s investigation of mrs. elton’s social identity through “otherizing” jane fairfax is reflected in the latter’s counterdiscourse through writing. as foucault states: “what makes power hold good, what makes it accepted, is … it traverses and produces things, it induces pleasure, forms knowledge, produces discourse” (power/knowledge 119). by dint of her discursive social position to talk masterfully about jane, mrs. elton tries to construct social knowledge of jane, perceived as truth about jane’s identity. while jane has been constructed as such, she is neither timid nor silent, only discourse makes her so. she is an object of mrs. elton’s superior knowledge. jane is not timid but is silent taken as timidity. she is a product of her surveillance and is too courteous to challenge mrs. elton openly in exchange. this further emboldens mrs. elton to build her identity. this is the point where mrs. elton’s self-authorization is clearly located. mrs. elton’s account of jane has very little truth; instead, mrs. elton creates an illusory person lower than herself in prestige and position. in describing jane, mrs. elton is projecting a self-constructed version of confidence, knowledge, and social relations. said writes: “european culture gained in strength and identity by setting itself off against the orient as a sort of surrogate and even underground self” (orientalism 3). by pointing who orientals are europe virtually engages in defining itself which in reality it is not. this exemplifies foucauldian discourse mrs. elton uses in her depiction of jane fairfax. “i know “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma 198 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 you, i know you” declares mrs. elton to jane fairfax, implying that she alone has knowledge, and thereby power, of jane (emma 243). mrs. elton clearly works in classical episteme where reality is represented by surface and visible. this power to represent is oblivious to truth and secret resistance as such. mrs. elton’s language increases her self-importance: as she uses “i” repeatedly and subordinates jane as an object of her actions. mrs. elton’s narrative is imposing in posing herself the doer and jane as the receiver. instead of turning her to subject, she continually objectifies her through language and discourse. she declares her intentions publicly to appear gentle and helpful. in reality, she is concerned only in using her the way she is suited—jane is not asked the least. this objectification is validated in mrs. elton’s discussions that do not reflect agency and interiority of others, but rather discipline and hegemonize. upon learning that jane goes to post office she cries, “you sad girl, how could you do such a thing?—it is a sign i was not there to take care of you” (emma 238). the language used empowers mrs. elton and reduces jane, altering her from woman into child. when mrs. elton says “oh! she shall not do such a thing again,” it is with a power and conviction to which “jane looked as if she did not mean to be conquered” (emma 238-39). here again mrs. elton objectifies her under surveillance as she wants to argue but cannot under polite panopticon. while in foucault’s surveillance, the subjects cannot resist openly, they cannot be expected to comply as well. the above lines indicate jane is not unmindful and may resist mrs. elton’s empowering stunts in private. this scene hints at the letters which indicate that there is an expressive being to jane fairfax than appears to mrs. elton. the secret letters exchanged between jane and frank prevent jane from reacting orally to mrs. elton’s abusive behavior. thinking herself above discipline, mrs. elton disregards the power of refinement and utterly affirms her judgment. this she does to appear more powerful and controlling. as mr. knightly points out: “mrs. elton does not talk to miss fairfax as she speaks of her” (emma 232). the post office episode is a key illustration of mrs. elton’s discourse of jane, as mrs. elton always uses “she,” rather than “you,” in speaking to jane. while the two share the same room, mrs. elton does not directly refer to jane but instead makes a show of her power through tactical speech. mrs. elton would not engage in dialogue as she takes her an object for deploying knowledge and power. mcmaster emphasizes the significance of mrs. “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma 199 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 elton’s speech as a sign of her character: “for mrs. elton the exchange is all about power. and within the bounds of supposedly polite exchange, she nevertheless bristles and snarls and snatches any advantage she can” (emma 74). mrs. elton, in so doing, models her image of social control and power. in belittling jane, she raises her own importance–a kind of speech act embedded in colonial discourse. mrs. elton’s repeated investigations expose the tension in their outlooks to identity formation. mrs. elton nonstop inquiries about the role of governess indicate that jane is powerless and dominated. thus she projects her power at the level of discourse at least. gabrielle white is apt to say that mrs. elton is not a friend to jane because she does exactly what jane has explicitly asked her “friends” not to do (57). white contends: “there is the opportunity to consider that just as mrs. elton is not much of a friend to jane fairfax so mr. suckling may not be much of a friend to the abolition” (52). white here refers to mrs. elton’s observation about the slave trade in scene where jane fairfax says, “there are places in town, offices, where inquiry would soon produce something—offices for the sale—not quite of human flesh—but of human intellect” (emma 242). feeling herself the target, mrs. elton responds “oh! my dear, human flesh! you quite shock me; if you mean a fling at the slave-trade, i assure you mr. suckling was always rather a friend to the abolition” (emma 242). nevertheless, the comparison of governesses and slavery is fairly disgusting, given the social position in which it is spoken, a picnic. being out of context, this is a sign of pushback by jane against mrs. elton’s assertion of authority. while mrs. elton always refers to her sister and mr. suckling, the link between mrs. elton and the slave trade gets closer. jane fairfax’s allusion to the “sale of human flesh” is a clever insult of mrs. elton. it also uncovers jane’s knowledge of poetry, slavery, as well as of mrs. elton’s undue claims to social influences and contributions. she critiques mrs. elton’s claims of charity by challenging the value of her actions. jane’s comment may also be referring to how mrs. elton is, herself, commodifying and trading jane in ways that are not friendly, but commercial (mcmaster 79). as illustrated already, mrs. elton’s speech objectifies jane as an object signifying mrs. elton’s power rather than actualizing with her own thoughts and desires. while to jane, mrs. elton is an oppressive authoritarian exerting undesirable force claiming to be a friend that must “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma 200 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 be resisted despite imbalanced power dynamics between the two. commenting upon this complementarity of power and resistance in foucault, pickett observes, “there is always at least some resistance to the imposition of any particular form of subjectivity, and thus resistance is concomitant with the process of subjectification” (foucault, p. 458). mrs. weston and knightley observe: “miss fairfax is as capable as any of us of forming a just opinion of mrs. elton. could she have chosen with whom to associate, she would not have chosen her” (emma 231). the problem of choice gets obvious in examining the uneven dynamics between mrs. elton and jane fairfax. jane’s social circles are restricted specifically for movement and transportation despite social limits. indeed, her immobility highlights her reliance even if she tries to compensate this sense of powerlessness with individual actions. she seems to have been localized by the social panopticon. foucault’s “discipline” is significant here as the master gaze helps to promote actions that are more or less sanctioned. in this perspective, nealon argues, “discipline works on individuals precisely through the more efficient means of targeting their potential actions, their capacities: literally what they can—and can’t—do” (31).thus as a woman of scarce but refined household, jane’s actions and movements are restricted by social expectations. conversely, mrs. elton exists as an epitome of the power in regulating movements as done by foucault’s surveillance model. mrs. elton literally tries to stop jane from going to the post office. however, discipline is maintained by almost the whole community as is exerted on jane in controlling her movement. while her society is pretty disciplinary, jane misses no chance to redraft her identity in following social prospects only when required. foucault states, “to resist, it must be like power. as inventive, as mobile and as productive as power. like power, it must organize itself, coagulate and cement itself. like power, it must come from below and distribute itself strategically (267). mrs. elton’s endeavors to write her identity by making jane fairfax as the “other” are mocked and satirized. by the end of the novel, mrs. elton is portrayed as egotistical, ineffective, and twofaced. nevertheless, mrs. elton is not a single case within the novel; her approach symbolizes an infinite social practice of misrepresentation and control which, as said reveals, is a part of the colonial project. the same cultural practices have been prevalent in almost all literary texts as a product of power/knowledge. in emma the readers are left to assume that mrs. elton is not incorporated into community, as she gets the details of emma and “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma 201 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 knightley from her husband—she, herself, does not actually attend the wedding (emma 381). but austen is not at ease simply to pen down the repercussions of such hegemonic behavior; instead, she goes beyond that to chart the avenues where individuals can resist, rewrite, and remake their identities in opposition to power---be that patriarchal or otherwise. conclusion the difference identified in the characters of emma woodhouse, mr. knightley, mrs. elton, jane fairfax, and frank churchill appears to be implicitly incorporated by the relational power dynamics in the flow of the plot. it is pertinent to clarify that this difference is basically the poststructuralist form of resistance, advocated by michel foucault as, “we can never be ensnared by power: we can always modify its grip in determinate conditions and according to a precise strategy” (politics 123). as analyzed in this paper, the strategy as difference---the refusal and passivity on the part of characters---is what the theory of surveillance implicitly propagates. the same strategy of resistance as pickett sees it, “something always eludes the diffusion of power and expresses itself as indocility and resistance” (foucault 458). from a poststructuralist feminist perspective, this work analyzed how the proposed characters stand up to the norms established by the historical flow of tradition. the classical norm of worshiping the obvious---the empirical objectivity of things observed---is beautifully contested by the characters’ implicit defiance to conformity. in the concept of panopticism, it has always been challenging to trace the reverse impact of subjects upon the source of surveillance---the center of discourse; yet, the characters’ rigidity to actively engage in traditional obligations, such as marriage, demonstrates that their worldview exercises a counter influence on the center of meaning. in this regard, it can aptly be connected with foucault’s view that “where there is power, there is resistance” (history, 95). references armstrong, n. (1987). desire and domestic fiction: a political history of the novel. austen, jane. (2002). emma: ed. alistair m. duckworth. boston (mass. bedford/st. martin’s.austen, j., in sturrock, j. (2001). mansfield park. peterborough, ont: broadview press. austen, j., & beer, g. (2003). persuasion. london: penguin books. “difference” as mode of resistance in jane austen’s emma 202 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 boyne, roy. (1990 )foucault and derrida: the other side of the reason. unwin hyman: psychology press. butler, judith. (1993) bodies that matter: on the discursive limits of “sex”. new york: routledge, butler, judith. (2006 ) gender trouble. routledge. butler, judith. (1988). performative acts and gender constitution: an essay in phenomenology and feminist theory. theatre journal, vol. 40,no.4,pp. 519–531. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/3207893. accessed 7 may 2021. butler, marilyn. 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(2006) jane austen in the context of abolition. houndmills: palgrave macmillan. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 164 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" dr. zareena qasim assistant professor, department of english, university of sargodha, pakistan sana mumtaz mphil english, university of sargodha, pakistan asifa qasim assistant professor, department of english qassim university, saudi arabia abstract the formal colonial rule of britain ended seven decades ago but the experience deeply influenced the minds of the masses and altered their lives and psyche for a long time to come. post-colonial issues such as loss of identity, hybridity, otherness, appropriation etc are frequently highlighted by the anglophone writers of sub-continent. the authors of pakistani descent have contributed remarkably to post-colonial literature. the present research aims to analyse nafisa haji’s novel the writing on my forehead (2009) to investigate western influence on the minds and behaviours of the people of the subcontinent. homi k. bhabha's analytical lens (1994) is the primary guide for this research. three elements of hybridity, namely mimicry, ambivalence, and unhomeliness, as proposed by bhabha are explored. the concepts of diaspora and othering in the work under discussion are also briefly touched. this research is qualitative and descriptive in nature. the results of detailed textual analysis indicate that various characters are hybrids of east and west. the phenomena of ambivalence and mimicry can be clearly observed in their conduct and thinking. the most important characters in this regard are saira, adeeba (also known as big nanima) and kasim who openly mimic the western culture. minor characters like adeeba’s parents and shabana, though averse to western culture at the surface level, are unconsciously influenced by it. the phenomena of othering, diaspora and unhomeliness are also briefly touched. in this way, the present study sheds light on the impact of colonialism on the lives of colonial subjects and links it with the continued hegemony of west over the easterners. it will be helpful for students, teachers and researchers who wish to study haji’s fiction and the impact of the phenomenon of colonialism. keywords: hybridity, mimicry, ambivalence, unhomeliness, othering, diaspora, the writing on my forehead. introduction britain left indo-pak sub-continent more than seventy years ago, but the legacy of british rule still plagues the souls of the people of this region like cancer. their language, culture and even ways of dressing and thinking have been altered. they lost their honour and dignity and were pushed into a dark pit of humiliation and inferiority complex for a long time to come. three white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 165 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 generations later, their brown skin still has white blotches. whether they will ever go back to their pure, pre-colonial state is a question no one can answer with certainty. pakistani english writers have used their pens to give voice to the dilemmas of their postcolonial nation in abundance. hanif kureishi, bapsi sidhwa, kamila shamsie, mohammad hanif and jamil ahmad are some of the stars of this constellation. the name of nafisa haji, a brilliant american writer of indo-pakistani descent, is not new to this list. she is the author of two novels: "the writing on my forehead" and "sweetness of tears" which were published in 2009 and 2011 respectively. her first novel, the writing on my forehead, was a finalist for the northern california independent booksellers association book of the year award. it is perfect for postcolonial analysis and especially the study of hybridity. nafisa has firsthand knowledge and personal experience of issues of identity, gender, religion, race, ambivalence, cultural amalgamation and hybridity, discrimination, mimicry and unhomeliness. her fiction is strengthened and backed by her own experiences in the region and abroad which are common to large numbers of indo-pakistani immigrants residing in the west. little to no work has been done on haji's novels so they offer a vast scope for research. the present study analyses and discusses haji's selected work, namely "the writing on my forehead" from post-colonial perspective. this research will be helpful for teachers and students interested in understanding the phenomenon of colonialism and its impact. it will widen the mental horizons of both the colonized and the colonizer and equip them with the ability to think critically. it will serve new researchers and critics who wish to explore the works of the writer under discussion. literature review a number of research studies have been done to explore the writings of indo-pakistani authors from post-colonial perspective. waworuntu and arianto (2019) used homi k bhabha's framework to analyze hanif kureishi's short story "my son the fanatic". the main characters parvez and his son ali are pakistanis living in the uk. the identity crisis and superior-inferior dichotomy between europeans and their former colonial subjects gives rise to ambivalence and mimicry. parvez tries hard to merge into the western society, in an attempt to elevate his social status but he fails in his pursuit. it is through parvez’s character that mimicry is highlighted mainly in the story. ali who is bred in europe harbors mixed feelings about western society. on white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 166 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 one hand, he expresses his distaste for western education and way of life and on the other hand, he continues to reside among the people he claims to abhor which shows his ambivalent attitude. parvez’s dreams and dialogues highlight that he is also ambivalent in his attitude. additionally, the researchers found a major element of resistance towards imperial practice in ali’s character. nayebpour (2017) also explored the ambivalent nature of colonial mimicry in my son the fanatic. the researcher found that the father tries to mime western culture thereby accepting its superiority and the inferiority of his own eastern heritage but the son revolts against western cultural invasion by attempting to erase everything that represents it from his life. wahid (2018) explored kamila shamsie's burnt shadows from post-colonial perspective and found the elements of metropolitanism, hybridity, othering, nativism, diaspora and unhomeliness in the novel. the researchers found that sajjad’s dialogues highlight the aspect of metropolitanism, nativism and hybridity. he is sandwiched between british and indian cultures. moreover, the study analyzed various characters from the perspective of othering. sajjad and hiroko tanaka are the main objects of analysis for the phenomenon of othering. lastly, the element of diaspora or unhomeliness is analyzed. sajjad is the main victim of diaspora and feelings of unhomeliness. gul, noor and singh (2016) analyzed bapsisidhwa'san american brat using homi k bhabha's concept of hybridity. their essay "uses mimicry, ambivalence, and unhomeliness, concepts under hybridity, to facilitate the understanding of feroza’s experiences in an american brat." (gul et al., 2016). feroza and her uncle manek mimic americans but their mimicry is ambivalent. they are hybrids of two cultures and at times experience feelings of unhomeliness because of it. ali (2018) explored the concepts of indigenous identity and hybridity in arundhati roy’s god of small things. many types of hybridity were found in the novel which include linguistic, racial, religious, cultural, and political hybridity. the twins who are the narrators of the story spoke a mixture of indian and english tongues like many other characters in the novel. an amalgamation of indian and english culture is presented through the characters of pappachi and chacko. the twins and their cousin sophie mol are an example of racial hybridity whereas white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 167 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 religious hybridity can be seen in the union of individuals from hindu and christian backgrounds. ayaz and anjum (2018) analyzed kamala das’s poem “an introduction”from postcolonial perspective. the researchers investigated the selected poem for multiple relevant factors. they found that kamala das supports the use of english tongue and its mixing with the local languages which is an example of cultural hybridity resulting from the practice of colonialism. the concepts of “self” and “other” have also been analyzed with a focus on rebellion and resistance against tyranny of colonial rule and patriarchy. discrimination based on color is also identified. haroon (2015) explored jasmine by bharati mukherjee and anita and me by meera syal. she studied the protagonists of these novels who are transnational and/or transcultural south asian females, as postcolonial hybrid subjects. their statuses as colonial “others” and as hybrids of two cultures is highlighted. post-colonial feminist theory, women of color feminism and the conceptual framework of whiteness studies are the primary focus of the researcher in this study. khrais (2020) analyzed cultural struggle and conflict experienced by the protagonists in jhampa lahiri’s the namesake. the concepts of hybridity and assimilation are applied on the selected work. the researcher found that ashima succeeds in adopting and embracing western culture while retaining her own bengali heritage and identity. her husband, ashok, on the other hand gives up on his heritage completely but continues to respect it, nonetheless. another character, gogol, is found to be an embodiment and assimilation of cultural hybridity. as mentioned earlier, nafisa haji is an american author of indo-pakistani origin, and her debut novel falls in the category of post-colonial fiction. since, the selected work has not been explored before, it offers a vast scope of research. the present research uses the post-colonial lens to probe the selected novel. the theory of hybridity is the chief focus of the researcher in this study, but the elements of diaspora, unhomeliness and othering are also briefly touched during the present research. theoretical and methodological framework the aim of post-colonial theory is to counter the impact of the remnants of colonialism. makaryk in faruk (2007) defines postcolonial theory as a collection of theoretical and critical white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 168 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 strategies whose aim is to question the position of colonial and post-colonial subjects. this theory is employed to explore the cultural characteristics and productions such as history, economics, politics, literature and various other types of documents of ex-colonial countries after the end of formal colonial control. post-colonial theory can be studied under a large number of subcategories but only a few of these categories have been explored in the course of this research. these chosen concepts and categories are explained as under: hybridity is one of the most commonly used and disputed terms associated with post-colonial theory. ashcroft et. al (2007) states: ...hybridity commonly refers to the creation of new transcultural forms within the contact zone produced by colonization. as used in horticulture, the term refers to the crossbreeding of two species by grafting or cross-pollination to form a third, ‘hybrid’ species. hybridization takes many forms:linguistic, cultural, political, racial, etc. an important name associated with this term these days is of homi k. bhabha who explores the colonizer-colonized relations in his works and insists on their interdependence. bhabha (1994) calls hybridity an “in-between” or “interstitial” space that gives birth to new signs of identity through a negotiation of differences (pp.1-2). mimicry, ambivalence, and unhomeliness are three main concepts that fall under the umbrella of hybridity. according to homi k. bhabha, mimicry is the process by which the colonized subject is reproduced as ‘almost the same, but not quite’ (bhabha 1994: 86). mimicry is derived from the greek word "mimesis" which means imitation or copying. mimicry can resemble mockery at times. it carries an element of menace for the colonizing powers because as the lines between the colonizers and their respective subjects are blurred, the authority of the colonizer comes into question. the term "ambivalence" was first used in psychoanalysis to describe the presence of opposing emotions and desires in a person. in ambivalence, a person exhibits love and hatred or attraction and repulsion towards something at the same time. according to young (1995), it is an attraction as well as an aversion towards a particular object, person, or action. according to bhabha, "the colonial presence is always ambivalent, split between its appearance as original and authoritative and its articulation as repetition and difference” (bhabha 1994, p.153). aspects of the colonial subject's own culture and that of the colonizer assimilate to form an amalgamation of white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 169 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 differing cultural values, beliefs and norms. the concept of ambivalence is closely related to the concept of mimicry. the term "unhomeliness" is derived from the german word "unheimlich". this term was first coined by sigmund freud. according to freud, unhomeliness is linked with feelings of unfamiliarity and that which is unknown (freud, 1919, p.220). bhabha, inspired by freud, discussed unhomeliness in his essay "unhomely lives: the literature of recognition in the location of culture" (1994). home is something more than four walls and a geographical/physical location. feelings of unhomeliness include feelings of estrangement and a lack of a sense belonging to a place and its people. in the house of fiction [there is] the deep stirring of the “unhomely.” you must permit me this awkward word— the unhomely— because it captures something of the estranging sense of the relocation of the home and the world in an unhallowed place... in that displacement the border between home and world becomes confused; and, uncannily, the private and the public become part of each other, forcing upon us a vision that is as divided as it is disorienting. (bhabha, 1992, p.141) diaspora is the voluntary or forcible movement of people from their native lands to other parts or regions of the world. colonialism itself was a diasporic movement that involved the movement of europeans to other parts of the world where they ruled and built their colonies. in addition to that, the colonized people were transported to other parts of the world for laboring and work. colonization, in this way, resulted in a dispersion of people belonging to different races and regions across the globe. different races intermingled as a result of this phenomenon. othering is another important concept associated with post-colonial theory. this term was first coined by gayatri spivak to describe the process whereby colonial subjects are described and labeled as "others". the 'other' is anyone who is separate from oneself. the colonizer and colonized dichotomy had its roots in othering. the present research is qualitative in nature and comes under the subcategory of descriptive research. the data comprised of the text of the novel "the writing on my forehead". the text is thoroughly studied using the technique of close reading to find out the post-colonial white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 170 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 elements present in it. the results are presented in the section below with supporting lines from the text to prove the researcher 's point. analysis the writing on my forehead weaves the stories of several characters and how the phenomenon of colonization impacted them. a number of characters in the novel exhibit cultural hybridity. they are sandwiched between eastern and western cultural norms and values. saira, her parents, her aunts and uncles, her grandparents are all an amalgamation of east and west. they have beliefs that align better with the western world, but they also adhere to eastern values and traditions at the same time, so we can justly call them hybrids. hybridity exhibits itself in their actions, thoughts, and feelings. saira and ameena, the two sisters, like several other characters are hybrids of east and west. ameena is a modest and obedient daughter who practices her religion. she doesn't do anything that might displease her parents. she gets engaged to a man chosen by her family but after the engagement, she goes out with her would-be-husband on dates and takes the liberty of kissing and making out with a man who wasn't her husband then, in opposition to her mother's instructions and training. "it was impossible to believe that ameena, goody-goody ameena, who would normally avert her eyes at the steamy sex scenes that daytime soap operas and nighttime dramas were so full of, could actually endure and enjoy such indignity". (p. 109) saira, the narrator of the novel from whose point of view the story is told, on the other hand, appears to have adopted western lifestyle fully and without any remorse. she participates in a play in which her character demands her to act boldly by wearing revealing clothes, kissing boys and using vulgar language. saira describes the character she was chosen for in the following words: my name was up there, next to the name of the character i was slated to play. rizzo. rizzo the anti-virgin. rizzo of “false alarm” fame. who had to swing her hips—no, her pelvis!—around in the sandra dee number. in her underwear. who went around with not one, but two guys. two guys!. (p. 116) white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 171 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 when her parents find out about their daughter's part in the play, they scold her. her mother is furious and disappointed in saira at this occasion which mirrors her eastern roots. this was her mother's reaction: get out of my sight, you shameless, shameless creature! you slut! whore! dancing around on stage, half-naked! randi! slut! this is what i have raised, oh, god forgive me! what did i do, what did i do to deserve this humiliation, oh, god, it must have been something terrible to deserve this! kissing boys—in front of the whole world! slut, whore! in front of the whole town! where will i show my face, ya allah, she has left me with no face to show to anyone! (mummy, p. 123) later in the novel, she chooses to have sex out of wedlock with multiple men and have a job that requires her to travel around the globe alone. she grew up to be an imitation of a typical, bold and modern western girl. this shows how saira and her immediate family were cultural hybrids. she was a daughter of an eastern family who grew up in the us and had been dyed in western colors. saira's uncle, ahmed chacha, who lives in england with his wife, nasreen, and two children, mehnaz and mohsin, drinks alcohol and has a western way of living but he opposes his children's bold life choices. mehnaz has a boyfriend early in the novel, she goes out scantily clad and smokes and drinks. she, though a daughter of indo-pakistani parents, enjoys all the liberties the west has to offer. however, later in the novel, she succumbs to family pressure and decides to get married and settle down the way her father always wanted her to. mohsin, on the other hand, turns out to be a homosexual and doesn't budge under family pressure. all these choices essentially reflect western influence which make these characters hybrids of the two cultures. in the same way, hybridity can also be observed in the character of adeeba or big nanima who plays an important role in establishing the main theme of the novel. she was born and raised in india but later migrated with her family to pakistan. even though she is a pakistani resident, she lives independently like modern western women. she gets an education, despite all the hurdles and even goes to london for higher education. she is a professor by profession. we come to know that she loved going to clubs for dancing during her stay in london. however, despite her inclination towards western ideology, she is a woman of east and knows that she white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 172 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 cannot cross certain cultural boundaries, for instance, she is willing to accept her parents' decision when it came to marriage and doesn't fumble with social limitations imposed on her by finding a guy herself or engaging in premarital affairs. so it won't be wrong to conclude that while having eastern values, adeeba has a western outlook and is the perfect example of postcolonial hybridity. the colonized people often regard the culture of the colonizers as superior and try to imitate their former colonial rulers in an attempt to elevate their own status. this phenomenon is most prominent in the character of kasim. kasim, zahida's husband and saira's maternal grandfather, is a religious and hardworking desi man but under the colonial impact, he loves and adopts a number of western hobbies and traits. he demands to marry a girl who speaks english, which however doesn't happen. the following lines from the text elaborate kasim's love for western fashion: his only weakness was his love for things from the west. after independence, his business boomed. and what he didn’t spend on the poor, he spent on the merchandise that westerners of high status seemed to treasure. he wore elegant italian tailored suits and shoes and expensive swiss watches. nothing but the finest. he drove a big american car with fins and tails (p. 16). when he married zahida, he made her wear sleeveless blouses and took her to a salon to get her hair cut short. later, he fell in love with an englishwoman, named belle and married her. all of this shows the strong colonial impact on the minds and tastes of colonial subjects. adeeba or big nanima, takes pride in the fact that she knows english and went to england for higher studies. she has been shown as superior to other characters and especially in comparison to her sister zahida, who didn't know english and was a traditional eastern woman. after being ruled by english people, the masses of sub-continent internalized colonial discourse to the extent that the people who resembled the colonizers were seen as attractive and the opposite kind of people were looked down upon. the worship of eurocentric standards of beauty resulted from the colonial rule of white people. fair skin, straight and light-colored hair and english features came to be regarded as attractive while whitish complexion, wavy hair and thick facial features were associated with the locals and hence considered inferior or less white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 173 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 attractive. this can be noticed in the novel as well. zahida and adeeba differ from each other in their physical appearance. zahida is considered highly attractive and desirable because of her fair skin, straight, light brown hair and green eyes while adeeba, on the other hand, is constantly told that she isn't beautiful just because she doesn't resemble the ex-colonizers. in the following lines, adeeba describes zahida's beauty: because my younger sister, zahida— your nanima—was startlingly beautiful. she had light brown hair, green eyes, and sharply symmetrical features. zahida’s skin was translucent and luminous, and she was pale. with oh-so-beautiful, silky, straight hair that fell to her waist. (p. 45) adeeba describes her own physical appearance rather unfavorably in these words: ...a plain face. with skin that was—well, rather dark.” ... “and hair that is easier to laugh at now than it was then. i tried everything. pigtails, a ponytail, braids, a bun. but nothing could tame that unruly mass (p. 45). dark skin and hair that don't bear any resemblance in color and texture to the hair of the colonizers are looked down upon and considered ugly. three main elements that come under the umbrella of hybridity, namely mimicry, ambivalence and unhomeliness have been extracted and examined below. light has also been shed upon the aspects of diaspora and othering. mimicry in the writing on my forehead residents of ex-colonies view their own culture as inferior and try to imitate their former colonial rulers in their attempt to achieve greatness as they have been conditioned into thinking that the colonizers are more civilized and superior to them. so, they mimic and imitate the invaders in their speech and action. the goal that the colonized people wish to attain by the act of mimicry is to attain the same power and position enjoyed and occupied by the colonizers. the stronger the belief in the superiority of the invaders, the more likely will the colonized people be to imitate them and their culture. saira, the main character of the story, is the daughter of parents of indo-pakistani descent. she lives with her sister, ameena and parents in the united states. saira is drawn towards western culture from a very young age. she aspires to be free like a bird. she admires white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 174 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the liberal choices made by big nanima and hopes to have an independent and free life. at school, she participates in a play and does a number of things that would be frowned upon in the east. she wears revealing clothes as per the demand of the play, co-acts with boys, speaks lewd dialogues and kisses boys. her parents are shocked and disappointed when they find out. saira, later, influences her parents through ameena and shuja to convince them to let her go to a university far from home. at the university, away from the sight and restrictions of her parents, she adopts a completely western lifestyle and breaks all the rules and restrictions imposed by the eastern culture and religion. she sleeps with multiple boys, dates, drinks, takes drugs and dances. her mother had saira promise at the time of leaving for university that she would stay away from all these things, but saira did everything contrary to her mother's desires. "alcohol came first. then pot. dating. and then sex. sex, not love." (p. 132) like most modern western women, she chooses "not to save her virginity for the sanctity of a wedding night" (p. 133). in fact, she chooses to remain unmarried till the end of the novel. the most shocking aspect of her mimicry of western culture can be observed in the fact that she ends up getting pregnant with the baby of her then boyfriend, majid khan, who is much older than her. she is condemned by her mother, shabana who is horrified to find out that her unmarried daughter is pregnant but saira, completely colored in the western lifestyle doesn't care and contemplates getting an abortion. she works as a journalist and travels around the world. all these actions and traits of saira are a mimicry of the western culture. the character of kasim is the second most important character in this regard. he imitates the lifestyle and physical appearance of the ex-colonizers. his daughter, shabana, comments on her father's mimicry of the westerners in the following words in chapter 1 of the novel: his only weakness was his love for things from the west. after independence, his business boomed. and what he didn’t spend on the poor, he spent on the merchandise that westerners of high status seemed to treasure. he wore elegant italian tailored suits and shoes and expensive swiss watches. nothing but the finest. he drove a big american car with fins and tails. when he and his beautiful wife were first married, in the days before his fortunes were made, he took her to a beauty salon and asked the stylist to cut her hair according to the white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 175 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 latest trends to be found in european beauty magazines. they cut off her yard-length, dark, silken hair. she cried for days, not consoled by her husband’s praise and assertions that now, at least, she looked ‘modern’ and ‘western.’ he made her wear her saris with sleeveless blouses, the kind that were in fashion among the bombay film crowd. (p. 16) kasim loved to dance and arranged for his wife to learn ballroom dancing. he took her to clubs and nightspots and eventually, left his first wife to marry an englishwoman, named belle. this shows the peak of his adoration and aspiration for a western lifestyle. with belle, he lived a life filled with western delights, liberties and interests. he continued his love for ballroom dancing with much more freedom and enthusiasm after marrying belle who was a hippie woman. when saira asks belle, in chapter 5, if her nana took belle dancing, belle replies: "all the time! he taught me—ballroom dancing, i mean. speaking of dancing!” (p. 71). the character and life-story of adeeba, who is also known as big nanima, is also important to consider to find the traces of mimicry. she got her early education from convent where she later worked as an english teacher and interacted with many english-women. she tells saira how she wished to cut her hair short like many english-women from the convent where she studied and later worked. i did the best i could, tried to do something with my hair, wishing, not for the first time, that my mother would have allowed me to cut it down to size, like so many of the englishwomen i had gotten to know through school. they were visitors from england, educational experts who had been invited to observe and help to improve the british-run convent school that i used to attend. the school where i now taught english. though no one but my father knew that. (p. 46) she got influenced by the thinking and style of english women. she tells saira, that she finally had the courage to cut her hair short when she went to london to study. "see how short my hair was in this picture? how i always hated it—so curly and unkempt! since our days in bombay, before partition, i had longed to chop it off. but only when i was in london, far away from my mother, did i have the courage to finally do it." (p. 44) from these lines, it's clear that she always wanted short hair like white women but didn't have the courage to cut it while she was in pakistan. so when she went to london, she finally did white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 176 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 what she wanted i.e cut her hair short. this is how she mimicked the colonizers in her appearance. she was very progressive and practical in her outlook on love, life and marriage like europeans and studied the works of english authors. jane austen, a british writer, was her favorite. she is influenced by western thought but at the same time is aware of the socio-cultural limits imposed on her by the eastern society so she doesn't indulge in anything that won't be socially acceptable. i was not a stranger to ideas of romance. part of the reason i so loved english literature was because of the importance it gave to romantic love. it was an abstract ideal, however, and one which i was perfectly happy to wait to discover within the context of social acceptability and economic necessity. one of my favorite authors—you know, saira— was jane austen, who well understood the need for reason and pragmatism with regard to matters of the heart. the success of a marriage depended no less on economics than on an intellectual understanding between its participants. and here, finally, there was hope for that. i had not given much thought to the boy in question, beyond marveling at the progressive nature of his desire to be wed to an educated girl—a girl who spoke english, no less! my father had met him before, had known his father (p. 48). when her family faced economic hardships and crisis, she stood up and became a helping hand for her father. eastern women typically aren't expected to earn but adeeba who followed and agreed with western social norms chose to work and earn a living instead of depending on the men in her family to fulfill her financial needs. adeeba moved to london rebelling against the socio-cultural norms of the east. her father was shocked when she expressed her desire to avail this opportunity. he remarked: "adeeba, how can we let you go so far away? alone? it is not right, beti, it is not right that a young woman—an unmarried young woman —should be so far away from her family.’' (p. 55) but adeeba pursued her dream nonetheless. adeeba enjoyed going dancing during her stay in london. she confesses to belle in these words: white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 177 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 “well, don’t tell anyone, but i used to go dancing a lot. in london, when i lived there many years ago." (p. 71) this shows that she fully relished her stay in london but without letting her family know in order to save herself from their objections. after her return from london, she got a well-paying job at a college. in spite of her family's opposition, she chose to live independently at the residence offered to her at the campus. again, this is an act of mimicry of the west since it isn't considered socially acceptable for a young, unmarried woman to live independently in pakistan, but it is a common practice in the west. her mother supported her in her decision to go abroad to study and then to live on her own by accepting the residence offered to her by the government. this shows that even the least educated and aware sections of society, such as illiterate women like adeeba's mother, had been influenced by western occupation and their outlooks on life and social issues had shifted to share a more western perspective. mimicry can be noticed in the minor characters of the novel as well. majid khan, a pakistani writer, has illicit relationships with women. shuja touches and kisses his then fiancee, ameena, which shows his adoption and mimicry of the western culture. he doesn't wait for her to become his wife before engaging in physical intimacy with her. saira's cousin, mehnaz drinks, smokes, dances, wears western clothes and has a boyfriend. her brother, mohsin, is eventually revealed to be a homosexual. in spite of everyone's opposition, he continues to live his life according to his liberal beliefs and doesn't care about the condemnation and disapproval of his family and relatives. hence, all the characters discussed here tried to enter the glorified circle of west by imitating the western rituals and culture but instead of attaining the glory and status enjoyed by the white people, they became cultural hybrids who resembled their colonizers but weren't completely identical to their former rulers. their mimicry is more of a mockery and they belong neither to the east nor to the west. a new identity has been constructed for them by the interaction of these two opposite poles. ambivalence in the writing on my forehead ambivalence according to young (1995) is an attraction as well as an aversion to a particular object, person, or action. white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 178 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 saira, the protagonist of the novel is residing with her family in the united states. her parents choose to leave their own land to live in a foreign country. they prefer american lifestyle and enjoy the benefits and perks that come from living in the west. they choose a man settled in the united states for their daughter ameena to marry and want the same for saira. they send their girls to western schools and live as a nuclear family in the united states as opposed to having a joint family system. but in spite of their choice to enjoy living in the us, they show ambivalent attitude towards the west and their own homeland throughout the novel. saira's mother, shabana, wants her daughters to live in the west but remain tied to eastern norms, values and beliefs. even though she herself chose to clad her daughters in western clothing when they were little, she prevents them from wearing short western clothes after a certain age, as saira states in the novel: at nine, mummy believed, shorts and dresses and skirts that ended above the knee were no longer appropriate forms of attire for girls—her girls, anyway. the day before i turned nine, as mummy sorted through my closet and dresser, tossing shorts into a pile that she would later give to goodwill, she told me about a childhood friend of hers who had nearly died of snakebite back in india, because she was wandering heedlessly through the garden in a dress that was way too short when a cobra, which had escaped from a snake charmer’s basket, struck her on the thigh. (p. 14) shabana's ambivalence is clear in the fact that she prefers to stay in the west but is opposed to certain aspects of western lifestyle. she doesn't want her daughters to wear short clothes but is also unhappy when ameena decides to start wearing hijab later in the novel. this is a sign of her ambivalence. additionally, she abhors dancing which is common in the west. she criticizes her late father's love for dancing, western fashion, music, literature and lifestyle. she tells stories to her daughters to inculcate eastern values in them. as a result, saira and ameena are knotted between two cultures and hung between two entirely different ways of life. she believes that a woman's place is in the household and that the goal of a woman's life is to be happily married. she tries to raise her daughters to be modest housewives and succeeds in her pursuit to a great extent in the case of ameena, at least. saira, however, doesn't turn out to be the white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 179 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 way her mother wanted her to be. in spite of her love for eastern values, she is not willing to move back to pakistan which shows her confusion and ambivalence. saira's character is the most important when exploring ambivalence in the novel. at a young age, she participates in a lewd play at her school, dates boys, wears revealing clothes and engages in sexual activities but at the same time, she fears that others, especially her mother, will find out about her adventures and misdeeds. when her mother does find out, she appears guilty and remorseful. it won't be wrong to conclude that saira has an ambivalent attitude. she finds dating, drugs and alcohol thrilling but at the same time feels ashamed of her involvement in such activities and tries to hide them from others, particularly her mother, which is a proof of her ambivalence. saira was taught religion and eastern ethics since her childhood, but american culture and ideology affect her and become so deeply ingrained in her thinking that she doesn't see anything wrong with drinking and having illicit relationships. a juxtaposition of eastern and western views can also be witnessed in kasim's character. he is a modest indian muslim who prays regularly and helps the poor according to the teachings of his religion but at the same time, he is very fond of western fashions. at the time of his marriage, he demanded to be wedded to an english-speaking woman. he likes to dress in western clothes and wants the same from his wife. when he marries belle, his family boycotts him but he tries to stay in touch with his children. on one hand, he wants a free life with an englishwoman but on the other hand, he is not ready to completely give up on his relationship with his family in india and pakistan and longs to be near them which shows his unbreakable ties with the east. it seems that he wants to have the best of both worlds which is a symptom of his ambivalent nature. unhomeliness, diaspora and othering in the writing on my forehead diaspora that resulted from european occupation is a phenomenon that can be observed in the characters of this novel as well. multiple families introduced to us in the novel have drifted away from their native land and are settled in the west in hope for a better, safer and more prosperous life. saira and her family live far away from their native land, in the united states. similarly, ahmad chacha is residing in england with his children. one of saira's aunts, jamila khala, also settled in england after her marriage. kasim's children from his second marriage white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 180 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 with belle are also dispersed around europe. as victims of diaspora, these people are dispersed in various parts of the world and in these parts, they aren't fully accepted. there is a sense of estrangement and lack of belongingness. they are seen as "others" by the native inhabitants of these places. after the incident of 9/11, south-asians residing in the us feared for their lives and safety. when saira and big nanima watch the news, they realize that the muslim immigrants will have to pay the price for what happened. they fear for ameena's safety who was in the us at the time of 9/11 and has to face the aftermath of the twin towers explosions. ameena, who is a practising muslim and starts observing hijab after sakina is born to be a good role model for her daughter, is victimized and killed because of her attire that is associated with the islamic faith. believers in islam were seen as "others" in europe. they were collectively blamed and held responsible for the wrongdoings of a few who spotted the name of islam. muslims were seen as inferior and evil. they were not given the status of being fully human. this east/west superiorinferior dichotomy is a direct corollary of colonialism. the extreme of othering, in which people are labelled and hated because they are of a different race or faith can be observed in the brutal and inhuman killing of ameena near the end of the novel. ameena's life is taken for no reason other than her faith and race. it reflects the contempt for muslims in the west. muslims are mercilessly crushed under the feet of the former colonial masters. the gist of othering is that anyone who is different from one's own self is hated and feared. after 9/11, ameena lost her life and the cause of her murder was nothing other than her being seen as a part of an inferior race which is seen as uncivilized, crude and backward. muslim immigrants were labelled terrorists and targeted by the western people after the 9/11 incident. discussion analyzing the writing on my forehead using post-colonial lens reveals how the characters are colonial subjects. the way most of them view the western culture exposestheir sense of inferiority complex that they share with the people of the sub-continent. throughout the novel, western lifestyle, values, norms and beliefs are glorified while everything that is associated with the east is shown to be inferior, backward and less civilized. even the evils of western society like drug abuse, alcohol consumption, illicit relationships etc are shown to be "normal" and acceptable parts of life even though they are frowned upon in the east. this is how white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 181 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the west has brainwashed the easterners into worshipping the (lack of) rules associated with the western culture and society. east and its high moral values are belittled in comparison throughout the novel. this can be noticed in a multitude of characters and situations where the indigenous cultural and religious beliefs andvalues are shown to be regressive. an instance of this is when ameena decides to wear hijab, saira and their mother (who otherwise professes to be very religious and traditional) are not happy with ameena's choice. saira even wonders if sakina will be made to cover her head by ameena, when she is old enough. in the same way, adeeba's rebellious life choices are celebrated. her "success" at being a forebearer of "freedom" and "liberty", in the sense that these concepts are defined in the west, isappreciated in the novel. her sister, zahida, who is a traditional, modest, religious muslim woman is shown to be backward and foolish for not breaking free of and instead accepting and embracing eastern values. it is implied that she could have avoided her poor fate if she were a "modern" woman and followed western ideology. haji has clearly written this novel to appease the western and westernized local audience by putting forth the idea that eastern women can achieve better and brighter lives if they shun the eastern values and follow the leadership and ideology of the west. this is the justification britain gave for its colonial rule. she claimed that the people of the east are backward and less intelligent so they must be taught and led by the white man. this mindset can be noticed in the characters of this novel too who have internalized the feelings of inferiority and think western rule over the world is for the betterment of the ruled. east and eastern values are incessantly shown to be a hurdle in the way of success, liberation and progress. the novel depicts a eurocentric way of thinking in which good and bad is judged from subjective european standards. east and easterners are bound to lose in this game. by depicting the lack of acceptance for homosexuality, nudity, alcohol, partying and illicit relationships in eastern culture, it is implied that people from the east are intolerant and don't respect diversity and freedom of choice. apparently, anyone who doesnot meet western standards of morality is a prude. even the practice of dancing is shown to be a sign of liberation and modernity multiple times in the narrative and the eastern value of modesty is mocked. in short, everything associated with the east is presented as inferior and every western practice including the social evils that are prevalent in the west are appreciated and seen as signs of modernity and white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 182 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 civilization. the chaos, glitz and glamour of western life has been glorified in this postcolonial novel. the previous studies done on post-colonial literature of the sub-continent show a similar streak. the characters in many post-colonial novels consider it a source of pride to speak, dress and behave in a way like their former colonizers. that is why the phenomenon of hybridity and its elements as propounded by bhabha have been the objective of many researchers working on post-colonial fiction. the present research has the same aim with the addition of linking it to the idea of continued western hegemony or ideological control over their formerly colonized nations. the real victory of colonizers is the conquest of the thought of the colonized peoples. they try to propagate the idea that cultural, religious, and physical traits of the colonized people are inferior, and hence they deserve to be subservient to the colonizers. this has resultedin mental slavery which is much more hazardous than physical occupation and control. the thought patterns of several characters which have already been discussed in detail as well as the viewpoint of the author indicate western hegemony. what is needed is the liberation of the thought of the former colonial subjects from the chains of western control. many of the characters in the novel are fanatical fans of western culture and have forgotten their eastern roots and identity which has resulted in them becoming "almost the same, but not quite". the muslim immigrant families living in the west try to remain attached to their eastern roots by a loose thread and while the elders are ambivalent in their attitude, most of the youth of these immigrant families tries to assimilate in the western culture by mimicking their language, clothing and lifestyle. born and raised by muslim parents from indo-pak but deeply influenced by the western culture,they are hybrids of east and west. though brown physically, on the inside they have been whitewashed. even the characters residing in pakistan and india are deeply influenced by western cultural invasion that accompanied colonial rule. the findings of most of the previous studies are similar. however, in the present research the researcher has linked the findings to the idea of hegemony or ideological control of the west over the people of the east. everyone and everything from the east is judged against the rules postulated by the west. people from the east are considered ‘others’ and less human than the westerners. they are perceived as less civilized and relatively irrational and therefore in need of the western world to discipline white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 183 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 and lead them. eastern values and traditions are depicted as inferior, and westernization is considered the yardstick of enlightenment and progress. while the previous studies analyzed hybridity, the contribution of the present researcher is to not only investigate the novel using bhabha’s theory but also to link it with the factor of western ideological control whereby the eastern population has internalized the views of the west and has started believing itself to be inferior. the phenomenon of colonialism and its impacts are complex and puzzling. analyses of literary works to reveal the impact of colonialism on a common man is of paramount importance if the effects of colonial rule on the lives of the residents of former colonies is to be fully grasped. the current research serves this very purpose and will be helpful in enlightening and broadening the mental horizons of students and teachers interested in postcolonial theory. it will help them fathom the corollaries resulting from the colonial rule of the british in different parts of the world, especially south-asia, and critically analyse the phenomenon of westernization at the cost of eastern traditions and values. a war between native and western culture can be observed in a multitude of postcolonial novels. the study of this scrimmage between the eastern way of life and western cultural invasion which has been initiated by the researcher can be explored in future research studies as well. the scholars need to find ways of liberating eastern minds from ideological control of the west to counter and minimize the impact of imperialism for the true liberation of the sub-continent. conclusion employing a textual scrutiny of the writing on my forehead reveals that the elements of mimicry, ambivalence, unhomeliness, diaspora and othering can be found in multiple major and minor characters. saira is the most prominent blend of east and west. she is born to pakistani parents living in america. her parents try to install eastern values in her, but she is western in her outlook which makes her a hybrid. her decision to not get married, work as a journalist and travel to different parts of the world is a result of the impact of western culture and ideology on her. adeeba, kasim, shabana and ameena are also hybrids of the two cultures. their mimicry of their ex-colonial rulers and the ambivalent quality of their attitudes has been discussed. the phenomena of othering, unhomeliness and diaspora are also touched briefly. the effects of these white blotches on brown skin: a post-colonial critique of "the writing on my forehead" 184 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 phenomena on various characters and their life choices are profound and has been highlighted. at the end, the findings have been linked to the continued western hegemony over the east. this study is very helpful in demonstrating the various impacts of colonialism on the people of the former british colonies. a study of this novel from post-colonial perspective has shed ample light on the effects of colonial rule on the lives of common men and women which will help students, teachers and future researchers who wish to study and understand the remnants of the practices of colonialism and imperialism and their effects after the end of the formal colonial rule. recommendations for further research the researcher has limited the present research to only a few aspects of post-colonial theory. other aspects like identity crisis, alienation, assimilation and othering can be taken up by future researchers to explore haji’s fiction. in addition to this, feminist theories can also be applied on the novel under discussion as it highlights feminist concerns too. references alghamdi, a. 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(1995). colonial desire: hybridity in theory, culture and race. london and new york: routledge. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). unburdening post 9/11 cultural trauma in amy waldman’s the submission 230 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 unburdening post 9/11 cultural trauma in amy waldman’s the submission abdul rashid lecturer in english, bahadur sub campus layyah abdulrashid@bzu.edu.pk dr. qamar khushi professor, department of english, bahauddin zakariya university multan abstract the incident of 9/11 is included among such incidents which created a paradigm shift in fiction. initially, the incident of 9/11 was coded as culturally traumatic but later on fiction writers like amy waldman attempted to unburden the incident of 9/11 from its status of culturally traumatic. the present paper explores waldman’s understanding of recovery and inversion of the memory of the tragedy of 9/11 as a process of cultural trauma. for the thematic analysis, the major theoretical insights have been taken from kerman (2017) concept of unburdening and j.c alexander’s (2012) theory of cultural trauma. we found that waldman attempts to unburden all these labels of mis/representation by creating ambivalent identities. all the characters adopt the strategy of moving out of perpetuated and dominant national discourse. asma anwar shakes the general mis/understanding of the americans towards the muslims. she redefines the negatively perceived identities of the muslims in america and suggests a transcultural understanding for human rights and humanity. we found that ambivalence and social flexibility in the post 9/11 social scene of america is a healing gesture in response to the incident of 9/11. key words: unburdening, post 9/11 fiction, cultural trauma, trauma carriers. introduction since the incident of 9/11, the atrocities of war and cultural trauma have emerged as the most pressing theme in post 9/11 fiction. cultural trauma is usually considered as a socially mediated power structure. in the construction of cultural trauma, the social agents determine which events are to be forgotten, which are to be remembered for a long time. events are not tragic in their happening, but they are assigned the meaning to be painful from the social agents of meaning making. a sense of painful injury is associated with some catastrophic social event while some tragedies are not labeled as tragic and painful. the meanings of tragic incident are more dependent on the social agents of meaning making (alexander, 2004). in the construction of this processcultural trauma, the social agents act mailto:abdulrashid@bzu.edu.pk unburdening post 9/11 cultural trauma in amy waldman’s the submission 231 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 as catalyst and carrier groups. alexander takes the construction of cultural trauma as a process. the end of this process is to move from conflicted situation to recovery and routinization. in post 9/11 times, there were two different approaches which were emphasized by the fiction writers as a response to the codification of the incident of 9/11. the representative fiction writers who coded the incident of 9/11 as culturally traumatic and negatively represented the identity of the muslins include don delillo. such fiction writers were truer to the political will of america who demanded war against the perpetrators of the tragedy. but later, another category of the post 9/11 fiction developed with a tendency of negotiating this enigma by an attempt of unburdening the situation of cultural trauma. this category of post 9/11 fiction called for the construction of a “third space” where america and the perpetrators might see the cross-cultural suffering. the fiction writers proposed a demand of inclusive identities by developing the tendency that the world can move on from a conflicted situation of cultural trauma. this category of fiction showed alternative image of the muslim character. in these works, the muslim characters have been represented as the victim of cultural trauma as well. there are also a lot of novels which have dealt with the psychic and domestic trauma of the victims. here, we must keep in mind this tendency was not apparent soon after the incident of 9/11. we see in the fiction selected for the present study, the authors have created a drive to look the sufferings of people beyond the american perceived sense of humanity by the politicians and media. the post 9/11 fiction raised the massive consciousness to rebuilt loss which the world must bear in consequences of cultural trauma. both american and non-american writers have responded to the complexities and many ramifications of 9/11 in a variety of ways, ranging from poems and plays to non-fiction. yet, the most remarkable literary explorations are encountered in novelistic form, as approaches range. by form and approach of novel as a genre as the most suitable medium, we mean novel has wide range of characters and a capacity to see the things and themes on the wider canvas. unfortunately, the researchers have not provided such a study which is fully dedicated to closely analyze the way the post 9/11 fiction portrays cultural trauma in post 9/11 fiction. the researchers’ approach is differentiated on account of healing and re-negotiating perspectives which has not been explored in post 9/11 fiction. for addressing the idea of terrorism and its consequences, critics have not focused on how the post 9/11 fiction has redrawn the image of islam, especially in terms of how this unburdening post 9/11 cultural trauma in amy waldman’s the submission 232 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 change has had measureable consequences on the identity and lives of the moderate muslims living in the west. the muslim characters have become nothing more than a repeated version of the stereotypical image of the post 9/11 cultural world. it focuses on how the post 9/11 american fiction writers attempt to challenge the familiar pre-occupations in post 9/11 fiction. with these objectives and preoccupations, we focus on the significant category of post 9/11 fiction which has not sufficiently been explored in the literary and critical landscapes. thus, the question of inversion of cultural memory for routinization and discourse of normalcy attempted by fiction writers in post 9/11 times finds its legitimacy to social relevance in literature. the present study is an attempt to explore post 9/11 fiction as a medium of articulating against the atrocities of culturally traumatic bounds and creation of a third space for harmony by the fiction writers from america. now, we see how post 9/11 fiction emerged as a voice for critical justice by discourse of normalization. baelo-allué (2016) in her study from the traumatic to the political: cultural trauma, 9/11 and amy waldman suggested that the incident of 9/11 was coded as culturally traumatic and later as political one. but unfortunately, her study could not investigate the process of recovery, inversion of memory of the tragedy and a move for routinization which is the end the process of cultural trauma and the same had been emphasized in the novel the submission. the present study aims to explore how waldman’s characters in the novel the submission move out of the situation of cultural trauma. in this sense, this study is an extension of the study of baelo-allue and to look at a new perspective of cultural trauma in line with recovery and routinization. baelo-allue study is more restrictive and reductive one as she could not talk about the significant aspect of unburdening and routinization which is a significant step towards the process of cultural trauma. literature review alexander (2004) defines cultural trauma as a situation in which any catastrophic event affects the collective consciousness of a group at large leaving indelible marks upon the unconsciousness of the group. the catastrophic events mark the memories of the group for a long time and change the identity of the group in irrevocable and fundamental ways. according to alexander, the events in themselves are not traumatic but they are made traumatic by the social agents of meaning making. it is totally dependent on the will of social agents to determine which event qualifies as culturally traumatic. the consciousness of the group acts as catalyst of meaning making and tags the event as traumatic. “cultural trauma is unburdening post 9/11 cultural trauma in amy waldman’s the submission 233 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 a state of fright, fear and chaos at social level. so, as the meanings are socially mediated that provide the sense of shock and fear, not the events themselves” (alexander,2004, p. 10) the effects of such catastrophic events are prolonged and widespread, and include intense cultural upheaval, a collective loss of security, damaged, ruptured and altered identities, a situation of terror and fear in the community at large and physical injuries and the death. so, the situation of cultural trauma threatens, alters, and ultimately destabilizes the sociocultural process of peaceful existence which has been in action prior to the happening of any culturally traumatic event. alexander is interested in the role played by certain carrier groups which label certain events as traumatic and long lasting even after the happening of the events. by this we can establish that cultural trauma is more a conscious tact, and it also acts “matter of intense cultural and political work,” in which “narrative wins out is a matter of performative power” (smelser, 2004, p. 264) in simple terms, we see that defining the meaning of any event as culturally traumatic is totally dependent on the social agents, how do they designate meaning to any catastrophic event. these meaning of being culturally traumatic are determined by politicians, film producers and artists, which are a smaller section of the community, but the tragedy associated with the event is felt by the whole group of the community. if we take the example of holocaust, it was tragic for the direct victims of the tragedy but once it was labeled as culturally traumatic, it was felt traumatic beyond the boarders or geographical location. lacapra (2014) identifies that every society has its inherited trauma which acts in that society like a myth. if we trace the origin of trauma in western society, old testament provides the trauma originating from original sin and exile from the happy fields of eden. similarly, the new testament, presents the trauma out of the christ’s crucifixion. if we talk of the jewish community in the west, it takes holocaust as a founding event of trauma. similarly, the american revolution, slavery and civil war had been the experiences of disruption and trauma in the american history. the massive killing during the partition of india and pakistan in 1947, qualifies the partition as an event of cultural trauma. so, we see every society has a collective sense of trauma in it. the context of such traumatic events may be both religious and social ones. for example, holocaust as a culturally traumatic event includes both religious and political sentiments. in post 9/11 times, it was taken that every good man in the world is obliged to have a sense of trauma of 9/11.kellner (2004) opines that in coding and framing 9/11 in the language of trauma, media constructed a troop of unburdening post 9/11 cultural trauma in amy waldman’s the submission 234 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 conflicting discourse. such conflicting discourse divided the world in the binary of “us vs. them”. theoretical formulations alexander (2013) in his seminal work trauma: a social theory has proposed cultural trauma is a constant process of meaning making. in this process the social agents are actively involved which determine that which incident is to be taken as culturally traumatic? artists, fiction writers, film makers and politicians are included in such social agents of meaning making. in this process of construction of any event as culturally traumatic, there happens a moment of calming down. in calming down period, the social agents attempt to reverse the memory of the tragic event. this reversal of the memory moves the victims of the tragedy towards routinization and recovery in cultural and social domains. the role of the meaning making agents in the reversal of the memory of the tragedy, recovery of the victims from cultural trauma and routinization is as important as it is in the construction of any tragic event as culturally traumatic. similarly, kerman (2017) takes such process as a process of unburdening. he contends that unburdening is the relative freedom in professional endeavors without contextualizing race, ethnicity, gender, cultural trauma, or any other burden of representation. having achieved these measures of enduring separateness is the outcome of art and fiction. for the analysis of the data, the researchers have used the theoretical insights of alexander (2013). textual analysis the submission is a fictional story set in new york. a jury is held to decide the winner of architectural design for the memorial of the dead ones of the 9/11. claire burwell as a jury member tries to persuade other jury members to vote for the garden as a symbol of memorials of 9/11. in the meantime, ariana montagu, an artist from new york, is convincing for a structure named the void which is huge and gloomy in appearance. claire considers that ariana recognizes the designer of the void, hence blames ariana as being biased. paul rubin is the chairman of the jury. he is a retired investment banker and appreciates the arts. paul shows more respect to claire than ariana. however, paul refuses to declare any of these designs as the winner unless there is a tie. claire then follows maria, an art curator and fellow juror, to persuade her to vote for the garden. while attempting to persuade maria, we learn that claire lost her husband in the attacks on twin towers and since then she had been treated as a poster for the widows of 9/11. she successfully convinces maria to vote for the unburdening post 9/11 cultural trauma in amy waldman’s the submission 235 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 garden. ultimately, the garden as a design for the memorial of 9/11 is declared as a winning design by muhammad khan who is an american muslim. this news irritates jury members that the winner is a muslim. the story continues from here, extending the decision whether to award mo the winning bid or not. asma continues to value the death of her husband. but she is murdered by an unidentified person while on her way back to bangladesh. prior to her death she was disillusioned from claimed values of america as a land of free and unbiased people. with her death on the pavement all the characters resolve their triggered stances and yearn for the establishment of a unified social structure in american society. alexander (2013) considers that cultural trauma is constructed through the social agents’ i.e., political leaders, artists, and fiction writers. while these constructions can be renegotiated through those who are responsible for such social constructs. waldman attempts to unburden these constructions of cultural trauma in her novel. keeble (2014) takes the novel the submission as a pen picture of the social situation of post-9/11 rhetoric of perplexity on the emotional and socio-political level. furthermore, he takes waldman’s idea of ambivalent identities as a way forward to healing signs of society. these identities act not in simplistic binaries but as representation of refined, indecisive, and perplexed feelings. waldman dramatizes the subject of the memorial design of 9/11. she personifies what kaplan (2005) considers that there is an intricate relationship of individual and trauma constructed culturally. for example, initially, claire and ariana as members of the jury are taken as representative of two contradictory and competing spectrums. the first oneclaire is the representative of the psychic trauma as she has personally faced the loss of the death of her husband in the attacks of 9/11. the second one-ariana represents the trauma of someone who has witnessed these attacks from a great distance (ariana is not a direct victim of 9/11). as compared to other jury members, claire deliberates herself distinctive on the following ground that they’d all lost, of course — lost the sense that their nation was vulnerable; lost their city’s most recognizable icons; maybe lost friends or acquaintances. but she had also lost her husband (waldman, 2011, p. 3). but despite being the direct victim of the tragedy of the 9/11 she is working the recovery of coming out the situation which was taken as culturally traumatic. ariana symbolizes the sense of collective victimhood. she extends herself as a representative of the whole nation. despite of not sharing any proximate ties with those who were direct victims of the attacks, people like ariana claim for very strict actions against unburdening post 9/11 cultural trauma in amy waldman’s the submission 236 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 supposed perpetrators i.e., the muslims. ariana speaks out the political consciousness of america which aroused in response to the incident of 9/11. waldman through the character of claire counterbalances american injured sense of collective identity. claire despite being the direct victim of 9/11 prefers the design of “garden to void” as a symbol of moving beyond national response to the incident of 9/11. thus, claire provides the alternate lens to the cultural trauma constructed massively by political leaders and media. on this ground, claire defines ariana with inconsistent impactfeeling serious what is not personal. ariana acts as a character of cultural or mass consciousness. on a political level, culturally constructed trauma divided the american nation into diverse poles. the americans had to go from a serious loss which was not their personal rather national and was invented one. bold (2002) argued that public ceremonies generally act as dominant account of narrative for massive social devastation. waldman points out that the private and public responses towards the incident of 9/11 were different. private responses delineated with the passage of time. while shattered sense of collectivity repairs with great difficulties. in case of america, it is still consistent. it led to the formation of islamophobia. in the novel the submission, it seems that the victims of psychic trauma including claire and asama have overcome their sense of loss. both were the direct victim of the attacks on the twin towers of new york. both had lost their husbands in these attacks. waldman establishes that creating harmonization between individual and collective memory of loss is a tough exertion and prevents outcomes or solutions. at one time, the character of paul tempts the readers as representative of identity constructed at mass level. concurrently, he vanguards the sense of multiplicity, that is not limited to the traumatized victim. asma’s dilemma throughout the novel is to redefine the position of husband’s death and honor, in a culture which completely denies the claim of their existence: “how could you be dead if you did not exist?” asma in fact is the only character in the novel who takes a firm and unwavering stand for her injured sense of identity. initially, she appears as a representative of those being on the margins without being the part of collective consciousness of that culture because of her illegal immigrant position. while the later part of the novel represents alternate sense of injured collectivity. she is in fact the one who presents the position of minorities against the master narrative of cultural trauma created by social carrier groups of america i.e., media and political leaders. she claims that her choice for garden is appropriate. she takes the muslims and american as the people of same social unburdening post 9/11 cultural trauma in amy waldman’s the submission 237 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 thread as they have grown up on the same soil. she projects that it is difficult to differentiate between the national values segregating the american muslims and the americans. mohammad is ambiguous on the dual stances of his identity. he starts splitting his identity. he initiates creating distance between his present position and mo as he has been treated and talked in media. on media talks, he has been taken as being among the perpetrators of the incident of 9/11. he says that the facts are not as they have been presented by media and the jury members. he takes himself as a stranger and questions his invented identity. he trains himself to the facts as he is being treated by the americans in public and social spheres. american society adds traumatic experiences for mohammad. furthermore, in the novel the other muslim characters also face threats from the american society. it becomes incidents of violence against the muslim women. moreover, the analysis reveals that muslim sections of american society in response to the prevailing situation of chaos and violence also turned violent. the situation of muslim women was more deplorable as compared to the muslim men in parallel. asma, after the death of her husband in the attack on world trade center, is publically threatened by american bands searching for the muslims as perpetrators of the incident of 9/11. in this augmented situation of violence, a group of bangladeshi boys carrying sticks with the intention to beat anyone coming close to her (waldman, p. 218). waldman resists against the ongoing of such social violence. it reveals that after the incident of 9/11, america faced situation of social upheavals with violent ends. asma being in state of mental loss and social ambiguity questions “[s]he no longer knew who was imprisoning her, only that the prison was well sealed” (waldman, p. 219). asma as representative of the third world the muslim woman takes the challenge to define the muslims’ stance and speak for them. she says that there are not only the american who lost their lives in the attack on twin towers in new york, but the muslims and other minorities equally suffered the tragedy of 9/11. as the muslims are among these sufferers, how they can be the perpetrators of these attacks. similarly, if the muslims can be the victim of these sufferings, the americans have no ethical rational to put a question mark on the loyalties of the muslims. the character of asma since its emergence in the novel provokes as serious counterbalance to the american perceived understanding against the muslims. thus, she stresses that my husband on account of being muslim was a man who never hurt anyone. at the same time, the americans should not confuse the loyalties of the muslims in america unburdening post 9/11 cultural trauma in amy waldman’s the submission 238 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 with their immersed national rigidities. waldman through the story of asma provides the counter narrative to the stance of the american society. this counter narrative of asma continues even after finding her voice and declaration of her experiences openly. asma develops a strong desire that it is better for her to be deported to her homeland bangladesh, rather to live in such deplorable situation of dehumanizing alienation. she senses the situation gravely and decides that she is unable to stay more in such a land which could not understand the value for her husband’s death. on her way to bangladesh, she comes across a lot of people who were moving to their homeland in view of the prevailing chaotic situation aroused in response to the construction of cultural trauma. however, an anonymous person makes use of the chaos and stabs asma. she gives her life on the pavement. her murderer remains unidentified, and the case remains unsolved. the death of asma put to end all the conflicts which were holding the characters at divergent social poles. this traumatized situation ends in resolution. in the end of the novel, the characters of the novel apologize for their actions. muhammad khan leaves american and withdraws himself from the competition of architectural design in memory of the dead ones of the incident of 9/11. by the end of novel, mo is questioned about the memorial design by molly who a documentary maker and william is his camera man. molly considers that “the process of creating a memorial [is] itself part of the memorial and she wants to revisit the process and the people involved in the process to see how they think about the memorial design twenty years later (waldman, p. 368). mohammad responded that america “had moved on, self-corrected, as it always did, that feverish time mostly forgotten”. by this, waldman implies that american had come out of the debacles consciously constructed by social carrier groups. the characters of the novel as victims of cultural trauma solidify the burden of their identities. conclusion in the light of the analyzed data, it is concluded that the incident of 9/11 was coded as culturally traumatic but amy waldman in her novel emphasized on the unburdening of such cultural trauma. waldman through the character of claire suggests to the american political and social stake holders that to remember the dead ones of the 9/11 it is not necessary that we should create a social situation of horror and chaos. the analysis also reveals that ambivalence and social flexibility in america as projected in the novel is a healing gesture in response to the incident of 9/11. waldman admits that the collective identity of the americans was threatened by the incident of 9/11, but it is the right time to develop unburdening post 9/11 cultural trauma in amy waldman’s the submission 239 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 multicultural understandings. still sticking to these grievances is not wise. waldman seems to project such a social space in the american society that it should be capable of adhering diversity of the individual and collective issues in different domains. the unburdening of post 9/11 cultural trauma is the need of the hour. it is high time to come out of the rigid national identity and repair the historical ruptures. waldman attempts to erase the collective consciousness of the americans in this novel. references alexander, j. c. (2004). toward a theory of cultural trauma. cultural trauma and collective identity, 76(4), 620-639. alexander, j. c. (2013). trauma: a social theory. john wiley & sons. baelo-allué, s. (2016). from the traumatic to the political: cultural trauma, 9/11 and amy waldman's" the submission"/de lo traumático a lo político: el trauma cultural, el 11 de septiembre y la novela de amy waldman" the submission". atlantis, 165-183. bold, c., knowles, r., & leach, b. (2002). feminist memorializing and cultural countermemory: the case of marianne’s park. signs: journal of women in culture and society, 28(1), 125-148. kaplan, e. a. (2005). trauma culture: the politics of terror and loss in media and literature. rutgers university press. keeble, a. (2014). the 9/11 novel: trauma, politics and identity. mcfarland. kellner, d. (2004). 9/11, spectacles of terror, and media manipulation: a critique of jihadist and bush media politics. critical discourse studies, 1(1), 41-64. kerman, m. (2017). contemporary british artists of african descent and the unburdening of a generation. springer international publishing. lacapra, d. (2014). writing history, writing trauma. jhu press. smelser, n. j. (2004). psychological trauma and cultural trauma. cultural trauma and collective identity, 4, 31-59. waldman, amy. (2011), the submission london: william heinemann @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). constitutive features of deliberate language shift: a case study of afghan immigrants as a community of practice 216 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 constitutive features of deliberate language shift: a case study of afghan immigrants as a community of practice dr. zulfiqar ali associate professor, department of english city university of science and information technology, pakistan zulfiqar.ali775@yahoo.com sohail hussain sheikh m.s. scholar, city university of science and information technology, pakistan sohailsheikh77.ss@gmail.com dr. tariq khan (corresponding author) assistant professor, department of english university of malakand, pakistan tariqkhan1975@gmail.com abstract the study is aimed to determine the constitutive features of deliberate language shift by afghan immigrants in chakwal (punjab, pakistan). the researchers selected 10 business practitioners living for at least 10 years in the punjabi community. the semi-structured interviews and nonparticipants observations were conducted for data collection. the researchers used "community of practice" (cofp) as a theoretical framework. cofp model has three elements that helped the researchers determine the constitutive features of language shift by afghan immigrants. the researchers found out that the regional displacement left the afghan immigrants with the least liberty to exercise their language in all the fields of life because the local stakeholders were not conversant with afghan's language. as a result, they started borrowing words from punjabi and urdu languages. the study's findings reflect that the influence of these languages permanently substituted their native language vocabulary with that of panjabi and urdu. the researchers noticed that linguistic adaptations are tactically intentional and need-based and not accidental. the market competition is the driving force towards their deliberate language shift. this language shift is determined through practitioners' attitudes and communication attempts to generate more significant revenue and make better fits in the community of practice. keywords: language shift, afghan immigrants, community of practice. mailto:zulfiqar.ali775@yahoo.com mailto:sohailsheikh77.ss@gmail.com mailto:tariqkhan1975@gmail.com constitutive features of deliberate language shift: a case study of afghan immigrants as a community of practice 217 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 1. introduction 1.1 background of the study moore (2011) coded that pakistan is located in south asia, neighbouring india, iran, china, and afghanistan. among these states, afghanistan has been the area of military conflicts even after the withdrawal of european masters from the regions (mackey, 2006). the region has witnessed multiple military wars—internally and externally. euro-america has attempted to take control of this region but failed on account of numerous geostrategic reasons. because of these military conflicts, the most affected areas are afghanistan and pakistan, as they share a long border strip (zaidi, 2010). these wars affected the commoner's life in the region, and ultimately, they saved their lives by flooding away their localities. with the outbreak of the afghan taliban war with the u.s military forces, the number of afghan pashtun immigrants have been increased all around pakistan. predominantly, they moved to punjab and settled in different cities for the security and livelihood of their families (khan, 2005). they brought their workforce and sought the labour in the punjab region—the agrarian land, having forests along with five opulent rivers. these were the homeless people, and the inhabitants of the localities welcomed them out of their religious affiliations (mackey, 2006). the first generation of immigrants tried to sustain their afghan culture, but the next generation adapted the host culture, including the punjabi language. the significant changes appeared in the following domain of their lives: a. fashion and random fluctuation; b. language (mainly transactional language); and, c. social needs. 1.2 afghan immigrants as a peripheral membership since the afghan immigrants settled in punjab, they established their businesses and social connections with the regional and local parties. at the outset, they earned the sympathies of local inhabitants and sought labour for livelihood. however, besides all these practices, they could not harmonise with the local culture. they did not find a common domain where they could share their mutual interests. they remained distinct from the locals and kept practising their indigenous culture, which did not earn any reputation, monetary benefits, or social constitutive features of deliberate language shift: a case study of afghan immigrants as a community of practice 218 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 recognition. they remained peripheral in the punjabi community. nonetheless, an early realisation brought many changes to their lifestyle, and an era of deliberate language shift got its origin. 1.3. problem statement afghan immigrants and punjabi culture are in contrast ranging from their food and language to rituals. they share no similarities except their religious faith. their tongues are utterly incomprehensible to each other. owing to their cultural differences, they do not concede with cultural fusion—and—even to exogamy. their dress codes are different from one another, with a lot more differences in their celebrations of the same religious occasions. even after immigration from afghanistan, they still own a great affiliation with their cultural customs and geographical rituals. however, their prolonged stay in punjab needed adaptability to multiple changes, especially in food, clothes, cross-cultural marriages, and language, to survive and fulfil their transactional purposes. since language is the key component to accomplish transactional goals, the afghan immigrants' speech has been significantly adapted. it has been observed that they just not only learned urdu and punjabi for business transactions; instead, they borrowed native terms and replaced their pushto words to make their language moderate and flexible. 1.4 research question • how cofp led to the constitutive features of deliberate language shift among afghan immigrants in punjab, pakistan? 1.5 research objective • to determine the constitutive features of deliberate language shift among afghan immigrants in punjab, pakistan. 1.6 rationale and significance of the study the study aims to determine the sociolinguistics features which affect the lives of afghan immigrants. the apparent changes and everyday observations regarding the immigrants' lives enhanced the significance of the subject of the study. the study accentuates the reversal of pashtun culture as well as of language. there are plenty of significant changes, which ought to be investigated to highlight the sociological factors affecting the lives of pashtun immigrants in district chakwal (punjab). constitutive features of deliberate language shift: a case study of afghan immigrants as a community of practice 219 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 2. literature review afghanistan is a landlocked country that shares one of the most friendly borders with pakistan (raza, 1991). for many decades, there was no check and balance on the movement of the immigrants at this very border. however, pakistan always declared its border with afghanistan the safest one as both the countries had unwavering confidence in each other (mackey, 2006). because of this, several transactional trips were made relatively quickly along with the free movement of local masses as on both sides; people used to speak the same language (saleem, 2008). moreover, along the border, people share the same social customs, cultural norms, and worldview. with the outbreak of two consecutive wars with the ussr and the usa, the war victims were immediately displaced from the threats and moved to pakistan and settled in different cities (zaidi, 2010). the most accessible and welcoming cities were in khyber pakhtunkhwa and punjab, including attock, chakwal, and khushab. after settling the disputes, most immigrants preferred to stay in pakistan because of the socioeconomic opportunities. moreover, they did not pay any considerable taxes to the government of pakistan (chitkara, 1996). they enjoyed the soil of pakistan as the fostering mother with no external check and balance (ahmad, 1998). according to the latest government survey and the record of nadra, around three million displaced afghans reside in pakistan, which is a vast number to dent the economy of pakistan. 2.1 sociocultural conflict between afghan immigrants and punjabi communities according to khan (2005), there is no one-to-one correspondence between afghan and punjabi cultures. the diversification is found in their dress code, language code and even behaviour code. superficially, they share nothing similar except religious faith. with the arrival of afghan immigrants in punjab, the local inhabitants had a unique experience of an exotic culture, which did not attract them immediately (zaidi, 2010). as the minority in the region, afghan immigrants sought refuge to acquire the local culture to maintain amicable contact with the localities. they had opted for it to establish their business and secure social stability in the market (ahmad, 2001). constitutive features of deliberate language shift: a case study of afghan immigrants as a community of practice 220 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 2.2 language dominates the culture in pakistan english was declared as the official national language in the constitution of 1973. the legacy of english colonisers remained official even after they departed from the region (shah, 1997). however, english retained the language of power corridors and was used at higher level education as a medium of instruction and among all the country's powerful institutions. it has even influenced our national languages, like urdu, punjabi, pashtu, sindhi, and balochi (rehman, 2003). in a country like pakistan, the children lay open to multiple languages, which are entirely different at the macro and micro levels, linguistically. they set out to experience it from the outset of their language and culture acquisition process. they raise in a linguistically diverse and dynamic environment (saleem, 2008); they are generally nurtured in homes where their parents speak their mother tongue (rauf, 1975). to saleem (2008), children perceive the fundamental concepts about the objects around them in their mother tongue, and the culture they perceive becomes the product of that set pattern of language. their exposure to markets, schools, and playgrounds inculcate the cultural aspects intermingled with their language, and they communicate and transmit the cultural norms with their peers by adopting the fixed culture. however, such exposure helps them enhance their linguistic skills and add a new language to their linguistic competencies. hence, a language becomes the product of culture, and culture can only be transmitted and preserved in the language of everyday practice (baarat & sindhi, 2003). 2.3 hybridisation as a conversational strategy the scope and significance of language in everyday business can never go unnoticed. language has both functions: conversational and transactional. however, it entails a complex and scientific process. people use language for several functions without conscious effort as they take the language for granted as a means of expression. hudson (1980) pointed out that people acquire language from a society where they are brought up without a deliberate struggle. furthermore, language is a social phenomenon. according to lyon (1981), language and culture are deeply interceded, as both can interpret each other. constitutive features of deliberate language shift: a case study of afghan immigrants as a community of practice 221 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 hybridisation is usually done for some transactional strategy. in this strategy, the interlocutors shift their medium of instruction and expression. gumperz (1982) called it the juxtaposition of different internal structures within the same language. besides, it is classified into two categories: situational code-switching and metaphorical code-switching. in situational code-switching, the variation in language use is dependent on the situation rather than the topic. whereas, metaphorically, code-switching is conditional to the change in topic amongst the interlocutors. scholars have further subdivided categories of code-switching as: tag switching, intra-sentential, and inter-sentential. it refers to the regular transferring of semantic elements between the two languages, sometimes more than two languages depending on the literary background of interlocutors. terence (1989) extrapolated that code-mixing is the variation and shifting between one or more than one characteristic of two or more languages. though, compared to code-switching, codemixing needs more delicacy and care because, in code-mixing, the interlocutors have to be cautious in adjusting the codes in different scenarios that should match the target language context. it is tricky and demands mastery because the speaker must be vigilant about subjectverb agreement, gender, and the number. depending on the language community, the frequency of code-mixing is quite hindered. it may vary from language to language. the claim may be witnessed in pakistani linguistic communities. in the punjabi context, code-mixing has a higher frequency of code-mixing. contrastingly, the pushto language community has a comparatively low relationship between language and culture in punjab. to acquire the language and culture is not the choice of the speakers; instead, to make a better fit in the society, one automatically receives the language and culture where one was raised. individuals have no control over that acquisition, and this phenomenon becomes the practice of social beings. sociocultural norms are so inculcated that one automatically behaves in culturally set patterns. in punjab, all the modern societies are heterogeneous, and such societies want to transmit and adapt the culture through dynamic exposure. punjabi communities require mastery over more than two languages, at least even within a single culture. people have to speak a language constitutive features of deliberate language shift: a case study of afghan immigrants as a community of practice 222 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 at home, entirely different from those expressed in streets, markets, schools, or workstations. such practice and exposure make the punjabi culture dynamic (rahman, 2003). the central role in acquiring the language and culture is performed by primary level education that allows the students to express their learning and conceptual understanding in their mother tongues. however, when they appear in competitive exams which require the same cognitive and critical thinking in the english language, they cannot succeed (saleem, 2008). 3. research methodology the researchers used a qualitative approach to collect the perceptions of the afghan business community in district chakwal as a source of data for analysis. the researchers analysed the data by transcribing the interviews. for triangulation, the non-participant observations are also collected. 3.1 wenger's cofp as a theoretical framework since the sociolinguistic features and factors that affect the language of any community are a matter of individual's and collective experience, the researchers selected the "community of practice" as a theoretical framework. wenger (2011) pinpointed that people do not learn from others' experiences; instead, they also incorporate their experiences in changing others' outlook on life. the framework has three constitutive elements on which the entire model stands. the "domain" is the first underpinning principle of this model that deals with the area of interest for the population. it brings the practitioners closer to creating a unique identity to address the common issues and challenges. the second element is "the community", which constitute a valuable relationship among the practitioners. it defines the quality of relationships among the members. it also examines and determines the internal and external boundaries. the "practice", according to wenger (2004), is the body of knowledge, experiences, and methods the members share within that community. the practice is a way of acting under certain circumstances. the behaviour of practitioners is altered according to the purpose and intentions for a set goal. it led the researchers to apprehend the phenomenon's essence by investigating the participants' viewpoints who have been experiencing it for almost the last two decades. qualitative research is necessitated to analyse the data collected through interviews. the researchers used the thematic content analysis technique to conclude the results of the study. constitutive features of deliberate language shift: a case study of afghan immigrants as a community of practice 223 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 3.2 population all the afghan pashtun immigrant businessmen in district chakwal is the population of the study. the population is selected regardless of their business property and market influence. all sorts of people in business got an equal opportunity to be a part of the study. 3.3 research sample and sampling technique the motive of sampling is to limit the population to a small set of people from a speech community and oversimplify the inhabitants. this limitation provides a logic that it could deliver rationality, meticulousness, articulacy and acceptance. the researchers opted convenient sampling technique in limiting the population for the study. this technique generated a sample that epitomises the entire population unaffectedly. 3.4 data collection tools the researchers collected the data through observations and semi-structured interviews. they administered a total number of 10 individual interviews. each participant had at least 10 years of stay experience in the locality. their perceptions were recorded with their consent which the researchers for thematic analysis later on transcribed. besides the recordings, the researchers also jotted non-participant observations to triangulate the same interviewees during their transactional dealings with the customers. 4. findings and analysis the analysis of the interviews and observations revealed how afghan immigrants established the community of practice in collaboration with the local inhabitants. the cofp model is used to systematise the themes derived from the research participants' interviews and observations. the themes are further discussed and interpreted under each element of the cofp model. through the underpinnings of cofp model, the entire debate is constructed to open up the constitutive features that deliberate the language shift under certain circumstances. 4.1 the "domain" as an element of cofp the domain is the fundamental zone of communal practices. it leads to the emergence of new social phenomenon. that is the precinct where practitioners share their experiences and knowledge. two separate communities can fuse by establishing some everyday tools to interact. however, the common domain between afghan and punjabi communities was set through constitutive features of deliberate language shift: a case study of afghan immigrants as a community of practice 224 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 business markets. to practice the domain, the pushto speaking immigrants took support from sociolinguistic features. the researchers observed that afghan immigrants' code-switching between pushto and punjabi is purely a matter of choice as it provides ease to their customers in dealings. it mainly occurs when the customers are either of old age punjabi or illiterate. yet, it is difficult to maintain for a prolonged discussion period because afghan immigrants have the least opportunities for such conversations. they coded that we are conversant in the urdu language, but punjabi is a bit hard accent with difficult pronunciation like pushto, which makes it challenging to acquire fully. they also professed that a prolonged conversation creates a painful experience for their articulators. their articulators are not set according to the punjabi language utterances, the participants reported. the second feature claimed by the research participants and observed by the researchers is code-mixing. the participants informed that they are used to uttering the local punjabi words during the conversation with their punjabi customers because it creates a unique effect as they perceive. they also reckon that their customers enjoy their broken and mixed punjabi as they usually smile and some also laugh. they believe that it develops an environment of mutual understanding between sellers and buyers. additionally, they are accustomed to practising in their daily conversations, even among their speech communities, as it has become their secondary habit. 4.2 the "community" as an element of cofp the sociolinguistic adaptations are tactically intentional, need-based, and not accidental, as reported by afghan immigrants. they coded that they are doing their business in the market, full of competitors. these competitors are not from the other speech community but from among their language speakers as well. thus, it is the need of time to make a better fit in the market. they reported that the first feature that attracts their customers is the ease of communication and their affectionate attitude even before the concessions and open access to the articles they are selling. they stressed the concept of communication and rapport to attract buyers and make better transactions compared to their competitors. constitutive features of deliberate language shift: a case study of afghan immigrants as a community of practice 225 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the immigrants reported that the second factor leading to the language shift is their target buyers, who belong to a completely different speech community. to make a successful transaction, they intentionally make this shift in their native language. one of the participants responded that business demands these shifts and should never offend anyone because it produces a good revenue for them at the end of the day. he also suggested that business and livelihood always have greater prestige than language and culture. resultantly, no participant regretted this language shift as they made no efforts to maintain their own language. instead, they put their best to become more proficient in punjabi and urdu language as the coded participants. they professed that they do not look down on punjabi and urdu languages because they also provide a medium to make better business deals. additionally, they stressed the concept of professionalism that demands to be supportive towards their customers. they reiterated that ensuring the open access of their business goods for the customers is a significant challenge. it is also reported that ease and access is the hallmark of each customer's satisfaction which produces a better revenue for the seller. code mixing and code-switching are fundamental tactics for afghan immigrants to improve the quality of access and ease. the participants stated that customer's satisfaction is directly proportional to their professionalism. lastly, the most significant transactional factor to the pashtun language shifts business expansion by making one-to-one ties with the local culture. the participants stated that prolonging their stay in pakistan depends on the versatility of their business, for which they are endeavouring hard. they indicated that they had been given multiple deadlines to leave pakistan otherwise to deposit a considerable revenue to the local government to make their stay legitimate in pakistan. 4.3 the "practice" as an element of cofp the "domain" and the "community" are established to do effective practices in a speech community. the participants reflected upon is the interaction as a fundamental practice for their communal relation. business aside, they admitted that they have been living here for the last 2 decades, enough to be engrossed in any new culture. they stated that their children were born here and were educated in the local schools. their socialisation in that community has enabled constitutive features of deliberate language shift: a case study of afghan immigrants as a community of practice 226 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 them to cultivate amicable relationships as well as friendships. they also confessed that they are not reluctant for cross-cultural marriages as they have established agreeable companies. they admitted that they have developed trust among the natives and are willing to coexist with them. some of the participants claimed that they are influential as compared to the natives. some of them mentioned that their younger generation is close to the local community, and one can hardly distinguish them from the local population. their children have a good command over the native language, and no one can make any judgment to be distinct or of afghan origin. social security and suitability are one of the essential aspects that drive them for the language shift. through language, they want to be recognised among the local majority as they are in the minority. being minor in the region makes them insecure and unsafe too. hence, they learn the local language for affiliating themselves socially with the community they live in. some of the participants reported that one could not assume himself safe by alienating oneself from society. they called group consciousness the protector of their rights and well-being. lastly, they wished to be called the natives as they have spent a considerable time of their lives here. they want to stay longer and to be recognised by the local culture. they exhibited great affection and affiliation with the region and considered the town their home and punjabi their language. they said that they do not discriminate against any language based on any consideration. although they speak their native language at their homes, they claim no harm to the local language. 5. discussion the business market is the domain mutually established by pushto and punjabi speakers in punjab. the researchers observed that pushto sellers and punjabi buyers attempt to develop a common ground when they come across any business dealing. they believe it is mandatory to sustain the domain that addresses their lives as a whole. however, the domain is maintained through some linguistic features as the practitioners speak different languages. both the parties usually converse in the common language, that is, urdu. in some cases, pushto speakers use punjabi terminology to develop rapport with the customers. they also practice this code-mixing to get their customers at ease because some customers are alien to the urdu language or hesitant to speak in front of their family members constitutive features of deliberate language shift: a case study of afghan immigrants as a community of practice 227 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 accompanying them. on the other hand, punjabi speakers also attempt to use pushto terminologies, especially when entering and asking for some concessions to fit the deal better. through this common domain, they share knowledge, practices, and experiences. keeping in view the situation, they endeavour to create harmonious relationships with the local tenets to sustain their community which is the second significant pillar of cofp. the immigrants assume to be native speakers and staunch adherents to the region, which help them generate a soft corner in the hearts of the authorities. they also confessed that they have been producing a thriving business for the area and adopting the local culture. they coded that the genial affiliations they exhibit, the more they are safe. for the said reason, they have to promote regional language, which is instrumental for their businesses and regional safety. society is like a family for them and to which they have to adapt themselves. some of the witty immigrants coded that these are we who have to adapt, not the society. they agreed upon the fact that people do not stay longer, but the community does. they reiterated the necessity of communal practices to share their experiences, knowledge, methods to adapt and develop their collaborative community. the participants wished not to be discriminated against based on their language and be considered prestigious as the locals. a few are privileged as they have never been discriminated against at any point in their daily life. they consider themselves prosperous in developing an amiable liaison with the local power groups. some claim themselves as the dominant power in their localities. 6. conclusion conclusively, language shift has become a universal phenomenon. it is not restricted to a specific region or a particular language family. it has become an inevitable linguistic phenomenon that is widespread in linguistic communities the world over. however, some triggering factors work as a force towards language shift. some of the common factors are social, economic and political priorities. along with these factors, the displaced people also undergo the process of language shift. last is the speakers' attitude, outlook, creed, and values, leading to the language shift. the research participants also suggested that businesses and livelihood always have greater prestige than language and culture. consequently, no participant regretted this language shift as they constitutive features of deliberate language shift: a case study of afghan immigrants as a community of practice 228 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 made no efforts to maintain their language. however, most participants reiterated the concept for two primary purposes: transactional, expanding their businesses, producing revenue; and, sustaining social interaction within the community they inhabit. 7. recommendations the study mainly highlighted the social and economic factors leading to the afghan immigrants' intentional language shift. it took account of how the needs of financial stability and social cohesion play a pivotal role in thoughtful language shift. the study also explored the factors of political influence and power through the participants' responses. yet, very few are explored and expressed on these factors. therefore, it is further recommended that research studies solely address these two factors in discrete under the cofp model. references ahmad, a. 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(2011). pakistani immigrants. retrieved from https://www.religion.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/4148-321-1pass-pakistani.pdf rauf, a. (1975). islamic culture & civilisation in pakistan. lahore: feroz sons. https://www.religion.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/4148-321-1pass-pakistani.pdf constitutive features of deliberate language shift: a case study of afghan immigrants as a community of practice 229 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 raza, m. h. (1991). cultural caravan of pakistan. islamabad: colorpix. rahman, tariq. (2003). language, education and culture. karachi: oxford university press. salamat, z. (1992). pakistan 1947-58: a historical review. islamabad: national institute of historical and cultural research. saleem, f. (2008, 8 june). curriculum of hate. the news, islamabad, opinion page. shah, m. 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(2010). a postcolonial sociolinguistics of punjabi in pakistan. journal of postcolonial cultures and societies, 1 (3), 22-55. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). http://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/knowledge-management-as-a-doughnut/ chapter 1 english code-switching: an increasing practice in burushaski discourse 397 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 english code-switching: an increasing practice in burushaski discourse abdul saeed assistant professor, sukkur institute of business administration university, pakistan saeedabdulskr@gmail.com shahzad karim assistant professor, the islamia university of bahawalpur, pakistan shahzadaps@gmail.com uzma lecturer of english, superior college bhera uzmamalik279@gmail.com abstract this study mainly aims to explore burushaski speaking students’ behaviour towards english code-switching with regard to increase in their educational level. the study also aims to sort out the class of words which mostly become a source of code-switching. the data were collected from a total of 90 participants which were divided into three groups. each group consisted of 30 participants. group discussions between the participants in burushaski language were held and were recorded for each group. the findings show variations in the amount of english code-switching within the conversation of each group which demonstrate that the amount of code-switching in conversation of graduation level students is greater than those of matriculation and intermediate level students respectively. among the parts of speech, nouns were found to be highly switched in burushaski discourse. keywords: code-switching, bilingualism, discourse analysis, adult esl learners introduction the english language has become a lingua franca across the world (kuteeva, 2020). it is widely used as a language of instruction in educational institutions in various countries around the world, in addition to being used as an official language. its popularity is increasing day by day which urges people to learn and use english language to interact with a wider community across the globe (abbas et al., 2018). the english language occupies a prominent position in pakistan. it is used as an official language along with urdu which is the national language of pakistan. english is also used as a medium of instruction and is taught as a compulsory subject from primary to postgraduate level education in pakistan (shamim, 2008). it is also considered as a status symbol, which means having good communicative competence in english is a key to earn a mailto:saeedabdulskr@gmail.com mailto:shahzadaps@gmail.com mailto:uzmamalik279@gmail.com english code-switching: an increasing practice in burushaski discourse 398 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 higher social status in pakistan. proficiency in english is regarded as a guarantee to obtain good jobs. therefore, students are inclined to improve their english language proficiency to have a successful life in future (akram & ghani, 2013). these needs and importance of english, either intrinsically or extrinsically, urge the learners to use english in both academic and everyday life conversations as much as they can. consequently, this turns out to be a source of infusing english vocabulary in pakistani people’s local languages. switching from one language to another is very common in a bilingual society (heller, 2020). there is a difference of opinion about lexical to sentence level code switching. some of the linguists call switching at the level of words as ‘code-mixing’ in which a word of a subordinate language is embedded in the structure of a dominant language, whereas switching at the level of sentences is called ‘code-switching’ in which a complete sentence of a different language is embedded in another language. nevertheless, most linguists prefer the term ‘codeswitching’ to describe all types of code transfer between two languages that are utilised at the same time. hence, in this paper, i will use the term ‘code-switching’ to refer to all types of code transfer. researchers have described several motivations for using different codes while conversing, including the need to keep the conversation moving without break, the desire to substitute a correct term or structure with a better expression, the want to show allegiance with a certain group, and so on (hasselmo, 2020). regardless of the reasons for switching from one code to another, it compromises the purity of the language while assisting the speaker in effectively communicating the information. (blommaert et al., 2012). the dominant languages gradually replace subordinate languages. according to an estimate all minor languages of the world, particularly in subcontinent, are at stake and there will remain only major state or provincial languages after a few decades. english is one of the main languages that is gaining dominance over all other indigenous languages spoken in pakistan, regardless of the number of people who speak them (rahman, 2010). one evidence of the dominance of english and the decline of local languages is the absorption of english vocabulary items into local languages. among other indigenous languages of pakistan, burushaski is one of the minor languages spoken in the gilgit-baltistan province with an approximate number of 60,000 to 80, 000 speakers (tikkanen, 2020). most of its native speakers are in hunza and yasin valley. with the advent of karakoram highway, tourism and education boosted in these areas which although strengthened the local economy but it also brought foreign culture and languages with english code-switching: an increasing practice in burushaski discourse 399 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 it which affected the purity of burushaski language. many foreign words became part of dailylife conversation and replaced local vocabulary. thus, there is a threat of the extinction of burushaski language like other minor languages of the area. the present study is an attempt to find out the frequency of code-switching of english lexical items into burushaski language. the study will help to estimate the overwhelming influence of english over burushaski. as the frequency of different parts of speech of the english language will be studied, it will help determine the most affected area of the burushaski language. in this way, the study will help english language teachers, local anthropologists, and linguists to improve the local language and to protect them from the invasion of foreign words. it will also help preserve the discourse in burushaski language for the future to determine the language change over the period of time. research questions • what is the degree of acceptability of code-switching of english in burushaski language? • does code-switching increase with the increase of educational level? • which constituent of words is most frequently switched by the burushaski students? literature review it is very difficult to find a single definition for code-switching. as code-switching is linked with several related fields, such as linguistics, psychology and education, it has been defined according to the specific fields. according to nilep (2006, p. 1), code-switching is “the practice of selecting or altering linguistic elements so as to contextualize talk in interaction”. almost similar definition was given by bista (2010, p. 2) when he/she defines that “codeswitching is the alternation of words and phrases between two languages or dialects and it usually occurs between people who share those particular languages”. from these two definitions code-switching is the mixture of two languages aiming at making the language effective and clear to understand. types of code-switching generally, two types of code-switching are described by the linguists. according to lipski (1985), one is intra-sentential code-switching and the other is inter-sentential codeswitching. intra-sentential code-switching occurs at lexical level in which one or more lexical items are embedded within a sentence. intra-sentential code switching is prevalent among english code-switching: an increasing practice in burushaski discourse 400 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 bilingual speakers, and it is done to keep the conversation run up and avoid interruptions. usually, speakers switch to other language when they feel confident in using the switched language and find more suitable words to enrich their expressions. most often, lexical items are borrowed from a dominant language and are embedded into the structure of a subordinate language. on the other hand, inter-sentential code-switching is a type of switching that occurs above the lexeme level, i.e., at syntactic level. in inter-sentential code-switching, a whole sentence from a dominant language is added to a subordinate language. another sort of codeswitching is tag-switching, which occurs when a speaker inserts a tag statement (such as you know, i mean, no way) from one language into another (zirker, 2007). according to lipski (1985), although there are several reasons for code-switching, it is often done with a purpose to show off competence in the dominant language to gain a higher status in the society. zirker (2007) states that inter-sentential code-switching requires more smoothness and proficiency in both languages than intra-sentential code-switching as in intersentential code-switching each sentence must be correct and in line with the corresponding rules of both languages that are being used. gumperz (1977) introduced situational and metaphorical code-switching. situational code-switching occurs when new members join an ongoing conversation, but they are not familiar with the language being used for conversation. consequently, the speakers of the ongoing conversation switch to a language which the newcomers can understand and speak. a group of japanese-english bilinguals who speak japanese within their group but switch to english when monolingual english speakers join them is an example of situational codeswitching (shin, 2010). whereas, metaphorical code-switching is used as a conversational strategy either to enhance or mitigate speech acts, such as requests or denials, and it is most often done unconsciously and unexpectedly (shin, 2010). similarly, muysken (2000) identified three types of code-switching i.e., (i) insertion, (ii) alternation and (iii) congruent lexicalization. according to kim (2006), in the case of insertion code-switching, either a lexical item or entire constituents are inserted from one language into another language and this happens with bilinguals when they do not have good command over the target language as happens in case of refugees. alteration switching is a kind of process in which speakers do not insert any lexical item when speaking, rather the speakers keep conversation remain relatively separate. whereas congruent lexicalization happens when two languages share partial or impartial syntactic structures of each other. english code-switching: an increasing practice in burushaski discourse 401 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 functions of code-switching code-switching is very common in a bilingual or multilingual society. code switching is primarily used for two purposes: academic and social functions. academic functions of code-switching sert (2005) conducted a study to explore teachers’ and students’ perspectives about the academic purpose of code-switching. he asserts that whether code-switching is conscious or unconscious, it serves a few fundamental purposes. he found that teachers do codeswitching for different purposes. for instance, teachers embed words of an indigenous language into the target language in lectures to make the students understand the topic easily. this is especially common in grammar-translation method classes, where teachers demonstrate a grammatical topic by using examples from the students' native language. secondly, teachers repeat difficult points in mother tongue during lectures to make the points clearer. moreover, sometimes teachers have been found switching from the target language to the local language to build good relationships with the students and to create a friendly environment in the classroom. on the other hand, the students were found switching for three main reasons. first, students switched to their native language to find appropriate words to keep the conversation moving forward. usually this happened due to incompetency in the target language. secondly, students reiterated their points in mother tongue to express their ideas clearly. thirdly, students switched to their mother tongue to prevent any disagreement caused by a concern of using the target language incorrectly. ansar (2017) carried out a study in indonesia to explore teachers’ and students’ perspectives about the academic functions of code-switching and code-mixing. she found that both teachers and students use code-switching for almost the same purposes as mentioned by sert (2005). bhatti et al., (2018) conducted a study in pakistan to find out code-switching as a teaching tool in classrooms. all the teachers were well-qualified having ma and mphil degrees in language teaching and had more than five-year experience of teaching english as a second language. diploma level esl classes were chosen, and observation and audio-tape recordings were used to collect the data. in addition to the functions of code-switching as a teaching tool mentioned above, she found that teachers also used code-switching to maintain discipline in the classroom. she further explained that all types of code-switching (intra-sentential, interenglish code-switching: an increasing practice in burushaski discourse 402 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 sentential and tag switching) were used during the lectures. uys (2010) explored the functions of code-switching in a high school classroom in northern cape province. study found that teachers use code-switching in several ways to explain, clarify and interpret the lectures. similarly, students also used code-switching to explain and clarify their point of view. the study overall stated the positive effects of codeswitching on teaching and learning in classrooms. rahman (2010) conducted a study to find out the effects of code-switching on students in pakistani esl classrooms. both male and female teachers of english, ranging from 5 to 15 years’ experience of teaching english as a second language were the participants of the study. findings supported the positive effects of code-switching in the classroom. it helped not only teachers but also students to learn english as a second language. however, the study suggested to have a clear policy about the extent of using code-switching for teaching, as unnecessary code-switching may not be good for second language learning. social functions of code-switching sert (2005) states that code-switching in a social context is a way to express solidarity among the speakers of different languages through self-expression by using a common language. code-switching, in this case, is a source to join two different communities together. ugot (2008) describes the reasons for code-switching in a social context and says that speakers may switch because either they want to emphasize a point, or they do not find an appropriate word in their language to express themselves. so, they seek help from another language by switching to that language. children in a bilingual society most often find using more than one language simultaneously. it is considered that children switch to another language because they are incompetent in one language. so, in order to hide the incompetency and to keep the discourse moving on, children switch from one language to another (köppe & meisel, 1995). köppe and meisel (1995) also asserted that children switch to another language because they cannot differentiate between the two language and consider them as one language. however, some other studies, such as trebits (2021) and zimmerman (2020) found that children do not switch because they are incompetent, rather, they switch for better expression. these studies found that children of 2 to 6 years old were able to differentiate two different language systems easily and they were also able to identify the individuals with a particular language use. reyes (2004) carried out a study to explore the purpose of children’s code-switching. findings revealed that children usually switch to another language when they english code-switching: an increasing practice in burushaski discourse 403 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 change the topic. moreover, children were also found using code-switching for clarification and emphasizing on the point. yow et al. (2018) found code-switching as a helping tool for children to improve their second language and to communicate their messages effectively. burushaski language the burushaski language is spoken in gilgit-baltistan which is a province of pakistan. most of its speakers live in hunza and yasin valley. according to grune (1998), almost 50,000 native speakers of the burushaski language live in gilgit-baltistan. the burushaski language is considered a minor language in pakistan and attempts are being made to preserve the language for future. the opening of karakoram highway boosted the economy of the area. however, tourism and the continuous influence of local dominant languages, such as urdu and english, have affected the burushaski vocabulary a lot (salim, 2019). further, the vast majority of burushaski speakers live in other regions of the world for educational and economic reasons. these people are constantly exposed to the prevalent local languages which is posing a danger to the burushaski language. due to the constant influx of foreign languages, burushaski speakers have unwittingly begun to abandon their own vocabulary in favour of english (salim, 2019). so, there was a compelling need to assess the level of code-switching in the burushaski language to assess the future of the language. research methodology as the purpose of the study was to find out the level of code switching of english words in the burushaski language, the quantitative research paradigm was used. the study also aimed to explore if the increase in one's education level has any impact on code-switching, i.e., does code-switching increases with the increase in one's educational level? for this purpose, quantitative paradigm was used as it would help quantify the differences between the various levels of education. participants and data collection tools for this study, 90 students both male and female, age ranging from 14 to 22 years were selected from different institutions of the hunza district. the participants were divided into three groups (group–a, –b, and –c) which represented matriculation, intermediate and graduation level of education respectively. each group consisted of 30 students, having both male and female participants. the data were collected through group discussions. the discussions were recorded. the purpose for recoding was to listen the audio time and again for analysis purposes. the english code-switching: an increasing practice in burushaski discourse 404 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 audio-recording for data collection has been used previously in several studies, such as abalhassan and alshalawi (2000). the topic for discussion in this study was ‘the problems encountered by the citizens of pakistan,’ which was assigned to each group. the participants were informed to use their natural way of communication when discussing the topic. fifteen minutes were given to each group for the discussion. data analysis once data were collected, the words and utterances were calculated for each group. the data were first analysed to find out the code-switching of english into the burushaski language. at the second step, the total code-switching of the english language was classified into different parts of speech. this was done to have a clear idea about which parts of speech of the english language the participants mostly embedded in the burushaski language. calculation of words findings show a constant increase in the number of code switching of english words into burushaski language with the increase of educational level. the lowest amount of codeswitching of english words was seen in group a, which consisted of matriculation students, with 141 words out of 1498 and a percentage of 9.40. whereas group c, which was consisted of graduation level students, witnessed the highest level of code-switching of english words, with 284 words out of 1765 and a percentage of 16. the group b, which had intermediate students, witnessed a code-switching of english words in between the groups a and c that was 206 english words out of 1698 and a percentage of 12. notably, although all the groups were given equal amount of time for the discussion, but it can also clearly be observed that the total number of words also increased with the increase of educational level. it shows that the students of higher level of educational had more knowledge of the subject and used more words during the discussion. table 1: amount of english code-switching in the burushaski discourse group english words total words english code-switching percentage a 141 1498 9.40% b 206 1698 12% c 284 1765 16% classification of words english code-switching: an increasing practice in burushaski discourse 405 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 after quantifying the amount of english code-switching in the burushaski discourse, the next step was to classify code-switching into the parts of speech of the english language. the purpose to calculate the parts of speech was to know which parts of speech of the english language were more used in the burushaski discourse. the percentage of the use of different parts of speech can be seen in figure 1 below. the findings (see figure 1 below) show that english nouns were the most commonly used parts of speech by all three groups. the noun category accounted for 62 percent of the total words, whereas the verb category accounted for only 16 percent, which is significantly lower than the nouns. in terms of the groups, group–b which consisted of intermediate level students used nouns in the highest number, while group–c which consisted of graduate level students used nouns the least. group–c students used verbs in the highest number (21%), while group–b students used verbs in the lowest number (11%). overall, nouns, verbs and adjectives are the most common used parts of speech by the burushaski speakers. apart from these, rest of the categories of parts of speech were barely used by the participants. figure 1: number of english parts of speech in the burushaski discourse discussion the primary focus of the present study was to find out the infusion of english lexical code-switching in the burushaski discourse. the findings show that the sum of all english code-switched words in the discourse of all groups was 631 out of a total of 4961 words, which makes the code-switching of the english language as 12% of the whole conversation. all the participants shifted to english to a certain degree. however, it was interesting to see that none of the participants appeared to utilise english as their primary language english code-switching: an increasing practice in burushaski discourse 406 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 throughout the chat. all the speakers used burushaski as their main language and it was supplemented by the use of english. in other words, speakers used burushaski as the primary language which is also called a matrix language and used english as an embedded language. the reason for this could be that the participants since their childhood lived and worked at hunza valley where burushaski is the native and dominant language and is used everywhere. these findings are similar to those of abalhassan and alshalawi (2000) who studied the level of english code-switching in arabic discourse in the united arab emirates. however, barhoum (1989) found different results. in barhoum (1989) the speakers appeared to use english as a primary language and arabic as an embedded language. the reason for this difference may be the participants, as in barhoum's (1989), the participants were immigrants and had been living in the united states for a long time and thus were more fluent in english than arabic. the second most important question in the study was to find out whether the english code-switching increases with the increase of education level. the findings show that group– a (which consisted of matriculation level students) switched 141 lexical items of english out of a total of 1498 words (i.e., 9%) in the discourse. group–b (which consisted of intermediate level students) switched 206 words of english out of a total of 1698 words (i.e., 12%), and group–c (which consisted of graduate level students) switched 284 words of english out of a total of 1765 words (i.e., 16%). these findings clearly show that there is a direct relationship between education level and code switching. code-switching increases with the increase of educational level. a simple explanation for this phenomenon may be the learners’ exposure to the foreign language (english) in this case. as the class level increases, the students are more exposed to the english language either through books or through teachers’ use of english. hence, the amount of code-switching increases (fachriyah, 2017). the findings are supported by reyes's (2004) study, who found that a child of 10 years who is exposed to english for 3 years, uses 33% code-switching. on the other hand, a child of 10 years who is exposed to english for less than 3 years does 15% code switching. the next step in the research was to determine which parts of speech are frequently switched to english. nouns appeared to be the most frequently switched constituent with a percentage of 62%. this high percentage indicates that the speakers are more familiar with the english names of the things than the burushaski names, and they commonly substitute the burushiski names with the english names. hunza is a major tourist destination in pakistan's english code-switching: an increasing practice in burushaski discourse 407 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 northwestern region, with many foreign visitors throughout the year. they undoubtedly purchase local products, such as souvenirs and various other items of daily usage. this may be one of the reasons for the higher rate of noun code-switching. these findings are similar to those of berk-seligson (1986) who also found noun as the most frequently switched part of speech. the next most frequently switched parts of speech are verbs and adjectives with a percentage of 16% and 14% respectively. it is also worth noting that adverbs, conjunctions, pronouns and prepositions are the rarely switched parts of speech. the findings are again similar to those of berk-seligson (1986). further, the present study found more intra-sentential code-switching than inter-sentential code-switching. in intra-sentential code-switching, nouns, verbs and adjectives are mainly switched, whereas in inter-sentential code-switching, the switching of prepositions and conjunctions mainly takes place as these are used to join the sentences. this may possibly be the reason to have the present ratio of code-switching of different parts of speech. conclusion and recommendations through the findings of the study, it is easy to conclude that with the increase of education level the level of code-switching increases, and it mainly happens due to increased exposure to the target/foreign language (i.e., english in this case). additionally, in intrasentential code-switching, nouns, verbs and adjectives are the most frequently switched parts of speech as these parts of speech can easily be embedded in sentence than others. this study explored the relationship between code-switching and speakers’/ learners’ level of education. future research might investigate the phenomenon of code-switching in illiterate people. further research can also be carried out to explore how the use of english with the burushaski language can be minimized, as this 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(2010). the functions of teachers’ code switching in multilingual and multicultural high school classrooms in the siyanda district of the northern cape province. stellenbosch: university of stellenbosch. english code-switching: an increasing practice in burushaski discourse 410 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 yow, w. q., tan, j. s. h., & flynn, s. (2018). code-switching as a marker of linguistic competence in bilingual children. bilingualism: language and cognition, 21(5), 1075– 1090. zimmerman, e. (2020). code-switching in conversation-for-learning: creating opportunities for learning while on study abroad. foreign language annals, 53(1), 149–175. zirker, k. a. h. (2007). intra-sentential vs. inter-sentential code switching in early and late bilinguals. brigham young university. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 144 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross raphael chukwuemeka onyejizu use of english division, glory land institute of management studies, nigeria raphaelnjz@gmail.com christiana nnemba chukwu vice-principal (academics), aleka academy ankpa, nigeria nneiji247@gmail.com abstract african drama and theatre discourse on gender relations often address some cultural issues as salient factors that undermine the female quest to transcend marginal and debilitating spaces through self-emancipation and education. this paper examines these peculiarities and discusses the underpinnings of patriarchy and the female ordeal, particularly as this relates to the girl-child such as sexual abuse, underage marriage, female genital mutilation, sextrafficking and other constraints manifest against her will to survive in a patriarchal society. this paper is inspired by the fact that the female child still struggles to grapple with numerous challenges in a hegemonic culture. using the descriptive method of analysis, the paper adopts the feminist approach to analyze this dilemma head-on. it makes a critical contribution to the girl-child and explores the dominant cultural milieu prevalent in the african rural society that appears to have fostered the course of her numerous predicaments. the paper submits that the african female and the girl-child in rural settings can successfully break through such hegemonic and disconcerting yokes by sheer resilience. keywords: patriarchy; morbid culture; women subordination; karena’s cross introduction african drama and theatre discourse on gender relations often address the all-toofamiliar but complex narrative of the female character, seeking undeniably to revolutionize her distorted image through positivist legendary ideals by female or male writers who seek to portray her amazonian model of conquest, ambition and achievement. while many feminist writers have offered a modest view of her personality in multiple forms, the female character in modern times has continually struggled within the rustic crevice of social, political, religious and cultural impasse. thus, the creative universe of feminist scholars in africa has against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 145 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 been to remodel a balanced view of her ‘victimized’ and ‘distorted’ image as portrayed in contemporary literary scholarships that address her socio-psychological state of affairs. african feminist critics and theorists widely corroborate that patriarchy has neglected and abused the female character in her social, political, religious and cultural environment. they assume that some barbaric cultural practices have hindered her quest for emancipation through education and self-fulfilment. they further attribute such factors as those perpetuated norms and value systems inherent in the african society, which seem to have constituted a major drawback to her aspiration. thus, the rural african female unlike her urban counterpart constantly grapples with the complexities of custom and tradition, held up under certain debilitating and excruciating conditions in her locality. in most rural african settings, women go through some practices masked within the laws and norms of their host community. from childhood through teenage to adulthood, the female personality is a subject to neglect, ranging from forced marriage, circumcision, and denial of inheritance, dehumanizing widowhood rites, spousal betrayal, rape, genital mutilation, kidnap, child trafficking and prostitution. this extends to polygamy where she has to contend with the spat of unhealthy competition from co-wives and the consequences arising from suspicion of death of the male spouse. such ordeals not only propel her to foster the illusionary plan to escape. thus, resistance through emancipation becomes relevant for the restoration of her dignity and self-worth. this paper, therefore, assesses textually, the female characters’ experiences of patriarchal dominance and culture that appear to have hitherto affected her femininity and the measures or attempts adopted by her to surmount these anomalies. patriarchy the concept of patriarchy is as old as creation itself. being an undeniable fact common to scholars in the fields of the liberal arts, humanities and social sciences, within these fields of scholarly endeavours, which percolate the world of intellectual inquiries, critics and theorists have been able to offer multifaceted definitions that appeal to gender and society. khelghat-doost & sibly (2020) inform of patriarchy based on the control of an elder in a family. to them, it is “the rule of any elder male over the younger members of the family regardless of their gender” (p. 398). similarly, green (2000) sees patriarchy as “the rule of against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 146 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the father” (p. 960). in other words, it is a situation whereby the “father dominated the other members of an extended kinship network and controlled the economic production of the household” (barrett, 1980, p. 10). makama (2013) gives a detailed account of patriarchy from the material base, control and the exclusion of women from labour-power. he submits that: patriarchy is a set of social relations which has a material base in which there are hierarchical relations between men and solidarity among them which enable them in turn to dominate the women. the material base of patriarchy is men’s control of women labour power. that control is maintained by excluding women from access to necessary economically productive resources and restricting women’s sexuality. (p. 118). from a gender perspective, patriarchy mirrors the “kingship-ordered systems with strictly defined sex roles in which women are subordinated to men” (moghadam, 1992). in the same vein, allagbe and amousou (2020) believe that feminists perception of patriarchy is political; that is, it is “a system of government or society in which men are dominant or preferred” (p. 14). walby (1989) however, gives a sociological dimension to patriarchy as “a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women” (p. 20). therefore, patriarchal culture is a culture that may be social, political, religiously and culturally dominated by men. that the african society is influenced by the culture of patriarchy is a fact that resonates in feminist debates on culture, gender and society. this culture accounts for the plethora of uncouth practices that are not only morbid but also moribund with rapid changes in modern society. certain practices like widowhood rites, female genital mutilations, prostitution, sex trafficking, etc are the many manifestations of patriarchal injustices against the perceived ‘inferior’ gender, women. women subordination many scholars perceive the concept of subordination differently. according to cobuild (2010), when “something else is important than the other thing” (p.1559), it is said to be subordination. in addition, the advanced learner’s dictionary, see subordination as “someone having less power or authority than somebody else in a group or an organization” (hornby 2003; p. 1296). uchem and ngwa (2014) note that “…a subordinate person is a person who is lower in rank or status than another or is of less importance in comparison to another” (p. 143). thus, the notion of women subordination reflects the statutory position of against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 147 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 women as less in the structural hierarchy of the sexes. sultana (2011) broadly explains the concept of woman subjugation in the light of gender domination, inferiority, material incapacitation and power control as: …the inferior position of women, their lack of access to resources and decision making etc, and to the patriarchal domination that women are subjected to in most societies. so, women’s subordination means the inferior position of women to men. the feeling of powerlessness, discrimination and experience of limited self esteem and self confidence jointly contribute to the subordination of women. (p. 7) women subordination may reflect the following outcomes of patriarchal culture such as oppression, subjugation, marginalization and subalternity in the quest to prevent the women or girl-child from co-existing fairly and equally with her male counterpart. methodology the method of the research is qualitative analysis in the elucidation and study of the drama text. the drama text and the topic of the research justify the use of the method. the paper has a study population of one cautiously selected african text – karena’s cross; it mirrors the exigencies prevalent against the girl-child and african woman in her rural dwelling. the procedure for data collection for this study is by library material: scholarly journals, textbooks, and printed mass media. theoretical approach this research is anchored on the feminist approach of barbara berg. according to berg as cited in okoh (2012): it is the freedom (for a woman) to decide her own destiny: freedom from sex determined by roles; freedom from society’s oppressive restrictions; freedom to express her thoughts fully and to convert them freely into action. feminism demands the acceptance of women’s rights to individual conscience and judgment. it postulates that women’s essential worth stems from their humanity and does not depend on the relationships of her life. (p. 7) this theory runs antithetical to patriarchal cultural machinations with the belief that the oppressed, subjugated and marginalized (woman or girl) gender is free to make binding decisions that positively affect her entirety in terms of her essence, dignity, rights and destiny, especially when they are justifiably intrinsic to all (men and women alike). against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 148 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 literature review benedict binebai – one of nigeria’s eminent playwrights is a writer, critic and drama or theatre theorist, whose employment of the drama genre and theatre to represent the collective socio-political and cultural issues bedevilling the african society from the perspectives of gender and women experiences, is worthwhile. he addresses the internal challenges of the african female and the girl-child, particularly those stuck in the cyclical impasse of patriarchy and male hegemony. interestingly, he dedicates this play to women in the acknowledgment section this work. thus lies the playwright’s pivotal revelation. he notes that the: …creative vision in karena’s cross does not sentimentalize femininity but expresses feminist concerns particularly the oppressed women’s concern to consciously recreate her destiny. the play is part of my contribution to the sustenance of two significant forms of theatres clamouring for attention in africa. these are the feminist theatre and the solo performance tradition. (karena’s cross p. iii) similarly, mabel i. e. evwierhona lends her voice to the drama. she accounts for its basic themes and other challenges addressed by the playwright. her contribution highlights not only gender-based problems in society but also, exposes the universal problem of women subordination and subjugation in africa and other third world countries that: ben binebai’s karena’s cross is a monodrama drenched in many themes about women of all ages, classes and other social categories. it also has references to the different forms of domination women face in the society, or specifically, the burden the girl children face in underdeveloped nations. as a text, karena’s cross is heavily eco-centred, gender-based with sundry ideological intersections between text and context. (karena’s cross p. v) this view situates the play as a monodrama with lessons drawn from the oppression, subjugation and subordination of women and the girl-child in africa and other underprivileged worlds. to her, the playwright: exploits the text and one expects too, the performance, to signify the tragedy of the woman and the stress on her body within that space. as performance, the style of having a solo actor, in this case, an actress enact or embody other characters on stage is attaining the popularity it deserves” (karena’s cross p. v). against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 149 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 similarly, nishat awan, in the forward section of the play, universalizes his account on the thematic forays of the work, which clearly re-echoes the cultural stance and world insight to the degree of atrocities meted to women across cultures. thus, “the central theme of karena’s cross would resonate with women all over the world – the myriad ways in which public displays of authority intersect with private desires onto the intimate topology of a woman’s body” (karena’s cross p. iv). commenting on the major character in the play, he submits that: in the play, karena’s freedom is linked to her gaining a sense of spatial agency. it would be easy to imagine karena's world as being caught between tropoles, her own individual subjectivity that gives her the power to escape and the structural conditions of society that had confined her for so long. (karena’s cross p. iv) karena’s cross is a monodrama based on women subordination, oppression, violence, subjugation and marginality that navigates her desire towards freedom within the niger delta region and beyond; where there is apparent communal injustice and uneven treatment of the girl children in favour of privileged males as sole or overall benefactors of the natural resources and oil deposit in the region. fawei (2019) notes that in the monodrama, “men are out to dominate their world which is why women exploitation prevails” (124). the males enjoy the niceties provided for them from the proceeds of the land with the exclusion of the women from the same community. in addition, odi (2019) reveals that karena cross: “chronicles the cultural practices that strengthen female subordination” (p.123). from the reviews above, it is obvious that the monodrama is based on the harrowing experiences of women in african society. it remains to be investigated, the extent to which the pivotal character resists those complexities of patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture towards women in forms of child/underage marriage, sexual abuse, female genital mutilation, sex trafficking, and the likes, hence the motivation for this research. result and discussion karena’s cross begins with the protagonist, wearing a piece of mourning attire under a tree. her mood is reflective of despair and sadness. she re-enacts the story of her short-lived marriages following the death of her last husband, duabri, whom she married under duress. her experience of subjugation and dehumanization form the crucible of our against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 150 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 analysis. olise-epochi (2019) traces the antecedence of women subordination about the nigerian clime where karena met her ill-fortunes. she notes that: …the nigerian society continued to thrive on the colonial period and the postcolonial era too since it encourages patriarchal culture that makes it very difficult for the subaltern woman to express herself. but karena spoke, challenged and fought for herself and by extension, other subaltern women, in spite of the ordeal she went through. (p. 95) karena was born into a polygamous family at owei-ama where nature became for her a soothing relief against the backdrop of antagonisms resident in the village. her description of owei-ama is aptly captured as hegemonic, patriarchal and culturally driven, where the laws of the land favoured men. this situation presents many difficulties or challenges for women like her whose desire for freedom often meets countless debacles particularly in their quest for education and independence from male hegemony. there seem to be unexpressed fears envisioned by men of owei-ama that if the women are emancipated through education, the men will lose their relevance or be threatened. this belief formed the motivation for the resolute control of the women who stood no chance of being free. more so, as the action unfolds, we are informed that in most homes at owei-ama, responsibilities are not shared between men and women; rather, it is the women who bear the burden of marriage without the needed support or assistance from the men: karena: a village in which law was culture, culture was law and the makers and custodians of culture and law were the men. it was a village where women lived at the mercy of men many women could not go to school because it was the belief in owei-ama culture that women were possessions of men. it was a village in which men freely and physically inflicted injuries against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 151 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 on the body of women for little mistakes; a village where men were the only lords and voices of the land. (p. 3) owei-ama community presents a microscopic depiction of women oppression by some cultural practices that are not only moribund but also unhealthy. education should liberate the minds as much as equipping one with basic knowledge to transcend uncouth practices. however, and on the one hand, the girl-child is constrained by this scenario and secondly, she is intellectually limited by the progenitors of outmoded laws, which disfavour her. this constrains entirely affects her well-being because owei-ama culture plays a major role in subjecting females who continuously take up responsibilities that enslave them while the males consciously maintain the status quo through coercion as wife-beaters: it is such a village in which women particularly married women were culturally prepared to take care of the husband and the children while women toil all day in the rain and under the sun sweating to produce food on the table, men only sat to taste and reject food not palatable and even mercilessly beat up their wives for cooking an unsavoury food. (p. 4) moreover, the thematic trajectory of marriage underlies the discussions on women subjugation and feminist’s attempt at subverting it. marriage is considered a thing of joy for the intended couple but in this rural community, it is the opposite. the aftermath of marriage at owei-ama comes with its measure of pains and sorrows for the women, which in essence, punctures its success. husbands constantly beat up their wives and wives often cower in obedience to the laws of the land that advocates total submission. in this community, men assume such status as lord and master over the women. this emboldens them to enforce such servitude roles on women. this act of subjugation highlights the experience of the girl-child’s against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 152 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 quest to attain western education, perceived as an abomination and punishable by the laws and the gods of the land: the woman who appreciates western education and makes any attempt to give it a trial is handed over to the gods for punishment. when men beat the drum of doom its dancers are the women. (p. 4) besides marriage, one of the most crucial and potent issues in the text is circumcision. in contemporary times, circumcision is viewed as a serious issue within the gender discourse in african literature. this act is usually fraught with lots of complications, traumatic experiences and excruciating encounters by victims whose bodies have felt the brutal blades of the knife. still challenging is the fact that such acts of circumcision are not initiated to fix the women’s genital organ, but for cultural and material gratification as nemughan, karena’s father reveals: karena as nemughan: my daughter every age has its ceremony. as our customs demand you will soon be circumcised. we shall celebrate your circumcision ceremony to make some money for the family and you will thereafter be married out. (p. 5) more so, both circumcision and early child marriage raise questions on the extremities of patriarchy and inherent cultural belief systems of owei-ama that condole such acts. this microcosmic, among many macrocosmic acts of subordination, is unashamedly enforced by nemughan, karena’s father, who is at the forefront of ensuring that her daughter’s aspiration is foiled in adherence to culture. karena’s sanity and youth did not compel him to reconsider his decision. he deceptively cajoles her into submission and against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 153 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 threatens submission through threat and punishment whenever she attempts to resist. more so, the fact that he considers the educational sponsorship of women, especially his daughter, a waste of time and a huge disadvantage, betrays his distaste for the female child and her ambition, coupled with her inability to retain his name as part of the demands on the customs and traditional belief system of owei-ama community. this compels karena to challenge his father’s effrontery not to send her to school to continue her education. he vehemently admits that women are possessions of less value: karena as nemughan: you women are empty possessions training you is a waste of money and time. when you get married, no one will know you are still my daughter. my name will be lost. so why must i waste my money training you? karena: father what you are telling me makes me bleed. i don’t think i can obey you, i am not interested. i want to complete my school. i want to become a woman of substance. karena as nemughan: what insolence? what insolence? karena! a deaf ear is followed by death. an ear that listens is followed by blessings. against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 154 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 don’t invite the bite of a snake with your stubbornness. karena you cannot light fire without inhaling its smoke i am the head of this house. that’s what matters and its is final. prepare your body and mind for the circumcision and marriage. (p. 5-6) karena is compelled to get married at the age of thirteen, thereby truncating her wish to be educated at the school of her choice. she receives countless threats from her father, whose cockish proverbial rhetoric betrays her into silence and, pits her into a voiceless zone where speaking becomes almost difficult, if not impossible. her inability to speak up for herself further dwarfs any iota of courage she has to assist other young girls and women who share similar experiences. though she made impressive attempts, it yielded no fruit. her complaints, in a monolithic manner, are portrayed thus: i saw my destiny heading towards doom’s dormitory. my vision bled. it is as if satan had rubbed pepper on my skin. (p.8) these few lines capture the horrific state of mind of the speaker whose dreams appear to have witnessed a major setback. neither father nor mother could assuage her situation. her sisters have been victims of cultural imposition. the insensitivity of owei-ama towards the girl-child education is aptly captured in the manner with which women in africa are culturally oppressed in their quest for education, which seems to be under surveillance and siege so much so that any attempt to think towards this direction is met with serious consequences. her sorrow lies in the fact that educational rights accorded to all humans are against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 155 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 denied to the women but availed to men. her determination/resolve to wrestle against the cancers of female education and independence, against male hegemony is apparent in the preceding monologue. when she attempts to resist or abscond from her community due to the immensity of her plights, she is overpowered and subdued by able-bodied men, who have creatively cast in the dramatic mould constraining male elements against her throbbing resistance. this denies her any likelihood of escape from patriarchy and overpowering forces stationed at all corners of owe-ama to checkmate her excesses. ironically, her father, nemughan, successfully tricks her into believing that she could go to school to become whatever she aspires to: since education is what you want, i won’t marry you out again. i will make sure you complete your education and live a life of your own. (p. 9) karena: father! do you mean what you are saying? (excited) i am lucky then. i jumped and jumped into his arms and promised not to disobey him again. on the morning of the day i was to go to school. that was three days after my escape attempt, some women came to our house singing and dancing. (p.11) the day her father assures of her continued education, was the same day she underwent an excruciating circumcision by a group of hapless women of owi-ama village who arrived early to carry out the rite in the pretext of immunity against pregnancy at school. the only seeming condition given to her to return to school was based on recovery from the against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 156 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 circumcision. the severity of circumcision dawns on her as she laments over the painful ordeal she received from owei-ama women. her ordeal in the hands of these wretched and old women is gory and excruciating. the playwright describes the cruel circumcision rite on owe-ama women with oppressive and brutal force: karena as nemughan: today is your day. prepare yourself. karena: father! what exactly do you mean? karena as numughan: today you will experience the surgical elimination of your sensitive female genital organs. karena: a woman with big buttocks carrying a weight i can’t struggle to lift and throw away sat on my chest. two other women held my two arms backward and pressed them down with resolute force the women who did the circumcision sat on my lower abdomen. six of them held me down to do the circumcision i shouted madly, i bled and it was the cruelest bleeding of genital cutting. (p.12) female genital mutilation is one of the horrendous issues discussed in the polemics of contemporary feminist writings. it is a major challenge faced by women in africa and nigeria in particular. the act of female circumcision causes bleeding and eventually leads to against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 157 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the rupturing of the female delicate organs, which often is prone to infections. it further affects the mobility of the victim who feels the pains and psychological trauma: i could not move straight after the cutting. i walked like a woman whose legs have been separated by a demonic malady. and whose private part was held hostage by an unbearable sting. the bleeding was profuse my life was in danger so i was rushed to the village clinic where i spent virtually two weeks for the wounds to heal and for the pains to subside (p.15). while at the clinic, she is visited by her father’s friend who shows her care and support. she is discharged and is faced with the outcome of her post circumcision phase, which is her marriage to a man, old enough to be her father; the same man who showed her love and comfort at the clinic. she is married off unexpectedly; and through her revelation and laments, we discover that her marriage is devoid of love and affection that is expected of a true consummation. thus, she reveals: love is pride and the dignity of womanhood collapses for the triumph of greed empowered by culture. (p. 14) in terms of hegemony, culture in the african set-up represents one of the many phases of its manifestations in the lives of the subaltern female category whose voice is unheard. it creates a lacuna in the lives of the balkanized female characters whose life aspirations are short-lived. to be heard, the female character has to speak aloud, if not violently. in addition, such loud responses become unyielding as the case of karena seems against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 158 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 pronounced and other women. however, her resolve to seek to emancipate herself from the stronghold of culture superimposed by man foregrounds her attempt to transcend the realm of the subaltern. to her, emancipation can be attained through revolt, inspired by the desire for independence through western education. having been forced to marry her father’s friend, she revolts and protests his decision. to her, he is not the one she loves. when she yearned for help, he is not heard: i shouted for help. the sound of my resistance could stay in the ears of hearers of four yet no one came to rescue me. my abductors had a leader, the leader gave orders to the other two to spread my legs and hold me very tightly. the next thing that happened was he fell upon me pleasurably as a subjugator with beefy strength and deflowered me while the other monsters watched the act with intense excitement i felt sharp pain in my lower abdomen and bled like a castrated bull (p.16). her rape highlights the preposterous atrocity enabled by the customs and traditions of owei-ama. this is reminiscent of the emotional, psychological and physical traumas in which women in this part of the world often witness in a rather volatile male-dominated space. despite her ordeal, she is inconsolably forced into another marriage to daubri, the leader of her rapists. she resists all efforts made by her father to get her to marry him, against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 159 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 insisting on the man of her dreams. her revolt and resistance earn her the rebuke of a magical spell against her wish. she loses her virginity and is forced into a polygamous household as an “ayoro”. meanwhile, her father had gone behind her to collect her dowry from emissaries sent to him by her abductors. karena’s marriage as an “ayoro” introduces the concept of ‘voicelessness on her part and the married women who are all fated to serve ‘the husband’ who is ‘the lord’. the height of distrust and disdainful emotions expressed by daubri’s older wives towards her earns multiple forms of abuses as she vehemently laments: the worst form of suffering is the one that has no known time of cessation (p.19). her oppression in the hands of co-wives is worsened by restrictions from cooking and meeting daubri’s sexual needs. she becomes pregnant and loses her child due to the illtreatment from co-wives. she loses the pregnancy and is accused of being responsible for her predicament. she is subject to inhuman torture and momentary turmoil, especially as she goes to the farm very early to tap palm wine. when she accompanies daubri to the farm on a fateful day, he falls from the treetop and dies. she is accused of murder. she receives no share from her husband’s will and decries the material effort devoted towards constructing his house, which has now been taken over by her husband’s brother. as a widow, her tales become glaring reflections of deprivation, exclusion, subjugation, humiliation and oppression. she is consoled by timi-ebi, her sister-in-law, who helps her rediscover herself. timi-ebi makes collaborative efforts to resist owei-ama’s culture, which she vehemently criticizes: a culture that violates women’s right to freedom from discrimination; torture, inhuman and degrading treatment right to life; to security; to physical integrity; and to good as soon as my finances improves against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 160 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 i will ensure that you complete your education (p. 26). the ‘burning desire in the heart’ is to be educated which was re-enkindled by her sister-in-law. and education to her meant resisting those obstacles in the way of attaining such a goal. when karena gets to benin with her sister-in-law, she receives the unexpected shock of her life. she is stunned by the degree of sexual promiscuity pervading the city. she gets updates about her sister-in-law’s involvement in the international sex trade as a contractor in charge of recruiting young girls for sex trafficking and prostitution business for profit maximization. timi-ebi’s prospective visit to italy with karena for sex trafficking and prostitution is fruitless as she absconds by way of resistance from such social vice capable of truncating her future. she vanishes from her sister-in-law’s presence to a nearby supermarket where her sister-in-law never gets to see her again. karena, thus, re-echoes such description of her culture in an objective and blunt manner, having chosen to resist it with all the strength and courage she could muster up in her: …a loathsome culture which underdeveloped women for generations. a culture manipulated by male dominance, a tradition in which women’s rights and dignity god constantly abused. a barbaric culture which needed a storm to uproot from the face of the earth. i had taken so much of its tempest and now i am determined to take the tempest of my own creation to owe-ama (p.28). having resisted all forms of cultural, patriarchal and subordinating barriers, karena is fortunate to meet dr daniel, a faithful, loving and caring man whom she eventually marries. her meeting with dr daniel transforms her into an individual with a dignified sense of worth and respect. he facilitates her training up to the university, enabling her to emerge against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 161 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 as a lawyer of high repute. the disempowerment and marginalization she felt in her community are expunged by her transformation and fulfilled ambition as she recounts her story. thus, the major thematic thrust of this monodrama is subsumed in these words: my story is a story of struggle against the mortal flood of oppression; it is a story of vision and mission a story in which i, a thirteen year struggled through the storm to develop and own a voice. i fought against a war of inferiority because i was never born to be inferior (p. 33) the ‘story of struggle against the mortal flood of oppression’ characterizes the checkered experiences of the subordinated woman or girl-child in owei-ama. karena’s ordeal is suffused in series of battle cries against inferiority even as she sought to disprove this impression of her culture towards the female folk. she is of the view that happiness derives from the rejection of norms that smoulder and deny all women the right to make rational choices and to voice their displeasure, irrespective of oppositions: if women are creators why can’t we create our happiness? karena’s cross is a cross of suffering and cross of rejection of culture-imposed suffering. it is the cross of all oppressed women. (the orchestra sings) lets rise and stand and fight women! lets wake up lets stand up and fight for our right (p.34). conclusion the analysis of binebai’s monodrama reveals that the african (nigerian) women and the girl-child have had a chequered history and experience of pain, suffering and against the monsters within: resisting patriarchy, women subordination and morbid culture in benedict binebai’s karena’s cross 162 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 4 | issue ii | july – dec | 2020 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 psychological torture in her retrogressive and hegemonic rural african society. this is due largely to the monstrosity of patriarchy and its multifaceted byproducts manifest in forms of women subordination and morbid culture. thus, these factors are perceived as cancers or impediments to women’s dreams and aspirations towards education and self-fulfilment. in the text, the playwright through the ordeals of karena exposes the prevalent tradition of patriarchal oppression and subjugation which women in africa and other third world countries are confronted with within the guise of child marriage, female genital mutilation, rape, denial of inheritance, inferiority status and sex-trafficking. her spirit of resilience through resistance and her never-say-die attitude demonstrated against the status quo leads to her eventual triumph and emergence as a woman of substance and value. references allagbe, a. a., & amousou, f. (2020). “patriarchal ideologies and female unfeminities in a contemporary feminist writing: a gender-oriented discourse analysis perspective” international journal of language, literature,9(1), serial no. 9, 13-27. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/lalige ns.v9il.2 barett, m. (1980). women’s oppression today: problems in marxist feminist analysis. binebai, b. (2018) karena’s cross. ibadan: temple publication. cobuild, c. (2010). advanced illustrated dictionary. harper colins publisher ltd.: great britain. fawei, o. e. (2019). “countering terrorism on women: an interrogation of binebai’s karena’s cross” nigerian theatre journal: a journal of the society of nigerian theatre artists. (sonta), 19(1), 112-125. green, f. j. (2010). “patriarchal ideology of motherland” in o’reilly, andrea. encyclopedia of motherhood, volume 1. sage. p. 969. hornby, a. s. (2003). advanced learner’s dictionary. oxford university press: new york. khelghat-doost, h., & sibly, s. 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(2019). “mounting the voice of the african women on the continental stage: interrogating j. p. clark’s the wives revolt and ben benedict’s karena’s cross” international journal of language, literature and gender studies,(laligens) 8(1), serial no.17. february, 118-126. okoh, j. (2012). “towards a feminist theartre in nigerian” inaugural lecture series, no.95, port harcourt: university of port harcourt. olise-epochi, e. r. (2019). “cultural terrorism in binebai’s karena’s cross:a postcolonial overview” nigerian theatre journal: a journal of the society of nigerian theatre artists. (sonta), 19(1), 91-111. sultana, a. (2011). “patriarchy and women subordination: a theoretical analysis” the arts faculty journal. university of dhaka. june, 1-18. uchem, n. r., & ngwa, s. e. (2014). “subordination of women in 21st century africa: cultural sustainability or a new slavery? implications for educational development” development country studies. 4 (24).143-150. walby, s. (1989). “theorising patriarchy” sociology, 23(2), 213-234. @ 2020 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 63 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: a corpus assisted positive discourse analysis dr athar rashid, assistant professor, department of governance & public policy, national university of modern languages, islamabad atharrashid@numl.edu.pk dr arshad ali, assistant professor, department of english, national university of modern languages, islamabad, pakistan arali@numl.edu.pk dr muhammad haseeb nasir, assistant professor, department of english, national university of modern languages, islamabad, pakistan mhnasir@numl.edu.pk abstract formal visits to friendly regions have grown in popularity worldwide in recent years. heads of state addresses are analysed from a unique perspective. positive discourse analysis of speeches by international leaders has garnered attention, particularly in pakistan, following turkey's president's four visits to the country over the last decade. for the fourth time, he was given the opportunity to address the joint session of parliament. since their independence, turkey and pakistan have had a friendly relationship, and even before that, the people of the region fought to defend the ottoman empire during world war ii. the people of the subcontinent were active participants in the process, pleading with the british government to maintain the khilafat system. very little research has been conducted on presidential speeches, particularly those delivered by turkish leaders. as a result, the focus of this research paper is on president erdogan's speeches to the pakistani parliament, delivered on november 17, 2016, and february 14, 2020. this study employs a corpusassisted positive discourse analysis approach in which the concordance patterns obtained from the corpora have been explained in the light of positive discourse analysis. the findings of the study indicate that president erdogan's speeches are brimming with optimistic language. he tries to establish a brotherly bond with his listeners through mutual equality, respect, love, and strategic collaboration. he seems to be convinced that it is necessary to emphasise the islamic bond that exists between the two brotherly states. the current paper is noteworthy because it applies positive discourse analysis to turkish leaders' speeches, broadening its application scope and enriching the research content of positive discourse analysis through a corpus-informed approach. keywords: corpus linguistics, adjective analysis, pda, president erdogan's speeches, pakistan parliament introduction religious speeches have a big impact on people, especially when they're delivered by leaders from islamic brotherhood countries. researchers can use positive discourse analysis https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 mailto:atharrashid@numl.edu.pk mailto:arali@numl.edu.pk mailto:mhnasir@numl.edu.pk turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 64 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 (pda) to analyse the speeches of world leaders. j. r. martin (2004) has provided a new perspective on discourse analysis to researchers. the concordance model provides a theoretical foundation under the umbrella of positive discourse analysis. because it is simple and effective for analysing any text, pda has attracted a large number of scholars from all fields. the researchers chose president erdogan's speeches delivered at the pakistani parliament because approaches to speech analysis are uncommon in pakistan. the research uses baker's (2008) concordance model of the lexical item, adjective, to conduct corpus-assisted pda research. it is worth noting that the author chooses to analyse erdogan's speeches in english because his audience understands him better through an english translation. as a result, the true bond of islamic brotherhood between the speaker and the audience is the exploration of adjectives in speeches under the guise of positive discourse analysis. this study provides a quick review of the previous research carried out on positive discourse analysis and corpus methodology. the researchers have blended the positive discourse analysis with corpus linguistics to carry out the analysis of the speeches. the speeches of erdogan have been analysed using the baker (2008) model of concordance to see how the president uses adjectives to connect with the people of pakistan. objectives the following are the objectives of this study: 1. to find out adjectives in speeches using a concordance model. 2. to look at the adjectives used in the context of the speech. 3. to look into the function of adjectives in positive discourse analysis. research questions 1. what adjectives did erdogan use in his speeches at the pakistan parliament? 2. what effect do these adjectives have on the audience? 3. what effect do adjectives have in terms of positive discourse analysis? significance of the research speeches by world leaders are always important in research, and when the leader is erdogan, the importance multiplies in a variety of ways. erdogan has a special place in the islamic ummah, and his speeches are regarded as important in terms of research. because there has been very little research on erdogan's speech in pakistan, this study is completely unique in terms of https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 65 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 president erdogan's use of adjectives during the joint session of the pakistani parliament. turkey is a developed islamic country in the middle of europe and asia. pakistan is an important strategic partner in asia, shares the same religion as turkey, and is a close political partner. as a result, the speeches of turkey's president have a significant regional and international impact. as a result, positive discourse analysis has been used to examine the role of adjectives used in the speeches. literature review in recent years, formal visits to friendly regions have grown in popularity worldwide. addresses by heads of state are analysed from a unique vantage point. these visits can have farreaching regional and international ramifications, particularly if they are made by leaders of politically powerful countries. a political leader's visit to another country benefits the receiving country by bringing a slew of economic benefits and treaties. any visit to another country by the turkish president will almost certainly be accompanied by cultural agreements and memorandums of understanding. moreover, president erdogan's address to the pakistani parliament is historic on political and cultural levels. parliament is the most powerful institution in the country, and granting foreign leaders the floor demonstrates a strong bond and mutual respect. the following section contains a discussion on positive discourse analysis: positive discourse analysis (pda) pda is a relatively new venue for researchers interested in novel facets of research. as a novel lens through which to view discourse, j. r. martin's pda emphasises the labour of discourse creation and the imperative to create a better world. it is critical as discourse analysis progresses from cda to pda. discourse analysis shifts from a deconstructive to a constructive mode of analysis. pda is more of a complement and progression than cda in terms of hypothetical assumptions and explanatory techniques. martin (2004) proposed pda in his paper positive discourse analysis: solidarity and change at the international conference in birmingham. he believes that the subject of linguistic analysis should include not only unequally bad news but also very good news. the investigation into pda began late in pakistan, but it has been discussed in a variety of settings, including open discourses and the press. according to zhu yongsheng (2006), discourse analysis promotes a https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 66 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 constructive attitude toward the resolution of social contradictions and anticipates the construction of a concordant society. yuan lijuan and zhang (2011) examine obama's remarks on the end of the military mission in iraq from the pr of pda. it is important to note that pda is not a celebration of a text based on the analyst's ideological viewpoint; rather, it seeks to recognise discourses that have the potential to promote the societal improvements that we desire. to put it another way, pda engages with real-world issues by focusing on areas where dialogue is most effective (bartlett, 2012). as a result, bartlett believes that pda will benefit from an ethnographic approach that situates texts and discourses within a broader definition of the practises and culture of those who create them. this contextualization is required not only to comprehend the roots of the discourse in terms of the conditions of possibility that gave rise to it but also to suggest the conditions of possibility by which progress in the new discourse could be accomplished. pda, on the other hand, would not 'assume that social issues, such as racism or gender inequality, have been resolved and that we all need to "calm down"' (p. 1) (majid, 2007). it achieves its emancipatory goal by examining as the focus of study discourses that consciously oppose injustices such as segregation, exclusion, and repression (hughes, 2018). pda views resistance as a collective action capable of bringing about progressive change and transformation in society, not just a reaction to inequality and oppression. examining resistance discourses is thus "a generative project that uses research subjects as tools for imagining and carrying out emancipatory agendas" (hughes, 2018, p. 199). theoretical research into pda is still in its early stages, and more refinement and perfection are required. pda will attract the interest of researchers because it is distinguished by a tender assessment demeanor, as well as an optimistic and valuable review. concordance model of analysis the study of emerging important lexical trends was constantly supplemented by the examination of concordances. in the analyst's immediate co-text, a concordance provides examples of a word or cluster (baker, 2008). the number of words on either side of the word/cluster in emphasis can normally be set to meet the needs of the researcher. correlation lines can also be https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 67 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 sorted in different ways to help the analyst examine different trends within the same word/cluster. concordance research allows for the examination of language features in co-text while taking into account and inferring from the context the meaning that the researcher is aware of. it is no surprise, then, that it is the only corpus linguistics method with which discourse analysts appear comfortable. it demonstrates that corpus linguistics is not afraid of 'qualitative' research. furthermore, because concordance analysis looks at a set number of concordance lines, the results can be categorised and quantified in absolute and relative terms to spot potential trends. positive discourse analysis with corpus the purpose of this study is to look at the turkish president's speeches from a positive discourse analysis perspective (pda). a crucial methodological component of this study, in addition to the pda, is the use of corpus to locate the lexical items used to project the desired agenda as valid and actual. a dichotomy of two points of view on a single expression can be found in a variety of genres. the linguistic objects used in the voice were examined using corpus. a corpus is "a collection of naturally occurring instances of language gathered for language research, ranging from a few sentences to a group of written messages or tape accounts." corpus linguistics is an etymological study based on the hypothesis that the significance of "normally occurring" speech can be better understood when viewed in its real-world capability and environment (vessey, 2013). corpus linguistics can be used to determine how important it is to include and exclude such etymological and literary highlights. it classifies and examines the language constructs that are used, relying on experimental proof as a foundation. this data-driven evidence decodes the spoken word to determine "probabilities, patterns, overlapping events, or highlight groupings" (cheng and lam 2012, p. 175). these expectations can be used to estimate the inclinations and constraints related to these characteristics "for what they are" (hanks, 2012, p. 405). to a large extent, collocations, concordances, descriptive sentences, and catchphrases are all used to accomplish these goals. these highlights concentrate on real-world examples of language that can be subjectively dissected in order to comprehend their utility and attitude implications (sinclair 1996, mcenery and wilson 1996). corpus linguistics considers language to be https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 68 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 indistinguishable from a philosophical component in this way; such language research yields a level of objectivity that cannot be attained through instinct or reflection (baker, 2006, p. 3). corpus linguistics examinations of media-related investigations have been found to have a high degree of objectivity, according to scientists. if projects and factual techniques in corpora are used correctly, they can help limit biases about semantic and phonetic content. it can also be used to guide a fixed language analysis (baker, 2006). pda and corpus are frequently used together in studies, despite the fact that they are two different analytical perspectives. corpus linguistics (cl) and positive discourse analysis (pda) are the two most common approaches to quantitative and qualitative analysis. when these approaches are used, quantitative findings become more robust and reliable, and qualitative research becomes more precise and specific (mcenery & wilson, 2001). the use of a large number of representative texts in corpus linguistics (cl) helps to keep the researcher and the data at a safe distance (hoffmann et al., 2008). this approach, however, may jeopardise the findings because the factual instruments used in the investigation may provide a broader explanation of the facts under consideration. pda, on the other hand, allows for a more thorough investigation of the subject at hand. the data is analysed while the sociopolitical context is taken into account. it is a reasonable compromise between corpus' emphasis on literal meaning and objectivity and pda's emphasis on rhetorical meaning and subjectivity. the combined effect of these two strategies has a significant positive impact on the end result. the results of a study that incorporates these two methods will be enhanced. research methodology this study falls under the category of corpus-assisted mixed method research. the corpora were examined in terms of pda using baker's (2008) concordance model. the study is based on the constructive discourse analysis principle, which was developed by martin (2004). the current study focuses on erdogan's use of the lexical item 'adjectives' in his speeches as president of turkey. for a long time, pakistan and turkey have been partners in all seasons. as a result, head of state visits and appearances have had a significant impact on the audience and the general public. the study of lexical items known as adjectives can aid the investigation of the use of language in a speech delivered by turkish president erdogan to a joint session of parliament in pakistan on 17 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 69 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 november 2016 and 14 february 2020. this paper is made up of two speeches with a total word count of 2613. the speeches are given in turkish and are accompanied by english translations. the official english version can be found on the website of pakistan's national assembly. president erdogan emphasises the value of friendship between two brotherly countries that have stood by each other through thick and thin. concordance and lexical items are used to conduct this research. the lexical items aided in the creation of lists of words that were displayed in the corpus in order of their frequency of occurrence. then, with the concord app's assistance. kwic (keyword in context) or concordance of the different parts of speech were used to find the most common collocation patterns. this made it easier to figure out how adjectives were used in pos speech. the adjectives that make up the corpora are removed using antconc. this programme annotated data from different expression sections. it includes a list of adjectives as well as their meanings. adjectives are hand-picked from this list and used in erdogan's presidential speech. theoretical framework baker's (2008) concordance model serves as the theoretical foundation for this study. baker's (2008) model of concordance analysis is composed of adjectives. the lexical item "adjectives" is critical to comprehending the language; lewis' (1990s) lexical approach suggests that adjectives are a necessary component of the language for expressing opinions, and the adjectives are then analysed favourably through constructive discourse analysis. analysis of data turkey and pakistan have reached a pinnacle in their relationship. the relationship, according to president erdogan, is "deeper than the sea, sweeter than honey, and higher than the mountain." these are comparative adjectives, and the bonds between them have become so strong over the last seven decades that they are now ready for the superlative adjective degree. i am confident that the heads of state will claim deepest, sweetest, and best at the upcoming meetings. if a visitor comes to the subcontinent frequently, it is assumed that the relationship is brotherly. and this is a long-standing tradition in turkey and pakistan. table 1 examines adjectives used by president erdogan in his speech, revealing some interesting facts about the two countries' friendship. erdogan's vocabulary contained a total of 183 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 70 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 adjectives, out of a total of 2613. adjectives account for 7% of the total word count. table 1 shows the adjectives and their frequency in concordance, which was created with the antconc programme (version 3.5.8.0) and tagant (version 1.2.0) for tagging. table 1 adjectives used by the president words frequency of adjective words frequency of adjective words frequency of adjective turkish 9 political 12 honorable 18 pakistani 46 brotherly 6 economic 6 great 14 kashmiri 10 strong 9 historical 6 islamic 14 common 9 humanitarian 12 indian 3 golden 3 strategic 6 terrorist 24 developing 2 israeli 6 proud 3 glorious 3 diplomatic 3 strong 9 dear 9 holy 6 ancient 3 exclusive 6 recent 12 glad 3 critical 3 table 1 shows how adjectives used by president erdogan in his addresses to pakistan's joint session of parliament on april 17, 2016, and february 14, 2020 shed light on turkey-pakistan relations. the adjectives used in the speeches reflect the two islamic countries' friendly relationship. the choice of words in context highlighted the deep ties that exist between turkey and pakistan. as shown in table 1, the speech is full of positive discourse elements. erdogan's speech is full of positive adjectives, indicating that he is a positive person. all the adjectives used by the president show positivity which leads to positive and constructive discourse. this demonstrates the strength and islamic brotherhood of the two countries. the 183 adjectives convey not only the depth of relationship but also its equality in thought and conduct. president erdogan uses the most words related to terrorism, islam, and cultural bonding through shared values. we found it candid that the word 'pakistani' was used 46 times in the speech. in the mind of the turkish president, the noun 'brothers, government,' combined with the word 'pakistani,' https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 71 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 reveals the entire story. erdogan's frequent use of this word expresses his admiration and love for pakistan. he recognises the pakistani people's courage, zeal, and determination. he is also aware of pakistan's importance in the south asian region. as a result, he visits pakistan frequently and meets with pakistan's prime minister to discuss the region's development and the international political situation. the word 'terrorist' is the second most frequently used adjective in erdogan's speeches. during his speech, he uses this word 24 times. in nearly 2600+ words, it is mentioned 24 times in the context of regional security and sustainability. the turkish priorities in the region are strategic; economic cooperation and organisation (eco) is one of turkey's major economic policies toward pakistan. iran, afghanistan, and pakistan are all members of the eco. pakistan occupies a unique position in the region, and as a result, it ranks first among eco member states. in recent months, the number of cultural exchanges between turkey and pakistan has increased dramatically. in addition, this plan demonstrates how these two countries work together on issues other than defence. turkey, as a world power, strives to strengthen economic and cultural ties with other countries. cultural and religious relationships have a greater influence than other types of relationships, such as economic or defence. the most striking comparison is between turkish and pakistani words. in the speech, the word "turkish" appears 9 times, while "pakistani" appears 42 times. the turkish word is used less frequently than the pakistani word by turkish president erdogan. it shows how he emphasises pakistan's contribution to regional development. the word 'pakistan,' which has been used 42 times, is the most frequently used and has special meaning in turkish president erdogan's eyes. he understands that pakistan is the only country that can weather both good and bad times. 'terrorist' is the next word that comes up frequently. south asia is the world's most strategically important region, and for the past five decades, it has been plagued by terrorism. all of the world's underground agencies rush to this location because it is strategically important. turkey is a rising world power, and one of the reasons for its prominence is the second afghan conflict. the third location of pakistan is in the heart of south asia. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 72 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 kwic concordance words in context figure 1 depicts erdogan's use of the word "pakistani" in his speech, which is full of positive discourse. the context of a keyword reveals the entire story. president erdogan is concerned about pakistan's situation in south asia. in president erdogan's speech, he uses the word in contexts such as pakistani brothers and sisters, pakistani delegation, the pakistani government, pakistan students, pakistani heroes, pakistani parliament, and many more. president erdogan is a man of action, and he never forgets the pakistani government's and people's assistance. during the army coup, pakistan backed erdogan wholeheartedly against the army. pakistan has banned fatah golan outfits in the country, even at erdogan's request. he recalled pakistanis' support for the ottoman empire during wwi, particularly abdurrahman peshawari, who fought the occupiers in anatolia. figure 1 kwic concordances for word pakistani in erdogan speech to pakistani parliament in figure 2, the word 'kashmiri' has an interesting concordance, and turkey's president has used it positively. he understands the suffering of the people of occupied kashmir and reaffirms turkey's commitment to the kashmiri people's right to self-determination, as promised by the united nations general assembly. president erdogan expressed solidarity with pakistan on the https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 73 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 kashmir issue and linked it to the city of anakkale. "events that occurred a century ago in anakkale, turkey, are being repeated in indian-occupied kashmir," he said. the words "kashmiri people," "kashmiri brothers," and "kashmiri delegation" are used in a way that expresses concern and reservation about this massive humanitarian crisis. "we are aware of the distress and suffering of our kashmiri brothers and sisters," says president erdogan. as a result of the analysis, the speech is entirely positive. figure 2 kwic concordances for word kashmiri in erdogan speech to pakistani parliament figure 3 shows the concordance of the word 'turkish'. president erdogan uses this word nine times to describe his country's positive contribution to pakistan's economic growth and improvement. the context is very interesting because it highlights the bond and cooperation between two brotherly nations through turkish international cooperation, turkish soldiers, and turkish nationalism, among other things. "in the year 1915, while turkish soldiers defend the dardanelles strait with... a rally took place in lahore, 6000 kilometers from the front, and it was recorded on the unforgettable pages of history," says turkish president recep tayyip erdogan. the positive discourse analysis backs up the claim completely. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 74 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 figure 3 kwic concordances for word turkish in erdogan speech to pakistani parliament figure 4 shows the concordance of the word 'islamic' as a gleaming example of love and devotion to islam and the ummah. erdogan, turkey's president, respects islam and, as in the past, leads the world with justice. as a result, he used it 15 times in an affirmative context. the use of the word "islamic" has a multifaceted meaning in context. he discusses the islamic world and the islamic nation. the context demonstrates his concern for the islamic ummah's deteriorating situation. figure 4 kwic concordances for word islamic in erdogan speech to pakistani parliament figure 5 depicts president erdogan's use of the word "terrorist" used 24 times in his speech. he employs it frequently to convey his concern and apprehension about this threat. he associates fateullah golen's terrorism with the pakistani terrorist group ttp. this word is used in the context of terrorist attacks, terrorist organisations, and so on. he was well aware that both countries are situated in a key strategic region and have been victims of terrorist attacks. although https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 75 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 the word has a negative connotation, its usage and context reveal an opposing meaning. he is certain that if both states work together, they will be able to eliminate this threat. figure 5 kwic concordances for word terrorist in erdogan speech to pakistani parliament in figure 6, the word 'honourable' appears 18 times. turkey's people are very polite and respectful, which is how he portrays pakistanis and members of parliament in this world. the word is used in the context of honourable chairman, honourable speaker, and so on. the use of this word by president erdogan in his speech demonstrates the positivity discourse. figure 6 kwic concordances for word honorable in erdogan speech to pakistani parliament in erdogan's speech, the word 'political' appears 12 times, as shown in figure 7. president erdogan is both a statesman and a politician of the highest caliber. he has gained respect in the islamic world. he reaches out to muslims in danger whenever and wherever he sees them and offers whatever help he can. the rohingya muslims of myanmar are a prime example. he is a true leader who uses politics for justice. the terms 'political and humanitarian dimensions,' https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 76 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 'political pressure,' and 'political spectrum,' for example, are all examples of the term 'political.' figure: 7 kwic concordances for word political in erdogan speech to pakistani parliament president erdogan used the last adjective on the list 14 times in his speech to the joint session of the pakistani parliament. he uses the word "great" in a variety of ways because he is a great leader not only in turkey but throughout the islamic world. a significant breakthrough, a significant civilization legacy, a significant contribution, a significant goal, and significant potential and support are all part of the context. figure: 8 kwic concordances for word great in erdogan speech to pakistani parliament explanation president erdogan's speeches are full of adjectives that convey positivity in his thoughts and actions. the corpus analysis presents the positive adjectives in the contexts whereas positive https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 77 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 discourse analysis concentrates on the subjectivity of the text. the combination of corpus linguistics and positive discourse analysis leads to an objective analysis of the two addresses. the use of corpus helps us understand the use of the lexical items and the concordance tool presents each lexical item in its context giving a complete understanding of the dimensions of the meanings of the words. the frequency list of adjectives extracted from the corpus informs us of the amount of positivity in the discourse. president erdogan's speeches are replete with adjectives that contributed to the constructive discourse. both of president erdogan's speeches elicited positive responses from the audience. he possesses an endearing charisma that has elevated him to global prominence and influence, particularly in the islamic world. turkish, pakistani, kashmiri, terrorist, honorable, great, and a slew of other adjectives exude positivity both literally and metaphorically. he is acutely aware of the state of the muslim ummah in his speeches, and thus addresses the issues of the muslim ummah as if they were his own issues, explaining how we can resolve the muslim ummah's problems. conclusion the positive impact of president erdogan's speeches in pakistan's parliament during official state visits in 2016 and 2020 was investigated in this paper. erdogan's speeches, particularly his use of adjectives, are full of hope. the adjectives depict the turkish president's overall approach. he uses adjectives in a different with positive connotations like pakistani, terrorism, turkish, political, islamic, brotherly, and honourable. he addresses the legislators, but his tone and language are intended for the general public. in terms of positive discourse analysis, both speeches are persuasive, rational, and truth-based. brotherhood, love, reverence, friendship, islamic ideals, tradition, and community are reflected in the speeches' 183 adjective corpora. erdogan's speeches demonstrate that in an islamic brotherly country, speeches are full of positive discourse, resulting in a more positive and constructive tie between the two nations. the use of strong and positive adjectives encourages listeners to think about the ummah as a whole. suffering in one part of the ummah will have ramifications throughout the ummah. the appealing words enchanted the audience, inspiring them to consider how they could help the muslim ummah. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 78 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 it is only natural that constructive discourse leads to positive attitudes and behaviour. as a result, president erdogan's positive adjectives in his speeches influenced not only the pakistani government but also the general public. the speeches, particularly the adjectives, lend themselves well to discourse analysis. these adjectives have a significant impact on speeches, and they have an even greater impact on pakistani audiences. this leads to a lot of cross-cultural interaction between the brotherly nations. the best example is the popularity of the turkish drama, ertugral ghazi, which set records in pakistan. it demonstrates the ties that bind us, the pakistanis, to the turkish people. president erdogan's speeches are a good example of constructive discourse. in a nutshell, 2613 corpus data of turkish president erdogan's speeches were analysed using pda and baker's corpus lexical model (2003). antconc and ant tagger were used to extract lexical category adjectives. the speeches themselves have an uplifting tone which created a feeling of friendliness among the pakistani audience. in the speeches, the adjectives were mixed with nice words like gratitude, collaboration, and brotherhood to strengthen the bond with the pakistani audience. this paper presents a unique combination of corpus linguistics and positive discourse analysis which lead to the corpus informed positive discourse analysis of the turkish president. this paper provides a new direction to the researchers interested in the analysis of diplomatic discourse. references baker, m. c., & baker, m. c. (2003). lexical categories: verbs, nouns and adjectives (vol. 102). cambridge university press. baker, p. (2006). using corpora in disclosure analysis. london: continuum. baker, p., gabrielatos, c., khosravinik, m., krzyżanowski, m., mcenery, t., & wodak, r. (2008). a useful methodological synergy? combining positive discourse analysis and corpus linguistics to examine discourses of refugees and asylum seekers in the uk press. discourse & society, 19(3), 273-306. cheng, w., & lam, p. w. y. (2012). western perceptions of hong kong ten years on: a corpusdriven positive discourse study. applied linguistics, 34(2), 173-190. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 turkish president’s address to the joint session of pakistan’s parliament: 79 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 hanks, p. (2012). the corpus revolution in leerdogancography. international journal of leerdogancography, 25(4), 398-436. hoffmann, s., evert, s., smith, n., lee, d., & prytz, y. b. (2008). corpus linguistics with bncweb – a practical guide. frankfurt: peter lang.), 627-666. martin, j. r. & white, p. r. (2005). the language of evaluation: appraisal in english. new york: palgrave macmillan. martin, j. r. (2004). positive discourse analysis: solidarity and change. revista canaria de estudios ingleses, 49(1), 179-202. mcenery, t., & wilson, a. (1996). corpus linguistics. edinburgh: edinburgh university press. sinclair, j. (1996). the search for units of meaning. textus, 9(1), 75-106. vessey, r. (2013). challenges in cross-linguistic and corpus-assisted discourse studies. corpora, 8(1), 1-26. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.301 journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 147 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of laurie halse anderson’s speak amman shoaib visiting lecturer, department of english, university of central punjab, lahore, pakistan amman.shoaib@ucp.edu.pk usama javed iqbal visiting lecturer, department of english, university of central punjab, lahore, pakistan usama.javed@ucp.edu.pk abeera shaukat associate lecturer, university of narowal, narowal, pakistan abeera.saqib@uon.edu.pk abstract the aim of this research paper is to analyze the novel of american writer, laurie halse anderson, entitled speak, through the lens of art therapy to highlight that the journey from trauma to transcendence is possible through the therapeutic medium of art. this study examines all the traumatic encounters which the protagonist of speak, melinda sordino, must face in her adolescence period and her constant struggle to cope with those experiences. the research substantiates that anderson's novel frames speech and recovery from depression and traumatic stress possible through the artistic renderings. theoretical framework of this paper is encapsulated in shaun mcniff’s theory of art as medicine. the scopes of existing studies of laurie anderson’s speak are limited to the exploration of the impact of traumatic encounters on the psychological and social growth of the young adult but this has not been clarified that how the protagonist overpowers the weaknesses and frailties of her mind through the healing properties of art. the decipherment of the element of art therapy in speak fills the gap in research on trauma recovery through expressive art in young adult literature. thus, the findings generated from this study might help the future researchers in exploring various dimensions of young adult literature to study the implications of trauma recovery through creative art therapy. keywords: trauma, sexual harassment, transcendence, art therapy, young adult literature introduction in this world, human beings must encounter different experiences in their lives. sometimes, those experiences educate them, make them more strong, mature, and courageous, and they give mailto:amman.shoaib@ucp.edu.pk mailto:usama.javed@ucp.edu.pk mailto:abeera.saqib@uon.edu.pk journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 148 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 them a sense of security as well. sometimes, the excruciating experiences which human beings face exert negative and harsh footmarks in the memory of people and force them to question their very own existence. in this game of life that is filled with emotional complications, most people experience psychosomatic stress besides psychological disorder that disturbs them and makes them feel agitated and perturbed. this state of agitation and disturbance, where one’s inner self is left in turmoil, often reports the feelings that are federated with trauma. in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, the american psychiatric association defines trauma as a mentally troubling occasion that is outside the “range of human experience” (2015, p. 19). trauma shakes the nervous system of victims; it leaves them into a psychologically disordered and dysfunctional situation. brain areas implicated in the stress response include the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex and traumatic stress can be associated with “lasting changes in these three areas” (bremner, 2006, p.453). although, these three parts of the brain keep on growing with the passage of time, the effects of trauma can affect the developmental process and show long term dysregulation of these parts of the human brain. during a traumatic experience, the nervous system of the brain surely “increases the stress hormones” and “decreases the positive sensibility” of human beings (2006, p. 461). the elevation and aggrandizement of stress hormones do not allow the body to work or regulate properly. it leaves ineffective traces on the mental or psychological growth of the sufferer and affects the physical and biological makeup of man’s anatomy. it is very difficult for trauma victims to heal their psychological wounds and emotional scars. they cannot easily spit their anger out even if they want to because it is considered that traumatic memories remain “intact” and can be experienced with the same intensity as when the event occurred and the “imposition of traumatic memories upon a victim is immense” (qtd. in riggs, 2010, p. 21). psychological and emotional scars like physical wounds cannot be forced to heal quickly. although, it is very difficult for the people, who encounter traumatic events, to cope with their trauma, this is not impossible for them because the human psyche has always an immense capacity for recovery. the impacts that appear disastrous and representative of constant damage on the brain can be reversed too. amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex can be badly affected by any traumatic incident, but these areas of brain can again learn to remain relax and journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 149 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 calm. this presents that recovery from trauma is not impossible, victims can overcome their traumatic stress. some people believe that healing from trauma is not possible. primo levi, who himself is the survivor of trauma, mentions that the “injury cannot be healed... it extends through time” (1986, p.64). but this is an accepted fact that trauma victims can heal their psychological plus emotional wounds as there are “many paths that offer a blueprint for emotional recovery” (heller, 2015, p.32). trauma victims can recover while indulging themselves in different positive and creative activities like drawing, painting, writing, and music. telling the narrative of trauma is considered a dominant paradigm in the recovery of trauma. while expressing their suppressed emotions, the victims can spit their anger out which helps them in finding peace and sanctuary from trauma, depression, and anxiety. in this modern scientific world, there are different types of therapies to help the trauma victims in coming out of their anxiety and pressure. the therapies that are most often used for trauma are psychodynamic therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, dance therapy, music therapy, art therapy, massage therapy, martial arts therapy, adjunctive therapy. however, art therapy is considered one of the best treatments to heal the suffering soul from stress and pressure. people who experience trauma can transform their altered lives through participating in art-making, artwork, or through creative engagements. some objectives of art therapy are to actuate emotions, rebuild trust, and reduce a feeling of “isolation and separation” (wertheim-cahen, dijk, and drozdek, 2004, p. 426). people often retreat into silence after encountering traumatic events, but they can convey their messages through their art. they can also express their suppressed emotions through their art projects. the victims do not need to be very artistic or creatively talented to take part in art therapy, people who do not know anything about art can even participate in this type of therapy while drawing or painting whatever they want to explore through colors and brushes. the process of art-making can be called the process of recovery and discovery. it makes people contemplate, meditate and think about their own selves and because of this meditation, victims can bring positive changes in their lives while expressing themselves in their projects. speak, 1999, is written by a famed american writer, laurie halse anderson, in a diary format as the protagonist narrates her story from her own point of view. the story is about a girl journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 150 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 who encounters various traumatic incidents in her teenage life. all the incidents leave a grating and strident impact on the psychological growth of the protagonist and turn her into a victim of depression and trauma. later, she learns to express her suppressed emotions into her art projects in art class and heals her traumatic stress. significance of study the scopes of the existing studies of this novel, speak, are limited to the exploration of the negative and harmful impacts of traumatic encounters like rape and harassment on the growth of young adult, melinda sordino, but there is a gap in criticism regarding how young adult portrayed in this novel overpowers the weaknesses and frailties of her mind through the power of art therapy. by exploring the element of art therapy in speak, the research intends to fill this gap in the literature. it offers room for further research on trauma recovery through art therapy in young adult fiction. research questions following are the research questions which will be answered by this study: what are the traumatic encounters experienced by the protagonist in speak that push her to swirl into depression and trauma? how does anderson present art as a medium of transformation in her novel? literature review the primary text that is used in this paper is laurie halse anderson’s novel. anderson is an american writer and an “author of four award winning novels” (kristiana, 2012, p.13). the novels are fever, wild at heart series, saudi, and habla she has written many novels and her famous works are speak, shout, chains, catalyst, twisted, winter girls, and ashes. the main themes of anderson’s works are isolation, violence, sadness, and friendship. but in almost all her works, laurie halse anderson mainly focuses on teenagers and children. in her novels, the author has presented the hard life of teenagers by showing their problems and dilemmas. but she has also incorporated this idea in her books that teenagers can deal with their problems as well in different ways. katrin rahma pandansari asserts that, anderson has worked on creating the “awareness about sensitive issues in the society” while writing different literary works. she beautifully projects journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 151 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the problem and then shows how to deal with those problems (2014, p. 61). her focus is on the sexual assault of young adults and how they suffer because of these excruciating encounters. the research “a study of depression and healing as reflected in anderson's speak” conducted by novia harry rustiani explores the symptoms of stress and depression which melinda, the main protagonist of the novel, suffers because of her rape. the researcher purports beck’s cognitive theory of depression to reveal the process of depression suffered by melinda. while analyzing the idea of depression in speak, the researcher presents melinda as a victim instead of presenting her as a survivor. she concludes that melinda is suffered from 23 symptoms of depression. melani nurfita arifin’s “the girl’s infliction caused by rape as reflected in laurie halse anderson’s speak” focuses on the traumatic experience which melinda faces because of being rape victim and change of her attitude that is specifically caused by the excruciating encounters in her life. the writer has used the post-traumatic stress disorder by merril d. smith as a theoretical framework for this paper in order to analyse the issue. the paper presents that because of the rape, the protagonist of this novel, melinda sordino, has a “mental suffering that is reflected in her daily attitudes” (arifin, 2018, p.16). another researcher marybeth ragsdale-richards deals with laurie halse anderson’s speak as a pseudo-feminist text. in her essay “caught between voices, caught between pages: considering laurie halse anderson’s speak as a pseudo-feminist text,” richards argues that this text allows the readers to “uncover the knowledge about the violence melinda experiences” and she also talks about the portrayal of lack of female empowerment in the novel. the author of this essay illustrates that speak does not only seek to disrupt the culture of rape, but it also reinstates a “hyper patriarchal worldview” (richards, 2019, p.4). in her article “coping behaviour of melinda in speak by laurie halse anderson: an individual psychological approach,” kristiana reveals the coping behaviour of melinda reflected in anderson’s speak. kristiana figures out that the character of melinda gets “maturity in her personality” that is shaped from her efforts to cope her problems in gaining her life goals. anderson’s speak gives a message that the girls should speak up for themselves and raise their voices for what they believe in “or nothing will ever change” (2012, p.11). “the cause and effect journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 152 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 in melinda's traumatic experiences: a psychosocial analysis in speak” by katrin rahma explores the impact of sexual harassment on melinda's psychological condition. this study identifies how traumatic experiences in melinda’s life affect her psychosocial development. to answer these objectives, the researcher used the psychosocial development theory by erikson. the objectives of this research paper are somewhat like to the objectives of novia harry's research. because the focus of both researchers is on the impacts of sexual harassment and to explore the mental condition of melinda. like rustiani, rahma also comments that melinda shows her development through her artwork and creativity and art seems to be the thing that draws her back to normal life. in both the papers, the focus of researchers is not on the notion of art therapy. novia harry had applied the cognitive theory of beck whereas katrin rahma applied erikson's theory of psychoanalysis. various research has been conducted from different perspectives on this novel. this research also uses the same novel of laurie halse anderson but the focus in this research is on exploring the significant role of art as therapy for psychological trauma in speak. in this paper, the focus is on how art helps victim of rape and sexual assault to come out of the depression and stress in speak while utilizing shaun mcniff’s theory of art as medicine. this current research may be amongst the first to explore this idea of art therapy in the novel of young adult literature. research methodology this research entails a content-based, textual analysis of laurie halse anderson’s speak as the primary text. the applied theoretical framework is shaun mcniff’s art theory called art therapy. the reviews pertaining to the aforementioned author, novel and theory form the secondary sources of this paper. both, print and electronic media have been utilized as a secondary source. art as medicine and art heals have also been consulted as a part of the secondary source for this research. it is qualitative research and is exploratory and inductive in nature. the method employed for this research is wholly subjective and holistic. the descriptive method is used in gathering the required and needed information for this study. the technique through which this data is collected is by making a study of the novel carefully to have comprehensive perception of the novel. some notes have also been taken to highlight the material related to this research. journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 153 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 labelling and classification of the data is also done that is relevant to this current study. to make the conclusion of this research, the data is carefully inspected according to the content along with theory, that is utilized in this research paper. discussion the research intends to focus on the idea of art as a healing power through the creation of drawings and paintings and the aim of this study is to show how anderson’s novel speak frames speech and recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder as possible through the therapeutic properties of creative art. shaun mcniff’s idea of art as medicine is utilized as a theoretical framework in this paper. shaun mcniff’s theory of art as medicine clearly demonstrate the idea that the therapy of imagination and soul is within the reach through expressive art like drawing and painting. in art as medicine, mcniff proposes that when an artist creates or paints an image, it becomes an order through which “the creative mind treats itself, heals itself and then reuses its vigorous energy back to the daily living” (1992, p.36). he further contends that the artistic images appear in the mind of depressed, isolated, and distraught soul and the artist can heal from his psychic illness while creating those images on the paper with the help of different colors. in his book, mcniff presents mutuality between the depressing soul and creative art. if the patient paints from his soul while putting his inner emotions in the piece of art, that piece of art becomes “an angel of transformation” for him and pragmatically treats the psychological disease of that person (mcniff, 1992, p.41). he lays emphasis on the idea that art making is a medicine and this advances through various periods of formation and meditation. according to him, the medicine to the artist is proposed by the creation of art and then meditation on the image during the process of creation. during the process of drawing an image, the mind of the artist indulges itself in direct conversation with the image by putting its ego aside and through this concentration and reflection, transformation starts taking place in the suffering soul. by conversation with the image, mcniff means that the artist starts imagining stories about his artwork and what it portrays and starts concentrating on the past traumatic events. it cannot be assumed that some expressions heal, and others do not, “every aspect of art contributes to healing the psychological wounds” and each image gives special award to the journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 154 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 maker of its art (mcniff, 1992, p.42). the creativity can help people in recovering from trauma when the artist incorporates his conflicted and complex feelings to make the sense of his chaotic and disordered inner world as artwork turns into a custom demonstration that opens individuals to the “experience of soul” (1992, p.46). creative art therapy incorporates psychotherapeutic procedures with the inventive technique to improve “mental health and wellbeing” (cherry, 2018, p.38). whereas the british association of art therapists explains that the treatment through art is simply the utilization of art materials for “self-expression and reflection” in the presence of an art advisor, it enables change and development on personal level using art materials in a safe and “facilitating environment” (qtd. in edwards, 2004, p.18). those people who utilize the technique of art therapy, they surely use creative skills as an approach to get to their psyche and tap into their sentiments in a manner that can be troublesome with basic talk therapy. based on the aforementioned argument, this paper discusses laurie halse anderson’s novel, speak. the main objective of this research is to trace all the excruciating encounters which the protagonist, melinda sordino, must face in her adolescence period and how she constantly struggles to cope with those traumatic experiences to survive in this world while using art as medicine for herself. melinda sordino, the 14-year-old protagonist of anderson’s novel, experiences many traumatic events in the adolescent period of her life. this novel is written in a diary-format and all the crucial incidents which melinda faces are exposed by the protagonist herself. the very first extremely painful experience which she must face in her teenage is her rape by a very close friend, andy evans, in the party. shocked by this act, she calls cop but because of the guilt, shame, and embarrassment, melinda speaks nothing in front of the police and keeps her mouth shut. this violent action makes her swirl into gloomy dejection and dark depression. rape or sexual violence impacts every aspect of victim’s life including physical, mental, and spiritual health. the protagonist of speak also experiences many other excruciating encounters in her life because of her rape or sexual assault. it does not only leave negative impact on her mental, and physical condition but her social life is also badly impacted by this traumatic encounter. she starts remaining silent since she does not have the foggiest idea how to manage this aside from being journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 155 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 quiet. melinda’s friends leave her as they think that it is she who had spoiled the party while calling the cop without any reason as nobody knows that she was raped. even the young girl who “suffered through brownies” with her, who instructed her how to swim, who understood about her parents, who did not ridicule her room, has also become a “witch and a traitor” (anderson, 1999, p.7). her only friend in the school, rachel, has left her because of her calling the cop and spoiling the party. one day, when melinda encounters rachel, the young lady mouths silently to melinda that “i hate you,” she simply turns her back to her and starts laughing with her friends and melinda feels very sick at the heart due to her friend’s extremely poor behavior (anderson, 1999, p.22). this shows how melinda is feeling because of her friend’s harsh behavior. andy evans, the guy who had raped the protagonist, follows her, and makes her more scared while threatening that he would rape her again and kill her if will open her mouth. all the other friends of melinda leave her, keep on criticizing her, and make fun of a weak and timid girl. melinda does not only suffer the breakdown of her relationship with her friends but also with her parents. the relationship between her mother and father was already not on good terms as melinda herself mentions that “i bet they’d be divorced by now if i’d not been born” (1999, 25). she keeps on telling the readers about her parents’ fights on trivial matters. her relationship with her parents is weak and she suffers from lack of communication with her parents after her rape. they do not even take steps to strengthen the bond with their daughter and therefore, melinda feels quite lonely and isolated. the depressed soul illustrates painfully in the diary format novel that she communicates with her parents through “notes on the kitchen counter” when she needs supplies for the school or ride to the shopping center, whereas her parents only “leave notes about what time they will be back from work (1999, p. 43). besides this, there was nothing else to communicate amongst them. melinda’s attitude displays helplessness as well as hopelessness. she starts skipping her school and finds herself in an abandoned janitor’s closet while hiding herself during the school time. she hides over there and sleeps whenever she feels anxious and depressed. soon, the protagonist becomes an outcast everywhere. in fact, when all the students of ninth grade are “herded into the auditorium,” it is melinda who remains isolated, sits alone without any friend, and even laughed at by her schoolmates (anderson, 1999, p.47). it is not wrong to say that melinda journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 156 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 does not only lose her relationships with others, but she also even loses herself in this difficult and complex race of life. she finds no way to come out of these harsh realities of life. her transformation takes place from a very lively girl into a drastically disconnected teenager. after encountering every traumatic incident, melinda feels that something is “cracking inside her” and her ribs are collapsing in her own lungs (1999, p.41). the author of speak, laurie halse anderson, has used symbolism to portray the inner state of melinda that is badly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. the most prevalent symbols in this novel are mirrors, lips and mouths, and closets. these symbols add very intense meanings to the text. various accounts of lips and mouths in this novel underlines melinda’s inability to communicate others. anderson highlights that melinda keeps on biting her lower lip. melinda’s lips are presented as paralyzed, swollen, dry, and scabby. the protagonist herself describes her face as something very scary and ugly, she mentions that her eyes are “two muddy circles” under very thin eyebrows, her nose is “piggy,” and her face looks like something “chewed up” (anderson, 1999, p.47). melinda sordino once again uses very bitter imagery while presenting her nails. she shows that her nails are very rough that are chewed to the “bleeding point” and she has applied “black death nail polish” on them, which is obviously a very gloomy portrayal (1999, p.48). the grotesqueness and ugliness of her face, the disfigurement of her nails and black death nail polish on her ugly nails clearly represent the guilt, shame, gloominess, darkness, and ugliness melinda’s inner self is experiencing after facing all the harsh incidents. because of these excruciating encounters, melinda is even unable to face herself. she stops seeing herself in the mirror and puts down the mirror of her room. she experiences identity crisis and finds herself stuck in a limbo. because of this frustration and inner turmoil, melinda also once tries to commit suicide while clutching the pin of her clipboard n her wrist but fails to kill herself. after confronting various unbearable events in her life, she luckily joins mr. freeman’s art class in her new semester of merryweather high school. in the very first art class, mr. freeman welcomes all his students while saying “welcome to the only class that will teach you how to survive. welcome to art class…if you will not learn art now, you would never learn to breathe” (anderson, 1999, p.53). mr. freeman connects art with life and tells his students that it is only journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 157 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 through art that they can express their bottled-up emotions in front of others. the art teacher tells his students that the art that is created without feelings and sentiments is “like a chocolate cake without sugar” (1999, p.56). this is what melinda understands and then decides to free herself. in the beginning of the new year of the school, mr. freeman assigns a keyword to every student. the protagonist of this novel also plunges her hand into the bottom of the globe and fishes out her paper. the keyword that she finds on the paper is “tree”. all the students including melinda are instructed to focus on exploring the assigned keywords throughout the whole year. at the same time, the art teacher, mr. freeman, suggests melinda to work on the trees without thinking about them. according to him, an artist should think about love, or hate, or joy, or rage, whatever makes him feel something (anderson, 1999, p.56). rather than thinking about the trees, melinda starts concentrating on “what makes her palms sweat, her toes curl. she focuses on that feeling” (1999, p.57). in the beginning, melinda feels that this assignment is not only easy but interesting too, but later she realizes that this is not an easy task to explore inner sentiments and emotions. she begins painting the tree while focusing on her sentiments and the very first image which she produces is of dead tree. the tree is hit by lightning, thunderbolts, and thunderclaps. without giving up, she paints more than 300 tree images, but all of them look like the trees that are caught by some forest fire or blight. the trees that melinda draws consistently, and the trees she ponders in her brain, speak to how she feels about herself. the trees hit by lightning portray melinda’s psychological condition and inner state. just like melinda, her trees are also struck by outer and external force. the protagonist herself is frustrated and that’s the reason that she cannot project the trees that are full of life. she feels that she is barely surviving in this world and represents herself by drawing dead and lifeless trees. she draws whatever she feels to lessen the burden from her shoulders. according to shaun mcniff, when the depressed soul decides to put his suppressed emotions onto the paper, the negative images appear in the mind of that person as he tries to connect the implicit and explicit memories. while drawing those negative, dark, harsh, and bleak images, the victim heals himself (mcniff, 1992, p. 110). this happens with the protagonist of speak as well. she does not only draw these dead trees in the beginning that represent her inner condition but she picks up journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 158 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the barbie doll and places tape on the mouth of doll and glues the bones together and “arranges them on a very dark piece of paper,” and puts the “knives and forks” on the paper and glues them in a way that it looks as they are striking the bones on the dark paper (anderson, 1999, p.59). this is a very grim depiction of how melinda is feeling as knives and forks are attacking the bones. the tape she places on the mouth of barbie doll illustrates how she is forced to remain silent about whatever she has confronted in her life. the attack of forks and knives on the bones represent the attack that was made by andy evans on melinda’s virginity. melinda portrays her inner self through these negative projections. while doing this, she heals herself and releases her bottled-up emotions. frustrated soul of melinda finally starts feeling that there has been some “progress” in her and there has been some “progress” in her whole tree project of art (anderson, 1999, p.64). she feels that she has also gone through many different phases like pablo picasso due to the art work. melinda accepts that all her earlier painted trees look like “they had been through a forest fire or blight” and by painting these images she feels much “better” (1999, p.66). this proves that the “negative and disturbing images are vital stimulants for healing in that toxin is the antitoxin” (mcniff, 1992, p. 117). after that, she draws a tree and surprisingly, the tree is not dead, it is not hit by lightning. mr. freeman comments that “this is not dead; this is an average tree. breathe life into it (anderson, 1999, p. 69). we see progress in melinda’s attitude and behavior through exhibiting these projections and disturbing images of trees. she realizes that she is getting better. she feels comfortable and good by portraying these dark and lifeless images. melinda makes a new friend, david, and goes to market to buy her clothes. the girl who has never talked about her rape, she starts meditating in isolation that how could she speak up about that night when she was raped? she thinks “how can i talk to them about that night? how can i start” (1999, p. 70)? this is quite clear that she is still stuck, and she has not gained voice up till now, but she has started thinking about speaking whatever she has faced in her life all alone. after creating the dead tree image for more than three hundred and fifteen times, and spoiling more than six linoleum blocks, melinda starts seeing a very “strong and healthy oak tree” that has thousands of leaves “reaching to the sun” in her head but she is still a little bit confused to put it journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 159 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 on the paper (anderson, 1999, p.71). in art as medicine, it is illustrated that the life of created image is the base of progressive and logical treatment of the “psychic diseases” of human beings (mcniff, 1992, 114). in this novel as well, the created images work as a revolutionary treatment of traumatic stress for the protagonist, melinda sordino. after putting imperfect and flawed trees on the paper, she starts coming out of her frustrated and depressed situation. as the growth of the tree relates to the growth of melinda sordino, the image of strong oak tree in the mind of anderson’s protagonist shows her own growth and transformation from a shy and little raped girl to a somewhat mature teenager who is feeling strong in her head. at the end of the session, melinda appears with the picture of a perfect and flourished oak tree that looks very fresh and beautiful. she illustrates that “my tree is definitely breathing” and it looks as fresh as “it just shot up through the ground this morning…roots knob out of the ground and the crown reaches for the sun, tall and healthy” (anderson, 1999, p.174). melinda also paints a lower branch that is sick, but she is very hopeful that the sick branch would drop soon from this tall and vigorous tree. the sick branch of the painted tree symbolizes the bruises that are still vivid in melinda but she is very hopeful that they will also fade with the passage of time. she has also drawn the beautiful birds sitting on the branches of the tree and some of them are flying. the projection of this tree exhibits melinda as a resilient woman. she begins by feeling destroyed like the tree struck by lightning that she draws, but in the end feels that now she can deal with the experience of being raped, she is now free and can fly high in the sky like those painted birds who are free to fly above the painted tree. in fact, through art therapy in art class, melinda helps herself in peeping out the window of art from her inner prison. she accepts this thing that “i have completed myself through this oak tree, i feel like i can fly…i have survived. i am here” (anderson, 1999, p.178). mcniff writes that on an individual level, making pictures as opposed to talking about an upsetting issue can give a proportion of control, permitting people to pick if, when, and how they will manage the implications contained in the pictures they make (mcniff, 1992, p.164). the creative art therapy also provides this measure of control to melinda sordino and by dealing with the meanings she put into her created images, she ultimately finds her voice and confidence and journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 160 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 transforms into a bold girl who has the courage to speak up against her rapist. she finally talks with her ex-best friend, rachel, about her rape for the very first time and tells her that she called the cops because a young guy raped her under the trees, and she was too drunk to know what was happening with her when he hurt her. on the last day of the year, mr. freeman comes to her and asks her to talk about her art. instead of talking about her art, she simply says “let me tell you my story,” the tears which come out of her eyes dissolve the “last block of ice” in her throat, and she perceives that “the frozen stillness” is melting inside her and finally she speaks up (anderson, 1999, p.182). it becomes clear that she is going to tell the tale of her sufferings and traumatic encounters which she has faced in her adulthood including rape. finally, she gains her voice back and raises her voice for herself. she accepts the truth that she has been raped and it is not her fault. she tells it to rachel; she also talks about the “pain” in her art with mr. freeman. even the protagonist is also determined to talk about this incident with her parents as well. finally, a transformed melinda appears who is ready to speak about her rape and rapist with a clear head. she becomes a powerful girl who has the courage to resist or say no to her rapist. andy evans attacks melinda once again in the closet of the school while blaming her that she is spreading the story of how he raped her. he tries to do the same thing again with melinda which he did in the party to make her mouth shut. he pulls her away from the sight of other, puts his one hand on melinda’s mouth and the other on her throat. melinda mentions that he put his mouth on her face, he was breathing like a “dangerous dragon” (anderson, 1999, p. 284). his hands once again started attacking melinda’s body. but this time melinda resists as much as she can. this time the sound that explodes from her throat is “nnnooo!!!” (1999, p. 294). she hits the mirror in the closet twice with the wood to break it. the loud sound that explodes from melinda and the sound of shards of glass slipping down into the sink puzzle andy evans. the baffled and shocked young boy pulls himself away from melinda. she avails the opportunity, picks up a shard of glass, and “holds it to andy evans’s neck” which makes him scared, and he surrenders while raising his hands to his heads. this is obvious that shy, timid, and weak teenager has now become a powerful young, bold girl through her creative renderings. she completes her fragmented self through her creativity and journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 161 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 shows that no beast can touch her now as she has transformed into courageous girl who can raise the blood from the body of the person who would try to harm or harass her. this is the art that melts all the blockades from the path of her psychological growth. melinda would never be able to gain such confidence and courage, if she had not stepped into the world of art with the help of his art teacher, mr. freeman. in the last class, she also draws the birds besides the perfect oak tree. the birds that are flying in the light and their feathers are expanding promise to melinda. it is quite clear that this good change takes place because of the therapeutic power of art. where the efforts of parents and guidance counselor fail, art appears as melinda’s biggest motivation as it becomes successful in transforming herself once again and in getting her open about her crucial past and the reason behind not getting good grades. conclusion through all the above discussion, the conclusion can be drawn that sexual harassment, rape, or any other traumatic encounter can ruin the victim’s life badly as these traumatic experiences have physical, mental, psychological, and social consequences on the growth of the person. it is very difficult for the victims who encounter traumatic experiences to spit their anger out. however, art emerges as best spontaneous treatment for those who suffer psychologically. anderson’s character melinda sordino must suffer a lot in her life which pushes her into depression, anxiety, and frustration. she tries to commit suicide to escape from the hardships of life but fails. she joins art class, releases her emotions through creative renderings. after putting her suppressed emotions, she appears as transformed and powerful melinda who has the courage and who can fight for herself. melinda sordino survives, gains her confidence back, and dislodges her silence through her artwork. in this way, the journey of melinda sordino from trauma to transcendence through creative art therapy takes place and transforms her into a bold and confident girl who is making new friends, going out to shopping malls, and not afraid of anything. references american psychiatric association. (2015). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. ed. 5, washington, dc, 1-325. anderson, laurie h. (1999). speak. penguin publisher, usa, 1-300. journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 162 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 arifin, melani nurfita. (2018). the girl’s infliction caused by rape as reflected in laurie halse anderson’s speak. 1-21. [online] available: https://www.semanticscholar.org/ca3b.com (december 6, 2019). bremner, j. douglas. (2006). traumatic stress: effects on the brain. dialogues in clinical neuroscience. emerald group publishing limited, 8(4), 445-461. cherry, kendra. psychotherapy: how art therapy is used to help people heal. 1-142. [online] available: https:// www.verywellmind.com/what-is-art-therapy-2795755 (november 16, 2019). heller, molly anne. (2015). becoming incredible: healing trauma through performance. unpublished phd. thesis, utah university, utah, 1-45. kristiana, k. (2012). coping behavior of melinda in speak: an individual psychological approach. 1-19. [online] available: https://www.eprints.ums.ac.id/19455/14/02 (january 24, 2020). levi, primo. (1986). the drowned and the saved. penguin publishers, london, 1-286. mcniff, shaun. (1992). art as medicine: creating a therapy of the imagination. shambhala publishers, usa, 1-223. rahma, katrin. (2014). the cause and effect in melinda's traumatic experiences: a psychosocial analysis of anderson’s speak. 1-78. [online] available: https://www.eprints.uny.ac.id/17627/pdf.com (january 17, 2020). richards, marbeth ragsdale. (2019). caught between voices, caught between pages. critical inventions in rape cultur. feral feminisms, 102-114. [online] available: https://www.feralfeminisms.com/caught-between-voices/ (november 16, 2019). riggs, anne. (2010). the creative space: the art and wellbeing in the shadow of trauma, grief, and loss. unpublished phd. thesis, victoria university, australia, 1-190. rustiani, novia harry. (2008). a study of depression and healing as reflected in anderson's speak. 1-82. [online] available: https://www.scholarcommons.used.edu/etd/143 (december 22, 2019). wertheim-cahen, truus, marion van dijk, and boris drozdek. (2004). about a weeping willow, a phoenix rising from its ashes and building a house ... art therapy with refugees. https://www.semanticscholar.org/ca3b.com http://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-art-therapy-2795755 https://www.eprints.ums.ac.id/19455/14/02 https://www.eprints.uny.ac.id/17627/pdf.com https://feralfeminisms.com/caught-between-voices/ http://www.scholarcommons.used.edu/etd/143 journey from trauma to transcendence through art therapy: the study of anderson’s speak 163 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 three different perspectives. broken spirits: the treatment of traumatized asylum seeker refugees, war and torture victims. brunner-routledge, usa, 419-442. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). english translation of rekhtyia rekhtyia di: a study on category shifts 351 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 english translation of rekhtyia rekhtyia di: a study on category shifts maaz ahmad khan lecturer in english, university of buner, kp. maazahmadkhan515@gmail.com dr. tariq khan assistant professor, department of english university of malakand, pakistan tariqkhan1975@gmail.com kamran zeb lecturer in english, university of buner, kp. kamranzeb1995@gmail.com abstract this study aims at exploring category shifts in english translation facts are facts of the pashto text rekhtyia rekhtyia di by khan abdul wali khan. it investigates the nature of category shifts, giving an overview of prior theories of translation. it adopts qualitative method, using closing reading technique as a tool for collection as well as interpretation of data under the theoretical framework of catford’s theory of translation shifts. it analyzes category shifts in english translation facts are facts, by studying source text and target text in parallel. it finds out answer to the question: what are category shifts in english translation facts are facts of the pashto text rekhtyia rekhtyia di? moreover, it gives an avenue to future researchers to apply category shifts to other forms of translated literature. keywords: category shifts, qualitative method, close reading technique, source and target text i. introduction translation is a creative-cum-mechanical act involving three processes: cognitive, communicative and linguistic process. it is a cognitive process in that it touches upon what is going on in the mind of translator. this means that thought processes of translator are given attention in the process of translation. translation is a communicative process meaning that there is cross-cultural communication when a person translates a stretch of language, showing cultural conventions, perception of the world, habits, social institutions, etc. translation is essentially a linguistic process in which a translator pays particular attention to language of the text, including form, functions, effects, etc. translation plays a significant part in the fields of knowledge. it helps disseminate human intellectual pursuits. subsequently, it brings about cultural innovation and development. however, translation is subject to shifts, or departure from equivalence or correspondence or both: one of the ends of a translator is to create equivalence between source text (st) and target text (tt). one of the challenges posed to translation is that it loses effect of the original text, especially in the case of poetry. this is because of shifts. according to catford (1965), shift is a deviation from formal balance in the process of moving from source text to target text. it is of two types: shift of level and shift of category. aesthetic pleasure created by prosodic and metrical features is not sometimes relayed to the target culture. on the contrary, prose translation is not comparatively as difficult as poetry; because prose and poetry do not mailto:maazahmadkhan515@gmail.com mailto:tariqkhan1975@gmail.com mailto:kamranzeb1995@gmail.com english translation of rekhtyia rekhtyia di: a study on category shifts 352 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 follow the same way of expression. there are not as many shifts in prose as in poetry. it is needless to say that shifts occurring in prose can also occur in poetry. rekhtyia rekhtyia di (facts are facts) is one of scholarly books written by khan abdul wali khan. his other books are rekhtya muqadas di (facts are sacred) and saritoob (manliness). in rekhtyia rekhtyia di ( facts are facts), wali khan tries to rationalize the bent of abdul ghaffar khan popularly known as bacha khan and all indian congress towards the need of pakistan by the muslim league. there are 22 chapters in the book describing machinations and manipulations of the british; also talking about the struggle for power by the muslim league and the congress. the writer tries to substantiate his point of view by giving letters and official correspondence between british secretary for india and the viceroy of india, governors of the british indian provinces and so on. moreover, many of the supporting proofs are taken from india office library london. this book also muckrakes the true colors of religious personalities and feudal lords who worked for the british at the expense of the common people who were struggling for the freedom of the soil. the ministry of nationalities and tribal affairs of afghanistan in 1987 went through the book for the first time. it was rendered into urdu in pakistan in 1988. it was translated into english by dr. syeda saidain hameed in 1990. this study enables a person to have an understanding of pashtun culture and psychology. it will contribute to the rounded understanding of the book, especially the linguistic aspect of the book involved. ii. review of related literature according to munday (2001), the term translation is used in several senses. first, it refers to a product, signifying a written language translated. it is a finished end product passed through a process. second, it also refers to a process involving source language and target language. source language is the one from which something is translated, whereas target language is the one to which something is translated. as a process, translation is categorized into interlingual, intralingual and intersemiotic translation. third, translation also refers to academic discipline covering history, theories and strategies of translation. translation is a linguistic, cognitive, cultural and communicative process involving rendition of written language. newmark (1981), has drawn a dichotomy between semantic and communicative translation using certain parameters. semantic translation emphasizes thought processes of the translator. communicative translation emphasizes intention of the translator and culture rather than thought processes as it is more subjective in nature. venuti (1995) introduced foreignization and domestication as strategies of translation, providing linguistic and cultural guidance. foreignization refers to influence of cultural deviation on those cultural norms to exhibit linguistic and cultural variations of the foreign text, sending the audience abroad. venuti (ibid) favors foreignization as a strategy. it is a form of opposition against cultural deviation, racial discrimination, cultural superiority, and subjugation for the benefits of liberal state relations. domestication refers to a culturecentred reduction of the foreign text to target-language cultural standards, fetching the author back home. according to nida (1964), there are principles of correspondence in translation, which lie under the process of translation. languages differ in terms of form and substance. english translation of rekhtyia rekhtyia di: a study on category shifts 353 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 total balance of form and substance or precise rendition is not possible. variations in renditions are normally due to three essential forces in the process of translation: nature of message, writer’s purpose and kind of audience. to munday (2001), discourse analysis model attributed to halliday draws on systemic functional grammar, considering language as a form of interaction or communication. it holds that meaning exists in the linguistic choices of a writer and methodically relates these selections to a broad sociocultural fabric. this notion draws on buher’s division of language functions. to munday (ibid), polysystem theory is a theory of translation propounded by a jewish scholar named itamar even-zohar in the 1970s. a literary work is views in context rather than in isolation, being a part of a system. polysystem is a heterogeneous and hierarchical system of systems which brings about a continuous changing process of development within the polysystem in aggregate. according to munday (ibid), vinay and darbelnet drew a comparative review of english and french, exploring differences and making distinction between direct and oblique translation. as far as the differences are concerned, they did not describe the differences as shifts, but, of course, they were the first to study translation shifts. according to ahmad (2020), language is a significant part of human culture. human culture and language are interconnected with each other. they both have influence over each other in the process of evolution. according to kantiastuti (2014), meaning transfer is a crucial aspect of translation; it is of different types: complete meaning, increased meaning, decreased meaning, and nonequivalent meaning. according to jacobson (1959), languages vary basically in what they ought to communicate and not in what they may communicate. these differences are made in terms of gender, aspect and semantic field. jacobson (ibid) argues that there is not any common total equivalence between language-units. to fang (2011), the connection between ideology and translation is manifold; translation is a phenomenon rooted in history and society, in which different conflicting ideologies confront each other. according to haque (2012), translation of prose is essentially the translation of fictional prose or non-fiction prose, including novels, short stories, folk tale, comedy, works of criticism, hagiography and the like. iii. methodology this study adopts qualitative method. according to jamshed (2014), research methodology is a set of techniques acting like a design of architecture by means of which a researcher forms a mental bent to identify a problem and come up with a solution to the problem. it is a detailed procedure representing selection of a person conducting the study, relying on the characteristics and kind of the problem of one’s study. to creswell (2009), qualitative methodology of research is a blanket term referring to a set of study design based certain theoretical dimensions. close reading is used as a technique for the collection of data pertaining to the topic; it is an objective way of analysis emphasizing on moves used in developing a depth of understanding related to a text. in other words, it is a device used to understand a demanding text, encompassing the reader forming a in-depth comprehension of literary piece, rather than a prompt and superficial view of the main idea of a stretch of language. the procedure of close reading starts with the comprehension of words and expressions and their different shades of english translation of rekhtyia rekhtyia di: a study on category shifts 354 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 meaning. according to greenham (2019), there are six contexts of closing reading. first of all, the semantic context is about the meaning of words, focusing on what individual words can mean. second, the syntactic context is about the arrangement and distribution of words and how words mean when they are arranged and put together. third, the thematic context is about how different themes appear and influence meaning as we read a text. fourth, the iterative context is about the ways that iteration and structuring influence the meaning of text. fifth, the generic context is about the type of work, which we are reading, influence the approach to its meanings. sixth, the adversarial context is about how the theoretical, political and historical concerns reshape meanings of a text. facts are facts: an untold story of india’s partition, a book by khan abdul wali khan, is selected as object of the study. it is a prose work originally written in pashtu, translated into several languages, including english. pashtu and english versions of the book are investigated in the light of translation shifts attributed to catford. shift refers to deviations from structural correspondence when a person translates a literary piece. formal correspondence as opposed to dynamic correspondence is an orientation of translation. form and substance of the message are given equal preference. shifts are categorized into the following kinds: level shifts and category shifts. iv. analysis and interpretation category shift is a kind of shift marked by deviation from structural correspondence in terms of grammatical category rather than level of language. it covers the following: unit shift, class shift, structure shift and intra-system shift. interpretation of unit shift (rank shift) unit shift refers to a shift in which a unit of language such as morpheme, lexeme, phrase or sentence, rendered with a separate unit. for instance, a word is rendered with a phrase: a phrase is translated with a word. the following shifts of unit have been explored and analyzed: example 1: st: دې مليانو دهغې پاره په اسالم کښي جواز پيش کولے شو pt: dɛ mʊljɘnʊ dɘ hɘχɛ pɘrɘ pɘ ɪslɘm kɪ ʤɘwɑːz pɛʃ kɘwɑlɛ ʃʊ tt: they rationalized their policies based on a contorted interpretation of islam. ,is a phrase in pashtu, consisting of a group of words (ʤɘwɑːz pɛʃ kɘwɑlɛ ʃʊ) ”جواز پيش کولے شو“ that is, noun, helping and main verb. this phrase is translated in english translation as rationalized, a word in english. bt: these mullahs could gave justification for their (the british) policies. example 2: st: پيرنګي د نر بچي خو دا يو خدمت د اسالم کړے دے چې د دغه مليانو نومونه ئ سره د هغوي د پتو پورا پورا ليکلي دي . pt: pɪrɘŋgɪ dɘ nɘr bɘʧɪ χʊ dɘ jʊ χɪdmɘt dɘ ɪslɘm kɘrɛ dɛ ʧɪ dɘ hɘɣɘ mʊljɘnʊ nʊmɔnɘ jɛ sɘrɘ dɘ hɘɣʊ dɘ pɘtʊ pɔrɘ pɔrɘ lɪkɘlɪ dɛ tt: the british did islam a good turn by recording the names and addresses of these mullahs. is a word acting as a noun in pashto. it is translated as a good turn, which is (χɪdmɘt) ”خدمت“ a phrase in english, consisting of a head (turn), dependents (article and adjective). english translation of rekhtyia rekhtyia di: a study on category shifts 355 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 bt: the british served islam by giving the mullahs’ names along with full addresses. example 3: st: دا پيرانګي کوشش دا ؤ چې هغه کورونوکښي ځان له ملګري پيدا کړي کومې چې د پيرانګي په خالف جنګيدې . pt: dɘ pɪrɘŋgɪ kɔʃɘʃ dɘ wʊ ʧɪ hɘɣɘ kɔrɔnʊ kɪ zɑːlə mɘlgɘrɪ pjɛdɘ krɪ kʊmʊ ʧɪ dɘ pɪrɘŋɪ pɘ χɪlɑːf ʤɘŋgjgɛ tt: the british strategy was to befriend those families whose friends were involved in the freedom struggle. .is a phrase in pashto, consisting of a noun followed by a verb (mɘlgɘrɪ pjɛdɘ krɪ) ”ملګري پيدا کړي“ this phrase is translated with a word, that is, befriend. in this case, a phrase in source text is rendered with a word in target language. bt: the british tried to make friends with those families involved fighting the british. example 4: st: پيرانګي دا هر څه په داسې پټه طريقه کول چې د پيرانګي مخاليفين په هيڅ رنګې هم خبر نه شې pt: pɪrɘŋgɪ dɘ hɘr sɘ pɘ dɘsɪ pɘtɘ tɘrɪqɘ kɘwɘl ʧɪ dɘ pɪrɘŋgɪ mʊχɘlɪpiːn pɘ hɛs rɘŋgɪ hʊm χɘbɘr nɘ ʃɪ tt: the british were conducting this intrigue with utmost secrecy. their enemies had no suspicion that such documents and letters were being exchanged. the sentence in pashto is a compound sentence consisting of two independent clauses. this sentence is split up into two sentences in target text. in other words, clause in st is rendered with a sentence in tt; clause is shifted to sentence in the process of going from source text to target text. bt: the british were conducting this intrigue with utmost secrecy that their enemies had no suspicion that such documents and letters were being exchanged. example 5: st: کننګم د مليانو درې ډلې ټاکلې وۍ دا واړه واړه مليان ی د عالقو خانانو او اعتباري خان بهادرانو ته په حواله کړيوو . pt: kənɪŋgɘm dɘ mʊljɘnʊ drɪ dɘlɪ tɘkɘlɪ wɛ dɘ wɘrɘ wɘrɘ mʊljɘn dɛ ɑlɘquː χɑːnɑːnʊ ɑʊ ɪtɪbɘrɪ χɑn bɘdɘrɘnʊ tɘ pɘ hɘwɘlɘ kɘrɪ wʊ tt: cunningham made three groups among the maulanas. is a clause in st. it is a (kənɪŋgɘm dɘ mʊljɘnʊ drɪ dɘlɪ tɘkɘlɪ wɛ) ”کننګم د مليانو درې ډلې ټاکلې وۍ“ constituent of a larger construction. this constituent is shifted to a construction in tt. bt: cunningham made three groups of mullahs, assigning the smaller mullahs to local khans and nawab. interpretation of class shift class shift is a form of category shift, referring to the deviation of grammatical class, such as noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc. the following shifts of class have been explored and analyzed: example 1: st: په لندن کښي پيرنګيان ويريدل چۍ د ګاندهۍ جۍ د قامۍ حکومت د جناح صيب په english translation of rekhtyia rekhtyia di: a study on category shifts 356 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 مشرۍ کښي انکارجناح صيب کافي بدنام کړے دے . pt: pɑː lɒnɗɘn kɪ pɪrɘŋjɘn wɘjɘrɛdɘl ʧɪ ɖɘ ɡɑːnɖɪ ʤɪ ɖɘ qɑːmɑɪ hɘkʊmɘt ɖɘ ʤɪnɘ sɑːb pɑː mɘʃɘrɑɪ kɪ kɑːfɪ bɘdnɑːm kɑːræ ɖɛ tt: the british were concerned that having refused ghandhiji’s offer jinnah was becoming very unpopular. is a verb in pashto. it is translated as ‘concerned’, which is an adjective in (wɘjɘrɛdɘl) ”ويريدل“ english. it functions as adjective in tt. verb is shifted to adjective in the process of translation. bt: having refused the offer of ghandhiji by jinnah, the british in london feared that this made jinnah very unpopular. example 2: st: دا سرجارج کننګم دا د خپل الس ليکلۍ ڈاېرۍ چۍ سړے لولۍ ، نو حېران شي pt: dɘ sɛːr ʤɔːrʤ kʌnɪngʌm dɘ dɘ χpɘl lɑːs lɪkɘlɪ dɑɪjrɪ ʧɪ sɘrɘj lwɘlɪ nʊ hɜrɑːn ʃɪ tt: george cunningham’s diaries are a shocking record of men. is a verb in pashtu, meaning to wonder. it is translated as shocking as in (hɜrɑːn ʃɪ) ”حېران شي“ shocking record of men. shocking is an adjective in english. it follows that the verb “حېران شي” (hɜrɑːn ʃɪ) is shifted to adjective (shocking) in the process of translation. bt: reading sir george cunningham’s diaries, one astonishes. example 3: st: مسلمانو د غالمولو د پا ره ې خپل ايمان ، ضمير او سړيتوب په سرو سپينو خرچ کړي دي pt: mʊsɘlmɘnɘnʊ dɘ ɣwɘlɘmɘwɘlʊ dɑpɘrɘ jɛ χpɘl ɪmɑːn zɑːmiːr ɑʊ sɘrɪtuːb pɑ srɔː spɪnʊ χɘrʧ kɘrɪ dɪ tt: for a few pieces of silver, (they) agreed to serve as the custodian of slavery for the indian people. is an expression acting as a verb, meaning for making (dɘ ɣwɘlɘmɘwɘlʊ dɑpɘrɘ) ”د غالمولو د پا ره“ (someone) slave. this verbal group is translated as custodian of slavery, which is a noun phrase in english, consisting of head (custodian) and modifier (of slavery). a verbal group is shift to a noun phrase in the process of translation. bt: to make the muslims slave, they sold their faith, conscience and manliness for money. example 4: st: .هغه اول د خاکسار تنظيم سره تعلق لرلو pt: hɘɣɘ ɘwɘl dɘ χɑksɑːr tɘnziːm sɘrɘ tɘlʊq lɘrɘlʊ tt: he was formerly connected with the khaksar movement. is a word in pashto, acting as a noun. it is translated as formerly, which is an adverb (ɘwɘl) ”اول“ in english. similarly, “تعلق” (tɘlʊq ) is a word functioning as a noun. this word is translated as connected, which is a verb used in passive form. nouns are shifted to adverb and verb in the process of translation. bt: he had association with khaksar movement in the past. example 5: st: هغه دې قسمه مليانو سره په پټه رابطه کړي pt: hɘɣɘ dɛ qɪsmɘ mʊljɘnʊ sɘrɘ pɘ pɘtɘ rɘbɪtɘ kɘrɪ english translation of rekhtyia rekhtyia di: a study on category shifts 357 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 tt: he was commissioned to work secretly with the tribal mullahs. and noun (pɘtɘ/پټه) is an expression in pashto, consisting of adjective (pɘtɘ rɘbɪtɘ) ”پټه رابطه“ this expression is translated as work secretly, consisting of verb (work) and adverb .(rɘbɪtɘ/رابطه) (secretly). it follows that noun and adjective are shifted to verb and adverb respectively in the process of translation. bt: he was commissioned to have secret contact with the tribal mullahs. interpretation of structure shift example 1: st: کننګم دا سۍ ګويانه دے چی دا د مليانو سره د رابطې کار مونړه خان بهادر قلې خان ته په حواله کړو چۍ هغه د دۍ هغه دې قسمه مليانو سره په پټه رابطه کړي . pt: kʌnɪŋgʌm dɘsɪ gʊjɘnɘ dɛ ʧɪ dɘ dɛɪ mʊljɘnʊ sɘrɘ rɘbɪtɘ kɑːr mʊŋɘ χɑːn bɘhɑːdɘr qʊlɪ tɘ pɘ hɘwɘlɘ krʊ ʧɪ hɘɣɘ dɛɪ qɪsmɘ mʊljɘnʊ sɘrɘ pɘ pɘtɘ rɘbɪtɘ kɘrɪ tt: cunningham wrote that kuli khan was being used as the mullah liaison. he was commissioned to work secretly with the tribal mullahs. the sentence in st consists of three clauses: (1) کننګم دا سۍ ګويانه دے , (kʌnɪŋgʌm dɘsɪ gʊjɘnɘ dɛ) ʧɪ dɘ dɛɪ mʊljɘnʊ sɘrɘ rɘbɪtɘ) چی دا د مليانو سره د رابطې کار مونړه خان بهادر قلې خان ته په حواله کړو. (2) kɑːr mʊŋɘ χɑːn bɘhɑːdɘr qʊlɪ tɘ pɘ hɘwɘlɘ krʊ) (3) . هغه د دۍ هغه دې قسمه مليانو سره په پټه رابطه کړي this sentence is translated with two) (ʧɪ hɘɣɘ dɛɪ qɪsmɘ mʊljɘnʊ sɘrɘ pɘ pɘtɘ rɘbɪtɘ kɘrɪ).چۍ sentences in tt, that is, (1) cunningham wrote that kuli khan was being used as the mullah liaison. (2) he was commissioned to work secretly with the tribal mullahs. a single sentence structure is shifted to two sentences in tt in the process of translation. bt: cunningham said that kuli khan was being used as the mullah liaison, commissioned to work secretly with the tribal mullahs. example 2: st: کننګم سره دا شوفکر چې رقم مومونړخو چاپيره په سمه اوغر خور کړو .ملک مو و مليانوپه ذريعه ځان سره ملګرے کړو خو چی پته ولګوو چې دا مليان واقعي د پيرانګي د پاره پروپېګنډه کوي او که نه ؟ pt: kʌnɪŋgʌm sɘrɘ dɘ fɪkɘr ʃʊ rɘqɘm χʊ mʊŋ ʧɘpɜrɘ pɘ sɘmɘ ɣɘr ɑʊ χʊr krʊ. mɘlk mʊ mʊljɑnʊ pɘ zɘrjɘ zɑːn sɘrɘ mɘlgɘrɛ krʊ χʊ ʧɪ pɘtɘ wɘlɘgɘwʊ ʧɪ dɘ mʊljɑːn wɘqijɛ dɘ pɪrɘŋg dɘ pɘrɘ prʊpɘgɘndɘ kɘwɪ ɑw kɘnɘ? tt: cunningham’s next concern was that having spent the money to court the mullahs, it now be ascertained whether or not they were actively engaged in ant-congress propaganda. the two sentences ( ( پروپېګنډه کوي او که نه ؟ )پروپېګنډه کوي او که نه ؟ … (kʌnɪŋgʌm sɘrɘ dɘ fɪkɘr ʃʊ) in st are rendered with one sentence, that is, cunningham’s next concern was (کننګم سره دا شوفکر that having spent the money to court the mullahs, it now be ascertain whether or not they were actively engaged in anti-congress propaganda. it is evident two sentences have been translated with a sentence in tt. bt: cunningham thought that the money was distributed among the mullahs in all directions. people were befriended through the mullahs; it is to be known whether or not the mullahs really disseminated propaganda for the british. example 3: english translation of rekhtyia rekhtyia di: a study on category shifts 358 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 st: دا پيرانګي کوشش دا ؤ چې هغه کورونوکښي ځان له ملګري پيدا کړي کومې چې د پيرانګي په خالف جنګيدې . د پيرنګې په خالف په جهاد کښي د فقيراېپې سره سره دوه دری نامتو دېني مشران وو چې يو د مسيدومال پاونده ؤ او دويم په مومند کښي حاجی صيب د تورمزو (تورنګزو) ، او دا د پيرنګي کوشش ؤ چې هر څنګه چې وې دا دواړه مورچې فتح کړي او زما په خيال د هغه د ټولو نه لويه کاميابي هم دا وه چې د دغه شان غازيانو زامن د ځان په خوا او ودروي . pt: dɘ pɪrɘŋgɪ kɔʃɘʃ dɘ wʊ ʧɪ hɘɣɘ kɔrɔnʊ kɪ zɑːlə mɘlgɘrɪ pjɛdɘ krɪ kʊmʊ ʧɪ dɘ pɪrɘŋɪ pɘ χɪlɑːf ʤɘŋgjgɛ pɪrɘŋɪ pɘ χɪlɑːf [ɘ ʤɪhɑːd kɪ dɘ pɘqiːrɑːpɪ sɘrɘ sɘrɘ dwɘ drɛɪ nɑːmɘtʊ mɘʃɘrɑːn wʊ ʧɪ jʊ dɘ mʊlɘ mɘsɪdʊ pɑːwʊndɘ wɔː ɘʊ dwɘjɘm pɘ mʊmɘndʊ kɪ hɘʤɪ sɛɪb dɘ tɔːrmɘzɔː (tʊrɘŋzɔː) ɘʊ dɘ dɘ pɪrɘŋɪ kɔːʃɘʃ ʊ ʧɪ hɜːr sɘŋɘ ʧɪ wɪ dɘ dwɘrɘ mʊrʧɛɪ pɘthɑ kɘrɪ ɘʊ zɘmɘ pɘ χjɑːl dɘ hɘɣɘ dɘ tuːlʊ nɘ lɔːjɘ kɑːmjɑːbɪ hʊm dɘwʊ ʧɪ dɘ dɘɣɘ ʃɑːn ɣɑːzjɑːnʊ zɑːmɘn dɘ zɑːn pɘ χwɘ ɔdrɘwɪ tt: the british strategy was to befriend those families whose heads were involved in the freedom struggle. the two most important persons fighting the jihad against the british were faqir aand mullah pawandah. another crucial link was haji sahib turangzai of mohmand. the british were most interested in ingratiation themselves with these three individuals. and their greatest triumph was to win over the sons of these valiant patriots. mullahs pawandah’s son fazal din and haji turangzai’son padsha gul. the sentence in pashtu consists of eight clauses, meaning there are eight subjects and predicates in a single sentence. this single sentence is shifted to five sentences in tt in the process of translation. bt: the british strategy was to befriend those families whose heads were involved in the freedom struggle; the two most important persons fighting the jihad against the british were faqir aand mullah pawandah; another crucial link was haji sahib turangzai of mohmand; the british were most interested in ingratiatign themselves with these three individuals; and their greatest triumph was to win over the sons of these valiant patriots: mullahs pawandah’s son fazal din and haji turangzai’son padsha gul. interpretation of intra-system shift example 1: st: چې قام ته پته ولګي pt: ʧɪ qɑːm tɘ pɘtɘ wɘlɘɡɪ tt: this will further inform the people. ,is a noun in pashto, meaning a group of people having common racial, ethnic (qɑːm) ”قام“ ideological, and historical features in common. it is not preceded by any article in pashto as in .is translated as ‘the people’, showing definite article (the) in tt (qɑːm) ”قام“ .(qɑːm) ”قام“ bt: this will further inform (pashto) nation. example 2: st: کننګم سره دا شوفکر چې رقم مومونړخو چاپيره په سمه اوغر خور کړو pt: kʌnɪŋgʌm sɘrɘ dɘ fɪkɘr ʃʊ rɘqɘm χʊ mʊŋ ʧɘpɜrɘ pɘ sɘmɘ ɣɘr ɑʊ χʊr krʊ. tt: cunningham’s next concern was that having spent the money to court the mullahs… english translation of rekhtyia rekhtyia di: a study on category shifts 359 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 is a noun not preceded by any article in st. it is translated as the money, which (rɘqɘm) ”رقم“ consists of article (the) and noun (money) in tt. there is a deviation in the usage of article system in the process of translation. bt: cunningham thought that money was spent in all directions. example 3: st: .هلته ي نه ي سوال ځواب وکړو pt: hɘltɘ nɘ jɛ swɑːl ʒwɑːb ʊkrʊ tt: he sent a message. is a phrase used without any article in st. it is translated as ‘a (swɑːl ʒwɑːb) ”سوال ځواب“ message’, showing the use of an article in tt. it follows that english language has a system of articles in which every singular countable noun is preceded by indefinite article. for example: هغه ډاکټردے. (پښتو ) pt: hɘɣɘ dɑːktɘr dɛ (pɘχtʊ) he is a doctor. (english) doctor is used without any article in pashto, whereas the word doctor when being used to describe a profession is preceded by indefinite article. bt: he communicated from over there. example 3: st: پيرنګيان په لندن کښي ويريدل pt: pɪrɘŋjɘn pɑː lɒnɗɘn kɪ wɘjɘrɛdɘl ʧɪ ɖɘ tt: the british were concerned (in london). .is a noun used without any article in st. it is translated as the british in tt (pɪrɘŋjɘn) ”پيرنګيان“ this shows shift in article system. similarly, khaksar, muslim league and congress are translated as the khaksar, the muslim league, and the congress respectively in tt. v. conclusion this study tried to find out category shifts in pashto text rekhtyia rekhtyia di. category shifts refer to a class of translation shifts, signifying deviation from formal correspondence in terms of unit, class, structure and intra-system. this study explored all of the category shifts in the pashto text. examples of all forms of category shift are discussed below. first of all, unit shift is analyzed as follows: st: دې مليانو دهغې پاره په اسالم کښي جواز پيش کولے شو pt: dɛ mʊljɘnʊ dɘ hɘχɛ pɘrɘ pɘ ɪslɘm kɪ ʤɘwɑːz pɛʃ kɘwɑlɛ ʃʊ tt: they rationalized their policies based on a contorted interpretation of islam. ,is a phrase in pashtu, consisting of a group of words (ʤɘwɑːz pɛʃ kɘwɑlɛ ʃʊ ) ”جواز پيش کولے شو“ that is, noun, helping and main verb. this phrase is translated in english translation as rationalized, a word in english. bt: these mullahs could gave justification for their (the british) policies. second, class shifts are analyzed as follows: st: په لندن کښي پيرنګيان ويريدل چۍ د ګاندهۍ جۍ د قامۍ حکومت د جناح صيب په مشرۍ کښي انکارجناح صيب کافي بدنام کړے دے . english translation of rekhtyia rekhtyia di: a study on category shifts 360 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 pt: pɑː lɒnɗɘn kɪ pɪrɘŋjɘn wɘjɘrɛdɘl ʧɪ ɖɘ ɡɑːnɖɪ ʤɪ ɖɘ qɑːmɑɪ hɘkʊmɘt ɖɘ ʤɪnɘ sɑːb pɑː mɘʃɘrɑɪ kɪ kɑːfɪ bɘdnɑːm kɑːræ ɖɛ tt: the british were concerned that having refused ghandhiji’s offer jinnah was becoming very unpopular. is a verb in pashto. it is translated as ‘concerned’, which is an adjective in (wɘjɘrɛdɘl) ”ويريدل“ english. it functions as adjective in tt. verb is shifted to adjective in the process of translation. bt: having refused the offer of ghandhiji by jinnah, the british in london feared that this made jinnah very unpopular. third, structure shifts are analyzed as follows: st: کننګم سره دا شوفکر چې رقم مومونړخو چاپيره په سمه اوغر خور کړو .ملک مو و مليانوپه ذريعه ځان سره ملګرے کړو خو چی پته ولګوو چې دا مليان واقعي د پيرانګي د پاره پروپېګنډه کوي او که نه ؟ pt: kʌnɪŋgʌm sɘrɘ dɘ fɪkɘr ʃʊ rɘqɘm χʊ mʊŋ ʧɘpɜrɘ pɘ sɘmɘ ɣɘr ɑʊ χʊr krʊ. mɘlk mʊ mʊljɑnʊ pɘ zɘrjɘ zɑːn sɘrɘ mɘlgɘrɛ krʊ χʊ ʧɪ pɘtɘ wɘlɘgɘwʊ ʧɪ dɘ mʊljɑːn wɘqijɛ dɘ pɪrɘŋg dɘ pɘrɘ prʊpɘgɘndɘ kɘwɪ ɑw kɘnɘ? tt: cunningham’s next concern was that having spent the money to court the mullahs, it now be ascertained whether or not they were actively engaged in ant-congress propaganda. the two sentences ( ( پروپېګنډه کوي او که نه ؟ )پروپېګنډه کوي او که نه ؟ … (kʌnɪŋgʌm sɘrɘ dɘ fɪkɘr ʃʊ) in st are rendered with one sentence, that is, cunningham’s next concern was (کننګم سره دا شوفکر that having spent the money to court the mullahs, it now be ascertain whether or not they were actively engaged in anti-congress propaganda. it is evident two sentences have been translated with a sentence in tt. bt: cunningham thought that the money was distributed among the mullahs in all directions. people were befriended through the mullahs; it is to be known whether or not the mullahs really disseminated propaganda for the british. fourth, intra-system shifts are analyzed as follows: st: کننګم سره دا شوفکر چې رقم مومونړخو چاپيره په سمه اوغر خور کړو pt: kʌnɪŋgʌm sɘrɘ dɘ fɪkɘr ʃʊ rɘqɘm χʊ mʊŋ ʧɘpɜrɘ pɘ sɘmɘ ɣɘr ɑʊ χʊr krʊ. tt: cunningham’s next concern was that having spent the money to court the mullahs… is a noun not preceded by any article in st. it is translated as the money, which (rɘqɘm) ”رقم“ consists of article (the) and noun (money) in tt. there is a deviation in the usage of article system in the process of translation. bt: cunningham thought that money was spent in all directions. moreover, rekhtyia rekhtyia di can be analyzed through the lens of shifts described by vinay and derbelnet and the deforming tendencies described by antonie berman. furthermore, category shifts can also be applied to other genres of pashto literature, especially poetry. references ahmad, r. (2020). translation from pashto to english: an analysis of deforming tendencies in the english translation of abdul ghani khan’s poetry (unpublished mphil thesis). abdul wali khan university mardan, pakistan. english translation of rekhtyia rekhtyia di: a study on category shifts 361 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 baker, m. (2018). in other words: a coursebook on translation. routledge. boyles, n. (2012). closing in on close reading. retrieved from https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/closing-in-on-close-reading. catford, j.c. (1965). a linguistic theory of translation. london: oxford university press creswell, j.w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed method approaches. nebraska, ne: sage publications inc. fang, y. 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(2014). an analysis of category shifts in the english-bahasa indonesia breaking dawn movie texts (unpublished master thesis). yogyakarta state university, indonesia. khan, k.a.w. (2021). rikhtia rikhtia di. bacha khan research centre. khan, s. (2015). abdul wali khan: a political study (unpublished phd dissertation). iiui, islamabad, pakistan. kumar, r. (2011). research methodology: a step-by-step guide for beginners. california, ca: sage publications inc. munday, j. (2001). introducing translation studies: theories and application. london: routledge. newmark, p. (1981). approaches to translation. new york, ny: pergamon. nida, e.a. (1964). toward a science of translating. leidon: e.j brill. venuti, l. (1995). the translator’s invisibility. london: routledge. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/closing-in-on-close-reading. https://doi.org/10.1080/25723618.2011.12015554. https://doi.org/10.1080/25723618.2011.12015554. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327310947 http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v2n6p97 https://eprints.qut.edu.au/41993/ https://eprints.qut.edu.au/41993/ marketing class consciousness in a passage to india: a marxist analysis 362 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 marketing class consciousness in a passage to india: a marxist analysis yasir khan assistant professor, government graduate college block no. 17 dera ghazi khan, punjab, pakistan. muhammad farooq head department of english, aims layyah affiliated with government college university lahore. muhammad ali m.phil scholar, institute of southern punjab, multan, punjab, pakistan. alinoorbzu@gmail.com abstract the present paper is aimed to analyze the novel a passage to india from the marxist perspective. for the analysis the major theoretical insights have been taken from marxist critics including luckas (1968) and antonio gramci (1988). the analysis is thematic in nature. generally, we see that marxist criticism takes in consideration that the capitalist society is divided into haves and haves not. lucaks (1968) considers that marxist ideology can be extended from mere class conflicts to the class and caste system, gender, and race also. therefore, this analysis has been extended from the simple marxist category of class conflicts to the exploitation of the underdeveloped and developed, colonizer and the colonized, religion as well. gramcian model marxist criticism considers ideology as superstructure and state apparatuses as discursive tools of exploitation. in relation to marxist critique, we see that the relationship of both bourgeoisie and proletariat classes is parallel to the colonizer and colonized in imperialist conditions. at present marxist criticism also includes the slavery as an outcome of socio and economic un-equality. marxist criticism counts religion as a marker of raising class consciousness. it has been found in the study that as the english people and administrative were the men of resources in india. the english had exploited the indians on account of being without resources. in the conclusion, a passage to india as a piece of literature represents the ideological and class-based relations based on economic relations. keywords: marxist ideology, class conflict, class consciousness, religion and race introduction e. m. forster who is a renowned essay writer, literary, social critic, and novelist, has taken into consideration the very emotional deficiency of middle social english class and has marketing class consciousness in a passage to india: a marxist analysis 363 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 vindicated its relation to other social classes in india using wit, symbolism, and irony as literary devices in major fictional works. he achieved a very significant reputation as a literary and historical critic with the publication of his large body of criticism and fiction i.e., novels – a passage to india is one of these distinguished novels. although e.m forster had started writing his novel a passage to india in 1913, which was second year of his first visit to india. foster completed his novel a passage to india on his second visit to india in 1921, at that time he was performing his duties as secretary of maharajahi of dewas stateiithe senior one in india. in this way a lot of mysterious aspects of the country i.e., india and his experiences in dewas which was a foreign land for him. his visit to the indian land basically contributed a lot to develop his dynamic vision which later provided strong material for writing of this novel. while in an interview foster himself admitted this fact that it was really a great opportunity for me to serve in india and while at the same time it was the most daunting experience of my life. it provided me an experience which was diverse in nature and taste. for a writer like me the indian land is full of mysteries and complex relations which are constructed around psychological ties (forster, 1953, 8). furthermore, his close friendship with syed ross masood provided him a very rear opportunity to expand and enlarge his vision. by this close view of the indian life, he was able to have a completely new view of the indian civilization. so, due to these diverse ranging visions and experiences in indian territory, foster developed interest for him for writing such a very distinguished novel. moreover, we can say that india provided a very striking and mysterious background to e.m forster because of which he was able to have had some sort of varied perspective of indian civilization, the clash of different cultures, different synoptic modes of life, people with diverse temperaments and time-honored moral and social and religious values. all these were the things of fascination for the imagination of foster. foster despite being an english man manages the experimentation of these values and culture of the orients as a sophisticated and visionary writer. he provides a very closely controlled, intelligent and an academic uniformity in the novel. mcdowell (1982) contends that there is some sort of proficiency of craft, a solid plan of revealing class conflicts and a full expression of a compound visualizationthe english and the indians. the subtleness of the marketing class consciousness in a passage to india: a marxist analysis 364 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 thought, a close examination of the consequences which result at the end, is an outstanding aura of empire in the indian subcontinent. literature review herz (2012) is of the view that what keeps a passage to india repeatedly reveals the most appealing and charming motives is foster’s attempt to keep the western values at an unharmed and safe state. he keeps on looking through these (western values). while at the same time he does not close his eyes from the non-western social and religious values. so, he simultaneously represents both sides without misunderstanding the one or the other. marxist criticism considers the ideology as a superstructure which dominates the state apparatuses. so, we see that all the social relations basically the manifestation of economic ideological foundations. class consciousness as a construct of political landscapes although the novel a passage to india is not any type of judicial understanding of the social and cultural values of india during the colonial rule of the british times yet it sensibly weighs the evidence on both british and indian sides. so, we see that it has been taken two qualities of contradictory nature in it. the very first charge which is recounted against this novel is that it is some sort of archaic misrepresentation of british colonial perspective. secondly, it is considered as misleading one. it has not properly represented muslim canon of reality. at the same time this novel lacks gandhi’s perspective. (herz, 1993) as a result of the class consciousness the novel attempts to view the concepts of class on account of differential economic relation at the same time presenting the landscapes of spirituality by the symbols of mosques, caves, and temples. in this way he simultaneously maintains the impact of both indian and western intellectual and philosophical quest of class, gender and race among the colonizers and colonized. for the analysis of the novel along with above mentioned constructs, not merely the western values and intellectual quest but indian perspective of philosophical inquiry has been presented from the marxist perspective. this attempts to analyze and attacks the human troubles including race, poverty, age, gender, social alienation and ethnicity’ (wagner, 1994) marketing class consciousness in a passage to india: a marxist analysis 365 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 by intensifying our consideration of a broader outline of geographical and cultural landscapes, we might bring it parallel the marxist point of criticism. for example, marxist critics consider landscapes as some sort of expressions which reveals disproportionate social and economic interaction and relations in the umbrella of capitalism’, (till, 2004). in this way till (2004) associates the marxist perspective with political landscapes of inequality as well. therefore, all sort of landscapes including religious, cultural, and political nature are in conjunction in marxist analysis. another stance which has been developed by famous marxist critics nancy and james duncan with the title post structuralist marxist lens of criticism take into consideration the landscapes as cultural texts which also communicate the political values and discourses. (till, 2004). moreover, landscapes are considered as a parallel to the powers of the state (cosgrove, 1992). there are also a lot of others who consider the national landscapes are founded on interests of the local elites as these landscapes aggravate the concept of nation. furthermore, how do the people of some localities look themselves in relation to the other nations? (olwig, 2002). so, we see that landscapes define themselves as indicators of the prevailing social and cultural relations and political morals. in the same way, foster’s present novel takes the geographic and religious landscapes for example mosque, cave, and temple, all as some sort of wonderful natural outset of a given cultural context of a particular society. so, these exceptional cultural and religious landscapes evolve as representative of prevailing gender, race, class inequalities and spiritually constructed myths. therefore because of these rational grounds, the novel a passage to india can be taken from the perspective of cultural geography representing the concept of class consciousness inherently. data analysis our major concern here is that in which perspective we take gender, class, and religion. on these ground, marxist criticism fallouts in two distinguished approaches. both religious and political approaches take into consideration the landscapes and view that how did these landscapes can create the political spaces of different nature at different scales ranging from the local to that of the global and world systems, the microcosmic category to the macrocosmic order. as a matter of fact, landscapes themselves act as an ingredient of multifaceted processes marketing class consciousness in a passage to india: a marxist analysis 366 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 by which different individuals and the members of different groups may define themselves accordingly and can make their claims and challenges towards a particular political authority as well’ (nash, 1999). so, we see that the novel of the present study displays an imperialist version of civilization. it represents an ideological category which holds a central position in marxist criticism. the dominant political ideology prevalent in the novel is that western political system is superior to the indian political system. same is the case of western culture. the western culture is superior to the indian culture. the religion of the westerns is superior to the indians. race as construct of class consciousness in relation to marxist criticism the model of class and race is essentially taken in two different ways which includes the concept of cultural and geographical analysis as well. the first one i.e., culture is taken as an approach towards life which is predominantly an artifact of the western culture. the western culture has been considered as a culture of superior and civilized people. and the cultural values of the orient culture have been considered as relatively inferior to the western culture. this concept is not new in the western culture rather it is profoundly set in the colonial past of the european ideological constructs. so, we see that marxist ideology divide race into the categories of western and eastern cultures. in this novel forster consciously employs contradictory races in array to reveal the concepts of disparity, inequality, and misconception between two classes of different orientations. but in doing so to it, he overtly presents the characters from hindu, muslim, and the english as representatives of such miscellaneous classes. so, the different characters which foster has taken for his novel are basically the representative of different races. so, the novel through these characters embalms a situation of class consciousness. these characters are respectively (1) godbole, a very mild and a mystical professor at the government college (2) aziz, as a very volatile and perceptive physician in a job by the british civil surgeon; and a display of indians ranged from many anglo officials like colonel turton, major callendar, and ronny heaslop to some sort of a moderate humanist named as cyril fielding who is the principal of government college. moreover, the character of two other ladies of england has been included. the character of adela quested has been introduced to the real india from a feminist marxist perspective. she marketing class consciousness in a passage to india: a marxist analysis 367 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 wants to see what ronny’s is and mrs. moore’sronny’s mother’sperspective of arrange marriage in india. so, where the question of race is concerned forster presents a critical view of hindus, who comparatively abstain from publicly social as well as political discussions at large. however, foster critically evaluates hindus and finds them as the strong supporters and practitioners of caste system which is another form of class consciousness. additionally, we see that the muslims who hold a religious justification that all humans are the sons of adam. there is no one preferred over the other. there is no superiority to the white over blacks and blacks over white. consequently, all men are brothers from religious point of view are on bad terms with one another or dishonored by the other muslims in the indian context. the character of aziz as the representative of muslim in a passage to india is divided psychologically in himself which is the representation of extending binary oppositions i.e., his mind is at the same time credulous and logical, insightful, and rational at once and political and nonpolitical for all the time. the character of aziz is the representative of the muslims in india who were in the state of chaos and disorder. however, the character of aziz can be taken as an intermediary and bridging one between the west and the east as he tries to attempt a very critical role in abridging the tie of friendship between the englishman (fielding) and the indian (himself). but he could not build such as a bridge between two according to his own will. it is impossible for him to make a sense of the western mind which he may perceive. moving from the hindus and muslims to angloindians, it is worthy to notice that both the british and the muslims do not respect the mysteries of india. ronny uses some agonizing expressions in front of his mother about india. mrs. moore says to ronny that your sentiment is like that of a god. even this extraction depicts to what degree the colonizers disrepute the religious beliefs of the local people and treat them as an “other”. basically, this is what laid the basis of class conflict and the situation of class consciousness. on political point, the writer like forster felt more common with the political troubles of british india than that of any other colonized subjects. indians’ aspirations for the sake of marketing class consciousness in a passage to india: a marxist analysis 368 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 independence appeal him directly while on the other grounds his personal democratic views are completely contradictory to opinions of british imperialism. forster provides a wide-ranging fact of the social as well as political situations of the british raj in india. he interprets the things impartially as he never acts as completely a probritish and never as completely a pro-indian. he attempts to have a very wide-ranging picture of the twentieth century british raj in india. foster seems to find out the inequalities which the indian people had to face from the british raj in india. he stresses on the providence of social egalitarianism in indian societal structures. he says that the indian domain can be made more democratic by enduring and establishing some institutions on the base of social equality which may treat the boththe british and the indians equally. but this pedestal of race proved as an element of failure because it was bound to be collapsed soon” (das, 1977, 19-20). so, the human race as a category of class consciousness is primarily divided among two distinguished and separate categories i.e., the colonizers and the colonized. fanon (1963) contends his view as colonialism inherently is a product which divides this world into different discriminatory parts. in indian context the society was divided into two classes’ i.e., the colonizers and the colonized. said (1978) in his seminal work is of the view that colonialism basically is all about to create the europeanized stereotypical which may take the orients as inferior and other in relation to the western world. moreover, the west intrinsically is more tended to put down such people i.e., who is non-european. the europeans also try to govern the others through the manipulative use of language and dissemination of knowledge. so, we see that the colonizers find themselves and the colonized ones on different social scales. consequently, these colonized are scarcely treated equal the colonizers on equal human boards. therefore, these colonized rapidly tend to be in the status of an object and treated as others (memmi, 1974, 8586). likewise, ronny considers the way the british takes indians in capacity of some sort of insignificant issue. this situation leads mrs. moore into a state of disappointment. later we see that he questions his mothermrs. mooreby saying that what sort of a woman you are that you start worrying over unimportant issues. (51). for mrs. moore, his act of saying the indians as an unimportant issue was really agonizing because her ideological conditioning had not been marketing class consciousness in a passage to india: a marxist analysis 369 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 degraded by the colonization the english and their treatment as inhuman beings. in addition, in a futile effort ronny tries to persuade mrs. moore about the fundamental presence of british in india. as, we had an idea that the ultimate agenda of the colonizers in india was to bring out the forefront the utter darkness of the colonized people’ (memmi, 1974). this westernized version of reality lead to the status of class consciousness between the colonizers and the colonized. colonialism basically provides a very site of contact, conflict, and a sense of compromise among different groups within a spatial background. particularly, it provides some sort of contact in the region where different cultures can meet, make a situation of clash and struggle with one another, usually in a very high equal relations of dominance and subordination. however, the propositions of imperialism and colonialism mainly focus on practices such as dominance or power in the perspectives of the colonizer and the colonized. in the case of a passage to india foucault (1977) has rightly suggested that the construct of power is merely not a phenomenon of binary oppositions amid those who are dominant and powerless rather it is more an internalized sense, and it is transformed not only through material elements but also through discursive practices which construct a form of normative category of belonging i.e class, gender, and race. for example, aziz on account of being an indian is not permitted to enter club of english people. this club was more a demarking place of political landscapes which were defined by the inclusion of some people while the exclusion of the other. in foster’s a passage to india, the idea of class and race includes the colonizers and the colonized, the black and the white. if we consider this novel from the perspective of marxist criticism, we see that foster seems successful in depicting the real situation of class consciousness in indian context. lukacs holds the view that class consciousness is not merely a peculiar situation in the society, or slightly, it is only apparent a situation which is portrayed in this novel. construct of class as a category of exploitation from cultural perspective the concept of class refers to the status, an occupation of a group, or the lifestyle of the members of that group. it also includes the patterns of production and consumption without paying a significant concentration to the questions related to ontology. marketing class consciousness in a passage to india: a marxist analysis 370 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the constructs of class are more exploitative in nature. the structured relations that a class usually inherits are lived and experienced ones. so, the concept of class includes the aspects of identity as well which are more regional and historical variables (duncan & legg, 2004, 253). the construct of class takes into consideration the cultural and geographical aspects as well. in case of the novel a passage to india, india has been represented as a very mysterious locale where different classes are structured and have different aspects of identifications. generally, the marxist analysis takes into consideration, the rational and cultural values which are representative of the colonized and powerless in relation to the intellectual values adopted by the colonizers and economic elites. this position formulates some sort of ordered (society divided into classes) universe. the nations which have resources have a different sort of intellectual values while those which are powerless have their own distinguished intellectual values. consequently, such structural division of the society reveals the inequality among those who haves and those who haves not, those who are black and white and those who are civilized and those who are not cultured. for example, although adela quested and mrs. moore both are considerably of diverse interests from one another. mainly their temperaments are different, yet both represents of the western values and thought process. so, we see that both strongly supporters some sort of divided universe. mrs. moore, as a representative of christianity, strongly wishes to have a universe which is dominant by some sort of divine being. her universe is mainly liable for the providence of justice to those who are christians. such a divine force is responsible for eventual reward of human deeds. furthermore, adela is very much skeptical like fielding; in her fundamental religious viewpoint i.e she is very much interested in keeping her mind open towards her religious affairs. although her skepticism remains dominant in the whole novel, yet she never confirms and never denies the existence of a deity. she keeps on believing that these fundamentals of the transcendent world are still sufficient to meet her spiritual demands. in a passage to india overtly it has been represented those colonizers in india have had some sort of a mission that was justified by christianity. if we take into consideration the religion as a parallel to the class, the religion of the whites’ i.e., christianity has been represented superior to the other religions of india. for example, ronny considers that we (the white people) marketing class consciousness in a passage to india: a marxist analysis 371 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 are not the sons of the soil rather some foreigners for india but the sole purpose of our presence in india is to provide justice and maintain the situation of peace in india. further, he says we are not enjoying our lives in india in its occupation rather we are in great difficult situation. he considers that indian territory is not like drawing room for them. about himself ronny says that i am merely a government official. however, we (the english people) are not feeling well in india. similarly, wethe englishalso have no intention in our mind to feel pleasant in india. we are here on a mission. we are here to do something of great importance which is also divinely in nature. (pp. 51-52). this passage clearly purports that the colonialists had some inherent objectives in their mind that these people are here on some divinely duty. while at the same time, these colonial masters wear some sort of masks to hide their identity as imperialist and occupiers. the real intentions of the colonizers are disguised under the shaded realities while on superficial level they are intended to bring knowledge and development to the most uncivilized indians. these colonial masters also exhibit racial, political, and gendered biases for the colonized. aziz reveals the real intention of the colonial masters and mentions what the white people had done for the indians. ‘damn the english even at their best’ (p. 169). let alone establishing a mutual friendship with each other, the colonized have always been intimidated with colonizers. india as depicted in this novel forster himself seems antagonistic to colonizers and criticizes colonizers in their act of occupying foreign lands under imperialist impulse among such countries india is one. we see in the novel that although a lot of attempts had been made by the colonizers (the white english people) to cultivate and tame the wild and uncultured indians, yet it remains a failure from the western perspective. as we see that the ultimate agenda of the english colonizers was to reshape india according the western intellectual and civilization which provided a missionary justification to the imperial power from christian perspective, but all the efforts of the colonizers ended in dust’ (234). although the indians demanded an absolute freedom from the colonizers in every field of life so that they may have a united and free india, yet foster considers that india and the indians will never be able to be a one and united nation. fielding and aziz both represent the long-lasting attitude of the indians towards the phenomenon of colonization in india. for example, aziz is very much marketing class consciousness in a passage to india: a marxist analysis 372 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 hopeful for the establishment of a free and united nation. while on the other hand, fielding is quite hopeless for the establishment of free and united india. so, we see that different persons as representative of different cultural and social backgrounds strengthen the constructs of racism, class, and religion. thus, even an ordinary reader can take the novel a passage to india as a document extending the prevailing conflicts of class consciousness in india. religion as infusing opiuma category of exploitation as we know from the review of the marxist criticism that religion has been considered a very important marker in the class division and exploitation as ‘these [religions] hold a similar at position on human sense of curiosity’ (glacken, 1967: 35). according to marxist perspective sacred places, in essence, are both locally and universally admitted, it cannot mere drive one to the other as divinely quest for power. it also drives someone from consciousness that the persona of god cannot be restricted around a solo locality (lane, 1988, 15). smith (1978) is of the view that such views lead to the state of distinguished orientations i.e., the first one in locative in nature and the second one is utopian in nature. thus, very same representation can be traced in foster’s a passage to india. the english as a class had been represented as a utopian class while on the other hand the hindus and muslims had been represented as local and savage people. in this way, the constructs of class consciousness have been evaded in the novel on account of religious differentiations. as we might not hold a significant consent of the christian outlook as a religion, yet still it seems very much improper to consider that only christianity may talk of buddhists, muslims, jewish and hindus perspectives. as these religious doctrines hold many major as well minor groups which are also common among many other religions of india. so in a passage to india the mosques, caves and temples stand for particular type of religious experiences and a line of spirituality. speaking about the mosque by the character of aziz, e.m forster contends that ‘here is islam and his country. furthermore, there is a faith. in the perspective of forster, temples and caves represent also much more than religious orthodox values of christianity. (allen, 1955). additionally, foster basically craves the features in his novel which are emotional in nature and intellectual in capacity. it enables him to take into consideration religion by marketing class consciousness in a passage to india: a marxist analysis 373 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 formulating his themes of the novel around the mosques, caves and temples. the affecting nature has been represented in the form of aziz’s opinion of life. aziz‘s body and thinking is very much fond of his home. while on the other hand the rational faculty of aziz’s personality is evident “‘there is no god but god, it is only a game with words, really a religious pun, not a religious truth” (307). as the other objective of the present paper is the consideration of the philosophical practice of india, it is noteworthy to elucidate that hinduism as well. it as a religion with followers more than one billion and as being third largest world religion after islam and christianity, includes in it many other various types of the sects, communities, ethnicities and classes like other religions of india. traditionally, temples of hindus are majorly the places of transcendence and divinity’ (michell, 1988). in this way e.m foster incorporates all such elements which are considered as the symbol of good and evil in hindu religion along with the essences of human life in india. hindu’s belief of rebirth (samara) determines the caste system as well. so, the course of rebirth which is named as reincarnation in hindu mythology is without referential beginning and ending. the idea of one, brahman as an absolute human being finds expression in hindu mythology as well. in this way one gets recognition with a broader cosmo universal self i.e brahman. such kind of freedom is named as moksha. these major approaches take into consideration the problems of escaping and the endless cycles of life and death. conclusion to conclude we can say that there is a noticeable class conflict on both theoretical and notional analysis to geography of belief and class consciousness which marxist criticism suggests. marxist critics consider that the economic inequality is an inherent structural pattern of capitalist societies. similarly, cultural and geographical advance in the fictional texts marxist perspective thus raising the category of class consciousness. therefore, the major objective of this paper is to take into consideration the implication of spiritual landscape which reflects different modes of life and different circumstances of the people by taking into consideration the characters which are the representative of the colonizer and the colonized world. so, this paper purports the idea of race, gender, and class consciousness between the colonized and the colonizer. the muslim and mosque; hindu and temple, anglo-indian and marketing class consciousness in a passage to india: a marxist analysis 374 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 caves are implied here systematically to each other in order to show a hierarchy of godly sort. we see that the category of class conflicts is more extended to the exploitation of the underdeveloped and colonized, religion and race as well. in relation to marxist critique the relationship of the bourgeoisie and proletariat is parallel to the colonizer and colonized. at present marxist criticism also includes the slavery as an outcome of economic un-equality. it has been found in the study that as the english people and administrative were the men of resources in india, the exploited the indians on account of being without resources. in the conclusion, a passage to india as a piece of literature represents the ideological and class based relations on the basis of economic relations. references allen, g. o. (1955). structure, symbol, and theme in e.m forster’s a passage to india. america’s new world. madison: university of wisconsin press. companion to cultural geography. usa: blackwell publishing. cosgrove, d. (1992).the palladian landscape. leicester: leicester university press. das, g. k. (1977). e.m. forster’s india. london: macmillan. duncan, n.& legg, s. (2004). social class. in j. s. duncan, n. c. johnson & r. h. schein fanon, f. (1963). the wretched of the earth. paris: présence africaine. forster, e. m. (1922). “reflections in india 1: too late?” the nation and the athenaeum, 30, 614-15. foster.e.m(2002)a passage to india: rosetta books: london. geographies. london &new york: arnold. foucault, m. (1977). discipline and punish: the birth of the prison. london: allen lane. (eds.), a companion to cultural geography. usa: blackwell publishing. al., (eds.), rereading cultural geography. austin: university of texas press. glacken, c. j. (1967). traces on the rhodian shore. berkeley: university of california press. herz, j. s. (1993). a passage to india: nation and narration. usa: twayne publishers. history of religions. leiden: e. j. brill. lane, b. c. (1988). landscapes of the sacred: geography and narrative in american. usa: marketing class consciousness in a passage to india: a marxist analysis 375 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 leicester university press. lukacs.g (1989) the historical novel: london merlin press. mcdowell, f. p. (1982). e.m. forster. boston: twayne publishers. memmi, a. (1974). the colonizer and the colonized. 1965. rpt. london: souvenir press. michell, g. (1988). the hindu temple: an introduction to its meaning and forms. usa: nash, c. (1999). landscapes. in p. cloke, p. crang, & m. goodwin (eds.), introducing human olwig, k. (2002). landscape, nature, and the body politic: from britain’s renaissance to publications of the modern language association of america, 70(5), 934-954. said, e. (1978). orientalism. new york: random house. smith, j. z. (1978). the wobbling pivot. in j. z. smith (ed.), map is not territory: studies in the till,k. e. (2004). political landscapes. in j. s. duncan, n. c. johnson & r. h. schein (eds.), a university of chicago press. wagner, p. l. (1994). foreword: culture and geography: thirty years of advance. in k. e. footeet @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). transitivity analysis of mariam’s character in a thousand splendid suns 137 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 transitivity analysis of mariam’s character in a thousand splendid suns farah rauf government girls high school jamrud, kpk amjad saleem assistant professor, department of english and applied linguistics university of peshawar abstract this study investigates the portrayal of the central character, mariam, in a thousand splendid suns through the framework of transitivity based on halliday’s systemic functional linguistics (sfl). the study has analyzed some important events in mariam’s life such as her childhood, her marital life, and the act of murdering her husband towards the end of the novel. a clause–by-clause analysis reveals that mariam is assigned mental processes more than material, verbal, and relational processes in the beginning of the novel. within mental processes, a majority of the processes are cognitive which illustrate that mariam is a rational person. in contrast, a large number of verbal processes assigned to the mullah, a religious figure, especially on the eve of mariam’s wedding, suggest the influential and controlling role played by the religious/orthodox segments in the afghan society as depicted in the novel. towards the end of the novel, there is a shift in the use of material processes from rasheed to mariam which suggests the transfer of ‘power’ from one to the other, culminating in the murder of rasheed at mariam’s hand. the study shows the transformation of mariam’s character from an ‘innocent’ and docile person into a powerful and empowered woman who takes her fate in her own hands. keywords: transitivity, systemic functional linguistics, systemic functional grammar, process types, participant types, circumstances introduction systemic functional linguistics (sfl) is an approach to the study of language which argues that language is a system of lexical and grammatical choices influenced by the context of use. it is a descriptive and interpretive approach that views language as a ‘strategic, meaning making resource’ (eggins 1994:1) beyond its formal structure (halliday 1985, 1994; matthiessen, 1995; martin & rose, 2003). systemic functional linguistics views language as a ‘social semiotic system’, where the connection between the form and its meaning is socially and culturally determined. according to martin (2016), the descriptive and explanatory quality of grammar as meaning making resource distinguishes sfl theory from other linguistic theories (p.35). in other words, systemic functional linguistics provides researchers with a grammar called systemic functional grammar (sfg) which explains systematically how linguistic features used in a text make meanings in context. systemic functional grammar https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 transitivity analysis of mariam’s character in a thousand splendid suns 138 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 (sfg) offers a variety of tools such as mood, modality and transitivity for linguistic analysis. these tools and resources are employed to describe, analyze and interpret language beyond its formal/abstract structure and focus on the functions of language in social and cultural contexts. the present study uses transitivity as a theoretical framework to investigate the portrayal of mariam in khalid hosseinni’s novel a thousand splendid suns by analyzing the thought processes, feelings, and experiences of the main female character in how she evolves as a person in the course of the novel. this research provides a functional explanation by exploring the transitivity patterns in the description of mariam and offers insights into her character. literature review transitivity has been extensively applied to many literary and non-literary texts. halliday in his seminal work on william goldings’ novel the inheritors (1981) employed transitivity as a framework and opened up a whole new way of linguistic analysis of literary texts. he argues that the transitivity system used in the portrayal of lok shows his limited cognition, and lok comes out a powerless and weak character. burton (1982) used transitivity in her study of sylvia plath’s autobiographical novel the bell jar. she analyzed only one short passage from the feminist point of view by focusing on the character’s experience and her perceptions of electric shocks as form of medical treatment. burton concluded that the transitivity patterns used in the text show unequal power relation between the central character and the other two persons—doctor and nurse. similarly, rashid (2017) analyzed the central character in the novel burnt shadows by kamila shamsie. the novel is about the life of a japanese woman hiroko tanaka, who is a school teacher by profession and survives the nagasaki bombing of 1945. rashid analyses roles played by different participants and their effectuality and non-effectuality in the text from ‘subtexts’ from four different sections of the novel with each section dealing with different context. in other words, the selection of the ‘subtexts’ is based on different contexts found in these four sections of the novel. according to the study, hiroko has been assigned with 65% roles, konrad 4%, sajjad 13%, james 4%, llse 3%, raza 6% and kim has 3% of the roles given. while percentages of transitivity concordances roles remain the same for all the four sections of the novel, the dynamism roles score keep on changing. initially, she comes across a helpless and ineffective being, more of a thinker not a doer; in the last part of analysis, however, she https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 transitivity analysis of mariam’s character in a thousand splendid suns 139 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 emerges as an effective and powerful character who can control the world around her. using the systemic functional grammar, gallardo (2006) investigated the gender related features in bernard shaw’ pygmalion. analyzing the dialogues between eliza and higgins, gallardo discovers that higgins uses material processes very often, where he is the actor and eliza is the goal of his actions. gallardo argues that male characters are more concerned with achieving their aims and promoting their professional life whereas female characters are emotional in their relationships. she concludes that men exercise power in accomplishing routine tasks over women. illustrating the effectiveness of transitivity analysis in teaching english as a second language (esl), cunanan (2011) adapts burton’s approach (1982) and investigates the world view of old mrs. grey in virginia woolf’s essay old mrs. grey. the analysis includes the investigation of different process types and their percentage distribution among the major and minor participants. he found that the essay uses existential processes such as is folded, is lit up, and was gone etc. (35.49%); material processes such as crawl, twisted, and jerked etc., (19.36%); mental processes such as wonders, was looking, and saw etc. (15.08%); and verbal processes (such as says, mumble and pray etc.(15.05%). using halliday’s theory of transitivity, nguyen (2012) studied the main character in a short story ‘heroic mother’ by hoa pham, an australian vietnamese writer. nguyen believes that the heroic mother is a lonely and sad person who has no strong ties with her family members. while she is considered lunatic by other, she professes that she is not crazy but posed insanity during war time. the above review is representative of the application of transitivity to some literary texts. taking findings from published literature into account, the present research focuses on investigating the transformation of the central female character in the novel a thousand splendid suns and offers an explanation by exploring the transitivity patterns in the description of the character of mariam. methodology and framework the analysis is carried out by using a three-step procedure of transitivity framed by burton (1982) in her study of the bell jar. the procedure is as follows: a) isolating the processes from their participants. b) sorting out the different types of processes and finding the participants involved in each type of process. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 transitivity analysis of mariam’s character in a thousand splendid suns 140 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 c) setting apart who or what is affected by each process type. following burton, the present study identifies and sorts out all the processes used in the description of mariam, explains their functions at length, and shows ‘who affects whom or what’ in the clause system used in the text. in other words, the study of the roles of participants in how they affect the environment or other participants involved, is central to the present analysis. unlike burton’s model, however, which deals with the main process types only, such as material, mental and relational, this study uses all six types of processes categorized by halliday (1994): they are: material, mental, relational, verbal, existential, and behavioral. this research thus adopts an eclectic approach i.e. the combination of different approaches by using halliday’s six processes along with burton’s additional classification of processes in her threestep model of transitivity for achieving the objectives of the present study. a clause is the point of departure in the transitivity analysis of a text. halliday (2004) defines clause as the central processing unit in the lexicogrammar – in the sense that it is in the clause that meanings of different kinds are mapped into an integrated grammatical structure (p.10). since the present study analyzes all the clauses used in the portrayal of mariam for the study of transitivity patterns, the analysis will be limited to the discussion of the roles of participants and processes used. selection of the text for the analysis is based on critical and decisive phases in mariam’s life as described in the novel. these phases are divided into sections for better analysis. the first section is labeled as ‘mariam’s childhood’ because it deals with mariam’s early life when she was only five years old and had no sense of the word harami—a word often used to refer to her illegitimate birth. an extract of thirteen lines from chapter 1 is selected which sets the stage for plot of the novel and describes the characters of mariam as a child. the second section is called ‘mariam’s marriage ceremony’ and is concerned with one of the significant events in mariam’s life where she was forced to marry a man whom she meets for the first time. two extracts of nineteen lines and six lines respectively from chapter 8 of the novel are chosen for the analysis of transitivity structure. the third section entitled ‘mariam’s marital life’ analyses three extracts of fourteen lines from chapter 10, twelve lines from chapter 13 and sixteen lines from chapter 15, respectively. these extracts portray mariam’s life as a married person and her role as a wife. the fourth section labeled ‘mariam’s final decision’ explores the evolution and development of mariam’s personality towards the end of the novel. an extract of thirty-two https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 transitivity analysis of mariam’s character in a thousand splendid suns 141 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 lines, dealing with how mariam murders rasheed in defending laila, from chapter 45 is selected for transitivity analysis. the traditional notion of transitivity in english syntax is concerned with the verb followed by its object in a sentence. using the same concept, halliday (1994) has elaborated and added to the system of transitivity expanding it to a clause and its meaning. in halliday’s system, the subject in a clause performs many roles such as that of an actor, senser, carrier of an attribute, token, sayer, and behaver, etc. a clause thus represents the experiences; doings, happenings, feelings, thoughts and other ‘goings-on’ in ones ‘mind and the outside world. transitivity is a very useful and productive tool for researcher that provides them with a means to realize the experiences embedded in the structure of a clause. halliday (1985) defines transitivity as follows: a fundamental property of language is that it enables human beings to build a mental picture of reality, to make sense of their experience of what goes on around them and inside them. …our most powerful conception of reality is that it consists of “goingson”: of doing, happening, feeling, and being. these goings-on are sorted out in the semantic system of language and expressed through the grammar of the clause… this… is the system of transitivity. transitivity specifies the different types of processes that are recognized in the language and the structures by which they are expressed. (p.101) elaborating on the same concept, hassan (1988) reasons that transivity is concerned with the coding of the goings on: who does what in relation to whom/what, where, when how and why (p.63). transitivity uncovers certain mind-sets or ideologies invested in a text. likewise, simpson (1993) asserts that transitivity generally refers to how meanings are represented in the clause (p.88). berry (1975) describes the transitivity choices in the following words: in english grammar, we make choices between different types of process, between different types of participants, between different types of circumstances, between different roles of participants and circumstances, between different ways of combining processes, participants and circumstances. these choices are known collectively as the transitivity choices. (p.150) https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 transitivity analysis of mariam’s character in a thousand splendid suns 142 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 a clause, according to transitivity theory, has three parts: participants, processes and circumstances. participants are usually realized by nominal groups, processes by verbal groups and circumstance by prepositional or adverbial groups. the role of participants in a clause is determined by the choice of processes in it, making a process type as an integral part of the analysis (see the table below). halliday (1976) describes processes as “anything that can be expressed by a verb: event, whether physical or not, state, or relation” (p.159). process participants examples material actor, goal she (actor) kicks (material process) the ball (goal). mental senser, phenomenon she (senser) thought (mental process) of her baby (phenomenon). relational carrier and attribute, token and value a. she (carrier) is (relational process) good (attribute). b. he (token) is (relational process) a doctor (value). behavioral behaver he (behaver) coughed (behavioral process). verbal sayer, receiver, verbiage she (sayer) asked (verbal process) me (receiver) some questions (verbiage). existential existent there are (existential process) flowers (existent) in the garden. table 1: process type and the accompanying participants the main purpose of the present study is to decipher the experiential meanings and authorial ideology that underpins the description of mariam, using transitivity as a tool of analysis. analysis mariam’s childhood there is a total of 21 clauses in the text about mariam’s childhood, out of which 13 use mental processes, 3 make use of relational processes, 4 have employed verbal processes and only one clause has used a material process. out of 13 clauses of mental processes, eight are cognitive processes such as understand, know, surmise, three are processes of perception e.g., see and two clauses have used the processes of affection i.e. appreciate and feel. a large of number of mental processes suggests that mariam’s faculty of cognition is well developed as compared to her other mental faculties such as perception and affection. mariam is assigned no verbal processed and she is portrayed as a quiet and introvert person who does not give expression to her thoughts. the three relational processes used in the portrayal of mariam represent the qualities and attributes of the character: old and older, for example, are used for mariam and describes mariam’s age and her identity with respect to her society. since mariam has not been given the role of an actor in the text, no significant action is performed by her which shows her as someone physically inactive and not in control of what goes around her. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 transitivity analysis of mariam’s character in a thousand splendid suns 143 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 mariam’s wedding ceremony there is a total of 37 clauses, out of which 13 clauses have used verbal processes, 9 are of material processes, 8 are behavioral, 3 mental, 3 relational, and only one clause has employed the existential process. the analysis shows that the number of verbal processes used is large as compared to the rest of the processes. out of the 13 verbal processes, the role of the sayer is performed 9 times by the mullah, whereas mariam, rasheed, and jalil perform the role of the sayer only once each. such an extended role for the mullah as the sayer indicates the power and clout he carries in the afghan society as depicted in the novel. the material processes used in 9 clauses are: gave, reached out, flicked, exchanged, fished, tried, help and forcing. all these processes are material intentional processes i.e., the actions are performed with the intention of the actor. most of the material intentional processes are given either to rasheed or to other participants but not to mariam. the absence of material intentional processes in the case of mariam shows how she might have been forced into marriage with rasheed without her consent. as far as relational processes are concerned, there are three relational processes which are attributive in nature. rasheed’s body parts (nails) are carriers two times in clauses of the attributes yellow-brown, curling, lifting respectively. on the other hand, we can see that mariam’s finger band is a carrier of an attribute little tight. the negative attributes assigned to rasheed’s nails reveal him as a careless and rough man. likewise, the negative attribute assigned to mariam’s finger band gifted to her by rasheed anticipates the hardships mariam will face at the hands of rasheed. the mental processes used in 3 clauses are reminded, feel, and sense and mariam is the senser in all them. the phenomenon of the sound of dry leaves crushed underfoot in clause 7 has an unwelcome connotation which indicates the nature of marriage between mariam and rasheed. given very few material processes are used for mariam, her role as an actor in the text is limited. in one of the clauses, the goal of her action is band which is an inanimate thing, suggesting that mariam is incapable of influencing her environment except insignificant things such as a band. in the same clause, rasheed is an actor and the goal is mariam herself showing how patriarchy works in afghan society where men think of women as weak and timid creatures who cannot do anything without a man’s help. mariam’s marital life https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 transitivity analysis of mariam’s character in a thousand splendid suns 144 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 out of the 71 clauses in the text selected for the analysis, 47 are clauses of material processes, 13 are mental, and 9 are relational. behavioral and existential processes have appeared once each. the material processes used in clauses are unpacked, drew, washed, kneading, folding, swept, cut, wrapped etc. the actions washed, swept and set in these clauses are used in relation to home chores. some material processes used in clauses such as left, shed, dragged, sat, flipped, slurping are used to refer to activities either outside home or work at home. mariam is given the principal role of an actor in these actions. she is the initiator of all the actions done by her where the goals are her clothes, a pail of water, the cobwebs, a knife, some carrots, fresh dough etc. these goals are related to the household chores and shows how mariam’s world is confined to domestic activities highlighting the process of her domestication. among the mental processes, 6 are perceptive such as shown, listened, see etc., five are cognitive i.e. thought, think, know, and wondered and only two are affective processes e.g., dreaded and infuriate. the role of senser is assigned to mariam in 9 clauses with the baby and rasheed’s bad behavior as phenomena. this indicates how mariam is subjected to domestic and emotional violence by her husband. as for as the relational processes, six are attributive relational processes whereas three are relational identifying processes. the words nothing and burden are attributes and are used for the carrier she i.e., mariam. the negative attribute burden appears two times for mariam which indicates the intensity of the toxic relationship between mariam and rasheed, and how mariam is looked down upon by her husband. mariam’s final decision towards the end of the novel mariam takes an extreme step and decides to kill her husband. a total of 44 clauses related to mariam’s decision and act of murdering her husband are selected for analysis. there are 30 material processes, 19 mental, and 2 relational and verbal processes each. mariam is assigned the role of the actor in 14 clauses, where she is the initiator of almost all the actions taking place with rasheed as the goal in several clauses. on other hand, when rasheed is the actor, his own body parts such as head, the keys, his gun and zalmai are the goals. there is not a single clause where mariam is the goal of his actions. rasheed, in this part of the novel, emerges as a passive participant whose role as an actor is very limited and is rather the goal of mariam’s actions in the entire text. the analysis reveals significant https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 transitivity analysis of mariam’s character in a thousand splendid suns 145 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 changes in the character of mariam: she emerges as a dominant and dynamic character in the text. mariam is the main participant of mental processes used. she is given the role of a senser in 16 clauses, whereas rasheed performs the role of senser in 3 clauses. the clauses assigned to rasheed are all mental perceptive processes the phenomenon of which is either mariam, or he himself. he is not assigned cognitive processes which indicate his limited faculty of cognition and understanding as opposed to mariam who emerges as a person of clear understanding and power of decision making. in the two verbal processes used here, mariam is the sayer. her voice is loud and clear in this text now while rasheed’s voice is absent. this shows the development of mariam as an expressive person who finds her voice and gives vent to her thoughts towards the end of novel. discussion and conclusion this study aimed at investigating transitivity patterns in exploring the character of mariam as portrayed in a thousand splendid suns. the use of a large number of mental processes in depicting the character of mariam shows the cognitive ability of mariam and the rational side of her personality. her murdering of rasheed is shown to be the result of her rational thinking: she kills him to free herself from lifelong sufferings inflicted on her by patriarchy as symbolized by rashid. mariam is someone who thinks and finally uses her rational faculty and decides to take matters in her own hand. this is in contrast to how rasheed is portrayed: assigned with only few processes of cognition, rashid’s character is marked by ego and anger which does not allow him to think rationally and he comes out as a lop-sided and imbalanced character. there is an obvious shift in the use of a greater number of material and verbal processes for mariam towards the end of the novel: mariam is finally in possession of her voice which materializes into actions culminating in the death of rashid. mariam’s stigmatized and marginalized status because of her illegitimate birth and her gender is over and she becomes the symbol of woman empowerment in the novel. she challenges the established norms of her society and carves an individualistic identity for herself. the use of a large number of material processes for mariam towards the end of novel shows the shift in the power dynamics. in the beginning of the novel, the control and power was in the hands of men, however, it is transferred to women towards the end of novel. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 transitivity analysis of mariam’s character in a thousand splendid suns 146 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 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(1993). language, ideology and point of view. london: routledge. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.334 http://www.isfla.org/systemics/print/theses/rashid-ms-2017.pdf loss of meanings of cultural metaphors: 170 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 loss of meanings of cultural metaphors: an analysis of taufiq rafat’s translation of bulleh shah’s punjabi poetry sanna asghar ph.d. scholar (linguistics) department of english language and literature university of lahore, lahore sannaasghar@yahoo.com abstract language encompasses the whole native culture and social norms and traditions but the translation from one language to another changes the context and sometimes meanings as well. the translators feel difficulties in finding word equivalences. sometimes the equivalence of the words of one culture does not exist in the other culture which creates difficulties in translation to convey the complete message. there are so many issues while translating the punjabi language into english. there are so many metaphors in punjabi which do not have words equivalence in the english language. the research project aimed to trace out the loss of the meanings and context while translating punjabi poetry into english. many punjabi sufi writers have projected the colors of punjabi in different forms and contexts but bulleh shah has a very unique style. two poems of bulleh shah translated by taufiq rafat were under examination. this was a purely qualitative research where data has been collected from books, libraries, and research journals. textual analysis has been used as a research method to analyze the data. the findings revealed that punjabi poetry has distinct metaphors that represent punjabi culture, but when translated into english the original meaning is lost. keywords: cultural metaphors, translation, punjabi bulleh shah poetry, context introduction a cultural metaphor is a significant phenomenon in a community with which most people identify cognitively or emotionally and through which the national culture can be represented in detail (gannon, et al., 2005). st. clair (2002) is of the view that metaphors are used for representing different cultures. punjabi poetry is replete with cultural metaphors. after india’s partition, the punjabi language was not given any government support that was necessary for the spread and development of a language (riaz, 2011). punjabis are the largest group in pakistan. about 125 million people worldwide have punjabi as their mother tongue. the provincial language of punjab is punjabi (manan & david, 2014). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 loss of meanings of cultural metaphors: 171 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 abdullah shah alias bulleh shah was born in 1680 in uch, punjab, and he died in kasur, punjab, in 1757. he is considered an esteemed sufi poet of punjab. a revered sufi saint, bulleh shah is known for his remarkable mystical poetry. he is still popular amongst those who like punjabi poetry (waqar, 2009). he followed the sufi tradition produced by poets like shah hussain and sultan bahu of punjabi poetry. kafi is a popular genre of punjabi poetry, and he makes use of this genre. bulleh shah’s poetry is very rich in form and material. he has written poems both in punjabi and saraiki languages (ahmed, 2017). his poetry condemns the orthodoxy islamic ideology of his times. his poetry was a symbol of hope and harmony in times of tumult for the people of punjab. his writing portrays him as a humanist, someone who proposes solutions to the world's sociological issues around him (sharma, n.d.). his poetry highlights his spiritual, mystical journey through the four phases of sufism (sattar, 2016). brown (2016) proclaimed translating poetry into different languages to make it universal, proposing certain requirements to be maintained. thus, through the means of translation, a poet may gain popularity. likewise, the mystical poetry of bulleh shah is popular among all those seeking divine love. the english translation of the poetry of bulleh shah helped the spiritual message reach all. many translators have translated his poetry, but among the most famous are english translations written by taufiq rafat, reynold alleyne nicholson, and paul smith. the question that occurs is whether the translation retains the original poem's meaning or not. when translated into some other language, the essence of the punjabi poem needs to be preserved (rahman & sami, 2015). translations of bulleh shah, however, are often criticized for being merely easy generalizations because the complexity of the linguistic expressions of punjabi used by bulleh shah in the translated version of his poems may not be balanced (kiran, 2018). poetry translation is a difficult task. to produce a good translation of a poem requires time, experience, and mental effort. poetry is part of the cultural heritage of every nation, and the essence of the poem is often lost during translation (translating poetry. what are the main challenges? 2016). cultural metaphors used in poetry are difficult to translate from one https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 loss of meanings of cultural metaphors: 172 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 language to another. sometimes while translating, the meaning is skewed in most instances when attempting to rhyme the verses. it is difficult to translate the poetic works of poets such as bulleh shah since the literal sense of mystical poetry is entirely different from the symbolic meaning that is intended to be expressed. punjabi verse, when translated into english, could lead to the loss of the beauty of the real message (singh, 2017). in pakistan, taufiq rafat is considered a distinguished poet and is remembered for his excellent poetic work. he is known as pakistan's ezra pound (zubair, 2020). he was a writer of novels, a translator, and a poet. he was born in 1927 in sialkot. he was the one who initially promoted the idea of our native identity, which must be expressed in the works of writers from pakistan (zubair, 2020). he is valued for portraying pakistani culture in a distinctive way that is worth cherishing (hayat, 2016). he has translated the poems of bulleh shah into english (rafat, 2014). research questions 1) how are the meanings of cultural metaphors lost during the translation of bulleh shah’s poetry done by taufiq rafat? 2) what are the reasons for the loss of meanings of bulleh shah’s poetry during translation and the result of translation? research objectives • to find out how the meanings of cultural metaphors are lost during the translation of bulley shah’s poetry done by taufiq rafat. • to find out the reasons for the loss of meanings of bulleh shah’s poetry during translation and the result of translation. aims this research project aims to highlight that during the translation of bulleh shah’s poems into english, the cultural metaphors used in his poems lose their meanings when they are translated into english. it will also help to highlight the reasons for the loss of meanings in bulleh shah’s poetry during translation. significance of the study this research work is substantial in the field of translation studies. it will help to trace out the loss of the meanings and context while translating punjabi poetry into english. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 loss of meanings of cultural metaphors: 173 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 researchers have done pragma-stylistic and meta-function analyses of some of bulleh shah’s poems, but no research has been done on how cultural metaphors used in bulleh shah’s poems lose their meaning when translated into english. literature review one of the most significant elements of the literary form that must be perfected is the use of metaphor in poetry. metaphors are used in any language to express individuals' thoughts, feelings, and emotions. metaphors used in poetry provide a figurative sense to the literal language. cultural metaphors are used to represent individuals belonging to a specific culture. these individuals share the same views, customs, philosophies, morals, or values. an example of a cultural metaphor would be people belonging to the same culture, who engage in a specific event, activity, etc. that reflects their culture (gannon, 2008). these are peculiar to a specific culture. poetry translation is thought of as one of the most complex kinds of translation. poetry is hard to translate than other forms of translation due to its particularity (tisgam, 2014). jakobson (1966) is of the view that poetry cannot be translated. it is not easy to translate any form of poetry from one language to another. poetry translation is not easy. unless and until you have adequate knowledge of the cultures of both the source language and the target language, it is impossible to translate poetry. a translator might encounter problems in translating poems of languages that have entirely different cultures, such as translating from punjabi into english. the challenge of translating metaphorical phrases to another language is one of the most daunting tasks a translator faces. one should emphasize that maintaining and reproducing the poetic effects is considered a major challenge for translators in translating poetry (safarnejad, et al, 2014). poetry translation is more difficult than prose translation because poetry focuses more on its musical content and poetic nature, while prose focuses more on meaning. while translating poetry the hidden message and the emotions should be portrayed in the source language in the same manner as it has been in the target language (tisgam, 2014). when translating a piece of poetry from a source language to a target language, it loses its essence because the language used in the poem is replete with cultural metaphors whose equivalent https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 loss of meanings of cultural metaphors: 174 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 cannot be found in the target language. the concepts of poetry are heavily imbued with feelings and emotions expressed through a specific culture represented by the metaphorical language (nayyar, 2018). bulleh shah is an esteemed punjabi sufi poet. the people of his times considered him a light of hope and peace. he has written kafis that are poems on divine attributes and spiritual beliefs. in his poems, he has discussed the complex issues of life in his times. the core of his teachings was the search for self-discovery. the central theme that is reflected in bulley shah’s poetry is not just restricted to love for god but he also portrays his love for humanity through his poetry, he was also a humanist and that is also reflected in his poems. bulleh shah refused to be affiliated with a specific cast, religious orthodoxy, or culture. bulleh shah, in his poetry, emphasized caring for god's creation and did not discriminate based on caste. his elevated spiritual attainments have made the poetry of bulleh shah very popular in every culture (khan, 2013). bulleh shah in the poem “bullah! ke jaana main kon” has depicted the relationship between god and man. he is contemplating the origins of humanity by utilizing his self as a metaphor. in his search, he challenges the emergence of humans on earth by concluding that one can never comprehend the laws of nature and one's place in this world (zafar, 2013). punjabi sufi poets always compared their love for god with that of a woman because the devotion of a woman to her beloved is incomparable. this is the reason that bulleh shah wrote “main ranjha ranjha kardi hun, main ape ranjha hoyi”. in this poem he implies the word ‘heer’ for god to whom he refers to as his beloved (in sufism there is a woman, behind every voice, 2014). bulleh shah a selection” written by taufiq rafat was first published in 1982. rafat is considered one of the best pakistani poets who wrote in english. he has translated seventy-one poems of bulley shah into english. in his book, the original punjabi poems are given along with the translated version. he has tried to communicate the poem's spiritual essence but in some of the poems that he has translated of bulley shah, the meaning gets lost (kaur, n.d.). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 loss of meanings of cultural metaphors: 175 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 bulleh shah’s kafis have been sung by contemporary singers which shows his popularity in modern times. safarnejad, abdullah & awal (2014) conducted a study to find out how cultural metaphors were translated. the two languages under investigation in this study were persian and english. this research studied the emotive metaphoric concepts and their prevailing styles in english and persian. the emotions that were studied are metaphorical expressions of happiness and sadness. these have been taken from two source texts and their equivalent target texts. in the findings, it was found out that there are many cultural similarities and dissimilarities among the emotive metaphors in persian and english. tisgam (2014) studied whether it is possible or not possible to translate poetry. in this study, the researcher has presented the view of numerous expertise in the domain of translation studies whether poetry can be easily translated into another language or not. this study has also highlighted the problems faced while translating poetry. in this study, an assessment model has been selected to show that it is not possible to translate poetry. the results of this study show that poetry translation poses a real challenge and it is difficult to translate poetry from a source text to a target text. the question asked in the title whether it is possible or not possible to translate poetry has not been answered by the researcher. avais et al. (2018) did a meta-function analysis on bulleh shah’s kafi “ranjha ranjha kardi hun mein apey ranjha hoi”. in this research, a thematic analysis has been done of the poem. this study highlights that each clause of the poem contains multiple meanings for interpretation. this study has revealed the metafunctions of the kaafi. shafiq (2019) did a pragma-stylistic analysis of the translated version of bulleh shah’s poem “illmon bus kren o-yaar”. in this study, the researcher wanted to find out the differences between the two english translations of one of bulleh shah’s poems. it was qualitative research. the pragma-stylistic approach has been utilized to find out the different stylistic devices used in the two english translated versions of the poem. the translations of bulleh shah’s poem by r.a. nicholson and taufiq rafat were selected and a comparison was drawn between the two poems using the pragma-stylistic approach. the findings reveal https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 loss of meanings of cultural metaphors: 176 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 that rafat has done a sense-for sense translation of the poem whereas nicholson has done a word-for-word translation of the poem. a thorough analysis of the translated versions reveals that there was dissimilarity between the two translations. an extensive literature survey suggests that no research has been done on how during the translation of bulleh shah’s poems into english, the cultural metaphors used in his poems lose their meanings when they are translated into english. therefore, it is of relevance to research to trace out the loss of the meanings and context while translating punjabi poetry into english. methodology research design it was purely qualitative research. textual analysis has been used for analyzing the data. it was a descriptive and interpretative analysis. for different research methods used to define, analyze, and understand texts, textual analysis is a broad concept. from its literal sense to the subtext, symbolism, perceptions, and beliefs it reveals, all sorts of knowledge can be gleaned from a text (caulfield, 2020). the rationale for using textual analysis is that it helped in an in-depth analysis of the poems under consideration. the textual analysis emphasizes the intentionally constructed elements of a text, for example, rhyme and meter in a poem. the goal of researcher was to understand and clarify how these elements relate to the meaning of the texts being investigated (caulfield, 2020). theoretical framework nord’s (1991) model of text analysis in translation has been used as the theoretical framework for this study. data collection it was a text-based study. two poems of bulleh shah “ranjha ranjha kar di” and “bullah ke jaana main kon” were selected along with the english translations of these poems by taufiq rafat and were analyzed to find out how the meanings of cultural metaphors are lost during translation. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 loss of meanings of cultural metaphors: 177 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 data analysis textual analysis has been employed to find out how the cultural metaphors used in bulleh shah’s poems lose their essence when they are translated into english. the first poem that has been analyzed is bulleh shah’s kafi “ranjha ranjha kar di”. the title ‘ranjha ranjha kar di’, has been translated as ‘the transformation’ by taufiq rafat. in the title, taufiq rafat is implying that bulleh shah’s love for the divine lord has made his earthly love superfluous. while translating the title from the source language that is punjabi, into the target language english, sense-for-sense translation has been used. in the first verse of the original version, ‘ranjha’ has been used metaphorically in portraying ranjha as the stronger personality that has overtaken heer. in the first line of the verse of the original poem, bulleh has nowhere mentioned crying, whereas in the translated version taufiq rafat writes “i cried till only ranjha is there”. rafat has distorted the original essence of the first line. bulleh has used the metaphor ‘dheedo ranjha’ in the first verse, whereas rafat in the english translation of the stanza has completely omitted the metaphorical expression ‘dheedo ranjha’. it is not easy to find the exact linguistic equivalent for metaphors in a culturally different language from punjabi. punjabi and english are two culturally different languages. in the second verse. bulleh is talking about the spiritual oneness which he conveys through the line: “ranjha main wich, main ranjhe wich, gair khial na koi’” which means that “ranjha lives in my heart and my heart lives in ranjha”, whereas, rafat translation of the line is ambiguous and the meaning of the spiritual oneness has lost its depth. in the second line of this verse, rafat has completely changed the meaning of the line “mein nahin oh aap he, apni aap kare diljoii”. he has used the word ‘expunged’ which has completely changed the meaning of the line as compared to the original poem. he has completely ignored the metaphor ‘diljoii’ in his translation. in the first line of the third verse of the source text by bulleh shah the metaphorical phrase ‘andar wasse’ alludes to the inner self. here, rafat has also expressed the same meaning by translating it as “since he is inside me, he is all that exists”. in the following line: “jis dey naal mein nunh lgaya, aoho jesi hoyi” the term metaphor ‘nunh’ refers to the inner https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 loss of meanings of cultural metaphors: 178 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 eye that links godly love versus earthly love. this further reflects his devotion towards his beloved that is god. rafat on the other hand has not used the metaphor ‘nunh’ and has not emphasized spiritual love. in the fourth verse, of the source text, bulleh has used the metaphors ‘chitti chadar’, ‘kurye’, and ‘loyi’. ‘chitti chadar’ denotes white sheet, ‘kuriye’ stands for maiden and ‘loyi’ refers to the cape worn by a faqeer. these metaphors are used to transform a maiden in a white sheet to wearing a faqeer cape. while rafat has changed the meaning of the cultural metaphors by not including them in the translated english version of the poem. in the original version sin versus virtue has been shown using these metaphors. in the second line of the fourth verse “chitti chadar dagh lakesi, loyi dagh na koi”, ‘chitti chaddar’ and ‘loyi’ have been used metaphorically, whereas rafat has simply shown that white dress can be easily stained. in the last verse “takht hazara le chal bulleya salein miley na koi”, ‘takht hazara’ has been used metaphorically. here bulley is showing his desire to visit takht hazara where he has not been for ages, whereas, rafat has lost the complete essence of the word ‘salein’ and has translated it as ‘sial’. here, ‘sial’ has been translated as a place instead of time. the above analysis of the poem reveals that rafat has done a sense-for-translation of the poem. rafat has tried to maintain the rhyme scheme of the poem but this has resulted in the poem losing its original essence and context. the second poem that has been analyzed is bulleh shah’s kafi “bullah ke jaana main kon”. in this poem bulleh shah is talking about his spiritual desire. in his poem the central theme "bhulleya ki jaana main kaon, ki jaana main koan" is being repeated in each verse. this poem talks about the spiritual path towards self-enlightenment of the poet. the poet distances himself from all worldly desires during his journey leading towards god. the poem starts with the verse: “chal bhulleya, chal oathay chaliay, jithay saray annaiy na koi saadi zaat pachaanay https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 loss of meanings of cultural metaphors: 179 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 ten aa koi saanu mannay” (severus, 2015). the missing verse highlights bulleh’s search for enlightenment. taufiq rafat has omitted this verse in the source text as well as the target text. the title “bullah! ke jaana main kon” emphasizes the metaphor ‘bullah’ who is searching for his identity. rafat, in the english translation of the poem, has omitted the metaphor ‘bullah’. the title in his english translation ‘does anyone know?’ is too vague and loses the context in which the punjabi title has been written. the line “bullah! ke jaana main kon?” is the main theme of the poem. the poem starts with the line “bullah! ke jaana main kon”, and each verse also begins with this line. constant repetition of this line reflects bulleh’s loss of identity. in the first verse of the poem ‘bullah’ has been used as a metaphor, it questions the identity of bulleh, whereas rafat in the english translation has omitted the metaphor ‘bullah’ which has resulted in the essence of the first line being lost and the meaning is changed. in line 2 of the first verse of the source text, the metaphor ‘momin’ depicts a believer in a mosque. in line 3 the metaphor ‘kufar’ symbolizes idol worshippers. rafat while translating the lines “na maen momin vich maseet hain na maen vich kufar diya reet aan” has not mentioned the word ‘maen’. bulleh’s quest for god is not seen in the translated lines. in the fourth line of the verse, the metaphors ‘pakaan’ symbolizes purity and ‘paleetaan’ symbolizes impure and in line five of the same verse, the metaphors ‘moosa’ depicts the good and ‘pharaun’ the bad. in these lines, the meaning depicted by rafat is the same as the source text (punjabi). rafat has not emphasized the metaphor ‘bullah’ and therefore losing the connectivity between bulleh and his quest to identify himself. in the second verse of the kafi, the metaphors ‘paleeti’ ‘paaki’ symbolize filthy and pure and in the third line the metaphors ‘shadi’ and ‘ghamnaaki’ are a symbol of happiness and sorrow. rafat has done a sense-for-sense, free translation of the first two lines of the verse as; https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 loss of meanings of cultural metaphors: 180 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 “what is good, what badness? what is mirth, what sadness?” (rafat, 2014) in lines 4 and 5 of the second verse, bulleh uses the metaphors, ‘aabi’, ‘khaki’, ‘aatish’, and ‘paun’ to symbolize water, earth, fire, and winds. here, rafat has done a wordfor-word translation of these lines. in lines 2 and 3 of the third verse, the metaphor ‘mazhab’ represents religion, the metaphors ‘aadam’ and ‘havva’ symbolize the origin of mankind. rafat on the other hand while translating the metaphors into english has misinterpreted the context in which these have been used in punjabi and changed the context of the lines as: “i refuse to believe. who was adam? who eve?’ (rafat, 2014). in the last verse ‘aap’, ‘dooja’, ‘maethon’ and ‘bullah’ have been used as metaphors. here ‘aap’ refers to the supreme being, ‘dooja’ symbolizes the oneness of god. rafat in the translated lines is indirectly conveying the same meaning regarding the oneness of god. in the source text, bulleh is using the metaphors ‘mathon’ and ‘bullah’ as self-praise for himself for being wise. the wisdom of bulleh differentiates him from the rest of mankind. rafat has distorted the meaning of lines 3 and 4 by translating them into a different context. rafat has not mentioned the metaphor ‘bullah’ at all in his translation of the poem. therefore, losing the importance of the essence of the metaphor ‘bullah’ in the kafi. the analysis of the poems has shown that punjabi has its metaphors that represent punjabi culture but when translated into english they lose their original meaning and the context is changed. conclusion this research analyzes two poems of bulleh shah “ranjha ranjha kar di” and “bullah ke jaana main kaun” along with the english translation by taufiq rafat. the findings highlight that punjabi has its cultural metaphors, but when translated into english these metaphors lose their meaning. the findings also reveal that the essence of the original poems is lost during the translation. the reason is that rafat has done a sense-for-sense translation of the two poems, which has led to the loss of meanings of cultural metaphors in https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 loss of meanings of cultural metaphors: 181 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 bulleh shah's poetry. this study has shown that punjabi metaphors are culture-specific. every culture has its distinct metaphors. the punjabi language has its distinct cultural metaphors that portray punjabi culture. taufiq rafat in his attempt to translate bulleh shah’s poetry into english has not portrayed the intended meaning of the metaphors used in bulleh shah’s poems which have resulted in the context being changed as well as the meaning being lost in these poems. future research should look into the following suggestions: only two poems of bulleh shah were included in this study. in the future, studies can be carried out on the other poems of bulleh shah to find out whether the cultural metaphors retain their original meaning after translation. taufiq rafat and r.a. nicholson both translated bulleh shah's poems into english. their translations can be compared to discover why cultural metaphors lose meaning during translation. references ahmed, i. 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(2013). bulleya ke jaana mein kaun. the nation. https://nation.com.pk/07-dec2013/bulleya-ki-jaana-main-kaun zubair, f. (2020). pakistani idiom. retrieved from https://www.thenews.com.pk/detail/736972-pakistani-idiom @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.330 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/444/ https://www.thenews.com.pk/detail/736972-pakistani-idiom evaluation of english language question papers for content validity at intermediate level: 295 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.329 evaluation of english language question papers for content validity at intermediate level: a case study of board of intermediate and secondary education, sukkur ikramullah khan assistant professor in english government degree college & postgraduate studies centre, sukkur ikramk607@gmail.com dr. zulfiqar ali shah director institute of english language and literature shah abdul latif university, khairpur, pakistan. zulfiqar.shah@salu.edu.pk dr. abdul saeed assistant professor of english sukkur institute of business administration university, pakistan saeedabdulskr@gmail.com abstract the purpose of this study was to examine if the annual english exam question papers of first year accurately reflected the synchronisation of the national curriculum benchmarks (2006) with the questions on the test administered by the board of intermediate and secondary education sukkur. annual question papers from bise sukkur's xi courses were chosen to examine content validity across a five-year period (2014-18). a survey questionnaire was used to obtain data from elt experts. when compared to the benchmarks of the national curriculum of english language (2006), the data revealed that the items on the annual question papers had very low content validity. the study recommends some effective ways for developing effective question papers aligned with benchmarks. keywords: english language, content validity, benchmarks, national curriculum, evaluation, introduction english has become the language of communication across the globe. it is a source to connect people from different corners of the world. it serveqs many purposes such as education, trade and tourism. similarly, english language has also gained a very prestigious position in pakistan (ahmed, 2012). it is used as a second language along with national language urdu for educational and official correspondence. the pakistani ministry of higher education has made english language proficiency a requirement for employment in pakistani universities. in addition to the scholastic benefits of english, it is also a means of achieving a high social status (haidar, 2019). the higher one's proficiency, the better one's chances of gaining social prestige.having https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 mailto:ikramk607@gmail.com mailto:zulfiqar.shah@salu.edu.pk mailto:saeedabdulskr@gmail.com evaluation of english language question papers for content validity at intermediate level: 296 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.329 seen the importance of english language worldwide, the government of pakistan has made it a compulsory subject from primary to higher level of education. the aim is to make the students proficient enough in all four language learning skills so that they can compete for any world level educational scholarship (muhammad, 2016). the national curriculum of pakistan (2006) has set different level-wise standards from primary to higher level of education to make sure the steady progress of students in english throughout their academic career. the students are assessed by the end of their academic year through written exams to assess their required level of progress. thus, evaluation is one of the most important and crucial factors in the process of teaching and learning. it is the only proper evaluation process that can estimate the possible achievement of students in their academic year (hughes, 2003). the proper assessment and evaluation help the learners to focus on the less focused or weak areas of the study to show improvement. to assess students’ performance, a variety of methods and approaches are used. question papers, thus, are one of the ways to assess outcome of learners’ achievement of the year. therefore, these question papers are supposed not only to contain lower to higher level skills to assess the overall growth and understanding of the learners but they should also reflect the required outcome of the learning, set by relevant authority to detect the students’ achievement (stoynoff, 2009). in other words, if question papers are not designed keeping the assessment of outcomes in mind, they will have a detrimental impact on teaching and learning. the term "validity" refers to whether or not a test has measured what it was supposed to measure. according to brennan et al. (2006), validity is an essential precept of evaluation, and a crucial characteristic that is associated with the interpretations and uses of test scores. they further highlighted that based on assessment, test’s validity helps in inferring the test assessing what it was expected to assess. it is considered that because content validity is an important component of an educational test, the test developers should evaluate any test's content validity to make it more successful and beneficial. to assess students' mastery of the subject, a genuine question paper is required (akhter, 2015). content validity is the most common type of validity which entails a thorough analysis of test content in the form of test items to ensure that the test covers and represents the proportion of the syllabus as well as the cognitive domain level of educational https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 evaluation of english language question papers for content validity at intermediate level: 297 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.329 objectives. the content validity of a test is determined by specialists who determine how valid a test is in terms of content and objective (zamanzadeh et, al., 2015). despite the teaching of english as a compulsory subject from primary to higher level of education in pakistan, the results do not show a required proficiency level of learners. several reasons for this inefficiency have been highlighted by the researchers. for example, it has been found that english teachers are not highly skilled to use the modern teaching techniques. most of the teachers still use only grammar-translation method which is inadequate to cover all four skills (shamim, 2008). the english language syllabus does not conform to the specific curricular objectives, and the text books emphasise content rather than language acquisition skills. however, the validity of question papers is the area that has not been explored yet (warsi, 2004). therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the questions of annual examination papers of english at intermediate level for their validity (content validity). this study aimed to investigate the gap between questions of english papers of intermediate level class xi of sukkur board with the benchmarks of national curriculum (2006) in terms of relevance. the study is of a great importance as it compares the relevance of annual question papers of the most recent five years of board of intermediate and secondary education sukkur with endorsed benchmark of national curriculum (2006). second, the study assesses the consistency of question paper content with the expressed objective for which the tests are being regulated. third, the investigation helps english language instructors to get an understanding of content validity while creating question papers. fourth, the study proposes test makers and sukkur board to synchronise the question papers with the proposed national curriculum (2006). at last, it serves as a valuable resource for future studies on testing and assessment. research questions • to what extent annual question papers of the english language grade xi at the intermediate level are relevant with the prescribed benchmarks of national curriculum (2006)? • what measures can be taken to synchronize the process of question papers with the desired outcomes as suggested by the benchmarks? https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 evaluation of english language question papers for content validity at intermediate level: 298 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.329 literature review validity validity is one of the basic characteristics of a test. the level of measurement of a test that is designed to measure is usually characterized as the basic attribute of assessment ‘validity.' the higher the test's validity, the more valuable it will be, and testing will be beneficial to future educational planning and implementation (xi, 2021). the notion refers to the efficacy, correctness and meaningfulness of the specific inference made from the test (fulcher, 2007). the general definition of validity is the level to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure. although different researchers have used almost 35 different terms for different kinds of validity, brown's (1980) classification is considered more appropriate as it covers a wide range of the term. brown (1980) defined four types of validity. first kind is called predictive validity which predicts students’ performance for future progress. second one is content validity which assesses whether the test contains all aspects of the construct to be assessed. the third kind of validity is construct validity that describes the efficacy of test items which means whether the exams questions are appropriate enough to assess what they are supposed to assess. the fourth kind of validity is the concurrent validity which compares the items of one test with another test assessing same level of competency. all the above described forms of validity help to develop a valid test which assesses what it is supposed to assess. the test developers either focus on all of these kinds of validity or one or two of these to make the test valid (gipps, 2011). although all kinds of validity are important for test development; content validity is considered the most important as it evaluates the contents of test to be assessed (weir, 2005). moreover, as the main focus of the study is to analyse content validity of last five years’ english papers of class xi of sukkur board, only content validity will be discussed in the following section. content validity and assessment test generally, content validity is the degree to which a test accurately reflects the subject area it is designed to examine. when a test is developed to estimate high content validity, the material must be compatible with the testing purpose as well as the current understanding of the subject https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 evaluation of english language question papers for content validity at intermediate level: 299 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.329 matter being tested (martone, 2009). the content validity, also known as rational validity, should determine how far the content is represented in a test paper in order to measure the full construct. for example, rather than asking unrelated questions, a question paper with content validity would signify the subject actually taught to the students (carmines, 1979). the importance of content validity has rigorously been stressed from past several decades (almanasreh et al., 2019; vakili, 2018). it is deemed to be very necessary not only to analyze whether the content of the test is compatible with the content of the curriculum taught but also the proportion of that compatibility. in general, content validity is determined deductively by creating a universe of objects and systematically sampling within that universe to generate the test (cronbach, 2017). moreover, evidence of content validity does not require a complex, timeconsuming analytical analysis or massive samples, rather it is assessed simply by comparing the content of curriculum and the test for assessments (colquitt et al., 2019). hughes (2020) defined the issue of content convergence by emphasizing the importance of our attention, particularly in achievement testing, as if achievement tests are based on detailed teaching and textbook content, such tests will provide a more accurate picture of what has been accomplished in teaching and learning. these tests will most likely be judged in relation to the aims of the content. when writing an achievement test paper, a test designer should start with a specific outline of the topics, and the expert should explain what a student should focus on learning during the academic year. the primary goal of test item designer is to assess the most important skills and knowledge that learners have acquired over time (siddiek, 2018). the examination system of pakistan according to nawani (2021), the current examination system in pakistan does not focus on assessing students’ critical and analytical ability. rather, it is more content based than skill and focusses on assessing the factual information by the students which does not serve the purpose set by the national curriculum (2006). due to being superficial in nature and content, the examination system of pakistan has highly been criticized (fatima, 2020; greaney, 1998; mirza, 1999). rehmani (2003) adds that teachers teach in classroom keeping examination in mind and their sole purpose is to prepare the students to get through their exams than preparing them to learn practical https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 evaluation of english language question papers for content validity at intermediate level: 300 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.329 skillslanguage learning skills in the context of english language teaching. rehmani (2003, p. 4) further states, “there are model papers or guess paper guides available in the market with readymade answers based on the past five year papers”. greaney (1998) pointed out many flaws in pakistani examination system such as cramming, copy culture and not assessing higher level cognitive skills. it was further pointed out that these short comings are playing havoc with teaching learning process. the education system generally and secondary level particularly is not contributing to the attainment of higher level cognitive skills, rather assessing superficial cognitive skills. consequently, pupils tend to focus on these required skills which may lead them to secure higher marks than actual language learning skills. warsi (2004) also pointed out the wide gap between textbooks and cognitive problemsolving tasks in exams. it may lead the learners to pass exams with flying colors but fail in their practical life. shah (2010) has highlighted that education system in pakistan is simply based on memorization and due to this thought of an educational atmosphere, students rely solely on knowledge of the prescribed textbook content rather than the practical or creative use of their understanding. in this context, another study by shah (2004), also highlighted several problems such as the question papers have many errors in content, language and technical construction. shah also writes that, in the public exam, writers may be highly skilled individuals with more than 5-10 years of teaching experience, but few may have had adequate trainings in assessment and evaluation approaches. therefore, it is very clear that there are several issues that require due attention to be addressed that are devaluing the validity of the examination system. evaluation of last five-year question papers there is a lot of literature on setting question papers based on bloom’s taxonomy, but very few studies on exam question evaluation have been done. and, very little research has been done on the evaluation of question papers with pakistan national curriculum (2006). siddique (2013) conducted a research on the evaluation of english language assessment criteria at upper secondary level in pakistan. in her study, she aimed to explore the weakness of the assessment criteria in https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 evaluation of english language question papers for content validity at intermediate level: 301 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.329 relation to the student's performance in the subject of xi-xii grade. the research was conducted to analyze the theoretical assessment framework and the practical model, practised in public exams. the data were collected from the manual document of the national curriculum, (2006), updated works of the english subject (2007-2010), experts, teachers and students of the respective classes. the results of the study showed that there is a pressing need to improve the quality of the assessment to achieve the desired learning outcome. furthermore, the assessment system suffers from multiple shortcomings, such as rote-learning and lower-level skills assessment. shah (2004) highlights a primary factor that reduces the validity of question papers as a high-level valid test is repetition of questions. the study scrutinized the repetition of questions, essays, and structured questions and claimed that this repetition of questions completely convinces the students to take selective shortcuts and prepare the repeated questions to get through exams. as a reason, students take shortcuts to memorize things that have been consistently repeated in tests for the past five years. likewise, martone (2009) conducted research to analyze whether there is synchronization between english reading material recommended by the sindh text book board for the intermediate level and the annual question papers. but the results reveal that the contents of the sindh textbook are not in synchronization with the specifications shown in the national curriculum (2006), which is one of the latest national curricula for pakistan. this, as a result, may leave a washback effect on the learners. research methodology participants according to retnawati (2016), content validity is determined by expert agreement, and this agreement determines content validity stratification. rogers (2010) goes on to describe the content validity of the test based on qualified assessments of test content related to the domains of the subject matter, as well as its depiction of items. according to messick (1996), the outcome of the agreement specifies the synchronization of test material of a particular behavioral domain of interest and the judges' subjectivity is mostly responsible for the content scrutiny. according to lynn (1986), 10 experts are appropriate to examine content validity, hence thirty testing specialists https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 evaluation of english language question papers for content validity at intermediate level: 302 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.329 from the english language teaching and assessment field were purposefully selected. all the participants were having at least master degree in the field as well as minimum three years’ experience of teaching and assessing english as a second language. tool dörnyei (2009) states likert scale as a simple, versatile and reliable scaling technique. therefore, the present study implied likert scale for data collection. lynn (1986) applied this scale in the study and found it very valid and reliable. considering the similarity in purpose of the study, the questionnaire originally developed and applied by davis (1992) was modified to use in our context. while modifying the instruments, its application and flexibility was also considered. the focus of the study was to find out the content validity of english question papers of intermediate level grade xi from 2014 -2018 of sukkur board by comparing them with the benchmarks of national curriculum of english (2006). therefore, the survey questionnaire included the selected items of five years’ english question papers, the benchmarks of national curriculum of english (2006) and the likert scale of the content relevance in the grid form. the purpose to keep these items together in survey questionnaire was to give the experts all items together on a single page for their ease to provide their valuable feedback while comparing these items. the obtained data were coded and transferred to the spreadsheet on the computer for proper tabulation and interpretation. procedure the total numbers of english papers were ten with the numbers of questions exceeding 90. as the total number of questions were difficult to answer for experts being time consuming, 60 questions were chosen randomly for experts’ evaluation. question papers of first year have two parts: part first consists of composition type questions, generally the extended type questions and short questions whereas the second part consists only objective type of questions having 20 marks. but, as the underhand study has focused on the construction of part 1, the essay type, because the second part of the paper is objective which does not come under the scope of the present study. the modified questionnaire was divided into three grids, each of which contained a set of annual question paper items, national curriculum benchmarks (2006), and the scale of relevance. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 evaluation of english language question papers for content validity at intermediate level: 303 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.329 total thirty questionnaires were given to the experts via email and courier services, together with a consent form and an instruction letter, so that they could complete them appropriately. out of these questionnaires fourteen questionnaires were returned by the experts. ten questionnaires were chosen for this research and four were dropped due to certain technical reasons. data analysis procedure the feedback provided by the experts on the survey questionnaire was analyzed for overall content validity. the data was described according to the content validity index (from .0 to.70 for invalid, .71 to .79 for good and .80 and above for excellent) and kappa value (from .0 to .59 for poor, .60 to .73 for good and .75 and above for excellent) in tables. the results of the experts’ survey questionnaire have been classified into ‘high item content validity’ and ‘low item content validity index’ on the bases of content validity index and the key of kappa value indicates the weightage of the item. table 1: high item content validity index experts’ survey questionnaire no. questions (excellent items) i-cvi 1 item no. 10 0.8 2 item no. 20 0.9 3 item no. 23 0.8 4 item no. 30 0.9 cvi= content validity index table 1 explains the valid items in the five-year papers of intermediate english class xi from sukkur board. only 4 items out 60 are highly valid according to the feedback given by experts with a score 0.8 and above on content validity index. in other words, these four items are completely aligned with the criteria of the national curriculum benchmarks (2006) and assess the required outcome from the students by the end of the year. table 2. low item content validity index experts’ survey questionnaire https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 evaluation of english language question papers for content validity at intermediate level: 304 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.329 sr. no. questions (fair items) i-cvi 1 item no. 51 0.7 2 item no. 17 0.7 3 item no. 34 0.7 4 item no. 37 0.7 5 item no. 38 0.7 6 item no. 43 0.7 7 item no. 45 0.7 8 item no. 46 0.7 9 item no.48 0.7 10 item no.60 0.7 11 item no.56 0.7 cvi= content validity index table 2 explains the low valid items in the five-year papers of intermediate english class xi from sukkur board. total 11 items out 60 have low validity according to the feedback given by experts with a score .7 in content validity index. although these items are not as valid as the items in table 1 above, these items somehow assess the required outcomes from students by the end of the year set by the national curriculum benchmarks (2006). the statistics suggest that there is a critical need for congruence between the national curriculum (2006) and the intermediate english sukkur board's exam papers. testing experts found that test elements were not adequately reflected in the annual question papers after connecting the national curriculum benchmarks (2014-18). it reveals that the content validity of intermediate class xi annual question papers was violated. discussion the findings clearly witness that the five-year (2014-18) intermediate english question papers of grade xi of sukkur board are not valid and does not assess what they are supposed to assess in terms of students’ achievement by the end of the year. only 04 items out of 60 are highly https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 evaluation of english language question papers for content validity at intermediate level: 305 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.329 valid whereas 11 items have low content validity. rest of the items in five-year papers are completely invalid according to the findings collected from the subject experts through a survey questionnaire. the situation highlights a wide gap between ‘what is being taught and assessed’. in other words, teachers and paper designers of the subject are not on the same page which may leave the students in lurch. in terms of 4 highly valid questions in five-year papers of english, all these four questions seem to focus on higher level cognitive skills than assessing students’ memory. for example, question number 20. ‘how does monte cristo prove that he is justified to take revenge from count of morcert?’. this and other alike questions require students to understand, analyze, synthesize and then write the answer in a well-organized way for readers’ ease. these kinds of answers not only need emphatic or chronological order to explain the incidents sequentially step by step but also need the proper use of cohesive devices to connect the ideas together. moreover, these answers need an argument with supporting details of incidents to make it effective and acceptable. the items with low content validity index are 11in total out of 60, which is bit higher number than the high content validity index. it might be due to the difference between ‘invalid’ and ‘low validity’ is huge from .0 to .70 whereas the difference between ‘low validity’ and ‘high validity’ is very small from .71 to .79. according to experts’ evaluation, these low content validity questions though assess what these are supposed to assess, but the degree of validity is little bit lower than the high validity questions. it may be due to the questions which do not assess all benchmarks or may address some while leaving others. the findings are similar to siddique (2013) that explain the need to integrate question papers with the set objectives. most of the questions are quite irrelevant and do not assess what they are supposed to assess to reflect the set outcome by the national curriculum benchmarks (2006). the findings suggest that the procedures for designing paper should be familiar to test designers. before setting up annual question papers, the paper designer should do a content analysis of the textbook. based on the findings, test designers should include elements that closely match the requirements of the national curriculum benchmarks (2006). moreover, the testing expert should conduct continuous seminars on assessment mechanisms in the domains of language testing to both english teachers https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 evaluation of english language question papers for content validity at intermediate level: 306 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.329 and test designers so that test designers may build content valid question papers and teachers can consider the requirements of the national curriculum (2006). references ahmed, m. 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(2015). design and implementation content validity study: development of an instrument for measuring patient-centered communication. journal of caring sciences, 4(2), 165. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture 240 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture: an insight to sheba karim’s the skunk girl and rukhsana khan’s wanting mor dr. asma iqbal qazi assistant professor department of english, national university of modern languages ahqazi@numl.edu.pk abstract this article aims to explore the art of commodification of culture deployed in the pakistani anglophone young adult (ya) fiction with special reference to sheba karim’s the skunk girl (2009) and rukhsana khan wanting mor (2010). it has been contextualized in the postulates of the commodification of culture highlighted by nederveen pieterse in his work globalisation and culture: the three paradigms. the term commodification has gained immense popularity in the contemporary era of globalization partly because of free trade and the economy. culture in principle is one of the essential standpoints of globalization owing to its subtlest but the most penetrating tentacle in general and its capability to commodify in particular. having a base in the economy, culture has been systematically commodified as a heterogeneous, homogeneous, or hybrid form to be sold either physically in galleries, museums, and tourist spots. the literature by south asian writers has been altered to present the cultural illustration as hybrid, heterogeneous, or homogenized. which according to pieterse is the form of commodification of culture. it is this aspect that the present article intends to explore to assert that the success of ya fiction is undoubtedly owed to aesthetic and academic merits but mainly due to the successful deployment of the technique of commodification of culture. keywords: culture commodification, heterogeneous, homogeneous, hybrid, ya fiction introduction the term culture seemingly appears to be a simple term but owing to its complexity it is one of the complex terms to expound. as an umbrella term, it is taken as a complex phenomenon as the social behavior as well as simply as norms, values beliefs, practices, way of life, and even as the social conscious of an individual or a society. resultantly, it has as many as 167 meanings as pointed out by kroeber, a.l., & kluckohn, c. it is understood as “an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior . . . to the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group” (tylor, 1981). it is also defined as “learned and shared human patterns or mode` is for the living; day-to-day living patterns. these patterns and models pervade all aspects of human social interaction. culture is mankind's primary adaptive mechanism” (l. damen, 1987, p. 367). the last but the most comprehensive definition has been provided by raymond williams pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture 241 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 (1958) as “a description of a particular way of life, which expresses certain meanings and values not only in art and learning but also in institutions and ordinary behavior” (p. 57). culture is projected and perceived through products, practices, and perspectives. the products include both concrete and intangible as arts, music, literature, paintings, and so on. the practices are the social pattern of behaving in society as per set pattern. whereas perspectives include beliefs, doctrines, and cultural norms. these three ps are interlinked with each other. literature, owing to its multiplicity constantly shifts its place from product to prospect and to perspectives. it is generally assumed as the most effective platform to reflect society and its culture. hanauer (2001) has justified literature as a useful source of cultural knowledge because it is projected by the author who is indulged in a literary experience and not a personal voice of an emotional being, although prominent critic as terry eagleton (1983) argues that there is no inherent quality of literature, it generates its meaning only through the interpretation of the reader. substantiating its status as an artifact of culture without having an active role. but again according to philip tew “novels both rationalize and engage dialectically with our historical presence, playing their part, however provisionally at times, in our understanding of and reflection upon our lives” (tew, 2007, p. 07). suggesting that there exists a strong connection between literature and culture. the interconnection of literature and culture can be traced historically from the earlier piece of surviving english literature the beowulf which does not merely give an account of the heroic deed of a great warrior but overtly portrays the anglo saxon culture. similarly, what can be the best example of 14th century england and its policies and practices other than the famous the canterbury tales of chaucer? literature and culture are interlinked and literature molds and shapes culture as substantiated by leo lowenthal (1961) “literature may justify or defy society, but it does not merely passively record it” (pp. xv-xvi). culture has gained a pivotal role in the contemporary era of globalization. as globalization thrives on tripods of military, economics, and culture, but culture is most important among the three. the notion of globalization has encouraged the celebration of different cultures of the globe which are different on a macro level but contribute to the uniform global culture which has been carried out through literature. like the definition, the representation of culture is a far complex phenomenon. it has never been portrayed or projected merely through art and craft. its portrayal and presentation pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture 242 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 have always been intentional. in other words, it has always been commodified. the term commodification derived from the communist manifesto (1848) elaborating the systematic procedure of the role of commodification. the bourgeoisie has undoubtedly torn the bond of feudal relation of a man to another man but has created a vicious bond of self-interest among the individual based on cash payment. everything from religious doctrine, to daily practice and philistine sentiments, is now linked with money. the bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up to with reverent awe. it has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage laborers. the bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil and has reduced the family relation into a mere money relation (fernbach, 2019, p. 64) the wide use of the marxist notion of commodification became prominent in the global arena in 1977 after the popularization of the term globalization which gave birth to the term commodification. the commodification of culture is now taken as the selling of the culture in the market. through participating in international chains like mcdonald's, kfc, disney lands, etc., or through buying souvenirs, an individual participates in the process of commodification of culture. the successful conduction of the annual dubai shopping and cultural festival is but the commodification of culture for economic gains and benefits, the commodification of culture is carried out as it is one of the subtlest, yet most penetrating forms of commodification. the contemporary culture theorist jan nederveen pieterse (2004) has identified three paradigms of representation of culture through the ages. it has either been depicted as cultural differentials he has termed as the clash of civilization or “polarization” (p. 1389). by taking the notion from samuel p. huntington’s clash of civilisations (1996)., pieterse is of the view that the primary purpose of the depiction of culture differential is to reassert and re-establish the notion of othering of west over the rest and to reassert the notion of binaries. the depiction of polarization in the culture is as per the demand of globalization and an effective way of projecting a culture. the polarization of culture through art and craft has given the native american tribes the to earn their livelihood. in literature, it is the exotic culture that is celebrated and the non-native writers have been able to gain access to academia is through the portrayal of exotic other cultures as traced out by graham huggan (1994). he while focusing upon the postcolonial literature is of the view “postcolonial critics may, unconsciously, pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture 243 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 contribute to a “global commodification of cultural difference”, and become part and parcel, unwittingly, of course of a “booming alterity industry” (344) the second paradigm of culture depiction is the portrayal of a homogenized culture which pieterse has termed as “mcdonaldisation” (p. 1389). taken from the popular food chain mcdonald's because “mcdonald's formula is successful because it is efficient (rapid service), calculable (fast and inexpensive), predictable (no surprises), and controls labor and customers” (p. 1389). the objective of a homogenized culture is to promote the idea that there exists a single universe having a uniform culture based on a uniform ideology. according to prasad (2006), the homogenized culture encourages the individual to consume the same brand, service, cuisine, and even to wear the same clothes. for robertson (1992) the homogenization of culture gives birth to world culture or globalized culture. the validity of this globalized culture is debatable as berger (2002) is of the view that under the mask of the homogenization of global culture, it is an american or the western culture tradition that is replicated the last and the most contemporary representation of culture is the hybridization of culture or the rhizome of culture which can be termed as “the interpenetration of the global and the local resulting in unique outcomes in different geographic areas” (ronald robertson (2001). he is of the view that though hybridization is the progeny of racism yet it is the only practical form of culture as it entertains the notion of inclusiveness. by focusing upon the american popular culture, pieterse is of the view is that the wider appeal of american culture is the intermixing of marginal and peripheral culture. c hamelink (1983) is of the view “the richest cultural traditions emerged at the meeting point of markedly different cultures, such as sudan, athens, the indus valley, and mexico” (hamelink, 1983, p. 4). in cultural studies, hybridisation is interlinked with creolisation and glocalization. appadurai (1990) is of the view that hybridity indulges in both differentiation and interconnection and the world should be celebrating this cultural diversity rather than urging for the monolithic culture. the three paradigms assert that culture is not an abstract entity it is a thoroughly fiscal product and has been commodified successively over the years by selling it as a heterogeneous, homogenous, or hybrid product. literature review anglophone fiction has been of greater significance not only because of its literary aesthetics but more of its cultural representation making it a profitable and money-making commodity as asserted by king kok cheung (1997) “marginal cultural productions are pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture 244 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 capitalized on today’s marketplace” (p. 195). the anglophonic literature serves as one of the best marginal cultural products and is readily cashed in the globalized market. the anglophonic writers have paved their way in the contemporary globalized market by projecting their own culture which has been foregrounded as either different, similar, or hybrid as per the demand of the global audience and the marketing giants. for that purpose, the works of these writers are produced and sold abundantly. cultural trajectories projected by these writers have completely been accepted in the globalized arena, claiming to be projecting a different and exotic culture but subscribing to one of the above-mentioned trajectories. (werbner, 2004). the market accessibility of anglophonic literature dates back to the tremendous success of salman rushdie’s midnight’s children (1981) along with other writers as vikram seth. jhumpa lahiri and amitav ghosh whose works not only excelled aesthetically but at the same time their works were the top sales figure too. south asian literature has gained tremendous fame and acceptance around the globe which is evident from the fact that almost all multinational firms like harpercollins, addisonwesley, macmillan, mcgraw-hill, oxford university press, and cambridge university press, penguin, and prentice-hall have established their branches in south asian countries. the eminent writer aijaz ahmed (1992) is of the view that south asian literature is governed by the “grids of accumulation, interpretation and relocation which are governed from the metropolitan countries” (p. 44). they hunt and groom all those writers and authors who not only have emerged from the prescribed cosmopolitan fields but who are more market accepted. to appease the publishing pundits of these multinational firms, their art is compromised considerably. the writers tend to focus more upon the culture of south asian countries. as india, bangladesh, etc. by inculcating the ideology of the supremacy of the west. as kamila shamsie (2009) has pointed out that “‘international’ or ‘global’ writing remains another term for ‘minority’ writing, with a need to appeal to the majority audience to receive widespread attention or even to make its way into bookstores” (p. 110). this is reflected from the fact that india has become the hub of the publishing groups by gaining the status of the world’s thirdlargest producer of english books pakistan, an economically under-developed country is still struggling to boom its publishing and merchandising industry, resultantly, pakistani writers have preferred and chosen neighboring countries like india for the publication of their works. the prominent novelists and authors as uzma aslam khan’s trespassing, shandana minhas tunnel vision pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture 245 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 (2007), and mohsin hamid a case of exploding mangoes (2008) are among the few whose work mentioned above were published in india. even the important fiction and non-fiction of nepalese writer manjushree thappa c or sri lankan author chhimi tenduf-la’s loyal stalkers, have been published there. consequently, the aesthetic importance of the south asian work cannot be underrated due to its overwhelming response in the international market but the transformation of this aesthetic piece of writing to internationally well acclaimed and accepted writing too is an open secret. these works have followed and adapted themselves as per paradigms laid out by the market forces or the publishing houses. the contemporary british and american literature does not necessarily lie upon the publishing entrepreneurs but they have ensured that world literature in general and south asian literature, in particular, is grounded in the institutionalization of culture. the commodification of the culture is carried out through market-sponsored bookstores, libraries, and publishing groups and the allocation of the awards. sarah brouillette has aptly stated: correlate to this vernacularising project is publishers ‘new commitment to accessing niche markets of minority readerships in the west. another is their interest in outsourcing publishing tasks. under ultra-liberal trade mandates, a growing number of export process zones are cropping up in south asia, and publishing functions are being annexed to these areas in accord with a larger business process outsourcing (bpo) trend. key transnational firms are cutting costs by shipping things like book design and editing to south asian companies or, more often, to other transnational firms that are headquartered in the west but have mostly south asian offices and personnel. in this way, the whole book production system is being globalized (p. 34) the above-mentioned quote elaborate the strategies adopted by the publishers in commoditizing south asian literature, beginning from the establishment of the marketing zones to the printing and disseminating of the exotic yet cheap books to appeal to the taste of the public is but a systematic stratagem to commoditize south asian fiction the authors of world literature are bound to subscribe to the notions of migration, ethnicity, race, culture as core themes of their works but craftily ensure the notion of othering. the irony is that the representation of the orient is constantly done by those who are nonresident yet emphatically proclaim to be the sole representations. without being the authentic representation, south asians have emerged out to be the epitome of an unceasing reproduction of the recurrent cliché and the enforcement of the stereotypes. graham huggans (1994) has pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture 246 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 termed these writers as exotic because they deliberately authenticate the cultural differences for the market gain as it is the only sought-after product of the market of academia. he postulates “postcolonial critics may, unconsciously, contribute to a “global commodification of cultural difference”, and become part and parcel, unwittingly, of course of a “booming alterity industry” (p. 344). while taking into task booker’s award and particularly the one booker of the bookers awarded to rushdie’s the midnight’s children, he is of the view that “the novel reveals to its western readers their hunger to consume: it feeds their desire for entertainment; satiates their keen exoticism appetites, but it never fails to mock them for their complicities enjoyment (p. 84). amit ray (2008) has traced huggan’s notion of exoticism in the novels by the south indian writers. for him, not only rushdie but the other prestigious writer as arundhati roy’s novel the god of small thing has emphatically highlighted postcolonial exoticism. while focusing upon rushdie’s the midnight’s children roy is of the view that is “proffering snake charmers and stammering sadhus, characters, and descriptions of exoticism that offer sly gibes at those who might simply consume his fiction for its ‘otherness’” (p. 132). the writers intentionally blur and oscillate between two variants of their culture, either as an uncultured, wicked, or monstrous backward culture or the overstated glorified culture with the apparent aim of gaining market access. being fully conscious of the practice, some writers as vikram chandra has been targeted by meenakshi mukherjee for the use of native diction in his work. vikram chandra has openly professed it to be an important mechanism or as the trade of the time, besides he has urged the young writers to do the same. the pakistani anglophonic literature too has adhered to the global ideology of presenting the culture completely supported by stereotypes and the repeated clichés in his work. with nadeem aslam’s maps for lost lover the first to do so. the apparent theme of the novel is about honor killing well reinforced by the anticipated stereotypes. besides, it ends with the assertion of america / europe as the safest place for occupation and abode while pakistan is the most dangerous place to live in. similarly, about mohsin hamid’s reluctant fundamentalist (2007,) it has been rightly pointed out by ahmed naqvi that it is a raft of pakistani fiction that was tied into the us, islam, pakistan, and terrorism. every subsequent novel seemed to have one or all of these signifiers in their title, and many of these were about the trauma of well-adjusted upper-class pakistanis in the west facing the fallout of the attacks (naqvi, 2014)”. pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture 247 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the list can go on but the primary purpose of choosing these texts is that these fictions have been aesthetically acclaimed but they are at the same time the master of the proclamation of the clichés in the contemporary era. these and many other similar works of fiction present what is the demand of the western audience and in return, they get acceptance in the mainstream academia, the publishing industry, and the market. beginning from the very first south asian work of ultimate significance the midnight’s children by rushdie which has been asserted as the best voice of the continent only to assert its status as a western inclined and patronized literature. aijaz ahmed's stance on rushdie's work is again thought-provoking as according to him “the blurbs on the vintage paperback edition of shame-based partly on a quotation from the new york times-compare him with swift, voltaire, stern, kafka, grass, kundera, and marquez” (ahmed). his remark can be taken as the market trend for the writer with an asian origin, with a vintage ground of having the ability to express in english and the knack to endorse and assert otherness is affirmed as the sole and genuine presenter of that particular nation. to conclude this argument, i would bring forth the satanic verses by rushdie. despite the severe criticism it received in its native country, its market acceptance is primarily due to its dealing with the tenants of islam and about the western sought life of prophet mohammad in particular. as the result, it is already made ready-made items to be sold in the western market easily. ironically only those writers who have been honored in the form of glories, acknowledgments, and rewards from the west, despite receiving harsh criticism from their own country are considered as the real author. ironically, most of the anglophonic writers of pakistan and india come up to that standard set by the west-oriented market. in a nutshell, south asian fiction can be termed as fetish commodities sold in the market by transforming their culture as the most sought-after products to be sold in the market. treading in the footsteps of the parent fiction, the other subgenre of south asian fiction including chick lit and young adult fiction has made a strong contribution in globalized academia. thus, among the indian origin writers, mistress by anita nair, junglee girl by ginu kamani, the marriage bureau by rich people by farahad zama, matrimonial purposes by kavita daswani, one hundred shades of whites by preeti nair, salam paris by kavita deswani, are noteworthy. the pakistani chick list goes as; haveli (2013) by zeenat mahal, how it happened (2012) by shazaf fatima haider karachi you’r killing me (2014) by saba imtiaz, and a diary of a social butterfly (2008) by moni mohsin are a few among the many. similarly, the other sub-genre the young adult fiction, commonly denoted as ya too pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture 248 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 has paved its way in the globalized horizon, as evident from the list published by yalsa, the list includes motherland by vineeta vijayarahavan, the sea of tranquility: a novel by raja millay alex, all involved by ryan gattis, salt to the sea by ruta sepetys scythe by neal shusterman out of the easy by tara sullivan. the fame of the young adult literature commonly denoted as ya by south asian writers is asserted from the fact that a separate category of award, the south asia book award (saba) has been prescribed for them. the south asian ya on one hand prescribes a different shade of culture as prescribed by their mature writers but interestingly assert the otherness as rightly pointed out b rosagam and pillai (2016) that these ya show “not just as an individual who is at the cusp of adulthood but also as the "other" in a white society” (p. 44). the primary theme in most of these novels has been a quest journey in which the protagonist goes through an expedition of gaining knowledge and enlightenment in the form of his identity among the white peer. in a traditional quest journey, the religious myths have been a guardian angel but in ya the quest journey is supported by the cultural myth that plays a pivotal role. according to rosagam and pillai: reading texts written by writers from one's own culture and being exposed to the cultural aspects of one's ancestral home allows readers to become aware of the interpolation of language, dialect, landscape, and other aspects that reveal the intermingling and overlapping of the two cultures and the third space they inhabit” (p. 42). despite its emerging fame, ya fiction with a south asian theme has not been completely explored. these fictions have been vastly published, marketed, and distributed they need to be explored at stretch. these fictions have compromised themselves as per market trends. interestingly they have mostly negotiated upon the portrayal of the culture which is as per the demand of the cultural pundits. being an anglophonic piece of writing and proclaiming to be the projector of the authentic culture, it is the culture that has been compromised a lot. as these fictions are the carrier of culture al dimensions, here these areas need to explore. the research focuses upon two anglophonic ya by pakistani origin american writers the skunk girl (2010) by sheeba karim and the wanting mor (2010) by rukhsana khan. these two fictions have been analyzed as per the theoretical framework of pieterse theoretical paradigm to trace the commodification of culture content analyses pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture 249 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the skunk girl (2010) is by sheba karim, a pakistani origin american author. she is from a small town in new york and is graduated from new york university school of law and has a degree of m.f.a form iowa writer’s workshop. the skunk girl is her debut novel dealing with a muslim, pakistani girl. her second novel that thing we call a heart (2017) was declared as the best contemporary teen read of 2017. it has been accredited by the kirkus review as best teen book of 2017, the american library association(ala) has considered it as amelia boomer best feminist book for young adult. her upcoming book mariam sharma hits road (2018) is distributed by harper collin which is based on road trips/ adventures of a south asian besides, two of her short stories have been nominated for pushcart award. the skunk girl was nominated for the selection of the 2012 silicon award and it was published in the united states, india, italy, denmark, and sweden. it is about a 16 years old pakistani muslim girl nina khan living in new york. the focus of the novel has been her relationship with her parents and her relatives who want her to excel academically and not to indulge in western practices of young and eventually to betrothed to a pakistani boy. her strongest desire to spend. this bildungsroman novel of pakistani girl besides highlighting the usual theme of friends, romances, relationships, and tracing self-identity have explicitly highlighted the cultural and religious practices. the deeper studies clarify that it purely follows one or more of the cultural practices depicted by pieterse neverdeen. the contemporary pakistani fictions have always projected religion, a cultural practice as a contrast, different and as a diverging point and eventually as a major obstruct of the success of non-natives abroad and especially in a european country. karim has chosen a daring step of projecting a hybrid culture. while dealing with islamic religion in general, she seems to have taken a specific measure to show islam as hybrid religion having the tendency to absorb all. islam has been projected as a religion of absorbing the difference and extremism associated with polarisation.it is surprising to see that the practices adhered to by most of the characters including the protagonist are not pure islamic. nina’s entire family is not a typical islamic family focusing on the regularity and punctuality of the prayers except her mother. the only time when they ensure the punctuality of the prayers is when the protagonist’s religious aunt visits them. besides, there are many other such minor hints in the novel which enforce an equivocation of a hybrid religion. one explicitly stated is about a religious tutor of nina, brother hussain. he once showed his concern pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture 250 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 about a painting depicting two mexican women holding flowers, by stating that it is “it is haram to depict human figures,” (p. 82). he was absolutely right as per islamic doctrine it is so but her family instantly removed him from the said post but decided to retain the picture. karim candidly states that nina continued reading holy quran “under the watchful eyes of the mexican women” (p. 83). karim has asserted the notion of a homogenized religion to assert that non-native immigrants are not extremists as per se as has been always been depicted in the electronic and print media. she has not only stopped on that but has continued presenting her protagonist as a girl who loves an italian boy asher richelli, she has even attended a dance party where she tasted beer for the sake of experience and even stole a kiss of her boyfriend but feels satisfied because these minor incidents do not put her or her religion at a stake. karim has in fact tried to assert pieterse's notion that the only way for the protagonist and her religion to remain intact is by observing a hybrid culture. the novel does not stop at this point only. when nina is confused and is feeling f guilty about adopting this hybrid culture, she seeks help from her sister who besides a nerd is also her mentor. karim notion of a hybrid religion is advocated through the protagonist’s sister who declares: whose definition are you applying to that? in every religion, people pick and choose what they want to follow. look at ma and dad’s own friends—a few of the aunties cover their hair, and a few of the aunties drink, some fast during ramadan, some don’t. you can’t spend your life worrying about what other people will think. if you live decently and help others, is allah going to condemn you simply because you had a beer? i don’t think so, but others might. in the end, you have to do what you believe is right (pp. 208209) karim’s notion of a hybrid religion is what has been substantiated by peter beyer (1994) ‘globalization allows for religions previously isolated from one another to now have regular and unavoidable contact. as a result, globalization brings to the light the fact that since religions have similar values, not one of them is “correct” and, therefore, can be changed” (beyer, 1994). karim through her protagonist has propagated this idea that in a hybrid religion it is not to practice the doctrine of one religion but to follow what is considered as right or wrong and by the intermingling of two religions as per the demand of the time. pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture 251 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 it is not only the hybrid religion that has been projected by karim, but she has also focused upon the hybridization of t culture too. the family insists to be deeply inclined to the pakistani culture in policy but turns out to be a liberal family in practice. nina’s family wears the ethnic costumes in and advocate the ethnic cuisine in their pakistani social gatherings but when alone, the family loves to dine out and try the almost all-new restaurant. nina wears western attire at her school and among her friends. this adaptation of a hybrid culture has made her life easy and is never tormented by her friends. this has been possible due to her adoption of a hybrid culture. she has never faced the identity issue which is faced by the nonnative in the european country. her friends acknowledge the limitation of her cultural restrictions but have never mocked her. karim's novel openly professes that adaption of a hybrid culture is the best way of living. hybridity is the offspring of globalization and the safest way of living in this globalized world. to conclude from these instances, one can easily conclude the market acceptance of karim’s skunk girl is partly due to its aesthetic values as it has dealt with all the typical issues of young adults as identity, romance self-realization with special emphasis to south asian protagonist. at the same time, it has focused on the reassertion of a hybrid culture. karim through this novel echoes what pieterse has advocated that hybridization stands for cultural assimilation and co-existence. the protagonist can adhere the cultural mixing and assimilation without compromising on her native culture. similarly, embracing hybridity, the local culture can emerge with a new face and shape. the second novel for the research is wanting mor (2009) is by rukhsana khan who is another pakistani origin anglophone writer from ontario canada. she began her career by writing songs as adam’s world children video and ended up writing short stories and novels. her book big red lollipop won two awards, golden kite award in 2011 and charlotte zolotow award in 2011. she then wrote silly chicken (2005) ruler of the courtyard (2003) king of the skies (2001) the roses in my carpets (1998) bedtime ba-a-alk (1998). she wrote written two novels wanting mor (2009) dahling, if you luv me would you please, please smile (1999), few short stories a new life (2009) many windows (2008) muslim child (1999). the list affirms her to be a versatile writer. wanting mor (2009) won the middle east book award (2009) and has been selected numerous awards as capitol choices noteworthy titles for children and teens 2010, cybil awards 2009, ira notable books for a global society 2010, muslim pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture 252 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 writers awards children’s books 2011, ssli honour book 2009 usbby outstanding international 2010. with 13 editions wanting mor deals with the struggles and the efforts of an ‘orphan muslim girl’ in afghanistan. the plot is about a young girl jameela, with a physical deformity, a cleft lip, the unexpected death of her mother, the marriage second of her alcoholic father, the rough treatment of her stepmother, her abandonment in a market by her father, and her final settlement in an orphanage. the setting of the novel is a war trampled afghanistan and her strength is her blind obedience to the fellow beings and her firm trust in allah. this novel is supplemented with the cultural practice ranging from the daily routines, customs, and going on to religious details moral details. khan has effectively deployed the technique of what pieterse describes as the polarization of culture or heterogeneous culture where the culture is portrayed as different or other. khan has ensured that the cultural traits are represented as estranged, exotic, and different. she began with jameela’s early morning ritual of lightening a flame for the preparation of a cup of tea for her father. she “strikes the flint with steel” (p. 20) which is followed by “blowing on the tinder” and feed it small sticks then bigger” (p. 20). this minutest detail of lightening a fire is sufficient not only to excite the curiosity of the western audience but at the same time it highlights the technological backwardness of an asian country. furthermore, there is further detail regarding jameela’s method of using ashes as a detergent for washing utensils and crockery. this practice and usual cultural practice is quite different and enhances the notions of the orient as different and their culture as heterogeneous. from the minute daily routine khan goes to the religious practices too, she extensively elaborates the burial ritual performed in afghanistan as: first, we take a sheet and cover it. then working under the sheet, we remove my mother’s clothes…muttering prayers, we gently clean her, make wudu for her, then wash her hair, the right side of her body, then left…when her body is clean we are ready to wrap her…some of the women are wailing (pp. 12-13). this graphic description, following a methodical process of washing and wrapping a body is quite different from the practice followed in the west. this graphic description along with its placement in the first chapter is not coincidental but deliberate. this portrayal serves the targeted purpose, it not only enhances the notion of polarization of culture which is different though exotic and it also endorses what linda nochlin(1989) has stated that it is “of the pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture 253 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 picturesque – orientalizing in this case – is to certify that the people encapsulated by it, defined by its presence, are irredeemably different from, more backward than, and culturally inferior to those who construct” (p. 51). the ultimate purpose is the same as has been highlighted by pieterse the commodification of a heterogeneous culture. besides the daily and religious practices, the cultural representation is done through the language, as elaborated by ashcroft &griffiths (2002) the non-native writers either deploy the abrogation or the appropriation of language especially english language wanting mor has deployed abrogation in its communication. thus we can see words like b agha, purani, chadri, charpae dusterkhaan, corbacha, ghusl, and the list goes on, which are occur recurrently in the text even though there exists an english substitute the use of estranged language is apparently to authenticate the cultural norms but deliberately project the asian culture as different from the westernized culture. this is done to assert the orient culture as essentially dissimilar and inferior other. according to lisa lau: (r)e-oriental writers set themselves up as ‘translators’, translating one culture to/for the other, have the dual role of opening the channels of communication, but also of holding the two sides separate because it is this very separation that lends heightened significance to their role. (p. 585). as pieterse has rightly pointed out that for the west, the culture of the east is different as it lacks the refinement and aesthetic which the western culture has. it is messed up and disorganized, an ideology passed on through the legacy created by the colonial writers and particularly by e.m foster in a passage to india (1924). the culture depicted in these works is deliberately portrayed as a contrast to the refined and sophisticated culture of the east. conclusion from the above discussion, it is evident that culture can never be taken as an abstract entity, as a token of identity, or as an empirical representation of society. earlier, it was assumed that only the apparent element of the culture as food, clothing, and music do transform. the cultural values, norms, and practices are always taken as permanent and integral. in the contemporary era of cultural commodification, even this notion has been altered. the massive production and distribution of art and literature have played a pivotal role in this respect. the authors and the writers of south asian literature, in particular, have deliberately portrayed their cultural practices as either heterogeneous, homogeneous, or hybrid for monetary gain and as per the desire of the publishing pundits. the above-stated three forms of culture are merely pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture 254 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 three forms of cultural commodification to present their culture as either exotic or as clichés as per market demand. the tendency pioneered by the established writers as salman rushdie, mohsin hamid, arundhati roy, etc. has been carried forward by the emerging writers of popular fiction too as evident from the above selected young adult fiction. undoubtedly, these and many other popular fictions writers have established their academic and aesthetic merit, but a deliberate attempt has been made on the part of these writers to portray the cultural traits and practices. for the market accessibility and international fame, these cultural traits and values have been craftily commodified by presenting them as either stereotypes or exotic. references ahmed, a. 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(16 october 2007). south asian literature and global publishing. european journal of cognitive psychology, 22(3), 34-38. cheung, k. k. (ed.). (1997). an interethnic companion to american asian literature. cambridge university press. desai, p. b. (2008). manolos, marriage, and mantras chick-lit criticism and transnational feminism. meridians, 8(ii), 1-31. fernbach, d. (2019). the political writings of karl marx. london . new york: verso. hamelink, c. (1983). cultural autonomy in global communications. new york : longman . hoult, t. (1974). dictionary of modern sociology. totowa, nj: littlefields. huggins, g. (1994). the post colonial exotic. transition, 22-29. huntington, s. (1991). the third wave: democratisation in the late twentieth century. 'the clash of civilisation; foreign affairs, 22-49. karim, s. (2009, april 1). author interview: sheba karim. (s. abdullah, interviewer) karim, s. (2009). the skunk girl. india : penguin books. khan, r. (2009). wanting mor. toronto, cnada: groundwood books/ house of anansi press. kluckhohn, a. k. (1963). culture: a critical review of concept and definition. london: vintage books. l.damen. (1987). culture learning: the fifth dimension on the language classroom. reading, . uk: ma: addison-wesley. lau, l. a. (2011). re-orientalism and south asian identity politics: the oriental other within. london: roultedge. marcuse, p. (2002). the production of regime culture and instrumentalized art in a globalizing state. globalisation:.culture of globalisation, hybridity and contestation, 15-28. murray, j. (ed.). (february 1, 1884). the oxford english dictionary. the united kingdom: oxford university press. naqvi, a. (2014, june ). www.tanqeed.org. retrieved march 8, 2018 nochlins, l. (1989). the politics of vision: essays on nineteenth-century art and society. new york: harper &colins. roy, a. (2008). indianness’ and contemporary cosmopolitan fictions: of bookers and ‘spice’ and everything pieterse, j. n. (jun. 8, 1996). globalisation and culture: the three pakistani anglophone young adult fiction and the art of commodification of culture 257 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 paradigms. economic and political weekly, 31(23), 1389-1393. retrieved 08 28, 2015, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4404234 pillai, m. r. (2016). interpolating south asian transnational heritage: allegory in south asian diasporic metropolitan young adult fiction. ijaps,, 12(1), 41-60. nice,”. in neither east nor west. retrieved march 7, 2018 safeerawan, m. a. (2017). islamic postfeminism and muslim chick lit : coexistance of conflicting discourse. pakistan journal of women studies : aalam-i-niswan, 24(2), 93-105. said, e. (1994). culture and imperialism. london: verso. shamsee, k. (2009). international writings. london: roultedge taylor and francis. sharma, g. r. (2006). new cosmopolitan: south asian in u.s. stanford: stanford university press. shivani, a. (2006). “the re-orientalism is the part of the extension of totalism by imposing the culture, value attitude of a select minority as a representative of diverse majority”. sage publications. tew, p. (2007). the contemporaray british novels. london new york. the postcolonial cultural industry: . (2014). netherland : palgrave mcmillan. tylor, e. (1981). primitive culture . new york : j. p putnam son . waters, m. (2001). globalisation: key ideas. london .canada: roultedge. wells, j. (2006). mother's of chick lit? women. writers . readers and literarcy. london : roultedge. werbner, p. (2004). theorising complex diasporas: purity and hybridity in the south asian public sphere in britain. journal of ethnic and migration studies, 30(taylor and francis), 895-911. williams, r. (2015). keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society. oxford newyork: oxford university press. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 237 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi zahid ali associate professor, faculty of languages and literature, lasbela university fo agriculture, water and marine sciences, uthal, lasbela, balochistan, pakistan zahiimahii85@gmail.com samiullah khan assistant professor, faculty of languages and literature, lasbela university fo agriculture, water and marine sciences, uthal, lasbela, balochistan, pakistan samiluawms@gmail.com gul khanda lecturer, department of english, noshki campus, sardar bahadur khan women’s university, quetta, balochistan, pakistan gulsbk100@gmail.com abstract this research aims to determine the argument/thematic structure of sindhi verbs. in english and sindhi, it examines the locative, source, goal, and instrumentive thematic relations. the argument/thematic structure of locative, source, goal, and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi has been compared in this study. the data are in oral sindhi: daily life conversation. the information have been gathered via means of unstructured interviews. thematic structure has been applied to analyse sindhi verb phrases in order to determine the locative, source, goal, and instrumentive thematic relations in the two languages. the theory of 'theta roles and thematic relations' (carnie, 2006; radford, 2009; ouhalla, 2010) was employed to analyse the data both theoretically and analytically. it is discovered that sindhi locatives, sources, goals, and instrumentives are all connected in some way. in terms of function and importance, they are similar to the english ones. furthermore, the abovementioned thematic relations in sindhi are the same as those in english in the written form of the language; they have a set placement/position in a sentence, e.g. initial, middle, or final. however, the semantic/thematic relations in sindhi are different from those in english in terms of the position/placement in the oral form. sindhi sources, goals, and locatives are more flexible in terms of placement than english sources, goals, and locatives. goals and locatives in sindhi sources are more flexible in terms of location and position than in english; they can be employed at the beginning, middle, or end of sentences. keywords: thematic relations, argument structure, sources, goals, locatives, instrumentives, english, sindhi introduction the structure of a language differs from the other langauge in many ways; some utilise svo, while others use sov, vos, and so on (veesar, kadhim & baggudu, 2016). the main aim of languages all over the world is to communicate, share, and transfer information from one source to another (yule, 1996). they cannot, however, have the same structure; each language has its unique structure. the structure differs from one language to the next. the https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 mailto:zahiimahii85@gmail.com mailto:samiluawms@gmail.com mailto:gulsbk100@gmail.com a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 238 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 structure of arabic, for example, differs from hebrew, sanskrit an other languages as well. the structure of sindhi (language) is likely to differ from the structure of english (language), and vice versa. the subject, verb, and object (svo) structure is used in english. every language has its unique set of forms, sounds, and structural characteristics that distinguish it from others (chomsky, 1982). sindhi is one of the subcontinent's most phonologically, morphologically, and structurally diverse languages (jokhio, 2012; fahmida, 2012; zahid, 2016). almost every language nowadays utilises at least two scripts: its local script and the roman script. sindhi, on the other hand, with same vocal form uses three scripts (phonology and lexis): the arabicsindhi script is being used in pakistan, the devanagri script is used in india, and the roman sindhi script is often used in pakistan (used on the internet, mobile phones, and tablets). (jatly, 2011; veesar, z. a., kadhim, k. a., shah, s. a. & khuhro, r. a., 2016; tarachandani, 2013). the phonology, morphology, grammar, and especially the sindhi parts of speech have all been studied on by the authors. sindhi syntax and semantics, on the other hand, are still overlooked in current linguistics. there is no detailed study of syntax in sindhi available (pitafi, 2009; fahmida, 2011; zahid, 2016). sindhi is one of the oldest and most widely spoken languages in the subcontinent(fahmida, 2012; zahid a., 2016). the major portion syntax, on the other hand, is completely ignored. there is a lot of study on sindhi grammar, however there is very little work on syntax with perspective of modern linguistics. adwani (1926) solely focused on sindhi morphology, grammar, and parts of speech, and put sindhi syntax on the back burner. syntax and semantics have been ignored for a long time, or the writers of the past were unaware of these current language words (veesar, z.a., kadhim, k. a. & sriniwass, s., 2015). modern witters, in the same vein, continue to ignore it; fahmida, 2009; rahman, 2009; rashdi, 2009; pitafi, 2010; jokhio, 2012; 2013 & 2014. in the light of the above, the current research aims to determine the thematic structure of sindhi verbs in terms of source, goal, instrumentive, and locative thematic relations. sindhi verbs verbs are significant in sentences because they show what the sentences are doing. the argument structure is determined by a language's verbs, and it depicts the numerous arguments that the verbs take. the verbs of a language assign roles and thematic relationships to arguments (dowty, 1991; oltra-massuet & castroviejo, 2014). verbs can be transitive or intransitive, depending on their nature. arguments' nature is determined by the character of verbs. a https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 239 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 transitive verb, as generally known, is a two-place-argument verb, meaning it takes two arguments; an intransitive verb, on the other hand, is a one-place-argument verb (carnie, 2006; radford, 2009). the body of a sentence is said to be a verb (jokhio, 2012a). the verbs demonstrate the actions of sentences. verbs are classified in languages on the bases of their patterns. according to jokhio (2012), sindhi verbs are classified into two categories: auxiliary verbs and main verbs. sindhi main verbs are classified into two types: regular and irregular. auxiliaries are also found in tow forms: free auxiliary and linking auxiliary verbs. verbs in sindhi are derived from imperatives, which are the basic form of sindhi verbs (baig, 2006; zahid a., 2016). according to baig (2006), sindhi imperatives are nouns that serve as verbs. he goes on to say that the imperative forms also determine situations like nominative, accusative, and state cases. in sindhi, the objects of irregular verbs appear indirectly in phrases (adwani, 1926 & 1985). verbs in sindhi form two further types such as transitive and intransitive verbs, which are further subdivided into subtypes (khoso, 2005; rashidi, 2007; agmon, et.al., 2013). argument structure the concept of argument structure is employed in modern linguistics to characterise the relationship between the predicate and its arguments. the structure of an argument is made up of both syntactic and semantic elements, with the former presenting participants or arguments and the latter displaying occurrences. verbs offer thematic roles to the arguments of a phrase (agmon, 2013). the syntactic sentence structure is identified by the forms of the sentence, that led to the formation of meaning of the sentence ( ackerman, 2013). structure depicts the hierarchy of arguments (levin, & hovav, 2015; acua-faria, meseguer, & carreiras, 2014). the discussion about verb in a sentence is determined by the argument structure. however, thematic structure, is what decides which thematic functions are ascribed to the arguments in a sentence. arguments are adopted by a verb based on the action or circumstance it expresses; from its meaning. (haegeman, 1994; 2013). the predicates of the sentences create the argument structure of the verbs; predicates take claims based on the action or state conveyed by the verbs. two different types of predicates occur: one-place predicates and two-place predicates. two-place predicates, or transitive verbs, require two arguments to establish the meaning of a phrase. intransitive verbs are predicates that only take one act in one place. the verbs'/predicate's arguments are realised in sentences through prepositional phrases (pps) and https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 240 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 noun phrases (nps). the argument structure of every predicate identifies the arguments and theta roles they play in the statement. as a result, rude (1996) of the view that outward justifications are structurally less than applicable arguments, whereas inner arguments are technically higher. (1996). (fabregas, 2014; saab, 2015). the argument pertaining to the verb structure leads to theta roles. the relation of thematic works on theta roles, which are semantic categories (ouhalla, 1999). the link between syntax and semantics is demonstrated by the thetacriterion theory. the verbs indicate the argument and thematic framework, which are one and the same. theta roles are assigned to arguments by verbs in a phrase/clause/sentence. structures of thematic are lexical features that lie within the projection principle theory umbrella. argument structure, according to sadler and spencer (1998), connects syntax and morphology. they term morpholexical operations "meaning-changing" because they affect the semantic content or predicate. morpho syntactic procedures change the syntactic presentation of a schema, particularly how it is placed on grammatical links. (sadler & camilleri, 2013; harley, 2013). according to luuk (2009), natural language's predicate/argument form is far more advanced than first-order deductive reasoning. a language has fossils, and according to jackendoff (1999), a language has five fossils; he refers the structural principles of the text as language fossils. in linguistics, the contrast between predicate and external argument (subject) is well-known. a link between linguistic argument (la) and language predicate can be established (lp). he offers eleven reasons why las are more important in expressions than lps. in natural language syntax, the linguistic predicate/argument structure has a universal approach. determiners, possessors, and word order restrictions are all over the place in linguistic arguments, while voiec asepect, mood and tenese, and contrains of word order are all over the place in linguistic predicates (lu, 2014; borik, 2014; adger, 2007). the argumentative strategy, according to winterstein (2012) is limited by his inability to handle circumstances in which the internal structure of the items entering the argumentation calculus is directly exploited: psydo "semantic opposition" element such scenario, a finer version of the basic difference technique is required. the level of construction of the arguing purpose is where this susceptibility to structure is found, rather than at the level of the argumentative purpose's formation.only situations of semantic contrast and rejection of https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 241 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 anticipation were examined in this study. according to him, at least two other meanings of but are commonly considered: corrective and monadic. harley (2013) also investigates external arguments (subjects) as well as the mirror principle. he poses the following two research questions: 1) what is the definition of an argument? 2) how are they kept in check? morphological derivations are syntactic derivations, according to mirror principle (baker, 1985), which means that morphology leads to syntax. external and internal arguments are sandwiched between applied views. the benefited arguemnts are often accompanied by specific verbs obseved in hiaki. external arguments are introduced via causative verbs, and interior arguments are introduced by applicative morphemes in hiaki. on 3 tiers, semantic positions are probed: participant roles, theme roles, and syntactic relationships. theta allocation of responsibilities based on the clause's phrase structure.the arguments cannot be analysed in isolation; they are linked to other elements and can bear one, two, or three thematic relationships (lehmann, 2005). thematic linkages and their explanations make up the theme structure, which is a partial depiction of meaning. (wechsler, 2005). the languages' arguments are arranged in a hierarchical order: instrument>patient/theme>place>agent>recipient>experiencer/goal> (bierwisch, 2006). theta roles and thematic relations a theta-role (-role) is a set of thematic relationships associated with a certain point of view (carne 2007). thematic linkages and theta roles are exemplified in the following sentence: 1 sara gave me a book. in the first example, the argument 'sara' is an agent who gives 'a book' to 'me.' the argument 'a book' becomes a source in the statement as it passes from 'sara' to 'me.' as a result, it's possible to claim that 'sara' is also the sentence's action source. 'a book,' which is brought to 'me,' is the direct object, or theme of the sentence. according to the logic, 'me' is the recipient of a book from 'sara.' as a result, the book stated in the statement helps to support this viewpoint. it is also the sentence's aim; a book goes from 'sara' to 'me,' indicating the book's final destination. therefore, keeping this short analysis in view, it can be argued that the example (1) has three arguments (she (np), a book (np) and https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 242 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 me (np) ) carries three roles of theta (recipient, theme and agent) and five thematic relations (agent, source, theme, recipient and goal). a semantic link between the argument and the predicate is known as a theme relation (carnie, 2006). it is verbs that demonstrate theta roles and thematic relationships, as well as their relationship to the sentence's predicate. the semantic roles of participants are described using theta roles and thematic linkages (radford, 2009; 2013). the following examples demonstrate this. 2 the students bunked the class. (agent) (theme) the agent of the example (2) is the argument ‘students’, which does an action of bunking the class. the second argument ‘the class’ is a theme goes through a process which is bunked by the students. carnie (2006) claims that the usage of so-called theme relations is one means of conveying selectional constraints. these are specific semantic phrases that manifest the part of argument performs in relation to the argument. the titles of the participant roles connected with a predicate are theta roles and thematic relations. research methodology this study employs the qualitative method (neuman, 2006; kumar, 2011). the descriptive and exploratory research designs are used to analyse the data. the study looks at sindhi verbs' thematic structure in terms of instrumentive, locative, source and goal and aims at their thematic relationships in sentences. it examines and investigates the position, function, and significance of the aforementioned thematic relationships in sindhi. the study is conducted on the sindhi spoken form. the data were gathered from native sindhi speakers through unstructured interviews so that we could get primary data for the study. the data were collected from the upper sindh region speakers. the participants were university students, aged between 22-32. the conveninet sampling technique was applied to collect the data through interviews. the locals (participants) were provided the free and open environment to communicate more freely. they were asked open-ended questions about their education, family, current and previous jobs, goals and objectives, and so on. data analysis carnie proposed the idea of ' theta roles and thematic relations,' which was used to analyse the english data (2007). this theory serves as the study's theoretical and analytical https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 243 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 framework. in sindhi, the source, goal, locative, and instrumentive thematic relations have been investigated. the data are analysed to see how sindhi verbs relate to the thematic relationships described above. it is also examined to understand how the verbs in sindhi assign such thematic relationships to arguments. the research also looks for important parallels and differences between english and sindhi source, goal, locative, and instrumental thematic relations. the current research study examines the sindhi verbs' thematic structure to determine where, when, and how important such thematic relationships are. theta-criterion many linguists and writers believe that each argument has only one theta role, which means that each theta role is assigned to only one argument, and that a single theta role can have multiple thematic relations (bobaljik, nevins, & sauerland, 2011; chomsky, 1981 & 1982; haegeman, 1994; carnie, 2007; radford, 2009; bobaljik, nevins, & sauerland, 2011). thematic relations theta roles and thematic relations are a link between semantics and syntax that shows the connection between assertions (particiants) and situations. there can be multiple theta roles and thematic relations in a single argument (davis, 2009). on the other hand, two arguments cannot have the same theta role at the same period (dowty, 1991). in english, the theta role of agent is explained in cases (3) and (4) under (carnie, 2006). 3 they called nani. 4 she spoke chinese. the subject of the sentence in example (3) is ‘they.' ‘they' make a phone call to ‘nani.' in example (4), the character ‘she' performs the action of speaking chinese. they (they) and she (she) both have agent-proto characteristics (dowty, 1991). as a result, they are the agents of the preceding cases. let's look at the sindhi locative, source, goal, and instrumentive thematic relations and analyse them. locative thematic relations in sindhi table 1. locative theta relation in sindhi example example (5) آُء يونيورسٽي ماليا ۾ پي ايڇ ڊي ڪري رهيو آهيان. ِهتي sentence description sentence https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 244 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 roman script hity aaon university malaya mei phd kary rahyo aahiyan. transliteration hity=here; aaon=i; university; malaya; mei=in; phd; kary=do; rahyo=agreement; aahiyan=am. translation i am doing phd here in university malay. the very first argument (np) ' آءُ =aaon=i' is a singular first-person pronoun that can be used in place of a proper noun (a person). this argument completes a task in the sentence: it completes a 'phd' at the university of malaya. as a result, because it has an operator thematic relation as well as a nominative case in the sentence, this argument can be considered the sentence's agent. the second argument, 'phd,' is a proper noun, a phrase indicating a higher degree, and hence cannot execute an action by itself. it is, in fact, the one that anyone can do. this is the argument that the sentence is dealing with (doing). with this in mind, it is possible to argue that this argument is the object or theme that has a theme thematic relation. 'university malaya mein=in university malaya' denotes the location where the subject 'i' is a phd candidate. a noun is usually qualified in a prepositional phrase. the noun in the preceding prepositional phrase is 'university malaya,' which is a proper noun identifying a location. as a result, this argument is classified as locative. table 2 shows a sindhi example of the locative theta connection. example (6) .۾ رهون پيا اسان اُن ڳوٺ sentence description sentence roman script assan una goth mein rahon paya. transliteration assan=we; una=that; goth=village; mei=in; rahon=live; paya=agreement. translation we live in that village. example 6 shows a noun phrase and a prepositional phrase in the verb phrase "rahoon paya=are living." the agent theta role is played by the noun phrase 'assan = we'. the sentence's prepositional phrase is " una ghoth mein = in that village," indicating the location of the sentence's action. for plural pronouns, the second person plural argument 'assan = we' is used. in the sentence, the prepositional phrase ‘una ghoth mein = in that village' is employed as an object https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 245 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 complement, which completes the statement. it is an object complement, not a direct or proper object, that completes the phrase. the prepositional phrase indicates the area of the subject's location. in the prepositional phrase, the common noun ‘goth = village' indicates the place or location where the subject resides. as a result, this argument can be categorized as a locative with the locative theta role and locative thematic relation, as well as the locative case in the phrase. source thematic relations in sindhi table 3. source theta relations in sindhi example example (7) .۽ مان بيسيڪلي پاڪستان مان آهيان sentence description sentence roman script ain basically maan pakistan maa aahiyan. transliteration ain=and; basically; maan=i; pakistan; maa=from; aahiyan=am. translation and basically i am from pakistan. the verb phrase in example 7 is 'aahiyan = am,' which includes a noun phrase and a prepositional phrase to consider. the noun phrase is ' مان = maan = i,' and the prepositional phrase is 'pakistan maan = from pakistan.' the design of the following case implies that it fits the pp, epp, and theta-criteria. the argument 'maan = i,' the very first statement, is a firstperson singular. the prepositional phrase 'pakistan maan = from pakistan' has 3 functions: it accomplishes a sentence, it indicates the subject's source (identifies origin of subject), and it also suggests the subject's location or location in the sentence. the subject travels from pakistan to some other place and shows his loction of orgin. it is also locative in the phrase since it reveals the location of the subject. as a result, the proper noun ‘pakistan' can be considered to be both the source and locative of the sentence. table 4. source theta relations in sindhi example example (8) ته جڏهن مان مدرسي کان ڪجهه ٽائيم جي الِء موڪل تي آيُس ڳوٺ آيُس موڪل تي. sentence description sentence https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 246 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 roman script ta jadahin maan maderse khan kujh time je lai mokal ty ahyus ghoth aayus mokal ty. transliteration ta=that; jadahin=when; maan=i; maderse=madrasa; khan=from; kujh=some; time; je=of; lai=for; mokal=leave; ty=on; aayus=came; ghoth=village; aayus=came; mokal=leave; ty=on. translation so when i came to the village on vacation for a few days from the madaresah. example 8 is represented in table 4 by the verb phrase 'aayus = came', shows two noun phrases 'maan = i' and 'goth = village', and three prepositional phrases 'maderse khan = from madersah', 'kujh time lai=for some time', and 'mokal ty = on vacation'. the initial noun phrase, 'maan = i' performs the action of' ‘coming’ to the village. as a result, this argument is valid and has an agent theta role in the sentence. in the first prepositional phrase 'maderse khan=from religious school,' the common noun 'maderse=religious school' exposes the sentence's 'source' of action. this argument has an ablative case in the sentence because it demonstrates source in the sentence; the subject (agent) returns home from the madarisa (school). as a result, this argument (maderse=religious school) can be deemed a source of the statement because it serves the role of the source. furthermore, this argument depicts a location known as a "religious school." as a result, it is possible to say that the sentence carries theta relation of locative theme. goal thematic relations in sindhi table 5. goal theta relation in sindhi example example (9) اُنهيء کان پوِء وري هليا وينداهون آفيس ۾. sentence description sentence roman script unhe khan poi wari halya wenda hon office mei. transliteration unhe=that; khan=from; poi=then; wari=again; halya=go; wenda=will go; hyon=are; aafice=office; mei=in. translation then (we) go back to the office. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 247 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 the table 5 shows a sentence 9 having a verb phrase ‘هون ويندا halya wenda=هليا hon=go/get in/get back/get inside’. this verb phrase carries one argument to review. its argument is in the prepositional phrase ‘آفيس ۾=affice mei=in office’. the argument ‘aaffice=office' indicates subject's action's destination/goal. it demonstrates the acts of 'going/getting back' is completed. thus, the noun 'aaffice=office' in the prepositional phrase ‘in the office’ shows the goal of the sentence along with goal thematic relation. afore-mentioned simple noun too indicates subject's placement in the phrase. as a result, the argument ‘aaffice=office' can be considered a locative of the phrase, as well as having a locative thematic relation in the sentence. thus, in above example, the argument ‘office' has one theta role of goal and two thematic relation of goal and locative. the subject of the statement is omitted in the surface structure; we do not know who the subject is unless we check the sentence's basic/deep structure, since this surface structure does not convey a clear subject. in the verb 'wenda=will go,' the phonological inflection 'aa=agreement' shows that the subject is a first person plural masculine (we). table 6. goal theta relation in sindhi example example (10) واپس اچي گهر پوِء بس ماني جو وارو هوندو آهي. sentence description sentence roman script wapis achi ghar poi bus maani jo waro hoondo aahy. transliteration wapis=back; achi=come; ghar=home; poi=then; bus=indeed; maani=meal; jo=of; waro=turn; hoondo=happen; aahy=is. translation having come back home then it is my turn to cook meal. a complex phrase with void elements at the subject and object places is shown in example 10 in table 6. the context sentence is used to deduce the concealed subject sentence, which is spoken in passive form. the phrase 'hondo aahy=is' is displayed in example 10. it has a prepositional phrase 'maani jo waro=meal turn' and a having clause 'wapis achi ghar=having returned home', which specifies the subject and object positions. as a result, this statement demonstrates how the projection principle and criterion are reflected through reasoning and sentence construction. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 248 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 in the prepositional phrase 'maani jo waro=meal turn', the common noun 'maani=meal (dinner)' manifests cooking in the sentence 'dinner.' the word 'maani=meal (dinner)' emphasises the sentence's thematic relation. this is the only argument that is considered and focused on in the statement. the following supplied sentence is to be interpreted as follows: 'having arrived home, i cook meal (dinner)', where 'i' signifies the agent or subject and 'meal' denotes the topic or theme, but 'home' denotes the sentence's location. in the clause 'wapis achi ghar=come home', the common noun 'ghar=home' is used. the words ‘come’ and ‘cook’ denote the subject's purpose, as well as the subject's aim. therefore, the arguemnt goal oreinted which also sense the role of theme in the given sentence however, it shows the location too. coming back and cooking meal means shows purpose and theme of the sentences, and it also works as a locative in the given sentence. so, the arguemnt is built that home shows the role of goal along with thematic and locative relation in sentence. instrumentive thematic relations in sindhi table 7. goal theta relation in sindhi example example (11) اُن جو اسان کي جواب ڏيو ايميل جي ذريعي. sentence description sentence roman script una jo assan khy jawab dio email je zarie. transliteration una=that; jo=of; assan=we; khy=have; jawab=answer; dio=give; email; je=of; zarie= through. translation give us its reply through an email. in table 7, example 11 offers a verb phrase 'dio=give' with three arguments to discuss (two noun phrases and one prepositional phrase). the noun phrases are ‘una jo jawab=its answer/reply' and ‘assan khy=us,' whereas the prepositional phrase is ‘email je zarie=through an email.' direct object of argument is the first argument 'una jo jawab=its answer/reply'. somebody asked the speaker to answer them through email, as per the speaker. this is the argument that is subjected to the sentence's action: it is being presented. as a result, with the theme theta role and accusative case, this argument is the direct object in the sentence. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 249 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 the second argument, ‘assan khy=us,' is the possessive form of the second person plural. it shows the ability to hold something. this argument is the sentence's object complement/indirect object so it accomplishes the assertion. the argument 'assan khy=us' shows to whom the answer is given. it is neither the sentence's centre nor its theme. as a result, this argument cannot be considered to reflect the sentence's actual object or theme. however, because it specifies the recipient of the answer (from the second person to the argument 'us'), this argument might be deemed the sentence's goal. as a result, it can be said that it serves as the sentence's goal theta role with goal thematic relation. this argument has an ablative case since it is an indirect object in the statement. the common noun 'email' does not perform any action in the sentence other than being used as a tool to accomplish the action of 'giving' the answer/reply in the prepositional phrase 'email je zarie=hrough an email.' as a result, in the prepositional phrase, the common noun 'email' is used as an instrument in the sentence to perform the action of replying, and it has both the instrument theta role and an instrumental case. table 8. goal theta relation in sindhi example example (12) بائيڪ تي ويندا ها سين بابا سان گڏ ِسڌو اسڪول. sentence description sentence roman script bike ty wenda haa sein baba saan gad sidho iskool. transliteration bike; ty=on; wenda=will go; huyaa=were; sein=agreement; baba=father; saan=with; gad=together; sidho=direct; iskool=school. translation (we) along with father used to go direct to the school on bike. example 12 is shown in table 8 with the verb phrase ‘weend huyaa sein=used to go'. it has two prepositional phrases and one noun phrase. in the statement, the noun phrase 'iskool=school' plays the goal theta role. the prepositional phrases 'bike ty=on the bike' and 'baba saan=with father' include nouns in the sentence that are utilised as instruments to carry out the action. the initial noun phrase or argument 'iskool=school' is the sentence's object complement because it neither performs nor experiences a sentence action. it's only used to finish a sentence https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 250 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 and show where the subject is headed. it does not refer to the sentence's theme; instead, it refers to the subject's goal or destination. on the other hand, because it illustrates the sentence's destination or objective, this argument could be deemed the sentence's goal. the subject is removed from the sentence's surface structure. according to bur'ro (2004), sindhi subjects are usually inferred and comprehended from verb inflections. in the verb phrase 'weend huyaa sein=used to go,' the inflection 'sein=agreement' is used to denote the first person plural subject 'assan=we'. the inflection 'sein' is used with the verb phrase to denote the first person plural subject 'we' in sindhi. as a result, in the phonetic form/surface structure of the sentence, the subject of the sentence can be considered to be eliminated. the argument 'baike=bike' illustrates that it is a sentence instrument in the prepositional phrase 'bike ty=on the bike.' it does not perform or undergo an action; rather, the hidden subject uses it as a tool to carry out the action of 'going' to school. to get to and from the school, the argument 'baike=bike' is used exclusively. as a result, this argument can be thought of as an instrument in the sentence, with an instrument theta role and an instrumental case. findings and discussion the data fo the study reveal that sindhi, like english, uses the same pattern of locative, source, goal, and instrumentive theta relations. ‘sources' are supposed to be at the beginning of an action in a sentence; ‘goals' are the ending points or destinations of action; ‘intruments' are used to conduct an action; and ‘locatives' show places or locations where actions take place in english. sindhi 'sources,' 'goals,' 'instrumentives,' and 'locatives' show a starting point, a destination, a place or a location, and an instrument of an activity in sentences, just as english. in prepositional and adverbial phrases, english ‘instruments,' ‘sources,' ‘goals,' and ‘locatives' are employed as adjuncts (haegeman, 1994). adjuncts are always inserted in the middle or at the end of a sentence in english. however, in rare circumstances, such adjucnts can be used at the beginning of a sentence (carnie, 2006). sindhi ‘sources,' ‘goals,' ‘locatives,' and instruments, on the other hand, are employed at the end, middle, and beginning of a phrase (allana, 2010). they do not have any fixed locations; in comparison to english, they are more flexible in terms of placement and position. agents, themes, and adjuncts (prepositions, adverbs, and adjectives), as we know, have three set locations in sentences: the first, middle, and last (carnie, 2006). in both written and spoken english, the same pattern of place and position of the argument is used. in english, the positions of arguments are only moved in the https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 251 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 active and passive forms. sindhi's written form, which is the standard form of the language, includes defined placements for various arguments at subject, object, and adjunct positions. in the written form of the language, it follows the same pattern of employing locatives, sources, aims, and instrumentives. sindhi, on the other hand, is distinguished by its spoken form of language, which does not adhere to the place and position of arguments. it employs the abovementioned thematic relations in a variety of sentences. the locations of arguments in spoken sindhi are violated at the subject and object positions, as well as with their adjuncts. thematic relations (arguments) in spoken sindhi are more flexible in their placement in sentences. we can see many places where spoken sindhi does adhere to the placement rules for ‘sources’, ‘goals’, ‘locatives’ and ‘instruments’; it places them at initial, middle and even at the end of a sentence. there are many places where adverbs follow agents which otherwise should be reverse (baig, 2006). example 9 in table 5 shows that an adverb of time ‘then’ is placed at the initial position of the sentences followed by the rest of constituents of the sentence. adverbs are to be used after agents and verbs in sentences; may be at middle or final places. it can be seen that the palcement of agents and adverbs is violated in the above mentined example. however, such placement violations do not affect form and meaning of sentences in the spoken sindhi; it is equally well accepted and grammtically correct. example 5 in table 1 shows that the prepositional phrase ‘۾ university=يونيورسٽي ماليا malaya mein=in university malaya’ is used before the verb of the sentence. the verb is used at the final positon in the sentence. there are certain places where agents and themes are placed at the middle position of the spoken sindhi sentence, which must not be placed in the written sindhi. we can see the example 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 where placements of subjects and objects are violated without affecting form and meaning of the sentences. on the other hand, example 11 uses instrument (an email) after the verb (give) which must be used before the verb. example 12 uses instrument at the initial position of a sentence which must not be used in written sindhi. initial position is supposed to be used for agents and middle or final for instruments. it can be seen that the examples 9, 10 and 11 use null subjects in their surface structure or phonetic form (pf) of the sentence. however, the null subjects and objects can be infered, identified or recovered via verbal inflections (inf) and agreement (agr) (chomsky, 1982; haegeman, 1994). it can also be seen that the placement of thematic relations in sindhi is almost always violated in the spoken form, but followed in the written form. however, the https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 252 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 interesting finding of the study is that these placement and position violations of sources, goals, locatives and instrumentives do not affect form and meaning of sentence. as can be seen from the samples and analysis above, different thematic relations have distinct functions to execute. the purpose of locatives, for example, is to place something or to show the position of an action in a sentence. sources display the action's origin or beginning location. in sentences, goals show the target, destination, or end point of actions. instruments do not perform functions; instead, agents employ them to carry out actions in sentences. to show the source of action, destination, location, and an instrument used to do something in sentences, the english thematic relations of sources, goals, locatives, and instruments are utilised. the study of the preceding cases reveals that the above-mentioned sindhi theme linkages function similarly to english. the fundamental difference between sindhi and english thematic relations is their placement and location; english has a definite placement and location, whereas in sindhi they can be employed at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence without impacting structure or meaning. conclusion every language, according to carnie (2006), has a variety of thematic relations; the number of thematic realtions varies from langague to langague. this study aims to describe and analyse the thematic relations and theta roles of locatives, sources, goals, and instrumentives in the sindhi language. in terms of place/position, functions, and relevance, the sindhi stated thematic relations are compared to the english ones. the data in this study are analysed using the notion of 'thematic relations and theta roles' (carnie, 2006). according to the findings, sindhi follows a nearly identical pattern of utilising the above-mentioned thematic relations as the english language. in the written form of the language, english and sindhi sources, aims, locatives, and instrumentives are placed in their established positions (final for english and middle for sindhi) (standard sentence). in both written and spoken english, the placement/position of such thematic relations follows the same pattern. sindhi, on the other hand, differs from english in this regard, having a defined spot (i.e. the middle) in written form for the aforementioned thematic relations. in spoken form, it does not follow any defined positions for the above-mentioned thematic relations. thematic relations in spoken sindhi are more flexible in terms of location; they can appear at any point in the sentence. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 a comparative study of locative, source, goal and instrumentive thematic relations in english and sindhi 253 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 however, the key finding of the current study is that such errors in the arrangement of thematic relations in spoken sindhi have no effect on the sentence's form or meaning. references acuña-fariña, j. c., meseguer, e., & carreiras, m. 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(2009). introduction to english sentence structure. cambridge: cambridge university press. saab, a. (2015). on long-distance theta-role assignment lingua, 160, 91-126. sadler, l., & camilleri, m. (2013). ditransitive predicates and dative arguments in maltese. lingua, 134, 36-61. tarachandani, n. (2011). فرق جو لپيَء ۽ sindhi boli tahqeeqi journal, sindhi language .ٻولي authority, hyderabad, sindh, pakistan, 78-85. wechsler, s. (2005). thematic structure. in the encyclopedia of language and linguistics (2nd ed.). amsterdam: elsevier. winterstein, g. (2012). what but-sentences argue for: an argumentative analysis of but. lingua, 122(15), 1864-1885. veesar, z. a., kadhim, k. a., & sriniwass, s. (2015a). establishing the thematic structure and investigating the most prominent theta roles used in sindhi language. international journal of applied linguistics and english literature, 4(4), 216-230. veesar, z. a., sriniwass, s., & kadhim, k. a. (2015b). a comparison of theme theta roles in english and sindhi. language & communication, 2(1), 77-89. zahid, a. (2016). morphosemantic and syntactic analysis of verbs in sindhi/zahid ali (doctoral dissertation, university of malaya). @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.295 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 16 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory dr. amjad ali assistant professor, department of english, islamia college peshawar dr. syed shujaat ali assistant professor, department of english, kohat university of science and technology kohat mr. imran ali lecturer, department of english, kohat university of science and technology kohat abstract the central question that this paper attempts is to describe the conditions under which the anaphor can be determined grammatically or contextually. the issue at hand is whether anaphoric forms can be distinguished from indexical ones within binding theory. the syntactic representation of bindees are characterized by the use of indices. but what role does the context play in assigning co-referential or non-coreferential properties to anaphors? furthermore, ellipses are also contextbound. an elliptical structure is indexical, rather than anaphoric. the study analyzes the syntactic structures of chomsky’s binding theory within bolinger’s (1979) semantic model meaning and form. it seeks the support of other semanticists in order to fill possible semantic gaps in binding theory. keywords: binding theory, elliptical structures, meaning and form model 1. introduction this study shows the complementary roles of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. a linguistic structure encompasses an explicit reference to a semantic description and an implicit account of non-linguistic factor such as pragmatics. chomsky’s binding theory (1986) describes the syntactic configurations of anaphors and pronominals without specifying their semantic and pragmatic significance. this study aims at analyzing those missing gaps in the theory by applying meaning and form (1979) model. this model premises that there exists a one-to-one correspondence between form and meaning and any divergence in formal structure can actuate a difference in the semantic interpretation of the sentence. it is the reaffirmation of labov’s (1972) assertion that a single semantic structure cannot find expression in two different formal https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 17 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 descriptions. the model, as alto1(1977) summarizes , reinforces the old linguistic principle that “the natural condition of a language is to preserve one form for one meaning, and one meaning for one form “(preface x). the current study, however, focuses on those aspects of the model that provide a semantic description of the syntactic structure of binding module. the model serves as a framework which help in understanding the semantic and pragmatic dimensions of the theory. 2. literature review binding theory has been the topic of extensive syntactic debate. for haegeman (1994), binding theory regulates not only the referential configurations of nps, but also formulates their grammatical constraints. it essentially examines the relations between nps in a-positions, it is, therefore, a theory of a-binding2. jackendoff (1972) recommends that a thematic hierarchy condition must replace a c-commanding requirement for understanding binder-bindee relationship. sentence (1) is unacceptable because the antecedent “john” is lower in thematic hierarchy (theme) than the anaphor “himself” (agent). 1. *”john was killed by himself.” reuland and everaert (2001) in “deconstructing binding” deconstruct the theory along empirical lines. sentences (2) and (3), according to them, are clear violation of condition a and b respectively because in (2) the bindee lacks a well-recognized antecedent while in (3) the anaphor “himself” receives case from “expect” which is not in the local domain of the bindee. 2. “*[john i expected] [mary j to hate himself i].” 3. “[john i expected] [himself i to be able to hate mary].” the complementary distribution of anaphors and pronominals is also violated in certain cases like (4). 4. “john i pulled the blanket over him i/himself i.” 1 quoted in bolinger (1979) meaning and form, preface p. x. 2 a-binding describes binding relations in argument positions, whereas in a ՜-binding the antecedent is not in an a-positions. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 18 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 fiengo and may (1994) refer to the possibility of imagining a natural language in which there is no reflexives. principle (a) will assume a different dimension and the sentence (5) will be expressed as (6) in which personal pronominal will be construed as reflexive: 5. “john i admired himself i.” 6. “john i admired him i.” for carnie (2000), the theory delineates the syntactic restrictions of nps in a sentence. an anaphor, for example, cannot be subjectivized in an english sentence. 7. “*each other annoyed them.” 3. binding theory the standard formulation of this theory first originated in the work of chomsky (1986). this theory characterizes the syntactic relation between nominal expressions and their antecedents. these nominals are categorized as: (i) anaphors, (ii) pronominals, and (iii) r-expressions. the formal identity of anaphora or bindees is captured by co-indexation. numerals provide a convenient representational device for indices. these indices help to bring out linguistic distinctiveness in otherwise indistinguishable as linguistic forms. nps are the same if they bear occurrences of the same index, different if they bear occurrences of different indices. the theory includes the following three principles: a. “an anaphor is bound in a local domain.” b. “a pronominal is free in a local domain.” c. “an r-expression is free.” an expression is locally bound if the bindee is c-commanded by the binder; it is locally free if it is not locally bound. it is globally free if it is not c-commanded by a coindexed phrase in any dominating category. nps which come as r-expressions (referring expressions) denote people, objects or ideas in the real or in an imaginary discourse context. those which feature as anaphors like reflexives and reciprocals draw their meanings from other nps in the sentence. consider the following examples. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 19 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 8. “john i hurt himself i.” np1 np2 9. “they i defended one another i.” np1 np2 nps “himself” and “one another” in (8) and (9) are anaphors and that’s why the binders (np1s) and the bindees (np2s) have been coindexed with same indices (“i” in these cases). 3.1 locality constraint in binding theory the effect of binding is sensitive to locality requirements. this can roughly be generalized as that anaphors must be bound by an antecedent that not only c-commands, but is also sufficiently local. consider the following examples. 10. “john i said that michael j admired himself j.” 11. “john i said that michael j admired him i/*j.” 12. “he k said that michael i admired john j.” in the first, the reflexive “himself “is co-referential with michael because it falls in its local domain3. in the second, the personal pronoun cannot be co-referential with michael4 though the possibility of its co-referentiality with “john” does exist because it is far enough to be ccommanded. in the third, neither michael nor john can be the antecedent of the personal “he.” pronominals, on the other hand, do not follow binding domain restriction. “an r-expression must be free,” says chomsky (1986, p. 79). this explains the ungrammaticality of the following sentence. 13. * “michael i bopped him i on the head with the zucchini.” michael cannot be co-indexed with the pronominal “him” in (13) because it is free from binding restriction. its binder must lie outside the binding domain. also consider (14) and (15): 3 binding domain, to put in simple words, is clause-mate restriction. this restriction, however, does not apply in case of pronouns. 4 this restriction comes into effect because of locality domain. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 20 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 14. “harry i thinks john j admires him i.” 15. *“harry i thinks john j admires him j.” in (14), a co-referential relationship exists between “harry” and “him” but co-referentality is not possible between “john” and “him” in (15) because of principle (c) of binding theory. moreover, nominals as r-expressions are not bound by binding domain as shown in the following examples. 16. “john i said that john j passed the test.” 17. *“john i said that john i passed the test.”5 binding theory further states that the binder must precede the bindee 6 as illustrated in the following example: 18. *“[john expects] [himself i to meet harry i].” the antecedent “harry” and the anaphor “himself” are clause mates (non-finite clause), but the sentence is unacceptable on account of antecedent-anaphor order. this example does not only recognize the fact that the syntactic order of antecedent and the anaphor is very significant besides c-commanding and local domain but also that the subject of a non-finite clause is governed by the subject of the matrix clause--john in this case. so the bindee “himself” should rather be co-indexed with the antecedent john as in (19). 19. “[john i expects] [himself i to meet harry j].” 3.2 c-commands in binding 5 the sentence also violates the principle of pronominalization which states that pronominalization must happen in the embedded clause in case of identical nominals. see john ross (1967). 6 jackendoff (1972, p. 118) terms it as forward pronominalization. “with the antecedent to the right (calls backward pronominalization), the pronoun must not command the antecedent.” https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 21 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 binding theory recognizes a c-commanding relationship between the binder and bindee. the theory also specifies the nodes on the syntactic tree which develop a c-commanding relation7. consider the following sentences. 20. “michael i hurt himself i in the evening today.” 21. “michael’ i s father j hurt himself j in the evening today.” 22. *“michael i’s father j hurt himself i in the evening today.” in (20), “michael” c-commands the anaphor “himself” as illustrated in figure (i): (i) however, in (21) and (22), the complement “father” of the d “michael’s” can c-command the anaphor “himself,” not the d “michael’s” as indicated in (22). 4. semantic and pragmatic configurations in binding theory linguistic expressions contain open indexical (non-anaphoric) expressions whose values can only be determined contextually. this relation between sentences and contexts needs to be characterized wherein what is non-contextual is determined linguistically and what is grammatical is determined contextually. the sentence (23) can be interpreted as 23(a), 23(b) or 23(c). 23. “mary kissed her daughter.” 23(a). “mary kissed alice’s daughter.” 7 the nodes that lead to a c-commanding relationship include sisters, or sisters and nieces but never mother and daughter etc. s dp vp michael v pp np1 n himself p np d n the evening in advp today hurt ф https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 22 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 23(b). “mary kissed charlotte’s daughter.” 23(c). “mary i kissed mary i’s daughter.” this means that the pronoun “her” is an open indexical term and is an anaphoric, and hence linguistically closed, or indexical, and hence linguistically open8. similarly, in (24) the name and the pronoun must be non-coreferential by grammatical rule because of the syntactic order of antecedent and pronominal as discussed in section (3.1). these examples also lend support to the view that pronouns are bereft of lexical contents which could otherwise distinguish one name from another i.e., john from michael. 24. “john i hit michael j and then bill k hit him *i/j/*k.” ( him= michael) 25. “john i hit michael j and then bill k hit him i/*j/*k.” ( him= john) 26. “he i is oscar i.” however, if the sentence is true, then they must be coreferential. in other words, the speaker utters this identity statement with the intention that the nps flanking the copula co-refer. structurally, however, and following binding theory, the nps in this case cannot be co-indexed. grammar though precludes this co-referentiality, it, nevertheless, comports with the speaker’s intention in uttering it. the distinct nps in this case will indexically co-refer. negating the sentence, however, will lead to different syntactic relation and will make them non-coreferential. 27. “he i is not oscar j.” imagine a situation that max sees a man leaving the room but cannot see his face. on inquiry, he is told (28). 28. “he put on oscar’s coat; you figure it out.” 8 stress can also play a part in making one reading predominate over the other. see semantic interpretation in generative grammar by ray jackendoff (1972) p. 118. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 23 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 the speaker seeks to implicate that “oscar” and “he” are co-referential, based on the assumption that people put on their own coats. binding theory, however, carries no such implicatures. sentence (28) has two indexical pronouns whose value is determined by means of coindexing for there are two occurrences of pronouns which attain co-referentiality or noncoreferentiality contextually. sentence (29) should only be understandable with non-coreference. the hearer will take the speaker as intending to state something which is characteristically false (29) and that is two different people are actually the same (30). 29. “mary’s husband i is mary’s husband j.” 30. “mary’s husband i is mary’s husband i.” (29) will mean that john who is a pianist and john who is a statesman were considered two different persons. it, however, was discovered that the pianist and the statesman are one and the same person. the negative of sentence (29) as in (31) carries only non-coreference implicature and the sentence will necessarily be taken as true, that two different people are different. 31. “mary’s husband i is not mary’s husband j.” similar observations can be made about “masked ball9” circumstances. an attendee at a masked ball hears someone claim that oscar is crazy. the attendee reports it as (32). 32. “he i thinks oscar i is crazy.” upon unmasking, it turns out that the person was oscar himself. the attendee was intended to use “he” and “oscar” as non-coreferential which, in fact, turns out to co-referential. following principle (b) of binding theory, the binder and the bindee must be non-coreferential. nevertheless, what the attendee said was true irrespective of the syntactic constraints. also consider (33): 33. “bill liked his cat and charley did too.” the underlying deep level of the sentence is 33 (a) and 33 (b). 33(a). “bill liked his cat.” 9 quoted in the handbook of contemporary semantic theory (1996, p. 119) https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 24 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 (b). “charley liked his cat.” the sstructures of the sentence are 34-37. 34. “bill i liked bill’s i cat and charley liked bill’s i cat.” 35. “bill i liked bill’s i cat and charley j liked charley’s j cat.” 36. “bill i liked michael’s k cat and charley j liked michael’s k cat.” 37. “bill i liked charley’s j cat and charley j liked bill’s i cat.” 38. “*bill liked charley’s cat, and that charley liked bill’s cat.” the interpretation of “his,” according to reuland and everaert (2001), will depend on the referent of the first conjunct--bill, charley, or some other person. the sentence may be interpreted as charley liked bill’s cat, charley liked his own cat, or that he liked some other person’s cat. however, it cannot have a semantic structure of (38). the elided vp “did too” can also be interpreted as they liked their own cats. in this case the s-structure of (33) will be (39). 39. “bill i liked bill i cat and charley j liked charley j cat.” these choices are not enforced by any property of syntax. rather these are purely pragmatic in nature. the following example is also worth consideration here. 40. “if everyone admires oscar, then he admires oscar.” following binding theory, we can coindexed or non-coindexed the sentence as in 40 (a) and 40(b): 40 (a). “if everyone i admires oscar k, then he i admires oscar k.” 40 (b). “if everyone i admires oscar k, then he k admires oscar k.” if the pronoun “he” refers to anybody, it follows that no one can be excluded from those admire oscar including oscar himself. example 40 (b), on the other hand, appears to have a noncoreference implicature: 41. “if max admires oscar, then he admires oscar.” (41) can find indexical representation either as 41 (a) or 41(b): 41 (a). “if max i admires oscar k, then he i admires oscar k.” 41 (b). “if max i admires oscar k, then j admires oscar k.” https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 25 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 if the speaker intends to emphasize the pickiness of max who if admires anyone, then everyone does, then, in this case, co-referential implicature will be cancelled in favour of noncoreference. similar observations can be made about (42) wherein the pronoun “it” will be interpreted either as indexical or anaphoric. 42. “everyone who owns a donkey beats it.” co-indexiation or non-coindexication of (42) can be formulated as 42 (a). “everyone i who owns a donkey beats it i.” 42 (b). “everyone i who owns a donkey beats it j.” 5. pragmatic considerations in pronominals principle (b) of the theory validates the deictic nature of pronominals. bolinger (1980, p. 92) also asserts the sensitivity of pronominals to context. the pronoun “we” in (43) is most probably a man while (44) is uttered by a woman. 43. “we should take care of our women.” 44. “we should take care of our men.” context is significant to unraveling the co-referentiality or non-coreferentiality of pronominlas “his, her,” and “her” in (45) 45. “his wife told her husband that her father was angry.” the s-representations of 45 can be 45 (a), (b) or (c). 45(a). “john’s wife i told john’s wife’s i husband that john’s wife’s i father was angry.” 45(b). john’s wife i told mary’s husband j that mary’s father j was angry.” 45 (c). “john’s wife i told mary’s husband j that john’s wife’s i father was angry.” only context can determine the possible semantic structure of (45). this also helps in the assigning gender to nominals. it is to be recognized that a gender neutral np is marked as masculine in the corresponding pronominal form. so there is nothing odd about (46). 45. “everyone should take care of his health.” https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 26 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 (47), however, will sound odd because with “the nurse,” the dominant image is that of a woman. 47. *“the nurse put on his hat.” (bolinger, 1980, p. 94) (47) can take plural pronominal provided that the binder is indefinite: 48. “everybody will choose their partner.” this pattern can be observed in tag question as in (49). 49. “nobody is blaming you, are they?” (46), however, cannot be written with plural pronominal when the binder is definite: 50. *“a man or a woman should take care of their health.” a double pronoun “he/she” is considered clumsy: 51. “a person should take care of his or her health.” the deictic “it” co-refers to non-human antecedents. it, however, can be used as a derogatory referent for human antecedent as evident in sentence (52) wherein it has indexical relation with a passing motorist who drives recklessly and splashes water on someone passing nearby: 52. “i didn’t know it was human.” a pronominal “he” or “she” , however, replaces the deictic “it” when non-humans are humanized as in (53) or when they are recognized as proper nouns as chafe (1970, p.140) illustrates in (55). 53. “i saw a squirrel climbing a tree with his mouth full of building materials.” 54. “the elephant broke its leg.” but 55. “jumbo broke his leg.” the genderized use of pronominals also happens in case of certain inanimate nouns like “ships, cars” and “airplanes” which are conventionally marked as “she.” while the genderized representations of “car” and “airplane” involve the elements of emotions usually associated with https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 27 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 women10, “ship”, according to bolinger (1980, p. 96), marks the biased representation of women as workhorse. the crew, dominantly men, viewed it as a household working for them and toward whom they had great love and affection. this usage also finds expression in other contrivances pictured as workhorse: 56. “look at my baby car. isn’t she lovely?” on the contrary, if the object is seen as capable of containing intelligence, it is masculinized as in (57): 57. “he can sometimes play quite well.” the binder of “he” in (57) can be a computer playing a game intelligently. 58. “look at my new powerful mower i; ain’t she i a beauty?” the co-referentiality between “mower” and “she” illustrates the feminine gender of the antecedent “mower.” 5.1 the optionality of “that” in complement clause binding theory has also not conclusively accounted for the optionality of complementizer “that” in complement clauses. carnie (2000), p. 16) considers the inclusion of “that” optional in interrogative structures when the whword “who” features as an object in the matrix clause as shown in 59-62. 59. “who do you think that john will meet first?” 60. “who do you think john will meet first?” 61. “who do you think will john meet first?” 62. *“who do you think that will john meet first?” in sentence (61), “who” appears as a subject because in the corresponding declarative form, it will feature as a subject: “michael will meet john,” not “john will meet michael” which will be the possible paraphrase of it when “who” takes the object slot. this makes the exclusion of “that” obligatory in (62). 10 “car”, for instance, is treated as feminine when the speaker views it with affection. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 28 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 bolinger (1979, p. 11) considers the complementizer “that” a semantic maker. its inclusion sounds odd when a person provides unsolicited information. hence, if bill comes and volunteers information about weather forecast, he will utter (64), not (65) which will be uttered when he is solicited for the forecast in the form of (63): 63. “what’s the weather for tomorrow?” 64. “the forecast says it’s going to rain.” 65. “the forecast says that it’s going to rain.” the inclusion of “that” in (65) substantiates its indexical nature and its exclusion implies that it is a trace copy of the constituent in the interrogative structure—“weather” in the present case11. similar observations hold for “that” as a relative pronoun. the relativized clause in (67) has been marked ungrammatical because “that” as a relative pronoun is incompatible when some new information is introduced in the discourse context. this can be shown with the word “incidentally.” sentence (66), on the other hand, does not show any fresh information. the word “remember” points to something already referred to in the discourse. 66. “this letter that came yesterday, that you remember had no stamps on it, was postmarked four weeks ago.” 67. *“this letter that came yesterday, that incidentally had no stamps on it, was postmarked four weeks ago.” 11 the inculsion of “that” as a complentizer is also done in indirect speech when the speaker responds to a question asked in the discourse. 68. (michael): “what did john say today?” 69. (bill): “john said that he would eat zucchini today.” https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 29 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 the relativization of sentence (66) with “which” is a syntactic possibility. this, however, will change the semantic consideration of the sentence and will imply that the person intends to refresh the listener’s memory by bringing up the topic anew. 6. semantic implications of the syntactic order of anaphors and pronominals the anaphors (reflexives) observe a strict syntactic placement as the complements of the vp. they are, however, more free in their placement when they feature as adjuncts (emphasizers). owing to this syntactic restriction, they cannot attain a subject slot in a finite clause. consider sentences (70) and (71). 70. “she i hurt herself i". 71. *“herself i she i hurt.” as emphasizers, according to carnie (2000), anaphors may be placed as preposed or postposed constituents of the sentence as given below. 72. “she i opened the door herself i.” 73. “she i herself i opened the door.” 74. “herself i she i opened the door.” the preposed structure, according fabb (2002, p. 100), topicalizes the anaphor and is preferred in a discourse context when the anaphor is recognized as more important than the comments likewise, pronominals can also undergo syntactic reordering. binding theory does not provide any conclusive account of pronominal reordering. quirk, greenbaum, leech and svartvik (1972, p. 499) trace this ordering along the paradigm of conventional politeness. the second person pronominal precedes the first in syntactic ordering and the third precedes the first while it follows the second as illustrated in (75): 75. “you, he and i admire ourselves.” the anaphor “ourselves” is governed by first person pronominal. this means that an indexical relation exists between “i” and the anaphor “ourselves.” 76. “you, he and i i admire ourselves i.” https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 30 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 7. elliptical structures and pragmatic considerations the interpretation of elided structures, contends lappin (1994), raise a few important questions in linguistic theory. how do the speakers assign meanings to these fragments and what formal representations are given to incomplete constituents in order to interpret them systematically? this will involve an interaction between syntactic structure and semantic interpretation. syntactic structures do constrain semantic configurations of the phrases which are partially realized by lexical elements. ellipsis manifests the same occurrences of syntactic configuration as does anaphor. context determines the missing verb phrase in the elliptical structure. moreover, as johnson (2001) contends, an ellipsis site is derivationally related to a full syntactic version of the phrase whose meaning is recovered. consider (77): 77. “john collects antiques, and max does, too.” the underlying deep structure of (77) can be expressed as (78). 78. “john collects antiques and max collects antiques.” sentence (78) shows that the missing vp in (77) is “collect antiques.” it also testifies that this understanding cannot be the result of syntactic theory like binding. rather, it is the context that adds to the understanding of such code structures as palmer (1979)) calls them. this means that auxiliary has a significant role in elision. johnson (2001) also believes that auxiliary licenses vp ellipsis. so infinitival “to” and the sentential negator “not” may also be considered members of auxiliary when they cause ellipsis as illustrated below: 79. “john wants to read michael’s story and i also want to.” 80. “john is leaving but mary is not.” the elided vps is “read michael’s story” in (79) and “leaving” in (80) respectively. there can be the ellipsis of multiple phrases as in (81). 81. “i swim and i play tennis, and john does, too.” (81) will take the form (82) once the elided vps are overt. 82. “i swim and i play tennis, and john swims and plays tennis.” https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 31 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 utterances like these offer the speaker a choice to produce a redundant structure like (82) or to economize on his words and verbalize it in form (81) instead. equi-np deletion12 principle, however, will recommend the truncated form of the sentence. regardless of whether the speakers expresses the vp or elides it, the sentence in any case will be the same. ellipsis may apparently be indexical as the sentence (83) illustrates, where no prior utterance of the sort “sit down” exists. the indexical occurrences of ellipsis in this case weigh on the context which is uttered when a person who has walked into the room should sit down. the utterance is uttered in a situation in which the speaker wishes to politely indicate that the standing visitor take a seat. syntax does not evaluate examples like this other than as elliptical structures as highlighted in empty category13. yet the speaker’s utterance is understood as meaning (85) appropriately. 83. please sit down. if the person asks a question like (84), he gets (85) as an answer. 84. should i sit down? 85. please do. the conclusion that can be derived is that even with “please do,” the elided vp has a covert vp which has a prior occurrence in discourse and hence is not indexical. this further supports the analysis that a syntactic structure can be augmented by context. consider the following examples. 86. “john read the paper before bill did.” 87. “michael gave flowers to alice and chocolates too.” 88. “no student arrived, except john.” (86) is an example of vp ellipsis, where the vp “read the paper” has been replaced with a pro-word “did.” the s-structure of (86) will be (89). 12 this principle states that elements under identity are deleted. see chomsky (1986, p. 70). 13 see radford, a., atkinson, m., britain, d., clahsen, h., &spencer, a. (2009). linguistics: an introduction. (2nd ed.) https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 32 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 89. “john read the paper before bill read the paper.” (87) is an ellipsis of the vp “gave to alice” and this has been realized by the pro-word “too.” (88) is elliptical because an np “john” is without a corresponding v “arrived.” hornstein (1994)14 cites the following examples. 90. “john wanted to talk to everyone that bill did.” 91. “john wanted to word every question as i did.” the elided vp in (9) can be either “wanted to talk” or “talked to.” the same ambiguity cannot be observed in (91) wherein only the vp “wanted to word” serves as the antecedent of the elided vp. the s-structure of (90) can be (92): 92. “[np john [vp [v wanted [ip to talk [pp to everyone]] [s՜ [c that [vp bill did].” similarly the elided vp in (93) can take pp1 or pp2 as its antecedent. 93. “john applied [pp1to study] [pp2at every university] that bill did.” applying locality condition which requires that the elided vp take local argument as a complement, the realized constituent will be the pp2, not pp1. similar observations hold true for (94). 94. “john promised to read everything which michael did.” the apparent constituent of the pro-word “did” can be the matrix verb “promised” or the complement verb “read.” however, if the constituent of the elided vp is realized in the relative clause, it can only be the complement verb “read” due to locality condition. lappin (1994), however, claims that the complex verb “promised to read” cannot be ruled out the possible antecedent of the elided vp. structures like these can be disambiguated through a contextual reading only. pragmatic considerations do play a significant role in interpreting the elided vp in structures like (95). 95. “john and mary want to go out but mary can’t, because her father disapproves of john.” 14 quoted by shalom lappin in the handbook of contemporary semantic theory(1996, p. 170) https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 33 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 the elided vp is understood to be “go out with john.” this is pragmatically implied in the antecedent clause. ellipsis is also possible in non-restrictive relative clauses. consider (96): 96. “john trusts rosa, who bill does too.” the elided vp in this case is “trust rosa.” 8. conclusion binding theory describes the syntactic configurations of binder and bindee. it provides a formal description of co-referential and non-referential relation between the antecedent and anaphor which can assume indexical or grammatical form. the theory, however, assigns a peripheral significance to such relations and, since a linguistic structure must contain a semantic structure, the theory must be described within a formalism that may provide accurate description of semantic structures. no doubt, pragmatic considerations cannot be sidelined for accurate understanding of these structures. references bolinger, d. (1979). meaning and form. london and new york: longman group. bolinger, d. (1980). language-the loaded weapon: the use and abuse of language today. london and new york: routledge taylor & francis group. carnie, a. (2000). syntax. malden, ma: blackwell publishing. chafe, l. w. (1970). meaning and the structure of language. chicago and london: the university of chicago press. chomsky, n. (1986). knowledge of language: its nature, origin, and use. connecticut: praeger. fabb, n. (2002). sentence structure. london and new york: routledge taylor & francis group. fiengo, r and may, r. (1994). anaphora and identity. the handbook of contemporary semantic theory. malden, ma: blackwell publishing. haegeman, l. (1994). introduction to government and binding theory. (2nd ed.). malden, ma: https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 semantic and pragmatic structures in chomsky’s binding theory 34 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 blackwell publishing. jackendoff, r. (1972). semantic interpretation in generative grammar. cambridge: mit press. johnson, k. (2001). what vp ellipsis can do, and what it can’t, but not why. the handbook of contemporary syntactic theory. malden, ma: blackwell publishing. labove, w. (1972). language in the inner city: studies in the black english vernacular. philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press. lappin, s. (1996). the interpretation of ellipsis. the handbook of contemporary semantic theory. malden, ma: blackwell publishing. palmer. f.r. (1979). modality and the english modals. london and new york: longman group. quirk, greenbaum, leech and svartvik (1972). a grammar of contemporary english. london: addison wesley longman ltd. radford, a., atkinson, m., britain, d., clahsen, h., &spencer, a. (2009). linguistics: an introduction. (2nd ed.). cambridge: cambridge university press. reuland,e and everaert, m. (2001). deconstructing binding. the handbook of contemporary syntactic theory. malden, ma: blackwell publishing. ross, j. (1967). on the cyclic nature of english pronominalization. in to honor roman jakobson. new york: humanities. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.320 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 89 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study wagma farooq mphil scholar, department of english gs, faculty of arts and humanities, numl, islamabad wagma_95@yahoo.com hazrat umar, phd assistant professor, department of english gs, faculty of arts and humanities, numl, islamabad humar@numl.edu.pk abstract this study explores the use of the strategy of erasure in environmental science discourses to explore the deletion of the agent. three environmental science textbooks have been chosen for analysis. stibbe’s (2015) framework of erasure has been used as a model for analyzing the data. he asserts that the natural world is marginalized in texts through the use of certain linguistic strategies; these strategies run throughout the whole discourse to construct the erasure of the ecosystem. the researchers aim to identify erasure at the level of void, which is the complete erasure or deletion of the agent from these discourses. stibbe mentions nine linguistic strategies for the construction of erasure in environmental discourses. these strategies are passive voice, nominalization, co-hyponymy, hyponymy, metaphor, metonymy, construction of noun phrases, transitivity patterns and massification. for the construction of void, the researchers have analyzed the strategies of passivization and nominalization. it has been found that these strategies are pervasive in the discourses, thereby deleting the agent and constructing void. the study suggests a new way to look at the language of ecological discourses and proposes further studies on how euphemistic language in these discourses can negatively influence readers. keywords: erasure, mask, void, environmental discourse introduction the advent of novel technology has led to a proliferation in ecological problems, creating havoc worldwide. there is a pressing need for individual and collective remedial measures to counter these problems. discourses on environmental problems are imperative to promote such curative actions. for this purpose, environmental discourses have been included in the education curriculum to make young minds aware of environmental problems. environmental education has been defined as the students’ awareness, sensibility and concern for the environment and its continued deterioration (unesco, 1976). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 mailto:wagma_95@yahoo.com mailto:humar@numl.edu.pk the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 90 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 concerning pakistan, the national environment policy 2005 has laid out instructions on incorporating environmental discourses in education. it sets forth a plan for integrating environmental education at all levels, from the primary level to the university level. moreover, it outlines a scheme for establishing environmental education and training institutes and environmental clubs in all educational institutes. however, certain loopholes have been identified in environmental education and its language; as a consequence, students are not sensitized towards their calumnious role in the destruction of the environment. el moussaouy (2014) propounds that ee focuses more on imparting knowledge on the issues of the environment rather than developing skills and abilities among learners to curb these issues and produce positive attitudes towards the environment. ecolinguistics has been recently introduced as a new discipline of study within linguistics. this paradigm of study analyses the loopholes in the language that leads to ecological degeneration. analyzing the language to judge whether a text upholds an ecologically destructive or constructive ideology is the preeminent task of the ecolinguist analyst. often, discourses endorsing ecologically destructive ideologies are laden with the objectification of the natural world and the ecosystem. through the play of words and articulate use of language, animals and the natural world are shown as nothing but mere objects that have no life and consciousness of their own. such objectification rids the authors as well as the readers of any moral responsibility towards nature. scientific discourses are replete with language strategies that represent animals as specimens or objects of experimentation, denying them the qualities of life and activity; this type of representation promotes the idea that these animals are worthy of exploitation. fill (2009) termed these linguistic strategies “euphemizing strategies”. one of the euphemizing strategies used in discourses is erasure, which is the systematic elimination, marginalization, othering and backgrounding of an entity or event otherwise important and worthy of consideration. stibbe has expounded the concept of erasure as “a story in people’s mind that an area of life is unimportant or unworthy of consideration” (2015, p. 146). erasure in ecolinguistics is the exclusion or backgrounding of the natural world. through the use of certain linguistic patterns and devices, language is manoeuvred to construct the erasure of the natural world and the organisms found within it (stibbe, 2015). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 91 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 withal, three erasure patterns are rampant in discourses based on the extent to which erasure is found in these discourses (stibbe, 2015). the void is the complete exclusion of an entity or event from discourses, whereby the entity is nowhere to be found in discourses. the mask represents reality in a moulded or distorted way; thence, the true nature of something is erased. lastly, trace is the appearance of something but only in scattered fragmentsstibbe elucidates, “when discourses include mention of ‘something important’ but still manage to erase it by representing it in a vague, weak or abstract way, then this is the third type of erasure, which we will call ‘the trace’ ” (2014, p. 4). a void is created in environmental discourses when the agent engendering the ecological problems is completely excluded. the expulsion of the human agent from environmental discourses does not direct the responsibility of the ruination of the environment on humans. such ambiguous and inexplicit statements create doubts in the mind of the readers, and they are not sensitized towards their role in the destruction of the ecosystem. they start to believe that some unknown persons are responsible for this havoc, thence they do not mend ways. the deletion of the human agent is actualized through the linguistic strategies of passivization and nominalization. within this framework, kahn conducted a study (1992) on passive constructions in ecological discourses and claimed that these constructions conceal the doer of the action, whereas the deed is given central importance. he backed this argument by analyzing an article from the wildlife society bulletin, entrenched in scientific experiments on small mammals. he quotes from the article, “… upon death, coyotes were skinned, eviscerated, and myectomized…” as manifested in the example above, the deed has been shed light upon, and we have been made aware of the atrocities carried out on the animals, but the doer of the deeds has been veiled. it is as if the actions were carried out without any human input. nominalisation is another euphemizing strategy that deletes the agent from discourses. the grammatical category of the verb is changed into a noun with the addition of –ion. ergo, a noun does not require an agent grammatically, so the author disencumbers himself off the responsibility of including an agent. “the expression of grammatical agency can be avoided by several means in english, including through passivization, use of ergative verbs, and nominalizations” (schleppegrell, 1997, p. 51). verb forms like ‘to degrade’ and ‘to pollute’ are https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 92 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 converted into the nominal forms ‘degradation’ and ‘pollution’; such constructions do not entail an agent. as a consequence of living in a digital world, the environment has to pay a hefty price. technology is playing havoc in the ecosystem; henceforth, innumerable species are declining and disappearing. as a result, environmental education has been introduced to enlighten learners on the issues of the environment and take measures to heal the environment. however, critics have highlighted certain loopholes in the language of environmental discourses that further environmental deterioration. euphemizing strategies are used within environmental discourses that distort the reality of the natural world; such strategies impede sensitizing students towards their destructive role in the ecosystem. one such strategy is erasure and within erasure is the category of the void, which is the complete expulsion of the human agent from environmental discourses. ecologically harmful actions are left agentless and soulless; thence, learners are not sensitized towards their calumnious role in the ecosystem. ergo, the current study analyzes the linguistic strategies employed to construct void by deleting the human agent in environmental discourses in the selected texts. research question how far is void constructed within the environmental discourses in the selected texts through passivization and nominalization? delimitations of the study the researchers have analyzed only one aspect of the linguistic framework of erasure, namely void. three environmental science textbooks are examined to study void. lastly, the researchers have only conducted textual analysis and not the visual analysis of the selected textbooks. significance of the study the present study explores how language has been euphemized to conceal and cloak the human agent in environmental discourses. drawing attention to this aspect of language use will aid learners in unmasking and discerning these linguistic strategies; after that they can deduce the implied and hidden meanings of these discourses. concerning the authors of these discourses, the study will highlight the unfitting language they use for the grave issue of environmentalism. they will be able to ascertain the adverse effect of these discourses on the learners. thereupon, the study may help in https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 93 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 dysphemizing the language of these discourses. further, environmental science textbooks have not been analyzed using the linguistic framework of erasure; thus, the study suggests a novel approach for analyzing environmental science discourses. literature review the ecolinguistic analysis is the study of the interconnectedness of language and ecosystem. it dives deep into determining the ideologies of a text and deconstructs through the linguistic patterns within a discourse, whether they are ecologically destructive or constructive. ecologically destructive ideologies are shaped by applying several linguistic strategies, one of which is erasure. as the name suggests, erasure in the ecosystem is the expulsion or backgrounding of the natural world in discourses. deleting agent from environmental discourses is also a form of erasure, whereby a void is created when the agent responsible for ecological destruction is omitted. ecolinguistics ecolinguistics is the study of language regarding ecology. ecology, coined by ernst haeckel in around 1865, is the study of the relationship of living organisms with each other and the environment (fill, 2009). stibbe (2015) proffers that a new paradigm of study is introduced when the already existing ones have erased an important facet of study. sociolinguistics enquires into the use of language in relation with the society it is being used in. it does not delve into the relationship of language with the natural world. ecolinguistics was introduced to fill this void. stibbe (2014) advances that ecolinguistics dissects the relationship of humans with other species and the physical environment since these ecological relationships sustain life. the reminding of a harmonious relationship between humans and the ecosystem is imperative in these compelling times. erasure and void in ecolinguistics ecolinguists venture into the study of discourses to determine whether a piece of discourse endorses a destructive or constructive ideology, actualized through studying and revealing the linguistic patterns and strategies that run across the text. one strategy that constructs a destructive ideology is erasure, the expulsion or marginalization of an otherwise important area of life. adding on, stibbe (2015, p.146) used several defining terms for erasure “suppression, backgrounding, exclusion, abstraction…” the mention of the ecosystem and its living organisms is pivotal in discourses because https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 94 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 only when an entity is talked about the students can relate with it and develop a moral consideration towards its well being, as put forth in the quote, “we can be ethical only in relation to something we can see, feel, understand, love or otherwise have faith in” (leopold, 1979, p. 214, as cited in stibbe, 2017, p. 506). the enshrouding of important information and expatriation of participants are accomplished through the use of abstract language in discourses (fairclough, 2003). abstractions run throughout the text like appraisal patterns, but instead of appraising something as good and bad, they appraise them as unworthy of consideration (stibbe, 2015). abstractions are employed in environmental texts to exclude the human agent who causes havoc in the ecosystem. the deletion of the human agent averts the responsibility from the humans and directs attention towards the action. without agency, the action becomes incomplete and soulless. such abstractions are realized through varied linguistic strategies, two of which are passivization and nominalization. linguistic strategies for the construction of void passive voice the well-being of the ecosystem is the fundamental principle of ecosystem discourses, however, the deletion of the agent through the passive structures of sentences is rampant in these discourses. passivization is when the agent is either deleted or placed towards the end of the sentence while the action is placed in the subject's position. such constructions avert the responsibility from the human actor and make the deed agentless and incomplete. agency has been defined by the longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics as “a philosophical term referring to the capacity for human beings to make choices and take responsibility for their decisions and actions” (richards and schmidt, 2010, p. 18). the ecolinguistic analysis deals with various media, including climate assessment reports, science experiment reports, news reports, and scientific reports. pertaining to science experiment reports, kahn (1992, as cited in fill et al., 2001) investigated the construction of passives and brought to light that these discourses are laden with such constructions, excluding the agent and highlighting the action only. about passive constructions, kahn puts forth, “it is indeed a passive, soulless voice... perfectly reflective of a mode of thinking that proceeds outside the moral realm of active responsibility” (1992, as cited in fill et al., 2001, p. 242). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 95 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 mliles and larouz (2018) studied 14 environmental texts in moroccan english language teaching textbooks within this framework. they delved into the use of euphemistic language and passive construction in texts. they resolved that these texts were brimming with passive constructions, whereby the human agent was systematically erased, and the deed was left incomplete, agentless and soulless. in this way, the reality is cloaked, and only the information befitting the human race is put forth. it is rather analogous to the use of euphemistic language by politicians and government officials, who state facts in a soulless, passive voice, therefore not taking any moral responsibility for their actions. nominalization nominalisation is an important linguistic strategy through which language is manoeuvred so that grammatically an agent is not required with the action. in nominalized constructions, the grammatical category of the verb is transformed into a noun; nominalized actions thereby do not require an agent. verb forms like ‘to destroy’ and ‘to pollute’ are converted into ‘destruction’ and ‘pollution’, erasing the need of a doer. assessing the effacement of agency, schleppegrell (1997) engaged in a study on the discourses on ecology that are used as teaching material by teachers. highlighting nominalization, he quotes, human-induced changes in the environment, such as pollution, habitat degradation, and the introduction of exotic species, push the limits of nature’s resilience and may lead to irreversible environmental damage and biodiversity loss on human time scales. (p. 54) the quote mentioned above makes it evident that nominalized forms like pollution, degradation, the introduction of exotic species, and biodiversity loss are rampant in these discourses. the author manipulates language to rid him off the responsibility of mentioning an agent since nominalized forms do not grammatically require one. following the literature review on erasure and the deletion of agency in ecolinguistic analysis, it has come to the researchers’ attention that erasure and the exclusion of the agent have not been explored in environmental texts. therefore, the researchers have committed to filling the void and studying passive and nominalized constructions in environmental discourses. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 96 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 theoretical framework research method the researchers have used a qualitative approach to study the linguistic strategies of passive voice and nominalization used in the selected textbooks of environmental sciences to construct void. the model used as a lens is stibbe’s linguistic framework of erasure given in his book, ecolinguistics: language, ecology and the stories we live by (2015). it is exploratory research focusing on the language of the textbooks. erasure erasure is the systematic exclusion, backgrounding or marginalization of an otherwise important entity or event from a discourse. it is a pattern that runs throughout the discourse, i.e. erasure is not constructed in a sentence or two; rather, it permeates throughout the entirety of the text. the construction of erasure is actualized through certain linguistic strategies, which stibbe has proposed in his linguistic framework of erasure (2015). depending on the level of representation of erasure in texts, stibbe categorizes it into three categories: void, mask and trace. void is the complete exclusion of an area of life from discourses; mask is the distorted representation of reality, while the trace is the partial erasure of an area of life (stibbe, 2015). the void the complete obliteration of an area of life from discourses is called void. in ecological discourses, the void is constructed when the agent who causes the wreckage of the environment is completely effaced. the agent behind the ecologically harmful activities is cloaked to avert the responsibility from humans. void is constructed through the employment of the strategies of passive voice and nominalization. passive voice is an important strategy of deleting the agent or rendering him insignificant and unworthy of attention. the action takes the subject's place, while the doer of the action is either mentioned towards the end of the sentence or not mentioned at all. in this way, the agent is appraised as unworthy of attention, which conduces to insensitivity among the readers towards their individual and collective roles in the degeneration of the ecosystem. nominalizations play the same role as passive constructions, whereby the agent is deleted from the scenario, hence implying that an ambiguous and vague entity has committed the action. schleppegrell (1997) has studied nominalizations in environmental discourses and seen how the erasure of the agent leaves the message partial and incomplete. although the https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 97 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 readers are elucidated about the harmful activities that hamper the natural world, the doer is cloaked to avert responsibility. sample the choice of the three environmental science textbooks in the study is ascribed to the fact that they are recommended by the higher education commission (hec) of pakistan for the environmental sciences undergraduate program. the books are: 1. environmental science: earth as a living planet. (botkin & keller, 2011) 2. environmental science: towards a sustainable future. (wright & boorse, 2017) 3. environmental science: working with the earth. (miller, 2006) foreign writers have authored the books mentioned above; however, they are taught in pakistani universities, and pakistani students are elucidated about their contents. the purposive sampling technique is employed for the selection of distinctive chapters from the textbooks. chapters that are rampant with the usage of erasure and are fraught with instances of agent deletion are selected and analyzed. the selected units are mentioned below: 1. environmental science: earth as a living planet. • chapter 1 – key themes in environmental sciences (p. 1-21) • chapter 7 – dollars and environmental sense: economics of environmental issues (p. 127-142) • chapter 9 – ecological restoration (p. 169184) • chapter 13 – wildlife, fisheries, and endangered species (p. 257285) 2. environmental science: towards a sustainable future • chapter 1 – science and environment (p. 222) • chapter 6 – wild species and biodiversity (p.126-154) • chapter 7 – the value, use, and restoration of ecosystems (p.155-182) 3. environmental science: working with the earth. • chapter 1 – environmental problems, their causes and sustainability (p.5-18) • chapter 6 – community ecology, population ecology, and sustainability (p. 108127) • chapter 8 – sustaining biodiversity: the ecosystem approach (p. 154182) • chapter 9 – sustaining biodiversity: the species approach (p. 183-205) https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 98 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 after the assortment of the chapters mentioned above, paragraphs containing instances of void are chosen. a total of 171 paragraphs where void is constructed are identified in the three books: environmental science: earth as a living planet – 47 paragraphs, environmental science: towards a sustainable future – 63 paragraphs and environmental science: working with the earth – 61 paragraphs. a total of 93 paragraphs were chosen: environmental science: earth as a living planet – 31, environmental science: towards a sustainable future – 34 paragraphs and environmental science: working with the earth – 28 paragraphs. the selected paragraphs are analyzed. data analysis introduction stibbe (2015) gives a number of linguistic devices for building erasure in a text in his linguistic framework. these linguistic strategies include passive voice, nominalization, metonymy, hyponymy, co-hyponymy, massification, construction of noun phrases, metaphors and transitivity patterns. within erasure, three categories are constructed depending on the extent to which erasure is prevalent in texts. one of the categories is void, which is the complete exclusion of an area of life from discourses and hence, our consciousness (stibbe, 2015). concerning void, the deletion of the human agent is explored by the researchers. the researchers have selected two linguistic strategies that exclude the agent from discourses: passivization and nominalization. the researchers have undertaken the task of unfolding the strategies of passivization and nominalization employed in the selected textbooks to construct void. the void the complete erasure of an important piece of information is known as void. it is defined by stibbe (2015) as “where ‘something important’ is completely excluded from a text” (p.149). the linguistic strategies of passivization and nominalization have been dug out by the researchers from the selected textbooks to ascertain how void has been constructed in these discourses. the creation of void with reference to the deletion of the human agent in environmental discourses leads to ambiguity in the readers' minds. passive voice passive voice is a strategy whereby an action or verb is emphasized rather than the subject. the doer of the action is omitted, and the deed is shed light upon instead. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 99 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 passive voice in environmental science: earth as a living planet the instances of passive voice within this textbook are manifold. some instances have been listed below: 1.1. “…20 lions killed, 17 were speared and 3 were poisoned…” (p. 4) 1.2. “…conversion of some corn production to biofuels…” (p.6) 1.3. “…emission of modern chemicals…” (p. 10) 1.4. “…burning fossil fuels increases the concentration of greenhouse gases…” (p.10) 1.5. “…urban areas expand, wetlands are filled in, forests cut down, and soils covered over with pavement and buildings.” (p.11) 1.6. “…depletion of resources…” (p.17) 1.7. “…burning wood in fireplaces…” (p.131) 1.8. “…overcrowding of national parks, wilderness areas, and other naturerecreation areas.” (p.131) 1.9. “both overfishing and pollution have been blamed for the alarming decline in groundfish…” (p.139) 1.10. “…much of the everglades has been drained for agriculture and urban development…” (p.170) 1.11. …”thousands of streams have been degraded by urbanization, agriculture, timber harvesting, and channelization…” (p.173) 1.12. “…inappropriate land use…” (p. 174) 1.13. “turning the meandering river…degraded the river ecosystem…reduced the wetlands and populations of birds, mammals, and fish.” (p. 174) 1.14. “extensive browsing dramatically reduces the abundance of riparian plants, damaging the stream environment…” (p. 176) 1.15. “…prairie has declined as a result of land-use changes that have led to the loss or fragmentation of habitat.” (p. 177) 1.16. “…construction of a flood-control channel…damaged an area of saltwater marsh.” (p.181) 1.17. “the grizzly became endangered as a result of hunting and habitat destruction.” (p. 258) https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 100 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 1.18. “…bisons are ranched…” (p. 259) 1.19. “records of the number of buffalo killed…2 million buffalo were killed.” (p.264) 1.20. “for marine fish caught with lines and hooks…” (p.267) 1.21. “…fish are depleted…” (p.269) 1.22. “...fish population…are generally declining, easily exploited, and difficult to restore.” (p.271) 1.23. “…whales were brought on board and processed…” (p.277) 1.24. “…some of the animals were trapped and drowned.” (p.279) 1.25. “by intentional hunting or harvesting…” (p.279) 1.26. “the development of agriculture and the rise of civilization led to rapid deforestation and other habitat changes.” (p.279) as put forth by stibbe, an area of life is not explicitly and unequivocally rendered insignificant or unworthy of mention; it is done implicitly by carefully manoeuvering language in a way to background or exclude the entity or event (2015). this careful manoeuvering of language has been carried out by the author to delete the agent from the picture. it is evident in the phrases, clauses and sentences that the agent has been recurrently erased to avert responsibility from the humans. often, we have been enlightened about the harmful actions carried out on the ecosystem, but this message has been left incomplete; the doer of these actions has been shrouded, averting responsibility from him. lions are poisoned and mercilessly killed, corn is converted into biofuel, chemicals are emitted, fossil fuels are burned, forests are brought down, resources are depleted, water channels are degraded, sea animals are overfished, habitats are degraded and fragmented, animal species are being endangered, and several other such environmentally degrading activities are occurring worldwide. however, the executor is not known, and the message is left vague and partial. example 1.9 puts forth that groundfish is lessening, but the doer of this decline has been enshrouded. is the decline happening because of fish hunters? or is it because of the increasing number of consumers of groundfish? or is it because of the industrial units that harvest this fish for manufacturing a specific product from its body parts? such ambiguities arise when partial messages are conveyed, leading to vagueness, which convinces the readers that the doer is some unknown entity. it shuns even https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 101 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the tiniest possibility that the doer could be the reader himself. thus, such statements do not sensitize the readers towards their derogatory role in hampering the natural world, and they read these descriptions as though directed towards an unknown entity. passive voice in environmental science: towards a sustainable future likewise, in this text, passive voice for the construction of the erasure of the human agent has been used abundantly. 2.1. “…natural ecosystems... have been declining.” (p.3) 2.2. “…ecosystems goods and services…were being degraded or used unsustainably.” (p.5) 2.3. “…increases in the volume of this gas affect temperatures.” (p.7) 2.4. “…conversion of forests, grasslands, and wetlands to agriculture and urban development.” (p.8) 2.5. “species…many are hunted, killed, and marketed illegally.” (p.8) 2.6. “unique, wild areas of the united states were disappearing.” (p.9) 2.7. “half of the co2 produced by burning fossil fuels and producing cement.” (p.8) 2.8. “the indiscriminate killing of birds and other animals” (p.10) 2.9. “the air in and around cities was becoming murky and irritating to people’s eyes and respiratory systems. rivers and beaches were increasingly fouled with raw sewage…conspicuous declines occurred in many bird populations…” (p.10) 2.10. “these rivers may be highly polluted, heavily divided by dams, and crowded with fishers.” (p.126) 2.11. “in time, many living species were exploited to extinction, and others disappeared as their habitats were destroyed.” (p.128) 2.12. “…any degradation of that environment affects commercial interests.” (p.131) 2.13. “continuing depletion of the biodiversity of our planet.” (p.135) 2.14. “global forest cover has been reduced by 40% already…” (p.135) 2.15. “the species is endangered because its habitat has been greatly fragmented…” (p.136) 2.16. “streams are channelized” (p.136) 2.17. “…and sometimes the stream is straightened out…such alterations inevitably reduce the diversity of fish and invertebrates that live in the stream.” (p.137) https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 102 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 2.18. “shrimps, fish, crabs, and other commercially valuable sea life are either killed or forced to migrate away.” (p.139) 2.19. “forests and woodlands are overcut for firewood, grasslands are overgrazed, game species are overhunted, fisheries are exploited, and croplands are overcultivated.” (p.140) 2.20. “each year, 35,000 elephants are killed.” (p.150) 2.21. “…cases of overuse and depletion of resources…” (p.161) 2.22. “…extinction of the passenger pigeon, caused by the unregulated hunting of wild flocks of birds.” (p.163) 2.23. “…80% of the native grasslands have been converted to agriculture and other purposes.” (p.168) 2.24. “…18 million hectares…of mangroves have been cut down.” (p.171) 2.25. “the ecosystem was degraded by the channelization of rivers and streams, the excessive withdrawal of water, and pollution.” (p.177) 2.26. “…degraded farmland, its sandy soil depleted by years of unrelenting use…” (p.178) when readers who are not explicitly told that they are responsible for a great deal of ecological damage they would conjecture from the given examples that only the poachers or industrialists are responsible for most of these actions. little would they be able to infer that they may be the biggest source of these damages. discourses are bound to exclude some areas of life because “erasure is intrinsic to the very nature of discourses” (stibbe, 2015, p. 146)it is the analyst's task to bring the excluded areas to the forefront, declaring them salient. one area of paramount importance is the agent of ecological destruction in environmental discourses. example 2.2 suggests that natural goods are used unsustainably, however from the statement, readers cannot decipher that they could be the one using these resources unsustainably. the wastage of paper is a very common way of exploiting the natural goods; the example does not specify that the readers could be causing this exploitation. similarly, in example 2.4, converting greenery into buildings or infrastructure is committed on the individual level. every individual who owns the property is responsible for cutting down trees and converting land. however, the statement does not specify this; instead, it presents this https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 103 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 information rather vaguely, putting the responsibility on some unknown construction companies. moreover, example 2.9 proffers that cities and the air in cities are becoming fiercely polluted and irritating to people’s eyes. one major cause of this pollution is vehicles, which are owned by every well-to-do individual. thereby, the blame falls on every one of us, however, the statement does not define this, and the readers are made to believe that mainly the industrial units are blameable for the havoc. in example 2.10, we have been alerted that rivers are becoming polluted, but the polluter has been veiled, leaving the message incomplete. these kinds of descriptions produce ambiguity in the minds of the readers, and they start to believe that some unknown poachers, hunters, industrial units and construction industries are responsible for the dishevelment in the ecosystemthey are not acquainted with the role of the individual in the wreckage as the authors do not explicitly mention the human agent. passive voice in environmental science: working with the earth the authors make profound use of passive voice as a linguistic strategy to erase the agent, destroying the natural world. 3.1. “an irreversible loss to the earth’s variety of life forms, or biodiversity.” (p.5) 3.2. “…the clear cutting of ancient forests…” (p.8) 3.3. “…areas that have been already cleared or degraded.” (p.8) 3.4. “overuse of common-property or free-access resource” (p.10) 3.5. “pesticides sprayed into the air” (p.12) 3.6. “…indoor air pollutants produced by burning wood or coal” (p.14) 3.7. “…amphibian species have been vanishing or declining…” (p.111) 3.8. “…environmental changes such as loss or fragmentation of their habitats and introduction of chemical pesticides.” (p.111) 3.9. “sharks are caught mostly for their fins and then thrown back alive…” (p.111) 3.10. “sharks are also killed for their lives, meat…hides…and jaws.” (p.113) 3.11. “…burned or cut forests, heavily polluted streams, and land that has been dammed or flooded.” (p.119) 3.12. “some species are overharvested.” (p.124) 3.13. “illegal hunting or poaching endangers wildlife species…” (p.124) https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 104 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 3.14.“…from burning fossil fuels and from clearing and burning forests and grasslands.” (p.124) 3.15. “cutting down large areas of forests reduces biodiversity…” (p.155) 3.16. “…marine fish species are either overfished or fished to their estimated sustainable yield.” (p.156) 3.17. “40% of us commercial fish stocks are depleted or overfished.” (p.156) 3.18. “…tropical forest habitats were cleared or degraded.” (p.169) 3.19. “…16-47% has been deforested or degraded and converted mostly to tropical grassland (savanna).” (p.169) 3.20. “brazil’s atlantic coastal rain forest… 93% of it has been cleared…” (p.169) 3.21. “island species…when their habitats are destroyed, degraded, or fragmented.” (p.190) 3.22. “some protected species are illegally killed for their valuable parts or are sold live to collectors.” (p.195) often, passive voice has been employed to elide or marginalize the agent responsible for the deterioration of the natural world. although the ecologically calamitous actions have been thrown light upon, the actor has been unexposed, leaving a void. within this framework, stibbe propounds, “something important, something that we should be giving attention to, has been ignored, sidelined or overlooked within a text or discourse” (2015, p. 146). the human agent has been frequently cloaked in the instances mentioned above: the degrader in example 3.3, the killer in example 3.10, the over harvester in example 3.12, the hunter and poacher in example 3.13, the fisher in example 3.16 and the degrader and destroyer in example 3.21 have been enshrouded. the readers are enlightened about the destructive actions carried out on the ecosystem but who carries them out is left unexposed. nominalization the nominal construction of verbs plays a significant role in leaving the message of the destruction of the ecosystem incomplete, thus creating a void. verb forms like ‘to destroy’ and ‘to pollute’ are converted into nouns ‘destruction’ and ‘pollution’ by adding –ion towards the end. such constructions grammatically do not require an agent/actor; thus, the author rids himself of the responsibility of mentioning the agent through the play of words. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 105 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 nominalisation in environmental science: earth as a living planet from the selected textbook, some examples have been shed light upon. 1.1. “…conversion of some corn production to biofuels…” (p.6) 1.2 “…emissions of modern chemicals…” (p.10) 1.3. “…depletion of resources…” (p.17) 1.4. “…degradation of the commons.” (p.131) 1.5. “major resource deterioration” (p.131) 1.6. “production of nickel…has serious environmental effects.” (p.134) 1.7. “degradation of the environment” (p.134) 1.8. “ecosystems of all types have undergone degradation…widespread loss and degradation…” (p.173) 1.9. “thousands of streams have been degraded by urbanization, agriculture, timber harvesting, and channelization…” (p.173) 1.10. “such a shift in the age structure of a harvested population is an early sign of overexploitation.” (p.264) 1.11. “exploitation of a new fishery…” (p.269) nominalisation is a powerful device for creating void; as stibbe puts forth, “nominalizations can be particularly powerful devices of erasure” (2015, p. 147). terms like conversion, emission, depletion, degradation, deterioration, urbanization and overexploitation have been applied instead of the verb forms to elude the agent from the description. the agent is so tactfully cloaked that the readers do not find fault with the statements. the actor becomes an abstract entity that cannot be identified and put the blame upon. therefore, the readers cannot discern the actor that caused the emissions, depletion and degradation; they are not familiarized with their role in these ruinous activities. such constructions also rid the author of any responsibility since grammatically, he is not required to put an agent with the nominalized forms. nominalisation in environmental science: towards a sustainable future within this textbook, too, many instances of nominalization to delete the human agent have been noticed. some of them are mentioned below. 2.1. “degradation and overexploitation of ecosystem resources” (p.5) 2.2. “environmental degradation, resource misuse, and disastrous events…” (p.9) https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 106 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 2.3. “heavy exploitation of natural resources” (p.11) 2.4. “destruction of the environment” (p.18) 2.5. “environmental degradation” (p.19) 2.6. “degradation of ecosystems, atmospheric changes, losses of species, and depletion of water resources.” (p.20) 2.7. “…the exploitation of oceanic fisheries…” (p.20) 2.8. “widespread degradation of essential ecosystems” (p.21) 2.9. “…the highest rate of deforestation.” (p.135) 2.10. “habitat destruction” (p.135) 2.11. “destruction of the trees” (p.135) 2.12. “severe deforestation in haiti” (p.136) 2.13. “…coral reef degradation, nutrient pollution, and habitat fragmentation…” (p.151) 2.14. “…coral reefs…habitat degradation.” (p.156) 2.15. “…collection of wild species of plants and animals for cultivation and domestication.” (p.160) 2.16. “the exploitation of common-pool resources” (p.162) 2.17. “exploitation of the resource…” (p.163) 2.18. “cattle production is the largest cause of deforestation in the amazon region.” (p.166) 2.19. “plowing, overgrazing and over-irrigation cause erosion and salinization.” (p.168) 2.20. “grasslands around the world have experienced similar degradation.” (p.168) 2.21. “destruction of prairies, bison, and birds” (p.174) 2.22. “…problems of pollution and habitat destruction…” (p.175) 2.23. “deforestation, overgrazing, desertification, and the eutrophication of lakes” (p.177) 2.24. “overconsumption of water from the rio grande causes stretches of the river to periodically run dry.” (p.179) 2.25. “…exploitation of a commons…” (p.181) https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 107 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 stibbe sets forth that the underlying structures ‘a destroys b’ and ‘a pollutes b’ are encapsulated into single nouns like destruction and pollution, causing the actor's deletion from discourses. in the first example, it is evident that natural resources are being exploited, but the nominalized forms leave the message partial, emphasizing the act of exploitation rather than the actor responsible for the exploitation. likewise, the term degradation appears oft times in the discourse as is manifested in the given instances. very seldom did the researchers come across the verb form ‘to degrade’ of this nominalized form, therefore putting stress upon the act instead of the executor of the actions. nominalisation in environmental science: working with the earth akin to the previous textbooks, this textbook also uses the nominalization strategy abundantly to construct the erasure of the human agent. 3.1. “natural capital degradation” (p.6) 3.2 “examples of such degradation include urbanization of productive land, excessive topsoil erosion, pollution, deforestation…groundwater depletion, overgrazing of grasslands by livestock, and reduction in the earth’s forms of wildlife (biodiversity) by elimination of habitats and species.” (p.10) 3.3. “degradation of renewable free-access resources” (p.10) 3.4. “natural capital degradation” (p.13) 3.5. “environmental degradation” (p.15) 3.6. “…the resulting pollution and environmental degradation” (p.15) 3.7. “degradation of renewable resources” (p.15) 3.8. “…high levels of pollution and environmental degradation…” (p.15) 3.9. “resource use, pollution, and environmental degradation” (p.16) 3.10. “resource depletion and degradation” (p.17) 3.11. “habitat fragmentation” (p.109) 3.12. “environmental disruption” (p.111) 3.13. “habitat loss and fragmentation (especially from draining and filling of inland wetlands, deforestation, and development.” (p.111) 3.14. “…environmental changes such as loss or fragmentation of their habitats and introduction of chemical pesticides.” (p.111) https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 108 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 3.15. “natural capital degradation” (p.155) 3.16. “world’s ocean…open-access resource, subject to overexploitation…” (p.180) 3.17. “…the greatest threat to wild species is habitat loss…degradation, and fragmentation.” (p.190) 3.18. “deforestation…destruction of coral reefs and wetlands…and pollution of streams, lakes, and oceans.” (p.190) pivotal to the discourse of environmental science is the protection, sustainability and well-being of the environment. the protection of the ecosystem can only be actualized if every individual is elucidated on his/her role in the torpedoing of the natural world. however, environmental discourses do not do justice to the environment since they veil the actor responsible for the wreckage. as is obvious from the above examples, terms like urbanization, degradation, pollution, deforestation, depletion, elimination, disruption, fragmentation, and overexploitation are excessively employed to keep the agent under wraps. findings the main findings and discussion of the study are as follows: 1. the researchers have found that the deletion of the agent is highly prevalent in the selected environmental science textbooks. 2. in environmental science: earth as a living planet, there are 57 instances of void in environmental science: towards a sustainable future. the researchers found 74 instances where the void was seen, and in environmental science: working with the earth void was found in 70 places. 3. the strategies of passive voice and nominalization have been both employed to construct the deletion of the agent. 4. one hundred forty-six instances of passive voice were found in the three textbooks altogether, and 55 instances of nominalization were found. discussion the expulsion or sidelining of the human agent from discourses and emphasizing the action are called passivization. this strategy changes the active structure of a sentence, whereby the subject is deleted and replaced by the action. where the human is the cause of environmentally harmful activities, he is omitted to avert the blame. kahn has studied such https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 109 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 passive constructions in an article from the wildlife society bulletin (1992). his study's findings unveil a complete lack of active voice/agency in scientific discourses on animal experimentation; thus, the actor who carries out these experiments and the atrocities on the animals used as a sample is deleted. such findings are analogous with that of the present study, whereby passivization is rampant in the selected textbooks of environmental sciences. the studies differ in the aspect that kahn studied scientific discourses while the researchers studied environmental science discourses. nominalizations have been analyzed by schleppegrell, who studied pedagogical texts on environmental issues. he discovered that environmental texts are enshrouded in abstractions, which are constructed through the use of nominalization. “environmental problems are presented as pre-packaged nominalizations: habitat loss, introduced species, pollution, and other problems that, presented as nouns, have no agents or actors that are recoverable” (1997, p.64). loss of agency is a prevailing practice in these discourses, whereby averting the responsibility from humans. the findings of schleppegrell’s study go parallel with those of the current study, whereby passivization and nominalization are excessively employed in the texts to cloak the agent. conclusion langauge is a powerful tool that shapes and constructs a society. loopholes in language can, on the other hand, lead to unfavorable consequences. one such loophole is the deletion of the human agent from environmental science discourses that creates a void and leaves the message of the destruction of the ecosystem deficient. the study has shown that this type of erasure is highly pervasive in the selected textbooks. the linguistic strategies of passive voice and nominalization often have been employed in the discourses to delete the human agent. mere stress on the baleful actions does not suffice since the readers are not familiarised with their deprecatory role in the ecosystem. a rethinking of the language of environmental sciences is imperative to bring the human agent to the forefront. the researchers thought it pivotal to shed light upon the destructive use of passive voice and nominalization in discourses. eminence needs to be given to the inclusion of the human agent in ecologically destructive descriptions aiming to sensitize readers towards their destructive role. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 110 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 recommendations for future research the recommendations based on the current study are as follows: 1. a study on the analysis of images and how they construct void can be conducted. 2. the influence of environmental discourses on students and whether the text sensitizes them towards their derogatory role in the ecosystem could be explored. it could be seen whether or not the strategy of erasure and the use of euphemistic language impact the readers and students. references botkin, b. d., & keller, a. e. (2011). environmental science: earth as a living planet. (8th ed). usa: john wiley & sons, inc. elmoussaouy, a., abderbi, j., & daoudi, m. (2014). environmental education in the teaching and learning of scientific disciplines in moroccan high schools. int. educ. stud, 7(4), 33-46. fairclough, n. (2003). analyzing discourse: textual analysis for social research. london: routledge. fill, a., & muhlhausler, p. (eds). (2001). the ecolinguistic reader: language, ecology and environment. london & ny: continuum. fill, f. a. (2009). ecolinguistics. in encyclopaedia of life support systems, linguistics. kahn, m. (1992). the passive voice of science: language abuse in the wildlife profession. the trumpeter: journal of ecosophy, 9(4), 152-154. leopold, a. (1979). a sand county almanac and sketches here and there. oxford: oxford university press. in stibbe, a. (2015). ecolinguistics: language, ecology and the stories we live by. london & ny: routledge. miller, t. g. (2006). environmental science: working with the earth. (11th ed.). usa: thomson brooks/cole. retrieved from: https://epdf.pub/queue/environmental-scienceworking-with-the-earth142f8c7a11c2f313836e1d6be051185c97064.html mliless, m., & larouz, m. (2018). an ecolinguistic analysis of environment texts in moroccan english language teaching textbooks. international journal of research in environmental studies, 5(2018), 103-116. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://epdf.pub/queue/environmental-science-working-with-the-earth142f8c7a11c2f313836e1d6be051185c97064.html https://epdf.pub/queue/environmental-science-working-with-the-earth142f8c7a11c2f313836e1d6be051185c97064.html the deletion of the human agent in environmental science discourse: an ecolinguistic study 111 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 richards, c.j., & schmidt, w.r. (2010). longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics. (4th ed). harlow, munich: longman. schleppegrell, m. (1997). agency in environmental education. linguistics and education, 9(1), 49-67. stibbe, a. (2014). an ecolinguistics approach to critical discourse studies. critical discourse studies, 11(1). 10.1080/17405904.2013.845789. stibbe, a. (2015). ecolinguistics: language, ecology and the stories we live by. london & ny: routledge. unesco-unep (1976). the belgrade charter: a global framework for environmental education. connect (unesco-unep environmental education newsletter). 1 (1), 12. wright, t.r., & boorse, f.d. (2017). environmental science: towards a sustainable future. (13th ed). usa: pearson education, inc. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.300 exploring the utilization of ict in learning and teaching of english at undergraduate stage: 32 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 exploring the utilization of ict in learning and teaching of english at undergraduate stage: a case study of public sector universities in baluchistan mah naz1, zahid ali2, khursheed ahmad3 1department of english linguistics, faculty of languages and literature, lasbela university of agriculture, water and marine science, uthal mariyashah952@yahoo.com 2associate professor, department of english, government college university, hyderabad sindh zahid.ali@gcuh.edu.pk 3lecturer in english, university of swabi khursheedlinguist@gmail.com abstract the utilization of information and communication technologies (icts) represents an alternative approach to learning and teaching english at the university level. this method has the potential to enhance the academic standard by adopting a learner-centered approach, which has significantly contributed to generating interest in english language instruction. the purpose of this study is to conduct a survey on the use of icts in language classrooms. the research explores the differences between traditional and modern modes of instruction from the instructors' perspectives. the study employs a quantitative approach, utilizing online fivepoint likert scale questionnaires to collect data. based on the responses received, the findings reveal that technology has played a significant role in the teaching and learning of english at the university level. it has demonstrated the ability to improve the teaching process while simultaneously enhancing the learning experience. as such, the study recommends the provision of adequate technical facilities to universities in the province of baluchistan to enable the proper execution of technology in the learning and teaching process. additionally, suitable training sessions must be conducted to ensure the efficient use of technological gadgets for instructional purposes, thereby creating a better platform towards the learning process. keywords: baluchistan, english, ict, learn, teach, university 1. introduction the mode of instruction has evolved in modern times, and one of the latest techniques is the adoption of ict in teaching foreign languages. this approach has transformed the traditional two-way instruction process and elevated the academic level of language learning and teaching from a teacher-centered approach to a learner-centered one. according to mustafa et al (2012), educational aims and goals should align with the changing world to stay relevant. computerassisted language learning (call) has gained widespread recognition in recent years as a exploring the utilization of ict in learning and teaching of english at undergraduate stage: 33 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 crucial component of reorienting educational goals away from knowledge acquisition and towards methods that foster the development of attitudes and intellectual abilities, while facilitating the assimilation of new information (dina et al, 2013). therefore, as yang et al (2007) noted, teachers must first become familiar with the use of ict that will occur in their classroom to ensure the safe collection of information. furthermore, establishing an it laboratory equipped with one computer per student would successfully fulfill instructors' current classroom needs (hashemi et al, 2011). to create a well-structured curriculum that fits the needs of all students, instructors should complement the course book using information and communication technologies (icts). 1.1 research objectives the objectives of the study are: 1. to investigate the utilization of technology for the improvement of english language instruction and learning at the undergraduate level in the universities of baluchistan. 2. to elucidate the significance of the ict project in enhancing the instructional and learning process of english language at the undergraduate level in the universities of baluchistan. 1.2 research questions following are the research questions: 1. in what ways have technological devices been used to enhance the learning and instruction of english at the undergraduate level in the universities of baluchistan? 2. what is the significance of utilizing ict in the instruction and learning of the english language at the undergraduate level in baluchistan's universities? 1.3. vitality of study the following study intends to contribute to find the importance of integrating technology in instruction deliverance and learning processes at level in the universities of baluchistan. the following study tends to examine various techniques of instruction to add valuable information to the existing literature to integrate ict to teach english in the context of pakistan that in turn, offers various new ways of effective and efficient english language instruction. while the current literature is not concerned with english teaching methods, the obvious reality is that technology may be utilized to teach english extremely well if used correctly. this research will examine several methods for effectively teaching english via the use of technology. 2. literature review njoku (2015) have classified different types of information communication technology (ict) that is being used to learn and teach: audiotape, radio, videotape, television, audiotape, tape recorder, compact disks, digital versatile discs, flash drivers, telephones, mobile phones, computer networks, laptop, satellite system, software and hardware. mam and hennessy (2011) pointed out that the introduction of ict can stimulate learners and instructors to find new strategies towards learning and instruction. these strategies may entice students and exploring the utilization of ict in learning and teaching of english at undergraduate stage: 34 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 teachers for discussion and feedback. these strategies also help them learn english fluently. grammar is a backbone to learning a second language, whereas vocabulary helps to speak a second language. skills are important to learn a second language. therefore, ict is focused on improving learners' productive (speaking & writing) and receptive skills (listening and reading) along with grammar and vocabulary skills for learning second language (sl). 2.1. advantages of ict to teach and learn english through development of lingual skills the learning of target language tends to enhance the motivation of learners’ awareness of language via use of different ict gadgets, such as, the smart-boards, video-games, and the cell phones (altun, 2019). therefore, with the help of ict to learn english has proved to be compatible, innovative and flexible (qin and shuo, 2011). 2.1.1. speaking skills kirkgoz (2011) tried to find the development of speaking skill with the help of video recording. he proposed classroom-oriented tasks that consisted of three hours. later, one hour was added to the task. gramik (2012) also support the idea and further adding cell-phone as a useful tool known as mall. he further mentioned that learners in japanese schools learnt to create short clips and shared with each other. 2.1.2. reading skills becker (2000) conducted a study on the talking-books. these books have been designed to record the readings for the learners. it was designed for the learners to improve their pronunciation along with the intonation. these books along with its animations help learners to create fun and joy. fu (2013) mentioned the e-books that are commonly utilized with the daily readings. they also tend to support esl/sl learners to learn effectively. he adds that students use different technologies and electronic devices for reading which are effective for them. but e-book reading increases vocabulary and corrects pronunciation. 2.1.3. writing skills levy (2009) claimed that using ict in writing skills is useful for students. modern technologies are so advanced that these technologies have auto-correction functions for students. these technologies are useful for students to write blogs, emails, and journals with correct grammar and spelling. as well as reviewing each other, such work will also enhance their writing. 2.1.4. listening skills for good quality education, a student may focus on their listening skills in equal to the other lingual skills. levy (2009) even explained that computer programs and its built-in features are so flexible for the learners that learners tend to utilize them during their learning periods. there are some of the important features such as the re-play, stop, and slow-down audio/video that have been helpful for the learners to learn the notation and pronunciation of the target language. 2.2. beneficial insights of ict for english instructors exploring the utilization of ict in learning and teaching of english at undergraduate stage: 35 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 some of the benefits of ict in the teacher context are observed which are discussed below: 2.2.1. facilitation for instructors njuko (2015) mentioned microsoft powerpoint and stated that the powerpoint is useful to for presentations. this is more effective for students and teachers to cover lessons within time. moreover, fu (2013) adds that ict is a tool that changes teachers' style from a traditional way to a new modern way. ict also helps teachers to handle huge classes in a short time. 2.2.2. altering the attitude of instructors according to unesco (2007), the role of ict within the educational domain of asia-pacific countries have been effective for administrative purposes. it demonstrated an addition of collaborative efforts within teachers so to communicate effectively amongst each other. therefore, the instructors in baluchistan tend to get advantage from technological gadgets from different perspectives. 2.2.3. adding entertaining segments in classroom environment gunuç and babacan (2018) stated that to provide a stress-free environment helps learners to learn quickly. using the ict can make the classroom environment more comfortable and can provide enjoyment for the learners. the electronic-based content is beneficial for the english learners. with this, there have been many games that can assist learners to learn english. 2.3. application of ict to teach and learn english it is a fact that the technological world acceded to the importance of ict gadgets in classroom environments. they play a crucial role in teaching and learning english in different academic contexts. in addition, youtube, the mobile phones, computers, the internet, radio, and the language labs are currently being used for teaching and learning english language. 2.3.1. informative role of you-tube to teach english with the help of you-tube, tutors can upload their lectures and learners are motivated to watch them. similarly, youtube has provided various channels such as voa and bbc (waddell, 2011). moreover, it was added that if you-tube will be used as an additional source of material than it improves the knowledge of learners regarding their lectures. therefore, he estimated that in this regard learning process could be more fun and meaningful. due to the effect of you-tube pupils get the chance to recall the lessons more effectively. 2.3.2. mobile applications to learn and seek english with the help of mobile, learners can download different dictionaries that are used to search for new words in order to develop reading, speaking, listening, and writing. 2.3.3. surfing on the internet according to londhe et al. (2016), internet offers a variety of language resources. the internet empowers pupils in order to connect with non-native and native speakers all the time. further it was added that due to the internet learning has become interesting and powerful. in fact, internet grants both pupils and tutors the opportunity to work effectively. 2.3.4. the significance of computer technology exploring the utilization of ict in learning and teaching of english at undergraduate stage: 36 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 language learners have been facilitated with the computerized tools in order to develop their knowledge about english language by using cds and other multimedia instruments. with the help of multimedia, learners can see different images through the slide shows. 2.3.5. radio-a needful gadget to learn and teach english radio may help language learners to develop their lingual skills. apart from this, radio lessons provide different conversations, rich in vocabulary and well-structure in the form of dialogues (choudhury et al., 2014). therefore, radio is considered to be an important tool to learn language. 2.3.6. crucial part of language-labs in academic domains the language labs help to develop language skills through multimedia-based learning. they can help to develop proficiency by distributing the materials of course (ardani, 2021). consequently, students also make a recording of their voices to improve their speaking skill. the lanague labs may create an atmosphere more comfortable as compared to old classrooms (alkamel & chouthaiwale, 2018). 3. research methodology the current study is quantitative in nature. for the purpose, english language teachers who used ict in their language classes were requested to fill out an online questionnaire. 3.1. data collection tool the data were collected using the likert scale questionnaire. the link of the questionnaire was shared via whatsapp and email. 3.2. sampling and population the data were collected from the departments of english of three renowned public-sector universities in baluchistan, pakistan, namely university of turbat, university of baluchistan and luawms-uthal, baluchistan. through the purposive sampling technique, the samples of instructors and learners were selected. the following table (3.2) lists the number of sample that was selected for this study. table error! no text of specified style in document..2: sample size 3.3. data analyzing technique sample size universities department no of teachers no of students university of balochistan english 05 30 university of turbat english 05 30 luawms uthal english 05 30 total 15 90 exploring the utilization of ict in learning and teaching of english at undergraduate stage: 37 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 after receiving the responses from the respondents' data, they were put into spss for analysis. frequencies and percentages were calculated and interpreted. 3.4.theoretical framework the theoretical framework is founded upon the models developed by rogers and davis in 2003. rogers' concept of diffusion of innovation highlights the importance of ict users possessing knowledge of technological equipment operation. the theory of diffusion of innovation is based on the integration of ict by users in order to gain knowledge. on the other hand, davis' concept of technology acceptance (tam) examines the behavior and acceptance of technology by users in relation to its usefulness and ease of use. davis' concept asserts that ict is useful for modifying the behavior of users, which has direct implications for the use of ict in education by both teachers and learners. kasapoglu-akyol (2010) conducted research that demonstrates the efficacy of educational technological tools in improving language communication skills. these tools have proven to be particularly effective in enhancing the learning of english as a second language. moreover, peregoy and boyle (2014) found that students acquire english quickly and effectively when using technology as a tool to teach, read, and learn the language. 4. results and discussion the data have been analyzed through frequencies and percentages by using the latest version of spss software. tables and figures were drawn to show and understand the results properly. results have been presented in the following tables. 4.1. assistance of computer to teach and learn table 4.1: assistance of computer to teach and learn teachers’ statement: my students utilize the computer as a source to learn. students’ statement: my teacher utilizes the computer as a source to teach. sd d n a sa total exploring the utilization of ict in learning and teaching of english at undergraduate stage: 38 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 teachers male 1 0 1 5 2 9 female 0 2 1 2 1 6 total 1 (6.7%) 2 (13.3%) 2 (13.3%) 7 (46.7%) 3 (20%) 15 students male 3 4 6 24 13 50 female 8 4 5 20 3 40 total 11 (12.2%) 8 (8.9%) 11 (12.2%) 44 (48.9%) 16 (17.8%) 90 table 4.1 demonstrates the acknowledgment of teachers under the concerned statement that students use a computer as part of the learning process, accordingly it is noted that 6.7% of teachers strongly disagreed with the statement, unlike those teachers who opted for disagree with the 13.3%. it is also observed that 13.3% of teachers remained neutral while 46.7% of teachers shown their agreement with the statement as compared to those respondents who showed strong agreement being 20.0%. the responses of the students are also shown in the same table 4.1. for the statement that the teacher uses the computer as part of the teaching process. it is found that 12.2% of respondents strongly disagreed with this statement while 8.9% of students disagreed. nevertheless, respondents who preferred to remain neutral in their views were 12.2%. moreover, the respondents who showed or indicated their agreement with the statement are 48.9% and 17.8%. 4.2. learn and teach through utilization of other digital gadgets table 4.2: learn and teach through utilization of other digital gadgets teachers’ statement: my students respond better while teaching with other digital gadgets. students’ statement: my teacher uses other computer devices for better learning approach in english classroom. sd d n a sa total teachers male 0 0 1 7 1 9 female 1 0 0 4 1 6 total 1(6.7%) 0 1(6.7%) 11 (73.3%) 2 (13.3%) 15 students male 2 11 9 20 8 50 female 6 8 6 16 4 40 total 8(8.9%) 19(21.1%) 15(16.7%) 36(40.0%) 12(13.3%) 90 table 4.2 shows the responses of teachers regarding the statement: students respond better while they teach with other digital gadgets. it has been found that 6.7% of teachers have a strong disagreement. respondents who are neutral in their opinions are 6.7%. however, it is observed that most of the teachers presented their opinions towards agreement 73.3% while those who had strong agreement are 13.3%. table 4.2 also shows the views of students regarding the exploring the utilization of ict in learning and teaching of english at undergraduate stage: 39 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 statement that the teacher uses other digital gadgets for a better learning approach in the english classroom, accordingly it is noticed that 8.9% of respondents strongly disagreed with this statement. on contrary, 21.1% of responders disagree. it also shows that 16.7% of pupils presented their opinions that they were neutral. furthermore, it is observable that 40.0% of respondents show agreement with this statement. anyhow, 13.3% of reporters reported strong agreement with this description. from the above result, it is evident that most of the responders have a positive opinion as regards to this statement. table 4.3: verge to teach and learn online within university teachers’ statement: online teaching is applied at the campus when there is need. students’ statement: online learning is used in my university. sd d n a sa total teachers male 0 3 1 5 0 9 female 0 2 1 3 0 6 total 0 5 (33.3%) 2 (13.3%) 8 (53.3%) 0 15 students male 5 13 6 21 5 50 female 6 14 3 15 2 40 total 11(12.2%) 27(30 %) 9(10%) 36 (40%) 7 (7.8%) 90 table 4.3 shows the responses of the english instructors on the statement that online instruction is applied at the campus when there is a need. it is evident from the table that 33.3% of teachers disagreed while 13.3% are neutral. on the other hand, 53.3% of the respondents agreed. hence, it can be noted that most of the teachers’ responses are in favor of ‘agree’. the same table 4.3 also shows that the responses of respondents toward the statement that online learning is used in my university, 11.2% of respondents strongly disagreed while 30.0% responses only disagreed. responses who remain neutral are 10.0%. it is found that responses which are given by respondents showing agreement are 40.0% as compared to the strong agreement being 7.8%. table 4.4: use of ict gadgets motivates learners to focus more on the teaching of english language teachers’ statement: students can focus more when ict tools are used in teaching english language. students’ statement: i can focus more if my teacher uses ict tools in teaching english language sd d n a sa total teachers male 0 1 1 5 2 9 female 0 0 0 3 3 6 total 0 1 (6.7%) 1 (6.7%) 8 (53.3%) 5 (33.3%) 15 students male 1 7 7 22 13 50 exploring the utilization of ict in learning and teaching of english at undergraduate stage: 40 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 female 1 0 7 23 9 40 total 2 (2.2%) 7 (7.8%) 14(15.6%) 45 (50 %) 22 (24.4%) 90 table 4.4 reveals the answers of english instructors on this statement that students can focus more when ict tools are used in teaching english language correspondently. it is found that no teachers follow the direction of strong disagreement while 6.7% of teachers are in favor of only disagreement. teachers who are neutral are 6.7% as opposed to those respondents who followed agreement are 53.3%. after all, teachers who are in favor of strong agreement are 33.3%. table 4.4 also demonstrates the views of respondents under the debate of this statement that i can focus more if my teacher uses ict tools in teaching english language, so it is found that 2.2% of respondents strongly disagreed with this idea while 7.8% followed the direction of disagreement. it is also observed that 15.6% remained neutral on this statement and 50.0% of respondents showed agreement around this discussion. to sum up, those who followed strong agreement are 24.4%. as a result, it is clear that students are highly motivated when ict gadgets are used to teach english. table 4.5: easy access of information through use of ict tools teachers’ statement: students can easily avail information through ict tools than visiting a library in searching of text-books. students’ statement: information can be easily made into access with use of ict tools than visit the library. sd d n a sa total teachers male 0 1 1 5 2 9 female 0 1 1 2 2 6 total 0 2(13.3%) 2(13.3%) 7(46.7%) 4(26.7%) 15 students male 2 8 8 18 14 50 female 2 1 11 17 9 40 total 4(4.4%) 9 (10%) 19(21.1%) 35(38.9%) 23(25.6%) 90 table 4.5 shows the answers of english instructors regarding the statement: students can easily avail information through ict tools than visiting a library in searching for books. english instructors who opted for ‘disagree’ are 13.3% apart from these responses, teachers who have preferred neutral regarding this statement are 13.3%. similarly, 46.7% said agree as compared to the strong agreement which consists of 26.7%. table 4.5 reveals the answers of respondents about the statement that information is easily available by using ict tools instead of visiting the library. it is found that 4.4% of respondents strongly disagreed while 10.0% of respondents only disagreed. responses that responded neutral are 21.1%. similarly, those responses which are given by students based on the agreement are 38.9% as opposed to the strong agreement exploring the utilization of ict in learning and teaching of english at undergraduate stage: 41 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 which consists of 25.6% responses. consequently, it is notable from the above debate that students have a positive impression of the statement. table 4.6: use of ict tools assists to improve four lingual skills of english teachers’ statement: learners tend to improve four lingual skills of english through ict gadgets. students’ statement: i can improve four lingual skills of english through ict gadgets. sd d n a sa total teachers male 0 0 1 6 2 9 female 0 0 1 5 0 6 total 0 0 2 (13.3%) 11(73.3%) 2(13.3%) 15 students male 3 6 6 26 9 50 female 2 1 12 20 5 40 total 5(5.6%) 7(7.8%) 18(20%) 46(51.1%) 14(15.6 %) 90 table 4.6 shows the percentages of the statement that learners can improve lingual skills in english through utilization of ict tools. it is found that none of the teachers opted for disagreement and similarly, no teachers are in favor of disagreement. besides this 13.3% of teachers preferred to remain neutral among them and 73.3% of teachers opted for agree. finally, teachers who have selected strong agreement are 13.3%. table 4.6 also shows responses of the students about the given statement that ‘i can improve lingual skills in english through utilization of ict tools. it is found that 5.5% of students strongly disagreed while 7.8% of respondents were in the opinion of disagreement. whereas 20.0% of students preferred neutral and 51.1% presented their opinions which are based on agreement about the statement. responders who selected strong agreement were 15.6%. how often ict gadgets have been utilized to teach and learn in classroom. projector: figure 4.2: teachers’ responses figure 4.3: students’ responses exploring the utilization of ict in learning and teaching of english at undergraduate stage: 42 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 figure 4.2 demonstrated that the responses of english instructors towards utilization of ict tools such as a projector. this chart shows the frequency and percentage of this given tool that how often teachers use this gadget in the teaching of english language. it is found that 26.7% of english instructors have almost not used the projector within classroom. 6.7% of teachers sometimes use a projector during teaching. it is shown in the chart that 33.3% of teachers often use the device for teaching and 26.7% of english instructors usually present their’ topic by using a projector. finally, 6.7% of the teachers almost always use the projector as the source of teaching in the classroom. figure 4.3 shows the responses participants towards the utilization of ict tools such as a projector in a classroom. it is found that 13.3% of respondents mentioned that they almost never use a projector in the classroom. 40% of students said they are sometimes taught through the projector. it is also observed that students are mostly taught through a projector while 17.8 % of students responded that their teachers usually use a projector in the classroom. in the same way, 17.8% of respondents said they almost always use a projector as the medium for learning english language. 1. online materials figure 4.4: teachers’ responses exploring the utilization of ict in learning and teaching of english at undergraduate stage: 43 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 figure 4.4 deals with the discussion of online materials used in the teaching process with reference to teachers’ responses and this chart show the frequency of using online materials in language classes during their teaching. likewise, it is found that 6.7% of teachers never use online materials while 20.0% of teachers used them sometimes. in addition, 26.7% and 40.0% usually used online materials as compared to those respondents who always use 6.7%. figure 4.5 shows ict application use in teaching with reference to students’ responses towards the use of online materials. this chart shows the frequency of using online materials in language classes by teachers. it is found that 24.2% of teachers almost never use, and 37.8% of teachers used them sometimes. in addition, teacher who often used online materials are 5.6% and 16.7% teachers usually used as compared to those teachers who used almost always being 16.7%. 3. internet figure 4.5: students’ response figure 4.6: teachers’ response exploring the utilization of ict in learning and teaching of english at undergraduate stage: 44 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 figure 4.6 shows the responses teachers about the use of the internet in the teaching of english language by the teachers. it is found that teachers almost never used the internet, unlike those teachers who used sometimes being 20.0%. it is noted that 26.7% of teachers often use the internet while teaching in english language. similarly, 13.3% of teachers usually delivered lectures. thus, teachers who use almost always are 40.0%. figure 4.7 demonstrates the responses of various respondents about the use of the internet in teaching english language by the teachers. it is found that 14.4% of students are of the opinion that their teachers almost never use the internet during class while 27.8% of students stated that they have been taught with the help internet sometimes. additionally, it is noted that 15.6% of respondents were often taught with the assistance of this tool, among them 17.8% of teachers usually use the internet. finally, 23.3% of respondents said teachers use the internet almost always. the data have been analyzed under the framework of cohen and cowen that technology is having a significant and rising influence within classrooms. english is taught as the second language. integrating technology into the classroom may significantly improve english language learners. students may participate in real-world learning activities because of the many communication options afforded by technology (young et. at., 2007). it is evident from the results and discussions that ict plays an important role in teaching and learning of english language at universities of baluchistan. it helps to motivate students and teachers helping them by providing authentic materials regarding their fields of study. additionally, it is evident from the responses about the statement that ‘i can improve my score in the assessment if the english language is taught using ict tools’. ict tools utilization is an effective factor for teaching process and learning environment for students. using ict tools like a projector, the tape recorder in an english language classroom is very useful for better language learning. it is revealed that students focus on learning of the language when teachers use ict tools such as figure 4.7: students’ response exploring the utilization of ict in learning and teaching of english at undergraduate stage: 45 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 audio and visual aids. this method of teaching also develops and enhance students’ understanding of the language. hence, the overall results show that teachers and students at aforementioned universities recommended using ict tools for learning and teaching as these devices are used to create a positive environment and student's learning can be improved. moreover, they don’t face any difficulties in getting materials regarding the aspect of language they want to learn about. 5. conclusion the utilization of information and communication technology (ict) has gained favor among language teachers and students as a means to effectively teach and learn the english language. in fact, it has become imperative to employ computers and other technological devices in english language instruction. in the public sector universities of baluchistan, particularly the target universities, the administration strongly encourages faculty members to integrate ict in their classroom practices. thanks to technology, the majority of public sector universities have successfully transitioned to online teaching during the covid-19 pandemic. this presents an excellent opportunity for english language teachers to leverage ict to improve their teaching and enhance student learning outcomes. however, it is incumbent upon the government to furnish all educational institutions in baluchistan with the necessary resources and offer adequate training to teachers at the higher secondary and tertiary levels to optimize the utilization of these tools for effective teaching and learning. exploring the utilization of ict in learning and teaching of english at undergraduate stage: 46 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 references alkamel, m. a. a., & chouthaiwale, s. s. 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(2011). pedagogical reasons on the integration of ict and english teaching. paper presented at the proceedings of the international conference on modeling, simulation and control. waddell, a. (2011). enhancing english speaking skill through digital video‟ american journal of education sciences. yang, s. c., & chen, y.-j. (2007). technology-enhanced language learning: a case study. computers in human behavior, 23(1), 860-879. @ 2023 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). impact of persian sufi thoughts on d. h. lawrence’s writing 34 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 impact of persian sufi thoughts on d. h. lawrence’s writing dolat khan assistant professor, lasbela university, balochistan, pakistan dkbaloch_1@yahoo.com mubarak lashari associate professor, university of sindh, pakistan mubarak.lashari@usindh.edu.pk sami ullah khan assistant professor, lasbela university, balochistan, pakistan samiluawms@gmail.com abstract in this paper we have argued that lawrence’s interest in what is ancient wisdom brings him in direct or indirect contact with sufi metaphysics. this outlook on the world brings him closer to a sufi universe in two ways. firstly, lawrence portrays romantic relationships in a mystical language, he presents the sensuous relationships as sacred activities through which the characters aspire to self-discovery. lawrence`s portrayal of romantic love corresponds with higher concept of love in sufi literature. secondly, this paper takes a closer look to some of lawrence’s spiritual works including his study of thomas hardy to compare his sustained argument regarding spiritualism and transcendental motifs in comparison with sufi cosmology. moreover, the following discussion also includes a detailed engagement with lawrence`s correspondence and biographical information of the time when lawrence was writing his essays and novels which contain transcendental motifs. his correspondents and biographical information suggest he had some direct exposure with sufi literature in translation. keywords: mysticism, divinity, holistic vision, physical and spiritual connection, cosmology, transcendental, metaphysics, ontology introduction d. h. lawrence (1885 – 1930) is one of most influential novelists of the early 20th century (leavis, 1955), emphasising upon theme of the relationship between man and woman in his writings. however, he gives a sacral meaning to such relationship in the sense that instead of dealing with human relationship with ordinary language and perceptions, he resorts to a metaphysical tone in his presentation giving an ontological meaning to his characters’ interest in human relationship. this extraordinary manner of presentation of romantic human relationships is not entirely a new thing or not necessarily a foreign influence in english literature. we can notice such literary trends in the romantic movement and later in the https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 mailto:dkbaloch_1@yahoo.com mailto:mubarak.lashari@usindh.edu.pk mailto:samiluawms@gmail.com impact of persian sufi thoughts on d. h. lawrence’s writing 35 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 victorian literature. from william blake to thomas hardy one can observe such metaphysical and ontological concern regarding romantic human relationships. many writers have noted mystical portrayal of human relationships in lawrence, for instance, zangenephour (2000) describes lawrence’s world of fiction as ‘more or less esoteric, non-theological, and mystical religion’ (p.1). zangenehpour concludes that lawrence was informed, fascinated, and influenced by the ancient persian religions and sufism. moreover, it is also true that during early 20th century, when lawrence was writing, persian sufi literature and other mystical writings from the east were becoming increasingly available to english reader. from william jones’ (1746 –1794) translation of oriental literature in the late eighteenth century to edward fitzgerald’s (1809–1883) famous verse translation of omar khayyam’s rubáiyát which was one of treasure cherished by both the romantic and victorian writers. in the following paragraphs we have explored metaphysical theme and transcendental motifs in lawrence`s writings in comparison to sufi literature. in addition to that we have suggested the possible connections which might have brought lawrence’s attention to sufi writings. literature review the critical writings on lawrence`s work has been categorized into three periods (beynon, 1997). the early period of his criticism consists of the reviews of his books during his lifetime, in which most of the critics although recognised his artistic genius, his novels were challenged on the moral grounds to the extent that his later novels were either rejected by the publishers or banned in england after publication. the second category of the criticism consists of biographies and psychoanalytical studies of his work during the 1930s after his death. literary critics of this period were either his detractors or supporter; however, critics of either category seemed to be obsessed with the autobiographical studies of his work. it may be said that it was too early to assess and establish his literary worth. however, this early response to lawrence’s art indicates to some very important aspect of his beliefs and concept about life. for most of the critics it was hard to assign a place to lawrence’s art in the sense that he was making experiment with artistic form which would have been sufficient to consider him as a modernist writer, however, the difficulty was that his subject matters and beliefs were pretty close to romantic traditions. this confusion among the early critics divided the opinion on https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 impact of persian sufi thoughts on d. h. lawrence’s writing 36 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 lawrence’s art and provoked much detractive criticism from many influential critics of english literature. beside new form and characterization in his novels his treatment to the natural world and imaginative wanderings beyond the world of sense perception made him a highly imaginative artist and place him in the romantic traditions of transcendentalists and pantheists like whitman and wordsworth. moreover, the most significant criticism on lawrence’s work comes with the emergence of new criticism during the 1950s and 1960s (beynon, 1997). importantly, two influential literary critics of english literature t. s. eliot (1934) and f. r. leavis (1955; 1976) took lawrence`s fictions seriously. later critics, however, found eliot’s critical opinion simplistic. later critics appreciated that his spiritual insight distinguishes lawrence’s art from the bulk of the modernist artistic creation of the first quarter of twentieth century, such as joyce, and pound and woolf. what annoyed the religious moralists like eliot the most was not his non-religious or heretic attitude but his deeply religious sensibility on a different level. mark spilka quotes eliot as saying, “the point is that lawrence started life wholly free from any restriction of tradition or institution, that he had no guidance except the inner light, the most untrustworthy and deceitful guide that ever offered itself to wandering humanity” (1963, p. 2). unlike early critics’ rejection of lawrence’s work on moral and religious basis, many later critics of lawrence find him as a deeply religious writer. mark kinkead-weekes (2001) refers to lawrence’s description of himself as ‘a passionately religious man’ and describes religion as the true yardstick to measure lawrence worth. kinkead-weekes admits his inability to understand lawrence’s ideological and religious beliefs. however, he recognises certain spiritual resonance in lawrence’s work. he considers lawrence’s rebellious attitude towards orthodox religion is a sign of the failure of the conventional religious institution to fulfil his spiritual quest for a ‘personal loving and omnipotent deity’. according to kinkead-weekes lawrence wanted to experience the ‘holy spirit’, which was not possible by the conventional religious means. kinkead-weekes traces lawrence’s religious beliefs into biblical traditions alone and fails to locate lawrence’s mystical tendencies in any mystical traditions though he recognises the existences of such insights in lawrence’s works. one of the most important critics of lawrence’s work regarding mystical approach to lawrence is frederick carter. carter (1932) believes that the depth and penetrative nature of https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 impact of persian sufi thoughts on d. h. lawrence’s writing 37 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 lawrence’s fiction come from his mysticism. he calls lawrence’s inner experimentation of his characters as the lawrence’s mystical journey towards god. there are critics who consider lawrence’s spiritual insights and his religious symbolism as evident of either his misrepresentation of christian ideals (pittock, 1990) or revitalizing christian myths (jones, 1995). likewise, critics like nanett norris (2015) traces lawrence’s religious symbols to medieval ‘alchemist’. however, on the other hand, deborah e. brassard (1984) studies lawrence’s poetry with the view of western and eastern mysticism. she finds the concept of the unity of god is an important theme in many of lawrence’s poetry. research methodology this paper has adopted a textual and contextual method. the evidence for the argument are collected through literary analysis of the given literary writings of the authors. the contextual evidence are collected from historical and biographical sources. discussion two aspects of lawrence’s writings such as his study of thomas hardy are important with its relation to sufism where we think a parallel can be rewarding and support the argument of this paper that lawrence`s possible encounter with sufi literature might have been reflected in his writings. one is the use of symbolism and other is his metaphysical vision. in his symbolism and vision lawrence, like sufis, seems to have a peculiar understanding of religious aspiration and spiritual truth. lawrence does not like what he calls ‘ghastly sentimentalism’ in religion, he says even in school when the teacher narrated the story of jesus, he did not feel sorry for jesus as expected from a good christian, however, he says “yet the wonder of it penetrated very deep in me” (1979, p. 36). so, he is intrigued by the wonder of being, of jesus himself not the pain and suffering of jesus for the preservation and salvation of the humanity and neither in his sayings to follow a singular right path, he is not interested at all in the selfrighteous religious preaching in the name of jesus. he elaborates his religious and metaphysical commitments in the beginning of study of thomas hardy where he though acknowledges the materialist aspect of human history by referring to first man’s struggle to feed and preserve his offspring. however, he notes that “the history of mankind is not altogether the history of an effort at self-preservation which has at length become over-blown and extravagant” (lawrence, 1985, p.7). real being for lawrence https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 impact of persian sufi thoughts on d. h. lawrence’s writing 38 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 is in the ‘escape away into flame’ of the ‘eternal phoenix’ and he notes, “the flame was all the story and all triumph” (lawrence, 1985, p.8). the actual life is in the ‘red outburst at the top of the poppy’, which is the finest form of being not worried for its preservation and happy to die because life comes out of its ashes. this idea of the life’s eternal sense of being in its relation to cosmos is a sufi ontological quest which lawrence must be aware of before writing his hardy essays which we have argued later in this paper. there seems to exist a sense of physical touch in lawrence’s call for a spiritual urgency and in his understanding of religious truth, in lawrence’s writing, as we can see in the flowering of poppy and the flame of life in his essay, body and mind work together in a spiritually charged environment – which is the dark substance of being, for obtaining a true enlightenment. the spiritual energy which can guide us to full knowledge and in a state of awareness does not come from thoughts and ideas, it resides in our body and through this energy we can connect to a larger cosmic existence of which we are only a part and until that connection is not made our understanding shall remain superficial. likewise, the stories and parables of sufi traditions narrate an unending saga of soul and body, love, and relationship as well as more importantly the theme of being physically and spiritually alive and dead. rumi’s the mathnawi begins with the story of reed-flute and its physical detachment from its ‘osier bed’. but it survives in its ‘plaintive notes’ whenever touched by the lips of a lover. what lawrence tries to explain in his metaphors of poppy and phoenix that rumi lays out this theme of body and soul more eloquently in the onset of the mathnawi. for instance, he mentions. body is not veiled from soul, neither / soul from body, / yet no man hath ever seen a soul. / this plaint of the flute is fire, not mere air. / let him who lacks this fire be / accounted dead! / ‘tis the fire of love that inspires the flute, / ‘tis the ferment of love that possesses the wine. / the flute is the confidant of all unhappy lovers; / yea, its strains lay bare my inmost secrets (rumi, 1979, p.1). as compared with lawrence, rumi’s symbols are exhaustive and one leading to other. for instance, in the story of reed-flute rumi expounds his concept of body and soul and the transporting effect of love. he says further in the story after establishing that it is the physical https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 impact of persian sufi thoughts on d. h. lawrence’s writing 39 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 detachment of the reed-flute which makes its melody so sweet and effective to the air of other lovers who want to be united with their beloved, hail to thee, then, o love, sweet madness! / thou who healest all our infirmities! / who art the physician of our pride and self-conceit! / who art our plato and our galen! / love exalts our earthly bodies to heaven, / and makes the very hills to dance with joy! / o lover, ‘twas love that gave life to mount sinai, / when “it quaked, and moses fell down in a swoon.” / did my beloved only touch me with his lips, i too, like the flute, would burst out in melody […] the beloved is all in all, the lover only veils him; / the beloved is all that lives, the lover a dead thing (rumi, 1979, pp. 1-2). here we can see how rumi and lawrence adopt a similar metaphoric style in their articulation of similar metaphysical argument. the ‘beloved’ here is the physical form of being, life’s finest moment like the reed-flute and like lawrence’s red of the poppy. in another place rumi expresses the same idea in simpler way, he notes, “seemingly the bough is the cause of the fruit, / but really the bough exists because of the fruit” (1979, p. 128). life is worth living for its substance, for its finest moment and for the sake of something greater. it is the ‘touch’ of the ‘beloved lips’ which can bring a true sense of being in rumi and for rumi it is also a religious experience, revelation to moses was an act of love. while reading the above quoted lines from the mathnawi, one cannot fail to notice the confusion of sufi symbolism here, which is a constant feature of sufi poetry. the reason for such use of symbolic language seems to be that the idea is too big, and the imaginative flight is too wide to put it in simpler terms. rumi takes a natural object and gives it the qualities of life in its most concrete form such as the physical detachment of reed-flute from its base and then the pain of this separation and then another physical touch of a lover’s lip bring it into life of another form – the melodious notes. whether it is the mount sinai or the poet himself, the physical touch of beloved is enough to bring them into life. this bringing together a natural object, the concept of love, touch of beloved and revelation of god into one symbolic system may suggest many things including unity of being, however, one thing it has in common with lawrence, is the quality of life. one cannot ignore the palpable substance of life dancing around us when reading this poetry. lawrence like rumi in his essay on thomas hardy tells the story of his heart, calling for the individual to come out of his dull routine, leave his moral virtues behind, throw away https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 impact of persian sufi thoughts on d. h. lawrence’s writing 40 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 the conceit of his social responsibility and his future worries and thereby live the present and become one’s own star. for lawrence, the greater responsibility of any individual is one`s soul and body. one should not live like a cabbage, for instance, in his story of cabbage and a soldier in the second world war he gives the example of the conceit of self-preservation and moral courage, neither perpetuating a rotten existence nor throwing oneself to death in the fire of war give the real taste of true being. society may not need our moral courage as much as our own inner self, our body and soul may need our attention. lawrence once says to frieda’s daughter that, “don’t throw yourself away; you might want yourself later on” (1979, p. 245). he says to the women of suffrage movement that, it is not the parliament and right to vote which give you a better life, true living is not possible through collective decision of a society, it is an individual action. act of life is a palpable burst of an individual flame like flowering of the poppy and like imagery bird phoenix’s bursting into flame. it is not an idea of the collective wisdom to be discussed in the parliament and lay down into law. in rumi’s words, “the world is full of golddiggers, / but yourself is where gold is mined. / the prophet said, ‘men are as mines’ ; / the self is a mine of silver and gold, / and filled with precious gems” (1979, p. 215). furthermore, lawrence tries to establish a holistic cosmology in which the known and sensible fragment of the cosmos is a part of or a manifestation of a higher unknown realm of being. for lawrence it is so obvious that we have some unknown or at least immeasurable force in us which make us create unimaginable patterns. sometimes we jump on new high in our creativity and in our amusements without any expectation and without knowing how. as noted by robert montgomery that, “lawrence wanted to lead us into deeper levels of awareness, to move towards the cosmic, towards, in other words, the religious dimension […]” (1994, p.2). most critics agree that lawrence looks back to find clues to see the world in different lights as an artist. he despises the idea of rationalizing the phenomenon of existence. what lawrence despises in modern rational thinking are certain attitudes which curtail human imagination and personal experience of the divine. two such attitudes and perceptions he attacks sharply in his writings are the self-assertive will and the ‘conceit of knowledge’ derived from rational and scientific theories of the post-renaissance world and the moral judgement of doctrinal faith. regarding purely rationalist attitudes towards knowledge he describes the https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 impact of persian sufi thoughts on d. h. lawrence’s writing 41 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 scientific culture of the victorian era as a ‘huge and rather ghastly glare of human understanding’. instead of strong rational and self-assertive will of the modern man, he insists on a ‘new germ’ to revive our understanding of the divine that could save us, a new form of ‘god-knowledge, or life-knowledge` considering modern civilization at the end of the ‘great road that jesus and francis and whitman walked’. the influence of sufi thought and literature on the transcendentalist writers like emerson, whom lawrence read as a young man and who impressed him immensely, is well documented by researchers such as john d. yohannan (1977) in his persian poetry in england and america: a 200 – year history. moreover, across the spectrum of european romanticism which lawrence relates to for his intuitive and spontaneous art and for his holistic approach to life, the sufi mode of perception has no doubt played a major role. the historical and literary links which brought the medieval persian sufi literary treasures into modern europe are too obvious to ignore. lawrence’s reading of the german romantics from hölderlin to goethe, his admiration for carlyle and emerson and his close literary connection to the english romantics make it plausible that like all others who wrote in this tradition, sufi cosmology played a major role in shaping his ideas and the literary mode he wants to set. lawrence’s search for his own canvas on which to paint his thoughts goes back to his school days. in jessie chambers’ accounts lawrence read all the modern english authors and most of the russian and french classics. chambers records, “he read, of course, all the modern english authors” (1980, p.121). chambers also reports that lawrence was reading bishop berkeley and after listing the major nineteenth century texts of western literature and philosophy lawrence read she observes that, “in all his reading he seemed to be groping for something that he could lay hold of as a guiding principle in his own life […] he seemed to consider all his philosophical reading from the angle of his own personal need” (1980, p.113). chambers’ observations suggest that lawrence was looking for something other than a conventional religious belief system and morality as well as an alternative to the materialistic and rationalistic understanding of the world. his quest for religious conversion probably brought him in contact with the mystical literature of the persian sufi poets. in his writings he laments the ‘crude sentimentality’ in his early works and wants to refine his writing by refining his soul through a religious conversion (lawrence, 1979, p.49). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 impact of persian sufi thoughts on d. h. lawrence’s writing 42 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 apart from his ideas and contacts that give evidence of sufi thought, there are other concrete instances of lawrence’s encounter with sufi literature. khayyam’s sufi poetry is the only non-western literary text mentioned by chambers in lawrence’s reading list. by lawrence’s time sufi poetry had become a necessary addition to the list of the reading public. in lawrence’s home persian and other middle eastern literature was available. chambers notes the existence of richard garnett’s twenty-volume anthology of international library of famous literature at lawrence’s home. garnett’s anthology contains many extracts of sufi poetry from rumi to sa’ad and hafiz. one of lawrence’s uncles by marriage, fritz krenkow, was an orientalist who translated many arabic texts into german. boulton regards krenkow as a major influence in lawrence’s intellectual life, he observes that krenkow’s ‘largely intellectual influence was reinforced by his wife’s interest in lawrence as a painter’ and that krenkow’s “dedication to scholarship and his intellectual energy could not fail to have their impact on the young lawrence” (lawrence, 1979, pp. 7-8). evidently, lawrence writes from his uncle’s house in 1908, “my friends here are books – nothing but books […] uncle is always working away at his arabi, and i sit reading french, wishing i could tackle spanish and italian, of which there are such a lot of delightful books here”(p. 8). according to boulton, krenknow, a german national, in his spare time worked as an editor and translator of arabic texts. he further describes krenknow’s achievements, “from 1907 he published frequently in the journal of the royal asiatic society and other learned journals, mainly german; his edition of the poems of tufail ibn’auf al-ghanavi and at tirimmah ibn ttakim at-ta’yi was ready in 1906” (lawrence, 1979, p.8). later in life he travels to india and becomes professor of islamic studies at the famous muslim university of aligarh. during his cornwall years in 1916 and 1917, one of lawrence’s neighbours was meredith starr. starr was a british occultist and poet and the writer of the occult review, an illustrated monthly journal containing articles and correspondence by many notable occultists of the day, including aleister crowley, arthur edward waite, w.l. wilmshurst, franz hartmann, florence farr, and herbert stanley redgrove. he later brings meher baba, a famous indian spiritual teacher of iranian descent, to europe. meher baba began a lifelong spiritual quest after meeting a sufi saint when he was nineteen years old. starr organises a play called https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 impact of persian sufi thoughts on d. h. lawrence’s writing 43 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 ‘east and west’ which lawrence mentions watching in august 1917. in a letter to esther andrews, lawrence talks about this ‘concert in st. ives called east and west composed by starr’ and describes scene one, “then came scene i, leila and majnoon – the persian romeo and juliet” (lawrence, 1979, p. 151). the story of leila majnun is one of the favourite metaphors of love in the sufi literature. lawrence’s early reading of blake and omar khayyam’s mystical poetry and the metaphysical writings of emerson and carlyle which he read and discussed during his college years with jesse chambers set him off on a spiritual journey. chambers records how lawrence gives her ‘the rubaiyat of omar khayyam’ and she gives him ‘blake’s songs of innocence and songs of experience’. she also remembers that during 1906 lawrence “read and liked emerson’s essays and became wildly enthusiastic over thoreau’s walden […] then we came to carlyle […] we read also heroes and hero worship and sartor resartus” (1980, pp.101-2). the sufistic themes lawrence later tries to develop in his writings such as religious conversion, liberty of soul, listening to one’s heart, experiencing the divine in real terms and unison with a cosmic truth are present in these early readings. lawrence` metaphysical maturity comes very early in his life. evidently, the dream of sudden conversion into religious truth did not materialize but lawrence’s writings show a tremendous shift in mood, imagery, and use of symbols after his second novel sons and lovers. lawrence’s later novels such as the rainbow and particularly women in love seem to be on a different plan. both the novels are a departure from the conventional form and texture of novel writing. the departure was so complete that it shocked english readers with its dark metaphysical clouds and its new interpretation of biblical themes. lawrence’s work caused equal repercussions from both rationalists like bertrand russell as well as victorian moralists and the conventionally religious public. lawrence was aware of his departure, and he knew he was alone. he consistently tried to find other people like him but most of them disappointed him. lawrence shows his apprehension regarding the publication of his novel women in love in a letter to amy lowell dated 30 august 1917, “nobody will publish my novel women in love – my best bit of work. the publishers say, ‘it is too strong for an english public’. poor darling english public, when will it go in for a little spiritual athletics” (lawrence, 1979, p. 153)? lawrence is not only aware of the alienation of the general public from his work, but he https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 impact of persian sufi thoughts on d. h. lawrence’s writing 44 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 also knows the reasons why his novel won’t be digested easily by the english public, the spiritual journey lawrence suggests english people must take before they were to be able to appreciate his novel. meeting people like hueffer, russell, murry and forster must have increased lawrence’s knowledge of oriental mysticism including sufism. all these people were aware of the oriental literature that had reached europe from the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. forster visits egypt and india later in 1924 writes his famous novel a passage to india in which he uses oriental mystical themes and images, however, in very mechanical and artificial way. hueffer’s influence on lawrence’s career as a literary writer cannot be exaggerated. not only does hueffer launched lawrence’s career as a writer, he also provided him with much needed connections to the wider world of literature. the relation between lawrence and hueffer’s english review is worth mentioning here. boulton notes that, hueffer “established a link between lawrence and the review [that] was to persist until 1923” (1979, p.13). according to boulton some thirty-five issues of the review included lawrence’s work. one significant fact about the english review, for lawrence`s possible reading of sufi literature, is that it was financially supported by the greatest persian scholar outside iran, the cambridge professor edward granville browne. boulton notes that when the magazine was failing financially, professor browne supported it ‘who had himself written for the review’. lawrence must have read some of professor browne’s writings and other oriental works whose publication in the review professor browne thought important and for which it should remain in print. browne is one of the most celebrated persian scholars, his name is still well respected in iran and there is a statue of him in tehran to honour his work for persian literature. another connection noted by chambers is lawrence’s meeting of a. r. orage in 1909. orage was the editor of the new age which lawrence read regularly for a time. orage was a disciple of georgei ivanovitch gurdjieff who claimed to have visited turkey, central asia and india and have learned esoteric and occult knowledge there. gurdjieff later set up the institute for the harmonious development of man in france where lawrence’s close friend katharine mansfield died in 1923. although lawrence did not approve of gurdjieff’s occult practices he might have come across some sufi texts and ideas usually used by occultists through his https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 impact of persian sufi thoughts on d. h. lawrence’s writing 45 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 connection with orage’s magazine and the writing of gurdjieff and perhaps another of gurdjieff’s disciples p. d. ouspensky. moreover, lawrence’s interest in the theosophical society of helena petrovna blavatsky and annie besant may have introduced him to many sufi ideas. although critical of blavatsky’s rhetoric about one humanity, one religion and her cheap spiritualism, lawrence, shared the views of the theosophical society and other such promoters of intuitive knowledge. william york tindal (1939) regards oriental interest of theosophists and people like emerson, thoreau and yeats as a major influences on lawrence`s writings. as mentioned earlier emerson and thoreau’s interests included among other things persian sufi thought and literature. lawrence’s ‘private religion’ and ontological position does conform to some oriental metaphysical traditions such as sufistic thought. however, he does not take blavatsky’s views quite as uncritically as tindall suggests. blavatsky, like whitman, champions a collective humanity and ignores the individual, which as a spiritual realist lawrence reject. for lawrence it is the other way round, it is the microcosm which contains the macrocosm and not the macrocosm of the universe which should absorb and negate the microcosm of the individual life. he says, “one is not a little individual living a little individual life, but that one is in oneself the whole of mankind” (lawrence, 1979, p. 302). as whelan observes in relation to lawrence’s implicit theory of human relationships, ‘neither the theosophists nor the greeks have much affinity with lawrence in this respect, but in carpenter and […] in the cabbalistic mysticism of the married state we find metaphysical systems which exalt human relationships to the mystical plane without detaching them from the physical, and are thus much closer to lawrence’s own view” (whelan, 1988, p. 107). conclusion in this paper we have tried to establish lawrence’s links to sufi literature in terms of concepts such as sacral treatment of love and cosmic vision. as mentioned above there are many occasions where lawrence may have come across sufi literature. apart from the fact that lawrence writes in an environment where sufi literature is widely available and appreciated in literary circles of his time, there are also evidences of the presence of sufi literature at his own home and at the library of his uncle where he spends some time. however, https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 impact of persian sufi thoughts on d. h. lawrence’s writing 46 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 the above discussion does not confine itself to the availability of sufi literature to lawrence; it also notes parallel sufi theme and concepts in lawrence’s early spiritual writings. significantly, lawrence’s rejection of materialistic and mechanical approach to life and his use of religious symbolism in his writings such as thomas hardy essay, the crown and the reality of peace bring him very close to sufi cosmology. arguably, lawrence uses spiritual themes and symbolism in his above-mentioned essays and in his more important literary writings such as the rainbow and women in love, in which lawrence explore mystical ideas to advocate for cultural emancipation which later critics like terry eagleton called ‘coupling’. however, what lawrence suggests in his vision of being as a palpable display of life in the flowering of poppy and in his letter to garnett mentioned earlier is not exactly what literary theorists like terry eagleton (2012) and others term as equal to cultural theories of body, love making and the sexual emancipation we witness in the 1960s and 1970s. lawrence envisions the freedom of soul and body from inside; he wants physical display of life in its moment of triumph, this is different from advocating sexual freedom as many critics suggest about lawrence’s cultural impact. it may include such a thing as sexual freedom but what lawrence suggests is greater than this. as we saw in his letter to garnett where he explains his objection to scared body theory of christianity and the moral space of a character to grow, he notes, “somehow – that which is physic – non-human, in humanity, is more interesting to me than the old-fashioned human element – which causes one to conceive a character in a certain moral scheme is what i object to” (lawrence, 1997, p.77). lawrence clearly does not mean sexual object here when he says ‘physic’ or animalistic desire by ‘non-human’. lawrence refers to orthodox and conventional christian humanity that is evidently part of modern postrenaissance humanism. lawrence clearly wants a total departure from this conventional moral scheme of things and from christian and post-renaissance human element. comparable aspect with sufi cosmology is that lawrence appreciates the wonder of being. as we noted in his desire for a ‘sudden spiritual conversion’ in the letter to minister and in his fascination to st. paul’s quick awareness to the spiritual reality of divine being, lawrence wants to be free for his moment of bewilderment. lawrence seems to agree with rumi when he says, “sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment; / cleverness is mere opinion, https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 impact of persian sufi thoughts on d. h. lawrence’s writing 47 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 bewilderment intuition” (rumi, 1979, p.136). lawrence despises the conceit of rational judgement in modern man, as we saw in his letter to russell and he equally despises the conceit of humanism promoted by some well-meaning mystic and spiritual writers as we noted in his critique of whitman. he underscores the importance of the celebration of individual life which is the bases of the spiritual growth and fulfilment of being. given the tradition and impact of sufistic thought one can justifiably argue that lawrence writes in an overall atmosphere where sufi texts and ideas are available. the scale of translation and publication of sufi texts into english and other european languages was enormous and widespread by lawrence’s time. lawrence is necessarily aware of this vast literature which surrounds him not only in the form of original translations but also through other western writers he reads. especially given that lawrence writes in a particular western tradition, a highly imaginative literary mood, one can easily identify sufi links. lawrence writes in a literary tradition in which art and philosophical speculation are interlinked. this mood of writing links lawrence’s art with the romantics and medieval sufi conventions for which the work of art is a revelation of truth. references beynon, r. (1997). d.h. lawrence: the rainbow, women in love. london: palgrave macmillan. brassard, e. deborah (1984). d. h. lawrence: mystical poet of earth (unpublished doctoral dissertation). purdue university, west lafayette, indiana. carter, frederick (1932). d. h. lawrence and the body mystical. london: denis archer. chambers, jessie (1980). d h lawrence: a personal record. cambridge: cup. eagleton, terry (2012). the event of literature. london: yale university press. eliot, t. s. (1934). after strange gods. london: faber. jones, carolyn m. (1995). male friendship and the construction of identity in d. h. lawrence’s novels. literature and theology, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 66-84. kinkead-weekes, mark (2001). d. h. lawrence: “a passionately religious man”. the sewanee review, vol. 109, no. 3 (summer, 2001), pp. 379-397. lawrence, d. h. 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(1963). d. h. lawrence. a collection of critical essays. prentice-hall: englewood cliffs. whelan, p. t. (1988). d. h. lawrence: myth and metaphysic in the rainbow and women in love. london: u.m.i research press. tindall, william york (1939). d. h. lawrence and susan his cow. new york: columbia https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 impact of persian sufi thoughts on d. h. lawrence’s writing 49 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 university press. yohannan, john d. (1977). persian poetry in england and america: a 200 – year history. new york: caravan books. zangenehpour, f. (2000). sufism and the quest for spiritual fulfilment in d.h. lawrence’s the rainbow. gouteborg: acta universitatis gothoburgensis. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.321 gender issues of immigrants: ... 310 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.342 gender issues of immigrants: an analysis of female characters in chimamanda ngozi adichie’s americanah muhammad ilyas subject specialist elementary and secondary education khyber pakhtunkhwa, pakistan. email; ilyas444ilyas@gmail.com dr. samina rahat professor, department of linguistics and literature, qurtuba university of science and information technology abstract this study examines the situation of nigerian women in america depicted by chimamanda ngozi adichie’s americanah in terms of how they are subjugated and marginalized in their day to day lives. it also investigates the problems and hurdles faced by nigerian women in their own and american society due to migration and immigration. the study, furthermore, delineates the suppression of the desires and needs of nigerian women and lays bare how it affects them. by deploying the theoretical paradigm of impression management with an exclusive focus on gender issues, this study highlights how the socio-domestic progress of nigerian women is impeded in the name of culture and race. finally, the study reflects on the ability of nigerian women to convert their miseries into opportunities. it is, therefore, a picture of both their strengths and weaknesses that reveal the potential of these women which the world needs to appreciate. the paper tries to find the true picture of the miserable life of female immigrants with some of the applicable solutions. keywords: gender issues, adichie’s americanah, problems of immigrants, nigerian women background of the study this study aims to highlight the challenges that immigrant characters face in chimamanda ngozi adichie's novels americanah (2013) in terms of gender issues. the study focuses on the discussion in americanah that deals with gender issues as well as gender equality. in this novel, adichie covers almost every aspect of her characters' lives as immigrants and migrants dealing with gender issues. furthermore, erving goffman's theory of impression management is used as a theoretical basis for this study as it is a public relation theory (johansson, 2007). goffman is a well-known sociologist whose theories are relevant to this research since he discusses living situations, expressions and impressions, front stage and back stage, excuses and justifications, self-enhancement, self-motivation, self-disclosure, and in other dimension of human social attachment. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 mailto:ilyas444ilyas@gmail.com gender issues of immigrants: ... 311 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.342 the word "immigrate" comes from the terms "emigrate" and "migrate." both of these terms refer to the movement of people/animals from one location/country to another. there is, however, a minor distinction between them. the words "immigrate" and "emigrate" are grouped under the name "migrate." when it comes to individuals, the term "migrate" usually refers to a permanent move, but it may also refer to a temporary move (shumsky, 2008). for example, after retiring, the majority of pakistani bureaucrats move to the united states or europe. husain and his family moved to kuwait after signing a ten-year contract with an oil company. when the term "migrate" is used to describe birds or animals, it typically refers to a temporary or seasonal change of habitat. thousands of swans, for example, migrate to pakistan every year during russia's harsh winters. the words 'emigrate' and 'immigrate' have somewhat similar meanings. it also refers to an individual who relocates permanently to a foreign country. the main difference is that ‘immigrate' means to join a foreign country and begin living there, while ‘emigrate' means to leave one's home country and live in another. for example: ali's family immigrated to canada. zawar's uncle emigrated from pakistan. adichie's novel americanah is perhaps her most well-known amongst all her works. it is ranked third among adichie's novels in terms of chronological order. it instills a sense of americanization in all immigrants, especially african immigrants. a vein of nigerianism, on the other hand, flows through several of the novel's pages. it is, indeed, a multifaceted novel, with various critics presenting it from various angles. americanah is examined by tetteh-batsa (2018) through the prism of afropolitan feminism. taiye selasi (2013) defines afropolitan or afropolitanism as "the newest generation of african emigrants who belong to no single geography" in her lip magazine essay bye-bye babar (2013). she refers to the multilingual afropolitan community as cultural morons with an american accent, london fashion, and african values who were "bred on african shores then shipped to the west for higher education." adichie considers this character the main protagonist of the novel, which embraces adichie's feminism at its finest. americanah depicts the life of a female immigrant in america named ifemelu as she tries to develop her own african identity. tetteh-batsa's understanding of afropolitan feminism in adichie's work is strengthened by the presence of a female protagonist of african descent. americanah, in her academic view, portrays afropolitan feminism as a sovereign bureau for black african women https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 gender issues of immigrants: ... 312 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.342 with non-american identities who are constantly subjected to racialized and gendered segregation. in the book, ifemelu responds to the difference in national exclusion disclosures and is subjected to racial and gender discrimination. she tries desperately to ‘own herself a little more,' but she struggles, and afropolitanism forces her to return to her homeland. in this report, tetteh-batsa clarifies the situation of female african immigrants. she discovers that americanah is full of afropolitan feminism and wants to prove her point to the best of her ability, but the whole thesis focuses only on female immigrants' issues, ignoring other important issues in the novel. onunkwo et al. (2019) look at the experiences of nigerian immigrants in america and europe, with a focus on americanah. they generalize on two major challenges confronting nigerian immigrants in america and the united kingdom: racial segregation and economic exploitation. concerning americanah, they examine ifemelu's blog, raceteenth or various observations about american blacks (those formerly known as negroes) by a non-american black, which evokes both a contemporary and historical debate about race. this blog simultaneously exposes the past of racism and the realities of america. african immigrants, as reflected by adichie in her award-winning novel americanah, are described by james and omagu (2018) as straddling two stools. they believe that immigrants, especially african immigrants, suffer greatly and are restless in their new surroundings. cultural shock, racial exploitation, social discrimination, discontentment, and self-realization were the main concerns they had when they first arrived. adjusting and readjusting, disgruntlement and dissatisfaction, fermentation, and restiveness are all experiences that african immigrants go through. white ethnocentrism prevents them from being at ease. they also suffer from an inferiority complex that prevents them from being satisfied, often after achieving economic success and other milestones in their lives. return migration occurs in the majority of cases of immigrants. in this regard, ifemelu, the protagonist in americanah, is a living example. she is a successful blogger, financially secure, and lives a respectable life, but she is never satisfied with her self-realization in america. as a result, she returns to nigeria and settles in lagos. she does, however, carry with her the influence of americanism on her personality, and adichie is right to refer to her as an 'americanah.' ifemelu truly straddles the america-nigeria divide. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 gender issues of immigrants: ... 313 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.342 theoretical perspective the presentation of self in everyday life, published in the united states in 1959, erving goffman (june 1922 – november 1982) proposed the philosophy of impression management (goffman, 1959). he was a leading figure in the history of contemporary american sociology as a canadian-american sociologist. impression management is a practice that can be done consciously or subconsciously. it is the effort that affects or regulates how others perceive an entity, an individual, or an occurrence. in his book the presentation of self in everyday life (1959), goffman discusses the theory of impression management that can be broken down into the following six aspects. definition of situation there is found immense potential to radicalize sociological thoughts within goffman’s studies based on the established framework of sociological inquiry (sharrock, 2002). goffman believes that in all social circumstances, individuals want to convince others to agree with their interpretation of the situation. when someone walks into a car showroom, for example, the dealer tries to define the case by claiming that the visitor is a superior social being who deserves to drive one of the cars in the showroom. the notion of framing the situation is central to the understanding of the situation. expression and impression goffman notifies sign vehicles. these are, in reality, the mechanisms by which individuals introduce themselves to others. the social environment, appearance, and manner of communicating are the most popular sign vehicles. in this case, personal space should also be taken into account. simply put, people make impressions by their facial expressions. it is noteworthy to mention that self as a social product mention by goffman are those facets of performance named as sign vehicles, which can be operated in order to generate a wanted selfpresentation (kalinowski, 2009) front stage, back stage our front, as described by goffman, manifests our age, hairstyle, sex, clothes, and so on. we generally strive to adjust them to meet the circumstances. our attire for ceremonies communicates to everyone that we will be attending a wedding or other formal event. similarly, goffman calls circumstances in which one approaches her or his comfort zone known as a back stage. after getting rid of a skunk-type passenger, a taxi driver, for example, expresses his https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 gender issues of immigrants: ... 314 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.342 contempt for the passenger publicly inside the cab. actually, the concept of front stage and back stage as mentioned by goffman is unwontedly described by picca & feagin (2020) in their study titled, two-faced racism: whites in the backstage and frontstage. accounts excuses and justifications accounts are comments made by individuals in response to unexpected and unwelcomed actions. there are two different categories of accounts that are often used. excuses are used to avoid taking responsibility. justifications are used to exonerate the offending conduct. the theory of excuses and justification has been thoroughly brought under discussion by shaw, wild and coloquitt (2003) by saying that everybody gives explanations for her/his dealings with others. mostly, excuses and justifications are used to hide or unlawfully correct the mistakes. self enhancement and ingratiation the attempt to change the situation through flattery, exaggeration, unjustified favors, deception, and so on. to put it another way, it signals an exaggerated self-presentation. moreover, it also includes a false presentation of oneself to others in order to promote a selfexaggerated social status. in this connection, the surrounding flatterers play a key role to strengthen this deceitful presentation (tan, 2014). self-awareness, self-monitoring, self-disclosure we speak of self-awareness as we turn our attention to ourselves. it's normally done in the privacy of our minds. it is the element of the self whose actions are impenetrable to all. self-monitoring is the modification of actions due to the situation, and self-disclosure is the presentation of self-based on society's awareness of the exhibiting self. when one’s attention is fixated on the self is known as self-awareness. the self can be categorized as the private self and the public self. the private self conceals one’s attitudes while the public self exposes one’s manners and behaviors (tan, 2014). discussion in americanah, in a christian and patriarchal culture, adichie provides the reader with an overview of sexuality. she notes that improvement is possible in terms of how her sexuality is handled and lived by ifemelu. a new conception of her own identity is accomplished by ifemelu, riven between christian orthodoxy and modernity. in many parts of africa, female sexuality is a particularly important issue. while sexuality is the intimate and confidential https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 gender issues of immigrants: ... 315 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.342 realm of a person, for example, in christianity, the sexuality of a woman has been defined and enforced since eve's tale. mostly focused on a patriarchal power system, christianity also instructs girls and women that their body is a lure to men and that it is their duty to reduce the trajectory of a man to destruction (adichie, feminist, 2013). girls are supposed to value their virginity as the key asset in a 'man's heart' and thus a good marriage since virginity primarily determines a woman's honor. in the case of premarital sexual intercourse, women are typically blamed for abortion and must deal with the effects of pregnancy, which often ostracizes them and decreases their chance of marriage. in the socialization of ifemelu, christianity plays a prime role. her mother moves from one church to another, and each transition instills one fundamental message within ifemelu, namely that a woman must properly portray her body. here, her mother is told by male clergy how to keep her hair and that "jewelry [...] was obscene, unfitting a woman of righteousness" (adichie, 2013, p. 43). the fact that clergy govern how women can portray their bodies shows how restrictive some of the teachings of christianity are. however, not only do men decide how women can act, but women also regulate each other and thereby reinforce the functioning of patriarchal social structures. the experience of ifemelu with the highly influential sister ibinabo, a woman regarded as "the saviour of young women," since she taught girls to become less "troubled and troublesome," suggests that there is judgment and disdain among women members of the church (adichie, 2013, p. 50). sister ibinabo specifically belittles a young girl named christie, infamous for discovering when a girl acted "ungodly," arguing "i saw you wearing tight pants last saturday [...]. it's all legal but not helpful. any girl who wears tight pants allows the offense of temptation to be committed. it is best to prevent it” (adichie, 2013, p.50). this scene shows how women 'in their place' hold each other. the idea that sister ibinabo discusses that on a non-church-related day she saw this girl wearing tight-fitting clothes shows how girls and women are under constant observation. the statement of sister ibinabo "[e]verything is permissible but not beneficial" suggests that a "good christian girl" should follow the law and how to prevent attention from men (ibid.). therefore, her choice of clothes immediately suggests that she "wanted to commit the crime of temptation" and deceive people. girls and women can be believed not only to be exposed to the attention of their religious culture but also to be extremely objective and sexually explicit in their bodies. subsequently, https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 gender issues of immigrants: ... 316 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.342 some form of public embarrassment expects them if they overstep boundaries. since the verbally reprimanded girl christie is "humble, compassionate [and] carri[es] her guilt" (ibid.) finds out that girls are conditioned to experience shame about their bodies and sexuality, which eventually prevents them from voicing their sexual urges and in their potential sexual relationships often deprives them of freedom. this scene illustrates how the stigmatization of the patriarchal and misogynistic and racist power system is maintained not only by men but also by women in the church. the next example reveals ifemelu’s perception of sexuality constitutes a taboo topic and is protected with the "cloak of religion" (adichie, 2013, p. 50). this is explained by the fact that aunty uju "talked to her after her first menstruation cycle, substituting the lecture of her mother that was ample of religious citations about morality but lacked helpful details about nausea and pads" (adichie, 2013, p. 54). her mother links the need for "virtue" with this inevitable transition to womanhood. therefore, instead of supplying her valuable and accurate knowledge on menstruation, postpartum syndrome and, most importantly, contraceptives, she impedes ifemelu's correspondence and lectures on modesty and how to prevent god's outrage. the fact that the mother of ifemelu destroys her sanitary pads signifies her subtle hostility to womanhood and sexuality and indicates that menstruation is seen as corrupting and that her intrinsic innocence is offered by the burning of its proof (pads) (adichie, 2013, p. 41). the "religious guidance" of her mother does not encourage ifemelu's awareness of her evolving body, but still expects the virginity of her daughter until the wedding. this mindset establishes a space between them, instigating ifemelu to practice confidentiality. not only does her aunt subtly supply her with "james hadley chase novels covered in newspapers to conceal the nearnaked women on the front" (adichie, 2013, p. 54), but also that her mother is oblivious of her boyfriend, suggests that she has perfected the art of pretense to avoid conflict with her mother (adichie, 2013, p. 69). since the talk of sexuality is condemned by her mother, aunty uju becomes the person who also openly admits her love for obinze. in ifemelu's training on her sex, she plays a key role and thus tells her to "let him kiss and touch but not put it inside" (adichie, 2013, p. 54). even though this advice shows the liberal viewpoint of aunty uju on sex, ifemelu still has an ambiguous definition of sex. it is the mother of obinze who thoroughly teaches her about her duties and also her privileges. although in high school, obinze and ifemelu have been dating https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 gender issues of immigrants: ... 317 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.342 for some time, and his mother wants to invite her, to ifemelu's surprise. ifemelu considers it "odd" that his mother is receptive to their relationship (adichie, 2013, p. 68). this helps ifemelu to see through the veil of her christian beliefs and to realize that it is possible to see sex as natural and not immoral and prohibited. the circumstance, which emphasizes this, happens during another visit when the mother leaves home for a shopping trip. here, both begin to get close, and the sudden return of the mother surprises both. she instantly detects their act and asks "ifemelunamma, come please" (adichie, 2013, p. 72). ifemelu, who hopes to take the responsibility for their actions, is stunned by the remarks of her mother, "if anything occurs between you and obinze, you are both accountable." but for women, culture is unjust. an action is performed by two individuals, but one individual takes it all alone if there are any repercussions. you explain that to me?" (ibid). ifemelu is met with a response that is not expected of mothers. she is not, to her delight, treated as a pariah who misleads obinze into temptation. this discussion rather tells her that both she and obinze are equally responsible for their actions. while the mother of obinze concerns ifemelu with the fact of pregnancy and her corresponding obligation, she does not blame her for her mother's "religious guidance." "in the words of obinze's mother, ifemelu, who initially feels embarrassed at being found in flagrant, finds comfort, "absence of guilt and "normality" (adichie, 2013, p. 72) since she explains that abstinence is not seen as a symbol of purity, a value to satisfy god and a potential spouse. virginity, instead, is often seen as the timeframe in which a woman starts to understand and embrace her own body so that the opposite sex will not take advantage of her. the mother of obinze meets her with a relatable tale that shows that her conduct is individual, natural, and thus free of remorse. there is one aspect worthy of review, however. the mother of obinze provides ifemelu with awareness of her rights and obligations and still wants her to come to her before she decides to become sexually involved with obinze. in other words, her discussion with ifemelu did not provide her with realistic knowledge on abortion and, more specifically, sexually transmitted diseases. it can be concluded that her strategy not only seeks to build a foundation of confidence with ifemelu and obinze but also intends to exert control over both and can therefore prevent their sexual activity. however, ifemelu and obinze had sex during their university years without informing the mother. because "she had envisioned his mother observing them, the image thrust itself into her mind [...], ifemelu interpreted her first time https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 gender issues of immigrants: ... 318 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.342 negatively." she knew she could not tell obinze’s mother what had occurred, even though she guaranteed to, and had presumed then that she would” (adichie, 2013, p. 94). in several nigerian and african cultures, the post-intercourse sex education obinze's mothers provide reflects the critique of sex education. ifemelu states that the "tone of the mother had changed, becoming authoritarian" (adichie, 2013, p. 97). her frequent usage of "should" means that the acts of ifemelu and obinze are condemned because they should be mindful of safe sex. both are criticized for their acts and accused, and the mother should not doubt her negligence. if she had given the above knowledge the first time that ifemelu and obinze were close, both of them would have been more equipped. this example is an african story in which a daughter is seated on the floor with her legs extended and twisted. for a longer period of time, the mother chooses to abandon her daughter and demands the daughter to guarantee her that no man should step over her crossed legs. the mother returns to her pregnant daughter a few months later, and when she asks what happened, the daughter tells her that she didn't let any man step over her crossed legs (unknown). in many african communities, this anecdote illustrates the lack of comprehensive and comprehensive sex education, as sex is often seen as taboo and most often assumed to be performed after marriage. there is no detailed discussion of crucial points such as sexually transmitted infections, leading to uninformed women and men, a disassociation from one's sexuality, unnecessary pregnancy and life-threatening diseases such as aids in their unfortunate situations. while ifemelu is polarized between her church's sexually restrictive doctrines, a more progressive stance to sexuality and the lack of extensive and practical knowledge, she still becomes sexually inspired and takes her sexuality into her own hands. this becomes apparent when she meets obinze for the first time personally. it is generally predicted that men will 'chase' a woman and thus begin sexual contact. nonetheless, to the shock of obinze, ifemelu asks him, "aren't we going to kiss?" (adichie, 2013, p. 62). as obinze argues that he wants her to believe that he is only concerned about her physical characteristics, she continues, "what about what i want?" (ibid.). ifemelu holds her sexuality into her own hands and does not assert flippancy and expect the actions of a man implicitly. again, ifemelu does not comply with the established standards of gender, but rather communicates her fantasies freely and accepts her sexuality. "she is also admired by her boyfriend obinze when he thinks that "[other girls] may https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 gender issues of immigrants: ... 319 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.342 have claimed that they had never let another boy near them, but not her, never her. a vibrant truth about her was there (adichie, 2013, p. 20). ifemelu is not repentant for her life and does not deny her sexuality and femininity. the double existence of ifemelu between christian orthodoxy and more liberal yet inadequate response to sexuality reflects adichie's critique of the church's teachings as well as society. by going toward what is acknowledged and planned, ifemelu seeks to accept and practice her sexuality and here adichie emphasizes that progress is achievable and that women should take control of their sexuality. the need for sexuality to be publicly discussed and that woman must not remain in the small closet created by a patriarchal culture and the church is also stressed. conclusion the study deals with gender issues that are primarily related to immigrant female characters in chimamanda ngozi adichie’s americanah. it endorses multiple narratives and themes that are mainly related to african-american women’s problems like oppression, sexrole stereotyping, patriarchy, social norms and helplessness underpinning the theoretical paradigm of impression management. adichie’s novel informs about the lives of africanamerican women in american society, as it unveils the hard work and struggle of her female characters in their quest of self-realization. she explains how they undergo severe pain to get autonomy and achieve perseverance. it also shows the injustice and bias against africanamerican women. despite the fact that the major part of the novel is set in america, the novel brings forth the problems of women and oppression across various social and religious communities in nigerian society. this study thrives on the issues that account for female oppression in nigerian society. as the plot shows, the protagonist and other female characters are dominated by the men of their family and society. they are puppets in the hands of men, and cannot live a life of their own. the men dare to rape; they beat, exploit, suppress, belittle, cheat and torture women. african-american women also suffer double marginalization. the present study also exhibits whether adichie’s portrayal of nigerian women in americanah is based on reality, or is merely fictitious. despite the dominant patriarchal system in nigeria, adichie’s female characters are strong, brave, and courageous. they dare stand against men, the culture, and the social taboos, and promote women-centrism. adichie dexterously deals with the husband-wife relationship, https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 gender issues of immigrants: ... 320 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.342 and shows the lives of boxed up women whose desires and needs are suppressed before and after marriage. moreover, female immigrants need to study global mobility literature to ease their selves up to some extent. to sum up, it is found that female immigrants face gender issues at large because there is lack of strong family support, comparatively low wages and more importantly, they are vulnerable to forced intercourse for male natives. furthermore, gender issues delineated by adichie’s americanah are realistic in the sense that adichie herself remained a female immigrant in the united states. references adichie, n. c. (2013). americanah. anchor books. a division of random house llc new york johansson, c. (2007). goffman's sociology: an inspiring resource for developing public relations theory. public relations review, 33(3), 275-280. james, o. o., & omagu, s. u. (2018). disillusionment and self re-invention in chimamanda ngozi adichie’s americanah. lwati: a journal of contemporary research, 15(1), 182-198. kalinowski, c. (2009). goffman meets online dating. purdue university. onunkwo, c., uloh-bethels, a. c., chigbu, c. a., & ike, c. (2019). nigerian immigrants experience in chimamanda ngozi adichie’americanah. international journal of arts, languages and business studies, 2(1). picca, l. h., & feagin, j. r. (2020). two-faced racism: whites in the backstage and frontstage. routledge. selasi, t. (2013). bye-bye barbar. callaloo, 36(3), 528-530. sharrock, w. (2002). the omnipotence of the actor: erving goffman on ‘the definition of the situation’. in goffman and social organization (pp. 127-145). routledge. shaw, j. c., wild, e., & colquitt, j. a. (2003). to justify or excuse?: a meta-analytic review of the effects of explanations. journal of applied psychology, 88(3), 444. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 gender issues of immigrants: ... 321 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.342 shumsky, n. l. (2008). noah webster and the invention of immigration. the new england quarterly, 81(1), 126-135. tan, j. j. (2014). goffman's presentation of self theory. retrieved from academia.edu tetteh-batsa, b. (2018). to" own yourself a little more": afropolitan feminism in chimamanda ngozi adichie's americanah (doctoral dissertation, the university of north dakota). @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 112 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english mehwish noor phd scholar (english) department of english, faculty of arts, university of gujrat, pakistan noorlinguist@gmail.com behzad anwar assistant professor, department of english faculty of arts, university of gujrat, gujrat, pakistan behzad.anwar@uog.edu.pk abstract this study aims at analyzing nativisation, variation and categorization of discourse markers in pakistani english by the application of fraser (1999) taxonomy of discourse markers. the data is drawn and analysed manually. two corpora: bnc and penc are used for identifying nativisation and variation. first 100 occurrences of bnc are taken into consideration for the study of functions and positions of discourse makers. data is shown in tables and is further discussed in detail. there are twelve nativised dms and ten variant dms found whereas, variation in position of six dms is analysed. the study supports the notion of negotiating the context-based meaning through dms and reinforces the multiplicity of functioning of dms presented by schiffrin (1987) and müller (2005). it responses to the claim of transparent dm made by ariel (1994) and illustrates its multiple functions. furthermore, it posits a contrast to the study of lahuerta (2004) that places of course into inferential category of dms by highlighting its dual functionality in pe performing the functions of elaborative and inferential dm. moreover, it adds the analysis of combination of inferential and elaborative dms ignored by fraser (2015). this pioneering work studies dms in written discourse (pakistani english novels) and offers a foundational ground to the research of non-native varieties of english. keywords: pakistani english; non-native variety; nativisation; variation; discourse markers (dms); fraser taxonomy 1. introduction the english language, due to globalization, is no more a commodity of natives now a day; rather it is owned and welcomed by non-natives who are in majority than the native speakers of english (llurda, 2004). this phenomenon leads to variation and language change in lieu of multilingual contexts in which english is being used. in the sphere of world englishes, pakistani english is on the way towards its independent status. it requires linguistic research from different dimensions, aspects, and perspectives. for the purpose, the current study intends to highlight, categorize, and analyze discourse markers. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 mailto:noorlinguist@gmail.com mailto:behzad.anwar@uog.edu.pk nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 113 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 discourse markers are differently defined and termed by various scholars. they are termed as; discourse cues, discourse connectives, discourse particles, phatic connectives, semantic conjuncts, pragmatic markers, discourse operators, discourse signaling devices, pragmatic expressions, pragmatic formatives, and sentence connectives (fraser, 1999). defining them is as controversial as their nomenclature (ibid). they might be words or phrases, or clauses of comments, conjunctions, adverbials, and interjections used to catch the attention of the listener towards forth-coming utterance within the direct context of discourse (redeker, 1991). they provide coherence and cohesion to discourse whether short or large in length. they exceed the grammatical structure of discourse (feng, 2010) as discourse is not simply an arrangement of different length of clauses and sentences. for assigning meaning and making a link among isolated sentences, discourse markers play their defining role. for halliday and hassan (1976), their presence is presupposed to offer connectedness and cohesion to discourse. similarly, schiffrin (1987) views them as functional devices which arrange context-based coordination during continuing talk. this is to say, they are components, successively dependent, which strut piece of talk. discourse markers perform various functions, and one discourse marker may perform multiple functions with reference to its use within different contexts. their categorization is also complex in nature since they may fall into more than one functional category (guo, 2015). they lubricate and support continuity of discourse (crystal, 2012). they also link the segments of text; facilitate turn taking and topic change. they also account for the delay strategy and speech repairing processes. they are also used for showing solidarity and reinforce shared knowledge of the interlocutors (fung and carter, 2007). kammensjo (2005) point outs that dms act as indicators for the interpretative inferences and restrict the other options for interpretations. for investigating the appropriate use of dms and pedagogical insinuations, research is suggested to improve the learning skills (sharndama and yakubu, 2013). it is observed that the study of discourse markers which is an important part of linguistic as well as pragmatic competence of language is not adequately addressed in pakistani english. though a study by jabeen et al (2011) finds its way to analyze them yet there is a research gap since it is strictly related to corpus-based investigation. they focused on discourse markers https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 114 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 and restricted themselves to spoken discourse. the study enlarges the foci to written text and finds out variant forms and use of discourse markers. for the purpose, following are the objectives of the present research. 1.1. statement of problem pakistani english is a new english variety in the sphere of english-speaking world. though it was identified by kachru (1983) as a variety of south asian english, yet it lacks in codification and standardization. it is observed that the study of discourse markers, which is an important part of linguistic as well as pragmatic competence of language, is not adequately addressed in pakistani english particularly in written text. 1.2. hypothesis variation and nativisation of discourse markers exist in pakistani english. 1.3. research objectives the study aims: i) to find out nativised dms ii) to find out variation according to their usage iii) to categorize them according to their functions the following section mentions the questions that the study intends to get the answers. 1.4. research questions i. what are the nativised occurrences of dms in pe? ii. what are the various functions performed by dms in pe as compared to the standard english? iii. what are the different categories of dms in pe? 2. review of literature the study of discourse marker is considered as, “a growing market in the sphere of linguistics” (fraser, 1998). castro (2009) opines that discourse markers perform various interpersonal and text-based functions to allot coherence and contextual flow to discourse. the study focus is limited to classroom interaction, yet non-native context is of the interest of the current study. the study highlights the significant role of discourse markers for the appropriate use of language. the study focuses on verbal discourse whereas; the present study concentrates on written discourse which is neglected by much of the available literature. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 115 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 fuller (2003) examines the use of well, oh and you know with reference to the relationship between the interlocutors and finds their functions as universal. universality of their functions needs further investigation with reference to different language and context, but the basic tenant of my research is figuring out variation that is opposite to the universality claim. the study of gholami et al (2012), though, emphasizes on the analysis of discourse markers (dms) with reference to written discourse; of scientific articles’ abstracts in lieu of esp published in journals yet their study is quantitative in nature and restricts to the comparative analysis percentage of functional and lexical words. hauge (2014) studies the translation of a text where the source text does not have discourse markers, but translator uses them while translating it into target language. this study puts forth the assumption of the present researcher that every language has its own dms and their collection in lexicon vary with reference to different languages. the present researcher is of the opinion that though pakistani english (pe) is a variety of standard british english (sbe) yet it has distinctive use of dms and carries some nativised dms as well. furthermore, hauge (2014) opines that dms have functions but lack semantic value and do not affect the propositional value of the sentence in which they are used. hansen (2006) is of the similar opinion and propounds that they are not meta-discursive components. the current researcher partially agrees with the notion and believes that they are not totally meaningless elements of discourse rather their functions are related to their literal meanings to which they are homophonous (e.g. conjunctions and interjections). kalajahi (2012) examines dms in both: written and spoken discourse with reference to pupils’ attitude and claims that they offer a proper direction to the listeners/readers, facilitate the comprehension of meaning, provide sheer understanding of discourse context, and show that how better listener/reader can understand the speaker/writer. this postulation supports the notion of the current researcher that dms are not entirely meaning free elements rather they indicate as well as facilitate understanding of the sentences to which they are attached. an influential study by guo (2015) presents a disagreement of consensus and complexities exist among the theorists and scholars regarding the study of dms. it offers an https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 116 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 overview of different studies with their various approaches, such as, structural, and functional etc. it cites the manifestation of tree and schrock (2002) in which they prove a correspondence between the literal meaning and functional meaning of dms. it strengthens the present researcher’s notion of semantic property of dms related to their context-bound meaning. fung and carter’s (2007) study brings forth difference in the usage of dms by native and non-native english learners and propounds that a wide range of functional categories of dms are used by the natives while referential dms are more likely used by the non-natives. the present study restricts itself to the non-native variety of english and interested in the nativised dms (yang, 2011). several studies regarding dms are dedicated to english language teaching to teach their appropriate use for coherent and cohesive discourse competence to non-native leaners of english (trillo, 2002; feng, 2010). the study of kaveifard and allami (2011) emphasizes on dms use by native english, native persian and non-native persian students and finds out results quantitatively. they applied the taxonomy of fraser (1998) for their analysis. the current study inclines towards the same approach for the categorization of dms. hussein (2007) examines the two basic approaches towards theoretical underpinnings pertaining to the study of dms: coherence approach and relevance approach and prefers the account of relevance rather than coherence. the current researcher, conversely, values the former account over the later. it is so because it is completely generalized pragmatic approach towards dms. valentine (1991) states that discourse and pragmatic perspectives of non-native varieties are less examined areas and need to be studied for a complete description of new englishes. the study pertains to indian english (ie) and elaborates dms specific to indian english and some others which perform functions different from the standard english. some of the data used by the researcher is gathered from bilingual speakers in code-switched form which might be questioned because the author claims the distinctiveness of the use of dms with reference to ie. anyhow, the present study also intends to highlight nativized dms particularly and their distinctive functions generally. siddique et al (2017) analyze metadiscourse in newspapers’ editorials of pakistan’s english and devised a theoretical model to accommodate meta-discourse analysis. it seems influential but covers meta-discourse. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 117 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 jabeen et al (2011) study is the only available attempt to analyze dms with reference to variation in use, but its focus of interest is totally restricted to eight dms. furthermore, the quantitative study highlights the frequency of dms’ use in pe and british english and finds out high frequency usage by the natives and low frequency of use by the pe speakers. they also figure out the position and location of dms as, initial, middle and at the end of sentences. although it opens a door to this perspective yet there lies research niche regarding enlisting and analyzing the nativised dms specifically, pertaining to pe. similarly, to validate the claim of variation and nativisation, only spoken data is not good enough and requires evidence from literary discourse which targets not only pe readership but also the international readership. moreover, the mentioned study does not follow any taxonomic framework to categorize the dms under study and assigns them functions according to their selected occurrences. the present study applies fraser’s taxonomy for the analysis and categorization of dms. it is applied and suggested by the researchers for the analysis of written discourse. the next section discusses the theoretical and methodological strategies to answer the research questions. 3. theoretical framework as mentioned earlier, there are two schools of thought regarding dms study; coherence and relevance and the present study takes the former for the data analysis with respect to classification based on fraser’s framework (1999) which is in the line of schiffrin’s (1987) pioneering work. according to fraser (1996), the sentence’ meaning is contingent to two contents, namely, propositional and non-propositional and the latter is pertinent to dms. it does not exclude the semantic property of dms altogether rather consider them signaling four types of messages; basic, parallel, commentary and discourse messages and classifies dms into two major types. they are function based; first are those dms which pertain to the messages and the second which pertain to topics. the former consists of further sub-categories; collateral markers (i mean, and, also etc), inferential markers (then, thus, so etc.), additional markers (because, after all, since etc) and contrastive markers (contrary, but, though etc.) (yang, 2011). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 118 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 figure-01: types of pragmatic markers by fraser (1999) sentence meaning content meaning pragmatic meaning basic markers commentary (ms) parallel (ms) discourse markers basic tenants of fraser’s taxonomy of dms are described as under. • dms have core meaning which is specifically negotiated by the context. • they signal interpretational relationship between the segments they acquaint with, s2 and the previous segment s 1. this different kind of meaning is said to be, procedural which negotiate its interpretation by linguistic as well as conceptual contexts (fraser, 1999). furthermore, dms not only link interpretational meaning between immediate segments; s1 and s2 but also acquaint with segments present previous in discourse, to which he calls global coherence. in this way, dms provide directions to the listener/reader to interpret discourse segment they are attached to (ibid). fraser’s taxonomy (1999) presents four main semantic relationships revealed to their use. they are illustrated in figure-02. figure-02: fraser taxonomy of discourse markers (1999) discourse markers contrastive dms indicate a contrast between s1 (segment 1) and s2 (segment-2) whereas, inferential dms indicate that s2 shows a result of s1. however, topic management dms high point a relation between s1 and s2 and elaborative dms relate the features of s2 to s1 in a quasi-parallel fashion. the current study takes the above-mentioned typology into account for the functionbased categorization of dms (jalilfar, 2008, ali and mahadin, 2016). the methodology and procedure of the study are discussed as under. 4. methodology contrastive inferential topic management elaborative https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 119 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 research questions of the present study demand a blend of qualitative and quantitative research methods. to figure out nativized dms (non-native variety specific), particularly and commonly used dms in english a corpus of pakistani english novels (penc) is used containing twenty-seven novel files with approximately 23million (2389767) words. british national corpus (bnc) consists of 100 million words, is used to validate variation in the use and functions of selected dms from penc. different functions and positions of the selected dms are analysed manually and qualitatively. first 100 entries from bnc are analysed manually. the given frequency shows the collective occurrences of the entries out of which their use as dms is analysed qualitatively. the supportive excerpts from penc are listed in appendix. the respective dms are given in bold for the ease of the reader. furthermore, selected dms of pe are categorized according to the fraser (1999) typology. though, corpora are used in the study, yet frequency of the occurrences is not strictly required. the data is shown in tabular form and further analysed qualitatively. the qualitative part of the discussion is descriptive in nature. the next section presents the result and analysis of the data. 5. results and data analysis this section provides the answers to research questions. the results are discussed according to the said questions. first, nativised dms are searched from penc and then matched through bnc. the below sub-section discusses nativised dms. 5.1. nativized discourse markers the researcher finds out some culture specific dms in response to the primary research question of the present study. they are used by pe fiction writers in order to employ coherence to their written discourse. it is worth noting that beside the fact that dms are mostly used in spoken discourse and most of the previous studies on dms are pertinent to spoken discourse, the present study highlights several nativised dms from a small sized corpus of pe novels. the use of the selected dms within sentences is given in the appendix. the table-01 provides an overview of twelve dms. table-01: nativised dms s # dms in penc use in penc dms in bnc use in bnc https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 120 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 1 hai hai topic management hai hai not found 2 toba/tobatoba topic management toba/tobatoba not found 3 gee elaborative gee not found 4 hai allah topic management hai allah not found 5 take my word/for it elaborative take my word/with it elaborative 6 allah is merciful topic management allah is merciful not found 7 mashallah topic management mashallah not found 8 may /allah forgive me elaborative may/ allah forgive me not found 9 inshallah elaborative inshallah not found 10 allah/god be praised topic management allah/god be praised (1 bnc) 11 by the grace of allah topic management by the grace of allah not found 12 allah knows inferential, elaborative, topic management allah knows god/i swear not found pe has its distinctive features that help it to be recognized it as a non-native variety (noor at el, 2015). it contains nativised features due to acculturation and language contact situation. the above-mentioned table validates the phenomenon. pe fiction writers extensively use dms influenced by pakistani culture, for instance, 01 to 04 clearly indicate the influence of urdu on pe which shares the status of official language of pakistan with english (ibid). the expression hai hai (1) is extensively used in both languages respectively. it is mostly pertinent to females who express their feeling of expression of sorrow, surprise, fear, and astonishment. it is multifunctional in its context-based use and enhances the emotional content of the discourse to which it is attached, so that; this is placed in the category of topic management. it is used to adhere to the topic of discussion in discourse whether spoken or written. similarly, dm (2) toba/toba toba expresses the regret on the part of the speaker. it is literally used for asking for forgiveness from the almighty (allah) but at discourse level, it employs a continuity to the discourse segments. similarly, it is also used to reduce the effect of an ironic statement as presented in 2c. that is why; it falls in the category of topic management as it strictly correlates the topic to the succeeding segment of the discourse. similarly, (3) gee is an urdu dm also present in pe which is used to initiate the topic and turn taking. it performs the function of and and/or so, so that functions as elaborative dm. it is also used in indian english https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 121 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 (valentine, 1991). moreover, (4) hai allah is alternatively used as hai hai, such as for expressing worry, surprise, and regret performs functions of topic management for the adherence to the topic. instance (5) is an interesting example of a commonly varied feature of non-native varieties that is variation in the use of preposition. in pe, it is used as take my word for it whereas, in british standard english (bse) it is used as take my word with it. it is used for the assurance of s2 with s1, say, falls into the category of elaborative dm same as its bse equivalent. it is worth noting that nativised dms ahead are mostly religious based that high point the strong reflection of culture and language that are of no exception. the examples of nativised dms onwards are specifically related to religious expressions translated into english. however, they are not specifically used to convey purely religious meaning rather they are integrated as culturally specific dms in language in order to lubricate and cohere the discourse. mahmood (2009) well cites baumgardner (1993) saying that for a complete understanding of pe newspaper, one must have awareness of urdu language and islamic culture. the dms (6) allah is merciful and (7) mashallah function as topic management dms which express gratitude, praise, and appreciation with respect to the topic under discussion. moreover, (8) may/ allah forgive me and (9) inshallah indicate the relationship between s1 and s2 with assigning coherence to discourse and function as elaborative dms. furthermore, (10) allah be praised and (11) by the grace of allah are used to express the gratitude in relation to the topic, so as come into the category of topic management dms. the last dm of the nativised category is (12) allah knows which performs multiple functions which is, by definition, a significant trait of dms (schiffrin, 1987). it posits relation between s2 and s1 performing elaborative function through a parallel sentence meaning exhibited in (12a) as explained by fraser (2005) s1+dm+s2. it also postulates result of s1 in s2 as inferential dm presented in (12b) and it also manages the topic of discourse as used in (12c). it is worth noting that they add nothing to the propositional value of the sentences to which they are attached but their core meaning is negotiated by the context in which they occur or belong to. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 122 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 it is also worthy to notice that all the nativised dms are not found except single occurrence of (10) in bnc 100 million words corpus. the phenomenon supports the view of akande (2009) that variation can be identified on the basis of region-specific dms. here, totally distinct use of above-mentioned dms highpoints nativisation of english in pakistan. beside them, variation in the function of dms between the native and non-native varieties (sbe and pe) is also present. the subsection below discusses the variant use of dms in pe as compared to bse. 5.2. variation in use of dms in pe and sbe non-native varieties of english exhibit distinguishing features and different aspects of language and discourse strategies are one of them (valentine, 1991). answering the second research question, the study finds variation in the functional usage of dms in written discourse which is a neglecting area of available literature. the table-02 enlists eleven dms with their variant use in both varieties. table-02: variation in use s # dms in penc use in penc dms in bnc use in bnc 1 but elaborative, contrastive, topic management but contrastive, inferential 2 or elaborative, contrastive, or contrastive 3 mostly elaborative, topic management mostly elaborative 4 so now elaborative so now inferential 5 of course inferential, elaborative of course inferential 6 you know elaborative, topic management, inferential you know elaborative, topic management 7 i think elaborative, inferential, topic management i think topicmanagement, elaborative 8 nothing else elaborative nothing else not used as dm 9 perhaps elaborative, inferential perhaps inferential 10 wah/wah wah expression of appreciation topic management wah/wah wah elaborative dms in this section are commonly used in both varieties but there is found variation of varied degrees according to the functions they perform. the first instance of the abovementioned table (#02) is a frequently used dm, but. it is extensively researched marker in most of the studies related to dms (muller, 2005). apparently, it falls in the category of contrastive dms but as mentioned in the review of literature, they are categorized according to the functions they perform within discourse segments. interestingly, in pe, it is used for persuasive meaning as exemplified in (1a) based on which, elaborative function is also devoted https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 123 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 to it. furthermore, it also lubricates topic change strategy in the discourse as exhibited in (1c). that is why, it presents a variation in the function with sbe here, because the other two functions of but are found common while analyzing in both corpora. the second dm in this table (02) is or which is again classified as a contrastive dm in most of the previous studies. in the example (2a) it functions as a contrastive dm while relating two opposing segments. it (or) is considered as transparent due to its semantic transparency. but the study responses to the claim of ariel (1994) due to the multiplicity of function that is performed by or and by but (as mentioned earlier). in (2b), in which or employs the meaning of and, and is functioning as elaborative dm since it makes a quasiparallel relation between the two segments s2 and s1 and imparts variation from its native counterpart use. similarly, (03) mostly also presents a variation in functioning in both varieties. in (3a) and (3b) it is employing elaborative function as in sbe whereas, in (3c-3f) it offers a relation of s2 back to s1 for managing the topic. here, one more point is to be noticed that in sbe, mostly employs a low degree of possibility and means as almost but in pe it shows a high degree of possibility and capability (e.g. in 3f), giving the meaning of mainly. in the same line, the next entry of the above table (4a) so now depicts its common inferential function through imparting a result of s1 in s2. however, in (4b) it exemplifies the variant function of elaborative dm by making a parallel relationship between s1 and s2 (s1+dm+s2). here, another point is to be highlighted with reference to fraser (2015) concept of combining dms which is said to be a less researched area. he analyses the combinations of contrastive and inferential dms and intermixing of these two types and not discusses combining of inferential and elaborative dms. this example (4) exhibits the combination of inferential and elaborative markers; so, and again respectively which also adds the combination to the fraser’s (2015) findings. furthermore, (05) of course displays variation in function in bse and it is classified in the category of inferential dm by lahuerta (2004), whereas in pe it performs dual functions, such as, in (5a) and (5b). in both instances, it makes a relationship between s2 and s1 and performs as elaborative dm. moreover, in (5c) it employs an inferential function related to its literal meaning. pe writers and speakers use is as an additional part to grab the attention of https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 124 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 reader and listener and sometimes, it is deliberately used for the emphasis. another social function that is imparted by the dm is to show solidarity between the discourse participants. additionally, (06) you know is another example of variation regarding function of dm. it is extensively researched dm (jabeen at el, 2011) and said to be responsible for multiple functions (jucker, 1993). müller (2005) also discusses it and considers it as transparent dm and accepts its multiplicity of function. here, you know puts forth inferential function while presenting s2 as a reason of s1 in (6a). furthermore, in (6b) and (6c), it attains elaborative function through linking between s1 and s2. on the other hand, in (6d) it realizes the function of topic management while attaching s2 to s1. here, inferential function posits variation as it is not observed in bse. likewise, the next dm (07) i think is another largely visited dm by the researchers (müller, 2005). it exhibits multiple functions and can be categorized in more than one category. in (7a) and (7b) it performs inferential function by assigning a reason to s1 by s2 which is not shared by bse. furthermore, in (7c) it is functioning as elaborative dm while smoothing the discourse connecting the s2 with s1. additionally, in (7d), it is used as topic management dm as it links the s2 to the topic introduced in s1. the next (08) nothing else shows a strong variation because it is not used as dm in bse whereas, it shows a couple of functions in pe. in (8a) it employs elaborative function of dms with the help of establishing a link between s2 and s1 while on the other side; it functions as topic management dm in (8b). it relates the two segments to the topic introduced in s1. in the example (09), perhaps shows variation in its use between bse and pe. in (9a), it functions like bse as elaborative dm and simply correlates s2 with s1 but in (9b) it functions as inferential dm by providing s2 as a deduction of s1. the last instance of this section is (10) wah/wah wah which is an interesting dm. it is principally, used in urdu and pe for the expression of happiness, appreciation, and joy whereas in bse, it is said to be a cry and expresses sorrow. literally, it is related to the change in the notes of electronic musical instruments. but in pe, it is used as a dm performing the function of topic management in (10a-10c). contrary to that, in bse it imparts elaborative function of dm. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 125 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 this section presented a detailed description of variation found with respect to the functions performed by dms. the next sub-section discusses variation in the positioning of dms in sentences. 5.3. variation in the position of dms dms provide semantic relationship to discourse segments. according to fraser (2015), they typically occur at the beginning of s2 to cohere it with s1. but this is not always strictly followed. brinton (1996) endorses the use of dms at sentence middle and final positions. dms in pe occur at all the three positions. it is validated by the study of spoken pe by jabeen at el (2011). the table-03 highpoints the instances of variant use of dms in pe as compared to sbe. table-03: variations in positioning s # dms in penc position in penc dms in bnc position in bnc 1 but opening paragraph (global coherence) but not opening paragraph (category: fic, drama, classroom) 2 nothing else phrase stands alone nothing else never stands alone (only once as: nothing else happened) ( category: fic, drama) 3 or opening paragraph (global coherence) or sentence initial but not opening paragraph (no paragraph linkage) 4 that is why sentence initial and between the sentence that is why sentence initial 5 mostly initial, middle and end mostly no final position to analyze variation in the use of dms contains their positioning as well because it varies from language to language and, here, from variety to variety. the first instance (01) but is used in the sentence initial position while opening a new paragraph. this phenomenon is termed as global coherence by fraser (1999) in which dms relate s2 with a prior discourse. in bnc but is not found as opening a new paragraph during the analysis of first hundred occurrences. the analysed excerpts were from the genera of fiction and drama in bnc. the example (1a) shows a constant use of but at the initial position of the two consecutive paragraphs. in first case, it functions as inferential dm representing s2 because of s1 whereas, in second case, it is performing the function of elaborative dm linking the two segments of discourse. similarly, in (1b) it opens the paragraph and functions as contrastive dm. the next example (02) nothing else explicates an interesting position totally variant with respect to bnc occurrences analysis consisting of the genera of fiction and drama. it is present https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 126 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 as standalone phrase in pe which has no match in bse. in both examples (2a) and (2b) it functions as elaborative dm facilitating a link between s2 and s1 based on s1+dm+s2 formula. the upcoming dm (03) or is again, used at the paragraph initial position which is not found in bnc. though the sentence initial position is followed by the dm in bnc, yet it not occurred as opening paragraph. the example (3a) supports the claim where it is functioning as topic management dm. it relates two distinct scenes to employ coherent to the topic of the description within discourse segments. moreover, (04) that is why exhibits another variation in the position as it is found at sentence initial position in bse whereas it is found in sentence medial position as illustrated in (4a) and (4b). in both cases, it is used as inferential dm since it relates the resultant discourse segment 2 to the s1. finally, the last dm (05) mostly is used at rest of the three positions: s initial, s medial and s final in pe whereas it lacks this trait because in bnc, it is found only at s initial position. the categorization of dms according to fraser (1999) typology is displayed in the table-04. table-04: categorization of dms according to fraser (1999) taxonomy s # elaborative dms inferential dms contrastive dms topic management dms 1 hai hai 2 toba/toba toba 3 gee 4 hai allah 5 take my word/for it 6 allah is merciful 7 mashallah 8 may /allah forgive me 9 inshallah 10 allah/god be praised 11 by the grace of allah 12 allah knows allah knows allah knows 13 but but but 14 or or 15 mostly mostly 16 so now 17 of course, of course, https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 127 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 18 you know you know you know 19 i think i think i think 20 nothing else 21 perhaps perhaps 22 wah/wah wah 23 that is why the analyzed dms are listed above according to their respective function-based categories. the data analysis supports the multiplicity of the functions of dms. after the analysis, there are fourteen dms in the category of elaborative dms whereas, in the category of inferential dms there are six dms enlisted. as far as the category of contrastive dms is concerned, only two dms are found. furthermore, several thirteen dms are categorized as topic management dms. the subsequent section concludes the entire study and discussion. 6. conclusion it is evident that pe written discourse, with special reference to the genre of fiction, exhibits the phenomena of nativisation and variation of dms use. the study highlights culturally specific dms which are used in written discourse. this genre is not comprehensively studied by the previous studies due to the reason that dms are considered as an active part of spoken discourse and are less applied in written (carefully prepared) discourse. the current study contributes to the existing body of knowledge relating to dms apart from typical classroom discussions and purely corpus based quantitative analyses. it brings forth twelve nativised dms and ten variant dms, whereas variation in the position of dms is analysed through five dms. it is significant to state that nativised dms profusely perform topic management function. furthermore, it is worth noting that though most of them are translations of religious particles, yet they have nothing to do with their literal meaning. it supports the notion of negotiating the context-based meaning through dms. it also strengthens the multiplicity of functioning of dms the notion held by schiffrin (1987) and müller (2005). the study addresses the claim of ariel (1994) who considered the dm or as a transparent one and exemplifies its multiple functions. furthermore, it responses to the study of lahuerta (2004) that puts of course into the category of inferential dms, however, in pe it is found performing the functions of elaborative as well as inferential dm. moreover, it adds to the study of combining dms by fraser (2015) through the analysis of combination of inferential and https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 128 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 elaborative dms. finally, it provides a foundational ground with respect to the research aspects of non-native varieties of english and opens a debate on the subject matter with reference to the future studies with multiple genres. 7. implications though, the use of dms by males and females was out of the scope of the study, yet it is suggested to the future researchers to search for the different use of dms with reference to gender as done by yeganeh and ghoreyshi (2015) who highlighted discrepancy among the male and female users. moreover, similar studies are needed in other genres to validate the findings of nativised/varied dms. refrences akande, a. t. 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(2011). investigating discourse markers in pedagogical settings: a literature review. annual review of education, communication & language sciences, 8. yeganeh, m. t., and ghoreyshi, s. m. (2015). exploring gender differences in the use of discourse markers in iranian academic research articles. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 192, 684-689. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 132 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 appendixes nativised dms: 1a) he replied and caught hold of her.‘hai hai, what has happened to you? it’s so cold. leave me’ 1b) from the came the voice of begam jamal moaning and growling:‘hai, hai i am dying. 2a) probably.' 'god forbid! toba!' muttered zaitoon, scandalised by the revelation. 2b )she wraps herself back in and bounces down among us. 'toba, toba!' she says, and touching the tips of her ears in quick succession saying 2c) miriam laughed. toba, toba! have you no shame? 3a) balancing his slender shanks against the seat, he spread his hands as if embracing all tho passengers with his affectionate gesture. 'gee, lady,” he said to feroza with such rapture that he appeared to be lit up irom within. 3b) “gee “ he said, bowing his head very low, ‘i will bring my old hands to give beauty to your house.” 4a) she screams: 'you'll kill me! hai allah... y'all will kill me!' 4b) struck their breasts and sobbed, 'hai bhagwan! hai bhagwan! and, 'hai allah! hai allah!' the fireman once again climbed the ladder. 5a) i shall get you a charm which will act like -magic. take my word...' 5b) you have to take my word for it 5c) you take my word for it, umeed; you will never achieve anything…especially not love. 6a) we grumble and complain about what we do not have and we wanted. allah is merciful; he is benevolent that he continues to shower his bounties on us. 6b) we pray for your brother, ‘don’t fret, he will be free. allah is merciful!’ 7a) i enjoyed your story very much. _mashallah_, god has granted you a special talent. 7b) sour apples,” i said. “_mashallah_, you’re just about the smartest little guy i’ve ever met, sohrab jan.” 8a) do any of the other servants know anything?‘ may allah forgive me, sir! why would i let anyone else know? i haven‘t told a soul.‘ https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 133 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 8b) there were a lot of reasons why i went to hazarajat to find hassan in 1986. the biggest one, allah forgive me, was that i was lonely. 8c) smile for me. please.”hassan did and the old woman wept. “you smiled coming out of me, did anyone ever tell you? and i wouldn’t even hold you. allah forgive me, i wouldn’t even hold you.” 9a) some day, _inshallah_, you will be a great writer,” hassan said. 9b) you would tell me, nay? _inshallah_, you would tell me if some thing had happened? he had stressed. 10a) the word =your‘ in stead of saying =mine‘. =yes, allah be praised. it‘s a very wellplaced match 10b) the men were prince eerek. gel hot • p • piessly above his head and announced, 'god be praised, but it's kamaruddin, stretched out on the cushions, raised his arms 11a) "it's all his blessing. i went on a ride in one of ours and my old bones were aching for days. you, by the grace of allah, are still a young man." 11b) "with your blessings i have introduced the new laws in pakistan and by the grace of allah hundreds of sinners have already been convicted 12a) `it's over now. you might as well help me change it. allah knows how i'll explain this. 12b) `what is the major carrying?' sakhi's voice was uncertain and tight. `allah knows! he has strange hobbies. he collects things: stones and chunks of wood...' 12c) sharbat khan cautions ayah: 'these are bad times — allah knows what's in store. variation in use: 1a) you have heard enough for today,. but aunt, do tell us the story of the king who have turned.. 1b) 'the minarets .point to heaven, indicating, as it were that god is al high and one.... but the. city of delhi, built hundreds of years ago, fought for, 1c) disappointed, asghar made to go. but chanbeli said: ‘but your sister-in-law is there. 2a) he looks up at the sky time was the milky way stretched out from one end of the sky to the other, a bright light of incandescence, broadening out or narrowing to a straight line 2b) ,heat becomes oppressive or shoots through the /body like pain; https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 134 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 2c) give in the name of god, mother, and may thy children live long. or a belated flower vendor sells jasmines in a sing-song voice putting one hand on his ear… 3a) the time passed mostly between eating, talking, cooking, sewing, or doing nothing. 3b) mostly the children were happy and played or quarreled among themselves. 3c) he used to hang out with them mostly, 3d) people stare at you, they grunt and sigh women mostly. 3e) a mostly male mob is gathered outside the gate, hoping to get in. its summertime, after all, and parties are few and far between. 3f) but mostly i’m aurangzeb. and regardless of what you’ve heard, i’m not a bad guy. 4a) it reduces you to the bomb. every atom of you. so now i have to find something different to want, elizabeth. 4b) =and do you know how selfish you are gradually becoming?‘ waseem replied likewise. imama did not mind it. =so now you know how selfish i am?‘ 5a) shams, of course, got up late, went to the office-he was employed in a government officecame back at five 5b) i speak english,’ the boy said, his tone offended. ‘and japanese and german.’ for the first time in months he had reason to boast, and that made boasting necessary. ‘and urdu, of course. pashto, also. what do you speak? geographically, of course, it was perhaps as remote a place as could be found on the planet, 5c) so of course you can be american. 6a) 'what happens when a dust-storm comes? came a child’s voice from the semi-darkness; 'you know our elders say when a dust-storm blows it means the jinn’s are going to celebrate a marriage’(inferential) 6b) the matter concerns him, you know.' ‘what you are saying is all right (elaborative) 6c) they were the clothes which are sent to the bride from the bridegroom's side. you know, at my marriage...' someone would recall the past (elaborative) 6d) 'they have invented remarkable machines, you know,” said the kababi as he pulled at the hookah, ‘which can conceal thousand of soldiers and carry them right into the midst of the enemy without being seen] (topic management) https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 135 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 7a) "spare me," i think, "i didn't invent the bloody technology that makes foam mattresses." (inferential) 7b) she couldn't be more than twelve, i think, surprised. `why didn't you bring him earlier? (inferential) 7c) "comrade, i think i've gone blind. i can't see anything. "i rub my own eyes and don't see anything (elaborative) 7d) `do you find anyone more attractive than me?' `yes,' i say, 'i think i found masseur more attractive...' i surprise myself. (topic management) 8a) is that all cathy has told you about her past? nothing else?’ asim kept his voice noncommittal. ‘that is all she has told me. (elaborative) 8b)' we're just here to evacuate you: hands, feet and heads. nothing else. we've told you why we're here; the rest is up to you.' topic management 9a) but still he had worked on, to cheat time, perhaps, to avoid the feeling of dependence even though on his sons. elaborative 9b) why had he been in love with her, he thought, and why had he become indifferent to her? she had loved him and adored him, perhaps. why did he not feel anything for her? inferential 10a) the greater his power. 'wah, allah!' shouts ice-candy man. 'there is no limit to your munificence! 10b) and the villagers, as if they are at a debate where their chaudhry's wit is scoring points, nod their heads and say: `wah! wah! well said! 10c) what a joyous day that was!” he said. “an end to the killing! wah wah! variation in the position of dms: 1a) he is oblivion of the other stars, oblivious of himself and of mushtari bai who comes near him dancing around, but he turns away, and interested in his own body in love with his own flesh and the movements of his own arms .... but as slowly as it had come upon him the vision vanishes: and when he awakes he finds himself on his bed gazing at the sky. but where is the milky way? he says to himself https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 nativisation and variation of discourse markers in pakistani english 136 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 it use to be here just over his head. where has it gone?... thinking the milky way he falls asleep. but he awakes again. or was it a continuation of the vision or the dream? he looks up at the sky 1b) .. shouting in the resonant tones :buy the flower of jasmine”. but the city lies indifferent or asleep, breathing heavily.. 2a) intersect the streets and the city like the deep gutters which line them on either side, and grow narrower as you plunge into them giving a feeling of suffocation grid death, until they terminate at some house front or meet another net of by-lanes as insidious as in the wall 'at floor. nothing else. as you en e through the vestibule you home into an inner courtyard. 2b) 'we're just here to evacuate you: hands, feet and heads. nothing else. we've told you why we're here; the rest is up to you.' 3a) give in the name of god, mother, and may thy children live long. or a belated flower vendor sells jasmines in a sing-song voice putting one hand on his ear… 4a) if that is why you called, i can remember us wrestling a bit. may be that is why he was so upset about the missing gun 4b) and had forced themselves upon india perhaps that is why that unity of experience an arm which existed in mir nihal s youth, had vanished. 5a) mostly the children were happy and played or quarreled among themselves. 5b) the time passed mostly between eating, talking, cooking, sewing, or doing nothing. 5c) he used to hang out with them mostly, @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.297 a case study of english language learners in a mobile game ... 184 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 a case study of english language learners in a mobile game-assisted environment during the covid-19 lockdown ghulam yasin lecturer, department of english, govt. alamdar hussain islamia college, agahi road, multan, punjab, pakistan ghulam.yasin@scholars.usindh.edu.pk asma kashif shahzad assistant professor, humanities department, comsats university islamabad, vehari campus, pakistan (corresponding author) asmashahzad@cuivehari.edu.pk tahira asgher assistant professor, department of english linguistics, the islamia university of bahawalpur, pakistan. tahira.asgher@iub.edu.pk abstract the research explores the motivational role of digital mobile games and the effect of anxiety/stress upon the participants during english language learning (ell). moreover, it also describes how the digital games develop the participants' interest and how these are helpful in ell during the covid-19 lockdown. it is the case study of three (03) english language learners with a secondary level of english proficiency, stuck at home due to covid-19 lockdown in pakistan. the participants were asked to play spaceteam esl, a digital mobile game that demands fluent oral exchanges of information. the participants played spaceteam esl in three (03) sessions, and every session consisted of an hour. then the data was collected through the observation method and semi-structured interviews from the participants. findings reveal that the participants' continuous responsive interaction during the game and the sense of not being judged by a teacher create a non-threatening and stress-free zone. it develops the participants' greater interest, becomes the ell source, and has fun and killing time during the covid-19 lockdown. the research is distinctive because its observations are based upon the outside classroom environment. in addition, it also finds the pedagogical utilisation and different features of spaceteam esl helpful in ell. keywords: digital games, language teaching tools, english language learning, anxiety, mall introduction the english language has become an international language in recent times. the people living in multicultural societies and with various linguistic backgrounds communicate through english. it is mostly happening after the remarkable development in technology (alzeebaree& hasan, 2020). in most countries, the english language is now learned and used in formal or informal meetings inside or outside the classroom. advanced technological apps like mobile phones make it very easy for people to grab required information, mainly in english, on their devices. such ways of getting information are indirectly contributing to informal language learning. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 mailto:ghulam.yasin@scholars.usindh.edu.pk mailto:asmashahzad@cuivehari.edu.pk mailto:tahira.asgher@iub.edu.pk a case study of english language learners in a mobile game ... 185 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 further, ample usage of video games is also an essential factor in learning english. however, it varies from english language learning (ell) activities because learning a language through such games is more significant than any other application. qasim (2021) argues that "successful activities (games, internet, and blogging) […] are superior to receptive behaviour" (p. 207). some studies describe that playing digital games for english language learning can be more beneficial for the students and learners (schlasberg, 2020; sundqvist, 2019; jensen, 2017). further, some studies present that the involvement of the learners in learning through digital mobile games is more active; that is why such activities are known as learner-centred activities. in such cases, the role of a teacher is to encourage the learners for active and focused participation (gozcu & caganaga, 2016; ruliany & purnwarman, 2020). the recognition of using video games in education has introduced digital game-based learning (dgbl). dgbl observes how digital games may be utilised in teaching and learning language. among uncountable mobile apps and digital games, the study focuses upon using a single digital game spaceteam esl that can be easily played through mobile or computer for english language learning. primarily it is used by the learners having english language competency of secondary level. concordia university researchers have developed spaceteam esl. they believe it is a "crazy and fun english learning game". this game is free for downloading because of the funding by concordia university. even the game also doesn't contain any ads. the game is started by a dial found in the middle of the screen. moreover, it also has three options, "about, settings and practice," which assist the users to play this game. further, its website also provides "technical instructions, lesson plans and the option for teachers to create a custom lexicon". it may help enhance or control the activities to be performed (valdimarsson, 2020, p. 38). significance of digital games in ell many mobile applications help the students in english language learning. it has become unavoidable now because the development of technology has affected every field of life. the digital world now demands learners to utilise this technology and improve their skills (ruliany & purnawarman, 2020). in addition, this development also requires that english teaching methods should also be upgraded. it is because mobile applications have got a vital https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 a case study of english language learners in a mobile game ... 186 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 place and also support ell context for the learners. these games also keep the learners involved where: • "the players are encouraged to take risks and explore new things". • "the players have the opportunity to customise the game, so take the decision". • "games increase motivation and desire for self-improvement". • "games develop students' ability to observe". • "games facilitate collaborative learning". (gee, 2008, p. 318; henry, 2013, p. 10; gozcu & caganaga, 2016, p. 125). literature review mobile phone games motivate the learners to use language learning inside or outside the classroom (egbert & neville, 2015). the real advantage is that the usage of digital games is the source of enhancement in the learners' results (green, 2016). the use of mobile phones is more accessible in different environments of the learning class. it shows that mobile phones and various digital devices may boost language learning (kessler & hubbard, 2017). digital games in english learning provide students several opportunities to keep them indulged and bring forth better results in speaking and writing (jensen, 2017). digital games give students a chance to communicate with their fellow players, and it is a vital source for learning the english language (sundqvist, 2019). the language teachers must be familiar with the digital games being useful in language learning and how such games may be utilised in this context of education (schlasberg, 2020). the use of video games is different from other extramural english practices because these games are the source of effectively utilising the language and produce a better outcome in learning than the other applications (qasim, 2021). the students need to be well known about the culture of technology. it is vital because learning a language through technology assists the methods of teaching and learning and mobile phone applications are the more significant source of it (ruliany & purnawarman, 2021). mobile phones and technology have provided access to information in bulk to the common person as well. being the reason for developments in every field, technology has also benefited all educational areas and language learning (berry, 2021). some particular mobile games like spaceteam esl helps improve english as a second language for the learners and enhance the learners' oral fluency (grimshaw & cardoso, 2018). the mobile game, spaceteam esl, assists the learners in improving their verbal fluency (grimshaw& cardoso, 2018), and further, it also keeps them engaged in ell classrooms https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 a case study of english language learners in a mobile game ... 187 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 (cardoso et al., 2015). in addition, mobile games like spaceteam esl provide learners with good opportunities to use and improve their language skills (berry, 2021). along with countless advantages, some researchers also point out some drawbacks to using mobile games in the field. the excessive playing digital games on mobile phones are also becoming the cause of some mental disorder of the students because the most common factor for increasing such disorders is the ample use of mobile phones and digital games (shabalina et al., 2020). further, the continuous play of digital games can cause some physical damages like "nintendo thumb, epileptic seizures, and joint, muscles, and skin problems". it may also make the children addicted and negatively impact their studies (siahpoosh & ilkhani, 2020, p. 3). digital mobile games/apps selection for english language learning (ell) mobile phones are used in greater numbers throughout the modern world. such devices have connected people with information technology that have been beneficial to the educational sector as well. according to kessler & hubbard (2017), digital devices contain various features, and mobile phones are far more versatile and easily accessible for learners. green (2016) also argues that mobile phones and other digital devices connecting with information technology may be utilised in language learning. students love to play mobile games only for having fun alone or among friends, but the language teachers must have a reason to recommend them a game for playing. in this regard, their concerns with the acquired syllabus and textbooks involved in ell should be focused. some researchers (gozcu & caganaga, 2016, p. 125; gamlo, 2019, p. 51) put forward various suggestions regarding the selection of mobile games. • "games should be used to motivate the students but not for fun". • "by using such games, the students should learn, practice, or refresh language components". • "games should be in accordance with students' age and level of knowledge". • "short-time games should be used; otherwise, students may lose their interest". games used for the learners of secondary level in ell gangaiamaran & pasupathi (2017) have introduced different mobile games and apps being used in english language learning. they have also classified these digital games at the levels of learners like primary, secondary and tertiary levels. though many digital/mobile https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 a case study of english language learners in a mobile game ... 188 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 games are used while considering the need and interest of the learners in ell, the researchers have selected only three of them with some details given below. knudge.me: it is the project of knudge technology private limited. the app chiefly deals with vocabulary acquisition by using flashcards for the purpose. the free download option is available, but a subscription is required if the user wants to utilise all its contents (valdimarsson, 2020, p. 38). learn english grammar: british council has developed this app for english learners. it may also be downloaded for free, but it contains some advertisements for generating some income. practice and test are two modes of the app. there are exercises of different levels in the practice section, and the test section consists of tests for checking the learners' language skills. (kukulska-hulme, norris and donohue, 2015, p. 37) world of warcraft: it is an online role-playing game that many players can play. even the players in thousands may be linked together. the players use their skills and information against the monsters, or two groups may also fight against each other (henry, 2013, p. 8). research methodology the present study is a qualitative case study. the researchers utilised semi-structured interviews and observation methods to collect data. the justification for selecting a case study is that the researchers intend to have a more profound understanding of the lives of the chosen participants so that valuable and original data may be attained. according to gozcu & caganaga (2016), the case study research is an empirical analysis that enquires some happenings of the day "within its real-life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not evident" (p. 130). further, qualitative research provides detailed information through flexible enquiries or close observation of the happenings regularly (debreli, 2012; berry et al., 2021; koşar, 2021). the study also examines the impact of the spaceteam esl game on the students learning english who are stuck at home because of the covid-19 (third wave) lockdown in the city. they are not attending any preparatory class for this purpose. so, the data collected through qualitative instruments has been preferred. according to cohen et al. (2013), interviews, observations, and games are popular tools for collecting qualitative data. additionally, the research neither aims to generalise the findings at some broader level, nor the researchers are desired to compare the statistical data. still, its purpose is only to bring https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 a case study of english language learners in a mobile game ... 189 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 forth some details through the limited number of participants. therefore, the qualitative research design is more suitable for the study. the details regarding data collecting tools are given below: semi-structured interviews semi-structured interviews have been conducted for the purpose, and the reason behind this is to attain detailed and in-depth understandings regarding the behaviours and perceptions of the interviewees. further, the rationale behind adopting this strategy is to explore the factors like opinions and perceptions of the students(mackey & gass, 2005; zemni & alrefaee, 2020). these interviews aim to reveal the students' views regarding learning english while playing the game spaceteam esl. mobile digital game: spaceteam esl the second tool used to collect data is spaceteam esl, a digital video game. this digital game is simply played by two or three players easily. importantly, all the players have to sit together at the same place, and every player must have their own device (mobile phone/computer). right from the beginning, it demands sharing and communication of the players to go ahead together in the game. the players remain involved in playing the game and share the information and instructions loudly with the other fellows. it is done repeatedly. all the partners pay heed to the message of other fellows and then perform to move forward in the game. in case of failure by any partner, the ship in the game begins to lose its power and finally, it is destroyed. so listening or receiving the message accurately and efficiently is essential for every player playing this game. this practice demands every player to speak accurately and loudly so that the other players may understand it quickly and then follow the instructions. the rationale behind choosing this particular spaceteam esl mobile game is because it demands excellent communication among all the participants. moreover, it also requires fewer participants as this case study consists of only 03 participants. in addition, this "entertainment-oriented mobile game" also possesses a unique educational feature that consists of a "customisable lexicon" (berry et al., 2021, p. 4). its lexicon may be customised for every single game to be observed by the researchers. the researchers may arrange its settings and may change the required and particular vocabulary to the game. after the modification, students have no other options despite using the vocabulary assigned to the game during the process. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 a case study of english language learners in a mobile game ... 190 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 further, the game is also helpful in improving listening and speaking skills in english language learning. the players of the game are required to listen and then speak to each other. there is also an option of "practice" in the game. all the participants may also practice for correct pronunciation of the words to be used in the game. all the participants must play this game while sitting in the same room (valdimarsson, 2020, p. 39). observation observation methods are always helpful in observing nonverbal expressions, and the researchers focus upon the feelings and communication among the participants. further, this method also assists in knowing how the participants interact with one another and how much time they spend in some particular activity. the observations are also helpful in understanding the reactions or ideas that the participants wouldn't share at the interview. according to mashori (2007), the data collected through observation also supports "the findings elicited from other data sets" (p. viii). the rationale behind selecting observation methods is explicit that the researchers are desired to have a cross-check of the attitudes and feelings of the participants with the results of their interviews. for this purpose, the researchers had spent 03 hours with the participants when they were also busy playing spaceteam esl games on their mobile phones and has tried to observe them deeply. participants' selection for collecting data cohen et al. (2013) demand to consider four elements at the time of sampling: size, representativeness, access, and strategy. the researchers also believe the mentioned elements to explore things in detail through interviews. the researchers have invited 12 students between the ages of 10-20 to participate in the research. they all were not going to school for the last 40 days because of the third wave of covid-19 lockdown. further, it was also not possible for the researchers to access any particular class in the school for the same reason. additionally, 09 out of 12 participants are either unwilling to participate or their parents do not allow them due to the pandemic. therefore the researchers have designed the qualitative research dealing with a small number of participants. furthermore, it deals with the varied sample of 03 participants with 02 boys and 01 girl to collect data. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 a case study of english language learners in a mobile game ... 191 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 the research has opted for criterion-based sampling while considering the covid-19 (third-wave in pakistan) conditions. the self-made criterion by the researchers defines what characteristics, in general, the participants must possess, it is mentioned below: ▪ it is not mandatory if the participants are students of any particular class or school dealing with english language learning. ▪ english proficiency level of the participants should not be less than secondary level. the final selected participants do fulfil the above-given conditions. their age group (12-16 years) and their proficiency in english learning are of secondary level. according to gangaiamaran & pasupathi (2017), the students having "age group 12-17 belong to the secondary level of learners" (p. 11245). further, they are also not attending any school or class for ell. information regarding the participants is as under in table 1: name of the participants age level of education nationality ahmad umer 16 years secondary level pakistani javeriayasin 14 years secondary level pakistani muhammad ali 12 years secondary level pakistani table 01 data collection process to collect data, 03 selected participants played spaceteam esl using their mobile phones. the participants played this game 03 times in the second week of may 2021 while sitting in the same room. the duration of every time was 01 hour, and it took 03 hours. the researchers arranged the particular settings for playing the game with a specific purpose while considering sops of covid-19 conditions. during these three meetings in a week, the researchers observed the participants closely. the researchers also conducted further interviews with the participants at the end of the week. all three participants attended the session of interviews, and it continued for about one hour. the researchers have opted questionnaire because it is "less time-consuming and reduces researchers bias to some extent" (syed. g, 2020, p. 475). the participants asked the following 04 questions: ▪ how do mobile games motivate you in english language learning? https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 a case study of english language learners in a mobile game ... 192 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 ▪ do you feel anxiety/stress during spaceteam esl mobile game playing at research time? ▪ how engaging was the mobile game to play to learn the language? ▪ do you believe that playing mobile games at home during covid-19 lockdown is helpful in english language learning? the questionnaire was designed based on previous questionnaires (berry et al., 2021, gozcu & caganaga, 2016). these previous questionnaires have also been beneficial in enquiring the behaviours of the students towards english language learning through the use of mobile games. analysis of the data collected mobile games as the source of motivation in ell the data collected describes that learning through spaceteam esl is the source of creating fun and satisfaction. the responses of the participants regarding the question, "how do mobile games motivate you in learning the english language"? are found as given; "the game is full of fun along with learning new words" (interviewee, ahmad umar). the next participant also comments, "first listening and then responding to the co-player motivates me for improving language" (interviewee, javeriayasin). the last participant muhammad ali also loves this game because "the game is really enjoyable and i would like to play it many times". the researchers also observe that all three participants remain involved with a high level of interest and are found somehow curious about the following message of their fellow players. so this activity motivates the participants to learn new english language words and improve their listening and speaking skills. according to lan (2014), the prime advantage of video games language learning is that their usage motivates the learners effectively. the findings are also parallel to the various studies (gamlo, 2019; lin et al., 2018; cam and tran, 2017) in this field. lin et al. (2018) utilise a mobile application in group research, bringing better results in learning ell. further, playing the game is also the source of rising motivation. most of the participants have found this process easy, exciting and beneficial for the purpose. cam and tran (2017) utilise mobile game applications to teach english grammar and conclude that it assists the learners more effectively in learning grammar and language. feeling lower anxiety and stress learners sometimes suffer because of the unknown words in the process of ell and begin to feel anxiety and stress. further such feelings create discomfort, which also influences https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 a case study of english language learners in a mobile game ... 193 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 the process of learning. in this regard, gozcu & caganaga (2016) find that "games assist in decreasing anxiety, feeling comfortable, and wanting to learn more" (p. 133). it is because playing games is learning with fun which keeps the participants relaxed. in addition, the participants know that the purpose is only to communicate or convey the message. they don't feel worried about mistakes of any kind. in response to the question "do you feel anxiety/stress during spaceteam esl mobile game playing at research time"? javeria yasin, being the participant, claims that "i was never under stress because i wasn't thinking about my mistakes". according to muhammad ali, "my anxiety was decreasing all the time with the increasing level of interest; i also enjoyed the use of different new words i was learning in the process". furthermore, ahmad umar also exclaims, "i never felt any stress because i was aware of not being criticised by the participants or by any other in case of committing any mistake". it is observed that the participants were relaxed and comfortable in using language, and they were not feeling any hindrances or hesitation in communicating with other participants. it was due to their interest in playing mobile games. the utilisation of mobile games in ell is the source of encouragement and helps the participants avoid feelings of anxiety and stress. moreover, many foreign language learners suffer from anxiety because of the fear that they have inadequate pronunciation. however, if stress-free settings are provided to the students in language learning, their anxiety level is reduced (berry, 2021). digital mobile games as an interesting source of learning in response to the third question, "how interesting was the mobile game to play to learn a language?" all the participants found it an exciting way of learning language and showed their determination to keep learning language through such applications during their stay at home because of covid-19 lockdown. the participant ahmad umar found this game-play "very interesting and helpful because it engages in interaction with other fellows all the time". javeriayasin also found learning a language through mobile games "an easy and learning language without any feelings of boredom". the findings of some researches also relate to the observations of the present analysis. zain (2021) finds that learning through mobile games keeps the students engaged in continuous interaction, reduces the number of demotivated factors, and help in achieving the learning tasks. reynolds and taylor (2020) also reveal that this mode of learning promotes active participation and the participants learn language by having fun and enjoyment. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 a case study of english language learners in a mobile game ... 194 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 mobile games as the source of ell during covid-19 lockdown situation during the covid-19 lockdown, the students remained stuck at their homes in different periods. in response to the question, "do you believe that playing mobile games at home during covid-19 lockdown is helpful in english language learning?" the participant ahmad umar claims that "i have learnt many new words with the help of mobile apps, and it also develops my interest every time". muhammad ali argues that "learning through mobile games was very interesting and it remained useful in learning the english language". furthermore, javeriayasin also mentions that "learning english with the help of mobile games was never boring; it helped her in positively killing the covid time". the research also observes that the students love to play mobile games during their stay at home. they keep them involved in playing games as individual players or sometimes develop an online group of two or more players belonging to different communities. this sort of interaction through mobile games helps learn the english language. qasim (2021) argues that video games offer the learners suitable settings to interact with one another, the reason why these have a vital role in ell. digital games also provide a learner-centred environment and enhance the chances for interaction. digital mobile games offer a multimedia context where the ell learn vocabulary and key sentences. they also interact regularly, which help them in language learning (siahpoosh & ilkhani, 2020). the interest in using mobile technology has developed greater in this era. this use of technology and playing digital games bring improvement in the learning language of the children. digital games produce an environment of learning where the players work collectively and cooperate in the process of learning (derakhshan & khatir, 2015). suggestion for future research mobile devices are an essential part of our modern daily life. having access to different apps, the students decide what and how they learn things. they choose other digital games and apps to learn a language. most of the research conducted in this field has worked upon online digital games where the use of the internet is essential. still, there is a considerable research gap to inquire about offline mobile apps. such research would help the underdeveloped countries and areas that cannot afford mobile games/apps effectively for english language learning. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 a case study of english language learners in a mobile game ... 195 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 conclusion learners' sense from digital mobile games is that learning language is an implicit element and fun. such games also develop an emotional attachment, promoting english language learning. the digital games keep the participants engaged by creating motivational feelings, which forces them to complete the task. this motivational force and continuous interaction with the other participant are the authentic sources of improving language learning. most of the studies reviewed were conducted in the classroom, but the present study is based outside the school. spaceteam esl contains several features that encourage english language learning. it provides the learners with opportunities for learning and oral practising of new words. it also demands the immediate response of other participants (listeners). the data collected suggests that the game-play also decreases the participants' anxiety that might have been faced while learning a new language. the participants felt more comfortable using the english language, and continuous responsive interaction with other participants provided suitable learning conditions. further, the sense of not being judged by a teacher or other participants also created a non-threatening and comfortable zone. these elements collectively contribute to developing an environment where the participants have high interest, fun, and motivation to learn a new language. references alzeebaree, y. & hasan, i. a. 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(2020). investigating the source of reading anxiety among undergraduate saudi female efl students in translation departments. tesol international journal, 15 (5). 65-77. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.338 https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/44674/1/23_01_10125-44674.pdf https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/44674/1/23_01_10125-44674.pdf http://doi.org/10.1163/15685314-04805006 http://hdl.handle.net/1946/36956 samuel beckett and the islamic world: 322 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.344 samuel beckett and the islamic world: connecting the dots through beckett’s works and reception dr muhammad saeed nasir department of english, emerson university, multan ms. misbah ghufran department of english, university of education, lahore, multan campus misbah.ghufran@ue.edu.pk muhammad farhat abbas visiting faculty department of english, isp multan, farhatsoherwardi@yahoo.com abstract the distinguished position of samuel beckett is due to his assignation of religious ideas. a quick closer look however reveals that beckett has been studied from a western perspective which is either religious or critical. a few studies on beckett are from an eastern viewpoint but muslims’ perspective still is missing. keeping this research gap in mind, the current paper aims to determine the significant impact of the islamic perspective on beckett’s works and how his works are adapted in various muslim contexts. for this purpose, the adaptations of waiting for godot are used for finding out the connection between beckett and the islamic world. the findings of the paper highlight not only the presence of beckett in the islamic world but also the work offers rich signs in need to be traced. keywords: beckett scholarship; western lens; islamic world, adaptations, muslim contexts introduction beckett has been critically appreciated mostly through western political and philosophical viewpoints. as can be seen in the insightful works of helene e. baldwin’s samuel beckett’s real silence (1981), shira wolosky’s language mysticism: the negative way of language in eliot, beckett, and celan (1995), mary bryden’s samuel beckett and the idea of god (1998) and ian bailey’s samuel beckett and the bible (2015) that beckett’s reference to religion or all his religious references have been interpreted from a christian lens. the reason behind this convenient interpretation by beckett scholars can be the immediate context of his works. though a few of the scholars have tried a different interpretation of beckett concerning the eastern perspective. in this regard, the influences of taoism, hinduism and buddhism can be observed on beckett which were barely perceived by beckett scholars in the past. in recent days, we can observe the trend of looking at beckett through the perspective of east or eastern traditions. angela b. moorjani’s beckett and buddhism (2021) can be quoted as a representative example of this trend. however, it can be argued that beckett scholarship still lacks the perspective of islamic cultural and religious traditions. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 samuel beckett and the islamic world: 323 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.344 conceptual framework the framework for the current study is selected from the field of psychology. it is related to culture and perception psychology. it is generally accepted idea that culture plays a critical role in making people who they actually are. it constitutes a particular environment of shared beliefs, ways of thinking of people and their interaction with each other. it is not surprising then that people from different cultures perceive the world and other people somewhat differently. here the difference in the perception of people who belong to western culture and people who belong to east asian cultures can be highlighted. people from western culture are individual-oriented whereas people from east asian cultures have more collective view of people. the result of these differences in their perception is visible in the general behaviours of people (ji, peng, & nisbett, 2000; lewis, goto, & kong, 2008; maddux & yuki, 2006). frank (2008) also observes another dimension in the difference in perception. frank analyses that our language impacts our ways of thinking. it is also been observed that the culture around us essentially shapes our brain and behaviour. as a result of which, people from different cultures process this world differently. context of the study feldman’s study of beckett’s early writings highlights the young beckett’s engagement with the work of schopenhauer. he believes that there is an enormous influence of schopenhauer on beckett from 1930 onwards (feldman, 2006, p. 12). for reference, feldman quotes a letter of beckett’s to mcgreevy in which he shows his fascination for schopenhauer (p. 13). deirdre bair thinks that “schopenhauer’s ideas provided the philosophical foundation for beckett” (bair, 1990, p. 79). john calder, on the other hand, thinks that it was beckett’s curiosity that made him follow the buddhist and spiritual traditions (calder, 2018, p. 5). in this regard, initial critical and fiction writings of beckett, with pessimistic proust monograph shows the influence of schopenhauer’s buddhist-influenced models of the “will to live,” (feldman, 2006, p. 49) and murphy’s studies along with his ‘swami’ proposes, possibly, a satirical take on yeats’ eastern philosophy. thus, leopardi’s idea in ‘a se stesso’ that “in noi di cari inganni, / non che la speme, il desiderio è spento” (leopardi, 1923, p. 300), is encapsulated in proust, “the wisdom… consists… not in the satisfaction but in the ablation of desire” (beckett, 1931, p. 7). in how it is, the idea is given voice vibrantly, “i too will renounce i will have no more desires” (beckett,1968, p. 62). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 samuel beckett and the islamic world: 324 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.344 the current efforts of paul foster’s beckett and zen: a study of dilemma in the novels of samuel beckett (1989), lidan lin’s ‘samuel beckett’s encounter with the east’ (2010), andy wimbush’s ‘biology, the buddha and the beasts: the influence of ernst haeckel and arthur schopenhauer on samuel beckett’s how it is’ (2013) and pavneet kaur’s ‘samuel beckett’s ‘the way’ and stirring still: analysing the self from ‘schopenhaurian buddhist’ perspective’’’(2017) have directed their attention towards this idea of studying beckett through an eastern perspective to contend this idea that beckett was aware of eastern custom of knowledge. it is due to the familiarity of beckett with the eastern tradition of knowledge that enriches his writings with new possible themes and makes it possible for scholars to interpret his work from different dimensions. literature review beckett’s scholarship has been extended to eastern critical, religious and political traditions, other than that of western stance. however, the islamic perspective still is missing. it seems a bit unlikely phenomenon that too when throughout the 19th century, there was a strong existence of orientalism in irish literature (cochran, 2009). this trend was set by writers that include james clarence mangan, lord byron and thomas moore. many irish ancestors of beckett have drawn islamic themes through an oriental lens, to transfer angloirish political squabble onto a suitable object. in this regard, lalla rookh (1817) of thomas moore, set in persia, and casabianca (1826) felicia dorothea hemans, which is set in egypt, has got the attention of kamau brathwaite. particularly, mangan, was a phenomenal translator (generally via german mediators) of persian, turkish and arabic poetry, often using arabic personae as mouthpieces for a displaced version of anglo-irish politics and its various colonial quarrels. dublin university magazines has published a lot of articles that are enlisted by melissa fegan to demonstrate how orientalism was rooted in irish literature. since its inception in 1833, this magazine has motivated irish victorian authors to produce work on ‘representations of the east’ (196-97). e. m. cioran, who not only wrote tears and saints but also was connected to beckett when dream of fair to middling women was being written by beckett. cioran placed muslim mystics along with christian saints, addressing the baseless idea that western authors have connection only either with jewish or christian tradition only (cioran, 1998, p. 5-6). in such conditions, the possibility of not knowing islamic tradition by an irish writer may be considered a mere exaggeration. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 samuel beckett and the islamic world: 325 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.344 beckett’s notes in the arabic transcript and some other references to the muslim scholars offer a positive start for further inquiries into this matter. the current paper offers an idea that how the relationship of beckett with the islamic world can be traced and how they can be linked together. the upcoming discussion can be separated into two sections; the first section deals with the idea of beckett’s direct connection with the islamic world and muslim writers and the second section deals with how beckett can be connected with the islamic world through the reception of beckett in the muslim world. beckett’s direct contact with the islamic world yannick marien observes that beckett uses an arabic script in his notes on dante’s ‘inferno’ (marien, 2014, p. 1) and this stance has been supported by david wheatley (1995) in his essay ‘beckett’s mirlitonnades: a manuscript study’. this clue suggests that after studying the muslim writers’ works, beckett might have tried to learn the transcription of arabic. a keen observation leads us to spot the existence of muslim writers in beckett’s works. in dream of fair to middling women, for example, he refers to “the darkest passages of...hatiz, saadi” (beckett, 1993, p. 61). interestingly, beckett misspells hafiz as hatiz and considers both the poets as pessimistic, which in fact is quite misleading and is against the worldwide popularity of the poets. none of both, hafiz and saadi, convey the pessimistic message. john pilling, however, observes that beckett puts the category of muslim writers in the wrong thematic list and misspelled the name of hafiz (pilling, 2004, p. 116). in another famous work of beckett, happy days, we find winnie reflecting on the aspect of willie’s company. she seems to believe that being with him is bliss in the wilderness as she states: i shall not trouble you again unless i am compelled to, just to know you are there within hearing and conceivably on the semi-alert is … er … paradise enow. [pause.] (beckett, 2012, p. 160). remarks of winnie about willie’s reminds the verses from edward fitzgerald’s translated work of omer khayyam, a muslim poet. a flask of wine, a book of verse—and thou beside me singing in the wilderness— https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 samuel beckett and the islamic world: 326 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.344 and wilderness is paradise enow. (fitzgerald, 2009, p. 21) in all that fall, there is the use of ‘ramadam’ by mrs. rooney for being loud. she says, “i am sorry for all this ramdam” (beckett, 2012, p. 186). the critics like that of fletcher and fletcher opine that ramdam which is a french word, “is traditionally associated with festivities occurring during the nocturnal hours of the muslim ramdan fast” (fletcher, 1985, p. 84). this use of the term in his work actually supports the idea that beckett knew about islam and muslim traditions. after the 1960s onwards, particularly after winning nobel prize in 1969, the islamic world gained a newly achieved importance in the life of beckett as he was mostly holidaying in morocco and tunisia. although during his stay his interaction with the culture was casual, its effects of cultural connection can be traced in his letter to barbara bray. in the said letter, beckett uses hejira instead of the gregorian calendar. he refers to 20th february 1972 as moharram 4, 1392 (beckett, 2016, p. 283). in some of his other writings, his impressions of local culture can be traced. his french poem ‘noire soeur’ which is a part of the mirlitonnades sequence, actually is inspired by his moroccan stay. in 1972, beckett enjoyed some bird games in morocco in which he “mistook storks […] for vultures” and he recorded the happening by adding “a doodle to his letter to barbara bray to illustrate his foolishness” (wheatley, 2017, p. 7). in one of his poems, ‘dread nay’ (1974), the storks are referred to in the fourth stanza. faster than where in hellice eyes stream till frozen to jaws rail gnaw gnash teeth with stork clack chatter (beckett, 2007, p. 33) ruby cohn claims that the “stanza offers horrific details of the head frozen in dante’s ninth circle” (cohn, 2004, p. 327). however mostly, this stanza refers to the ways stark behaved while beckett was observing them. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 samuel beckett and the islamic world: 327 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.344 the effect of african muslim culture can also be dotted in not i in which we find a djellaba-clad figure. explaining this figure, james knowlson accounts that the djellaba-clad figure was “an arab woman waiting there for her child”, which highly captivated beckett during staying in tunisia (knowlson, 1996, p. 589). the abovementioned references are few but can create a direct link between samuel beckett and the islamic world. the other way of connecting beckett could be the literary response of works in various muslim contexts. in this regard, the prominent adaptations of waiting for godot offer us a lead to link beckett with muslims or the islamic world. as a result, the following discussion traces how beckett can be connected through the literary reception he achieves in various muslim contexts. beckett’s reception in the muslim contexts the discussion on beckett’s reception involving the muslim contexts can be divided into two categories: non-asian muslim context and asian muslim context. the first section pinpoints how waiting for godot was adapted in europe and the middle east and the following discusses waiting for godot’s reception in asian muslim contexts. • waiting for godot and its reception in non-asian muslim context waiting for godot was produced by ilan ronen at the municipal theatre, haifa (1984). the idea was to introduce beckett for demonstrating the socio-political condition of the country. the play was translated into arabic and hebrew by anton shammas (hutchings, 2005). it metaphorically demonstrated the relations between different communities with a particular focus on muslims and jews. although the originality was marred due to this experimentation, the universality helped depict the state in which the people of israel were living. this linguistic variety of the adaptations helped the spectators to ‘identify emotionally’ with the circumstances of the characters (ronen, 1997). while the edition was an artistic achievement, it can be esteemed as food for thought. it helps the audience and readers in knowing how it helps depict the dilemma of muslims and other groups who had had neither the privilege to theorize a meaningful version for their lives nor the liberty to settle a possibly different future that is offered by innate meaningless and insignificance of life. in the original text of waiting for godot, the central character wait for godot, having the choice to wait or not but in the adaptation, the protagonist is not having any other choice but to wait for godot. in the original https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 samuel beckett and the islamic world: 328 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.344 scenario, the wait depicted is internal whereas, in the adapted situation, the wait is external as it is imposed one, with no choice. in this way, we can see a range of deviant sets of meanings. beckett’s didi and gogo try to give meaning to meaninglessness whereas ronen’s didi and gogo depict meaningful struggle against dominant forces and oppressed situations. thus, beckett’s inclusion in the culture in a deviant way proves to be an attempt of observing the literary response of beckett’s works in the context involving muslims. in sarajevo, susan sontag’s adaptation of waiting for godot was another major attempt to involve the muslim context though it was to unearth the plight of european citizens. her experimentation of waiting of godot portrays a hopeless situation of war-inflicted sarajevan people. with its depiction of the miserable situation of futility and imprisonment, the adaptation affords hope of redemption. there are certain changes made in the adaptation like the multiplicity of characters and confining the play as a single act. it was severely criticised by the stern beckett scholars for the very reason although the play was adapted posthumously. however, she suggested that the modification was essential to spare the audience from the disappointment of the non-arrival of godot even the second time as “the despair of act 1 was enough for the sarajevo audience” (bowe, 2021, 267). her defence finds roots in the famous idea by vivian mercier, “a play in which nothing happens twice” (mercier, 1956, p. 6). however, it can be noted that mercier, conversely, highlighted implicitly that no solid consequence is achieved by the end of both the acts but the characters neither departed nor left the place to utter darkness. along with this, the changes could also be seen in censoring the religious content; however, this mindful omission can be justified as sontag was aware of the diverse cultural and religious context of the spectators and reference to religious content could convey a negative message. on the other hand, sontag (1994) claimed that the production was to express solidarity with subjugated citizens of sarajevo, mostly muslims, during the time of war. the above conversation indicates that waiting for godot is an experimental play and this allows it to exceed the categorise of ‘-isms’ such as existentialism, absurdism, and nihilism. this unique feature of waiting for godot fascinates the artists from every corner of the world to experience it in any form be it original or translated form. thus, waiting for godot was brought from the french and english speaking world to the multilingual european countries along with arabian peninsula and asia. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 samuel beckett and the islamic world: 329 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.344 • waiting for godot and its reception in asian muslim context in bangladesh, the translated english text of waiting for godot became part of the curriculum in the late 1970s. mahmood (1993) observes that the reception of waiting for godot in the academics was extraordinary. this optimistic response helped to motivate professor kabir chowdhry to translate waiting for godot with the name of godor pratikshaya into bengali, which got published in 1981. mahmood not only availed the opportunity to read godor pratikshaya but also attended the performance of godor pratikshaya. he assesses the reception of godor pratikshaya in two ways. firstly, he identifies that ‘long and frenzied speech’ of lucky were either condensed or omitted. apart from this, he identifies that people of bengali origin had to miss ‘the biblical allusions, the reference to the crucifixion of the thieves, and to the saviour, and the implication of good friday.’ mahmood does not explain anything about the exclusion of religious orientation and allusions. secondly, he proposes us a deep vision into the performance of godor pratikshaya in 1984. mahmood (1993) reveals that the theme of misery did not go unnoticed; rather, it encouraged the audience to recognise “the confusion, the uncertainty, the hopelessness, and despair of the tramps in the play” (mahmood, 1993, 62). however, it is unfortunate that we are not aware of the fact that what kind of impression the audience took with them. whether it was the confusion about their lives or the unhappy feelings for the characters. nothing can be said for sure as it was not explained. this aspect might have brought a lively picture of what happened with the audience and how they responded to the play if it would have been addressed. it can be said then that the bangladeshi version and conversion of waiting for godot under the name of godor pratikshaya highlights that its primary purpose was to introduce beckett for entertaining purposes and literary reasons. the general appeal of the play did not fail in entertaining the people and urging them to search for the meanings and purpose of life by making an imaginative connection with the characters of godor pratikshaya. although the religious invisibility allowed to adopt self-censorship yet this act might have led to the formation of ambiguity in the themes of the play. and this uncertainty of waiting for godot is its raison d'etre for being popular since the late 1950s. knowlson (1996) opines that the durability of waiting for godot lies in its uncertainties and ambiguity. much has been suggested rather than explicitly stated as the people can read into it what they want to read into it. thus, it is expected that vulnerability and obscurity would make https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 samuel beckett and the islamic world: 330 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.344 waiting for godot alive. even if a culture does not appreciate waiting for godot, it would arise as godor pratikshaya. anwer hussain jafri, in pakistan, produced waiting for godot under the name of insha ka intezaar [waiting for insha]. it has been staged twice in pakistan and once in india as well (nasir, 2021). insha ka intezaar reveals how average pakistani men and women are facing the hardships of life and how their rights are unkempt by the powerful either patriarchs or rich. amazingly, this adaptation of the play with the theme of religious exploitation is frequently displayed through the discriminatory constitutional laws and behaviour of the society. jafri voices the agony and discontent of the common pakistanis by aptly manipulating the universality of waiting for godot. although the actions of the characters represent the unfair conditions of people in general, at the same time the frustration, the nothingness and helplessness represent the hollow hope for the future. moving around the paradoxical themes of void and hope, the adaptation cuts the religious symbolic text of waiting for godot. the outcome of this alteration, however, strongly instructs religious handling in the pakistani society while evading beckett’s challenging religious material. for example, the speech of lucky is being replaced by the ideas which are related to introducing islamic laws in the constitution. also, naseebun (lucky) portrays that religious discernment is common as she says that each one has created his own god. the representation of pakistan’s socio-religious and political reality is the leading theme in the play. as soon as the characters start realizing that their hope is hollow and they should keep it away from them, one of them brings back the idea of waiting for insha so they start waiting for insha again. resultantly, they are unable to leave. insha ka intezaar’s public reception had not been recorded but pakistani leading newspapers gave proper space to the production. in the dawn, shanaz ramzi acclaimed the adaptation for successfully mingling it with the religious ‘scenario’ of pakistan and depicting ‘the apathy, the gullibility of our people, and the state of hopelessness interlaced with an almost desperate conviction of better things to come’ (ramzi, 2008). in the news, iram noor muzaffar identified that insha ka intezaar documented ‘the poignancy, oppression, camaraderie, hope, corruption, exploitation and bewilderment’ of humanity that reflect ‘both comedy and pathos’ (muzaffar 2008, p. 4). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 samuel beckett and the islamic world: 331 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.344 conclusion in conclusion, it can be argued that the first section offers significant insight into the ways that trace beckett’s engagement with the islamic world, which can create an intelligible bond between beckett and the islamic world. thus, this section succeeds in contending that beckett, time and again, expresses his vast knowledge about various issues, and it is not bound to the western religious and intellectual traditions. instead, there exists a substantial potential in beckett, which can expand the horizons of contemporary beckett scholarship. while the second section identifies numerous productions of waiting for godot involving muslim contexts enabling us to create an indirect link of beckett with the muslim world. the productions of waiting for godot in haifa and sarajevo identify the issues of the muslim audience and bring those issues to light. while the performance of waiting for godot in haifa discovers major complicated difficulties of arab communities, sontag’s of waiting for godot struggles to provide an aesthetic relief to the war-stricken ill-fated people, mostly muslims. in all this process, it has been noted that the religious content was directly censored but the religious context of the audience led them to understand how the productions are related to them. on the other hand, godor pratikshaya and insha ka entezaar were staged entirely in the muslim context of islamic countries. therefore, the explicit burden of religious context is not ambiguous. in both contexts, the adaptations ironically blue-pencil the religiously problematic ideas of waiting for godot. the expurgation of these ideas, however, resulted in the adoption of a coercive satirizing tone to highlight the plight of common citizens who, according to the adaptations’ central message, are always misled by the religious authorities and the state. although all the productions almost blue-pencils the religious material of the original text of waiting for godot, they have hardly been able to move beyond the religious sphere. instead, the religious contexts of the adaptations lend more expressive insights to the audience. in simple words, beckett’s version of religious content goes missing, but the receivers were able to see and feel more clearly what was absent in the adaptations. these adaptations provide a link through which beckett can be explored and any exploration that traces the impact of islamic writers and countries on beckett would be very welcomed and it can decrease the hostility of the islamic world to challenging writers like beckett. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 samuel beckett and the islamic world: 332 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.344 references bair, d. (1990). samuel beckett: a biography. simon and schuster. beckett, s. (2007). collected poems in english and french. grove press. -------(2012). the complete dramatic works of samuel beckett. faber & faber. ---------(1993). dream of fair to middling women. edited by eoin o’brien and edith fournier, calder, ---------(2016). the letters of samuel beckett: volume 4; volumes 1966-1989. edited by george craig, martha dow fehsenfeld, dan gunn, and lois more overbeck, cambridge up. ----------(1931). proust, chatto and windus,. ------------(1968). how it is. john calder. ------------( 2002). poems 1930-1989. calder. bowe, n. m. (2021). beckett and the politics of empathy in site-specific theatre. in beckett and politics (pp. 263-280). palgrave macmillan, cham. bressler charles, e. (2011). literary criticism: an introduction to theory and practice. bürger, p. (1984). theory of the avant-garde (vol. 4). manchester university press. calder, j. 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(2015). critical theory today: a user-friendly guide. routledge. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://www.tcd.ie/library/manuscripts/blog/2018/03/samuel-becketts-reading-notes/ https://www.tcd.ie/library/manuscripts/blog/2018/03/samuel-becketts-reading-notes/ samuel beckett and the islamic world: 334 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.344 wheatley, d. (1995). beckett’s mirlitonnades: a manuscript study. journal of beckett studies, 4(2), 47-76. wheatley, d. (2017). black diamonds of pessimism: the final correspondence of samuel beckett. tls. times literary supplement, (5938), 7-9. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 199 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders shaehroz anjum butt lecturer in english, higher education department, punjab, pakistan butt1239@gmail.com dr. zareena qasim assistant professor, department of english, university of sargodha, sargodha maryam javed lecturer in english, the university of lahore, sargodha maryam.javed@ell.uol.edu.pk abstract the present study attempts to analyze the processes of transitivity in the text in other rooms, other wonders (2009) by daniyal mueenuddin. the two short stories namely in other room, other wonders and about a burning girl have been selected from the collection of eight stories. in developing countries, a growing disparity can be observed in socio-economic classes. this elucubration tends to interpret literature by using a framework of linguistics to describe the various facets of character’s life. a total of 109 clauses have been extracted from the texts to demarcate marxist themes such as class difference, corruption, commodification, and marxist feminism. the transitivity analysis of fictional expedition shows that the material process is 37.6%, mental process is 26.6%, verbal process is 12.8%, behavior process is 11%, relational process is 8.25% and existential process is 4.58%. the study can lend a helping hand to the ones intending to describe literature by applying theories of linguistics and play their part in contributing to the repertoire of applied linguistics. keywords: transitivity, class difference, commodification, marxist feminism 1.introduction the current study makes use of the system of transitivity to relate the external and internal experiences of the characters and in doing so, lays bare the several marxists themes in the selected text in other rooms, other wonders (2009). the rationale for employing transitivity analysis as a tool to interpret data and answer the research questions is that, “transitivity system provides the lexicogrammatical resources for construing a quantum of change in the flow of events as figures – as a configuration of elements centered on a process,”, which is expressed in processes, the participants involved and certain circumstances (halliday, 2014, p. 213). in other rooms, other wonders (2009) is a combination of eight short stories. two short stories namely about a burning girl and in other rooms, other wonders have been selected and subjected to transitivity analysis. for conducting the transitivity analysis of the text ideational function of functional grammar is to be taken in account. this function deals with the representation of experiences https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 mailto:butt1239@gmail.com you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 200 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 in the internal and external world and all the processes namely material process, mental process, relational process, behavioral process, verbal process and existential process stem from this meta-function of language. on the other hand, interpersonal function considers the social aspects of language and textual function deals with the clause as message. the researcher intends to analyze the literary text with the help of linguistics. this interdisciplinary approach in which literature is studied with the help of linguistics is known as stylistics. trask (2007) in this regard states: a number of scholars have been applying the analytical techniques of theoretical linguistics to the elucidation of literary works and to the examination of the aesthetic aspects of language generally. to this discipline we now give the name stylistics. (p. 280) daniyal mueenuddin, the author of in other rooms, other wonders (2009) has worked as a lawyer and as a journalist. this book won the common wealth writers’ prize and the story prize. the stories display characters from different walks of life. the social standing, poverty and class difference of the characters play a dominant role in shaping up their course. the author has explained the pakistani culture of 1980’s and 1990’s in this book. the researcher attempts to shed light upon the marxist themes such as class struggle, commodification, corruption and suppression of women by scrutinizing the selected stories in the light of the six processes proposed for transitivity analysis. research questions 1. what are the marxist themes brought forth by processes of transitivity? 2. what is the percentage of each process type embedded in the analysis? research objectives this study aims; 1. to find out several marxist themes with the application of transitivity 2. to determine the percentage of each process type in the analysis 2. literature review the british linguist firth in 1930’s and 1940’s tried to devise a social approach to study language. in 1960’s his student halliday keeping that approach in mind introduced a new concept for grammatical analysis known as scale-and –category grammar. halliday continued in this direction and brought forth a new framework which came to be known as https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 201 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 systemic linguistics. it is a functionalist approach for studying language. it combines the structural information of language with social factors. sl is concerned with language usage and tries to probe speaker’s or writer’s intention by keeping in view the available linguistic devices. halliday distinguishes among three distinctive functions of language (or meta-functions): the ideational (or experiential) function is the conveying of semantic content representing information about our experience of the external world (including our own minds). the textual function is the linking of linguistic elements to other linguistic elements, so that the various parts of a text can be integrated into a coherent and cohesive whole and related to the wider context of our speech or writing. the interpersonal function is the establishment and maintenance of social relations, including persuading other people to do things or to believe things (trask, 2007, p. 293) transitivity generally means the relation of a verb with a noun phrase in a clause. in systemic linguistics this concept is somewhat complex and has been elaborated at length. eggins (1994) describes that ideational function of language includes a system of grammatical choice known as transitivity. according to trask (2007) this term denotes “the kind of activity or process expressed by a sentence, the number of participants involved and the manner in which they are involved” (p. 306). halliday (1973) defines transitivity as: transitivity is the set of options whereby the speaker encodes his [sic] experience of the processes of the external world of his [sic] own consciousness, together with the participants in these processes and their attendant circumstances. (p. 134) transitivity has been used as a tool to analyze and understand literature. rashid (2016) applies the application of transitivity to the protagonist hiroko in kamila shamsie’s novel burnt shadows. landa (2017) studies system of transtivity in fictional narrative by comparing the process types manifested in short stories of e. a. poe. zhao and zhang (2017) apply the framework of transitivity to donald j. trump’s inaugural address and find out that the american president uses mostly the material process to describe the measures which his government will adopt in order to improve the country. wall street journal comments on in other rooms, other wonders in these words: “unveils a nuanced world where social status and expectations are understood without being https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 202 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 stated, and where poverty and the desire to advance frame each critical choice”. hae (2014) applies postcolonial lens to this text and brings to light the servitude embedded in the characters from lower strata. pervez (2012) probes the representation of gender in this text. the author analyzes the knots of class and gender by highlighting the themes of injustice, oppression and lack of awareness in women. 3. theoretical framework the concept of transitivity stems from the ideational function of language and from it results the grammatical system. halliday (1994) is of the view that the concept of transitivity is a notion of semantics and this system can be used for the explanation of a clause. this system of transitivity translates the experience by means of six processes; relational process, material process, verbal process, mental process, existential process and behavioral process. 3.1. material process halliday (1994) states, “material processes are processes of ‘doing’.” (p. 110). in this process an entity does something to another entity. there are two participants involved in this process. one is actor (doer) and the other one is goal (entity which is the receiver of the process). actor process: material goal the mayor dissolved the committee they built a house (cited from halliday, 1994, p. 11) the two examples of material process have been assigned to the table. in the first instance the actor mayor is engaged in the material process of dissolving the committees. in the second example the pronoun they depict the actor which through the material process of building leads to the materialization of the house, which is goal. 3.2. mental process halliday (1994) states, “mental processes or process of sensing are processes of feeling, thinking and seeing” (p. 117). there are two participants involved in this process namely, senser (conscious being) and phenomenon (which is being sensed). the mental process can be divided into four categories: ● emotive (processes of regretting, liking and hating) https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 203 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 ● cognitive (understanding and deciding) ● perceptive (processes of hearing and seeing) ● desirative (processes of wanting) sensor process: material phenomenon jill can’t see marry liked the gift (cited from halliday, 1994, p.114) in the examples of material process jill is engaged in the mental state of seeing and in the subsequent event marry is the sensor, who is engaged in the emotive state of liking the gift. 3.3. relational process halliday (1994) states that relational process includes the relationship between two distinct entities and there is no clear evidence that the entities affect each other. he divides this process into two modes which are attributive (assign quality) and identifying (identify something). relational process is further split in three categories: 1. circumstantial ‘x is at a’ 2. intensive ‘x is a’ 3. possessive ‘x has a’ type mode: attributive identifying circumstantial the meeting is on tuesday the fifth is yesterday intensive jary is wise jary is the monitor possessive paul has a piano the piano is paul’s (cited from halliday, 1994, p. 119) 3.4. behavioral process halliday (1994) states, “behavioral processes are process of (typically human) physiological and psychological behavior, like breathing, coughing, smiling, dreaming and staring” (pp. 139). it can be divided into five categories: ● processes of consciousness include behavior like dream listen, worry, watch and look. ● verbal process manifests grumble, talk, and chatter. ● physiological processes embody behavior like cry, frown, sigh, wine, and snarl. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 204 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 ● other physiological processes include yawn, sleep, cough and faint. ● bodily gestures feature behaviors such as dance and sing. behavior process range my sister coughed she gave a faint sign (cited from halliday, 1994, p. 119) the examples in the above table have the behaviors; my sister and she who are engaged in the physiological processes of coughing and giving respectively. 3.5. verbal process halliday (1994) states, “verbal processes are process of saying” (p. 140). this process includes one participant called sayer. other components include verbiage (content of saying), receiver (addressee) and target (target entities). sayer process: verbal target receiver verbiage she praised him he told me the truth (cited from halliday, 1994, p. 140) in the examples manifested in the table she is the sayer who is engaged in the process of praising another entity. in the second example he is the sayer who is engaged in the verbal process of telling the truth to the listener or receiver. 3. 6. existential process halliday (1994) states, “existential process represent that something exists or happens” (p. 142). this process includes one participant called existent (event/entity which exists). process: existential existent circumstance there is a robbery in the street there hangs a portrait on the wall (cited from halliday, 1994, p. 142) the event describes an existent in the form of robbery which exists in the street that is in fact its circumstantial information. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 205 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 4. research methodology the selected text for this study is in other rooms, other wonders (2009) by mueenuddin. the book is a collection of eight short stories out of which the two stories namely in other rooms, other wonders and about a burning girl have been chosen to be analyzed by application of transitivity. there are 109 clauses extracted from the two stories. the study is a combination of qualitative method and quantitative method. qualitative method provides an in depth analysis whereas the quantitative method presents data in table to maintain objectivity. the researcher has calculated the percentage of each process type for making the analysis more vivid and brings forth the marxist themes with the help of transitivity system. 5. data analysis and discussion 5.1. class difference 5.1.1. material process ● “he put her in the office of the secretary” (p. 107). ● “my father can give me nothing” (p. 109). ● “hunters wearing shooting caps posed with strings of birds or piles of game” (p. 107). ● “now i have come to you for help” (p. 108) ● “the visitor wore a pinkish kurta, too young for her but certainly very expensive” (p. 109). ● “she wore to much make up” (p. 111). ● “she rode home in the back seat of k. k.’s large old car looking at the back of chauffeur’s immense head, husna’s complex thoughts ran along several lines” (p. 113). ● “if i eat something from the refrigerator she becomes angry at me” (p. 118). ● “when she is gone on hajj the servant will take liberties, they make jokes and want me to sit with them” (p. 118). ● “she would not leave me any money” (p. 118). ● “husna would live in better quarters than ever before in her life, with uninterrupted supplies of good food” (p. 119). ● “he had begun teasing her, saying that she was seeking a young husband” (p. 131). ● “husna had few times complained of not having money, of wearing torn cloths and broken heeled-shoes” (p. 128). ● “husna found a suit of clothing that she brought with her when she came into the household, a cheap shalwar and kurta” (p. 134). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 206 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 ● “two society women set uncomfortably on the floor next to husna, whispering, gossiping and she heard one say to the other in english, “oh, is not that delicious” (p. 135). from the above examples, it can be observed that class difference plays a vital role in segregating the people in third world countries. the text under discussion shows the bleak picture of developing pakistani society. material process paints a grim picture of pakistan as a country facing the severe issues like poverty, crime and unemployment. economic conditions and background of husna is clearly drawn through this process. from the beginning of the story husna makes her way to harouni’s mansion and asks him for help. she seems enchanted by the material objects present around her. the material world of harouni and husna, marks a sharp boundary between them. it can be assumed that husna is wearing cheap clothes and has no material possession of her own. the material process elaborates the class difference between husna and harouni and she attempts to breach this gap by taking hold of harouni’s material possessions until she is finally discarded by harouni’s daughter after his death, marking a contrast in their class. 5.1.2. mental process ● “husna needed a job” (p. 107). ● “she felt ashamed to be seen taking a rickshaw” (p. 112). ● “she did not want to lose this chance of his company” (p. 112). ● “she felt entitled to rejoin that world and felt aggrieved for being excluded from it” (p. 114). ● “husna knew that she can’t hope to marry or attract a young man from one of the rich established families” (p. 114). ● “she imagined them blowing through foreign airports and ease in european cities” (p. 114). ● “she was fearing that begum harouni would discover the growing relationship between them” (p. 116). ● “husna’s mind would hang on these symbols of wealth, not letting them go even for hours” (p. 116). ● “i would like to be alone with my father” (p. 125). ● “he would not have wanted you to stay here; tomorrow the car will be available to take you wherever you wish to be taken” (p. 135). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 207 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 ● “they had closed up against her –family and blood” (p. 136). ● “to husna it felt like a validation, almost like revenge” (p. 119). now we must understand the psyche of the people suffering from poverty and those who have to look forward to other people from elite or upper-class for the fulfillment of their basic needs. these examples shine light on the pathetic state of affairs prevalent in developing countries. husna was lost in a whirlpool of thoughts owing to the material circumstances. exactly in accordance to marx’s conception that a person’s social being manifests his consciousness, husna at once starts musing on her prospects of attaining a job. she is afraid of losing this life time opportunity and develops an intimate bond with haroni. repressed fears lurking in her unconscious mind bring home the fact that she will not be able to marry a man from an upper class as she is not socially well off. so, she decides to trade her chastity for material gains. after the death of haroni she is turned out of the home by haroni’s daughters illustrating the fact that there is a separating line between them due to their social standing. 5.1.3. behavioral process • “husna shrank into herself” (p. 109). ● “he glanced at her bare foot but made no comment” (p. 112). ● “she looked rich and sleek and voluptuous” (p. 124). ● “sarwat looked down at the girl with a wolfish grin” (p.124). ● “sarwat looked at her in amazement as if the furniture had spoken” (p. 124). ● “he mimicked her brassy manners and slang, saying in joke what could not be said outright” (p. 131). ● “they looked at her with curiosity but said nothing” (p. 134). people who are in a miserable state because of the unfulfillment of their basic needs and those who want to become an epitome of wealth have to suffer a lot, just like husna. she bears rude and weird behavior of sarwat and endures the mocking behavior of servants and other people in social circle of haroni. from above instances it can be observed that she is extremely cautious of not disclosing her social class. her pattern of behavior alters when she is present in the company of people of higher social standing. she remains passive on seeing sarwat and also towards the end of the narrative she silently accepts the verdict of haroni’s daughters as she realizes her secondary status and adopts a servile guise. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 208 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 5.1.4. verbal process ● “they had been speaking in english and husna exposed her poor accent saying “it is very good to meet you” (p. 110). ● “nothing? said husna, “you drivers are always clever ones” (p. 120). ● “she exploded “she is mean and rude she treated me like dirt” (p. 126). ● “sarwat asked his father that why he had chosen her as his companion because husna had neither talent nor beauty” (p. 125). ● “‘please’, said sarwat, this is a time for family” (p. 133). verbal process brings forth the contrast between husna and her rich counter parts. a person’s accent and dialect provide information about his socio-economic class and from the onset husna is aware of her poor accent. she is at ease in talking to servants but becomes passive when interacting with people of some means. she tries to hide her identity by remaining silent but sarwat even mocks her socialization. it is evident from the above illustrations that a person’s speaking habits play a significant part in determining his worth. 5.1.5. relational process ● “husna’s family, a cadet branch had not so much fallen into poverty as failed to rise” (p. 108). ● “sarwat, who was married with tremendously wealthy unhurriedly man, did not pay any attention to husna” (p. 113). ● “she looked rich and sleek and voluptuous” (p. 124). ● “the irregularity of her features, her straight, dry hair, and her small mouth, all caused her to cringe inwardly and sadly to feel vulnerable” (p. 115). ● “sarwat told her father that husna is neither pretty nor presentable” (p. 125). 5.1.6. existential process ● “husna’s mind would hang on these symbols of wealth, not letting them go even for hours” (p. 116). ● “their estrangements were less than there contempt for her” (p. 136). relational process is a good way of describing the attributes or qualities (good or bad) of the people. this process can prove helpful for unraveling the class divide by relating husna to other characters. this process helps to identify people and a sharp contrast can be drawn between husna and sarwat owing to their attributes and appearance. the relation which husna and sarwat has with their respective class determines their identity and existential process https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 209 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 further plays the role of a catalyst in shaping up their social status by bringing to light their material possessions. 5.2. commodification 5.2.1. material process ● “when she went out with begum harouni, husna was not a guest, not even really present but a resource of old lady, to fetch and carry, to stay beside her so that the begum would not be left sitting alone” (p. 110). ● “i will arrange shah sahib to give you lesson” (p. 110). ● “i picked her from the dirt, from nothing and i fed her, clothed her” (p. 119). ● “she had the use of car, brought herself cloths, even small bits of gold jewelry” (p. 128). ● “she would come to k.k with some special request waiting to buy something and he would ultimately agree” (p. 128). ● “my father allowed you to live in this house” (p. 135). ● “if you took care of him in these past months, you would be awarded” (p. 136). for marx a commodity is the primary block for the edifice of capitalism. a commodity should envisage two values namely use value and exchange value. it implies that a commodity is bound to have utility and a property of exchangeability. husna in the narrative embodies the two characteristics of a commodity and others also treat her like it. begum haroni takes her to market just to load stuff on her. haroni uses her for his carnal desires and sarwat uses her to take care of her father and as soon as haroni dies she sets her going. moreover, husna exchanges her body for material pursuits. it becomes evident that the widening socioeconomic gulf between different classes stimulates the metamorphosis of the members of working class into commodities for the rich. 5.2.2. mental process ● “she did not want to lose this chance of his company” (p. 112). ● “she meant this as an opening at least as a reproach” (p. 110). ● “she sensed that all this might come to her through harouni, if she became his mistress” (p. 116). ● “she wanted to make herself interesting to the old man, reading serious books” (p. 120). ● “her ambition always trolled back in the background, she had come to respect him genuinely, his integrity, his gait, plain light and valuable as a metal known in the world” (p. 121). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 210 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 ● “she wanted at least to consolidate her smaller grains” (p. 127). ● “at my age, what i need is companionship, husna give that to me” (p. 126). ● “she wanted to keep herself a part of the bargain and only herself to give” (p. 121). husna’s thoughts reveal her servile mentality and the fact that she is willing to be treated as a commodity. she is mentally engaged in devising schemes to tempt haroni and in doing so she tries to make herself interesting to the old man. she presents herself as a toy to please haroni and he starts imagining her as a commodity which he has purchased with his wealth. 5.2.3. verbal process ● “she said to him, speaking plainly “scratch a man and find a boy” (p. 129). ● “husna sweetly replied, “he is well uncle”” (p. 113). ● ““how interesting”, said the women, after listening that husna will graduate soon and is looking for a teaching position, her voice confiding and smoky” (p. 109). 5.2.4. behavioral process ● “husna began to enjoy the advantages of her new position” (p. 128). ● “riffat looked meaningfully at husna once and twice” (p. 110). ● “the women eyed husna as if pricing her” (p. 109). as the narrative progresses husna and haroni display their charms as to convince a customer to buy a commodity. sweetness of voice, elegance of gait and refined manners add to their personalities. verbal and behavioral processes throw ample light on the commodified nature of affairs. in the beginning of the story rifat on listening husna considers her a thing to please haroni. throughout the story people are trying to use husna. the verbiage and behaviors weaved in the story makes it clear that husna is nothing but a commodity and the wealth of haroni acts as an impetus for husna. the stimulus of haroni’s wealth reinforces husna’s behaviors. 5.3. marxist feminism 5.3.1. material process ● “she took service in ambiguous position with begum harouni had been the greatest prospect she ever made to her mediocre precepts” (p. 114). ● “coming up and kissing harouni on the cheek, the woman said in a husky voice, “hello darling”” (p. 109). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 211 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 ● “k.k. gave this house to his wife when finally and uncharacteristically he made a firm decision that she must leave” (p. 115). the material process analyzed under the shade of marxist feminism makes it conspicuous that women are being treated as the class which is other and this marginalization is embedded with further division. this division can be observed in the portrayals of husna and begum haroni. the both female characters have been subdued in one way or the other by haroni. the dividing line between the two women results as a consequence of their material possessions. their social standing defines their domain for undertaking material actions. this theme glaringly highlights the grim fact that a person is worth what he owns. husna is placed on the lowest pedestal because she lacks the material wealth. this void in husna’s socio economic class and the other women marks her as someone who is other. 5.3.2. verbal process ● “for him i should have said i came with nothing, i leave with nothing, i leave with cloths on my back, i served your father when you were far away” (p. 137). ● “she told with great emphasis a story about her mother” (p. 116). ● “husna said, talk to hassan now i would not stand the servant’s treatment of me anymore” (p. 127). 5.3.3. existential process ● “she had reached the bottom of her pride, arousing her sense of wanting to be dignified” (p. 136). ● “for her, dignity, pride and memory would be material, all and everything from this moment forward” (p. 136). the verbal and existential processes also weave a narrative manifested with marxist feminist strands. husna voices her helplessness when she is turned out after the death of haroni. she is well aware of her secondary status and voices it when the cook mocks her. she realizes that in order to get rid of the compromised position, she would have to make possible the existence of material possessions at the root of her wretched life. this was the remedy which she thought to cure her life but it dawned on her towards the end of the narrative that she should not have depended on haroni for a furnished life. this points out that husna gets marginalized on two planes which are economic and patriarchal. 5.4. corruption (in other rooms, other wonders) 5. 4.1. relational process https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 212 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 ● “their son’s at least the quick ones, the adapted ones, became ministers at thirty, immaculate blowing through dull parties, making an appearance, familiar with their elders, on the way to somewhere else” (p. 114). 5.4.2. existential process ● “the old baron still dominated the government, the prime minister a huge feudal land owner” (p. 114). pakistan is still facing a terrible disease of corruption, most of the departments are still under the control of corrupt landowners who think that they are the masters in their own and nobody has a right to live like them. the undercurrents of this theme reveal that the lords who own lands are able to curb the people beneath their social status. people depend on these land lords for their livelihood and the lords exploit them owing to their weak status and it is only because of their dominant socio economic class that their corrupt practices go unchecked. 5.5. corruption (about a burning girl) 5.5.1. material process ● “when they wake each morning, is to sell themselves for a good price” (p. 91). ● “my personal secretary does most of my work” (p. 95). ● “the policeman registered a false statement from her” (p. 96). ● “her family paid the police to beat him” (p. 96). ● “we also paid, so they have done nothing so far but kick him around a bit” (p. 96). ● “he does not disclose the method and the motive and the culprit responsible for each crime it is only because he is more powerful if he does not do so” (p. 100). ● “police takes the lion’s share of the stolen goods” (p. 103). the material process aids in disclosing the corrupt practices undertaken by government officials assuming charges of key posts. the author has employed clauses depicting the acts which can be deemed rotten. according to the narrative the judicial system in pakistan is rampant with corruption. lawyers are eager to sell themselves. judges are willing to issue tempered verdicts and police department is ever ready to be oiled. material process throws ample light on the activities of different officials who are drowning gradually in the quagmire of corruption. 5.5.2. mental process ● “i am no longer consumed by a desire to be what in law school we called “a sword of the lord” (p. 91). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 213 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 ● “despite my profession i do not believe in justice” (p. 91) ● “i enjoy this paper because it gives me absolutely no information except that which is sponsored by the government” (p. 94). ● “our greatest fear is that someone senior to me will see it and covet it and take it” (p. 92). ● “i believe the cook has a setting, as they say, with the sweepers although he has a wife and child” (p. 92). ● “he knows the verdicts of the cases before they have been written, before they even have been conceived” (p. 100). ● “you may wish to speak with the judge and that of course is exactly what i did” (p. 105). ● “the judge, no matter how well disposed to me, will need to be oiled if he is to work” (p. 97). ● “there is nothing connected with the courts of the lahore that he has not absorbed for knowledge in this degree of detail can be obtained by osmosis” (p. 100). this process shines light on the state of mind of the members of judiciary. corrupt mindedness has uprooted the desire to deliver justice to the common masses. the mind of the corrupt officials accepts no news other than that which pleases them. their minds roam on every trivial affair which is transpiring around them but they are devoid of passion and sincerity for their official positions. mian sarkar is a character who knows even the verdicts of the uses before they are penned down on the page. it is probably because he is well familiar with the mind set of judges. in this story, the narrator who is session a session judge speaks to his fellow judge to protect his servant because his wife wants to retain that errand boy. 5.5.3. behavior process ● “i do not pretend to have perfectly clean hands” (p. 91). ● “i render decisions based on the relative pressure brought to bear on me” (p. 91). 5.5.4. relational process ● “sir, you are a judge, if you say a word to your fellow judge in abbottabad he will, see the true merits of the case” (p. 97). ● “i am not in a position to view the judicial system with anything except a degree of tolerance” (p. 91). ● “she must be the wife of a big fish” (p. 98). these two processes further strengthen the theme of weapon. the behavioral pattern of the narrator, who is a judge by profession, reveals the personality type of the government https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 214 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 officials who are serving their own ends. the key posts and links are necessary to thrive in the corrupt society and the officials in trying to acquire a better stature also become a cog in the machinery of corruption which is tarnishing the image of pakistan. 5. 6. commodification 5.6.1. material process ● “my wife got this residence allotted to us by spending a month camped in the living room of her second cousin, a deputy additional secretary” (p. 91). ● “sir khadim served you since before he begins shaving” (p. 93). ● “she sat with an old lady one of her projects someone from whom she wanted something” (p. 98). ● “the two seed pulling my career rapidly forward along the treacherous road of the pakistani judiciary are my wife and mian sarkar” (p. 99). the narrator makes it quite clear from the onset of the narrative that his wife has played the vital role in imparting him the status. he has been using his wife to gain upward social mobility. he further seems uninterested in helping his servant. it is only when his wife asks him to do so; he makes use of his position. hence proving that he treats humans in commodified terms. 5. 7. class difference 5.7.1. material process ● “two days later i received a phone call from the boy’s brother, a useless sort of fellow who periodically comes to lahore and sponges of the kitchen” (p. 93). ● “as i opened the door he fell to the ground and put his hands on my feet” (p. 98). ● “mian sarkar wore a cheap three-piece, suit and a pair of slightly tinted spectacles of an already outmoded design of the lady that he emerged from his mother’s womb” (p. 99). ● “he wore a battered white skullcap, soiled cloths, a sleeveless sweater, and shoes with crepe-rubber soles, worn down on one side, which gave each foot a peculiar tilt” (p. 100). ● “he began sobbing, his face long and dark like a cab horse in the rain” (p. 101). class difference among characters can be comprehended by subjecting them to the material process. participants involved in this process are doing acts which mark a distinction in their social class. the characters from the lower socio-economic class are wearing clothes which reflect their inferior status. the narrator comments on the clothing of his house hold https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 215 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 servants and mian sarkar. khadim’s brother also fells in the feet of the judge to get the desired favor which brings a sharp contrast in their cases. 5.7.2. verbal process ● “he said, “i explained as briefly as i could” (p. 98). ● “he said, you can do anything, sir” (p. 101). ● “i said, you do not feel the need any longer for your position in this household” (p. 93). the discourse among characters shows a great difference in their socio-economic class. the servants are not allowed to engage in lengthy stretch of talk with the masters. they keep their communication brief. their words depict that they regard their masters as supreme beings capable fixing of turbulence wrecking their wretched lives. 6. distribution of six processes in in other rooms, other wonders and about a burning girl the analysis of the selected texts shows that the total number of clauses is 109. out of which the occurrences of material process is 41 i.e. 37.6%, mental process is 29 i.e. 26.6%, verbal process is 14 i.e. 12.8%, behavior process is 12 i.e. 11%, relational process is 9 i.e. 8.25%, existential process is 5 i.e. 4.58%. it can be observed that the most prominent process type extracted from the data is material process which alludes to marx’s (1970) saying, “it is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness” (p. ii). it is evident from the above discussion that characters in the story determine their patterns of life depending upon the material conditions. the percentages and total number of the process types are given in table below: process material mental verbal behavior relational existential total number 41 29 14 12 9 5 109 percentage 37.6% 26.60% 12.8% 11% 8.25% 4.58% 100% 7. conclusion the discussion in the above section seems in accordance with the research problem. the application of transitivity has been employed to interpret a literary work. the six processes (material, mental, verbal, behavioral, relational and existential) combine to form a kaleidoscopic image which reflects various shades of the characters. the selected text to meet the end of the study is in other rooms, other wonders (2009). it is a collection of eight interlinked stories. this piece of fiction describes shades of pakistani society which manifests https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 216 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 an ever increasing gulf in socio-economic classes from various strata. the rich and the poor characters have been plotted against one another to describe their traits in depth. the experience of characters placed in this landscape has been interpreted by using systemic functional linguistic approach of transitivity. the analysis not only concentrates on the structural aspects of language but considers the role that language is playing in the society. the language of the characters depicts their social experience and that language has been scrutinized by the six processes to cover different facets of the lives of characters. the language of the selected texts namely in other rooms, other wonder and about a burning girl brings to light a number of marxist themes. the characters of the rich and the poor classes have been contrasted to illustrate class difference. it informs the audience of the growing class struggle which can very well be a dominant factor in disturbing the stable state of the society. exploitation and corruption are the natural by-products due to the yawning void between classes. the characters at the bottom are exploited by their superiors and are robbed of even the necessities of life. in order to compensate this exploitation people indulge in corrupt practices. as a result, everyone who gets a chance avails the opportunity to thrive by every possible mean. marx in trying to comprehend the system of exploitation and capitalism propounded a conception of commodity. a commodity has to envisage two sorts of values to be termed as commodity. one is use value and the other is exchange value. people who are on a superior position go to maximum possible extent to use others to reap benefit. in other rooms, other wonders, a young girl is collaged with a retired bureaucrat who uses her to keep himself relaxed in his old age. husna’s character can be compared to other female characters for the explanation of the fact that one gets exploited if s/he has no material possession. in the second story about a burning girl corrupt practices have been exposed. the language of the judge fully describes his persona. the language describes social, emotional and psychological facets of the lives of characters. it can be observed that material process exceeds other processes. this shows that the acts which characters perform define their identity. next to material process is mental process which suggests that the thoughts embodied by the characters shape up their mental makeup. daniyal mueenuddin has displayed a developing society. the outlook of pakistani society has varied markedly in the era of globalization but still there are areas in third world countries which demand serious acts of reformation. by evaluating the language of the literary texts, the researcher has endeavored to https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 217 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 find out the role that language is playing in society to shape the lives of characters from different walks of life and in turn how language itself is formulated in the way it is in a particular discourse. references eggins, s. 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(ed.) moscow/ london: progress/ lawrence & wishart. mueenuddin, d. (2009). in other rooms, other wonders. new york: ww nortan & company. pervez, n. (2012). daniyal’s mueenuddin’s representation of gender in “in other rooms, other wonder” retrieve from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/daniyal mueenuddin's representation-of-gender-in pervez/77d52e48b16103920c6092c3ccbd798359380f2a rashid, a. (2016). transitivity analysis of hiroko’s character in burnt shadow. ms english linguistics and literature. comsats institute of information technology, islamabad, punjab, pakistan. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/daniyal%20mueenuddin's https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/daniyal%20mueenuddin's you are what you own: a transitivity analysis of in other rooms, other wonders 218 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 trask, r.l. (1999). key concepts in language and literature. london: psychology press. yujie, z. & fengjie, l. (2018). transitivity analysis of american president donald trump’s inaugural address. international journal of literature and arts. 6(2): 28-34. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.317 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 26 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: an anti-feminist, readerresponse exploration dr. zareena qasim1 dr. asifa qasim2 1assistant professor, department of english, university of sargodha, sargodha 2qassim university, kingdom of saudi arabia abstract the study explores the portrayal of women in train to pakistan by khushwant singh. the study examines the ideological assumptions of patriarchy through the representation of women as being seductive and angelic characters by a male author through the lens of reader-response theory along with the anti-feminist theory. the study analyzes the novel from the prospective of a female reader to investigate the tone of the writer to assess how unrealistically female characters are presented in the novel. khushwant singh has presented the women traditionally in negative roles, negating all kinds of freedom and liberation to them. he has presented the women as alluring and charming whose purpose is to get the attention of the men for the sake of getting money, by completely negating the lustful and manipulative nature of the men who are exploiting women by taking benefit of their weakness. nooran has been presented as unfaithful and disloyal to her father because of having an illicit relationship with a dacoit. haseena is presented as a sixteen-year-old prostitute, serving a man as old as her father just to get money. juggut’s mother is an angelic woman who is serving her child, enduring his all kinds of disrespect, insults, and humiliations. the study proves to be significant to understand the general and typical view of the men towards the women as the ones whose primary role is to serve their male counterparts socially, physically, emotionally, and sexually and to be faithful and committed to them. keywords: femme fatale, objectification, woman as reader approach, patriarchy, feminist perspective introduction contemporary feminism is a historically specific movement. it may be viewed as a rapidly developing major critical ideology. its developmental stages have historically been dependent on and in tension with male-centered political and intellectual discourse; however, its more recent manifestations transcend the former. as a philosophy of life, it opposes women’s subordination to men in the family and society, along with men’s claim to define what is best for women without consulting them; thereby offering a frontal challenge to patriarchal thought, social organization, and control mechanism. feminist critics gave forth an effective feminist theory for analyzing the literary text and unveiling the way women were being portrayed in literature. feminist critics emerged as an offshoot of the women’s liberation movement. as purohit (2012) attributes women’s liberation movement as a motivation to draw connections between women’s own work and their own lives. the objectives of the feminist theory were to develop and uncover a female https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 27 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 tradition of writing, to interpret symbolism of women's writing so that it will not be lost or ignored by the male point of view, to rediscover old texts, to analyze women writers and their writings from a female perspective, to resist sexism in literature, and to increase awareness of the sexual politics of language and style. feminist critics also openly challenged and disrupted the logo centric tradition. this started with a number of notable books in 1970’s. these include patricia meyer's the female imagination (1975) which dealt with english and american novels of the past three hundred years. another important work in this regard is elaine showalter's a literature of their own (1977) that describes the female tradition in the english novel from the brontes onward as a development of subculture; and sandra gilbert and susan gubar's the madwoman in the attic (2020) studies the major female writers of the 19th century. feminist movement not only objected to the maltreatment of women in real life but in literature as well. the present study is an attempt to explore the representation of women at the time of partition by a male author. the novel under study is train to pakistan by khushwant singh. the story moves around a village, mano majra half a mile away from sutlej, where sikhs and muslims have lived together in peace for hundreds of years. then one day, at the end of the summer, the "train" arrives, a silent, incredible funeral train loaded with the bodies of thousands of refugees, bringing the village its first taste of the horrors of the civil war. train to pakistan, is a story of this isolated village that is plunged into the abyss of religious hate. there is also a love story of a sikh boy and a muslim girl. however, the most important aspect of the novel is the portrayal of women. khushwant singh presents the female characters in a stereotypical way that reflects the mindset of a patriarchic society. this study tries to uncover all the hidden ideologies behind the text through investigating the portrayal of women in the novel. the research has focused on the study of female characters in the novel and analyzes the way in which they are treated as compared to male characters. the study investigates the selected text to find the answers to the following questions: 1. how are the female characters portrayed? 2. what is the underlying tone of the writer as revealed by the conceptualization and evaluation of the female characters in the text? this particular research is going to be significant in letting the readers unfold how women are shown as seductress by the male writer in making the readers perceive women as alluring for the men to get their interests fulfilled. moreover, the study https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 28 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 contributes to the research focused on the application of anti-feminist theory on south asian literature. finally, the study challenges the general attitude towards the women as being beautiful angels whose duty is just to serve the men. the study attempts to help the readers develop their understanding about the negative attitudes of the male writers towards the women by portraying them in negative roles which reflect their stereotypical perceptions about women. literature review the partition of india is generally considered to be the partition of the whole subcontinent along with the sectarian lines because india had gained its freedom and independence from the british empire. khushwant singh has mainly focused on the physical torture of the people belonging to different communities as well as the emotional and psychological outburst of them during the partition and division of the regions of pakistan and india. he has presented a clear picture of the separation of hindus, muslims, and sikhs. he explored some of the major issues that were emerging at that time by portraying the devastating picture of independence followed by the partition (dar, 2013). the novel is describing the story of political disillusionment as well as the violence and hatred throughout the horrible days of partition of british india. everything seems to be fake and disillusioned and nobody was trustworthy. the partition and its devastation had touched the whole country. everyone was under the effects of the parition which has been depicted by singh in detail (kanimozhi & literature, n.d.). khushwant singh was one of the respected leading figures in india for being a diplomat, journalist, historian, and editor as well. it is really a valuable social and political work of literature in which the characters are clearly described with respect to their passions and emotions of love and revenge (dhanju, 2019). people can easily get a glimpse of the everyday and ordinary lived experiences of the people during partition and independence. as it has been written almost ten years after the partion of sub-continent so it can be considered as an account of the way it was witnessed at that time and the way its horrible and fearful events are still remembered after partition. a shifted view is presented through the train because previously it has been considered as a train carrying the people and the goods across the borders but now it has become a train carrying the dead bodies (virdee & safdar, 2017). different multi-religious and multi-cultural groups had been existing in the subcontinent for centuries. this novel is the representation of different ethnic groups where https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 29 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 there were huge dialogic possibilities. muslims and hindus had lived like brothers and they had very close relationships. in the end, juggut strugled hard to save hundreds of muslims just for the purpose of saving nooran, his muslim lover. similarly, hukum chand tried his best to save a muslim prostitute, haseena. through the distinctness of voices and actions of all the characters, singh has tried to show the possibilities of integration and interaction among the different groups (ahsan & haque, 2015). as usual during the time of partiton the weaker segmments of the society and the innocent people have sufered a lot as compared to those who were the reason for partition. singh has painted the picture of violence and bloodshed very realistically to show the condition of violence and horror. the feelings of love and passion have won in a chaotic situation of war and terror even among the people of different religious groups. common people have to leave their homes and their properties for the sake of saving their lives in the country. he has indirectly shown the power of the people in status and the situation of love and pleasure among the people (sharma, 2019). at the time of partition when everyone was in rage and anger and engaged in killing the people of the other reliogions, the women and the girls significantly suffered. they were raped and killed by the brutals and the people who were thirsty of blood of humanity. at the same time, there were some of the people like juggut singh who went against their own communities just to save his love and commitment for his lover who now belonged to the nation of enemy. he went against his own people when he found out that his love was suffering in the name of religious and cultural clashes. just because of the power of love and compassion, he sacrificed his own life for the survival and the well-beong of the people belonging to the culture and religion of his lover (sehrawat, 2013). singh has given a patriarchal representation of the victimization of the women because of partition violence but he has failed to give any particular reason of this victimization of the women. there is a proper patriarchal portrayal of them being victimized, submissive, silent, weak, less important yet beautiful, all the time busy in doing their domestic work but active women characters are missing in his train to pakistan (purohit, 2012). the reader-response theory is based on the effort to show and illuminate the close relationship between the text and the reader. it is based on an underlying concept that any literary text is contains the social and political conflicts and dilemmas but these texts demand to have an extensive reading by the reader where he can add his own personal https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 30 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 responses to any concept (yang, 2002). reader response theory completely rejects the notion of new criticism which emphasize that the meaning is only generated by the the text. the text and its structures are given importance and are considered as enough for the creation of the meaning but according to reader response the the reader is responsible for the creation of the meaning (mart, 2019). louise tyson has highlighted the fatures of the reader response theory. firstly, the role of the reader in the understanding of a literary text cannot be ignored and taken forgranted. secondly, the readers actively contribute in making the meaning about whatever they find in literature rather than just passively accepting and consuming all the possible meanings presented to them (tyson, 2006). theoretical framework elaine showalter (1977) gave the two distinct approaches in feminism. 1. women as reader approach 2. women as writer approach according to women as a reader approach, when a female reader comes across a piece of literature written by a male author, she focuses on the stereotypes of women in literature, omission, and misconception by male writers. as a writer approach when a female reader analyzes a text written by a woman, she focuses on the woman as the producer of textual meaning. the focus is also on female creativity and female language (showalter, 1999). the woman as a reader approach along with the reader response theory has been adopted for this particular study in order to get a clear insight of the writer’ purpose of portraying women as a seductress and as the one who is alluring the men. the mutual relationship between the text and the reader is the base of a reader response theory. transaction between the reader and the text is considered significant for the creation of the meaning of any text within a specific context in which the text is place by the author. this theory and its implications become really significant for facilitating the readers with the clear understanding and better awareness about the text. this particular theory has gained prominence in the late 1960s where the reactions and the responses of the reader and the audience are given more importance than the text itself. it has been said that the meanings of any literary piece are dependent upon interpretation of the reader in a particular context. the text itself is having no meaning. it is the reader who gives it its real essence. he is considered to be an active agent who is responsible for completing the real meaning of the text. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 31 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 louise rosenblatt’s theory of transactional reader-response has been employed for the interpretation of the text of train to pakistan. it is all about the transaction between the reader and the text and the reader is supposed to give his own interpretation based on his or her own personal experiences, emotions, and knowledge. the text is considered to be a stimulus that is responded by the reader with his or her own personal experiences in his own ways. on the basis of the feelings, emotions, associations, and the memories and experiences of the past, a person makes sense of the text. moreover, the present circumstances and the moods can also influence the interpretation of the text (mart, 2019). the transactional view of the responses by the reader is based on the assumptions and the beliefs that the reader is not seen as a separate entity, acting upon the environment, nor the environment acting on the organism, but both parts acting as a total event (rosenblatt, 1978). in order to develop a complete understanding and to complete the interpretation, the reader can again go back to the text and can get the guidance from the text. both the reader and the text have equal importance in the process of interpretation and understanding development. aesthetic mode of interpretation should be adopted in which the focus is on the aesthetic stance towards the text rather than just adopting the efferent mode where the focus is on the information containing all the facts and ideas elaborated by wolfgang iser’s (1972) determinate and indeterminate meanings. determinate meanings refer to the facts and the events that are embedded in the text. on the contrary, indeterminate meanings refer to the gaps within the text that are fulfilled by the reader. some of the facts are not clearly explained by the author and the reader is expected to explain the hidden and unexplained facts with his own understanding (iser, 1972). the researchers have attempted to reveal the indeterminate meanings of the text that are made hidden by the author in order to reach to the depth of the concepts. because the concepts, like women as seductress and angels who are alluring the men and who negatively astray the men, that the researchers have attempted to explore are not explicitly written and explained by the author as he has indirectly targeted the women and shown them as the source of promoting vulgarity in the society and they have been depicted as the ones who have drifted the people from their right path. analysis women as reader approach in train to pakistan https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 32 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 in this study, woman as a reader approach is employed to train to pakistan. this novel has been written by a male writer khushwant singh who has presented the females in a very different way. however, when seen from a female perspective, the whole content of the novel rests upon the male dominated mindset. in his on deconstruction: theory and criticism after structuralism, jonathan culler (1982) addresses this issue and forms several interesting conclusions such as, “to read as a woman is to avoid reading as a man, to identify the specific defenses and distortions of male readings and provide correctives” (p. 54). when a woman reads a text written by a male writer, she also analyzes the male ideological assumptions that were there in the novel. for example, in this novel, whenever a woman was shown, she was either cooking or busy with children. the typical male assumption represented by khushwant singh, is that a woman’s basic duty is to look after her house. in manu majra whenever an important issue was discussed, it was only discussed by the male members. this shows another ideological assumption that women are not intelligent and capable enough to make decisions. it is the male who is capable of taking decisions. culler (1982) states: "women's experience, many feminist critics claim, will lead them to value works differently from their male counterparts, who may regard the problems women characteristically encounter as of limited interest" (p. 53). there are only four female characters in the whole novel and the story revolves around three major female characters. one is nooran who is a muslim and the lover of sikh juggut, a sikh and a dacoit. haseena, a sixteen years old girl, is having no sense of right and wrong and she has been given to a hindu hukum chand as a prostitute by her own grandmother. the third female character is juggut’s mother who has spent a horrible life full of anxiety and worries. the fourth character is haseena’s grandmother whose role is to leave her granddaughter to serve a man who is equal to her father’s age just for the purpose of getting money and to be financially stable. their stories are presented with the men. none of them is given individual voice or her own life story. when a woman analyzes a text as a reader, there are many issues that are dealt with. first of all, the female reader observes the stereotyped images of females in the novel. in this novel, women are stereotyped. they are shown as of bad moral characters. nooran loves a sikh boy juggut; hence, portrayed as juggut’s beloved. she is shown as an unfaithful daughter to her father who is ready to deceive her father by secretly having an affair with a person who is not of their religion and their culture. she is being https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 33 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 represented as a woman who is ready to sacrifice her norms and values just for her selfish love. singh has presented her even in a more negative way as the one who is using juggut, her lover, for her own purposes to save her community. she uses him for muslim protection as he is a badmash of village. as hukum chand talks about her: “she is dark, but her eyes are darker. she certainly keeps jugga in the village. and no one dares say a word against muslims. her blind father is the mullah of the mosque” (p. 24). woman as a reader also analyzes the manipulation and mistreatment of women by the male writers. in train to pakistan, women are not shown as individuals. everywhere in the novel, they are represented in doors and as the ones who are only having any importance in the society because of their services for the male charaters. they are presented as mere objects that are meant to please their men. women are given no respect and there is no regard for their feelings. when nooran goes on to meet juggut, he forces her to sleep with him. even in that love making scene, she does not want to give him sexual favor, but he does not care for her feelings. even there, khuswant singh does not sympathize with nooran. in fact, in the beginning of the scene, she is shown to be involved in tempting juggut. khushwant singh is indirectly putting the blame on nooran without realizing that she herself is not having any voice and power to do anything and he is not paying attention to what she is saying as her words show: “every time she started to speak, he tightened his arms round her and her words got stuck in her throat” (p.13). she was unable to free herself from his body of massive weight. she protested him to free herself, but he always tightened her forcefully without her wishes. the writer, however, has presented it as a love scene without portraying the man as an abuser who has sexually tortured a girl. she was making him conscious of the voices of the guns, but he was busy in fulfilling his lust and was not paying any attention to her. finally, when he became conscious, he was fearful and anxious to save himself from the police. he was not concerned about the girl and her character rather he was thinking that she would not visit him again to serve him lest the police find out about her. he rebuked her when she warned that she would not come again. the man who was earlier showering his so-called love for her, was now rebuking, and scolding her to be silent at this time of distress when the policemen were searching for him in the village: ‘will you shut up or do i have to smack your face?’ (p.16) which clearly shows that it was not the women who were using men rather the men were manipulating them for their own purposes. she was herself much surprised to look at the double standards of his https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 34 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 personality. he was merely the man who was trying to fulfill his own lust: “the girl began to sob. she found it hard to believe this was the same man who had been making love to her a moment ago” (p.16). for making her to be present for tomorrow, he was making her relaxed by ensuring her that she would be completely safe in the village: ‘no one can harm you while i live. i am not a badmash for nothing,’ he said haughtily.’ (p.17) this is how the men were using their power and based on his power, he said that she would be safe altogether. they are the men, and they have the power to save the women. being a badmash and dacoit, everyone is fearful of him; no one can harm her because she is his lover. she is the one who has done nothing wrong in the village that can become the cause of disturbance of law and order unlike juggut. being a dacoit, he has become the cause of trouble for his own mother because she must be answerable to the policemen for his absence. she must save him from the police. moreover, he was the cause of the trouble for the village people and for the police as well. still, she was frightened to lose her life, but he was very much relaxed and even making plans. as she said, “you think of tomorrow and i am bothered about my life. you have your good time even if i am murdered” (p. 17). the women are used frequently in abuses and insults. juggut singh’s mother has also been abused not only by her own son but also by the policeman. he used to torture his mother verbally as well as physically. ‘juggut singh woke up from his reverie. he pushed his mother back rudely’ (p. 59) and when the police came to arrest juggut, she wanted to save her son, on which a policeman says in insulting manner: “you keep the evidence of your son, he said bitterly. we will get the story out of this son of a bitch of yours in our own way. when he gets a few lashes on his buttocks, he will talk.” (p.61) therefore, although a male critic may deem these events as minor instances, the feminist reader must note a great sense of irony and regret in these passages. we can easily take the example of hassena. khushwant singh only presented her as a prostitute who was just there to entertain hukum chand. a feminist critic, on the contrary, will try to analyze the problems regarding this profession. she will analyze the circumstances that led her to adopt the profession. she will also throw light on the problems that are faced by the girls of that profession and also their feelings and emotions regarding their profession. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 35 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 hokum chand has asked the sub inspector that he has made the arrangements for his entertainment. he tries to fulfill his lustful desires by the prostitutes, ‘have you made any arrangements for the evening?’ (p. 25). in a very fawning manner, sub inspector responded that he had made very good arrangements and the magistrate would not be disappointed by him. ‘is it possible for me to have overlooked that? if she does not, please you, you can have me dismissed from service. i will tell the driver where to go and collect the party’ (p. 25). his use of the word ‘party’ shows that they considered those women as a source of pleasure and entertainment. they took the women as objects and playful things that were the source of relaxation, relief, and tranquility. if anyone looks at the character of haseena in the light of above discussion, she was only a sixteen-year-old girl not clearly aware of right or wrong. moreover, she was dragged on to this profession by her grandmother. as in the beginning, when she did not want to talk with hukum chand her grandmother scolded her by saying that “the government is talking to you. why don’t you answer him?” (p.31). her choice of words like ‘government’ for hukum chand who is the magistrate, shows the significance of power. he is a government official and secondly, he is a man, so he has power over the women in general. it also depicts that the women are willingly presenting themselves to these men and they are ready to be subordinated, used, manipulated, and ruled by them. the writer himself has described haseena as innocent sixteen years old girls, having no sense of sexual relationship as, ‘just young and unexploited” (p. 30) immediately, he has justified chand’s act of having sexual relationship with haseena by saying that she is there because she needs money. the women sell their body and respect just for the purpose of getting money and financial security. instead of considering it as the fault of the system, he has accused the women of such practices. hukum chand who is in government can easily help these women financially and in fact it is his duty to serve his people and to take care of their comfort and to fulfill all their basic needs of life. on the contrary, ironically, he is providing them money in return of their physical and sexual services. it was not her will to sleep with hukum chand as she visited his place for singing. it was her grandmother who left her at the place for the night. she is continuously dictating her to serve the magistrate. hukum chand, like all the other men, is exploiting her in the name of money. he throws money when she was singing and this time, he has not thrown it and asked to get a five rupee note from his hands. he touched her body and waist lustfully. he offered her to drink and have fun with him and her grandmother https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 36 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 tries to say that the girl would soon learn to respect and serve the government. as she said: ‘government, the girl is young and very shy. she will learn’ she exclaimed’ (p.31). he gets the girl inside as his own property to do anything with her and everyone else had left. he was not concerned with her feelings and emotions rather he was just concerned with the fulfillment of his own desires: ‘the magistrate was not particularly concerned with her reactions. he had paid for all that’ (p. 33). the writer himself has justified his act of being physical with her because he had paid for having fun with her. she had now legally become magistrate's property. haseena had made her mind that she cannot get freedom from here; she cannot free herself from this lustful man. in the light of all the above stated facts, we can easily conclude that a woman reads a novel in a different way than a male reader. if anyone reads the text from a feminist point of view, he can reach at his own conclusion which is worlds apart from the impression created by khushwant singh. when a male writer portrays female characters in an anti-feminist novel, usually a harsh tone is used towards the female characters. the writer never, at any point, sympathizes with the female characters in the novel. on the contrary, critical attitude towards women prevails throughout the novel. in train to pakistan, the tone of khushwant singh is not sympathetic towards women. he seems to be rather critical. whenever misery of a woman is shown, there is no sympathetic attitude from his side. he just refers to it casually. one of the female characters is juggut’s mother. juggut always misbehaves with her and never listens to her. he even uses the words like “shut up” to his mother. when his mother stops him from going outside at night, he at once says, “shut up, it is you who will wake the neighbors”. he does not pay attention to his mother and at last she says: “go! go wherever you want to go. if you want to jump in a well jump, if you want to hang like your father, go and hang. it is my lot to weep. my kismet, slapping her forehead” (p.12). khushwant singh, however, never at any place sympathizes with her through her son, as he does not care for her at all. the treatment that juggut gives his mother is referred to just very casually. there is nothing wrong if he mistreats her because he is a male and he has the right to do anything and he can insult his own mother as well. he is having no sense of talking to her and the writer has not criticized this act of mistreatment and rudeness. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 37 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 the women in this novel are shown to be evil creatures who are transgressing the moral boundaries. they sleep with other men out of love or for the sake of money. the attitude of khushwant singh towards the women is not sympathetic. he never objects at the discrimination or mistreatment of women in the novel. all the matters are enumerated very casually. the men talk about women in a lustful manner during events, as in the beginning of the novel; the dacoits are talking about nooran and her dress and make the following comment: “during the day she looks so innocent you would think she had not shed her milk teeth” (p. 7). indirectly they are targeting her by pointing fingers on her character. the male characters are portrayed discussing the opposite gender in a very demeaning manner. whenever they are threatening others, they are using the sentences that they would rape their sisters and mothers: “come! they yelled. come out if you have the courage! come out if you want your mothers and sisters raped! come out, brave men!’ (p. 11). women are shown as the objects that can be used as a source of pleasure or revenge and can be used to let others down. in train to pakistan, there are stereotypical images of women. there is no modest woman shown in the novel. women are only presented in extremes. a female is either a seductress or an angel in the novel. women as seductress in train to pakistan, most of the women are shown in the novel as seductress. they are shown to be craving for the attention of men. they are blamed to have this alluring nature. they are alleged to attract the men with their beauty and magical charm and they are always considered to be alluring the men with their treacherous nature. khushwant singh has tried to show that they are using their feminine beauty and magical charm for the purpose of getting the attention of the men. he has very easily put all the blame on the women and made the men as innocent creatures who are just trapped by the evil nature of the women. he has ignored their lustful nature, the way they are talking about the women and their dressing, the way they buy them and manipulate, exploit, abuse, and take the advantage of their helplessness and powerlessness. imam baksh was the mullah of the masjid, a very devoted and religious fellow who was partially blind. his daughter nooran ironically, a muslim girl, is physically involved with a sikh, juggut singh. she sneaks out in the dark of night to meet juggut outside. khushwant singh, thus in the guise of nooran, shows an evil girl who cheated his blind father and used to secretly meet a “dakou.” even when the scene of their meeting is described, she is shown tempting juggut: “he tried to play with her lips to induce them to kiss his fingers. the girl opened her mouth and bit him fiercely” (p.13). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 38 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 when malli and his friends were talking about nooran, they talked about “tight shirt” showing off her body. here again nooran is shown to be a seductress who wore tight clothes to attract the attention of men. at one point in the novel, khushwant singh talks about weavers’ reputation. the people of the village did not think positively about weavers because their women always had illegal relationships with other men. khushwant singh, once again, hints at the evil nature of the female characters who were thus committing a great sin by sleeping with other men behind their husband’s back. he has proved them to be unfaithful and disloyal of their male counterparts and they have brought the bad name to the community. they have become the cause of bringing shame and dishonor to the whole community because of their lustful nature of having illicit relationship while being in legal relationships with their husbands. as khushwant singh writes: “they are considered effeminate and cowardly—a race of cuckolds whose women are always having liaisons with others” (p. 83). then there was haseena in the novel; a prostitute who was brought to hukum chand to please him. in one scene, hukum chand asks about her family, and she says, “my mother was a singer, and her mother was a singer till as long back as we know” (p.107). she has also adopted this profession to get the money and financial security. they describe her ways of talking to the men in an alluring way as one of them said: ‘may your government go on forever. may your pen inscribe figures of thousands—nay, hundreds of thousands’ (p. 94). they used to praise men and flirt with them just for getting attraction and to make them feel better and honored so that they could spend more money on them. haseena was not the only one who did prostitution; rather every female in her family did this. prostitution was something normal to haseena and her family as it was their profession which provided them with money, and they were happy about it. khushwant singh is indirectly hinting at the evil nature of these women. ironically, he has not paid a little attention to the reasons behind their adopting this horrible and disrespectful profession. he has just generalized his viewpoint without commenting at the evil nature and the root cause of the evil that is the men and their lustful nature to be fed by the women. in another scene, when hukum chand asks haseena to eat the breakfast flirtatiously, she replies: “if you do not eat, i won’t eat either, she said coquettishly. the girl wriggled in his arms. if you eat, i will eat. if you do not, i will not either’ (p.120) with https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 39 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 the passage of time she has also learned the ways of arguing and talking to the men. she tried her best to make him feel relaxed and to make him realized that he is her only protector at this time of difficulty and danger. haseena was only sixteen but the way she was trying to seduce hukum chand is symbolic. she sat in his lap and ate her breakfast. when hukum chand asked her to go, she objected to it and said that she did not want to go to pakistan. ‘i am not frightened. we know so many people so well and then i have a big powerful magistrate to protect me. as long as he is there no one can harm a single hair of my head.’ (p. 110). she is talking to hukum chand in such a romantic way that shows that the magistrate has all the powers over her body and life. by describing this scene in detail, khushwant singh tries to show the evil in a sixteen year old girl who was trying to tempt a man older enough to be his father. she has been shown as a girl who is thirsty of money and the one who can do each thing for the magistrate in want of money and financial security. ‘if you make me sing or spend another night here you will have to give me a big bundle of notes’ (p.110). singh has devalued the women in the name of money having no self-respect and having no sense of purity. they think of nothing except money. they can understand and talk about the money as the central topic of any scene they appear in the story. women as angels another image of women that is shown in this novel is the image of an angel. at one extreme, khushwant singh portrays evil women and at the other extreme, an angelic woman is portrayed by him. juggut’s mother is shown to be an angel. she is the one who is very much devoted to her duties as a devoted and protective mother. juggut is always misbehaving with her, but she never says a word. whenever juggut goes out to meet nooran, she always stops him from going out of the village because of the fear of police but he never listens. his mother, none the less, still cares for him and shows her concern every now and then. she says at one point: “have you forgotten already that you are on probation—that it is forbidden for you to leave the village after sunset?” (p.12). after the murder of ram all, police come to arrest juggut. his mother tries to convince the police of juggut’s innocence. juggut misbehaves and the policemen attacked him. at this point, she throws herself on her son and says, “don’t hit him. the guru’s curse on you. he is innocent. it is my entire fault. you can beat me” (p.31). thus in juggut’s mother, the image of a perfect angel has been presented. she is a caring, loving woman, who always looks after her son and is even ready to lay down her life for her https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 40 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 son. she represents the ideal image of a woman whose role is to love and to be in service of the men as mother, sister, daughter, and wife. keeping all these above arguments in mind, it can rightly be said that male writer has portrayed female characters in a negative way. male writers use women as objects. the problems of women folk are referred to just casually. they are assigned nominal roles and they are only discussed in relation with the male characters. most importantly, females are shown in extremes. the women in the novel are either shown as completely evil or completely pious. their evil view is presented as the one that is extremely hated in the society and the angelic one is the more traditional view about the good women according to patriarchal ideology. conclusion the point under research was the exploration of anti-feminist theory in the novel train to pakistan. feminism was a movement in which the point of emphasis was that women should be side by side with men in every field of life. some people however, were not in the favor of this theory and they believed that women should not be given freedom to work outside their houses, they were called anti-feminist. soon feminist movement spread to literature and the female characters in the novel were analyzed from the feminist point of view. khushwant singh is one of anti-feminist writers whose novel train to pakistan was analyzed in the light of feminist theory along with the readerresponse theory for the treatment of women in the novel. in this novel, woman as a reader approach was employed as the novel was written by a male author. the representation of women was also given attention and the researchers analyzed the way women were shown as seductress, femme fatal and as angels. women are predominantly shown as evil through the characters of nooran and haseena. only juggut singh’s mother is shown as a righteous woman in the novel. throughout the novel, she keeps on weeping and suffering due to her son juggut singh, but khushwant singh has not written even a single word of sympathy for her. the tone of the writer is harsh and indifferent towards women in this novel. for example, nooran does exactly what her lover asks her to do because she loves him, but khushwant singh has placed all blame on nooran. moreover, she has also been represented as a femme fatale because she has become the cause of the death of juggut. he lost his life for the purpose of saving the train in which she was travelling. hukum chand has also manipulated him to save the train because it was expected that haseena was also travelling in the same train. he has https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 41 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 suffered because of his love for nooran. in this way the writer has place all the blame on these women to inflict juggut with death. another important character is haseena. she is a teen-age girl and cannot decide anything about right and wrong. she spends her time with hukam chand who is of her father’s age. the writer has portrayed haseena in a negative way, but hukam chand is portrayed in a neutral manner. it is notable that hukam chand uses a girl who is half his age just for pleasure. khushwant singh, however, doesn’t use any negative evaluation of him. even though there are very few female characters, but the roles assigned to these female characters are also secondary and nominal. it is notable that many writers of that time such as bapsi sidhwa and many others wrote novels based on the theme of partition, but they have maintained a balanced attitude towards male and female characters. this clearly indicates that the female characters in train to pakistan are the creation of writer’s own ideology. keeping in mind all the above-mentioned facts it can be concluded that khushwant singh is an anti-feminist writer in his novel train to pakistan. he presented the women in such a way in such in his novel that is completely based on the hatred and disgust for women in the brutal scenario and incidents of partition. future studies on reader response theory and anti feminist reading can focus on a variety of literary texts to cultivate the interest for critical reading and enrich the literary research. these approaches to the analysis of literary texts can be introduced in the literary criticism curriculum to provide opportunities for intellectual and social growth of the learners and researchers through exploration of the underlying ideologies of the authors and the uniqueness of different authors. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 portrayal of female characters in train to pakistan: 42 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 references agarwal, s. (2009). genocide of women in hinduism. retrie1ved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/12444255/genoside-of-women-in-hinduism-bysita-agarwal. ahsan, s., & haque, a. (2015). khushwant singh's train to pakistan : the heteroglot world of sikhs, muslims, and hindus in a sikh village. 1(4). https://doi.org/10.18178/ijlll.2015.1.4.53 beauvoir, s. d. (1976). lé deuxiéme sexe (the second sex). oxford : oxford university press. bhabad, p. r. (2016). asian research consortium representation of women in ‘ train to pakistan ’ by khushwant singh. culler, j. (1982). on deconstruction: theory and criticism after structuralism. new york: cornell university press. dar, b. (2013). the theme of partition in khushwant singh's novel train to pakistan. international journal of english language and linguistic research, vol. 1, no.1, pp 2123. dhanju, s. s. (2019). train to pakistan as a partition. 6(11), 120–126. elaine, s. a. 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(1977). a literature of their own: british women novelist from bronte to lessing. n.j: princeton university press, 1977. showalter, e. (1985), the new feminist criticism essay on women literature and theory. nj: pantheon books showalter, e. (1999). a literature of their own. princeton: princeton university press. singh, k. (1956). train to pakistan. new delhi: penguin books india. stanton, e. c. (1869). elizabeth cady stanton, feminist as thinker: a reader in documents and essays. new york: nyu press. tyson, l. (2006). critical theory: a user-friendly guide. new york: routledge. virdee, p. & safdar, a. (2017). from mano majra to faqiranwalla :revisiting the train the pakistan, 9–28. south asia chronicle. 7(2), 21-43 yang, a. (2002). science fiction in the efl class. language, culture and curriculum, 15(1), 50–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908310208666632 @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.316 comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 44 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective wahid ud din1 sarah shamshad2 1lecturer in english, higher education department, punjab 2lecturer, department of english, national college of business administration and economics multan abstract culture plays a very important role in an advertisement. ads not only have semantic significance but also a metaphorical interpretation. media strategy is very crucial in designing an ad. the language of advertisement got its own meaning. this study is based on the comparison of pakistani and uk ads. for this purpose, multidimensional critical discourse analysis is used to analyze the data. the researcher followed the multimodal critical discourse approach (machin, 2007), van leuven’s framework for recontextualization (2008), and berry’s model of acculturation (1980). the researcher has taken four pakistani and four uk advertisements to know the difference between them. the uk ads are highlighting their own culture whereas in pakistani advertisements although local culture is dominating yet still there is an assimilation of dominating culture, i.e. west. the reason is obvious that eastern advertisement companies are attracted towards strong economic conditions. so, the linguistic and visual features of participants and their color shows acculturation that uk, s culture is dominant. keywords: culture, cross-cultural, advertisement, uk, pakistan, media, critical discourse analysis introduction culture reflects lifestyle, the way of living. speaking dress, attitude, learning, beliefs, and norms are also part of the culture. many factors affect the marketing strategies like target market, budget, economy, and competition. product promotion, planning to cope with competition, quality maintenance, and cost control comes into the category of marketing strategies. culture has a clear impact on marketing strategies. to kaur, j., & chawla, r. (2016) no advertising organization can ignore the local culture. culture helps to sell the product in the market. the interpretation of ads is not all about semantics. the meaning can be found in metaphors, they can be in the form of words and pictures as well. for fraser (1993, p.332), metaphor is an ‘instance of non-literal language in which the intended prepositional content must be determined by the construction of an analogy’. english idiomatic expression can be conveyed through language and sometimes these expressions ‘goes over the head’ which people will say ‘incomprehensible to you’. for example, an advertisement for ultra bold laundry detergent shows money pouring down the drain, and an ad for an insurance firm shows a competitor literally stealing the shirt from someone’s back (cook, 1992). comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 45 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 as the world has become global village so the competition is very high. it’s tough for an organization to start and extend its business with good marketing strategies. international markets are also influencing consumers’ choices. as there is so much competition so many alternatives are available for customers, and they can switch to another product immediately. it’s a consumer-oriented era every organization wants to satisfy its customers by providing the best quality and economical product. only such companies survive which keeps themselves updated and adopt new strategies to attract customers. although companies are facing many challenges but most important is culture because of its diversity and complexity. (kaur, j., & chawla, r. 2016). people from different countries have different cultures and behaviors and attitudes. so, there is a need for international traders to redesign their strategies about products. international companies are facing problems in designing their strategies due to cultural complexity and diversity. (marieke de mooij, m., & hofstede, g. 2010). now only those companies are making their mark which is fulfilling the specific demands of a culture. hofsede (1980) says that there are five factors of national culture, power distance, masculinity/feminism, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation. he mentioned that culture distinguishes the member of one human group from another. hollensen (2001) states different concepts of culture as language, manners and customs, technology and material cultures attitudes and values, social organizations, aesthetics, and religion. except for culture, other constraints are mentioned by opponents of standardized advertising. language, traditions and habits, consumers' perception, nationalism, availability of media, and income level are also included in it. language is the most important obstacle and may lead to the universal standardization of advertising messages (thackray, 1985). incorrect translation of advertisement leads to an awkward situation and can cause adverse reaction reactions (ricks, et al., 1974). according to douglas and dubois (1977), culture affects advertising in four ways: a) advertising theme b) connotation of words and symbols c) pictures and their interpretations d) selection of media culture and communication are linked to the sender’s cultural background and the receivers. (hornick, 1980). munson and mcintyre (1979) define cross-cultural diversities are the result of differences in the situation which may affect the reception and acceptance of an advertising message. comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 46 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 sommers and kernan (1967) favored it by stating that the international differences develop individualized national advertising strategies and emphasized that the magnitude of international differences prevents the vast majority of international advertisers from employing a standardized strategy. there seems to be little doubt that culture plays an important role in the perception and use of advertising (mallen and litvak, 1966). muller (1992) and harvey (1993) thought cultural environment has a great influence on marketing strategies. cross-cultural advertisements show that the ad based on imagery will be different from others. (sriram & gopalakrishna, 1991; katzand lee, 1992). hofstede states (1980, 1983), the u.s. culture got a higher score on individuality, masculinity, and a longterm orientation, whereas, russia has great power distance. the behavior (lutz, 1985) towards advertising shows a difference in the two cultures. imagery advertisement seems to be a more influential marketing tool in the u.s. than in russia (mikhailitchenko and whipple, 2006). interest in cross-cultural advertisement leads to many experimental studies which examine the similarities and differences in advertising content among different countries. according to (zhang & gelb 1996) it is considered that advertisements depict the target market’s values and beliefs. research question 1. how do linguistic and visual features reflect and propagate the cultural difference in pakistani and uk advertisements? research objectives • to evaluate the cultural differences and assimilation • to analyze the linguistic and visual features of advertisements literature review gillespie (2004) states religion, language, history, and education are the elements of culture. they further say that “these aspects of the society send direct and indirect messages to consumers regarding the selection of goods and services.” (gillespie et al., 2004, p. 49) gould et al. (1999) describe that large us-based advertising agencies believe that “the main issue of global communications is not thought to be standardization versus adaptation per se but rather organizational coordination which recognizes and encourages global strategies while working with local managers and markets” (p.13). “who buys brands promoted in global as well as local media throughout the world” (hassan et al. 2003, p 446) is essential. hofstede et al. (1999) proposed a new method to establish an effective segmentation. a gathering of individuals, who have confidence in the shared characteristic of their family, potentially because of similitude in their comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 47 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 traditions or physical sort or on account of their aggregate recollections of colonization or migration, has been portrayed as an ethnic gathering. (lindridge and dibb 2003). ethnic groups socially derived from larger group of society who shared activities of their origin. (yinger 1986). by the time, these groups adopt the dominant host culture, i.e. called ‘acculturation’. redfield, linton and herskovits (1936, 149) states acculturation ‘those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, with subsequent changes in the original culture patterns of either or both groups. there are two thoughts about the process of acculturation. the first school of thought says that acculturation is a uni-dimensional process, (gans 1979; hair and anderson 1972). the uni-dimensional model believe that the people of ethnic minorities lose their own culture and get closer to the host culture (gans 1979; gordon 1964). when an immigrant completely enters the host culture that is called ‘assimilated’ (odgen, odgen and schau 2004). the bi-dimensional model is second and the most popular one. (berry 1980; mendoza and martinez 1981; ryder,alden and paulhus 2000). theoretical framework multidimensional critical discourse analysis is used to analyze the data. the researcher followed the multimodal critical discourse approach (machin, 2007), van leeuwen’s framework for recontextualization (2008), and berry’s model of acculturation (1980). leeuwen’s (1996, 2008) framework presents how participants communicate ideology. machin’s (2007) modal provides a tool to analyze the semiotic resources. machin’s (2007) modal for multimodal is as follows: participants people who play the role in an advertisement are called participants. what are they doing and how they are being depicted? machin (2007, p. 109-123) says “analyzing the precise details of actions in written or speech can reveal more subtle messages about the way people are represented as having power or as being passive….applying these toads gives us a more precise tool kit for thinking about action and agency”. settings setting is used to communicate general ideas. machin (2007) states that settings are used to discuss the importance and actions. settings can provide whole sequences of activity. poses images signify broader values, concepts, and identities. “poses are a semiotic resource that can be used for their meaning potential. we must pay careful attention to comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 48 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 these when we wish to understand what kinds of people are depicted in the image” (machin, 2007: p. 31). objects how the objects are being represented and what context they are used. what message do they communicate? according to machin (2007) objects carries meaning and increase their importance of it. the researcher follows (machin, 2007) framework for all aspects of the analysis of social actors. van leeuwen (1996) expresses views that cannot be said straightforwardly. as van leeuwen’s ‘representation of social actors’ (1996) includes a category ‘overdetermination’. my second methodological tool is recontextualizationation which depicts how models reconstruct discourse from the events. “recontextualisation can exclude some of the participants of the practice they decontextualize” (leeuwen, 2008: 8). they propagate particular ideologies and stances. semiotic resources are used for communication or persuasion but in the context of social construction (machin and abousnnouga, 2010: 29). leeuwen (2008, p. 12) says “recontextualization makes the social practices explicit to a greater or lesser degree; it makes them pass through the filter of the practices in which they are inserted”. the researcher used these categories of recontextualization which leeuwen (2008) highlighted. berry states that individuals have a great ethnic identity and their participation in foreign or host culture is low. berry’s model of acculturation and assimilation is also included as a theoretical framework. (lerman, maldonado and luna 2009). selection of data for analysis the data for the present study have been collected from pakistani and uk advertisements. for this reason, i have selected four uk and pakistani ads. the data collection source is youtube. pakistani ads 1) al-karam 2) aerial detergent 3) fair and lovely 4) perk uk ads 1) rocco 2) cadbury comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 49 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 3) olay cream 4) juice the reason for the selection of these ads is quite obvious that these are the things that affect everyone. we all have an idea about these things so i randomly selected these ads, four from pakistan and four from the u.k. the researcher has selected these advertisements because people of both countries are very much interested in them. analysis i) al-karam(pakistan) participants al-karam advertisement represents many participants. they are engrossed in the performance of their chosen role. machin (2007, p. 112) says: “in this case, we are invited into the thoughts of the person represented”. the front image of the participants tells “what you see here is part of our world, something we are involved with” (kress &leeuwen, 1996, p. 136). machin (2007, p. 148) says: “the central image gives meaning and coherence to those in the margin…. the central element is normally a photograph, diagram, or icon, which conveys the immediate symbolic meaning”. this action reflects that they are close to each other. settings the setting is mainly about tables, chairs, and a few props. al-karam advertisement has many settings. the opening setting of the video is a very impressive, purely elite class setting it is. the way things were managed, the curtain, the doors, the walls, and the windows of the wood show the artistic touch. poses the “in al-karam ad we find participants in dancing and talking posture. objects there are a number of objects, such as camera tape, the desk, the chair, and photo frames. we can focus on participants’ ‟ clothing, their shoes, hats and other accessories. machin (2007, p. 150) says that frame can show boundaries and the absence of them can show natural connections‟. linguistic analysis fairclough et al (2001, p.14) argues: “texts are both socially structuring and socially structured”. words like “khud utho” (stand up you) show that a very clear message has been given in this ad for the uplift of women. ii) ariel detergent (pakistan) analysis comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 50 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 procter & gamble is a major u.s. manufacturer of soaps, cleansers, and other household products. p&g has three main product lines: household and personal care, food consumer, and health care products. p&g interacts with over five million consumers each year in approximately sixty countries around the world (pg. 2010). no company in the world has invested more money in consumer and market research than procter & gamble. each year the company conducts at least fifteen thousand research studies and invests three-hundred and fifty million dollars in consumer research (pg. 2010). currently, p&g products are sold in 180 countries (pg. 2009) international expansion to markets with potential for growth and innovation in marketing campaigns is one of their major goals. goddard (2002) suggested that “although advertisements are ephemeral in that each one is short-lived; their effects are longstanding and cumulative” (p.3). indeed, a commercial remains last long on the audience’s mind if it is happening to inspire or motivate enough. let’s see how a company thinks differently while peeking into ariel’s website. are we too quick to judge each other? we often stain characters by applying labels without understanding. ariel knows that labels are tougher to remove than stains. have you ever endeavored to observe pakistani society where passing any negative comment is piece of cake without bothering its lethal effects on other's life? maybe no one bothers about it, but p&g certainly has wondered about it as seen in their" remove the label" ad. this very commercial is of 2 minutes 26 seconds released on december 19, 2016, that attempted to stop the stereotypical behavior of our society for labeling others so easily without even knowing the factors. this ad provokes intellectual thought and conversation surrounding negative stereotypes by taking the idiomatic phrase, “labels are tougher than stains. wash the label “this ad has so much emotional appeal that one cannot resist making its analysis on a language basis. participants in this ad, there are five characters presented of which three are visible 1 can be only heard from a telephonic conversation and the last one is just a name discussed. one is fizza, the protagonist, the other is kiran the director, and there is another strong character who is kiran's mother. the last one is kiran's and fizza's boss sohail. setting in the setting part, we may discuss the identities, actions poses, and values of the characters in the said ad. comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 51 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 identities, action, and values each character in this ad has multiple identities i.e. fizza, a working girl who is already enjoying enough luxuries of life like personal conveyance and freedom to do a job but her second identity is noticed when she is talking to her telephonic friend. this time she has a dual personality which is unthoughtful, unthankful, jealous, fainéant, ravenous, acedia’s, outspoken, who is bluntly commenting on others, representing the above-mentioned characteristics via her actions. her values are materialistic when she is appreciating kiran's house. she is also judgmental while saying the slang "boss ki chamchi"(in boss,s good book), here she is much rather attributing the success of her peers to some other underlying cause. the second character is kiran who is again a split personality. apparently, she is securing a supreme job title as director of a company, which demands her to be rude, straightforward, and authoritative on the other hand, she is doing house chores which is actually a very unrealistic idea for a working woman in our society. yet her values are above measure. she is a helpful, dedicated, well-ordered, and philanthropic kind of woman at home. our third character of kiran's mother is again having two aspects. physically she is a handicapped woman but intellectually she is a very wise sober and polite lady who can offer a chance to apologize to anyone by giving it a good piece of advice. our telephonic character's identity as a very strong antagonist appears on the screen that is not only digesting fizza's verbosity yet pumping her to go beyond the limits. poses and objects (ideas) advertisements construct normalcy (kilbourne, 2010). specifically, women in advertising are used as objects, rather than human beings. particular specific poses show the woman as weak individuals. furthermore, women are often shown in silly or trivial poses (kilbourne, 2011). i n roco’s advertisement when the woman is wiping out her tears its shows that women are weak. celebrities are presented in modeling and it is visible for showing the objectivity of women. in this ad it is easily observed that the fizza is a good looking good-shaped pretty woman but weak in morals, follower of the western array, lacking ethics of getting permission while entering into any house and at first her pose is as a quilter who is disturbed in her life as representing the most of our society disposition. yet her pose changes when she was influenced by the defensive wording of the lady. now we comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 52 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 can observe her pose is apologetic. this is a prime example of how an image of a woman is portrayed differently. pose in this ad, the pose of the old lady depicts that she is dejected, enhancing sympathy for her. the image of kiran with a basket represents the idea of a traditional woman who has no arrogance of her job tag. elements of acculturation, assimilation can be seen in this video as well. here in this very ad, we can observe the chunks of this idea when fizza appears in western clothes, dye hair, her being independent, her driving a car, her accessories like bluetooth and goggles all shows her inclination towards a dominant society. she already took up the cultural modification and borrowed the traits. yet another aspect of modification can be discussed here that this ad is presenting a very good tactic of european culture that nobody there is passing remarks on others bluntly. they used to keep their own business with them. yet they don’t hurt others by labeling them. which is the actual message of this ad too? (berry, 2006). the developer of this ad wants us to show his preference by highlighting the ethnicity merged with universality. (berry, 2006). this aspect can be observed while fizza, turning to be a sensitive girl sits near the old lady’s feet in an apologizing manner. this is indeed our own culture to give respect to our elders. yes, the working lady kiran is doing house chores while maintaining her position as head of the company is as appreciable as could be said. the traditional dress of the lady is also awe-inspiring. so here we can see the adaptation of the culture of two different groups. here are a few imprints of pakistanis in this ad too. kiran is an organized, kindhearted, helpful, hardworking yet typical woman wearing very simple yet rough clothes while doing house chores by herself. it is her cultural heritage to take care of her elders in every thick and thin. (berry, 2006). another symbol of separation is presented here when the lady is offering her tea even, she was hurt. and in the end, her gesture of tapping fizza on her forehead shows her affection towards youngers is extremely pakistaniness. when the individual has little interest to keep his or her own cultural comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 53 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 heritage as well as taking up the dominant cultural identity (berry, 2006). also, the failed attempts at integration cause high stress, such as in the form of marginalization. fizza is badly marginalized why because at first, she was a proud and arrogant woman, yet her silliness became visible when she enters one's house and blindly starts commenting on her peer. it shows her bold behavior which was catastrophic. upon being caught redhanded, her transformation is showing her marginalization. in other meanings, there is no male character which shows that either the males are marginalized in this ad or males are far away from such labeling non-sense. it’s only the characteristics of females being sarcastic. another aspect of marginalization is an expression of "sohail sir ki chamchi" which shows that if a male boss is helpful to some employees, it is considered that he is very generous and kind. but when a female boss is discussed, she is rude and "saroo". analysis (olay, uk add) setting in the opening scene of the ad, there is a wall behind which clearly shows that women were earlier marginalized. now they are not ready to be within the four-wall boundaries of the house, so they are leaving that wall far behind. the setting is very sophisticated which shows the strength of women that they are equal to men and in every role, they are proving their mark. there is a green plant in the setting as well which is quite fresh as the women of the ad are. even the plant is symbolizing that if it gets water on a regular basis then it will continue to grow same is the case with the skin of women. the white light in the background delineates “peace, purity, and power”. the strength of a woman as the second sex on equality grounds. participant machin (2007, p. 112) says: “in this case, we are invited into the thoughts of the person represented”. the front image of the participants suggests that “what you see here is part of our world, something we are involved with” (kress &leeuwen, 1996, p. 136). all characters seem to be dominating and enjoying their role. machin (2007, p. 148) says: “the central image gives meaning and coherence to those in the margin…..the central element is normally a photograph, diagram or icon, which conveys the immediate symbolic meaning”. in olay commercial ad there are nine participants, and all are women. they are middle-aged and quite confident. although there are two black-skinned and seven whiteskinned ladies. all of them are representing their own culture. the ad shows them as comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 54 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 active ladies. all are ready to fight for their rights. in the ad, the placement of two black women shows the element of racism that the majority are of white color. it is observed that in the opening scene of the commercial, all the women representing their respective fields step forward in a single straight horizontally illustrating the women’s unity around the globe irrespective of their color, class, or race. costumes black is the symbol of grief but 5 out of nine wearing black shows elegance, prestige, strength, and power as an authority. one black and another creole with their black and white dress among the rest 7 shows purity, safety, goodness, and a successful beginning of their life. poses all women are having their own poses which indicate their confidence and sense of being noticed. few ladies are sitting on chairs and even one woman is kicking which means that they are ready to move with the world and not ready to waste their energies and sit dull and dump. they are interested in shaping their bodies as well. women made faces even which highlight their skin objects the “lamp”, “plant”, ‘day light’ and ‘sun light’ are used as an object to communicate the meaning. “face anything” campaign encourages women to be fearless and unafraid to be labeled as 'too' anything. the ad seems to be a sort of a social campaign for women. the message of this ad is that women should remain strong and face everything courageously. olay has explored in its inspiring creative and influencer campaign called face anything, the study shows that women were tired of being judged. being described as to something, instantly changes what could be perceived as a positive into a negative. you’re too nice, too quiet, too sensitive, too independent, comments that can have an effect on your confidence. olay aims to spark a movement for all women to embrace natural and real beauty, as well as embody confidence despite unrealistic expectations placed on them. from ‘too driven’ to ‘to mumsy’, olay’s ambassadors show women nationwide that they can face anything, no matter the labels society throws at them: em ford, film maker & storyteller: “too outspoken” jazmin sawyer, professional athlete: “too dedicated” lady leshurr, musician: “too bold” louise pentland, mumfluencer: “’too mumsy” suzi grant, broadcaster & blogger: “’too strong’” comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 55 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 felicity hayward, model & activist: “too confident’” tanya burr, actor & influencer: “too driven’” jamie rose dee, model & content creator: “too feminine” hannah witton, online creator & author: “too open” the word “too much” is a phrase that means excessive and in the said advertisement the word “too” has been used as the power of expressing the strength and qualities of being women either belong to any race or age group. embracing these qualities, each woman is pictured with the word “too” crossed out. the word “skin” is metaphorically used and restricted by portraying it to women specifically. face anything also opens up about diversity, mental illness, vulnerability, ambition, and being driven, but mentions nothing about the quality or appearance of a woman’s skin olay targets women of 25 to 45 as the product is for reducing wrinkles. with the opening of 29 seconds social campaign advertisement, a group of 9 women walking confidently with promising equality devoid of being limited on the basis of their skin and color .this campaign highlights that women cannot be restricted. a woman from every walk of life is more efficient and bold enough to face worldly challenges. black women are portrayed both positively and negatively. element of racism and white supremacy is still going on in advertisements. it is not enough to increase the number of positive portrayals of black people; negative portrayals must also decrease and eventually be eliminated altogether. behaviors it is generally said that behaviors are acquired through conditioning. • chubby and blubbery felicity haywood poses to be confident and contented being obese and illustrates that being “over-weighted” is not a stigma to escape but one should be more confident as being indifferent. • jamie rose, a renowned model is contented being “too feminist”. feminism means to be more compassionate, nurturing, and empathetic. • jazmine sawyer is a professional athlete and emphasizes dedication • louis pent land’s “to mumsy” shows how she usually been rebuffed for challenging and pointing to the set domains of “fashion”. her pink hair illustrates her feminity, boldness, confidence, and her realistic approach to kick out the traditional cultural set patterns. • lady leshurr, british rapper. born to caribbean parents, black by skin usually been marginalized on the basis of her color black and have been labeled as comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 56 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 “someone”. although she is british-born but social hierarchy has outcasted her but she is ready to face anything. in collaboration with young women’s trust, this campaign encapsulates the exhausting expectations around women’s behaviors to fight against the fact that women are often labeled. power words the repetition of the word “too” reflects the embedded confidence, experience, dedication, and traits. the use of the first-person pronoun “i” depicts • individuality • identification • uniqueness • distinction • peculiarity • singularity commercial concludes with “if you feel confident in the skin you are in, you can face anything” women’s satisfaction lies in self-recognition, endorsement, and ratification being women. analysis (cadbury, uk) in this ad, basically, there is a relationship between a mother & her baby girl. the relationship of a mother & kid is the same in west & east is the same, the love and tenderness which mothers have the same. the participants are wearing western dress. they are representing their own western culture. the ad indicates that the west often used soft & light colors. participants there are three participants. the shopkeeper seems humble towards the kid. the kid is not having much money but still trying to get a present for her mother. the mother is a working lady who is working in a factory and she is traveling in a train to get to her daughter. her excitement can be seen. object chocolate is being represented as an object. the gift is sweet and it resembles love, which has a strong feeling of care and affection. so it can be said that the object of chocolate is represented as an object of love and care. the little girl gave the shopkeeper her money and toys even to buy a gift for her mother and in change baby girl got her toy horseback. comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 57 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 pose the shopkeeper is not sitting straight he is looking at ng the other side of the wall. the woman and her colleagues are in a standing position and are busy with their work. setting color combinations are also used same in both types of ads. the setting is somehow different according to culture and its place, but different props or things are used which have western reflection both in the eastern and western ad. in comparison to eastern culture, chocolate companies also portray the same message with little difference. consciously & unconsciously, they focus and represent west culture as they use the english language (code-switching & code-mixing). the participants also wear western dresses which show their prestige. in linguistic analysis, there are few sentences that are uttered by a child, shopkeeper, and mother that just mention the adjectives, important words, facial expressions, and gestures that are convening significant messages compared to words. analysis (fair and lovely, pakistan) participants in this ad, there is only one participant. it's just for the sake of glamour. female as a symbol of objectification and glamour. there is no sense of the lines. what is this? again? you are shocked etc. the model is sleek and fair and is quite attractive and appropriate as far as objectification is concerned. object the girl has been used as an object of beauty. setting the girl is in the washroom. the neat and clean setting is associated to the skin which can be like this after using this soap. pose the girl is in a standing position. she is surprised by having fair and lovely in soap form. earlier this product was available in cream form. this shows the growth of the product that the company is taking care of customer’s choice and try to come up to the expectations of the people which is the reason of their success. white face and hands were the focus of the company. the gestures of the heroine are childish. the way she turns on the shower it's quite impractical, no one does such thing. beauty is a symbol of objectification. whiteness is a standard symbol of beauty. why are blacks not taken in any advertisements as an object of beauty? the lexical items ‘chonkgae’ (surprised), ‘yhkya’ (what is this?), etc., show the hyperbolic nature of a woman. why looking lovely and fair is only associated with females? why men can’t be used as comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 58 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 models instead of females? the name of the soap bar ‘fair and lovely’ is quite catchy; here the question arises what about those people who are not fair it means they are not lovely? who gets so excited while using a soap bar? the hyperbolic expression has been used in this ad. the woman has been objectified fair skin has been prioritized. if fair skin is so important then why not a man has been cast in this ad. does it seem that stereotypical standards on beauty are only for women? she already has a fair complexion then why she will use this product why not a woman with a darker skin tone has been cast ladies with darker skin tone will feel inferior. this inferiority complex can lead to financial crises and domestic violence. fascination towards the product and dress also causes many problems which lead to deviation from the dress norms. we should accept ourselves the way we are this shows that a woman with a darker skin tone will not be acceptable by society if she won’t do anything to get fair skin. this is the reason for the distortion of an individual’s personality and ultimately it leads to low self-esteem. the ideology that is being portrayed through this advertisement is that fairness is the only color that is taken as standard and it is only attainable if you use this beauty bar. e.g ‘ab glow milay ga sabun say’ (will shine from morning) this line shows that due to soap fairness was not achieved in the past, but now it is basically a modern trait that beauty is attainable by using soap bar. the lexical item soap is written in capital words which shows that achieving beauty through a soap bar is a new concept and it is used to add stress among people. analysis (roco, uk) participants the participants of this ad are kids. the participants are five in number. in this commercial, the young models of 8 to 10 years performed skillfully the showcasing of various formal and semi-formal, shoes, outfits, and fancy accessories. the movements, conduct, poses of the models promote the products and successfully gauge the attention of the viewers. the most highlighted thing in this ad is that all the young participants have different races, have different identities, and possess different values. the idea behind this choice of models that is three white and two black, is to convey the message of integrity, acculturation, assimilation, and solidarity. object in this particular ad chairs, couches and flowers are shoes are used as an object. this particular commercial advertisement showcases a variety of footwear, special occasion dresses/ formal dresses, and fancy accessories. semiotics resources were used very effectively by the advertiser. semiotics is related to the signs and their meanings in comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 59 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 society. signs can convey meanings. so, words, drawings, logos, street signs, photographs can be signs. this commercial advertisement is a candid example of semiotics because a plethora of signs and objects for instance dresses, shapes of different accessories, flowers, have been used by the director in this ad. besides this, objects like flowers, balloons, colorful balls, white backgrounds, stairs decorated with green floral arrangements are perceived as a sign and symbol of freshness, happiness, optimism, and positiveness. one can easily see the objects like dresses, shoes wear, flowers, etc, as a signifier whereas the feeling of happiness, cheerfulness, and positiveness is a signified. by using all the semiotics resources in the ad, the advertiser tries to emotionally interact with the viewer. setting the kids are in a sitting position. they seem to be a friend and close with each other. pose the pose is quite normal, and they are looking at each other in a happy mood. festivity can be seen on the faces of kids. they are laughing, walking, moving, and talking to each other. furthermore, the advertisements are mostly time constraints, so the advertiser is always bound to convey the main idea within in few seconds. advertisers use semiotics not only through repetition but also through combining signals, bringing words, images, and music together into one meaningful and coherent composition. hence semiotics is a vital discipline in the science of marketing, communication, advertising, and branding. so, by seeking help from this tool this particular company can easily access their customers. this commercial advertisement is about the uk, s leading brand of children’s formal wear. it carries a huge range of boy’s suits and girl’s formal and semi-formal costumes along with hair embellishments for communion, bride’s maids, wedding guests, and some special occasions. so, through effective use of verbal, visual, and performative elements, companies can easily approach the customers and hit the target. shadows of acculturation, assimilation, and integrity are quite dominant in this ad. although all the models possess different identities and cultures (african and english culture) yet they are assimilated happily leaving behind their own native traits and adopting naive traits and trends of the host culture. hence putting aside all the racial and cultural differences young individuals are hands in hands with each other. the black girl is not showcased as a traditional black girl (rough and tough) rather she is shown as an comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 60 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 elegant and sophisticated girl, wearing delicate outfits, and walking arrogantly down the stairs. the same goes true with the english girl who is posing in a mischievous way instead of being sober which is the characteristic of an english girl. so, the dressing and the demeanor of both the girls are examples of acculturation. since it is an act of transition from one culture to another. the objectives of this commercial ad are to showcase new and novel items to the viewers. the company wants to capture the attention of customers from all over the world. company introduces new business partnerships for new business ventures. this ad shows a positive image of cultural amalgamation instead of cultural differences and marginalization. this in fact is a hidden strategy of the popular businesses to hit the two birds with one stone. the company is quite successful in doing so. in a nutshell, this particular brand seems to be an online guru to create a strong foundation that is strategic, effective, and easy to manage. roco. co. u analysis (juice, uk) participants characters are animals that are attractive for the children as they will long for that. the woman at the end is the symbol of separation and marginalization as she seems to be no idea about the fruits and juice and her dress reflects the separation. the end depicts the power and strength as he knocked over the train and gets all the fruits and food items. all the participants are active except women as she seems to be lonely and isolated as she is provoked to know what is happening. the woman seems to be lost her path as she ponders where she has come. the place is unknown to her. her age and confusing mind also reflect that even though she has spent a lot of years, but she is unaware of this new unique item. object the object is a maximum amount of attraction from the audience. setting the setting and atmosphere are friendly as all the animals are harmless. we find no snakes or other dead animals in the ad. pose the moving bicycle and animals are also reflected harmony and union but against power and strength, they prove helpless. it also shows the current life of modern man which deprived him of nature and its beauty seem to be enjoying and having all resources they have time to sing together and enjoy nature but the only human character seem to be lonely and deprived of these things. lady journey from unknown to known comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 61 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 unapologetically knows about the juice and now she is in a state of to be or not to be. give another angle of women as well they can have a beautiful young lady as well which can be more beautifully fill the gaps but sometimes old people are the child too if we study behaviors too. analysis (perk pak) participants there are two participants. this ad is based on a brother-sister relationship. object the girl is doing makeup and her brother disturbs her by throwing the football. as a result, she remained unsuccessful in putting on proper mascara. setting the girl is sitting in her makeup room. so, there is much light to see the features very clearly. the colors of the commercial are the same as of the perk packing. the combination of the ad is quite good. pose the girl is sitting and applying makeup stuff on her face. her younger brother tries to tease her she got angry but as soon as she sees chocolate she starts smiling and is ready to go with wearing sunglasses to hide her improper mascara. this video reveals acculturation that is dominant in the language in form of texts that lady receives the western dress and settings of the room is unlike most of the oriental woman rooms. using text messages in the first-place later language switches to the urdu language. again, depicts acculturation where westernize is dominant. the woman is shown marginalized when a far young brother hits her sister and mocks at her. her helplessness is shown in actions/expressions as she receives texts of friends being outside and an order to get out. that is how feminism seems to be dominant and separates the woman from the atmosphere. further, she uses a perk that shows a product name already chosen in english for an urdu-speaking country or people. overall language of the ad shows a woman as a victim of atmosphere and people who is unable to go after her wishes so to cover up herself or lose tension stress or fidget she uses a product named perk that means a gift and later says to perk up means a gift that can re-energizes someone helplessness is shown in her expressions too. so, the woman is shown marginalized. even though acculturation as well the expressions are signs. that enhances the semiotics space of the ad. expressions of boys are winning or achieving something by teasing the girl or sister. assimilation is also depicted through dress coding language used in audio and language used in written texts. comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a cross-cultural perspective 62 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.304 as concerned with marketing and advertising woman is chosen according to my information it was a good technique only two characters are there a child and a girl. girls are more prone to such products while so are children. but the only female is shown enjoying the product. the population of women is increasing worldwide. this rate is more than 50 percent in this country and around 52 percent in the whole world which means advertisements targeted more than fifty percent class of the world. specifically targeting the audience or viewers of sub-continent as the language used in this advertisement is akin to the subcontinent. bilingualism creates this sense of assimilation of language at all levels in form of assimilation to the levels of understanding and to the levels of mixing the two cultures and languages. as per budget is concerned the advertisement is cheaper on monitory foundations. as it's short concise in conveying a message and a single model gets less budget than bringing more people in the ad while the ad may have extended by introducing characters who wrote text messages. but keeping it to a short period of span brings less budget for ad. the campaign is successfully launched as two benders and age groups have been targeted that can easily be convinced for such products of edibles and the product is launched in the way that it brings the effectiveness of the advertisement. it seems that finance is much controlled through this. conclusion the uk ads highlight their own culture whereas in pakistani advertisements local culture is dominating yet still there is an assimilation of dominating culture, i.e., west. the reason is obvious that eastern advertisement companies are attracted towards the strong economic condition. that’s why in pakistani advertisements there is a use of english words whereas no western or uk ad is using even a single word of urdu. this is not the case of language only but also the dresses of pakistani models are affected by west culture. the female models are wearing pant shirts and frocks with confidence and by speaking a foreign language and wearing another culture costume they are feeling confident and called themselves modern as well. so, the linguistic and visual features of participants and their color shows acculturation that uk’s culture is dominant. comparative analysis of uk & pakistani advertisements: a 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(1996). matching advertising appeals to culture: the influence of products' use conditions. journal of advertising, 25(3), 29-46. @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 268 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section of the selected pakistani academic textbooks sadia choudhri mphil scholar, department of english, air university islamabad dr. tehseen zahra assistant professor, department of english, air university islamabad dr. wasima shehzad professor, department of english, air university islamabad abstract a preface is the author’s endeavor to describe the text and indicates why the text has been written. it also underlines some of the author's references and the text's relevant point of concern. thus, the preface functions as the author's introduction to the book. it is the section of the book in which the authors guide the reader about the text and share their opinions and beliefs on the text's content. due to the importance of prefaces in textbooks, the present study attempts to explore the linguistic specificity in the preface section of the pakistani academic soft discipline textbooks at higher secondary school certificate (hssc) and bachelor’s level. as specificity in writing is a crucial concept in using english for academic purposes. in a mix-method study, we have used the quantitative method (statistical percentage) in which the frequency along with percentage is recorded and further qualitatively interpreted with the help of concordance lines via antconc software. the data of this study is compiled with the assistance of text fixer and file converter software. for the analysis of the corpus, ken hyland’s (2009) model of lexical specificity is adopted. the self-mention and hedges categories of the lexical specificity model have been analyzed for the preface section. the findings showed that there has been frequent use of the firstperson pronoun ‘i and we’ to build the authorial stance in the preface section. further, the hedges like ‘will and would’ used in the preface section of the textbooks manifested the positive attitude of the authors by establishing solidarity for their readership and increasing the communicative tendency of the text. thus, it is concluded that the preface of soft sciences textbooks would act as the mean with having dual communicative purposes, either to present the book and to publicize it to the potential readers. keywords: specificity, preface, self-mention and hedges, soft discipline textbooks https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 269 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 1. introduction textbook plays an influential role throughout academia. it is basically a lengthy piece of writing and comprised of a long period of extensive research to contribute to the originality in the field of knowledge. in addition, it also provides the guiding principles for the students, teachers, and scholars. academic textbooks are further comprised of many disciplines which include hard sciences (biology, chemistry, and physics) and soft sciences (economics, law, education, history linguistics). the members of the specific discipline are responsible for constructing a world view and developing unique modes of discourse (bruffee, 1986; wells, 1992; hyland, 2012). some disciplines are based on investigating the physical world that includes the health sector while other disciplines require the systematic view of the society in terms of language, cultural and historical perspective. different sections are incorporated within the academic textbooks which serve as the gateway to the book. these are the introductory section and the main content of the books. the introductory section includes many subcategories as forewords, preface, introductions, and acknowledgments. thus, a textbook is qualified as an academic genre that provides the credited facts. typically, academic textbooks are considered to have a peripheral position and are spotted as commercial undertakings (hyland, 2004). furthermore, swales (1995) stated that academic textbooks require not to be discarded from the study of the genre as it provides the applicable research findings, incorporate new research findings, and introduce contemporary topics for study. every text or genre has its own specific linguistic choices that need to be evaluated to uncover the communicative purpose of the specific genre or text. in this specific context, the preface section of the academic textbook has been selected to understand the specific lexical features employed in this part. on this account, the ‘specificity model’ proposed by hyland (2009) is used for the lexical specificity of the preface section. specificity is a trait in the language that separates different referents (nouns) as is explicit to a particular context (hyland, 2008). this notion further maintains that every language has some linguistic/lexical features and these features fluctuate in different genres. the same is true with disciplinary variation as each draws heavily on distinct lexical items, https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 270 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 grammatical choices, and rhetorical features for creating unique specialized knowledge. such as the discipline of science characterizes with technical vocabulary having mostly of specialist terms which explain the happening or existence of something in the world. the humanities discipline is accompanied by dictions related to abstraction. that leads from illustrations then moving to generalizations for the construction of more abstract versions of any events. thus, the text is specific to discipline grounded on the marked lexical diversity of that domain (prior, 1998; hyland, 2002). in the nutshell, the disciplinary variation is dependent on the community in which the specialists used a repertoire of literacy practices. hence, the specialists are the skillful writers/authors who are thoughtful of their readers like any communicator. accordingly, the writing is only considered to be successful if it is based on the appropriate understanding of professional context (hyland & bondi, 2006). so the authors of the textbook used the colony of genres such as preface, forwards to communicate with readers directly about their attitudes and beliefs related to the text. though college-level students come across with the blending of different academic subjects and it is sometimes problematic for them to find suitable textbooks of a specific discipline. based on this, it is also hard to read the whole textbook before purchasing it. the only way of analyzing the quality of the competitive textbook is dependent on the effective preface section. it acts as a doorstep that inspires the reader’s community and instigates the novice writers/authors towards developing the language sensitivity used in different academic genres such as preface. in order to realize the linguistics choices employed in the preface section of the textbooks the present study aims; to find out the common lexical features for self-mention and hedges used by pakistani authors in the preface section of academic textbooks and to explore the specific lexical features for self-mention and hedges to understand the communicative purpose in the preface section of pakistani academic textbooks. 2. literature review over the past few decades, a wide range of scrutiny of genre patterns and the schematic structure of textbooks have been recorded in cross-discipline with special consideration on the introductory section. yet, the former studies in this area have been rather confined in extent https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 271 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 because they concentrated on particular genres patterns. thus, there appears to be scope for further exploring the introductory section of the textbooks with a particular focus on the preface. as the crucial task of textbook authors is to convince the potential audience to buy it. the humble way is to write an effective preface (introductory note) that aims to persuade the readers to buy a book. in pakistan, english is regarded as a lingua franca, and it is used in almost all academia (mackenzie, 2014). it is noteworthy to explore the pakistani textbook written in the english language as it provides insight into the ways the english language is being modified by the authors (aib & zahra, 2018). therefore, this study is based on exploring the common lexical features used by the pakistani authors and the specific lexical choices that assist to understand the communicative purpose of the preface section of the academic textbooks. as evident from the previous studies, the textbook is a notable academic genre in a professional setting. on this ground, swales (1995) asserts that the role of the textbook authors not only is to communicate with students but also to the audience in the professional domain who are concerned in evaluating the academic textbooks, they are inclined to write reviews about the textbooks and make a decision whether these textbooks are applicable in the classroom or not. he further extends his claims that academic textbooks are more dialogic as it establishes the interaction between evaluator-reader rather than with the consumer-reader. thus, it seems that the textbook authors are tied up with the lucid nature of the writing task. this leads to the present study of concentrating on the textbooks' preface section at both the level of academic and promotional genre. textbooks’ introduction entails many subcategories which include an introduction, preface, forward note, and acknowledgment. among these, the textbook's preface provides a view of the books as a whole and also presents the promotional aspect (bhatia, 1997, 2004). according to bhatia (1997), textbooks’ introductions and prefaces are both distinct categories. the introduction of the textbooks is informative while the preface of textbooks serves both the promotional and informative function. thus, prefaces would act as the medium with dual communicative purposes, to present the book and to publicize it to the potential readers. as emphasized by mohsenzadeh, "prefaces are crucial because they enable the reader to gain an https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 272 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 overview of the book, to get some information about the different sections of it, and therefore to determine which parts correlate to their aim in mind and thus worth to read" (2013, p.318). regardless of this prominence, book prefaces are mostly under-researched. few studies have been conducted on the textbooks' preface as a persuasive genre. in one of the studies, kuhi (2008) investigated a total of 21 textbooks prefaces and the textbooks were selected centered on writer experiences in order to study the pattern of move structure by applying swale’s analysis (1990). he identified four move structures i.e. purpose, audience, chapter introduction, and acknowledgment. genre-related study of preface sections of the textbooks was further held by azar (2012). he conducted the study on 22 prefaces in the field of linguistics and applied linguistics. by employing the swales (1990) and bhatia (1993) pattern of moves analysis, he pinpointed 4 moves pattern to construct a niche, establishing the orientation, sketch of chapters, and acknowledgment. this structural framework suggests the textual tactics manipulated by authors in order to approach their communicative goal. another study on the move pattern of books prefaces was conducted by abdollahzadeh and salarvand, (2013). they explored the move patterns of book prefaces specifically in three distinct fields of study related to management, metallurgy, mathematics. they have taken 180 academic books from 2000-2011 respectively. they have further analyzed the frequencies of move and step in the corpus of the preface. according to this corpus-based study, there are no considerable differences between the three disciplines in terms of move structure, with reference to communicative purposes and readers' expectations. these studies revealed the fact that the textbook prefaces display both informational and promotional features. hence, textbooks preface is a kind of metatextual genre that provides an interactive platform to manifest the real-time mediation in a discourse between participants which includes the readers and stakeholders. in the context of pakistan, textbooks play a vital role in teaching and learning resources that are used across the curriculum at the level of schools, colleges and universities. just like in other countries, pakistan also has designed a procedure to evaluate academic textbooks. there ought to be a consistent struggle and demanding research required for developing and producing one single piece of a textbook. the quality of the textbooks depends on the process of textbooks https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 273 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 evaluation that is based on field-testing. in pakistan, the ministry of education (curriculum wing) is responsible to devise and sanction the curriculum for the subjects till the intermediate level. the curriculum wing has been authorized to prescribe and remove any textual data which is inconvenient for students (mahmood, iqbal, & saeed, 2009). although textbooks have a massive impact on what and how is education being imparted in primary, elementary, secondary, and higher secondary classes. most teachers use textbooks as their first curriculum manual and thus receive paramount importance in pakistani teaching domains. in developing countries, textbooks are considered as the only medium of information by the teachers. it has been revealed that textbook is the single accessible learning source in most educational institutions. further materials as teaching audio-visual aids, additional reading e-books and school libraries are practically rare (mahmood et al., 2009). the most renowned publishers in this respect include dogars publishers, auraq, learners, scholars and global publications houses which produce academic books every year with revised editions. the present study is focused on the academic textbooks prefaces of social sciences at higher secondary school certificate and undergraduate/bachelors's level written by pakistani authors. just like any genre, the preface genre also entails lexical choices which writers manifested through the specificity of diction in writing. specificity is a tool that works in highlighting the specific lexical features of academic writing. in 2008, hyland asserts that specificity in writing is a crucial concept in using english for academic purposes. his further findings reveal that within disciplinary specificity, there is a significant difference between soft and hard disciplines. for any specific purpose within a particular discourse community, the usage of language is governed by certain specific conventions. that is why all the discourse community depends on its unique characteristic features of communication. in order to understand the different linguistic features to identify and appreciate the language across disciplines, computer technology achieves a prominent role in which corpus-based analysis is noticeable. within the corpus-based analysis, corpus tools and corpora play a significant role when studies have been made in language learning. many types of research are evident in the corpus-based analysis as al-zubaidi & jasim, (2016) conducted research on prefaces of linguistics books in two languages english and arabic. total 80 published https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 274 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 books were selected from 1990-2010 (40 in english and 40 in arabic). frequencies and percentages were used to analyze the findings of this study. the findings demonstrated that the preface genre comprised of 9 move structures with some variation. this also revealed that the authors employed certain socio-cultural textual strategies as islamic ideology in the arabic corpus especially in the opening and closing move patterns. the corpora analysis plays an important part in various fields such as english for academic purposes. it has paved the way to understand and closely examine the real-time instances of language usage patterns, the most frequent words/phrases in different disciplines or domains. these findings lead to identifying the particular genre. this is known as an evidence-based approach in eap in which particular linguistic features are identified that are employed in specific discourse. one of the significant corpus-evidence-based studies is conducted by hyland and this article is focused on the aim of making students familiar with the academic expressions or words which remove the hurdles in understanding the unknown text. the analysis of this study is based on exploring the frequency, collocation, and meaning of words in the academic word list from a multidisciplinary large corpus (2009). in pakistan, corpus linguistic has got the focus of attention by scholars and researchers as it is an emerging field and many useful kinds of research have been performed. the genre-based corpus analysis of language specificity has also been the most prominent study among these. for instance, the study on specificity is conducted by gul & khattak (2021), this is about the different linguistic choices that are frequently used in the vicechancellors’ messages on the universities' websites. likewise, one of the studies in pakistan was conducted to explore the features of academic verbs specificity used in the introductory part of ph.d. dissertations in the domain of english studies (khattak & shehzad, 2018). furthermore, one study is focused on lexical bundles used in academic textbooks. the findings showed a total of 102 lexical bundles that are frequently occurred in the selected pakistani (chemistry and physics) textbooks and there was a prominence of referential expressions and discourse organizers in functional categories (hussain, zahra, & abbas, 2021). thus, many studies have been conducted on academic articles, book reviews, academic lectures but the introductory section preface receives less attention from the researchers in pakistan. thus, the present research https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 275 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 aims at viewing the lexical choices used by the pakistani authors in the preface of the academic textbooks and their communicative functions. this study has investigated the following research questions: 1. what are the general lexical choices for self-mention and hedges employed by the pakistani authors in the preface section of academic textbooks? 2. how do the specific lexical features used for self-mention and hedges show the communicative purpose in the preface section of pakistani academic textbooks? 3. methodology the current study has adopted the corpus-based method to identify specific lexical choices prevailing in the preface section of pakistani academic textbooks used in the soft sciences. a burgeoning area, the corpus-based study is theoretically a sophisticated approach in the present era. in it, the corpora are incorporated to test the hypothesis with the existing theories (lindquist, 2018). hence, the corpus is said to be a collection of text kept in an electronic device (kennedy, 1991). for the execution of this study, we have used the mixed-method approach. as it has analyzed the frequencies with the percentage of lexical choices employed by textbooks authors and concordance lines for further clarity. the data for this research comprised of academic textbooks of social sciences prescribed at the higher secondary school certificate (henceforth hssc) and undergraduate (bachelor’s degree in arts) level. the hssc social sciences textbooks were selected as recommended by the ‘punjab curriculum and textbook board, lahore’ and ‘khyber pakhtunkhwa textbook board’ in the colleges of punjab and federal. the academic textbooks at the undergraduate / bachelor’s degree in social sciences proposed by the punjab university were also nominated as data for this study. there was a list of options provided to the students at both the hssc and undergraduate / bachelor’s level and these were retrieved from the higher education commission website. although, these are considered to be optional subjects in academia. for the data of the current study, we have selected only those pakistani textbooks which were widely used in the colleges of rawalpindi and capital territory islamabad colleges. for the said purpose, the convenience sampling technique was employed. the quality of the textbooks was based on the preferences https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 276 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 based on the renowned publishers as dogars, unique series and learners, etc. the social sciences textbooks include economics (06), psychology (03), international relations (03), law (06), english (05), islamiyat (03), women studies (03), education (03), journalism (03), public administration/ business studies (05), political science (03), civics of pakistan (05) and sociology (02). further, the details of the data are given in the appendix section with structural annotation. the lexical specificity in the preface section of pakistani textbooks (social sciences) was extracted to use as data in this study. three frequently occurring lexical items were selected from each category and further supported with the assistance of concordance lines retrieves from the corpus. for ethical consideration, this corpus is not published and shared by any regulatory bodies. the present study is based on a few methodological limitations that the data consists of only the preface section of social sciences textbooks used in two major domains as hssc and bachelor’s level. many subjects of social sciences might not be part of the data due to a limited number of textbooks available in the marketplace. lastly, the prefaces of the textbooks are not equal in number e.g., the textbooks of english and islamiyat are considered from ‘khyber pakhtunkhwa textbook board’, the textbooks of law, english jurisprudence, business communication and functional english from punjab university. the maximum count for each subject taken for the prefaces of social sciences textbooks is three in number. the results of this study are taken into consideration in the light of available data. furthermore, there has been inaccessibility of soft copies of the selected textbooks and due to this, the preface section of the textbooks was copied from images. these images were transformed into microsoft office ms word 2013. these files were then handled through the textfixer software for data cleaning which includes removing extra spaces in between lines and paragraphs. the text-fixer software is available online and is freely accessible (https://www.textfixer.com). then the clean microsoft word files were converted and further passes through the file converter in order to make text files with free online source (https://www.online-convert.com). afterward, when the desired text files were attained then they were uploaded on antconc version 3.5.9 (windows) 2020 for the extraction of specific linguistic choices used by the authors of the social sciences. the data analyzes of this study was centered on https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://www.textfixer.com/ https://www.online-convert.com/ a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 277 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 the ‘specificity model’ by hyland (2009). the lists of keywords belonging to the lexical specificity proposed by hyland (2009) were considered. only two of the categories were taken into account for the analyses of the data as self-mention and hedges. the frequencies were analyzed and then the concordance lines were interpreted accordingly. table 1: composition of the corpus of pakistani social science textbooks total files types tokens corpus software 50 3196 18029 antconc 3.5.9 table 1 explains that the preface section of 50 different social sciences textbooks was taken with word types 3196 and word tokens 18029. antconc software (anthony, 2020) was adopted, for the recording of frequencies and analysis of concordance lines. 3.1. theoretical framework the present study has focused on the language specificity items proposed by hyland (2009). specificity to language is the crucial aspect with regard to analyzing discourse and language teaching. hyland (2009), draws a clear distinction among the two broad categories of disciplines as hard and soft sciences. every discourse has a specific communicative event that can be achieved only through lexical specificity. these conventions help the readers to identify the unique characteristics of the specific domain of discipline they are involved. in order to clearly understand the lexical specificity of soft and hard sciences hyland (2009) devised a list that consists of different categories with linguistics items as listed below: table 2: lexical specificity model by hyland (2009) lexical specificity definition self-mention the representation of the authorial self (wu et al., 2014) e.g. i, we, me, etc. hedges the manifestation of words or phrases in a sentence that indicate the probability, e.g. can, would, like, etc. (hyland, 1994). directives the words that usually direct the readers to execute some action e.g. ought, could, might, etc. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 278 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 to accomplish academic persuasion (hyland, 2002). reporting verbs the specific words that facilitate the writer to take the responsibility of the argument being made (charles, 2006), e.g. say, develop, claim, etc. lexical bundles this category refers to reoccurring sequences of a group of 3 or more words that exist together (biber et al., 2004), e.g. as well as, in the place of, etc. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 279 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 table 2 shows the different categories within the model of lexical specificity. as self-mention, hedges, directives, reporting verbs and lexical bundles. for this study, the lexical specificity developed by hyland (2009) appears to be the most appropriate framework. the literature further supports this stance of using the framework (khattak & shehzad, 2018; gul & khattak, 2021). therefore, to explore the specific linguistics features used in the preface section of the soft sciences academic books specificity model is adopted. the study is delimited to only focus on two domains of the specificity model such as self-mention and hedges. the rationale for selecting these two categories is that the authors mostly instilled the social and cultural influences through their voice (self-mention). ultimately, in the case of textbooks, the authors are imparted promotional as well as informational prospects in the product to gain prominence in the marketplace. the categories of self-mention and hedges are highly prominent lexical specificity employed by the authors to achieve their desired target discourse. while the directives and reporting verb categories are linked to instruct the students towards interpreting and evaluating the learning content in text. lastly, the lexical bundles are associated with the smooth cohesion of the text. in this regard, only those categories are considered which support to achieve the aims of this study. 4. data analysis to address the research questions of the study, the converted text files are analyzed in antconc 3.5.9 software. self-mention and hedge's list of lexical specificity were scrutinized for the present study. 4.1 self-mention in textbooks’ preface the first category introduced by hyland (2009) in lexical specificity is the list of selfmention words. self-mentioning is acting as the tool of authors to mention themselves in the written discourse with the help of certain usage of pronouns that assist to builds the argument. according to wu et al. (2014), the lexis used for self-mentioning is a dominant rhetorical approach used to build an authorial stance in the research articles. he further posits that the researcher’s authorial identity created by the voice or opinion of the authors is comprised of three features. for instance, the individual, the detached self and the mutual one, these three aspects depend on the type of self-mentioning pronouns used in the writing. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 280 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 table 3: self-mentioning used in preface section of soft sciences academic textbooks pronoun frequency percentage in corpus we 70 0.38% you 10 0.05% i 152 0.84% them 37 0.20% us 26 0.14% they 30 0.17% me 52 0.28% mine 01 0.005% table 3 reveals that the first prominent self-mentioning pronoun is the first-person singular pronoun “i” with the highest frequency of 152 (0.84%). the details of concordance lines in the corpus show that the usage of pronoun “i” is frequent when the author presents his work as authentic to the readers. • i have drawn heavily on the eminent scholars, past and present; and to all of them. • i have utilized the innovations and methods employed by modern scholars of comparative politics. • i have attempted to explain political premises in a way, i expect, as will help the students to understand the nature and significance of the political activity. all these instances manifested the personal voice of the pakistani authors which they use to establish the link towards the readability and show emotive attitude as well. “i” is used as ‘individual self’ in these examples (wu et al., 2014). in addition, the highest percentage of ‘i’ is based on other important aspects that is every author acknowledge the publisher and contributor of the books. for instance; https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 281 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 • i extend my heartiest felicitation and special thanks to those teachers and students. • i acknowledge with deep gratitude the assistance. • i am awfully grateful to my colleagues and friends for their invaluable suggestions. the pronoun “me” as first-person is 52 times used with the percentage 0.28%. the usage of “me” is associated with the authors and almost all the preface section demonstrate its usage. • i am highly thankful to my friends and students who virtually wish me to write. • the long drawn demand of english medium students and teachers urged me to write psychology book for intermediate level. • my vast experience of competitive exams, together with the teaching experience, has enabled me to compile a comprehensive book. mostly it has been used either to take the responsibility of his endeavor of the task as an author or appreciative for the opportunity of writing a book. the next frequently used pronoun that appears in the preface section of social sciences textbooks is “we” with 70 (0.38%) times. the first-person plural pronoun “we” manifested the mutual feelings of the authors which he intended to construct solidarity with the readers of the text. certain verbs are associated with the pronoun “we” in order to achieve the communicative purpose. • we have solemnly worked hard to extract the answers of the questions asked in competitive examination. • we trust, both students of english medium schools and their teachers will find islamiyat for students very useful in their respective tasks. • we hope, would truly illumine fate for its users. these emotive statements positively influence the reader to maintain readability by convincing them of their bright future. the pronoun “we” is represented as a “collective self” (wu et al., 2014) in all these examples as it creates a harmony of the argument for the effect of generalization. the third highest frequency is the third-person pronoun “them” with 37 (0.20%). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 282 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 the corpus analysis shows the demonstration of the pronoun “them” as “collective self” (wu et al., 2014). for instance; • the students’ valuable comments and suggestions to enable me to serve them even better. • i am also very much obliged to my university authorities (uol) for providing me an opportunity to work for them in good academic environment. • this book provides a blend of traditional approach, as well as, application of modern techniques to dig out the pertinent issues and in providing a practical approach to address them too. again, it provides the readers the sense of satisfaction about the quality of the textbooks and the future success in academia. in the third example, here the author need not bring propositional information rather they assist their readers in sorting, identifying, understanding, assessing, and responding to the content. thus, self-mentioning lexical items in the text provide a platform for the writers to claim their work and express their stance to the prospective readers (hyland, 2009). the corpus analysis of the preface section of soft sciences textbooks shows the usage of first-person (singular) ‘i’ is 0.84%, first-person ‘me’ is 0.28%, first-person (plural) ‘we’ is used 0.38% and third person ‘them’ is used 0.20%. the significance of the representation of self by authors is through the individual and collective self in the preface section of the pakistani social sciences textbooks. 4.2 use of hedges in textbooks’ preface the second category in the ‘lexical specificity model’ is hedges (hyland, 2009). the functioning of hedging is communicative and interactive in academic discourse by employing the purpose to heighten or lessen the intensity of assurance in the accuracy of given statements (hyland, 2009). according to salager meyer (1994), the role of using hedging is to make the argument more fluid and adaptable. hedges are the prominent lexical choices used to make the language of written discourse more indirect, polite and illustrate uncertainty in statements. it also shows the grammatical tense and aspect features in writing. moreover, the usage of the hedges https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 283 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 device provides the writers a platform where they prove that the claim made is not absolutely proven in order to lessen the effect of abrupt reaction of the reader. in addition, hedges perform a different function in the text as it is a more standardized pattern of academic writing and serves to have rhetorical impacts on the readers. it further establishes the opposing claims more politely so that these become productive for the potential readers. as lakoff (1975), highlights that the diction used to manifest the hedges is to portray the claims more or less vague. table 4: hedges used in preface section of soft sciences academic textbooks hedge frequency percentage in corpus hedge frequency percentage in corpus that 115 0.63% may 29 0.16% will 77 0.42% look 04 0.02% can 31 0.17% should 15 0.08% would 36 0.19% must 10 0.05% believe 05 0.027% possible 10 0.05% about 23 0.12% sure 04 0.02% like 31 0.17% virtual 00 table 4 shows the frequencies of all the hedges included in the ‘lexical specificity’ model proposed by hyland (2009). the highest frequency is ‘that’ with a percentage of 0.63%. the analysis of corpus illustrates that the usage of ‘that’ is most frequently part of the complex sentences in which the authors of the book prefer to put it as a connector to refer to the previous chunk of information. the authors of the textbooks usually employ ‘that’ to keep the long information in a precise manner. • international relations, relatively a new discipline that appeared in the academic arena. • the instant book is based on meticulous research that will enable the readers and students of ir to develop a terse. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 284 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 the convention of using “that-clause” ultimately reduces the abrupt reaction of readers and employs the rhetorical impact on them (gul & khattak, 2021). furthermore, “that” can be used after the reported verb in the clause. for instance; • it is advised that each student make up a number of copies of this map. • it is hoped that it would serve its purpose amicably and would help in the purification of society this example shows that the author intended his reader to entail the action and suggest the ‘subjective opinion’ in a polite tone. another example illustrates the usage of “that-clause” to begin the clause. likewise; • it is a fact that geography is neither a physical science, nor a social science, rather it combines the characteristics of both, and bridges the gap between the two. • the reason is that there were a lot of books in this subject, and they were not in accordance with requirements of the prescribed syllabus. this signifies that the authors used “that” to establish the credential related to the subject in a rhetorical manner. the rhetorical strategy is employed by the authors to locate the significance of the content present in the textbook. it further seizes the attention of the buyer which enhances the communicative tendency to publicize it among the stakeholders as well. the usage of the modal verb ‘will’ with a percentage of 0.42% is prominent in the preface of soft sciences to show the concerns of the authors towards the bright future of the students. • after reading it, the students will acquire a lot of confidence and will be able to solve the question paper easily in the examination. • the technical jargon presented in this book will differentiate a layman writing from an expert and consequently will help in yielding more than average marks. the examples of ‘will’ indicate that it is used to maintain a strong bond with the readers by providing a prosperous future. this shows the politeness strategy by the authors to make the claim more informative and develop the readership. the hedge “will” has also an implication of committing humbly which aids in their learning. https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 285 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 • without being over-optimistic, i hope that the book will be of some useful help to those who are interested in learning about communication theory, business correspondence, report writing and other communication techniques. • we hope that this book will enhance teaching and learning skills of the readers. this is a positive assurance of the author towards his readers and it also engages the reader’s attention to the main features of the textbook. this indicates the more informative aspects are shown with the help of “will”. another modal verb used in the preface section of the social sciences textbook is ‘would’ with a percentage of 0.19%. • this book resist the temptation to oversimplify world politics with a superficial treatment that would mask complexities and distort realities, it would prove a boon to our prospective students. the usage of ‘would’ shows the soft tone to direct some kind of possibility to illumine the fate of the potential readers. it further highlights the inclination of the authors. for instance; • the examples presented in the text are in the context of pakistani society which would give students an additional benefit while taking the examination. • in order to get at the essence of the subject, it would need right amount of dedication on the readers part. through this, the author shows his concerns towards readers and the students. the usage of “would” is a politeness strategy employed by most authors for the promotional perspective rather than being informative. the authors used the “would” to extent their gratitude in the preface section. it is deployed to motivate the contributor for the promotion of the textbook. thus, these specific lexical items ultimately eradicate the remoteness between the readers and the author. • i would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to all of the authors, writers, bloggers, individuals and organizations whose material – even a single wordwas tapped. on the whole, the result of the corpus further confirms the findings and affirms the list prosed by hyland (2009). according to hyland, there has been a large number of self-mention https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 286 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 and hedges used in social sciences and humanities as compared to science and engineering (2009). the corpus of the preface section of soft discipline shows that the authors used both the self-mention and hedges in a soft manner to influence their readership. 5. conclusion the results retrieved from the corpus of the present study show that the lexical specificity is prominent among pakistani soft discipline authors while writing the textbooks. this study is delimited to only the preface section of the academic textbooks used in the colleges at the hssc and undergraduate/ bachelor’s level. in addition, two lexical specificities as self-mention and hedges are taken into consideration while analyzing the data. the findings suggest that the selfmention pronouns which are frequent in the preface section include (i, me, we, and them). these self-mentioning lexical items indicate the representation of the author's identity as an individual and collective self (wu et al., 2014). this further advocates that the author proposes his opinion or voice but by creating solidarity with the readers. the authors used the preface sections as an interactive platform with the pronoun ‘we’ to communicate with readers which also shows the dialogic nature of this platform (swales, 1995). then the use of hedges like (that, will, would) indicates the author's attitude or feelings towards the readers. these lexical choices mark the specificity of communicative purpose which the authors achieve to establish a readership. according to hyland (1998), hedges is marked in the written discourse to achieve the communicative function as these lexical categories are less direct and polite. the two specific categories as self-mention and hedges used frequently by the authors in the preface section of the soft sciences textbook as the manifesto of the message being made. this also affirms that the lexical specificity belongs to self-mention and hedges appears to present the positive portrayals of the textbook written by the expert authors. these positive linguistics choices help to influence the readers of the textbook and with the assistance of this, the informative and promotional aspects of the preface section are achieved (bhatia, 1997, 2004; gul & khattak, 2021). thus, prefaces would act as the mean with having dual communicative purposes, either to present the book or to advertise it to the potential readers. in the pakistani context, this study is significant in several ways as it reveals the textual devices used in the preface section with specific lexical features like https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 287 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 self-mentioning ad hedges which manifest the social practices of authors as skillful participants of academic discourses. the outcomes of the research assist the college level students towards establishing disciplinary-specific repertoire with the help of which they can select the appropriate textbooks within a particular domain. it is also beneficial for novice writers to make the potential readership as the preface section is promotional and persuasive. likewise, based on the current study, there can be ample choices for future researchers to investigate this specific domain of introductory sections of the academic textbooks. moreover, the further direction will be to make a comparative analysis of both hard and soft discipline textbooks written by pakistani authors is still needed to explore. conclusively, all these researches promote the quality of the textbooks which improve the standard of academia in pakistan. references abdollahzadeh, e., & salarvand, h. 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(2014). self-mention and authorial identity construction in english and chinese research articles: a contrastive study. linguistics & the human sciences, 10(2). appendix structural annotation of data s.no title of book name of author publication year total number of words code number 01 corporate goverance in pakistan syed kashif saeed, umer faiz 2018 97 ss-pre01 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 291 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 02 national security: imperatives and challenges through a prism of international law ms. beenish sultan qazi 2017 475 ss-pre02 03 women in pakistan dr. naima tabassum 2016 728 ss-pre03 04 economic management and emerging issues in pakistan professor dr. mohammad aslam chaudhary 2019 1712 ss-pre04 05 pakistan a descriptive atlas rizwana zahid ahmed 1999 291 ss-pre05 06 psychological processes prof. zarin bukhari, saniya sameer, hania shah 2009 263 ss-pre06 07 economic development of pakistan abdul haleem khawja 1995 277 ss-pre07 08 islamic education m.d.zafar 1991 362 ss-pre08 09 an approach to psychology rakhshanda shahnaz 2010 289 ss-pre09 10 islamiyat for students farkhanda noor muhammad 2018 267 ss-pre010 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 292 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 11 islamic education a.s.bukhari, m.d.zafar, dr. m.yahya, prof. abdul sattar shakir, hafiz aitbar khan, z.s. bukhari 2009 519 ss-pre011 12 principles of economics ii a. hamid shahid 1998 220 ss-pre012 13 sociology amal sajjad, jawad tariq 2017 239 ss-pre013 14 general agriculture dr. muhammad akhtar abbas 2016 366 ss-pre014 15 income tax law dr. zalifqar ahmad bowra, prof. rifat iqbal, qazi shahzad ehtesham 2016 278 ss-pre015 16 business law qazi awais amin 2007 537 ss-pre016 17 international relations muhammad ikram rabbani 2014 495 ss-pre017 18 public administration iqra riaz-ud-din 2016 260 ss-pre018 19 economic development of pakistan shakeel ahmed 2020 137 ss-pre019 20 jurisprudence imran a. nyazee 2007 307 ss-pre020 21 introduction to political science muhammad sarwar 1992 549 ss-pre021 22 physical geography m.iftikhar akram ch. 2003 699 ss-pre022 23 functional english prof.muhammad aslam gondal 2008 366 ss-pre023 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 293 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 24 business communication & report writing prof. m. hafeez-ur-rehman 2015 322 ss-pre024 25 english compulsory (grade-xi) waheedullah 2018 351 ss-pre025 26 essentials of international relations kanwal batool naqvi 2020 315 ss-pre026 27 political science shahid mehmood 2018 339 ss-pre027 28 psychology tayab saifullah 2021 214 ss-pre028 29 anthropology sara khan 2020 132 ss-pre029 30 english jurisprudence muhammad aslam chaudhry 2010 256 ss-pre030 31 police, crime and politics hafiz s.d. jamy 2005 220 ss-pre031 32 civics of pakistan muhammad asif malik 2009 174 ss-pre032 33 journalism safiq baloch 2018 276 ss-pre033 34 education prof. dr. abdul khaliq 2012 341 ss-pre034 35 introduction to law imran ahsan khan nyazee 2016 526 ss-pre035 36 journalism muhammad asif malik 2005 339 ss-pre036 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 294 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 37 linguistics for beginners tariq rahman 2010 585 ss-pre037 38 economic theory abdul haleem khawaja 2007 383 ss-pre038 39 education dr. khalid rashid 2010 281 ss-pre039 40 gender studies m. nawaz khalid aarbi 2021 324 ss-pre040 41 essentials of home economics prof. matina zia 2012 378 ss-pre041 42 international relations m. safdar mullick 2015 375 ss-pre042 43 an introduction to gender studies samraiz hafeez, waheed khan, humaira tehsin 2020 336 ss-pre043 44 journalist abid tehami 1997 289 ss-pre044 45 political science m. aslam chaudhary 2008 269 ss-pre045 46 public administration dr. sultan khan 2006 305 ss-pre046 47 labour and taxation law saima pervaiz butt 2000 141 ss-pre047 48 business communication shakeel amjad 2010 359 ss-pre048 49 health and physical education prof. muhammad altaf 2020 533 ss-pre049 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 a corpus-based study of analyzing the lexical specificity in the preface section... 295 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 50 business communication hafeez ur rehman 2010 138 ss-pre050 @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.310 defiance to phallogocentricism in soniah kamal’s unmarriaegable 121 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.358 defiance to phallogocentricism in soniah kamal’s unmarriaegable eisha tul razia 1 dr. maria farooq maan 2 1 mphil scholar, air university, islamabad 2 assistant professor, air university, islamabad abstract this paper highlights the phallogocentric orientation of post-partition pakistani society and culture that has perpetually tried to create the illusion of priority and superiority of masculinity over femininity to sustain continued dominance. the phallogocentric gender binarism in soniah kamal’s unmarriageable is explored and dismantled with the help of various female characters of the novel like alys binnat and qitty binnat who are seen making their mark in emerging world by working as a teacher and a blogger or columnist deviating from the long held gender codes of behavior. by using the framework of “phallogocentricism” a neologism in deconstruction theory coined by jacques derrida to criticize binary thinking imposed by patriarchal culture, this paper tends to show the defiance on the part of modern women of pakistan paving their ways from male influential society through the force of education. education no longer makes them vulnerable to men, the protagonist alys binnat being a teacher urges the younger generations to realize that education is more important than seeking a suitable suitor and that they might have a life beyond marriage and children. keywords: phallogocentricism, deconstruction, unmarriageable, patriarchal society introduction soniah kamal is an award winning novelist, essayist and public speaker. her recent novel, unmarriageable, was shortlisted for the 2020 townsend prize for fiction. her debut novel, an isolated incident, was a finalist for the klf french fiction prize and the townsend prize for fiction. her novel unmarriageable depicts how women’s subjugation is enrooted in a male dominated society which favours the gender discrimination within society. hence, the study revolves around the speculation that there are conscious attempts of constructing the stance of defiance to male centralization in a patriarchal society. this study is based upon the framework inspired from phallogocentricism which reveals that male centralization ultimately decentralizes female gender in the society, resulting into the discriminatory practices in the society. this theory is an offshoot of derrida’s deconstruction, while focusing upon the binary opposition as the fundamental construction of phallogocentricism (derrida, 1978). phallogocentricism means the centeralization of male gender which determines defiance to phallogocentricism in soniah kamal’s unmarriaegable 122 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.358 meanings of the society and creates social norms. by implying the lens of phallogocentricism in the novel unmarriageable by soniah kamal (2019) the paper discusses it as a thoughtful attempt by author to fight against the same stereotypes legalized under the label of institution of marriage of pakistani society while watering the roots of male’s gender idealization as the center and backbone of the society through analyzing the linguistic evidence. as it portrays the inherent obligation for females to be subject to male financially because they are fragile enough to prosper in the fields (profession) which are reigned by male gender. the protagonist, alys binnat and qitty’s construction as well as their ideological propagation is the total representation of combating the stereotyping of male gender prevailing in the culture. thus, she proves to be the threat to patriarchal culture prevailing in the modern pakistani society. as phallogocentricism explicates the linguistic notions which keep the male gender close to phallus and phallus to the center of the society (hina et al,2016) review of related literature soniah kamal's new novel, unmarriageable, is often referred to as "pride and prejudice in pakistan" and it is that, certainly. here elizabeth bennet becomes alysb binnat and fitzwilliam darcy becomes valentine darsee, which kamal finds a neat explanation for: "the darsees descended, mrs. binat announced, from darzees—tailors—and at some point their tradesmen surname of darzee had morphed into darsee, or else, she suggested, squinting, an ancestor must have deliberately changed darzee into darsee on official certificates."(kamal qtd by masad in an article,2019). this glimpse into the ways names is changed over time in order to elevate social status away from menial labor is especially relevant, since so much of the prejudice that occurs in the book is based on familial ties and class: slander follows mrs. binat about her grandmother being a low-class sex worker; darsee, of course, is made to seem like a monster who cut wickam out of the will. there are many studies which have been devoted to different perspectives. brenda s.a. yeoh. (2001) in research article" a deconstructive reading of william golding 's lord of the flies for efl learners in the saudi context" have highlighted the complications which are faced by english as a foreign language learners in saudi context in comprehending the english language defiance to phallogocentricism in soniah kamal’s unmarriaegable 123 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.358 words and expressions with their nature of being interpreted in a number of ways. this article is focused on the analysis of "lord of flies" by william goldings with the help of jacques derrida's deconstruction" approach. this novel "lord of flies" has been analyzed in terms of "characterization", "themes" and "textual structure" in order to investigate the impact of the deconstructive reading on the interpretation of this post-world war piece of literature. the qualitative research methodology has been adopted in this study. it has been observed that with the help of deconstructive reading, students are able to interpret the meaning of text on their own behalf. this kind of reading is helpful in inculcating critical thinking skills and to enhance them. this study is an appreciation of the derrida's deconstruction theory in exploring and interpreting the meaning of any literary work. by applying this deconstructive reading method, the researcher has introduced a new dimension of the mind stream of characters. this new dimension has been achieved by the "metaphysics of presence" and its irreversible consequences. derrida's deconstruction theory of 1970's was an academic revolt against structuralism of mid 1960's. according to structuralism, the interpretation of a text is based on metaphysics of presence but derrida is of the view that a structure can be repeated and it can be subjective intelligence of structuralist. according to derrida the western tradition gives a great importance to metaphysics of presence in its philosophical and historical form. julia kristeva’s idea of intertextually resolves this is matter of presence. intertextuality as a concept that informs how individual texts are inescapably related to other texts in a “matrix of irreducible plural and provisional meanings”(mambrol,2016). the term has been used to imply the various ways in which any one literary text is made up of or incorporates other texts. this is done by direct or indirect references and allusions, citations. unmarriageable is a perfect example of intertextuality. theoretical framework deconstruction theory of jacques derrida is taken as the theoretical framework for the present study. derrida opined that there is a specific approach required in understanding and reading of the text. the text must not be thought of as a defined object. in other words, the text is experienced only in an activity, production or traces of more text (barthes,1979). deconstruction liberates the text entirely from the hegemony of an author. for derrida once, a work has been defiance to phallogocentricism in soniah kamal’s unmarriaegable 124 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.358 written, the text acquires an independent existence. derrida’s deconstruction remains a rigorous form of interrogation, because the ‘speaking subject’, when he or she speaks, must speak the language of reason. here the basic method of deconstruction is to find a binary opposition (e.g. speech and/or writing) and show how each term, rather than being the polar opposite of its paired term, is actually part of it. then the structure or opposition that kept them apart collapses. ultimately, you cannot tell which is which and the idea of binary opposition loses its meaning or is put into a play (traces of textual meaning). this method is called ‘deconstruction’ because it is a combination of constructing meaning and deconstructing the metaphysics of presence from the text. the study focuses majorly on the connection between imperialism and the rise of social evils afterwards from the lenses provided by the aforementioned figures. it also spots light on the literary approach of sonia kamal regarding the intervention and involvement of colonizers in the internal and external matters of the colonized countries. “phallogocentrism” is defined by jacques derrida as: ‘the system of metaphysical oppositions’ (1978: 20) predominant in western philosophy that has until recently been written by men. donna haraway argues that this black/white and divisive logic has produced ‘dualisms’ that ‘have all been systemic to the logics and practices of domination of women, people of colour, nature, workers, animals’. the examples she offers of these ‘troubling dualisms’ are ‘self/other, mind/body, culture/nature, male/female, civilized/primitive, reality/appearance, whole/part, agent/resources, maker/made, active/passive, right/wrong, truth/illusion, total/partial, god/man’. (ibid) these divides have been written into western culture and it is difficult to conceive of society and culture, or produce knowledge about the phenomenon of the world, without the use of them. data analysis and interpretation by keeping in view derridean concept of phallogocentrism, those aspects form the novel are studies and presented that highlight how the phallus can be moved from the centre questioning the financial dependency as an agent of phallogocentricism within the course of the novel, alys is found to be preaching the financial independency of women. as the novel opens up, she is found imparting the same notions which defies the ground of patriarchal upbringings in the pakistani society, where a female is supposed to get married or associated to a male gender so that she can elevate her status financially. the comments on her defiance to phallogocentricism in soniah kamal’s unmarriaegable 125 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.358 student’s rewriting of the initial statement of pride and prejudice according to which the financial security of a women is embedded with her marriage, has been stated below as an example of the same context: “but how about the daughter earn a good income of her own and secure this freedom for herself?” (kamal, 2019, p. 12). hence, the sense of freedom and independence is being inculcated into the students who have the ability to radicalize the future of the pakistani patriarchal society. the character of alysis more inclined towards imparting the sense of opting profession in her students instead of simply being mrs and then mothers which also liberates the students (coming generation) from worshiping the phallus as a center of society. as her encounter with her student tahira reveals that she is not much pleased by the fact that her student is engaged at such an early age, that she is immature enough to decide about the person she is up to getting married is intellectually marriageable or not. ally’s discourages the fact that her mother has made her prioritize her engagement ring (token of financial security) upon her books (token of her awareness). hence, the contemporary society which surrounds alys is more up to negating any kind of awareness which would defy all the supportive notions which make women financially reliant. her views related to liberation of women in financial terms are: yet it always upset her that young brilliant minds, instead of exploring the universe, were busy chiselling themselves to fit into the moulds of mrs and mum. it wasn’t that she was averse to mrs mum, only that none of the girls seemed to have ever considered travelling the world by themselves, let alone been encouraged to do so, or to shatter a glass ceiling, or laugh like a madwoman in public without a care for how it looked. at some point over the years, she’d made it her job to inject (or as some, like rose-nama’s mother, would say, ‘infect’) her students with possibility. and even if the girls in this small sleepy town refused to wake up, wasn’t it her duty to try?. (kamal, 2019, p. 13). as the above stated excerpt also shows the resistance of the society upon the views of the alys, as is discouraged as well as continuously bashed for propagating the controversial norms which society does not support. thus, she is found to be guilty upon her preaching as acts. in addition to this when sherry gets married she negotiated with her husband that he should allow his wife to earn money by selling her voice recording while reciting quran e pak. mr. kaleen protests defiance to phallogocentricism in soniah kamal’s unmarriaegable 126 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.358 against this as financial independence is not for women as it is not backed by the society as well as his ego. to dismantle phallogocentric ways of functioning it becomes impertative on women to break away from such economic dependence which maintains the status of the men as the center of power. protesting the objectification of women in addition to the above stated notions, the female character, alysbinnat, is also found confounding disregarding all the practices which reinforces the objectification of women in front of men, while considering manliness as the center of worship for society. in novel, there are many instances which conforms to the upper stated proposition. for example, in class, the students suggest her to go for routine makeover so that she could be liked by someone (male) in a pretext of getting married to the richer person. as it is stated in the text that: ‘but why not!’ several distressed voices cried out. “you’re not that old. and, if you grow your hair long again and start using bright lipstick, you will be so pret” (kamal, 2019, p. 16). hence, these views of the students are the signs of the societal reinforcements for women objectification. on the other hand, within the same course of the story, abys is found negating such types of views which emphasizing upon the proposition that women is not submissive enough to doll up for men, who is not equal to her. thus, she does not consider anyone equivalent to anyone and vice versa. likewise, there are many instances in the novel, in which mrs. binnat orders her daughter to pay special consideration towards their attire while in any marriage ceremony, so that they could get liked by some eligible bachelor (richer persons). but, in contradiction to this proposition as well as practices, alys sets the trend of paying special consideration towards the intellectual growth than on the outlooks. therefore, she dresses up as she want to be but not like what society wants her to be. in a nutshell, alys defies all those prevailing practices as well as norms of the society, which subjugates women in front of men in the terms of financial gains. moreover, mrs.binnat outsides own daughters when they are not looking their best or looking tanner than their original color. hence, she conforms that a women should look as appealing to men as she could so that she can be ranked as marriageable by them as well as society but in contrast to her mother views, alys thinks that owning your own physical appearance is the biggest favor a girl defiance to phallogocentricism in soniah kamal’s unmarriaegable 127 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.358 can give to herself. therefore, she appears in her own casual looks in the events. as she says: “but that doesn’t change the fact that looks are not the be-all and end-all, no matter what our mother says” (kamal, 2019, p. 23). besides, getting good outturn as well as making oneself up, alys also combats against the oppression of the women in the terms of searching a perfect match for marriage. for instance, sherry explains all those incidents of her life in which she lost the proposals due to the reasons that the boy had found a replacement of sherry in germany as the girl would help him in career. alys consoles her that it is better to not engaged in such a poisonous relation and staying single and unmarried for such causes is far better. all these instances are signs which signify all those societal practices which are faulty in nature as they decentralize women to stay submissive to males. and due to this decentralization of females by the society, she is easy to be blamed as ill omen (as sherry was blamed so) or labelled as divorcee (as alys points it out that women’s marital or sexual status is more important than men’s). furthermore, alys also backs darsee that he did not act like conventional men of the society and make his mother and sister a subject to violence when he reveals that he had no objections when his mother got married or her sister was in illegal relationship with wickham in her young age and conceives his baby. instead, he becomes a backbone for her sister and help her to cater the situation and conceals her secret from the society. in addition to this, another instance can also be taken as the protest of alys against the objectification of women. on the first encounter of alys and darsee, she overhears him saying not so appropriate things regarding her while labelling her as not marriageable material for him. after this event, she did not consider giving him any type of attention, unlike the other girls of the contemporary society who would show interest in a person while trying to get married to him by hook or by crook. hence, her this deviation from society also ensures that during the course of novel she is protesting against the phallus centralization and women decentralization, where a women is also supposed to meet the societal measure/yardstick to becoming or being eligible for marriage by male figures. moreover, while proposing to sherry, mr. kaleen links her to a dog, as a dog is thought to be submissive as well as obedient for its own. likewise, his future wife should be submissive and defiance to phallogocentricism in soniah kamal’s unmarriaegable 128 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.358 obedient to his orders. these things are later observed by alys, when she visits them for this reason, alys was not in support of this marriage but ultimately she was happy as her friend was happy with this marriage. besides, she did not accept the proposal of mr. kaleen because she does not like the fact that her uncle was proposing her to marry him just because he wants someone to overlook his children as his wife was dead. but sherry was already convinced to beseech any compensation for her non-ability to procreate which she found in the form of mr. kaleen who was wealthy and did not want children from his future wife. hence, women are prone to compromising upon aspects that are not socially acceptable. as it is mentioned above that the mrs. binnat is a strong representative of the stereotypical patriarchal society which assigns power to all social constructions of male gender. therefore, she and her most favourite daughter, lady, is in a habit of making qitty conscious of here obesity as a dimmed aspect of her personality, as it is not a trait that aligns itself with accepted beauty standards nor make her a strong candidate. as her mother says on the occasion of sending her to the event that: “qitty, lose five pounds and you will feel much better. qitty glared at her mother. she hadn’t had a single samosa so far, but now she popped one whole into her mouth” (kamal, 2019, p. 39). thus, the character construction of qitty proves to be a strong dejection for patriarchal culture of the society in which the text is contextualized. hence some of the examples have been stated below which denies the acceptance of objectification of women by qitty. the readers can observe the character of qittyas most invulnerable as she is portrayed unaffected by the comments which she usually receives on her personality due to her obesity. the most redeeming aspect of this characters is unraveled whenever lady degrades her in front of everyone to make fun of her, but she defends herself and stays same without conceiving any inferiority complex. for example, as her mother keep insisting on losing the weight by saying that: “please, qitty, for my sake try to lose some weight before nadirfiede. no one wants to marry a fat girl” (kamal, 2019, p. 40). she assures her mother that she can never be the reason of the disgrace of family but lady can be as she is flattered upon having the attention of all the sought after men. likewise, her mother, mrs. binnat is in habit of considering her own daughter as commodity to overcome the degradation by mr. binnat’s brother, by marrying them in higher defiance to phallogocentricism in soniah kamal’s unmarriaegable 129 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.358 strata of the society. hence, she is usually found in an attempt of proving her daughters worthy of getting married and procreate the children as it is apparent from the following comment on qitty: “not to worry! even qitty’s womb is in tip-top shape; all she needs is a bit of dieting” (kamal, 2019, p. 102). besides this, there are many other instances, which explicate the resistance in qitty for accepting herself as a conventionally approved marriageable material by disobeying her mother’s order to have a balanced diet and lose weight. hence, these instances prove that there is a presence of a constant negotiation on the part of the character of qitty with the society upon the decentralization leading into the commodification and objectification of the female gender for the mean causes of phallus to be the center and holding determinateness. moreover, as the novel opens up, the readers are conveyed about the interest of qitty, which is to become a journalist or cartoonist. this shows the radicalized views and enthusiasm in qitty. but initially her father did not allow her. hence, she suppresses her desires because of the authoritative decision by her father taken on the behalf of her. but still, she continues sketching but keeps them with herself only. alys’ attempt to reconstruct female subjectivity since patriarchal societies are phallocentic it is natural that women are pushed to the margins and considered socially and intellectually inferior hence leading to the continued decentralization of women. alys is portrayed as a heroine who has intellectual power to think and convince herself. during her first encounter with darsee, he leads down her upon her reading list which was reader’s digest and good housekeeping. but later on, her reading list overtakes darsee’s list which makes him overwhelmed which is evident from his comment: “i see you read more than reader’s digest and good housekeeping,’ darsee said” (kamal, 2019, p. 107). hence, alys breaks the stereotype where women is supposed to have restricting reading list and is not considered as well-read. therefore, she is intellectually thought to be inferior to men. besides this, alys is most favorite of her father, due to her intellect. as the story unfolds that he favours her thoughts on being liberal yet defying all the stereotypical notions engrossing phallus centering in the pakistani society. defiance to phallogocentricism in soniah kamal’s unmarriaegable 130 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.358 while discussing about the intellectual prospective of qitty unfolded through her immense concerns towards learning about the marginalized women (women who are outsized and looked as other by other women, as they are not able to fulfill the criteria of being marriageable). hence, qitty is inclined towards the representation as well as on the exploration of marginalized women in the magazines as alys says to her: “i’ve brought you a bundle of used magazines i found, called mode, for plus-size women” (kamal, 2019, p. 225). so, the character of qitty is another source of modern technique challenging the status quo of the society as well as the norms which are made to elucidate male gender as pious and elevated one. another instance that depicts the fight of the marginalized females fought by qitty is when she comments on closing down of her favourite magazine, which used to publish obese models, as: “top designers only wanted to design for skeletons. their loss. fat stocky short squat women are here. we exist. we are visible” (kamal, 2019, p. 284). by adding another inference into the same assertion it can be stated that qitty was proposed by a person at the wedding of her sisters, who wanted her to change and be like his desire (slim and smart). she rejected the proposal by saying that: “daffaho, get lost. if i’m happy loving myself just the way i am, then who are you to put conditions on accepting and loving me?” (kamal, 2019, p. 289). in spite of receiving much unbearable criticism, qitty is found to be indulging into the activity which engrosses women empowerment in patriarchal society, as she engraves the liberal quotes on the shirts of her sister’s shirt, for example: “alys was wearing white linen trousers and a black t-shirt saying not your average aunty. ‘thanks. my sister qitty makes these for fun” (kamal, 2019, p. 240). thus, she gives an expression to her rage which has been restored by the society as well as her own mother and sister lady through constant criticism and attempts to urge her to change at the end of the novel, when she writes all about her suffering of being marginalized by male dominated society which expects her to conform to their standards by saying: she’d sent her words to a national newspaper: she was not just fat; she was fat and intelligent, fat and funny, fat and kind, fat and fun, fat and beautiful, fat and a good friend, defiance to phallogocentricism in soniah kamal’s unmarriaegable 131 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.358 fat and creative, fat plus every lovely attribute in the world. she was fat and happy and did not care about being thin – imagine that. (kamal, 2019, pp. 289-290) hence, qitty authoritative holds a position to write as a columnist of a newspaper to write and voice the concerns of the marginalized and decentralized women who have equal rights to live their life as the centralized male have. conclusion in conclusion is can be stated that novel knits the plot while okaying a special heed towards the fruitful attempts of defiance to phallogocentricism, mainly through alys, the protagonist of the novel, as well as through her sister qitty, who is a victim of body shaming coming from her own family as well as from the society but gradually her aspirations to become an artist make her flourish, and give her the confidence to voice her concerns and protest against the faulty practices of the society. likewise, the discussion extracted from the instances of alys retaliation against the male dominated social world expresses her wise endeavors to enact and highlight the societal need to enlighten the young females who are continuously made to be submissiveness and subjugated in front of phallogocentricism. while considering both characters as the mouthpiece of the narrator, it can be further concluded that the narrator has opted these both character as the tool to construct a stance against phallogocentricism by spreading the words of awareness among the readership of emerging and radicalized modern era. defiance to phallogocentricism in soniah kamal’s unmarriaegable 132 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.358 references addicott, j. (2012). phallogocentrism: the politics of binaries and strategic writing in female/male ethnography. https://jameseaddicott. wordpress. com/2012/06/14/phallogocentrism-thepoliticsof-binaries-and-strategic-writingin-femalemale-ethnography/>acessoem, 20, 2019. barthes, r., 1979a, elements of semiology, transl. a. leavers, smith & hill, new york. derrida, j. (1978). writing and difference. university of chicago press. derrida, j., 1981, positins, university of chicago press, chicago, il derrida, j., 1985, the ear of the other: otobiography, transference, translatin: texts and discussions with jacques derrida, schocken book, new york. hina, n. a. z., manzoor, f., bukhari, r., hanif, z., & ayesha, r. a. u. f. (2016). demythologizing women subjugation: rethingking arundhati roy’s god of small things and sara sulehri’s meatless days through derridean’s theory of phallogocentrism. international ejournal of advances in social sciences, 2(5), 554-559. hooti, n. (2013). williamshakepeare's hamlet: adeconstructivestudy .international research journal of applied and basic sciences , 3903-3909. kamal, s. (2019). unmarriageable: a novel. ballantine books. sandelowski, m. (2000). combining qualitative and quantitative sampling, data collection, and analysis techniques in mixed-method studies. research in nursing & health, 23(3), 246255. doi: 10.1002/1098-240x(200006)23:3<246::aid-nur9>3.0.co;2-h @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). diana, the challenger: 376 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 diana, the challenger: a feminist figure of power and salvation in hollywood feminist fantasy wonder woman (2017) fayaz khan m.phill scholar, department of english language, hazara university mansehra, pakistan fayazpur87@gmail.com rashid ahmad m.phill scholar, department of english language, hazara university mansehra, pakistan aslam yar m.phill scholar, department of english language, hazara university mansehra, pakistan abstract jenkins (2017) wonder woman is a portrayal of traditional role of feminism, in which masculine traits including courage, strength, leadership, independence and assertiveness are used to overwhelm male-dominant society, while manhood as a masculine trait is challenged by a woman constantly striving for power and authority. marriage is shown as a failed philosophy in the movie, while men are shown just a minimal need to procreate. ‘wonder woman’ has an extensive gay male and lesbian fan base. this task approaches wonder woman with a semiotic and cultural examination to perceive how her character is comprised of some syntagmas that empower this sort of identification like same-sex society, battling bigotry, discovering one's place, and flourishing in transformation. the analysis shows that the virtue of fighting for peace in diana has been compromised with the amalgamation of feminists’ radical approach. she has been presented as a female rebellion, while the rightful cause of the care-taker feminists has been degenerated by the amalgamating of bad feminism with good feminism. keywords: masculine traits, male-dominant society, feminism, syntagmas, same-sex society, female rebellion introduction jenkins (2017) portrays the labyrinth of ideas in wonder woman regarding feminism. the script of the movie is dynamic and provides the heap of ideas regarding gender orientation. the two different societies have been portrayed in the movie; the females’ society and the males’, but leverage between both the genders is idealized with the supremacy of one gender over the other. the feminist narrative in the movie challenges the subtle ideas of sexual mailto:fayazpur87@gmail.com diana, the challenger: 377 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 harmony. men and women are both the equal counterpart of society regarding their own delicate businesses but when it comes to the dependency upon each other, it is impossible to ignore the equal contribution of both the genders. radical discourse in wonder woman put the characters of men in trail. thus, jenkins (2017) renders radical feminism through criticizing the strong bond of family, marriage and childbirth. matriarchy is depicted as redemption against patriarchal values while the root cause of turmoil against women is associated with the hierarchy of patriarchal hegemony. it is a matter of fact that human gene can never survive without the mutual contribution of both the genders. neither male nor female alone can proceed with the legacy of procreation to preserve human species. thus, as both the genders have equal contribution in procreation and preserving human genetic code, likewise the contribution of both the genders in nation-building is also equally important. the consecutive attacks from radical feminists clarify that they are not able to tolerate men on earth as farver (2011) explicates andrea dworkin’s famous quote in her book uncompromising: a heart claimed by a radical love. she said that i want to see a man beaten to a bloody pulp with a high heel shoved in his mouth, like an apple in the mouth of a pig (farver, 2011). dworkin’s imagination of wearing high heels is a psychological issue, for which she considers men the sole culprits. modern day radical feminists try to carry forward their agenda from a much bigger platform and it makes their so-called civilizing mission easy. but the question remains that whether womenfolk in general agree to what they demand, or they criticize them for their queer identity struggles. the pro-family movements in canada and america are its ultimate examples. the supporters of pro-family movements were largely women, who spoke against feminism. this anti-feminist movement criticized feminism for splitting both the genders and sabotaging family system in many of developed countries including us and canada (steuter, 1992). when it was asked about the supporters of waf (women against feminism), they opposed feminism by arguing ‘we don’t need feminism because it ignores male problems like rape and suicide. they hate men, treat minority like a tool and spread hatred through their speeches (keseredy & leonard, 2015). jenkins’ (2017) wonder woman is the articulation of female power-surge out of her disney land. diana has been portrayed in the movie as the mouthpiece of modern day radical diana, the challenger: 378 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 feminists. jenkins (2017) has left no chance to criticizing men’s behavior as incompetent. they are shown as morally corrupt and weak, but the more thrilling it gets when female rebellious nature is advocated by jenkins (2017) in most of the action scenes of the movie. it is an irrational approach of radical feminism against men because rational and logical approach can never be subsided by irrational and illogical reasoning. literature review the ideology of maleness is constructed by society for males’ performance for scarce resources in social struggles, a set of principles that propels common interests by overwhelming inner restrains. real men provide their people more than they take and never abandon them, even to the mark of self-sacrifice. subsequently, masculinity may be viewed as a nurturing idea. gender is a figurative category, attributive, socially relative and potentially changeful. hence, it is important to examine masculinity from both historical and social viewpoints. masculinity and manliness, which have been underestimated and were for all intents and purposes untouched for an extended period of time in the present male-dominated social orders, have been taken up as an object of study for the initial occurrence. the investigation of gender ought to consider both the genders, men and women (toshiko, 2014). the traditional definition of masculinity is now subsided by the new version of definitions. it is a common observation towards men images represented on the bill-boards and magazines, newspapers and television screen as ‘new men’ formerly as ‘wounded men’. this is a reactionary response towards feminists’ attempts of unwrapping masculinity and reasserting male perquisites (faludi, 1992). according to brittan (1989), this portrayal is not for men’s power but it forms representation. presently, as previously, the term 'men' is utilised as a plain widespread classification to represent humankind overall. over the last 20 years, women's activists have challenged the philosophical and material entailments of such certain male inclination. ironically the rationale of feminism as a political position has regularly required the thought of 'men' as a solitary, oppositional class. establishing their situation on the attestation that 'the individual is the political', feminists have constantly instigated clumsy questions about the state of affairs in both the academy and the community (caplan, 1998). diana, the challenger: 379 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 cornwall and lindisfarne (1994) argue in the introduction of dislocating misculinity, if we look at the more extensive scholarly foundation to our study and draw on the new ethnographies of our authors to address regarding human sciences, a portion of the political and intellectual issues raised by feminists and postmodernists. in this regard, our situation as gendered member in current discussions about masculinity is significant. we interrupt the premises that underlie a lot of ongoing composition on and by men, regardless of whether it has a place with the ordinance of men's studies or is crafted by anthropologists, like gilmore (1990). in this manner, we offer another viewpoint for looking at gendered identities and undercutting prevailing chauvinisms on, which sexual orientation, race, class, and different hierarchies depend (kimmel, 1987; brod, 1987). the ‘wonder woman’ stories with sexual sadomasochistic pictures like subjugation, ‘masters and slaves and men groveling at the feet of women’ (o’reilly, 2005, p. 274) were used in the middle of twentieth century to empower women. she is a feminist symbol, who represents a robust image of women’s autonomy. she is seen this way for the reason being an amazon. averett (2009) argues that patriarchy is needed to be dismantled only then can women be empowered. there must be a ‘wonder woman’ for challenging patriarchy. hook (2013) being an intersectional feminist, critique of patriarchy and its challenges argued that crisis men are confronting with are not, regarded with masculinity but these are the crisis of patriarchal masculinity. in her essay understanding patriarchy, she uses a radical approach towards challenging masculinity with using the name of patriarchal challenges. her primal consideration in the essay revolves around the supremacy of women through knocking down men’s authority not only in a clan but in every field of life. if feminists are asked to analyze men's issues, you will generally get an extremely clear answer; males are in crisis because females are challenging male supremacy. women are questioning men to share the public reins and men can't bear it. hook (2013) considers that one can get a better diagnosis by asking antifeminists about men’s troubles. she uses a word ‘conservative pundits’ for moderate intellects, who give answers to the raising slogans of radical feminists. however, they think that women have crossed the boundary line in the name of equal treatment and are presently trying to take control of men and set on the throne. the basic message is that men can't be men, just eunuchs, in case they are not in charge. diana, the challenger: 380 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 both the feminists and antifeminists opinions are established in a peculiarly present day american perception that to be a man means to be at the controls and consistently to feel yourself in charge (hooks, 2004). in her essay, hooks (2004) not only challenges patriarchy but her ultimate goal is to challenge men’s masculinity, who leaves no stone unturned to give better life to his wife and children. therefore, feminists of the right wing look for very menial and minor excuses to set aside the sacrifices of men and even ignore their equal partnership in the procreation of human species on planet earth. society's sexual orientation pattern considers muscles and strength as manly and favor women's bodies slim with unseen muscles. both moderate and non-moderate lifters shuffle the sex mapping with respect to estimate. to non-lifters, it has all the earmarks of being size, muscle or fat that is the powerfully dreaded crime against femininity (rikke, 2019). jones (2018) tells in his article that gender politics of ‘wonder woman’ is equivocal and the stunning exhibition of the film veils a hidden character structure in which diana and her description is extremely dependent on the character of steve trevor. research design the present research has analysed jenkins (2017) wonder woman from a broader perspective of feminism. the character of diana is examined with the binary theme of feminism in both radical and care-taker feminist discourse. observational, verbal and mediated data was synthesised after watching the movie with an unbiased lens, keeping in mind the modern day challenges of feminism in cultural and social hierarchies. the qualitative research design of the research embedded the subjective theme of masculinity from feminist perspective. it was analysed during the research that diana’s power-surge challenges cultural hierarchies. gender role is defined beyond the traditional definition of patriarchy while matriarchal world is visualised as a paradise, where no man can land. this paradise island is a safe house for the same-sex society. for the effectiveness of the dialogue and storyline, the subtitles of movie were arranged to provide a detailed script and plotline. the plotline was separately examined for the effectiveness of the narrative discourse. secondary data including research articles, books, magazines and feminist literature was collected and thoroughly examined to analyse the narrative discourse before analysing the movie. after a thorough examination of the storyline and diana, the challenger: 381 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 dialogue, the background and setting of the movie was compared with the characters and plotline. finally, watching the movie being an observer, researcher and feminist critic, the biography of the director of the movie was studies with an unbiased lens. thus, going through this process, the literature review was synthesised to provide a research gap, it was quite a challenging task to analyse wonder woman (2017) from the perspective of both good feminism and bad feminism, because the character of diana has been portrayed active on both sides. her virtue can never be defiled with evil as she constantly strives for power to defy it, but the society she has grown up, considers men the cause of bringing catastrophe on this earth. it is suggested in conclusion that how feminism can be best suited in this modern world. data analysis the new depiction of diana has additionally been scrutinised for its correction of her history and its violence. following 70 years, diana is as of now not brought into the world in a nonaggressive matriarchal society, rather she is the result of her mother’s relationship with zeus. the amazons are presently not harmony adoring and interminable, rather they repeat by engaging in sexual relations with passing mariners, selling any resultant male posterity into subjugation in return for weapons. diana has demonstrated that she is speedier to viciousness also, and has killed her long-standing most outstanding adversary ares to turn into the goddess of war herself. with such various establishments, her many years old interesting mission to teach amazonian ‘lessons of harmony and fairness’ appears to have fallen away (cocca, 2014). diana is also presented as sexually autonomous (jones, 2018). though, she has the super-powers and has the ability to challenge patriarchal world, but her overwhelming ambitions make her journey tough and hard. she compromises her love for power and becomes an imminent figure of salvation. she constantly challenges men’s masculinity but her inner power-surge compels her to do so, it is nothing else but her inner masculinity, which let her challenge the opposite binary force to invade. challenging masculinity feminism in its societal and academic prospects has done a lot for the rights of the females especially suburban women of the lower social status, but when this topic is engrossed with the notion of hegemonic hierarchies, the radical feminists after the third wave have left a diana, the challenger: 382 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 blank spot, especially in the developed nations. they have almost engrossed their basic rights and now a power-surge could be vividly observed in their slogans and campaigns. this tide catches momentum when an occurrence dilutes the minds of the common masses, but they ignore the natural order of things. contrarily, men also experience the same as women do, but it is not taken as unnatural. wonder woman (2017) portrays women as paragon of perfect world order while men are portrayed as evil advocates. some male characters in the movie are portrayed subordinate good in virtue but their good deeds seems in void and a constant suspicions on their character throughout the movie makes them less human or subordinate gene of the human species. the male and female are both the better half of the dynamic core of society. they are the equal counterpart of society. their being trustworthy towards each other makes their journey smooth, but when doubts and suspicions are created on any side, the main engine is derailed and their journey becomes tiresome and crucial. the masculinity of men is challenged throughout the movie with a rapid discourse. when captain trevor escapes from the german army and fights besides amazonians, it does not convince them to trust trevor, only for his being a man. he is put into trial because they do not trust men easily. ‘what the hell is this thing? the lasso of hestia compels you to reveal the truth’ (jenkins, 2017, 00:23:46). this magical golden string is used to control men till their submission and subordination. the amazonians do not believe in men’s legacy at all. they have a secret weapon, which they believe can kill ares. this secret weapon, an amazonian sword can free them from men’s authority and their sovereignty towards making the world a better place is stipulated with it. ares is shown as the ultimate symbol of men’s corruption in the world, as the fault is portrayed in the gender of men only. ‘zeus created beings over which the gods would rule. beings born in his image, fair and good, strong and passionate. he called his creation man. and mankind was good, but zeus’s son grew envious of mankind and sought to corrupt his father’s creation. this was ares, the god of war. ares poisoned men’s hearts with jealousy and suspicions. he turned them against one another and war ravaged the earth. so, the gods created us, the amazons’ (jenkins, 2017, 00:07:15). thus, it is shown in the movie that all corruption in the world is because of men-folk. on the contrary, it is diana, the challenger: 383 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 shown in the movie that the purpose of creating women was to restore peace to the earth (jenkins, 2017, 00:07:21). diana was a challenger, who wanted to prove her masculinity through a shield, her strong armor, the lasso of hestia and her golden bracelet. but inspite of all these instruments, her femininity allured men. the real armor she had, was her inner virtue and enchanting beauty. it is one of the best shields of the world, which can protect her from evil forces and corruption. she challenged ares to demolish corruption and restore peace to the earth, but her masculinity was in the soul not in her physical appearance. gal gadot as diana, the leading character in the movie was criticised by her fans for the small size of her breasts. when she was asked about it, she said that this is the new world ‘wonder woman’. breasts could be bought for 9,000 shekels (rikke, 2019). this is her masculinity, which compelled her to response like that. but when she surged for power, she even tried to look tougher like men. culturally, males’ bodies are acknowledged for their size, strength, solidity and muscles, which equates them for the ability to dominate and protect, manufacturing the patriarchal narrative of male dominance. on the other hand, females’ bodies in cultural paradigm are associated with sex, nature and childbirth, which disengage them with the ability of domination but physical submission (carpente, 2018). nevertheless, jenkins (2017) attempt to invade men through her character does not seem fully accomplished. her dress and costume allures men. men are easily fascinated by her. when diana steps on english soil, men are attracted towards her. the officers of the british army call her. officer 1: morning darling, officer 2: what a beauty, officer 3: hello beautiful, steve: gentlemen, eyes to yourself (jenkins, 2017, 00:47:13). in this part of the movie, the masculinity of men is confined to their sexual desires only. they are not shown as the gentlemen of the battlefield. this trait of men is ridiculed in the movie because feminists don’t care for their manliness. some scenes of the movie constantly target men for their equal partnership in procreation. ‘would you say you are the typical example of your sex? i am above average. what’s that?’ she asks this while looking at his penis. ‘it’s a, oh! um….it’s a watch’. it tells time. ‘you let this little thing tell you what to do’ (jenkins, 2017, diana, the challenger: 384 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 00:31:02). in this part of the movie male reproductive organ is derided with calling it a little thing, but steve’s response by replying ‘a watch’ shows that how long does it last. watch is the perfect example of changing time and tide. it is shown that time will prove when this little thing is useless. diana tells steve that ‘men are essential for procreation but when it comes to pleasure, unnecessary’ (jenkins, 2017, 00:43:43). the role of both men and women in society is pivotal for their own delicate businesses. the notion of womanhood is as important as manhood is considered. the domestic chores and giving birth to children is a delicate business, which preserve the human gene in society. they both have equal partnership in society building and preserving the human species. masculinity and manhood demand men to face the more diligent and hard jobs for the members of the clan. the changing tide of the modern world can even not deny these delicate businesses. women are impregnated and protected from dangers by men. they will do the most toilsome labors to provide for the family members. male ideology works under the concept of high performance to strive for scarce resources and invade for the collective interests of society. they are not considered real men without serving their people more than they take, even to the extent of selfsacrifice. thus, it could be said that manhood is a nurturing concept (toshiko, 2014). jenkins’ (2017) wonder woman undermines the subtle ideas of both manhood and womanhood with intoxicating its viewers by the abrupt ideas of gender biasedness. if both the genders start confronting each other with unnatural and biased accusation, it will derail societal norms. the concept of gender subjugation on both sides will create anarchy. the characters of men are constantly targeted in the movie. when diana chose to leave the island for killing ares and restore peace to the earth. her mother warns her, ‘be careful in the world of men, diana. they do not deserve you’ (jenkins, 2017, 00:38:04). the scene portrays a melancholic effect and the impression of the queen articulates that her daughter is plunging into darkness or stepping in the dungeons of savage men. feminist discourse of procreation in wonder woman (2017) ‘the secret history of wonder woman’ explores the tempting drives behind making wonder woman. the early twentieth century suffrage movement, experimental psychology and birth control movement were the forces behind surpassing the conventional rules of society and diana, the challenger: 385 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 making ‘wonder woman’. it is lepore, who strongly claims that wonder woman was made by feminism but to what extent, however, feminism was remade by wonder woman (fidler, 2016). there is plenty of literature available rationalising the claim of the feminists for making wonder woman as a first step towards the liberation of women. when they are asked about the narrative of birth control and its articulation in the wonder woman of the twenty-first century, their ultimate response in this paradigm give leverage to its consideration in early twentieth century wonder woman’s. it is taken for granted that birth control issue in jenkins’ (2017) wonder woman is the same as it was in earlier twenty, but it could be vividly observed in jenkins’ (2017) wonder woman that being conceived through marital bond is considered a barrier in their legacy. when diana leaves island to kill ares, she goes with steve in a ship. in this part of the movie, her conversation with steve is portrayed as a perfect example of being the mouth piece of the radical feminists. steve: you wana get some sleep diana: and what about you? are you not sleeping? does the average man not sleep? steve: no, no, yeah, we sleep. we just don’t sleep with, uh… diana: you don’t sleep with women? steve: i mean, i do sleep with…. yes, i do. but, out of the, uh…confines of marriage. it’s just, it’s not polite to assume. you know? diana: marriage. steve: do you not have that on you go before a judge and you swear to love, honor and cherish each other until death do you part. diana: and do they? love each other till death? steve: not very often, no. diana: then why do they do it. steve: i have no idea. diana: so you cannot sleep with me until i marry you. steve: i will sleep with you if you want (jenkins, 2017, 00:41:45). the social bond of marriage not only legitimises sex but it is cherished for procreation. sex without legal bond of marriage in this modern world is still considered sinful in religious diana, the challenger: 386 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 domain and adultery in social domain. gay and lesbian queer theory even in this modern age has no rigorous inspiration to legitimise its confinement without marital bond. however, the nurturing concept of babies in patriarchal societies restricts women to their domestic responsibilities, which needs a cautious attention on both academic and social paradigms. career women in this dynamic lag for their future ambitions, which needs a stimulus drive. friedan (1974) gives an account of women’s hard core issues of both career and household in her book the feminine mystique. she argues that before the finish of 1949, just one out of three female heroines in the women’s magazines was mentioned as a career woman and she was displayed in the demonstration of revoking her career, finding that what she truly needed to be was a housewife. in 1958 and 1959, she went through many an issue of the women’s magazines tracking down a solitary heroine having career, a pledge to any work, profession, art or specific mission in the world, than to be a housewife. only one out of hundred heroines was indulged in some job, even the youthful unmarried girls did the same in order to find a husband. these new cheerful housewife heroines appear to be oddly more youthful than the vivacious profession young ladies of the thirties and forties. they appear to get more youthful all the timein looks, and an innocent sort of reliance. they had no vision of the future, but to have a child. the main dynamic developing figure in their realm is the baby. the housewife heroines are perpetually young, on the grounds that their own picture closes in childbirth. like peter pan, they should stay youthful, while their youngsters grow up with the world. keep on having babies, in light of the fact that the feminine mystique says there could be no alternate way for a woman to be a heroine (friedan, 1974). the creation of ‘wonder woman’ tends to empower women generation after generation, but it bends them towards some realities with the changing tide. if feminists go forwards with a clear goal and fight for the legal rights, it will remove obstacles from their proceeding mission. standing for the rights of women in earlier twentieth century through the lens of martson’s ‘wonder woman’ negate men in procreation with introducing athena, a female goddess as the driving force behind empowering women, while in jenkins’ (2017) wonder woman zeus, a male god is shown as the creator of the pure beings. according to the hidden motive of the changing narrative in its latter version compels its viewer towards the importance of men in diana, the challenger: 387 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 procreation, but they are not shown as the source of achieving sexual pleasure. men are essential for procreation but when it comes to pleasure, unnecessary (jenkins, 2017, 00:43:44). it signifies that they are not talking for women’s issues in general, but it seems a part of the queer gay/lesbian project. whereas the figure of the female rebellion in viewers imagination come with full of the question marks, how a female heroin left for a cause so greater can deny the greater common truths, on which the foundation of society is so firmly erected for centuries. apart from the narrative of procreation in themyscira ruled by a woman, another narrative is delineated; of the world ruled by men. diana elaborated it in her conversation with steve quite enthusiastically. in contrary when steve tells diana, ‘where i come from, babies are born differently. diana: you refer to reproductive biology, i know all about that steve: i mean i refer to that and other things diana: the pleasure of the flesh’ (jenkins, 2017, 00:43:10). she finishes her conversation with telling that men are necessary for procreation but not for sexual pleasure. in the next scene a baby is shown weeping in her mother’s arms. diana rushes towards the baby, but steve stops her by telling, ‘no babies’. that one is not made out of clay’ (jenkins, 2017, 00:48:21). the streets of england are portrayed with people so reckless, not to care even for a baby. it is shown in the scene that men celebrate war but don’t care for its people. in this part of the movie the mutual contract of marriage is criticised for its sexual confinement only, partners in the streets of england holding each other’s hands, talk about war only. war between england and germany is the war of the flesh, which will feed on its people and men in authority will enjoy their desires in the confinement of marriages. english women are also criticised for their submission to men’s authority. steve’s introduction of diana with her secretary is its optimum depiction. secretary: i am steves’ secretary diana: what is secretary. secretary: whatever he calls i do. diana: where i am from we call it slavery. secretary: i really like her (jenkins, 2017, 00:49:07). diana, the challenger: 388 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 despite that, her own silver cuffs symbolises her voluntary submission to aphrodite (chavez, 2017). it could be seen in one of the last scripts written by marston (1941) for wonder woman that the only real happiness for anybody is to be found in obedience to loving authority (marston and peter 1948). jenkins’ (2017) version subverts the idea of submission and domination. marston (1941) argued that only women can get the title of ‘love leaders’ by making men submit their natural desires to their dominance. ‘wonder woman’ contemplates accordingly, ‘some females like to have men stronger than they make them to do things. they talk like, do i like it? don’t know, or it’s sort of exhilarating. but it is considered funny to make them obey.’ marston (1941) believed that women can educate men regarding the pleasure and satisfaction of freedom, which is embodied with agreeable submission to love authority. he also believed that these women ‘love leaders’ should educate other females to do the same (chavez, 2017). diana, an ambitious savior the mysterious plane crash of captain trevor in the island of themyscira gives rise to the beginning of familiar but utopian ideals of social reforms, initially used by marston (1941) and later on by jenkins (2017). it portrays an image of gender-reversal that becomes an unceasing visual trope in comic history. diana becomes the savior of trevor and thus she fells in fascination to him. however, her love for captain does not make her vulnerable and subsequent female but it is the strength of her muscles, which is needed to be focused. she saved trevor after his plane was crashed and held him in her arms while ripping sea water apart. in 1947, with collaboration of harry g. peter, marston created a hero, who was shown to save a helpless female from destruction, which he attempted to empower females for their look after and discovering their physical and economic stability. these images taught women to do things that they conceive to do and be strengthened to earn your own livings (emad, 2006). in wonder woman (2017), diana is shown as a paragon of salvation, her role is strong in terms of her efforts to defy evil forces, but her ambitions portray some of the grim realities of the feminist ideology in modernist scenario. focusing on her character, one must be fascinated as long as she is with steve and saves the innocent people, because a care-taker feminist figure in diana’s character seems prevalent in the time of war and insurgency. she focuses on her mission diana, the challenger: 389 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 and tries to save the innocent lives. her character’s reflection makes care-taker feminists imminent and true to their cause, but in radical feminist figure, diana does not seem patient towards her colossal task of making the world a better place. she enters in a conference hall without permission, where officers of the english army talk about a secret mission. captain steve convinces the officers about diana’s ability of translating several languages especially the secret document that he had stolen from the german army. the officers allow her to translate the text and the secret formula of the catastrophic gas, but they are told not to carry out operation without logistic support of the british army. steve obeys their orders, but diana becomes angry and does not stick to their plan. officer tells them, captain, you will do nothing and that is an order. trevor: yes, sir. i understand sir. diana: i don’t. trevor: diana: i know this is confusing. officer: who is this woman (jenkins, 2017, 00:59:16). her arguments with the british officers about armistice strategy portray her ambitions towards her unfinished goal of killing ares and freeing the world from his wrath. diana does not agree with them while armistice for peace is the greater concern for men but she is not agreeing. her ambitions compel captain trevor to support her in carrying out a secret mission against german army, but causes steve’s death in the finishing scenes of the movie (jenkins, 2017, 02:01:07), which she herself mourns in the rest of the movie. her training in the island makes a worst kind of image of men, which she does not trust easily. this is why, she consider their strategy irrational and illogical. her ambitions rule over the character and she considers war as the ultimate source of getting what she really wants. when steve sacrificed his life to destroy german squadron, she then realises that world without steve is meaningless. these are her inner emotions which appealed her, stronger than defying ambitions. marston (1941) was trying to create a female figure of american women with subtle emotions who could face dangerous situations, but jenkins (2017) put vaulting ambitions in ‘wonder woman’ of the 21st century. marston’s ‘wonder woman’ was significant in terms of war that american public needed during world war 2. he wanted to employ this iconic figure as diana, the challenger: 390 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 a symbol of justice and righteousness in the unjust rampant social culture and female gender at that time. it was a contrasting figure comparing to the ordinary housewives of the 1940’s. the feminist message that he wanted to convey was that an able-bodied female, strong and passionate superseded the men, which was basically accepted as a symbol of superior sex in that era. moreover, the notion that women needed to be greater than men for getting equal opportunities in male-dominated society has also been reversed (delaney, 2014). jenkins (2017) presented a female symbol ruled by her vaulting ambitions, deteriorating the image that marston had presented. jenkins’ ‘wonder woman’ accomplishes her goal with the sacrifice of a powerful man (captain steve trevor) of the time. but it is not diana alone who saves the world, steve’s sacrifice gives her imminence and prove himself to be the equal counterpart in the untiring mission of freeing the world from disaster. steve’s veneration and love for diana makes her super-heroin and provide a remedy for the broken hearts while diana gained leverage to prove her masculinity while defeating ares. diana, a feminist figure of power and salvation fidler (2016) delineates ‘wonder woman’ of the 1940s as a stimulus towards getting their equal rights. she considers diana of the 1940s as a power structure of feminism in her study of lepore’s (2014) the secret history of wonder woman. the rise of feminist thinking in 1941 created ‘wonder woman’. in 1972, a magazine was launched having a picture of the wonder woman on its cover with a title ‘wonder woman for president’. it gained leverage when an equal rights amendment bill was passed in senate, pending since 1923. leaving behind the actual cause of fighting for women’s rights made feminism withered. the wonder woman of 21st will face more challenges for accomplishing her cause. lepore (2014) writes that a shift took place, in spite of advances in women’s history, feminism history seemed withered. between feminists stumbling each other, the struggle for the novel rights ceased and the movement was floundered. it can even not be saved with bullet stopping bracelet or golden lasso (fidler, 2016). in marston (1941) version, wonder woman submits her impulse to the state, an undertaking for effective power while in jenkins version her power surge undermine the state’s agents through her ambitions, but the glory of being triumphant makes her realise to submit her will. marston’s illustration of wonder woman leads her to take part in fight for american’s diana, the challenger: 391 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 freedom wholeheartedly and put aside her love for steve trevor. marston (1941) wanted to remove the doubt of his readers for wonder woman’s feminist mission being compromised by trevor’s affection; she was rather motivated with it. she was never superseded by it in pursuit of liberty and equality for all (yockey, 2012). jenkins (2017) dominated diana with more subtle aspiration to achieve her goal but her love for trevor was given little space in wonder woman (2017). her love for trevor remains unconcealed till his demise. it is not astonishing that the iconic figure of female super-heroine is intellectually and physically superior to male she rescues (matsuuchi, 2012). in wonder woman (2017), diana is portrayed in a war zone setting of europe, it delineates those feminists have left something unfinished in the past, which overshadows its retribution in the present. this time diana controls her love desires to dominate in the world of men. she is more passionate and enthusiastic to attract people in support of her cause, though she succeeds but she is unable to suppress her humanly desire. in the finishing scene of the movie diana realises that the real essence of love is hidden in love authority. getting victory over ares does not fully satisfy her. countrymen have shown raising the flags of uk and america to celebrate their victory, but she gets deeper into the image of steve while her eyes are full of tears (jenkins, 2017, 02:08:59). it is her power-surge that made her invincible, but tears in her eyes is a symbol of spontaneous overflow of conscious feelings. she wishes to be reunited with the other half of her equal counterpart, but her feminist ambitions and power-surge let her standing alone in love arena, it is love authority which can make feminists agreeable on common terms, beyond any protocols. she proves her power in the battlefield but her love for steve remained unexplored. her real test starts, when she seeks power in binary sex. being a princess of themyscira, she is blessed with elevated status, but when she sets off for the battle and leaves the island, she leaves behind this legitimate status of power. her adept power is going to be demonstrated in a battlefield (urick, 2018). now she is needed to use this basis of power for a greater cause. in jenkins’ (2017) version, she was working under the same bases of power, but her ambitions and constant urge of being triumphant was hindering to achieve her goal. it is steve, who perceived this deficiency of diana and made himself available till the end of getting what she wanted. during the war, steve convinced diana to follow the war protocols, but she was never diana, the challenger: 392 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 convinced. he told her that this battalion has been here for nearly a year and they barely gained an inch. she did not try to understand what steve tried to comprehend her. diana was unstoppable and it was what she was going to do (jenkins, 2017, 01:14:16). she left the battalion behind and confronted the machine guns firing from the other side. this was the point where steve’s masculinity was at stake. it was challenged by a woman having super powers, a bullet stopping bracelet and a strong shield. she tried to stop bullets through her bracelet and shield, but the actual shield which helped her in stopping the machine guns was steve himself and those men, whom she was not trusting in the past. she defeated the whole army and saved innocent lives but it was not her victory alone, it was the victory of virtue over evil, which became possible through the mutual bond of both the sexes. it is the equal contribution of both men and women towards a common goal. conclusion jenkins (2017) wonder woman is a feminist fantasy, glorifying a super-woman, who did not stop till achieving her goal. this movie is set in a war-torn europe of the 1940s. ares, the god of war had corrupted the minds of the human beings and they had turned against each other. jenkins (2017) has put men’s jealousy and corruption into trail. in the very beginning of the movie hippolata, queen of the amazons is shown to teach her daughter diana about leadership protocols through how amazons were created by zeus to wipe out evil and restore peace to the earth. she told her that ares poisoned men’s hearts with jealousy and suspicion (jenkins 2017, 00:07:05). this feminist lesson was engrossed in her soul, and she started looking to the world with a feminist lens of considering men responsible of all the misdeeds. diana followed these rules wholeheartedly and her inner masculinity was aroused for cleansing all evils till restoring peace to the earth, but her feminine surge was never suppressed. she was fascinated with captain steve trevor; in him she sought a man of all judicious skills and confidence. affirmation of the historical requirement for feminism subsists, but just to show that feminism is no more needed. the issue of female discrimination or sexual victimisation is excused as something older-fashioned. thoughts from women's rights are evoked to undo feminist critiques (tucker, 2011). during the analysis, the character of diana is analysed from undermining the radical ideology of post-feminism. it is concluded that the challenges of the 21st diana, the challenger: 393 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 century are different, which are not easy to be solved through the lasso of hestia. women’s rights in the middle of the 20th century were more rationalized because females were confined to the more delicate businesses while their very basic rights were not granted. in contemporary age, diana is needed to abide her will to the state and incorporate herself for the welfare of humanity beyond gender differences, because fighting for a greater cause needs to function beyond gender protocols. mcrobbie (2008) gives explicit instances of how feminism is ‘ignored’ through mainstream society. standard acknowledgment of pornography is one model. erotic entertainment is a customary space of feminist study. this exploitation of feminist critique is reversed, and young females progressively support or if nothing else decline to censure the standardization of porn. the encouragement is found in women’s magazines where young ladies are urged to show their ‘sexual freedom’ through uncovering breasts. young ladies' clothing may incorporate expressions, for example, ‘juicy’ or ‘porn queen’. a sexually free female may go to lap dances and discovers her strength in pole-dancing classes. women are currently present in numerous social organizations and in high profile positions. these additions are utilized as proof of female success. this is important for the explanation mcrobbie (2008) contends that feminism has been considered. the feminist movement is dislodged as a political development since women are viewed as ready to completely partake in the workforce. female economic stability is the capacity to completely take part in consumer culture. the analysis showed that jenkins’ (2017) narrative is based on radical approach of feminism, which challenges social hierarchies. marriage is criticised as temporary source of bodily pleasure and an unaccomplished oath. the role of marriage in procreation is discouraged while men’s role is confined to impregnate women only; they are shown to have no role in fulfilling sexual desires. it is an agenda of the radical feminists to achieve more, which is still illegal in most of the democratic states of the world. fighting for the rights of queer lesbian/gay is not a big challenge in this modern world, which they are addressing through getting superpowers. the world needs a super-heroine to walk beside super-man and fight for a much greater cause. the feminist activists have succeeded in achieving almost all their due rights in europe and the rest of the developed countries. now they should not flap their wings in void, but they diana, the challenger: 394 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 are needed to address the very common issues of women in third world countries. jenkins (2017) is needed to portray diana in a much natural setting of far-flung african and asian countries to fight for the sub-urban women, whose femininity is spoiled by throwing acid at their faces; they are constantly defiled and dispossessed. challenging such kind of radical patriarchy is one of the big challenges, needed to fight against. if jenkins (2017) still tries to fight for the rights of the queer lesbian/gay community, it is indeed the deterioration of marston ideology of women’s empowerment. marston (1941) wanted to depict the notion of a woman role model fighting for all the sub-urban females, who were unable to fight for their basic rights. the world needs a ‘wonder woman’, who can fight besides men against evil forces. her masculinity should not be a threat for men, but they should take it as a common gender attribute. if she does the same, every man she comes across will be captain trevor, it is a point indeed where she can find consolation and her power-surge and glory will reach to an end. references averett, p. (2009). the search for wonder woman an autoethnography of feminist identity. affilia: journal of women and social work 24(4): 360-368. brittan, a. (1989). masculinity and power. oxford: blackwell. brod, h. (1987). the making of masculinities: new men’s studies. winchester: allen and unwin. caplan, p. (1998). the cultural construction of sexuality. london: routledge. carpente, m. (2018). sculpted from clay, shaped by power: feminine narrative and agency in wonder woman [master dissertation, eastern michigan university]. east michigan university repository. chavez, m., gavaler, c., & goldberg, n. (2017). loving lassos: wonder woman, kink, and care. in jacob m. held (eds.), wonder woman and philosophy: the amazonian mystique (1st ed., pp. 188-197). new jersey: john wiley & sons, ltd. cocca, c. 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[review of the book manhood in the making: cultural concepts of masculinity, by d. d. gilmore]. asian folklore studies, 51(1), 135-137. tucker, n. (2011). [review of the book the aftermath of feminism: gender, culture and social change, by a. mcrobbie]. spaces for difference: an interdisciplinary journal, 2(2), 3941. urick, m. j., & sprinkle, t. a. (2018). teaching leadership: using wonder woman to highlight the importance of gender diversity. management teaching review 4(9): 1-9. yockey, m. (2012). wonder woman for a day: affect, agency, and amazons. transformative works and cultures 10(7). @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). surviving subjectivities: negotiating subaltern agency in the god of small things and brick lane 133 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.360 surviving subjectivities: negotiating subaltern agency in the god of small things and brick lane sania gul1 zahid ali shah2 1department of english, islamia college peshawar, khyber pakhtunkhwa, pakistan 2department of english, islamia college peshawar, khyber pakhtunkhwa, pakistan abstract this paper critically analyses the god of small things by arundhati roy and brick lane by monica ali with spivak’s work as literary practice. this enabled the understanding of both the problems and possibilities that spivak’s work holds while the paper also extends and repositions south asian women’s writing. while interrogating the subaltern agency and subjectivity within the dominant ideological paradigms, the paper engages with the politicised readings of the south asian novel written by women which is brought into dialogue with attention to literary form. this research also highlights the need for further investigation of literary forms used by postcolonial women writers to develop a deeper understanding of the interconnections between realist and postmodern styles and the representations of female experience. the different conclusions of the chosen novels suggest diversity and complexity not only in methods and strategies of representing women but also in degrees of agency, discrimination, oppression and choice of action among the leading female characters. this results in interpretive diversity and variety in the texts which resist simple conclusions about homogenous subaltern oppression which the readers make. through characters like ali’s nazneen, roy’s ammu and rahel, the selected authors succeed in creating complex models of women with heterogeneous experiences, where a woman is modern and traditional, marginalised and resistant, silent and resilient. postcolonial women writers depict female characters that showcase the social problems as well as their solutions. keywords: subaltern, spivak, south asian fiction, resistance, and subjectivity introduction this paper focuses on the relationship between death and subalternity through the characters of the postcolonial south asian novel authored by women writers. the integration of the subaltern populations into the capitalist globalisation of the twenty-first century has significantly altered the concept of subalternity. the resultant emergence of “new subaltern” “who are not outside the circuits of power but are integrated into it in problematic ways” (nilsen & roy 11) calls for investigation of the factors that have made the figure of subaltern visible. spivak’s intervention in her essay “can the subaltern speak?” attempts to understand the heterogeneous consciousness of the subaltern that cannot be read along with the dominant structures of visibility like religion, nation, patriarchy, imperialism, colonialism and so on. the polemics of the essay and its static positionality of the subalternity can be narrowly summarised in the lines “on the other side of the international division of labour from socialised capital, inside and outside the circuit of the epistemic violence of imperialist law and education supplementing an earlier economic text, can the subaltern speak?”(37). so, the subaltern sections of the global south, constituted by heterogeneous conditions and factors that remain uninscribed along with the frames of visibility surviving subjectivities: negotiating subaltern agency in the god of small things and brick lane 134 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.360 such as nation-state, colonialism and globalisation and denied access to the structures of the global north, can be relieved and read across the international division of labour. furthermore, attention must be given to the question: in this heterogeneous constitution of subaltern consciousness, can theory, history, and novel claim neutrality? postcolonial south asian women writers like monica ali and arundhati roy, foreground the faultlines within the postcolonial nation-states that result in social denigration. forces of colonialism and neo-imperialism cannot be solely held responsible for social disintegration in south asia. “small stories” are strategically occluded from the “grand narratives” of secularism, democracy and nationalism that postcolonial nation states of south asia proudly sell to the world. the dominant discourses marginalise its subjects on the pretext of caste, class, and gender, whom consequently go through spivakian moments of “fade out”. the marginalised section of society only strategically appears in the official narrative when needed, like rani of sirmur. this paper explores how roy and ali foreground the multiplicity of subaltern voices. by focusing on the various layers of complicity with and resistance to colonialism and patriarchy, the chosen texts negate the notion that the subaltern characters are devoid of any voice and women in postcolonial nations form a homogenous invisible group. the gendered subaltern body marginalised and inscribed by the colonial, national and patriarchal forces becomes a powerful site of resistance within the novels. theoretical framework the modes of resistance and subjectivity that this paper explores in the subaltern characters of south asian fiction have been mobilised through its engagement with spivak, which emphasises the importance of cultural specificity. however, like many others, this study finds an unresolved and unaddressed contradiction in spivak’s conceptual approach. she criticises white feminism for its one-dimensional approach towards non-western women, which renders them passive and devoid of agency. yet, in her own work, she forecloses the possibility of subaltern speech due to the obtrusiveness of receptive frameworks. representation of subaltern subjectivity and its voices takes many forms, yet it gets lost in translation and negates the possibility of being heard. this calls for understanding the gestures of speaking about, speaking for, and speaking to. spivak finds speaking for most problematic with its assumption of knowing and understanding all. this response assumes the complications and particularities of female subjectivity. bhubaneswari bhaduri attempts to create a narrative of resistance, but the forces to silence the subaltern are interwoven within the cultural specificity of the historical moment. the discursive debate sparked by “can the subaltern speak?” illustrates how the dominant discourse within the society affects what might be spoken and how different forms of subjectivity may be considered. the particular ways in which spivak’s conceptual approach has been engaged within this work is not just for locating the possibilities of agency but also in locating an informed understanding of different surviving subjectivities: negotiating subaltern agency in the god of small things and brick lane 135 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.360 forms of resistant subjectivities, which is an attempt to mobilise spivak’s silent subaltern model and problematise its associated epistemologies. spivak’s critical and deconstructive approach interconnects the practice of literary criticism with the practices of radical politics in which dominant structures are questioned. spivak’s deconstructive approach demonstrates the need to replace the regionally situated frameworks of analysis with transnational models that explore differentiated analyses of global relations between power and domination. the literary works studied in this study replicate this move to demonstrate the interconnections of local, national and international structures of power that are gender-specific. the use of spivak’s theory to study the fiction written by south asian women has a two-fold effect in this study. first, it results in more contextually informed readings of the selected novels that are critically conscious of the style in literary and cultural theories that are attentive to politics of representation. this methodology has also considered the specific social, cultural and political peculiarities within postcolonial south asian contexts vis-a-vis the contents of the works examined. second, an engagement with spivak’s work signals the need for transnational feminist politics and theory which is attentive to relations between gender and power that is context-specific and which is also aware of the complicated networks of global power structures. gayatri chakravorty spivak’s subaltern theory maps out and encompasses various contexts and conditions of subalternity. the dialogic potential of her theory does not stem merely from its universal applicability to various national and cultural hegemonic paradigms but it arises from its potential to foreground the productive possibilities of interrogation and engagement even if it reveals the impossibilities of doing so. if the theory aims to locate the voice of the subaltern through the “uncoercive rearrangement of desires”, it is indeed the pursuit of unattainable possibility (spivak 230). for spivak, this rearrangement of desire can be achieved by accepting the subaltern fixed positionality as normal; however, as the example of bhubaneswari indicates, when the positionality of the subaltern is brought to crisis, then the voice is dependent on the receptivity of interpretive frameworks. where her relatives fail to read bhubasnewari’s narrative, spivak’s subsequent questioning of the dominant discursive networks “make[s] her” speak by default (spivak and morris 230). this paper focuses on the receptivity of the interpretive frameworks, which tends to ignore the resistance and subjectivity of the doubly marginalised characters in the south asian fiction authored by women by focusing on the female protagonists of the god of small things by arundhati roy and brick lane by monica ali. analysis arundhati roy problematises subaltern boundaries through the character of velutha, ammu, rahel and estha in her critically acclaimed novel the god of small things1. she deals 1 hereafter referred to as tgst surviving subjectivities: negotiating subaltern agency in the god of small things and brick lane 136 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.360 with issues ingrained in repressive societies that perpetuate occlusions and abuse. such mechanisms of occlusions can be observed in terms of gender and race in the context of postcolonial and caste-based indian society. the novel subtly engages with the politics of subaltern and emphatically denounces it by questioning the inscription of gender and race in the social and cultural semiotics of the postcolonial indian society. through writing and active politics, roy challenges the repressive social and cultural system that hegemonises individual freedom, forecloses any possibility of social mobility and controls the natural expression of the body and discourse of desire. my argument here focuses on how roy creates a narrative that highlights the hegemonic ideological discourses work for and through the subjection and subordination of the subaltern and oppressed but fails to inscribe their spirit of resistance. it is through this unbreakable spirit of the disenfranchised characters inhabiting the margins of the society that i assert the subjectivity of the subaltern who even in the face of persecution and execution refuses to be inscribed by authoritative discourses. arundhati roy is the voice of the voiceless and the ostracised. not only does her fictional writing (consisting of two novels) but also her non-fictional work is driven by the urge to re-assign the social and geographical boundaries that exist to perpetually segregate humans in distinct hierarchical compartments. these compartments are controlled by centuries-old ideological paradigms of society. the social reality of the disenfranchised echelon of society is formed of silences, occlusions and erasures. in her novel, roy attempts to unmask those forces that control and shape this social reality. she says: the theme of much of what i write, fiction as well as nonfiction, is the relationship between power and powerlessness and the endless, circular conflict they’re engaged in. though it might appear otherwise, my writing is not really about nations and histories; it’s about power. about the paranoia and ruthlessness of power. about the physics of power (roy and zinn). in the novel, she exposes the networks of power that divide society and perpetuate these divisions. along with lending voice to the voiceless, she also exposes the invisible ideological paradigms of the society that layout the structural configuration of the society. these predetermined societal maps are primordial and haunt the lives of individuals in unfathomable manners and ways. roy’s politics, in both her fiction and political writings, is essentially the same. she has a dissenting voice that speaks against the forces of capitalist globalisation which economically and politically exploit the disenfranchised section of society in this era of neocolonialism. spivak shares the same perspective of globalisation when she writes, “the general culture of euro-us capitalism in globalisation and economic restructuring has conspicuously destroyed the possibility of capital being redistributive and socially productive in a broad-based way” (spivak 30). the critics who believe in the economical and political inequalities exacerbated surviving subjectivities: negotiating subaltern agency in the god of small things and brick lane 137 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.360 by globalisation, a postcolonial standpoint offers a critical perspective that questions human relations in a globalised world. in krishna’s view, if neoliberal globalisation is the attempt at naturalising and depoliticising the logic of the market, or the logic of the economy, postcolonialism is the effort to politicise and denaturalise that logic and demonstrate the choices and agency inherent in our own lives. (krishna 2) ammu and velutha, through their inter-caste transgressive relationship, and rahel and estha through their alternative mode of subjectivity, challenge the network of values, set of norms, patterns of binaries upon which the normative understanding of nationalism, subjectivity and belonging are rested in an oppressive society. the novel portrays a primordial struggle of the “small things” against the totalitarian forces of “big things” such as nationalism and globalisation. the relationship between the subaltern characters ammu and velutha, and rahel and estha questions the hierarchical structures of postcolonial nationalism and challenges the occluding patterns of capitalism and globalisation. it further looks into the narrative as it questions the normative values that inscribe and regulate human lives. thus, with the assumption of postcolonial subjectivity as a form of resistance; it also reads how roy’s novel confronts the ways and structures in which human lives are inscribed by master narratives of the dominant. roy’s novel aligned with spivak’s critique of postcolonialism, and neo-imperialism exposes the practices in which the local, national and international understandings of being and belongings inscribe human lives. the novel highlights how the inscribed and marginalised lives and their associated “small things” resist and confront the “big” forces of nationalism and capitalist globalisation to offer new modes of alterity and different notions of subjectivity. velutha, being a paravan and hence an easy target is falsely accused of many things: the drowning of sophie mol, the disappearance of the twins, and the attempted rape of ammu. the scene in which he is murdered foregrounds the inability of the subaltern to speak. the silence of the subaltern body in torture and pain is contrasted with the touchable police who acts as an apparatus of the power structure of the society, to keep it intact after being challenged. the plight of the untouchables in the novel is shown from every possible angle, which in turn, reflects on the lives of untouchables in indian society, as the novel hinges on “historiographic metafiction”. not only is the upper caste ipe family land and factory owners, but they also own the labour of the untouchables. velutha is a skilled craftsman of furniture; his skill is reflected in “bauhaus dining table with twelve dining chairs in rosewood and a traditional bavarian chaise longue in lighter jack” which he crafted (tgst 75). not only is he skilled in making furniture, but also knows to fix all kinds of electric appliances in the ayemenem house. mammachi acknowledges his skills and with her touchable logic observes that had velutha not been a paravan, he would have been an engineer. yet he does not possess the skill to carve a future with ammu. how untouchables surviving subjectivities: negotiating subaltern agency in the god of small things and brick lane 138 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.360 are forced to live in a small bleak hut draws a sharp contrast to the colonial-like mansion of the ipe family. the lives of untouchables as shown through velutha and his family is a perpetual cycle of physical, emotional, and mental trauma and abuse. the untouchables inhabiting the margins of the society are invisible, despite their visible pains and miseries. velutha’s mother dies a slow miserable death, velutha’s father has lost one eye, while his brother kuttapen is not only socially but also physically impaired, as he silently awaits his death enduring stifling heat, hunger, and bits of thatch and grit falling onto him. the silent, claustrophobic hut “terrorise him with the spectre of his own insignificance... insanity hovered close at hand like an eager waiter at an expensive restaurant” (tgst 207). the hut has four corners: “one for cooking in, one for clothes and blankets, and one for dying in” (tgst 298). the social and political marginalisation of the subalterns is evident from their geographical marginalisation. the novel dextrously uncovers the layers of occlusions, binaries, and contradictions that exist between the touchables and the untouchables. the novel humanises the subaltern by portraying the pain, misery, and insignificance of the lives of the untouchables and by expressing the pain of their “mortgaged” bodies (tgst 37). when the affair of velutha of ammu discloses; the helplessness of velutha is shown after he is first betrayed by his father and then by the communist party. comrade pillai, the professional omeleteer responds to velutha’s pleas for help by saying “you should know that party was not constituted to support workers’ indiscipline in their private lives” (tgst 287). ammu despite hailing from the upper caste is the victim of patriarchy. she faces multiple levels of oppression at the hand of all her male relatives: her father, her husband, and her brother. outside her family, the english boss of her husband wants to sleep with her while the police inspector humiliates her and calls her “veshya” (tgst 5). despite all these oppressions, she audaciously nurtures her desires and refuses the dictates of “love laws”. ironically, even the women fail to comprehend her rebellion against the laws of established order. rajeswari sunder rajan suggests in “the scandal of the state” that indian women are “so deeply embedded in the structures of family, neighbourhood, and religion, which offer them their primary identity, that these would claim their loyalties in a situation of competing rights” (rajan 167). her transgressive relationship with velutha is a bold assertion of feminine desire in a society where the expression of such desires outside the frame of marriage and wifehood is gravely problematic. similarly, velutha’s desire for ammu is his desire for re-arranging the social geographies in which he can be embraced and accepted as equal by touchables. his participation in the communist rally is reflective of his anger over the social cartography of indian society. he like ammu is dissatisfied with his marginalised existence and wants to break the shackles that tie him down to the untouchable status. gender and religion are important pretexts based on which the power paradigms regulate social transactions in indian society. rao analyses the intersections surviving subjectivities: negotiating subaltern agency in the god of small things and brick lane 139 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.360 of caste and gender in “understanding sirasgaon”, and says that a social order that runs on the bifurcations based on caste, considers marriages critical in maintaining caste divisions. consequently, women and their desires are kept under check to ensure caste purity (228). within this backdrop, ammu and velutha enter into a forbidden and transgressive relationship. they both subvert the gender and caste restrictions of oppressive patriarchy. the controversial and oftdebated love-making scene between ammu and velutha highlights the dominant role of ammu both in the initiation and the consummation of her relationship with velutha. brinda bose writes by “asserting her own ‘biological’ desire for a man who inhabits a space beyond the permissible boundaries of ‘touchability’ it appears that ammu attempts a subversion of class/caste rules, as well as the male tendency to dominate by being, necessarily, the initiator of sexual act” (64). the ending of the novel focuses on ammu and velutha’s first moment of intimacy, highlighting thereby its significance in terms of ammu’s assertion of her subjectivity. the triumph of this moment is, however, undermined by the realisation that readers get early on the that the price of ammu’s erotic engagement with velutha is “two lives. two children’s childhoods. and a history lesson for future offenders” (tgst 336). arundhati roy has commented, “the novel ... ends with ammu and velutha making love and it ends on the word ‘tomorrow’. and though you know that what tomorrow brings is terrible, the fact that the book ends there is to say that even though it’s terrible it’s wonderful that it happened at all” (on writing) 2. ali in brick lane succeeds to create a productive space that creates possibilities for transformation of the limiting structures. she engages her readers with questions of the possibility of a transformative agency exercised by a gendered subaltern located on the margins of a middleclass subaltern space. nazneen never fully realises her sense of self in the novel, neither she effectively articulates her voice consciousness; but her character displays a comprehensive agency. before further dwelling upon the agency and voice consciousness of nazneen, it is important to understand the author’s contextuality which also provides the rationale and justification for her inclusion in the study of postcolonial south asian women writers. though ali had the privilege of graduating from oxford university, her location within the lower-middle-class fragment in bolton gives her a different transnational experience from that of shamsie and roy. she received a hybrid legacy from a bangladeshi father and english mother and spent earlier years of life in northern mill town witnessing multiple generations and influxes of poor immigrants from south asia, which gives her a different perspective from roy. the subaltern sisters, nazneen and hasina, are trapped within the multi-layered intricate matrix of religion, culture, tradition, race, class and caste. i further problematise their situatedness within the lines of subalternity by studying it in relation to the emotional and cultural shock of 2 roy, arundhati "on writing." 6 may 2004 <http://website.lineone.nethon.simmons/ roy/tgost4.htm> surviving subjectivities: negotiating subaltern agency in the god of small things and brick lane 140 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.360 migration, both outside and within bangladesh, and the parallels between britain and bangladesh. monica ali is part of the contemporary anglophone writers who writes about the questions of multiculturalism which includes the differences between the first and second-generation migrants, cultural differences, dysfunctional families, and issues of identity within multicultural frames. ali’s work also deals with how conservative values and western influences intersect to create new discursive spaces for unique identities. ali’s text discusses the conflicting familial relationships due to the collusion of traditional patriarchal mindset within modern, progressive values that encourage liberty and nourish individualism. nazneen’s mundane life in london is haunted by her constant yearning to be back in gouripur (35). her day starts with memories and longing for home, which give her a feeling of loss. ali is focused more on migrants’ experiences and feelings from a gender perspective. chanu and karim are migrants as well, yet despite their enabling material positionality as men at the centre of the dominant discourses, they appear more fragile in comparison to nazneen who is doubly marginalised in london. chanu and karim are typical products of the historically and culturally specific patriarchies which mobilise their positioning in diasporic space through their negotiation of gender. their characters also serve to offer alternative meanings of consciousness that nazneen needs to acquire in her eventual transformation and attainment of subjectivity. the transatlantic journey of nazneen and the change of setting leave little or no impact on her psychological makeup. she is conditioned by the socio-cultural paradigms in bangladesh and confronts the same paradigms when she arrives in britain. she cuts the corn out of her husband’s feet, cooks food, looks after her children, and walks a step behind her husband whenever they go out of the home. she could not fulfil her desire to pursue english classes and is denied the right to get employed. the purpose of her existence is to look after her husband and children. when she asks chanu if she could go to english classes with razia, his response is “you’re going to be a mother … will that not keep you busy enough? and you can’t take a baby to college … it’s not so simple as that, just to go to college, like that” (62). this early account of her life illustrates that by the age of thirty-four she has experienced the climax and is moving towards the denouement of her life which holds both potential and possibilities. ali renders the character of nazneen that symbolises a journey of bildungsroman, a journey of passivity towards the promise, as even the act of falling for forbidden love is shown as being predestined for her. nazneen as compared to her sister is more passive as she believes in her mother’s logic of “how you were left to your fate” which shows her complying nature in contrast to her sister hasina who from an early age “listened to no one” (10-11). nazneen’s journey from her village in bangladesh to central london is not described in detail and the change in setting appears sudden and rushed. the novel opens in the village setting which moulds the novel into postcolonial contours. nazneen nostalgically remembers bangladesh in her new life that is both surviving subjectivities: negotiating subaltern agency in the god of small things and brick lane 141 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.360 literally and metaphorically cold and claustrophobic. letters from hasina, also keep her connected to bangladesh. the narrative moves in a linear fashion in line with the realist form of fiction which teases and tests the possibilities and limitations of the postcolonial space of a novel to trace and explore the effects of the gendering of nazneen by dominant ideological structures to explicate the agency within a cultural context the narrative voice registers descriptions of nazneen’s new environment. nazneen is incapable and ill-equipped to negotiate her position and assert her subjectivity in this new transnational home and society. her desire to learn english reflects her desire to carve possibilities in which she can assert her subjectivity and attain some level of agency. chanu thwarts such attempts of her as he becomes the agent of those patriarchal structures in britain that continue to oppress hasina in bangladesh and hence clips the wings of nazneen so that she remains subservient and dependent on chanu even in her daily life dealings. his statement that “her soon to be role of mother would keep her busy” reflects how the patriarchal structures allow only limited space and predetermine limited roles for women (62). chanu gives the irrational rationale behind the restrictions imposed on nazneen’s desire for learning. he explains to nazneen those ignorant people of the community will tell him they saw her walking on the street and consider him a fool. this rationale not only reflects on the diasporic community that is still stuck in the patriarchal register of bangladesh but also gestures towards chanu who is a graduate from dhaka and can quote chaucer and hulme but is ignorant and irrational in true sense. nazneen’s silence on one hand not only in this conversation but in many others with chanu on the surface shows expectant deference that a dutiful wife is supposed to show in patriarchal societies like that of south asia, but also signals a muted resistance. chanu reminds her that in bangladesh she would be unable to go out without her husband, which suggests how dislocated and displaced chanu is. hasina’s letter discusses the social change regarding purdah. avtar brah comments on such social rules that limit women’s involvement in public life. brah argues “how purdah varies enormously from one historical period to another, from one country to another and from one social group to another” (137). conclusion ali and roy discuss the representations of the cultural locations of south asian women within the national and international contexts. they interconnect the issues of dislocation, migration, and alienation with the construction of the identities of women. the novels, therefore, become an archive as they give an insight and perspective of the lives of women who have to undergo various kinds of migrations and dislocations both within and outside the country. spivak also argues about the importance of fiction as alternative site to explore the lives of women as the archives are designed and planed according to vested interests of those in power. nazneen does not form affiliations with britain. for nazneen it fails to provide the warmth and security she surviving subjectivities: negotiating subaltern agency in the god of small things and brick lane 142 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.360 experiences in bangladesh. hasina and nazneen both choose to remain single after they attempt to adjust to unfulfilling relationships with men. in hasina and ammu’s cases, their transgressive acts lead to further invisibility as they are ostracised by their families, friends and communities, whereas the more covert but conscious resistances of nazneen are empowering and lead to new dialogic possibilities for the subaltern to know and speak herself. these novels by south asian women writers negotiate subaltern space and delineate an altered form of subjectivity and notion of resistance that do not necessarily conform to western expectations of resistance. roy and ali effectively intervene in the religious and cultural paradigms to disrupt and challenge the patriarchal interpretations that oppress the gendered subaltern. south asian women writers are also mindful of the generalisation that exists about south asia and therefore refuses those generalisations. these writers attempt to produce a discourse that offers an alternative mode of agency and resistance that the south asian women exercise in their specific religious, cultural, political and social contexts. the fiction by postcolonial south asian women shows how the dominant ideological discourses dictate the lives and choices of women. this hegemony of dominant ideological discourses and the resultant subjectivities is the central question in this paper and is examined through a deconstructive, cultural reading of the texts. deconstructing readings of the texts and identities result in reading and understanding various strategies of resistance rather than freezing them in passive, monolithic, generic categories of subordination and subjection. surviving subjectivities: negotiating subaltern agency in the god of small things and brick lane 143 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.360 works cited bose, brinda. "in desire and in death: eroticism as politics in arundhati roy's" the god of small things"." ariel: a review of international english literature 29.2 %@ 1920-1222 (1998). print. brah, avtar. cartographies of diaspora: contesting identities. routledge, 2005. print. huggan, graham. the postcolonial exotic: marketing the margins. routledge, 2002. print. krishna, sankaran. globalization and postcolonialism: hegemony and resistance in the twentyfirst century. rowman & littlefield, 2009. print. rajan, rajeswari sunder. the scandal of the state. duke university press, 2003. print. rao, anupama. "understanding sirasgaon." signposts: gender issues in post-independence india (2001): 205 %@ 0813529123. print. roy, arundhati, and howard zinn. come september. ak press, 2002. print. shamsie, kamila. "a long, loving literary line." the guardian 1 (2009). print. ---. "more honest than the facts." guardian. co. uk (2007). print. spivak, gayatri chakravorty. other asias. oxford, 2008. print. spivak, gayatri chakravorty, and rosalind c. morris. "reflections on the history of an idea: can the subaltern speak?" (2010). print. @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 103 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke tehreem ijaz 1 dr. muhammad yousaf 2 1 lecturer, department of english (gs), numl, islamabad 2 lecturer, department of english (ugs), numl, islamabad abstract the purpose of conducting this study is to investigate the conceptual metaphors used for men in pakistani society and highlight the conceptualization of male gender prevailing in pakistan. i have used conceptual metaphor theory (cmt) as the theoretical framework of this study and the method of content analysis has been followed in order to conduct this research work. the famous novel moth smoke by mohsin hamid serves as the sample of this research work for the reason that it has been written within the pakistani context and therefore, is considered to be a good source of the required data. the obtained data shows that male gender is held responsible for earning money and feeding the whole family. moreover, they are at liberty to live independently and spend a selfcentred life. the results of the present work may prove to be helpful for the future researchers studying the role of conceptual metaphors in the conceptualization of gender prevailing in a society as well as their significance in literature for representing gender. keywords: conceptual metaphor, moth smoke, male gender, pakistani society, gender roles 1. introduction by proposing conceptual metaphor theory (cmt) in 1980, lakoff and johnson introduced a new area of research in the field of linguistics and since then, conceptual metaphors have been studied by a lot of researchers. the present study focuses on the role of conceptual metaphors in representing the perception of male gender in pakistani society. as the conceptual metaphors used for male gender reflect the thoughts and beliefs of a particular society about the roles and responsibilities of men within that culture and region, hence this study aims to investigate the conceptualization of men in our society as well as the construction of male gender in pakistan. as this research work follows cmt as its theoretical framework, therefore the process of recognizing conceptual metaphors will be the same as mentioned by lakoff and johnson. according to this method, the words used for a selected concept (in this case ‘male gender’) are picked out of the sample and a comparison is made between their source concept (the concept for which these words are used) and the selected concept (the concept which is being studied). this method of recognition of conceptual metaphors has also been used in the previous research metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 104 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 conducted on conceptual metaphors. some of them will be cited in the literature review section of the present work. 1.1. research questions • what types of conceptual metaphors have been used by mohsin hamid in ‘moth smoke’ for referring to male gender? • what do these conceptual metaphors reveal about the prevailing conceptualization of men in pakistani society? 2. literature review some of the studies conducted to investigate the role of conceptual metaphors in reflecting human cognition process are discussed in this section. studies show that politicians also use metaphors in their campaigns for conveying their thoughts and aims to public. lakoff (2002) applied conceptual metaphor theory on political discourse of republican and democrat parties and discussed this study in his book ‘moral politics’. in this book, lakoff (ibid) states that these two political parties possess different views about morality and the life of an ideal family. these views give rise to the difference in the way these two political parties unconsciously interpret the world, which results in their different views about the ways government policies should be created. on the basis of the political views of the democrats and the republicans, lakoff (ibid) presents two models namely “strict father” and “nurturant parent” and states that nation is considered as a family by the conservatives and the liberals. lakoff (ibid) describes the “strict father” model as a family having a father as the main authority. he is responsible for taking care of the whole family, as well as making and implementing firm principles regarding the children’s code of conduct. the mother is responsible for nurturing the children, maintaining the house properly and conforming to the dominance of the father. the children are expected to follow the rules formulated by their parents in order to develop their personalities. when the children grow up, they are ready to take their own decisions. conversely, the “nurturant parent” model is a family in which the children are given love, care and respect by the parents and the children obey their parents in order to show their love for them, rather than fearing the penalty of disobedience. parents have the authority to take decisions, but they are supposed to explain the purpose of their decisions to their children. children are metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 105 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 encouraged to give their suggestions and parents consider them seriously (as cited in johansen, 2007). al jumah (2007) conducted a cross cultural study in order to investigate the use of metaphors in business writing in english and arabic. by examining different business articles, al jumah observed that more metaphors in business discourse are found in english language as compared to the arabic. the most prominent metaphor used for referring to business is the ‘war metaphor’. besides, ‘sports metaphor’ is also commonly used in business language. it has also been noticed that the companies having a slow pace of changing are metaphorically linked to large, slow-moving animals (e.g. an elephant), whereas the companies possessing the ability to cope well with the changes occurring in their environment are metaphorically compared to the swift and active animals (e.g. a lion). phillips (1998) observed that the use of metaphors can cause tension among the workers, leading to their poor performance whereas the proper use of metaphors can lessen the stress among the employees, resulting in their improved output (as cited in al jumah, 2007, p. 43). johansen (2007) investigated the use of conceptual metaphors by the conservatives (strict father) and the liberals (nurturant parent). johansen (ibid) discusses the use of metaphors for different political concepts, e.g. state, government, economy, policies (action plans), etc. the results of this study show that there are some conceptual metaphors that are used by the two political parties mentioned above, in the same manner; whereas other conceptual metaphors are used differently (johansen, 2007, p. 78). lantolf and bobrova (2012) studied conceptual metaphors used in beer advertisements of america and ukraine. this study focuses on the similarities/differences in the conceptual metaphors for beer in american and ukrainian cultures and the modalities chosen for constructing these metaphors in both these cultures. a corpus of american and ukrainian t.v advertisements (16 each) was chosen for this study. lantolf and bobrova (ibid) found that the dominant conceptual metaphors used in american beer advertisements are ‘happiness is drinking beer’ and ‘beer is a person’. in the first metaphor, an emotion of ‘happiness’ (an abstract concept) is linked with the act of ‘drinking beer’ (a concrete idea). metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 106 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 the corpus of ukrainian t.v advertisements of beer presents the same two frequent metaphors as those found in american commercials (mentioned above), but they exhibit variations in their construction. in addition to these two, the ukrainian commercials also contain a third major metaphor which is not found in the u.s advertisements, i.e. ‘patriotism is drinking beer’. du (2015) investigated metaphors used for conceptualization of four emotions in fortress besieged (a chinese novel): happiness, sadness, love and anger. du (ibid) observes that the metaphorical expressions used for representation of these emotions involve some common source domains such as orientation, health and illness, light and darkness, games, etc. ‘happiness’ has been referred to as ‘up’ (a character has been described as having high spirits), ‘light’ (a character feels his body growing light and rising upwards), ‘game’ (smile has been referred to as a triumphant smile) and ‘pressure’ (bursting out into a laughter). ‘sadness’ has been expressed as ‘down’ (talking in a low voice), ‘heavy’ (heart experiencing a heavy thump), ‘pain’ (getting hurt) and ‘lack of qi’ (having low spirits). terms used for ‘love’ are ‘a valuable thing’ (valuing someone’s love), ‘game’ (enjoying the victory of love) and ‘illness’ (sufferers of love). anger has been represented as ‘qi’ (anger disappeared), ‘burden’ (unbearable) and something ‘hard’ (stiffness of the heart). the term ‘qi’ means ‘gas’ and chinese consider anger to be a gaseous substance present in human body. according to fortress besieged, all these four emotions (along with all other emotions) are present in the heart, hence giving rise to the metaphorical expression ‘heart is a container of emotions. the results of this study show that abstract concepts, including emotions, can be conceptualized, and comprehended through metaphors in verbal discourse as well as in literature. this study also highlights the fact that the choice of source domains of metaphors used for emotions is highly influenced by the culture in which these metaphors are constructed. for instance, the conceptual metaphor ‘anger is qi’ appears much more frequently in fortress besieged than any other metaphor (for anger). the domination of this metaphor for anger seems to be due to the two theories prevailing in chinese culture: “yin-yang theory” and “traditional chinese medicine theory” which prove the strong impact of culture on viewing the world (in this case, emotions) (du, 2015). 3. research methodology metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 107 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 the present study is an exploratory and explanatory study. qualitative research design has been followed while conducting this study. the famous novel “moth smoke” by mohsin hamid was chosen as the sample for this study. as mohsin hamid is a pakistani writer and he has written moth smoke within the pakistani context, therefore it was expected to be an appropriate source of the metaphors which are commonly used for men in pakistani society. this study follows the method of content analysis. conceptual metaphor theory (cmt) provides the theoretical framework for this research and hence, it was followed while selecting and analyzing the metaphors. after investigating the source and target domains of the selected metaphors, the similarities in both these domains were observed in order to investigate the basis for these metaphorical mappings. in the next section, theoretical framework has been discussed in detail. 3.1. theoretical framework the study follows the framework of conceptual metaphor theory (cmt), presented by lakoff and johnson in 1980. according to cmt, there are three basic types of conceptual metaphor: structural metaphor, ontological metaphor and orientational metaphor. i. structural metaphor: when one idea or concept is presented in terms of another idea or concept, it is classified as a structural metaphor. for example, “time is money”. ii. ontological metaphor: this metaphor is used for presenting a certain activity, a sentiment or an idea as an entity or a substance. for example, “inflation is an entity”. iii. orientational metaphor: when different special orientations are referred to, it is known as an orientational metaphor. for example, “conscious is up; unconscious is down”. by proposing the conceptual metaphor theory, lakoff and johnson negated two theories: 1. the abstraction theory – beneath the literal and metaphorical use of a word, there is a neutral and abstract concept. 2. the homonymy theory – a single word can be used in order to refer to different ideas. lakoff and johnson (1980) argued that the abstraction theory fails to differentiate between the two forms of metaphor: ‘a is b’ and ‘b is a’. in addition, it does not explain orientational metaphors and different sentiments. while presenting their arguments against homonymy theory, lakoff and johnson claimed that it fails to explain the systematic metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 108 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 relationships among different metaphorical expressions. besides, it is unable to clarify the extensions in a metaphorical expression. 4. results and discussion in this part of the paper, the linguistic expressions indicating the conceptual metaphors used for male gender in moth smoke will be discussed in detail by analyzing their source and target domains. the metaphors for male gender in the novel have been classified in separate groups, which will be explained here according to their target and source domains. 4.1. man as object different terms, having ‘physical object’ as their source domain, have been used in moth smoke for referring to men. these terms include ‘collapse’, ‘break down’, ‘hard-hearted’, ‘bright’, ‘solid’ and ‘cool’. the fact that all of these terms constitute of the same source domain (i.e. physical object) leads to the inference that man is conceptualized as a stiff object having a certain temperature, capable of emitting light and is liable to get damaged and break down. there are two terms which appear in the novel for referring to the male gender at different occasions. the word ‘collapse’ is literally used for buildings and is defined as “to fall down or fall in suddenly, often after breaking apart” (oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, n.d., p. 291). in moth smoke, darashikoh, when unable to lift his body and stand properly or defend himself during a fight, has been mentioned to ‘collapse’. “i try to stand, but i collapse and lie next to the road, slipping in and out of consciousness” (moth smoke, p. 181). besides, the phrasal verb ‘break down’ is usually used in case of machines and it is defined as “to stop working because of a fault” (oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, n.d., p. 179). in moth smoke, aurangzeb, while he cries bitterly as a child and asks for help from darashikoh’s mother, has been pointed out as ‘break(ing) down’. “one day he (aurangzeb) goes to ro’s (darashikoh’s) house and breaks down in front of ro’s mother and starts sobbing and tells her how sorry he is” (moth smoke, p. 189). the source domain involved in the usage of both these terms is a ‘(breakable) object’ and the target domain is ‘man’. material objects are breakable and possess varying resistance levels against pressure, heat and other forces. but as the force increases, these objects are unable to stay firm and eventually, they get broken. similarly, human beings have been given an ability to bear difficult situations up to a certain degree but very often they are unable to face the problems and beg for help. a man in such weak state is said to be ‘breaking down’. furthermore, a man is usually expected to be strong metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 109 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 and tough, but if he loses his strength and becomes unable to defend himself, he is said to be broken. as a broken object cannot resist force and is liable to any further damage similarly, a man who has been beaten and injured is unable to fight back and has to give up. therefore, a man in a weak state (either physical or mental) is said to have ‘collapsed’ or ‘broken down’. the term ‘hard-hearted’ has been used for the male protagonist darashikoh by himself, when he hasn’t paid his servant for two months and still refuses to pay him. here, a human heart has been classified as ‘hard’. the word ‘hard’ is used for objects and is defined as “solid, firm or stiff and difficult to bend or break” (oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, n.d., p. 707). darashikoh states, “i feel a little hard-hearted, but i tell myself i did the right thing” (moth smoke, p. 161). the source domain present here is again a ‘physical property of matter (hardness)’ while the target domain is ‘man’. as discussed earlier, a hard object has greater capacity to resist the environmental effects such as heat, pressure, etc. same is the case with darashikoh. he is jobless and left with a meager amount of cash when his servant asks him for his salary. being aware of the fact that he has not paid his servant for two months, darashikoh still refuses to pay him and behaves rudely. darashikoh feels bad about his behaviour but the very next moment he shakes off this thought and justifies his act by imagining himself as a good master who knows how to keep the servants in their limits. as emotions are generally related to heart and a kind person is referred to as ‘soft-hearted’ (or kind-hearted) while an indifferent and unemotional person is mentioned as ‘hard-hearted’. therefore, if a man treats his servants strictly, he is a ‘hard-hearted’ person. darashikoh is shown as an intelligent man and the term ‘bright’ has been used in order to refer to his high level of intelligence. the word ‘bright’ is used as an adjective for objects and it is defined as: “full of light (or) shining strongly” (oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, n.d., p. 185). in the novel moth smoke, darashikoh’s professor (julius superb), while talking to mumtaz, expresses his view about darashikoh: “he was too bright to work for a bank” (moth smoke, p. 65). here, the source domain is the ‘ability to shine’ and the target domain is ‘man’. in the novel, this term has been used for intelligence of a character, hinting upon the fact that an intelligent person is like a radiant object and can benefit others and help them in decision making and choosing the correct path in their lives. metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 110 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 another term used for the same male character, darashikoh, is a ‘solid boxer’. the term ‘solid’ is defined as: “hard or firm” (oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, n.d., p. 1456). a rickshaw driver “murad badshah”, while expressing his opinion about darashikoh, mentions that darashikoh is “a solid boxer with a quick mind” (moth smoke, p. 63). the term ‘solid’ has been used here in order to highlight the physical strength of the character. here, the source domain is ‘a physical state of matter (solid)’ and the target domain is ‘man’ again. physical strength is a major quality attributed to male gender in our society. on the other hand, among the states of matter, solid state is the hardest one. therefore, a man who is strong enough to confront someone powerful and is hard to be defeated is usually referred to as a ‘solid’ man. the next term used for darashikoh is ‘cold’ (and ‘cool’) for describing his indifferent attitude. literal meaning of the term ‘cold’ is: “having a lower than usual temperature” (oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, n.d., p. 289). murad badshah describes darashikoh to the readers as: “he was ruggedly handsome but cold” (moth smoke, p. 63). at another point in the novel, darashikoh states, “i am acting cool” (moth smoke, p. 207). darashikoh has been described as an unemotional person. the source domain involved in this expression is ‘thermal state of matter’, while the target domain is ‘man’. it is a common practice to refer to people, not expressing their sentiments, as ‘cold’. coldness is associated with death, as the dead body lacks warmth and is unable to respond to anything. hence, a person who appears to remain emotionally unaffected in different situations is mentioned as a cold person. ontological correspondences the non-functionality of man’s mind corresponds to uselessness of a broken object. lack of emotions in man’s heart and his inflexible attitude correspond to hardness and coldness of material objects, difficult to be molded. the intelligence of man corresponds to light and man corresponds to an enlightened object. physical strength of man corresponds to solidity and firmness of material objects. 4.2. man as animal in the novel, men in cinema, behaving in an uncivilized manner, have been described as getting ‘wild’. besides, poor men have been termed as ‘pets’ because they usually take financial metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 111 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 help from the rich. another term with the same source domain is ‘saddled’ that has been used for jobless (poor) man who is proud and holds a high opinion of himself. the word ‘wild’ is used for referring to animals (and plants) and is defined as: “living or growing in natural conditions; not kept in a house or on a farm” (oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, n.d., p. 1745). while watching a movie in the cinema, darashikoh exclaims that the male audience goes ‘wild’ when a female actress appears in the movie. “there are no women to be seen here, except on screen, and when those appear, the men in the audience go wild, whistling joyously” (moth smoke, p. 221). in this case, the source domain is ‘an undomesticated animal’ and the target domain is ‘man’. a wild animal is the one which is untamed and therefore, may prove to be dangerous. on the other hand, man is a social animal, which is trained through education and is taught to act in the best manner. however, if a man is unable to control his emotions and behaves in an uncivilized manner, he is considered to be ‘wild’ (or untamed). the male protagonist darashikoh has been called ‘loving pet’ by another character aurangzeb in the novel. “things might have stayed like that, ro (darashikoh) remaining lain’s (aurangzeb’s) loving pet forever, but defender came to town” (moth smoke, p. 187). here the source domain is ‘tamed animal’ while the target domain is ‘man’. a ‘pet’ is an animal that is kept by human beings for the sake of enjoyment and friendship. the masters take care of their pet and provide it a comfortable environment and food. the pet also gradually becomes tamed and obedient to its masters. hamid has mentioned a situation in the novel where aurangzeb is recalling his childhood memories and tells the readers about darashikoh (when he was a boy). after the death of darashikoh’s father, aurangzeb’s father treated darashikoh like his own son. this played a vital role in the development of a friendly relation between aurangzeb and darashikoh but this also gave way to the development of an inferiority complex in darashikoh and a superiority complex in aurangzeb. the basic reason for the emergence these complexes, was the help provided by aurangzeb’s father to darashikoh and his mother. here a comparison has been drawn between darashikoh’s relation with aurangzeb and a pet’s relation with its master. while talking about darashikoh (the kid), aurangzeb calls him his ‘loving pet’. being aware of the miserable condition of his best friend and the help provided to them by his father, aurangzeb gives darashikoh the status of a ‘pet animal’ and considers himself as the ‘master’ of that pet. as a pet metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 112 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 animal is totally dependent on its master for basic necessities (food, shelter, etc), similarly, darashikoh completely depended on aurangzeb’s father for his education. another thing mentioned by aurangzeb about the kid darashikoh is that he looked up to aurangzeb with “puppydog affection”. this also affirms darashikoh’s status of a pet animal in the eyes of aurangzeb. as dogs are considered to be faithful, hence darashikoh has been referred to as a dog because he remained a loyal friend of aurangzeb (during their childhood). hence, it can be concluded that if a man is reliant on someone, usually a person other than his immediate relatives, he is viewed as a pet, being supported by some other human being. if that man (the pet) behaves in a grateful manner and remains loyal to the person who is supporting him, he is compared with a dog on the basis of faithfulness and is loved in a way as a pet animal is loved by its master. this provides the basis of drawing a comparison between an independent person (e.g. darashikoh) and a pet animal. at another point in the novel, darashikoh has been described as ‘saddled’ with pride and self-delusion at a time when he has no job and is in debt as well. according to murad badshah: “darashikoh was in rather difficult straits himself: he was in debt, had no job, and was saddled with the heaviest weight of pride and self-delusion i have ever seen one person attempt to carry” (moth smoke, p. 65). this signifies that darashikoh has been carrying the weight of conceit which is a clear symbol of self-deception. this case of metaphorical mapping involves an ‘animal’ (horse) as its source domain, whereas the target domain is ‘man’. ‘saddle’ is a seat placed on the back of a horse for a rider. the rider then sits on the horse and can control it during the ride. here, a man has been given the status of an animal with a saddle on his back, carrying the weight of vanity and self-deceit, which in turn, steer his actions. the use of term ‘saddled’ highlights the social state of a jobless, proud man, i.e. such a man is considered as an animal carrying a weight. as male gender is usually held responsible for earning a living for the whole family; therefore, a man without a job (or money) is usually unable to earn a respectable position in his community. such a man, if continues spending his life in arrogance and remains ignorant of his social and economic instability, is looked upon as an animal which lacks brains and dignity and continues carrying the weight of saddle and the rider. hence, the concept underlying this metaphorical mapping is that a man with a poor financial condition is considered worthless in our society. ontological correspondences metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 113 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 the unethical and uncivilized behavior of man corresponds to the wildness of untamed animals. man’s tendency to obey, serve (and quite often) develop the feelings of affection for the one from whom he gets food and shelter corresponds to the affection and services of pet animals for their masters. moreover, a man carrying the weight of pride and false ego corresponds to a saddled animal, carrying (or loaded with) burden. 4.3. man as fish at different points in moth smoke, man has been termed as ‘fish’. the term ‘big fish’ has been used for men belonging to upper class while ‘small fish’ has been used for mentioning the middle class (or lower class) men. people have been compared with fish in this novel. ‘big fish’ is the term used for people with very strong position in the society, having an influence on others. in the novel, this term has been elaborated by the writer as: “someone whose name matters to a country head” (moth smoke, p. 55). on the other hand, the term ‘small fish’ has been used for referring to the people who do not have strong social connections and a lavish lifestyle. a situation has been presented in the novel where a character darashikoh is having a job interview and the interviewer tells him that he needs to provide a reference of some ‘big fish’ in order to get a job in a bank. in another situation, the same character (darashikoh) is left without any company at an upper class dinner party, where he feels to be treated like a ‘small fish’, which has been left alone to “swim by itself”. darashikoh tells the readers: “they’ve sized me up, figured out i’m a small fish, and decided to let me swim by myself for the evening” (moth smoke, p. 78). darashikoh’s unemployment and lower social status have been referred to as a reason behind this treatment. here, the source domain of this metaphor is ‘fish’ and the target domain is ‘man’. the metaphorical mapping involved here is that of animals’ way of survival. it is a well-established observation that big animals kill small animals for their food and same goes for the fish. the expressions of ‘big fish’ and ‘small fish’ throw light on the injustice and lawlessness prevailing in our society. people who are financially strong use their wealth and social status for establishing connections with the stronger people and this eventually results in a well-connected upper social class, with members giving favours to one another in order to get benefits in return. as a result, the middle and lower social classes suffer because of their lack of connections with these influential people and hence, they are usually metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 114 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 unable to secure good jobs and better financial position in the society, regardless of their abilities and talents. moreover, it is very common for the members of upper social class to look down upon people belonging to lower social classes and avoid their company. ontological correspondences the fact that big fish eats small fish corresponds to human way of survival in our society. 4.4. man as bird men belonging to the middle social class have been labeled by hamid as ‘caged souls’. another expression with the source domain of birds is ‘hawk-faced’. the third term used for comparing man with bird is ‘peacock’. the expression of a ‘caged soul’ has been used by hamid for referring to upper middle class men of our society. murad badshah states at a point in the novel: “at least a caged soul is well fed by its handlers” (moth smoke, p. 43). the writer mentions that pinstriped suits are actually ‘cages’ for the souls of people wearing these suits. these people have to act in a particular way and adopt a lifestyle that is specific to the middle class. the people from upper class of the society, who have got authority over the middle class, have been referred to as ‘handlers’ of the caged souls. the caged souls work for their handlers, who in return feed them well. this throws light on the system of our society, the class division and the misuse of power by our upper social class. the metaphor of ‘caged soul’ comprises of ‘pet birds, kept in cages’ as its source domain and ‘human beings’ as its target domain. during the trial of darashikoh, the readers are told that different people are entering the court and among them, there are two lawyers. the term used for mentioning the lawyers is ‘hawkfaced men’. “they are pursued by a pair of hawk-faced men dressed in black and white” (moth smoke, p. 11). the metaphorical mapping involved in the use of this term consists of a source domain ‘hawk’ and a target domain ‘man’. hawk is a famous bird of prey. it is widely known for its violent hunting and has an extremely sharp sense of sight. it is placed among the best hunters. a lawyer is a person who gives legal advice to people and is authorized to represent the people in court and discuss their legal issues. it is the moral duty of a lawyer to speak the truth in the court and present the facts in front of the judges so that the culprits and the evildoers may get penalized for their crimes. but it has been observed that the lawyers usually ignore their moral duties of metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 115 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 bringing forth the facts and saving the innocents from getting punished for something they never did, and focus only on money making. this attitude of lawyers provides the basis of their comparison with hawks. as a hawk is always ready to hunt and keeps searching keenly for its prey during its flight, similarly, a lawyer is always ready to secure rich clients and obtain a huge amount of money from them, in form of their fee. the writer has compared darashikoh with a peacock by mentioning that he is unable to ‘unfurl’ his tail, which appears to be ‘stuck’. “my tail seems stuck and i can’t unfurl it” (moth smoke, p. 131). this comparison appears in the novel when darashikoh wants to discuss his relationship with a female character named mumtaz, but he is confused and doesn’t find the courage to say anything. here, the source domain is ‘peacock’, whereas the target domain is ‘man’. peacocks are very well known for their trait of unfurling the tail and display its beautiful colour patterns. the peacocks spread out their tail feathers and formulate a semicircle behind them in order to impress the peahens. hence, when a man tries to convey his feelings and express his affection towards a woman, he is considered as a peacock trying to attract a peahen towards himself. hamid presents a situation in the novel where darashikoh is extremely confused and wants to know mumtaz’s opinion about himself (and their friendship) but as he tries to talk about the matter, he finds himself speechless and is unable to utter a word. he lacks the confidence required for opening his heart to mumtaz and discuss his confused state of mind. as a result, he is unable to reveal his emotions and confess his fondness for mumtaz, which leads him feel that his “tail is stuck” and he can’t “unfurl” it, i.e. he can’t openly express his likeness for mumtaz, as a peacock does for a peahen. therefore, according to this metaphorical mapping, a man trying to seek attention of a woman is seen as a peacock displaying its tail feathers for attracting a peahen. ontological correspondences the duty-bound state of middle class men corresponds to the state of caged birds which are deprived of freedom and are compelled to spend their lives in cages, according to their masters’ will. another trait of materialistic men, i.e. treating their clients as their prey, earning money blindly and having no sympathies for others corresponds to hunting process of birds which are always in search of their prey and attack on it ruthlessly as soon as they find one. moreover, it is a common observation that usually men express metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 116 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 their affection towards women and propose them for marriage, whereas women usually do not put forward a marriage proposal. hence, a man expressing his fondness towards a woman and trying to acquire her attention corresponds to a peacock unfurling its tail, seeking peahen’s attention. 4.5. man as edible the terms indicating the conceptualization of man as an edible are ‘sweet’ and ‘bitter’. these terms have been used to describe the behaviour of men. ‘sweet fellow’ is the term used for the guard of a boutique, who has been described as ‘almost ready to cry’ when a pistol is placed against his head during a robbery in the boutique. the word ‘sweet’ is used as an adjective for the food or drink “containing, or tasting as if it contains, a lot of sugar” (oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, n.d., p. 1551). darashikoh tells the readers: “the shop guard, a rather sweet fellow with a shotgun and a leather bandolier of cartridges, seemed almost ready to cry by the time i entered, walking purposefully but without undue haste” (moth smoke, p. 71). the source domain in this metaphorical expression is ‘sweetness’, which comes from the sense of taste, whereas the target domain is ‘man’. usually, the male gender is characterized as tough and strong. besides, a guard is expected to be strong and dauntless, as he has to act as a shield for a specific place or people. although the man in question here is a guard with weapon but he is unable to use that weapon when required. he is so helpless and terrified in the presence of robbers that instead of confronting them, he stands still in shock and terror. here, the term ‘sweet’ indicates that if a man is timid, or fails to act in a heroic manner in any situation, he is viewed as an inanimate object (a sweet eatable). another term falling in the same category is ‘bitter’. this word has been used by mumtaz for darashikoh. the term ‘bitter’ is defined as: “having a strong, unpleasant taste; not sweet” (oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, n.d., p. 144). referring to a man as ‘bitter’ consists of a source domain from the sense of taste, i.e. ‘bitterness’, while the target domain is ‘man’. there is a situation in which mumtaz uses the term ‘bitter’ for darashikoh. “why are you so bitter?” (moth smoke, p. 199). it is a common practice to use the word ‘bitter’ for a man expressing his hatred or resentment for a person or a thing. as neither the tone nor the words of the speaker are good, hence the person is seen as being ‘bitter’ because of his offensive behaviour. metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 117 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 ontological correspondences polite and pleasant behaviour of men corresponds to the sweet taste of edibles which has a pleasant effect on people, whereas rude and offensive behaviour of men corresponds to bitter taste of edibles which has an unpleasant effect on others. the effect of behaviour on others corresponds to the taste of edibles. 4.6. man as child this conceptual metaphor has been presented by referring to a married male character in the novel as a ‘selfish child’. at a point in the novel, mumtaz refers to her husband aurangzeb as a ‘selfish child’. “i had two selfish children on my hands, and they were making me miserable” (moth smoke, p. 153). here, the source domain is a ‘child’ and the target domain is ‘man (husband)’. a child comes to its elders when it wants something or is facing some sort of problem. in the novel, aurangzeb comes to mumtaz only when he is upset and wants to get comforted. this gives him the status of a child, who is only concerned with itself and approaches people for getting its needs fulfilled. therefore, if a husband lacks the ability to understand the problems of his wife and comfort her when she is depressed, rather talks to his wife only for sharing his own problems, he becomes equal to a child, acting in a selfish manner and becoming a burden for his wife. ontological correspondences a man’s selfish and irresponsible attitude corresponds to the behaviour of a child who needs continuous attention and help. 4.7. man as butcher the word ‘butcher’ has been used in the novel for mentioning the merciless leaders of twentieth century like pol, idi, adolf and harry. at a point in the novel, a character aurangzeb uses the term ‘butchers’ for pol, idi, adolf and harry. “bad like pol and idi and adolf and harry and the rest of the twentieth century’s great butchers of unarmed humanity” (moth smoke, p. 185). butcher is “a person whose job is cutting up and selling meat in a shop/store or killing animals for this purpose” (oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, n.d., p. 204). in this case, the source domain is ‘butcher’ and the target domain is ‘man’. metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 118 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 pol pot was the leader of cambodian communist party, who later formed his own army, named as “khmer rouge army” and took over cambodia. he declared that the society needed to be “purified” and hence, cambodia was completely disconnected from the outside world by putting a ban on media, foreign languages, embassies, foreign aid, education, business, etc. people were forced to evacuate the cities and move to countryside. people were forced into slave labour and ethnic groups were also tortured. as a result, approximately 25% of the total population of the country perished. idi amin was the president of uganda. during his government, he expelled the asians from uganda, got obote’s supporters killed, hijacked a french plane and ordered execution of those who were suspected to be involved in the rescuing the hostages. approximately 300,000 people got killed during the government of amin. adolf hitler was the leader of nazi party and the ruler of nazi germany (germany under the control of nazi party). he is held responsible for initiating world war ii in europe by the invasion of poland. being a supporter of autocracy, hitler considered jews to be responsible for international capitalism and hence, ordered their execution. this resulted in the genocide of approximately six million jews, as well as millions of non-jewish people. harry s. truman was the president of united states who, in order to avoid immense destruction and deaths in usa, issued orders of dropping bombs on japan, causing the war to end in massive casualties and ruin. as everyone knows that a butcher earns his living by slaughtering animals and selling the meat. therefore, the four rulers discussed above have been referred to as ‘butchers’ in moth smoke. this shows that if a man kills people brutally and mercilessly, he is conceptualized as a butcher who kills animals fearlessly and does not feel pity for them. ontological correspondences the cruelty of men (leaders) towards other people, as discussed above, corresponds to butcher’s ruthlessness and brutality towards animals. 5. conclusion the findings of this study will be discussed in this section and the questions mentioned earlier will be answered. metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 119 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 the gathered data shows that all the metaphors representing male gender in moth smoke refer to men in terms of different entities. hence, it is obvious that all these metaphors belong to the category of ontological metaphors. as conceptual metaphor theory also provides different sub-categories of ontological metaphors, so it is necessary to point out that all of the metaphors discussed above are ‘entity metaphors’, which is a sub-category of ontological metaphors, presenting a specific concept in terms of an entity. as discussed in the previous section of this article, men are held responsible for maintaining good social relations and earning well for their families. therefore, it can be concluded that in pakistani society, male gender is the dominant one. it is the duty of male members to feed their families and establish strong social connections. the men who are unable to behave well in front of others are seen as wild animals. men are also at liberty to live an independent life but if they act selfishly, they are looked upon as children, who are unable to take care of themselves and need assistance to accomplish their tasks. metaphorical representation of men in pakistani fiction: a study of hamid’s moth smoke 120 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.343 references al jumah, f. h. (2007). a comparative study of metaphor in arabic and english general business writing with teaching implications (doctoral dissertation, indiana university of pennsylvania). biography. (2015, october 10). retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4577066/bio du, p. (2015). conceptualizing emotions through metaphors in fortress besieged. international journal of english linguistics, 5(1), 53. johansen, t. a. b. (2007). what’s in a metaphor?: the use of political metaphors in the conservative and labour parties. hamid, m. (2011). moth smoke. london, england: penguin. lakoff, g., & johnson, m. (1980). conceptual metaphor in everyday language. the journal of philosophy, 77(8), 453-486. lakoff, g., & johnson, m. (2003). metaphors we live by. london: university of chicago press. lakoff, g. (1993). the contemporary theory of metaphor. metaphor and thought, 202-251. doi:10.1017/cbo9781139173865.013 lantolf, j. p., &bobrova, l. (2012). happiness is drinking beer: a cross‐cultural analysis of multimodal metaphors in american and ukrainian commercials. international journal of applied linguistics, 22(1), 42-66. metaphor. (2015, october 15). in oxford living dictionaries online. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/metaphor mohsinhamid.com. (2015, december 10). retrieved from http://www.mohsinhamid.com/about.html oxford advanced learner’s dictionary (7thed.). (n.d.). wordpress.com. (2015, december 10). retrieved from http://cruciformtheology.net/2013/01/22/classical-western-theory-of metaphor-aristotle/ @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/metaphor http://cruciformtheology.net/2013/01/22/classical-western-theory-of%20metaphor-aristotle/ postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction 219 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction bushra naz assistant professor, department of english literature iub, bahawalpur, pakistan abstract in this article i argue that momo, chengaze, and daanish’s quest of political liberty and identity in red birds, the reluctant fundamentalist and trespassing respectively manifests that liberal-internationalism is a colonial agenda. focussing on the development of liberal internationalism because of the transformation of the colonial to a neo-colonial strategy of the powerful countries, i argue that pakistani fiction demonstrates these policies influencing and affecting everyday life of ordinary muslims living in refugee camps, diaspora or in pakistan. focal point would be the examination of the procedures and constituents of the liberalinternationalism to distinguish colonial subterfuges and ruses of upholding control in the erstwhile and contemporaneous colonies exemplified in these novels in the context of post 9/11. for the purpose of this analysis, i have taken chris brown and kristen ainley’s notion of liberal internationalism as a modern means of colonization, gilbert rist’s ideas of liberal internationalism as a medium of disguised colonization and e. h. carr’s view of the internationalism as a utopian fantasy for fundamentally being a colonial economic agenda to keep afloat the conflict between ‘haves’ and ‘have not’ by way of creating an economic dependency of the third world nations’ upon the rich nations. following this, i will interpret brown, ainley and rist’s philosophy of the production of liberal internationalism as a secreted ploy of modern colonization building on carr’s notion of international liberalism as a paradox of political and economic freedom and a disagreement against it for political and economic liberty, an essential element in m. hanif, mohsin hamid, and uzma aslam khan’s protagonist’s achievement of individual sovereignty through a fundamental reconceptualization of their identity to the decolonization of their personhood. keywords: postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11, war on terror, identity introduction in this essay i argue that momo, chengaze, and daanish’s quest of political liberty and identity in red birds, the reluctant fundamentalist and trespassing respectively manifests that liberal-internationalism is a colonial agenda. focussing on the development of liberal internationalism as a result of the transformation of the colonial to a neo-colonial strategy of the powerful countries, i argue that pakistani fiction demonstrates these policies influencing and affecting everyday life of ordinary muslims living in refugee camps, diaspora or in pakistan. focal point would be the examination of the procedures and constituents of the liberal internationalism to distinguish colonial subterfuges and ruses of upholding control in the https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction 220 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 erstwhile and contemporaneous colonies exemplified in these novels in the context of post 9/11. for the purpose of this analysis, i have taken chris brown and kristen ainley’s notion of liberal internationalism as a modern means of colonization, gilbert rist’s ideas of liberal internationalism as a medium of disguised colonization and e. h. carr’s view of the internationalism as a utopian fantasy for fundamentally being a colonial economic agenda to keep afloat the conflict between ‘haves’ and ‘have not’ by way of creating an economic dependency of the third world nations’ upon the rich nations. following this, i will interpret brown, ainley and rist’s philosophy of the production of liberal internationalism as a secreted ploy of modern colonization building on carr’s notion of international liberalism as a paradox of political and economic freedom and a disagreement against it for political and economic liberty, an essential element in m. hanif, mohsin hamid, and uzma aslam khan’s protagonist’s achievement of individual sovereignty through a fundamental reconceptualization of their identity to the decolonization of their personhood. literature review ali usman saleem perceives post 9/11 western discourses on war on terror in the historical context of postcolonialism. discussing the background of pakistan’s constant engagement with the wars in british colonial rule in afghanistan and pakistan’s northern areas, saleem argues that it has resulted in an unstable political culture and fragmentation of the society. saleem argues that pakistani 9/11 fiction responds to western discourses of war on terror in relation to pakistan keeping in view the incursion of the usa in afghanistan, saleemi points to the dominating role of the usa film and media in the construction of the discourse of religious extremism, social decadence and political debauchery in the international politics of pakistan (saleem, 2015). pointing to a radical shift in the writings of pakistani authors, saleem proposes that their fiction offers a forceful commentary on international and native culture of politics by providing a national perspective on various these issues and question the international intervention by portraying them in big picture. situating his argument in the perspective of the conflict of islamic the western philosophies on the war on terror, saleem puts forward that the pakistani fiction enlightens the international reader not only on the indigenous socio-political, cultural crisis, misuse and manipulation of religious discourse and draws their attention to the political profligacy and moral dissolution of the pakistani political https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction 221 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 elite and the dubious financial and fraudulent activities of the power institutions in tandem these writings present pakistan as a progressive, forbearing and tolerant state yet caught in the international western manipulations of the idea of terrorism thus is in wretched suffering politically (saleem, 2015). saleem further argues that through their narratives, these writers have contested the western hegemonic discourse of anti-pakistan for assisting taliban, religious extremists, militant groups and organizations (saleem, 2015). saleem goes on to add that through their narratives these writers have used the former colonial culture in current postcolonial pakistani literature to explore and deconstruct its “national history to find reasons for the current socio-political and economic crisis” (saleem, 2015, p. 3). saleem argues that these writings ignore the traditional postcolonial ideas and observe contemporary international socio-political and cultural phenomenon involving an exchange of a dialogue with the western reader on pakistan and the muslim world (saleem, 2015) to decolonize their identity west has created after 9/11. on the other hand, shazia sadaf argues for the employment of the lens of human rights in the post 9/11 scenario to understand the dilemma of identity presented in the pakistani fiction in the context of the “neo-imperialism, global mistrust, and human suffering” (sadaf, 2017, p. 1). insisting upon the importance of human right aspect in teaching pakistani anglophone fiction, sadaf emphasizes that this is how western discourse of war on terror and terrorism can be contested. she argues for a comprehensive contextualization of current anglophone pakistani literature within the subcontinental history of british colonization to draw important insights in to the contemporary human rights debates in the post 9/11 period and exemplifies this equivocal and incongruous logic of the human rights universalism of the exclusion of the enemies from the identical human rights through legal system and codification by drawing upon agamben’s conception of the “states of exception” which recognizes these enemies not in terms of human beings or citizen rather subjects not only during the era of british empire but also in recent us war on terror (sadaf, 2017). taking a view of the european colonial history of interventions, sadaf refers to cultural relativists and pluralists to recoursing on colonial historicity to contest the “united nations international human rights norm that are seen to be “western oriented and not adequately reflective of non-western perspectives” (sadaf, 2017, 4). referring to culturalists comparisons of the eighteenth and nineteenth century colonialism with human rights and contemporary usa hegemony, sadaf upholds that https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction 222 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 eurocentric colonial projects promoted the monolithic view of their superiority and goes on to say referring to ibhowah that the usa military operations in middle east and gulf after 9/11are codified as freedom missions and this policy underlines the foregrounding of postcolonial logic about human rights dialogue and challenges the thesis of the universality of the human rights established and imposed by the colonial empires (sadaf, 2017). to conclude, saleem’s idea of the war on terror as a continuity of neo colonial project and sadaf’s notion of the human rights violation in the name of the war on terror provides me space to reconceptualise momo, chengaze and daanish’s struggle to get a socio-political autonomy in red birds, the reluctant fundamentalist and trespassing respectively in a comprehensive theoretical framework of the colonial, neo colonial institutions and the policies of liberal internationalism and struggle of their autonomy as a representation of their resistance to acknowledge the universalism of muslim identities in enemies of the west. theoretical contexts liberal-internationalism and colonial legacies setting a limit of this debate article, i will focus on the procedures and policies of liberal internationalism that emerged after the plight of the first world war when it became inevitable for the european and american to ascertain and launch new ideology of international relations to deal with this political crisis. to transcend this destruction “covenants” (chris brown and kristen ainley, 2009, p. 20) being the major source was opted by the european and america for liberal internationalism as the new policy for international political relations. to transcend the horrors of the war liberal-internationalist created propaganda of the avoidance of the war by sponsoring and subsidising liberal democracies generally and particularly against military regimes and autocracies in the third world. to operate this ideology usa manufactured the existence of the league of nations (brown and ainley, 2009) to mechanize and regulate international relations between and among superpowers and their vanquished territories. the permanent mandates commission granted league associates executive authority to claim territorial control of these colonies for being available (gilbert rist, 2008) space in need of new rulers. to rist, occupation of the new territories was not in its sphere and affair rather it functions to legitimate the globalization of political infringement and intervention (rist, 2008) to satisfy predetermined political interests in the name of nationalism. the wresting of iraq, https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction 223 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 palestine, and jordan can be seen as the consolidation of the rule of the british empire (rist, 2008) besides, the control of france on labanon and syria. in tandem, usa foregrounded her hegemony through an open-door policy for free trade by granting free ingress to the powerful nations in the subject lands. recognizing these economic policies as blanketed procedures (rist, 2008) of colonization to foreground its legitimacy for being the part of the league of nations, rist asserts that though usa opposed direct formal colonization through territorial control but made her contravention possible through the agency of league thereby institutionalizing the colonial intervention in the third world nations. dismissing liberal internationalism as a utopia (e. h. carr, 2001), h. e. carr critiques it as a contrived fantasy to masquerade factual matters of disagreements and clash as territorial control was not enough to justify their administration of the land obtained under duress. drawing upon carr’s idea of liberal international as a political fancy, brown and ainley explain that the real conflict of the colonizer and colonized is foregrounded in the fact of the “haves” and “have-nots” (brown and ainley, 2009, p. 25) liberal internationalism is a colonial manoeuvre to serve the interests of the powerful nations. the united nations owes its existence to the league of nations. building united nations, the main goal of the league was to develop an international political hierarchy of national organizations to guard national aims. contextualizing carr’s idea of the dichotomy of ‘have’ and ‘have not’ carr, 2001), i analyse the procedures and methods of colonization ingrained in the liberal internationalism. launching invasions against third world countries using “military intervention” side by side offering “appeasement” (brown and ainley, 2009, p. 24) avenues to the united nations member countries, brown perceives it as a “rebranding” (brown and ainley, 2009, p. 27) of the past colonial projects of the empire. red bird, the reluctant fundamentalist, trespassing and the post-war liberal internationalism and development the founding principle of liberal internationalism is grounded in the theory of “development” (rist, 2008, p. 76) given in the covenant of the league formerly and now “underdevelopment” exploited by un. in red birds, the camp portrays insufficiency and dispossession as it exudes neglect and lack for humanism. it is a “camp without water taps, a camp with road tax, a camp without a road, a camp with electric poles, a camp without electricity…a camp without a boundary wall” (hanif, 2018, p. 13). being run by a “evil entrepreneur, a post war profiteer, a petty black marketer” (hanif, 2018, p. 17) like momo, the https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction 224 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 camp dwellers despite of being so poor “live in un tents, eat exotic food donated by usaid and burp after drinking fizzy drinks”. ellie justifies american “interventions” in the local market with the rationale that “you can’t give them drip irrigation and tent school and hope for them to become civilized…give these men on camelbacks rocket launchers and see them arrive in the new millennium…they don’t even need an ideology” (hanif, 2018, p. 33). ellie considers these “mad bloody arabs” (hanif, 2018, p. 59) as “a third-world militia…enemy” (hanif, 2018, p. 76) living in the “corrugated blue plastic roofs, stretching like a low, filthy sky, broken by piles of grey plastic poles and overflowing blue plastic rubbish bins (hanif, 2018, p. 92) and a “shithole” being taken care by father dear as its “storekeeper” (hanif, 2018, pp. 108-9). although they “eat usaid grains, get usaid injections” idealize “disneyland” (hanif, 2018, p. 110) yet they are politically impassive and nonbeing as edward said claims that the “new imperialism” caused, prodded, pressed, and imposed a responsibility upon the natives to activate their passive orient being into militant modern life (said, 2003, p. 241). rist identifies that contemporary international relations were based on anti-colonial imperialism. this meant that the already established colonies of the world would now be colonised in a new manner. mutt’s objection on the arrival of the foreign intruders in the camp recalls the old colonial subterfuges when “[b]ig, rich nations [would] get a bloody nose in far-off countries and start slashing the milk honey for poor babies at home” (hanif, 2018, p. 25) to which attaching an inexorable historicity of imperialism, ellie observes the native as intrinsically “evil” and “barbarians” (hanif, 2018, pp. 197-199) in the imagination of empire. ellie’s description of the outfits of the children in european police paramilitaries, teenagers in nato general uniforms, grandfathers wearing british infantry overall and teenage girls wearing berets’ of french foreign legion informs this imperial historicity. in the reluctant fundamentalist, meeting in anar kali, changez informs the foreigner the historical importance of lahore and suddenly jumps at famous horror hollywood movie by inquiring “are you familiar with the legend of sleepy hollow” (hamid, 2019, p. 103) as if describing the abode of an apathetic, indolent, and passive colonized. to decolonize the former colonization of the british empire a new procedure was devised by the international political forces whereby u.s. patronized and organized access to https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction 225 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 new “markets” (rist, 2008, p.75). red birds exemplifies it in terms of “ghosts” army installations and “currency…cheque book” to perform “military operations” (hanif, 2018, pp. 174-176). ellie has a “65-million-dollar machine to fly, with the smartest bomb” which is more like a “three star hotel” to make “perfect landing” (hanif, 2018, pp. 3-5) in this “big, bad world” living on “strange lands” (hanif, 2018, pp. 213-227) not to justify the ways of god to men rather to introduce american warfare technology as “museum pieces” and to endow these poor nations the technique of “one-handed war” which they could launch with “remote controls drones” (hanif, 2018, p. 5) to wage war against a “devastated third world dictatorship on thoroughly ideological grounds” (said, 2003, p. xv). ellie believes in war as an “opportunity” (hanif, 2018, p. 5) to diagnose the malaise the “young muslim mind is subjected to” (hanif, 2018, p. 171) with a doctor who “wears the blue overalls of a us army infantry sergeant complete with stripes and standard-issue ray-bans, held together with scotch tape and a usaf helmet with we dare emblazoned on it” (hanif, 2018, p. 172) to rehabilitate them from oppression. with f15 strike eagle, and m16s, ellie is the agent of a superpower who operates as the “liberator” of the “third-world countries” (hanif, 2018, p. 272). in this perspective, elucidating the role of empire in the third world said explains “what imperialism has done,…think of the line that starts with napoleon, continues with the rise of oriental studies and the takeover of north africa, and goes on in similar undertakings in vietnam, in egypt, in palestine and, during the entire twentieth century, in the struggle over oil and strategic control in the gulf, in iraq, syria, palestine and afghanistan” (said, 2003, p. xviii). the reluctant fundamentalist unravels this mystery of american imperialism when chengaze shares his feelings with the american role in the politics of the third world in following words that “vietnam, korea, the straits of taiwan, the middle east, and now afghanistan: in each of the major conflicts and standoffs that ringed my mother continent of asia, america played a central role” (hamid, 2019, p. 96). comparing the past transaction of three-way affair of soviet arms through egypt, technological and financial assistance by usa and provision for training camps by pakistan, shamsie perceives an multinational and collaborative economic agenda behind gulf war and explains this three way activity in the contemporary political setting that now war is an international affair involving egypt, china, israel, muslims from all over the world and international capitalism (shamsie, 2009). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction 226 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 this new strategy to subvert old british imperialism was based on premise of “development” and “underdevelopment” (rist, 2008, p. 60). in red birds, momo perceives lady flowerbody’s research work to redress the “miserable existence” (hanif, 2018, p. 24) of these natives philosophically and intellectually and her co-worker the dear father, a local bourgeoisie to coalesce the local and international nexus owes their privileged position to centrist monopolies as “this place may look poorer than afghanistan and more violent then sudan but thank god there is no ideology at stake. not for them, not for us” (hanif, 2018, p. 65). momo insists that these foreigners have not come here to take “three thousand litres of contaminated water…[or] conquering some big castle” but to “bomb us because they assume we are related to bad arabs” (hanif, 2018, p. 65). momo emphasizes that these “capitalists” consider them “primitive” (hanif, 2018, p. 127) “history’s burden” (hanif, 2018, pp. 127-131) and “animal” living in caves and need new master to tame them. as per development theory nations after wars have becomes weak have “strenuous conditions of the modern world” hence require advanced and developed nations’ “tutelage” (rist, 2008, p. 60) to stand by themselves. in this light, lady flowerbody’s research upon “teenage muslim mind” and to exploit this “community as a laboratory” (hanif, 2018, p. 44) to analyze their “suppressed violent fantasies” their “suffering” and an inexorable “delirium”, of “sinners and salvation” (hanif, 2018, pp. 116-117) as her “lab rat” paradoxically documents her appetitive “designs” (hanif, 2018, p. 135) instead of scrutinizing the raison d'être of the “global plight of the young muslim” (hanif, 2018, p.181) in terms of their lack of education, paucity, and “starving…children” (hanif, 2018, p. 245). as mcclennen and moore highlight the violation of the human rights in this war on terror by arguing that it is important that while looking at 9/11 fiction special consideration should be given to the “blatant violations of the rights of afghans, iraqis, and palestinians…with the official rhetoric of the united nations, nongovernmental organizations, and the white house?” (mcclennen and moore, 2016, pp. 3-5). similar to said’s notion that to “colonize meant at first the identification—indeed, the creation—of interests; these could be commercial, communicational, religious, military, cultural” (said, 2003, p.101). chengaze in the reluctant fundamentalist informs this notion by reflecting upon american policies of war on terror as the fulfilment of an empire’s interests “moreover, i knew from my experience as a pakistani—of alternating periods of american aid and sanctions—that finance was a primary means by which the american empire exercised its power (hamid, 2019, p. 96). to chengaze https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction 227 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 a common plea to unify these conflicts through the advancement of a coterie vision of american led policies of war against terrorism based on organized and political massacre of the masses by uniformed mercenary forces corresponds to the “killers” living in those lands for these mercenary forces hence signify “collateral damage” and adds “america felt justified in bringing so many deaths to afghanistan and iraq, and why america felt justified in risking so many more deaths by tacitly using india to pressure pakistan” (hamid, 2019, p. 108). in trespassing when daanish informs beky floe about his father who is a doctor she shows her awe for a third world immigrant when she says “so, did you grow up in, like, a palace or something?’‘oh no,’ he laughed, ‘my father’s a doctor.’ she eyed him quizzically, as if unable to believe the third world had doctors” (khan, 2013, p. 31). in this regard, spivak argues that master develops the discourse of the colonized’s “depravity”, “treachery”, “brutality” and “perfidy”, to set up its need to submit to the empire as an “obligation” (spivak, 1985, pp. 25455) to its “anticipated mastery” (lacan, 1968). the “u.s. hegemony” (rist, 2008, p. 75) hinges upon the policy of development and underdevelopment to which rist explains as an apparatus of keeping a link with the “third world” to intrude and to redress their hunger, diseases, poverty etc. this also means to say that it allows the powerful states to revisit their civilization mission under human rights, moral disciplining, and social wellbeing of these poor nations as the universalism of such norms is the underpinning logic of liberal internationalism thereby identifying the dependency of the poor nations upon the rich. in red birds when local and international “smuggler[s]…hoarder[s] and…black marketer[s]” in global “business…merchandise” (hanif, 2018, p. 18) do not fail momo for his relentless profit making desire as he believes by taking “bigger risks, bigger returns” (hanif, 2018, p. 19) can be attained from the “international-aid types” (hanif, 2018, p. 19) programmes to satisfy his need. regarding lady flowerbody’s claim that the “process of rehabilitation can’t start till we recognize our losses”, momo recognizes it as a “honey trap” (hanif, 2018, pp. 47, 46) of the imperial “dealers” (hanif, 2018, p. 26) to extract information to establish control upon the camp. ellie’s statement that their “one-sided wars would have become boring by now. but they still keep at it” to endow technological and “industrial” (hanif, 2018, p. 160) potency to the third world nations but also as ellie identifies poor nations dependency upon them when he says, “we’re fighting this war and the previous war and the ones budgeted for next year in order to bring some of these freedoms to the other parts of the https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction 228 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 world” (hanif, 2018, p. 161). extolling lady flowerbody’s academic mission as a collaborative effort to mortgage democracy to the poor oppressed nations, ellie’s words unfold his neoliberal agenda of the mysterious enslavement of the third world when he reflects as to how this cycle of dependency and free market coalesce and works as places are bombed to be rescued, fire is rained to be extinguished and babies to be saved, people are made homeless to be provided shelter, cities are obliterated to be rebuilt, to demonstrate advanced nations empathy for the war torn territories and people, to exhibit unison for the ‘have nots’ picture galleries are run in berlin, and fundraising balls are arranged in london. said asserts the paradox of the“american power to construct there an ersatz model of free market “democracy”” (said, 2003, xv) promotes an “appetite for weapons” (hanif, 2018, p. 222) to obtain “security” (hanif, 2018, p. 227). in this regard, t. dos santos definition of dependence as a “conditioning situation” (t. dos santos, 2001, p. 76) whereby the economies of one faction of states are stipulated upon the expansion and extension of the other faction of nations pertinent to understand the idea of the economy of the first and third world nations. in this context “united nations teary eyes” (hanif, 2018, p. 25) formulate bro ali as a “victim” of “collateral damage” (hanif, 2018, p. 136) to which mutt receives as an irony of the notion of global security when he reflects that global security is the social engineering by creating job opportunities whereby facilities are built, empowered by workforce, extended by the deployment of guards to secure the security system, finally destroyed by hired labour with sanctioned reconstruction contracts (hanif, 2018, p. 231). in this background, the reluctant fundamentalist underscores the domination of american dollar in the international market when chengaze mentions the importance of “american express” (hamid, 2019, p. 24) and compares his income in pakistan when he sends “money” (hamid, 2019, p. 97) to his brother. arguing that postcoloniality is a value-regulating apparatus within the global late-capitalist organization of goods exchange, huggan explains that the colonial discourse is “subservient to global capitalist economy…by which generalized cultural differences are manufactured, disseminated and consumed” (huggan, 2001, pp. 9-10).vladimir lenin maintains that “imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism” (v.i. lenin, 2004, p. 88) and world’s economic system is a juncture of evolution from a “colonial policy” (lenin, 2004, p. 89), extended to a neo-colonial policy of monopolists thereby completely dividing the ownership of the world in territorial compartments. according to frank’s approach, colonial empires first https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction 229 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 created colonies, employed their capitalist systems subsequently with the emergence of the new empires capitalists vested interests evolved and changed under new organizational and institutionalized regimes of u.n and the same colonized terrains further divided and went under the exploitation of the “advanced nations”, (rist, 2008, p. 60). in the reluctant fundamentalist chengaze observes post 9/11 new york and endorses the emergence and realization of american imperialism in its full force to the american stranger that “other reproaches were far louder. your country’s flag invaded new york after the attacks; it was everywhere. small flags stuck on toothpicks featured in the shrines; stickers of flags adorned windshields and windows; large flags fluttered from buildings. they all seemed to proclaim: we are america—not new york, which, in my opinion, means something quite different—the mightiest civilization the world has ever known; you have slighted us; beware our wrath. gazing up at the soaring towers of the city, i wondered what manner of host would sally forth from so grand a castle” (hamid, 2019, p. 47). trespassing divulges this american imperialism as a relentless unilateral force of othering of the rest of the world when on his way to karachi daanish is held in the plane at frankfurt and is not allowed to disembark with many other passengers for not holding american passport that “only those ladies and gentlemen holding american, canadian, or european passports could disembark for the duration of the stopover. those naughty others might escape, so they must stay on board” (khan, 2013, p. 26). one aspect of the concept of the development is poor nations’ dependency upon the “star” and “satellite” technology (andre gunder frank, 1969, p. 3) of the modern states. this not only elides to an inherent inequality but also explains the economic exploitation of the poor countries in the “international system” (t. dos santos, 2001, p. 75) for being needy and insecure. the constant mention of “nat geo xtra and capital talk” (hanif, 2018, 16) and momo’s aspirations for profits as he says “i have seen people on nat geo late night who make so much money through drugs that they are called narcobarons” (hanif, 2018,150) substantiates as to how this satellite exploitation and interdependency operates in a colonial manner. for momo, to keep the “surveillance” on the camp is not to encounter any threat rather “information is the new oil” (hanif, 2018, 167). similarly foucault suggests an inevitable and unrelenting association between knowledge and power as through its infinitesimal apparatus https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction 230 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 which has its own history, trajectory, techniques, planning and procedures, power hierarchies are “invested, colonized, utilized, involuted, transformed, displaced, extended, etc. by ever more general mechanisms and by forms of global domination” (foucault, 1972, p. 159). the hanger operates as an “american base”, “protected [by] an electrical mechanism, which monitors the potential intruders, petty …ambitious thieves” (hanif, 2018, p. 194) through “miles and miles of razor wire…saying it’s not a thoroughfare, intruders will be shot, this property is protected by guard dogs” and any foray from the camp in the hanger is considered as “an act of treason” (hanif, 2018, 195). in the reluctant fundamentalist chengaze’s description of the american occupation of afghanistan after 9/11 on the american media to the american stranger substantiates that america espoused political control through cultural hegemony through information technology, mass communication, mass production and mass consumption. as chengaze admires american technological supremacy in terms of his obsession with “star trek”, “microsoft family time”, and “star wars” (hamid, 2019, pp. 7, 22-3). providing a description of afghanistan war in the perspective checgaze reflects that how he was avoiding “to watch the partisan and sportsevent-like coverage given to the mismatch between the american bombers with their twentyfirst-century weaponry and the ill-equipped and ill-fed afghan tribesmen below” (hamid, 2019, p. 59). chegaze finds himself enmeshed in politics and history when he finds himself confronted by american “programming” of the 9/11 reasons while sitting in “cable company’s offices” or film “terminator” with the revered roles whereby the machines are serving the purpose of heroes (hamid, 2019, p. 59). in this regard discussing the power of media in the construction of western discourse against islam, singh argues through decrepitude figure, islamic, turbaned, non western, bearded, radical jihadi is portrayed in media to invoke the ideas of “illiteracy, fundamentalism, hatred, and violence, this figure is rearticulated through postcolonial fiction to produce the disempowered refugee, the disenchanted immigrant, and the dissident citizen” (singh, 2012, p. 174). similarly, when daanish in trespassing finds a letter from marine in a medical journal about the americans in the gulf war he becomes surprised to see the global monopoly of american war industry and their media was presenting the celebrated picture of the american brand militant intrusion as an upright country against the terrorist iraq instead of offering gulf war as a media hype as one of the world wide famed american products (khan, 2013). discussing the significance of the news channels to keep this https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction 231 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 dichotomy as a clash of the east and the west, said argues the warmongering expertise of the “omnipresent cnns and foxs of this world” (said, 2003, p. xvi). one of the feature of “colonial export economy” (santos, 2001, p. 77) is embedded in the development of the mercantile system of capitalism whereby poor countries buy the finish product of their own raw material at a high cost thereby remain disadvantaged, dependent and economically depraved. as the export of the raw material and the import of the finished product of this country is mediated by a bourgeoisie class hence it monopolizes middleman and comprador’s interests. to put in other words it is one of the means of the exploitation of the poor states. as the “father dear became mr. fix it for the people at the hangar their logistics man, their local guy” (hanif, 2018, pp. 27-8). even to secure “compensation” and “pay[ment]” (hanif, 2018, p. 99) for the lost employment he “sold” his son to the hanger. the father dear’s “series of transactions” his “files…paperwork” (hanif, 2018, pp. 101-4) upholds him a “local logistic officer for usaid” who bargains with the foreign “visitor” the “prospects” (hanif, 2018, p. 107) of the camp for future transaction. at this “military installation” (hanif, 2018, p. 181) apart from the father dear, ellie states that lady flowerbody “was my traffic controller, my direction finder, my navigation map…we complete each other” (hanif, 2018, p. 200) to whom mutt observes as a source of capital currency in the international academic and economic terms for extracting “american sponsored researchers” to make money even out of sand and birds (hanif, 2018, p. 86). in the reluctant fundamentalist as admiring “the great gatsby” (hamid, 2019, p. 26), chengaze finds himself enmeshed in the choice of the ideal business model, when jim says to chengaze in the context of the underwood samson policy of the laying off and recruitment of the workers that the “economy’s an animal” (hamid, 2019, p. 58) as if to say business has nothing to do with humanism and human life and dignity. in this regard, ilana gershon argues that “neoliberalism has been globally successful as an “encompassing hegemonic project”” (gershon, 2011, p. 537). liberal internationalism in contemporary politics demonstrates itself in american “emergency package” (david mcnally, 2006, p. 243) which david mcnally perceives as an https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction 232 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 intervention ploy to let business corporations launch trafficking of military weapons, drug, oil, and buying of private property to extend control as few of the illustrative examples for free market access and open door policy in the present international scenario which can be compared in the establishment of the east india company. in red birds, momo believes that to work in the “real estate” through “mercenary” (hanif, 2018, p. 170) forces will be profitable and safe. it made land “alienable” (krishna, 2008, p. 245). karl marx argument explains that “settler” (marx, 1920, p. 794) processes this ingress through buying private property as mcnally observes as the annihilation of the native by contending their spatial control on the places as indigenous indians revolted in the war of independence 1857 in the times of british empire, indigenous colombians did it and lost “3000 trade unionists” (mcnally, 2006, p. 241) in opposition to the u.s. supported totalitarian administrations. to maintain “supplies and logistics” of the “ammu” (hanif, 2018, pp. 19, 22) from the hanger to the camp makes momo a “corporate slave” of a “supply chain” to make the camp a “tourist destination for foreign people” (hanif, 2018, pp. 40, 44) to upgrade their “business portfolio” (hanif, 2018, p. 41) in the international ammo trafficking. in this perspective said argues that ““commercial geography,” as the connection between national pride in scientific and civilizational achievement and the fairly rudimentary profit motive was urged, to be channelled into support for colonial acquisition” (said, 2003, p. 219). for momo, “this is not how distribution of wealth works in post-war economies” in poor countries as it provokes “consumerist urges” (hanif, 2018, p. 53, 54) demands “buying power” (hanif, 2018, p. 173) after granting loans to multiply “dollarized profit margins” and free trafficking for their products as to this is “how friendships work. this is how global alliances are formed. this is called team building. this is called management 3.0” (hanif, 2018, p. 169) in business. the reluctant fundamentalist endorses it when chengaze observes the authority of “empire state building” and “world trade center” (hamid, 2019, pp. 29, 43) in the international trade and politics. from “maybelline” (hamid, 2019, p. 79) to princeton, chengaze observes her political hegemony emanating from “multinational corporations” (hamid, 2019, p. 107), as spybey maintains that america manages her from economic ascendency maintained through “integrated resources of the global economy” (spybey, 1996, p.3). in trespassing daanish observes market economy and business as all imposing and powerful “business, and that’s what corporate america is all about. the best brand. we have the most famous in the world: coca-cola, mcdonald’s, nike, https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction 233 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 kodak. and now another: desert storm” (khan, 2013, p. 318). we are in a new international system called “globalisation” (friedman, 1999). it is no longer the policing of a region or colony. it has become the security of the “entirety” (mcnally, 2006, p. 237) of the world market. iraq war against saddam on the plea that he has arms of mass destruction is one of the conspicuous examples to state as to how america legitimized her intervention in gulf. in trespassing daanish as a journalist writes about gulf war that the reconciliation between iran and iraq infuriated america and she changed its policy towards iraq by becoming a foe from friend in the following words that “a name worth noting, war plan 1002–90. why the aboutface? it was the same iraq, the one that had been funded and armed by the us during the war. mirroring the government’s shift, the us media also began to portray iraq differently. it was no longer an ally. it had become the enemy” (khan, 2013, p. 147). in this regard, discussing the role of the usa in providing financial aid for afghanistan and gulf war labévière’s argument becomes pertinent to understand as to from where this money for treacherous proselytism come to finance mosques, koran schools and islamists organizations to coordinate war against “impious” arab-muslim regimes that organizes european muslims activism that the “real threat lies elsewhere: in saudi arabia and other oil monarchies allied with the united states. the greatest world power is fully aware of this development. indeed, its information agencies have encouraged it. in certain parts of the world, the cia and its saudi and pakistani homologues continue to sponsor islamism” (labévière, 2000, p. 14). in conclusion, liberal internationalism hinges on the conflict of ‘have’ and ‘have not’ and incorporates the theory of development and dependency of the poor nations to encompass its desired aims. it is a utopian dream to have economic equivalence by means of superpowers’ sanctioned institutions and approved aids as their economies are dependent upon the poor nations. hence, this institutionalized supremacy of the well-developed nations identifies that liberal internationalism is inherently colonial. momo in red birds, chengaze in the reluctant fundamentalist and daanish in trespasssing are constantly found resisting this branding of their being in the third world nations in their respective situations. momo invades the hanger but he finds only the dead body of bro ali. chengaze returns home yet his encounter with the american stranger obfuscates his recognition of a “business card” with the sheen of a “metal” https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 postcolonialism, liberal internationalism, 9/11 and pakistani english fiction 234 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 (hamid, 2019, p. 111) gun. daanish too returns to pakistan from america after a hopeless journalist practice but remains embroiled in karachi’s political turmoil and international oppression. momo’s incursion in the hanger, chengaze and daanish’s return from america to pakistan manifest deaccession and dispossession of their american identity, but paradoxically, they become the subjects of neo-colonial oppression of war on terror definition of their personhood developed after 9/11. references andre, gunder. f. 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(1996). globalization and world society, cambridge: polity. stallybrass, @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.339 land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 67 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were musaib junejo1 tania shabir shaikh2 1lecturer, ziauddin university, karachi, pakistan 2senior lecturer, ziauddin university, karachi, pakistan abstract the paper tries to answer, how western corporations are responsible for land deterioration and environmental damage under the guise of development. it brings forth neocolonial forces into the limelight that have caused ecological damage. the study is guided by the postcolonial ecocritical model of huggan and tiffin (2010). huggan and tiffin assert the intertwined correlation among environmental violence, marginalization of the indigenous groups, and destruction of land by the neocolonial agencies. the findings are based on data supplied by textual analysis of the novel. the study reveals the ways in which oil corporations exploit the resources, contaminate the land, damage the environment, and cause economic inequality. it is a typical fictional study of neocolonial agencies’ ironic dreams of development and progress. the novel not only voices the environmental injustices and the disastrous consequences of oil corporation but also cultural and social marginalization of locals. it has been suggested that western neocolonial corporations are the real culprits of ecological damage in asia and africa. therefore, time is ripe for the world to reverse the damage and take a step towards inclusive and human centered sustainable development. keywords: postcolonial ecocriticism; environmental exploitation; development; oil corporations introduction the swahili proverb reflects that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers (dyer, 1994). the proverb touches on a significant element of colonization; highlighting the fact that the environment suffers in conjunction with its colonized inhabitants. humans are collectively considered as a geological force that alters ecosystems, it raises an important question: who starts this process of alteration of environment? in an answer to this question, sloterdijk (2015) speaks of a ‘eurocene’ or ‘technocene’, marking western industries and their technocracy as the main culprits of environmental degradation. the responsibility of environmental injustices and calamities land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 68 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 are on the shoulders of western upper-class agents (haraway, 2015; di chiro, 2017). hence, much of the human and ecological exploitation is a result of imperial colonizing efforts. the empire has been a significant factor in the climate change and use of fossil fuels. this complicated connection has reconciled ecocriticism and postcolonial studies. it has given rise to ideology of postcolonial ecocriticism that continues to flourish in literary and critical realms. while post colonialism is concerned with displacement and diaspora; ecocriticism turns on the ethics of locality and stresses the sense of place (nixon, 2005). both theories seem to thrive on upturning binaries: for postcolonial, the west/ other binary, and ecocriticism, the human/ nature binary. postcolonial ecocriticism draws attention to the fact that the indigenous natives often live in polluted environments. the effects of climate and environmental change in the developed countries are foregrounded, while in the developing countries, it appears more remote and is pushed into the background. huggan and tiffin (2010) also claim that the voices of the environmental catastrophes in the periphery are always neglected. this further leads to complex interdependencies of environmental conditions, social, historical, and cultural factors to the long history of colonization. nixon (2011) considers global climate change as a slow form of violence that starts, fosters, and thrives on environmental changes. in this neocolonial approach, postcolonial nations suffer through the thawing cryosphere, toxic drift deforestation, acidifying oceans, polluted water, and other environmental catastrophes. feldman and hsu (2007) claim that such issues remain linked to the question of the race where indigenous people are more prone to face such calamities. the infrastructure of postcolonial nations was designed primarily for the benefit of resource extraction, rather than for sustainability and repair, hence they are robbed of resources. said (2001), in his book ‘power, politics and culture’ also reflects that imperialism is predicated on an act of geographical violence and regaining sovereignty over the land and natural resources. europeans justified their annexation and appropriation of indigenous land on the basis that the natives were uncivilized and land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 69 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 lacked recognizable skills, unable to tame and cultivate nature. hence, their land can be appropriated directly by industrious and rational colonists (benton, 2007). to try and prevent the world’s elite from taking economic, social, and political advantage of developing third world, postcolonial ecocriticism becomes imperative. this will help avoid the missteps of the past and prevent the worst of the catastrophe in future that is looming on the horizon. the landscape is a prominent part of african culture that echoes its history and points towards the genesis of human relations with the land. african ecology is known for its vast green landscapes and dense vegetation. the continent has always tempted foreigners to explore the fascinating culture of flora and fauna. in the long history of colonization, the west clawed through africa, scraped away its resources, spoiled the land, and murdered its people. this theme is further explored by imbolo mbue in the novel, ‘how beautiful we were’ (2021). the novel reflects both postcolonial and environmental concerns, illuminating a lucid connection between the oppression of colonized people and the pollution of natural environment. the story of corporate greed and environmental destruction serves as an elegy to lost land. the novel opens in an african village, kosawa that is touched by the united states from thousands of miles away. ever since the american oil company installed pipelines in the village, the toxic polluted chemicals poisoned much of the water, clogged the air and food and ruined the land, resulting in undrinkable water, falling of acid rains, rendering farmlands infertile, and death of children. moreover, the masters’ promises of cleanup and financial reparations were made and ignored. the oil company promised ‘prosperity’ but failed to protect the local people and the environment. they instead reaped only sickness, diseases and deaths (charles, 2021). the novel celebrates the communal way of life lived close to nature but it ends without offering any solution as it incites action to change the situation. the novel persuasively depicts the capitalist motivations behind colonialism and imperialism that harm both environment and land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 70 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 people. by emphasizing the correlation between the oppression of colonization and damage to the natural environment, the novel supports a postcolonial eco-critical reading in its holistic critiques of capitalist imperialism. hence, the current study, through postcolonial ecocriticism aims to unveil how the environment has and is still been radically altered by colonialism and how power relations, industrialization, and colonization affect climate and result in environmental violence. it has been suggested that western neocolonial corporations are the real culprits of ecological damage in asia and africa. therefore, time is ripe for them to reverse the damage and take a step towards sustainable development for the good of everyone. literature review global climate change is probably the biggest threat to the only inhabitable planet, the earth and to human civilization. the seriousness of the topic and urgency of the situation have stimulated academicians, theorists and researchers from not only the domain of natural but also social sciences and humanities. postcolonial ecocriticism is the brainchild of contemporary critical arguments on the ecosystem and climate change. the framework is still very new and there are wide open spaces and gaps in it that need the focus of literary theorists and environmentalists. human agency as a geological force affects all aspects of the ecosystem, particularly climate and land. much of the human and ecological degradation is a result of imperial colonizing efforts. the postcolonial analysis needs to reflect on the human condition without losing sight of environmental violence. hence, it is important for a postcolonial critique to include an ecological perspective (nixon, 2011; de loughrey et al., 2015; heise, 2017). postcolonial ecocriticism has broadly discussed the connection between economic growth and imperialism. as theorized by huggan and tiffin (2010), postcolonial ecocriticism asserts the intertwined correlation between environmental violence and the marginalization of the indigenous groups. western ideologies of development are often associated with a ‘top-down’ form of economic management. in this regard neocolonialist global corporation march to the indigenous land for industrialization but land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 71 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 in reality, bring disastrous cultural and ecological effects. mackenthun (2015) further claims that the practice of industrialized nations of locating nuclear plants or oil companies on the properties of the natives has given birth to the concept of environmental racism. this theoretical affinity unveils the abuses of the masters with an ethical commitment to improve the conditions of the oppressed. hence, it is a matter of the conquest of nature by appropriating local resources. the present study is directed by postcolonial ecocriticism, applying the framework of huggan and tiffin (2010). they have displayed major concerns about the ecological history where the colonizers exploit indigenous land in the name of development and civilization. this is achieved through several methods e.g. media, commerce, trade, commercialization and financial aids. the following sections highlight the elements of the selected theoretical framework in detail. land the concept of land is very pivotal to both postcolonial and ecological theorists. the land is the converging point between two contradicting and relatively dissimilar fields of study. almost all postcolonial critics and their narrative is grounded in the european colonization of lands in asia and africa. in postcolonial theory, land is more than a place or terrain. land is the source of bread, culture, and above all dignity. on the other side, ecology also accentuates the importance of land. ecologists consider land as a terrestrial biosphere or ecosphere. along with air and water land is the place where both biotic and abiotic components not only survive but thrive. so, land is the converging point of ecology and post-colonialism. former talks about aesthetics and cleanliness and later stresses historicity and custody of land. huggan and tiffin highlight the significance of land at multiple levels. according to them, “land is not land alone, we breathe into it, it is touched by our modes and memories' (2010, p. 115). the idea of land goes far beyond the land itself. it is the site of memories, moods and the air that people breathe. besides, land includes “soil, water, plants and animals” (huggan & tiffin, 2010, p. 106). this over inclusive definition of the land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 72 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 land incorporates everything above and inside the land as land. likewise, zammito et al. (2008) considers the land as a nonhuman member of the community. hence, when a colonizer subject kills an animal, cuts a plant, digs out the soil, and exploits the natural resources or any other malicious activity that damages land comes under the jurisdiction of postcolonial ecocriticism. if the land is of so much importance, then the question arises who controls the land. here, huggan and tiffin touch upon the most sensitive and controversial idea of land rights. contrary to postcolonial critics who consider land as the property of those who reside over it, postcolonial ecocriticism does not consider it a commodity. according to huggan and tiffin (2010), “humans must abandon the view that land is a commodity and come to be seen not as conquerors of nature but citizens on it” (p. 44). this sets the ground that land is not personal property but a universal asset. it has a right of continued existence in the pure, cleanest and natural form. these critics oppose both the developmental and nativist view. the former, that land belongs to people and the later that people belong to land. but if land is no one’s property then how it is going to be used? huggan and tiffin (2010) explain that use of land is the right of the individuals who inhabit it with the regulation and prior perception of the environment. furthermore, postcolonial ecocriticism has exposed the colonizers’ ulterior motives of the exploitation and the plunder of land and its resources. according to huggan and tiffin (2010) this right to loot the land and resources is usually justified on two grounds. first is the “self-accorded right of conquest or discovery” (p. 121). land does not belong to aboriginal people but it is the property of one who conquers or discovers it. this thought sowed the seeds of colonization and the desire to expand the empire. on this pretext, european colonizers drained the resources from asia and africa. with strong armies and naval power colonizers captured and discovered the lands across the globe and altered the ecosystems by exploiting resources. the second pretext is the “inability of the natives to use land” (p. 121). according to harris (2013), this pretext is land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 73 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 neo-colonialist in nature. the land belongs to the indigenous people but as they cannot make use of the land, therefore, multinational corporations and global chains gain the right to exploit it. showing quixotic dreams of development and under the guise of globalization, western mncs annihilate the diversity of flora, fauna and above all human lives and dignity. huggan and tiffin (2010) also explain the process of westerners’ exploitation of land in asia and africa. they quote horrifying stories of environmental degradation and human displacement emanating from the activities of american oil companies in the niger delta. “in the first tradition, the landscape is rendered empty or silent” (huggan and tiffin, 2010, p. 99). the forceful displacement of the natives, cutting trees and damaging the biodiversity is making land empty and silent. bringing in the case study of native tribes from the niger delta, huggan and tiffin mention how they were forced to empty land for the american multinational giantshell. the oil company has emptied the flora, fauna, lives and culture of the delta. once the land is emptied, in the second step, it is polluted, but only at the expense of removing the labor of those hands that make the landscape speak. the emptied land is polluted with machines, chemicals and foreign workers at the cost of biodiversity. de loughrey (2014) posits that land is dotted, decayed and ruined with the remnants of grandeur ancient. this circle of emptying the land and inhibiting it once again with something foreign and artificial, trulijo, (2016) titles it “marketability of nature” (p. 32). the wilderness, cleanliness and culture of the land is traded for minerals, oil and timber. the myth of globalization and development one of the central thoughts of postcolonial ecocriticism is contesting and challenging the “western ideologies of development and providing alternatives” (huggan & tiffin, 2010, p. 27). by rightly rejecting the western notion of development and entitling it as a myth, postcolonial ecocriticism accentuates local solutions for local problems rather than foreign. development is a western capitalist ideology forced upon the eastern countries under the pretext of globalization and expansion. according to land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 74 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 huggan and tiffin (2010) “development is largely filtered through economistic myths of progress: ‘amenity’, ‘benefit’, ‘improvement’” (p. 71). there are a number of fundamental reasons why postcolonial ecocriticism detests development. development has snatched more than it gifted. a shift from agrarian to industrialist economy and society has engendered the thought that flora and fauna are of no worth to the globe. this shift of practices and ideologies has caused huge damage to both humans and ecology. as huggan and tiffin (2010) say that undervaluation of indigenous people and environmental abuses are practiced in the name of development. development has pauperized millions of people in the agrarian sector by diminishing the stock of plants, water and soil at an alarming rate. the overvaluation of western substance-based corporations has ravaged the relationship between nature, the nonhuman world and the human community. therefore, black (1999) considers development a “disguised form of neocolonialism” (p. 268). development primarily serves the political and economic interests of the west. within the human community, development has widened the rift of haves and have-nots marxist critic lazarus (2006) titles it “development’s destruction” (p.12). he considers development a synonym of destruction. the question arises if development is detrimental to the global ecosystem and environment then why a comprehensive climate treaty is not signed to check the environmental degradation and human displacement. huggan and tiffin (2010) have a very simple answer to it. environmental degradation is not tackled largely because it will tackle the growth of capitalism. they believe that development and environmental sustainability can’t go hand in hand as the western world prefers capital over nature. rejecting the western idea of development, postcolonial ecocriticism propounded indigenous and ecological ideas of development. firstly, “development is first and foremost human development” (huggan & tiffin, 2010, p. 29). if development is not benefiting the indigenous population and causes deaths, displacement and damage then land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 75 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 it is rather a destruction as said by lazarus. secondly, “development of an environment arbiters between people and nature” (p. 80). huggan and tiffin define this as sustainable development. it strengthens and mediates between humans and the environment rather damaging that relationship. escobar (1997) explains it as a human-centered developmentalization of the environment. a model of development in which both the environment and humans are the beneficiaries. thirdly, development is all-inclusive. according to huggan and tiffin (2010) historically marginalized social groups are equally rewarded and recognized through sustainable development. this idea of development never creates the rift of haves and have-nots. this postcolonial eco critical view of development is human-centered, environmentally friendly, participatory, and sustainable. research methodology the study employs a non-empirical research approach in which the data is based on the interpretation of a literary text to present the major findings of the research. the study uses the text, ‘how beautiful we were’ (2021) that is analyzed in the light of huggan and tiffin’s model (2010) of postcolonial ecocriticism. morrow and brown (1994) describe non-empirical research as text-based research. further, mouton (2001) reflects that nonempirical research is based on the theory that starts with its application and ends with results controlled by the theory. the present study has also selected a novel and is directed by postcolonial ecocriticism theory, the framework of huggan and tiffin (2010). since the study is non-empirical, it opts for textual analysis as a data analysis tool. krippendorff (2004) defines textual analysis as a research technique for making valid inferences from the text. according to mckee (2003), textual analysis is “a way to gather information about how other human beings make sense of the world” (p. 1). it shows that textual analysis is not only a research method of data analysis but of understanding human beings and their nature. besides this, textual analysis is a technique to acquire critical textual meaning from a piece of a given literary text (cuddon, 1999). a literary text is studied and analyzed critically by a researcher in the light of theory through textual land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 76 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 analysis. similarly, interpretation of the selected novel and building opinion in the light of postcolonial ecocriticism theory is the main objective of this research study. hence, all these features of textual analysis make this a suitable method of data analysis that is to be used in this study. textual analysis is carried through close, in-depth reading to analyze the selected novel. close reading is disciplined, mindful reading of an object that helps deepen understanding its meaning (brummett, 2018). it is a systematic and organized method of looking into text and searching the related material from the entire text. close reading is to understand meaning between the lines besides surface-level superficial meaning. this careful interpretation will aid in understanding the text from the point of view of the elements of theory. this research technique questions the relationship between us and text and how we see text and represent (rockwell, 2003). therefore, a close reading will be used as a technique for analyzing the text of the selected novel. findings and discussion development: a disguised form of colonialism huggan and tiffin (2010) together with postcolonial critics consider western ushered development as a disguised form of colonialism. the novel how beautiful we were (2021) justifies the similar notion. the exploitation of resources, contamination of culture and degradation of the environment were carried out under the noble cause of development. the novel mentions that “drilling for oil would bring something called “civilization” and “prosperity” (p. 78). unveiling the unreal dreams of progress, pexton (a fictional american oil company) drills the land. the ordinary indigenous people of kosawa (fictional town in africa) were bamboozled by the ideal vision of progress and development. huggan and tiffin (2010) also elucidate that “development is largely filtered through economistic myths of progress: ‘amenity’, ‘benefit’, ‘improvement’ (p. 71). with the little dreams of brick houses, kosowan people cherished the arrival of pexton and discovery of oil under their land. as thulaa girl child-says in the novel that land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 77 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 “our parents rejoiced and believed in pexton’s lie” (p. 78). innocent indigenous people did not smell the upcoming menace. therefore, huggan and tiffin consider this neocolonization of corporations as the worst form of colonialism. in this regard kadafa (2012) compares the first arrival of european colonizers under the pretext of ‘civilization’ and now the arrival of their corporation with the golden dreams of progress and development. in this regard yaya –old ladysays in the novel that “all people from overseas are the same, don’t they? the americans, the europeans, every single overseas person who has ever set foot on our soil, you know they all want the same thing” (mbue, 2020, p. 107). earlier european colonization for ivory, slaves and rubber and now american corporation for the oil. kosawa’s people realized that nothing useful had arrived from the shores. therefore, huggan and tiffin (2010) focus on the localized generation of wealth and local solutions for the local problems rather foreign. furthermore, huggan and tiffin define how western led multinational corporations function and exploit the resources by deeply damaging the ecosystem. they first pledge to bring prosperity to the land. as it is found in the novel how pexton showed a prosperous future to the people of kosawa. moreover, mncs get the license of exploitation as the natives don’t have technology to use what is beneath their earth. taking the advantage of “inability of the natives to use land” (huggan and tiffin, 2010 p. 121) corporations do all the malpractices. rowell (2017) summarizes it as corporations arrive to provide panacea for the world's problems but in reality they trigger human and environmental catastrophe. a catastrophe that is inestimable and can only be felt not counted and measured. kosawa’s people later realized the gravity of the situation when bongo says, “we now realize the fullness of the curse that came from living on the land beneath which oil sat” (p. 31). the natural resources that should have brought prosperity but contrastingly have caused death of children and proved a curse for locals. thus black (1999) considers this model of development as exploitative and self-privileging. land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 78 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 the wealth generated in kosawa ends up in the hands of corporations; only unusable toxic residues become the fate of inhabitants. as sahel in the novel says, “no reason why citizens should lack when the country had bauxite, oil, and timber” (p. 342). not to speak of improvement of the living condition, kosawans suffered despite wealth under their feet. people of kosawa needed land to cultivate and rivers to drink water, not the oil. thus, it was evident how something useless for people of kosawa can bring prosperity in their lives. huggan and tiffin consider this as a neo liberal development rather than egalitarianism. the oil drilled from kosawa was of no use to the indigenous people. as malabo explains to thula, “pexton came to kosawa to get oil so that their other friends in america would have oil for their cars” (p. 32). the oil fueled the cars and energized the industries in america while the ecosystem and humans suffered a great loss in kosawa. yaya, sahel, bongo and thula smelled the oil in their air while american powered their machines with the same. the western led and owned pseudo development has also stratified the word. as marxist critic lazarus (2006) claims that the world is more unequal today than before as the gap between the haves and have-nots has increased. as mbue (2020) mentions in the novels “woja beki drinks bottled water of bezam, lives in brick houses and wears american clothes” (p. 43). woja beki was rewarded for supporting pexton. intervention of neocolonial forces made a class of people whose mean of production-landwas destroyed and a class of people like woja beki who thrived. once an egalitarian community, kosawa was now divided into haves and have-nots as a result of development. furthermore, the gap between poor kosawa and rich city bezam within the same country speaks volumes about the rising gap. as thula writes in the letter addressed to the kosawans “flickers of progress are brightening lives in isolated corners of the world” (p. 287). this development benefits the few at the expense of a major portion of the world. therefore, huggan and tiffin (2010) consider this form of development that snatches more than it gifts, a disguised form of colonialism. land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 79 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 how ugly we are: the story of kosawa’s land mbue’s how beautiful we were is an account of the cultural and environmental transformation of an imaginary african village at the hands of neocolonialist agents. the novel addresses the journey of kosawa’s land from purity to pollution. this section analyzes and discusses the environmental degradation and cultural deterioration of kosawa from the lens of huggan and tiffin’s (2010) neologism of land. huggan and tiffin believe that land is not land alone. it includes soil, water, plants and animals (2010). in this regard the story of kosawa’s land in the novel is the story of destruction of almost everything that huggan and tiffin define as land at the hands of neocolonial agencies. the portrayal of destruction of land is in the very first sentence of the novel. children of kosawa say, “sky began to pour acid and rivers began to turn green, our land should be dead soon” (mbue, 2021, p. 6). the children of kosawa were well aware of the environmental degradation. they know acid rains from the sky and poison from the rivers will put everything to death. as yaya says, “one day, we know, our world and our ways will vanish in totality” (p.36). this neo colonial dual onslaught on both the culture and environment makes the little world of kosawa inhabitable for the people. huggan and tiffin (2010) highlight the significance of land. according to them “we breathe into it, it is touched by our modes and memories” (p. 115). but in the novel natives cannot breathe in kosawa, their memories are wiped out and their modes are being remolded. discovery of oil in kosawa brings with it not prosperity but cultural and environmental catastrophes. mbue (2021) describes the level of pollution and its consequences after the unfortunate arrival of pextonan imaginary american oil corporation. water, the most essential and vital component of life, was the first thing to be contaminated. as thulaa girl child – describes “mama and papa cautioning me never to go near the big river covered with oil and toxic wastes” (p. 31). once clean and pure water of the big river that thula’s ancestors used to swim in, changed into a dirty and toxic place. the native inhabitants of kosawa were barred from swimming in their own river and drinking its land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 80 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 water. it was not only the humans who were devoid of the benefits of the river but also the fishes. as mentioned in the novel “whatever life was left in the big river disappeared. within a year, fishermen broke down their canoes and found new uses for the wood. children began to forget the taste of fish'' (p. 35). this “environmental apocalypticism” as defined by buell (1995) is the outcome of blatant violation of nature. kadafa (2012) in her environmental study of the contamination of the rivers of niger delta because of oil exploration says that “rivers don’t just provide water, but they are sacred source of civilization” (p. 41). the toxification of the river deprives the people not only from the water but also the deep-rooted civilization and culture that thrived on its banks. along with the ecosystem, the old ways of indigenous people were spoiled and poisoned. once thriving land of kosawa later becomes a mammoth oil well. besides river water, the amount of poison was so high that it seeped into the underground water. as described in the novel “it was poison not water, the toxins that had seeped into the well's water from pexton’s field” (p.12). the underground water of the well and flowing water of the big river both were filthy and unfit for use. huggan and tiffin (2010) consider it as an environmental nightmare. kosawa’s pure and clean air in which thula’s ancestors breathed for centuries is smoky, dirty and deadly after intervention of neo colonial agents. mbue (2021) describes “the air of kosawa progressed from dirty to deadly” (p. 35). besides, the smoke and soot emitted from pexton’s oil fields make the air unbreathable. the level of the air pollution in kosawa can be gauged by the way that even rains will not bring water but acid on the ground as mentioned in the novel “sky began to pour acid” (p. 6). yaya, sahel, juba, bongo, malabo and other indigenous people of kosawa had no right over their air. as mentioned “they (pexton) own the air we breathe '' (p. 101). neocolonialist corporations like pexton claim the right over land on the pretext that it’s a natural commodity and we have the right to exploit it. huggan and tiffin deny their claims and say “human must abandon the view that land is commodity and come to see not as conquerors of nature land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 81 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 but citizens within it” (2010, p. 44). land (that includes water and air) can only be rightly used when neocolonialist corporations consider them stakeholders of the land rather than conquerors with greed of resources. moreover, the noise of the machines and sound of explosions have disturbed the peace and silence of kosawa. as mentioned in the novel “noise from the oil field multiplied; day and night we heard it in our bedrooms, in our classroom, in the forest. our air turned heavy'' (p. 35). the tumultuous noises plagued the peace and overshadowed the chattering of birds and hissing of animals. the noise pollution as we call it added to the psychological disturbance of the people of kosawa. besides water, air and noise the topographic outer land surface was directly devastated by the wrongdoings of pexton. the novel brings in notice all the environmental problems including the deforestation, oil spills, landslides, fires, sea intrusion and infertility of the soil. kosawa’s land was also devastated by the network of the pipelines under and over it. as mentioned “trees were felled all over the valley to make room for the oil field and pipelines” (p. 77). forests were erased and trees were cut to make space for the pipelines and oil wells. with it animals, birds and the entire ecosystem of the place was altered. oil spill and fire made the land infertile for crop production. “farms that had been rendered useless after fires; they examined the shriveled-up products of our soil. (p. 142). kosawa’s soil will no longer produce the crops to sustain the life over it. network of pipelines under and over the land represented the authority and claim of neocolonialist agents over the kosawa’s soil. as the novel says, “pipelines violated the sanctity of the soil” (p. 214). these neocolonial malpractices damaged the ecosystem and the livings of the indigenous people. huggan and tiffin (2010) elucidate that these neocolonial practices dispose the locally generated wealth and fundamental human rights. the possessions of the locals of kosawa including, land, water, crops and air were taken over and vandalized. all this was carried out under the pretext of development and sustainability. land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 82 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 pexton as a neo colonial corporation of exploitation who is more powerful countries or corporations? a million dollar question in the age of globalization. chamberlin (2003) in his study titled “if this is your land, where are your stories” discusses the devastating stories of powerful corporations. according to him indigenous claims over the land are weaker than corporations’ claims. similarly, in the novel how beautiful we were an imaginary american oil company ‘pexton’ was more powerful and influential than indigenous people. pexton is an undeclared dictator that owns everything above and over the kosawa as mentioned “they even own the air we breathe” (p. 101). these are the corporations “whose bellies are never full” (huggan and tiffin, 2010, p. 90). pextons is the neo colonial organ that damages the land, cuts the forests, poisons the water, disturbs the social fabric, and above all kills the people for the sake of their greed. how beautiful we were is an account of how a corporation does all these things under the guise of development and sustainability and still goes unpunished. ziai (2007) claims that these transnational companies are the tail ends of the colonial movement. they have still kept the colonial tradition alive till date in a different way. pexton bought the loyalty of woja beki and the government like a typical colonial country. as said in the novel “he (woja beki) descended from the same ancestors as us, but pexton had bought him” (p. 8). this made it easier for the pexton to do what it wanted to under the patronage of powerful man and head of community. huggan and tiffin (2010) quote the example of shell and chevron that how they twanged ecological war in the niger delta under the protection of the nigerian government. in the novel mbue brings the similar story but in fiction. furthermore, mbue describes pexton as “greedy and reckless”. it is the corporation, more powerful than the people, courts, and countries. it uses all the means of dictatorial control e.g. repression of the opponents, suppression of the dissent, curbing the freedom of media and forceful disappearances of the people. in addition, the ecological damage caused by pexton is inestimable and enormous. in the novel, yaya land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 83 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 compares pexton with european colonizer countries. she says “i asked which was worse: the european masters, or pexton and the government. my husband shrugged and said he couldn’t decide. maybe the masters were better” (p. 231). therefore, pexton’s control over the kosawa seems more strict and oppressive than that of any european colonizer. despite the struggles of the restoration movement, protests of american people, media campaigns by the austin and thula, and interference of american courts, pexton stands on the land of kosawa taller and stronger than before. moreover, the deaths and massacre carried out by the pexton in the greedy pursuit of wealth and the ecological damage caused is irreversible. kosawa was changed into the oil well and indigenous people were displayed. as juba said, “we have no land left to fight for” (p. 367). the sacrifices of malabo, bongo, thula, countless children, the mango trees, big river and animal species were in vain. pexton did not only snatch the land, life, and ecosystem but the culture as well. as juba mourns in the end of the novel “our children speak english and recognize foreign spirit” (p. 368). this cultural and environmental damage in the developing countries by the corporations like pexton is aptly described by arundhati roy in her essay end of imagination. our cities and forests, our fields and villages will burn for days. rivers will turn to poison. the air will become fire. the wind will spread the flames. when everything there is to burn has burned and the fires die, smoke will rise and shut out the sun. what shall we do then, those of us who are still alive? burned and blind and bald and ill, carrying the cancerous carcasses of our children in our arms, where shall we go? what shall we eat? what shall we drink? what shall we breathe? (roy, 1999, p. 124). conclusion this study has examined the role of neocolonial corporations in creating environmental and cultural catastrophe with reference to mbue’s how beautiful we were (2021). the study has explored how western multinational corporations are responsible for land deterioration and environmental damage under the guise of development as land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 84 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 reflected in the selected novel. since the present study is about imperial colonizing efforts in human and ecological exploitation, huggan and tiffin’s (2010) model of postcolonial ecocriticism as a theoretical framework has guided this study. the key arguments based on findings of this study reveal the cultural and environmental transformation of an imaginary african village at the hands of neocolonialist agents. the novel addresses the journey of kosawa’s land from purity to pollution. discovery of oil in kosawa brings with it not prosperity but cultural and environmental catastrophes. this neo colonial dual onslaught on both the culture and environment makes the little world of kosawa inhabitable for the people. water, the most essential and vital component of life, was the first thing to be contaminated. the native inhabitants of kosawa were barred from swimming in their own river and drinking its water. kosawa’s pure and clean air in which the ancestors breathed for centuries became smoky, dirty and deadly after intervention of neo colonial agents. besides, the noise of the machines and sound of explosions have disturbed the peace and silence of kosawa. besides water, air and noise pollution, the topographic outer land surface was directly devastated by the wrongdoings of pexton. the novel brings in notice all the environmental problems including the deforestation, oil spills, landslides, fires, sea intrusion and infertility of the soils in the novel. furthermore, the oil corporation disturbed the entire social fabric by creating inequality and classes of haves and havenots that divided the kosawa. moreover, the next generation of kosawa was cut off from the roots and became alien to ancestral language and culture. the novel brings out the fictional case study that how greedy mncs and their supporters have devastated the environment, purity, and old customs under the guise of globalization. the study recommends that western neocolonial corporations are the real culprits of ecological and cultural damage in asia and africa. they must be held responsible for the environmental and cultural genocide. the time is ripe for western world to accept the crimes they committed under the pretext of development. they must feel responsibility land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 85 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 and help the developing countries in reversing the damage. in this regard role of world organization like uno is vital. policy of sustainable development is needed that does not stratify the society and damage the ecosystem. earth needs development that is suitable, sustainable all-inclusive and above all human centered. land deterioration and environmental damage: a postcolonial eco-critical study of how beautiful we were 86 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.354 references black, r. w. 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(2016). postcolonial ecologies: the cross-pollination of postcolonial and environmental studies. the trumpeter, 32(1), 38-54. varga, h. h. (2017). arundhati roy, the end of imagination. romanian journal of indian studies, (1), 125-132. zammito, j. h., ivanhoe, p. j., longino, h., & sloan, p. r. (2008). philosophical approaches to nature. in altering nature (pp. 63-136). springer, dordrecht. ziai, a. (2007). exploring post-development. routledge. @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). climate change and media representation: 198 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.374 climate change and media representation: a multimodal discourse analysis of clean green pakistan policy from eco-linguistic perspective dr. muhammad haseeb nasir assistant professor, department of english, numl, islamabad mhnasir@numl.edu.pk dr. azhar habib lecturer, department of english, numl, islamabad. ahabib@numl.edu.pk dr. muhammad yousaf lecturer, department of english, numl, islamabad. myousaf@numl.edu.pk abstract the study aims to explore the constructive/destructive role of print media advertisements in disseminating ecological discourse. there has been a great threat to climate and it has become imperative to understand the philosophy behind (re)production of text where language plays central role advocating such ecological narratives that protect/destroy our environment at large. media, due to vast readership/viewership, (re)frames the ideology of people and paves the way for environmental balance/imbalance without much effort. this study also highlights as to how linguistic features such as: salience, metaphor and framing are materialized to make the discourses appear natural and persuasive. the data is comprised of 5 print media advertisements being published in popular english newspapers. the sampling technique is purposive and selection of the advertisement timeframe is from 2019 to 2021. the conceptual underpinning of the study is stibbe’s (2015) and kress & leeuwan (2006) model which helps the readers critically analyze the text. the study finds that these advertisements present layers of meanings metaphorically and highlight the importance of ecologically constructive discourse to bring about climate/environment sustainability. keywords: print/electronic media, advertisements, climate, discourse, ecosophy, multimodality. introduction in the 21st century, climate change has become one of the most emerging apprehensive topics in the world. the topic of climate change and its impact have been addressed at different platforms. in a last few decades, climate change received a lingering scepticism; however, scientists gradually understand that earth’s climate has always been changed. undoubtedly, global climate change is affected by myriad of factors, such as; ranging from solar winds from the sun to emission of greenhouse gases especially carbon dioxide. amid the impact of sudden alarming, many countries are of the view that climate change is inevitable. dramatic increases have been mailto:mhnasir@numl.edu.pk mailto:ahabib@numl.edu.pk mailto:myousaf@numl.edu.pk climate change and media representation: 199 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.374 observed in terms of sea level, melting of glaciers, ice poles, and an increase in surface air temperature. to address the entire cyclic process of how the sun’s radiation absorbed by earth’s surface eventually becomes heat energy; and the heat trapping gases in the atmosphere behave like the glass of a greenhouses, language plays an inexorable role. in this regard, hulme (2007) argues that it is important to communicate about upper climate change. this upper-class phenomenon is considered a series of complex and constantly evolving cultural discourse. correspondingly, when we talk about language and ecology also known as ecolinguistics, a dimension to study language in co-relation to its significant environment. hulme (2007) again regarding an ecological perspective in a linguistic esteem and depicting climate change awareness says, we next need to embark on the much more challenging activity of revealing and articulating the very many reasons why there is no one solution, not even one set of solutions, to (lower-case) climate change. the role of climate change i suggest is not as a lower-case physical phenomenon to be solved. we need to use the idea of climate change the matrix of power relationships, social meanings and cultural discourses that it reveals and spawns to rethink how we take forward our political, social and economic projects over the decades to come. (hulme, 2007, p.20) thus in this paper the researchers explain as to how pakistan is combating against climate change and what strategies are employed to make nation aware of climate change a background of the study the government of khyber pakhtunkhwa launched the project "green growth initiative" in order to paint the economy green. the task force on green growth initiative has been set up. six center zones i.e. forestry, protected areas, clean energy, climate resilience, water/sanitation and waste management for khyber pakhtunkhwa are recognized by the task force on green growth. the "green growth initiative" of khyber pakhtunkhwa is a banner carrier of the perfect and green upheaval in pakistan. it bears guarantee that the government will attempt its best to give a superior personal satisfaction to the residents of khyber pakhtunkhwa, make tolerable and clean working environment for the young and furthermore give a way to social elevation and poverty elimination in the region. in order to aware the masses regarding these massive governmental projects, information was distributed through different channels. climate change and media representation: 200 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.374 advertisements were published in newspapers. in short, language played an instrumental role in pushing the common public to join hands with the government in turning this idea into reality. the present research focuses on the salience feature utilized by the government in doing so. statement of the problem climate change has become a global issue and pakistan lags far behind to sensitize people regarding this alarming threat. there is a dire need to propagate such positive eco-friendly narratives through our social agencies that have wider reach to people at large. the study is also an attempt to highlight as to how and to what extent pakistani media is successful/failure in disseminating the said ideology. research objectives the objectives of the current study are: ➢ to investigate the representation of climate change discourse in pakistani print media advertisements ➢ to analyze several semiotic resource systems employed in the advertisements for projection of environment friendly narrative research questions ➢ what semiotic resource systems are employed for projection of eco-friendly narrative in print media advertisements? ➢ how is climate change discourse represented in pakistani print advertisements? significance of the study as climate justice aims at acknowledging third world countries as a formidable solution to the climate change crisis, it is important that its discourse must be analyzed. this study adds to the overall understanding of the climate discourse and the possible dimensions it covers. the study provides important insights into the overall representation of climate change in pakistani media discourse. climate change is a reality which we are currently living in until and unless we recognize the need and importance of climate justice discourse, this issue of climate change cannot be resolved or mitigated in an equitable manner. literature review climate change and media representation: 201 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.374 an eco-linguistics approach is a new field within applied linguistics that emerged in 1990s. it is an integrated approach to study language from different theoretical perspectives of geography, biology, economy, sociology, psychology, political science etc. in general, ecolinguistics is defined as the paradigm that investigates the (inter) relationships between language and the environment in which it is being used. by ‘environment' of language we mean three kinds of environment as well as levels of language study i.e., natural environment of language (biologic), social environment (sociologic) and mental environment (ideologic). according to stibbe (2015), the physical environment is an overall geographical structure of any area that includes plains, mountains, oceans, plants, winds, rainfall, agriculture etc. it also includes all those natural factors that provide suitable modes of life to any community belonging to a certain geographical area. the behaviour of humans rely largely on the elements present in the physical surroundings. additionally, geographical criteria are of a significant value where linguistic enquiries are concerned. the social forces are of more important because language itself is a social phenomenon. the linguists engaged in the enquiry of fields of sociolinguistics or in the sociology of language often refer to the social environment or forces as demographic or social factors. the factors are generally related to the speaker’s age, his sex, social class, profession, network, region of origin, and place of residence. psychological dimension is another important aspect of language which advocates that language is determined primarily by the persons who learn and use language, and pass it on from one generation to another (stibbe, 2015). historically, language has been explored through ideologic and sociologic perspectives but biological aspect has been neglected. in 20th century, structuralists specifically genetativists considered only the ‘mental' or ‘ideologic’ aspect of language. later on, sociolinguists added the social aspect in addition to the mental or cognitive. however, it is the eco-linguistic paradigm that provided the platform to study language in holistic manner including the role of biological diversity in linguistic choices and also the economic and social viewpoints. developed in the 1990s, eco linguistics attempts to establish a link between the language used by a community and the (natural and cultural) ecosystem within which said community lives and thrives. as the name suggests that it is about language and environment. eco-linguists climate change and media representation: 202 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.374 investigate as to how language has an impact on our environment; how language contributes to preservation of nature and environment; and, how language is responsible for ecological construction/destructions. it explores general patterns of language that influence how people both think about, and treat, the world. it can investigate the stories we live by – mental models that influence behaviour and lie at the heart of the ecological challenges we are facing. glasser (1995) is of the view that philosophy of ecology (ecosophy) does not mean that there is only one ecosophy working for whole environment. there are different subsystems working under a whole ecological system. therefore, ecolinguists have their own philosophy behind the selection of a particular framework. ecosophy is based on already existing assumptions, norms and rules of the society. the use of language is also in the form of texts on environment as advertisements, stories, scientific reports, newspapers, magazines etc. the ecolinguist needs a framework to analyze questionable texts on environment. ecosophy works as an assessment criterion for whether the text is for protection or destruction of the environment. through this framework, the ecolinguist deciphers hidden meanings behind such texts. linguistics provides many tools such as critical discourse analysis, framing theory, cognitive theory and systemic functional grammar etc for analyzing environmental texts. the ecolinguist tries to uncover the purpose of these texts as how they are used to encourage people for protection of their environment and how they are created in such a way to make people destroy their surroundings. linguistic ecology also identified as ecolinguitics is the novel branch which comes under the heading of applied linguistics. haugen (1972) is the pioneer of this branch of applied linguistics. in his book the ecology of language he identified language ecology as, "the study of interactions between any given language and its environment." the term ecology was used as metaphor to describe and study linguistic variations with reference to physical environment, social phenomenon, biodiversity and an entire ecosystem where the life depends on. it is a comprehensive way to analyze and communicate environmental, social and bio-diversification issues in the domain of linguistics reverence, of which climate change is a substantial topic in ecolinguistics. carvalho (2018) in the article talked about how the discursive strategies are used in the british media and political speeches to re-construct the climate change and greenhouse effect. as a methodology, traditional critical discourse analysis has been applied creating a both diachronic climate change and media representation: 203 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.374 and synchronic axes for study analysis. furthermore, the study aimed at exploring power discourse and looked towards the representation of greenhouse effect as a public issue in different domains. on the other hand, three british ‘quality’ newspapers –the guardian, the independent, and the times were systematically compared and analyzed to find out ways the problems have been constructed through discursive strategies. in another study, sedlaczek (2015) from the department of linguistics; university of vienna, austria studied media representations of climate change in the context of documentary television. multimodal critical discourse analysis as theoretical framework combined cda with approaches to semiotics and multimodality. the paper discussed two means of integrating insight views established from ecolinguistics and ecosemiotics into a collective framework. nonetheless, the first part dealt with analyzing discursive strategies used by the media in projecting climate change, whereas, second part comprised of an epistemological position. knowingly, communicating climate change is a paramount contribution to fight against greenhouse gases and largely global warming for the well-being of our planet and its habitats. foremost, in pakistan, prime minister imran khan launched the clean green pakistan movement on 13th october 2018. however, the movement has been adapted recently on 25th march 2021 by the ministry of climate change pakistan. this national campaign underpins behavioral change and institutional strengthening while envisaging the need to address five components: plantation, solid waste management, liquid waste management/ hygiene, total sanitation, and safe drinking water. the cgpm has a specific focus on empowering the citizens to seek access to basic services but also making themselves equally accountable and responsible for clean green pakistan. research methodology the current study follows qualitative research design and seeks to analyse the data in depth in order to highlight climate change issues represented in media narrative. moreover, the study is exploratory in nature, since it tends to explore climate change narrative from different dimensions. method of data collection the data comprises newspaper advertisements published in english newspapers, such as: dawn and the news. moreover, the time frame for the data collection is from january 2019 to july 2021. the most repeated advertisements have been purposively selected for the analysis. climate change and media representation: 204 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.374 conceptual framework the researchers conceptualized a model from kress & leeuwan’s (2006) theory of multimodality and stibbe’s (2015) theory of ecolinguics (the stories we live by). since the advertisements carry layers of meanings and the text is replete with several signs connoting certain underlying ideologies; therefore, the researchers have tried to analyse such multimodal text by bring along a nexus between these signifiers and what they signify from ecological perspective. to analyse these semiotic resources such as, color, posture, words and shapes etc., kress and leewan (2006) has been utilized; whereas, the implications of such modes have been interpreted in the light of stibbe’s (2015) concept of salience, metaphor and framing from ecological perspective. data analysis and discussion advertisement 1 it is an official poster presented by pti government and minister of climate change pakistan. after the climate change policy adaptation made on 25th march 2021, pti government has come up with different ideas to make people aware of climate change policy. the purpose of clean green pakistan’s main five pillars and incumbent objectives is to spread socialenvironmental wakefulness. on the basis of kress and van leeuwen’s (2006) visual communication theory, we can witness different symbolic, pictorial and written modes emerged together in the process of making such advertisements for a reason to generate social meaning. climate change and media representation: 205 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.374 notwithstanding, these social semiotic resources have been utilized to deploy particular meaning to the text. the placard has used both visual and verbal structures to express meaning drawn from common cultural and ecological sources. in reference to multimodality; the placard consists a prominent tagline at above, my city. my responsibility. this tagline, undoubtedly, intended with a deeper social, environmental and cultural meanings. your city, country and homeland is mother to you and it is your sheer responsibility to keep it clean. moreover, we can see a flower shape like picture, within which five main agendas have been presented symbolically. besides, symbolic representation, those main points have been mentioned in a written form with numberings such as: 1. plantation 2. safe water 3. safe sanitation 4. hygiene and liquid waste management 5. solid waste management through this placard language, vocabulary and visual-graphic modes have played vital role to communicate social awareness regarding ecological issues in pakistan. beneath, this large flower epitome, it is written pm imran khan’s clean green champion program. the word champion over here can signify to multiple meanings. firstly, the term champion is taken as a winwin game towards the elimination of global warming and dire climate change situation in order to lead a path full of greenery and forestry. secondly, it could be signified to the championship of eradicating health issues in pakistan. bad atmosphere and climate lead to many diseases such as skin diseases, breathing problem and so on. lastly, the word may also ideologically refer back and forth to imran khan’s captaincy. the champion and legendry captain of pakistan cricket who won the world cup in 1992 match. therefore, under his leadership tis very champion program of making pakistan clean and green has been inaugurated. discussing signs and their colors, it is viewed that they depict one schema related to plantation, vegetation and cleansing air pollution. the color blue represents water therefore it is written safe water along with symbolic image. same is with solid waste management associated with brown color representing filth. liquid waste mostly from industries are extremely toxic. thus they not only pollute seas but also affect marine life. hands climate change and media representation: 206 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.374 are symbolic illustration of safe sanitation and convey a deeper message to fight against covid-19 and to follow sops. last but not the least a graphic scenery illustrates vision of green pakistan. green hills along with trees undoubtedly portray the national adaptation plan for building resilience to climate change. 4.1.2 advertisement 2 in the above placard, we can see that it has been bifurcate into two parts. on the right side the picture of pm imran khan has been incorporated. he is addressing to the nation regarding the clean green pakistan movement, its objectives and significance. the background color is also green indicating the nature and color of solace. under his picture we can see the caption pakistan clean green index. the caption or we can say the official logo or icon of the cgpm. along with written text; the map of pakistan has also been infused. two colors have been used green and orange. the words pakistan and green are in green color while the words clean and index are in orange color. similarly, we can scrutinize the map sign. it is also made with the fusion of green and orange insignia. on the left part, the placard consists pertinent message which states that prime minister imran khan’s address at the launch of clean green pakistan. different color schemes and font size have been used to highlight the conveying message. additionally, at the top four flowers are representing visual and symbolic communication of clean green concept. the background color at the right part of the placard is white. the color white is mostly associated with peace and prosperity. indeed, the green color represents planation, orange may represents the trunk of trees, and white signifies progress towards clean green pakistan. furthermore, if we view climate change and media representation: 207 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.374 the ideological significance of these social semiotic resources, they can be linked with the national flag of pakistan. it consists of two colors white and green. green signifies majority muslims while white stands for minority non-muslims. yet both together live in peace and harmony. secondly, pakistan’s diversity extends to its climatic, socioeconomic, and environmental characteristics, which differ significantly from region to region. though pakistan produce less than 1% of the global greenhouse gas emission, yet according to the long-term german watch index pakistan is constantly among top 10 climate vulnerable countries. 4.1.3 advertisement 3 above is a very carefully crafted advertisement where the technique of salience is creatively employed. it is unconsciously compelling the addresses to plant trees by asking them in bold to join the movement. red colour font is used for the invitation because it is of higher frequency and anyone who looks at the advertisement will read the words without even having any such intentions. similarly, a slogan is used in the advertisement which is further signifying the importance of the project. the slogan one child, one tree is also printed in bold and red. the picture of two children explains the meaning of this slogan where children are planting trees so it points towards the government initiative where the school children are asked to plant one tree each. as children are our future so in order to give a better environment to our future generation, the masses need to support the government in making the project of billion tree tsunami successful. climate change and media representation: 208 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.374 furthermore, the badge in the advertisement is having a graphic design of a tree but if one looks at it from a little closer, the trunk of the tree is actually the image of a child so it also indicates the one child, one tree policy of the government and the importance of trees for our future generations. thus, salience patterns are observed in the form of typography, slogan and pictorial representation 4.1.4 advertisement 4 in the above advertisement, metaphor is used in order to show the salience of the billion tree afforestation drive by the provincial government of khyber pakhtunkhwa. tree plantation is called as charity in order to convince more and more people to plant trees and contribute to the project of tree plantation initiated by the government. similarly, the words tree are written in bold fonts in order to address the targeted audience which is also an evidence of the use of salience and due to such typography, the reader is able to read the advertisement randomly instead of reading the whole information. moreover, the salience feature can be seen in the above advertisement from the fact that a hadith is used in order to show the importance of planting a tree. so the salience features of metaphor, religion and typography are used in the advertisement given above. 4.1.5 advertisement 5 climate change and media representation: 209 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.374 in the above printed advertisement, the image of a tree is focused. it is fore grounded whereas in the background, a dry desert can be identified. it suggests that trees or greenery is more important and significant. similarly, a large numbers of trees that have been cut down are depicted in the background which gives a look of a graveyard as if some dead bodies are buried. it shows that in order to make life possible on this planet, more and more trees should be planted. moreover, the words ‘the last chance’ also indicate the use of salience patterns that signifies the importance of afforestation and protecting the environment. typography is used in order to warn the addresses and compel them to save the environment. therefore, human beings need to avail this last chance and plant trees in order to save earth from turning into a graveyard of trees and eventually human life. conclusion in order to restore ecosystem, pakistan has used nature-based solutions and national ecosystem-based adaptation to achieve climate change resilience. the national adaptation plan or the clean green pakistan movement is an initiative taken by the government to manage environmental and health issues. under this adapted climate change policy, the inauguration of climate change and media representation: 210 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.374 "ten billion tree tsunami programme" is the foremost objective. studies have shown that it has become a dire need to communicate climate alteration for the well-being our planet, humans, and non-human inhabitants. therefore, the researchers have stepped into the new millennium, the field of ecolinguistics in order to communicate and aware people regarding the issues related to environment with the help of linguistic properties. in order to safeguard the environment and spread awareness among the masses regarding the wellbeing of environment, salience can be used as an important tool. there are different ways for making a message salient, some of these methods include, the use of metaphors, bold prints, sharp colours, highlighting text, specific lexemes, typography and pictorial orientations etc. these methods make the message salient and unconsciously persuade the public to contribute towards the project launched by the government and thus protect the environment for the future generations. references carvalho, a. (2005). representing the politics of the greenhouse effect: discursive strategies in the british media. critical discourse studies, 2(1), 1-29. glasser, h. (2011). naess's deep ecology: implications for the human prospect and challenges for the future. inquiry, 54(1), 52-77. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174x.2011.542943 haugen, e. (1972). the ecology of language. in: alwin fill and peter mühlhäusler (ed) the eco-linguistic reader: language, ecology, and environment. london: continuum. haugen, e. (2006). the ecology. ecolinguistics reader: language, ecology and environment, 57. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174x.2011.542943 climate change and media representation: 211 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.374 hulme, m. (2007). climate conflict. new scientist, 196(2629), 26. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0262-4079(07)62834-6 kress, g. r., & leeuwen, t. v. (2006). reading images: the grammar of visual design. psychology press. sedlaczek, a. s. (2017). the field-specific representation of climate change in factual television: a multimodal critical discourse analysis. critical discourse studies, 14(5), 480-496. doi:10.1080/17405904.2017.1352003 stibbe, a. (2015). ecolinguistics: language, ecology and the stories we live by. routledge. @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1016/s0262-4079(07)62834-6 394 psychological violence reinforcing patriarchal power structure in uzma aslam khan’s trespassing: 394 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.369 psychological violence reinforcing patriarchal power structure in uzma aslam khan’s trespassing: narratological analysis of temporality in novel afshan abbas 1 dr. munazza yaqoob 2 1lecturer, ph. d scholar, iiu, islamabad 2associate professor, iiu, islamabad abstract the present study explores through genette’s model of narratology, the theme of psychological violence as the outcome of housewifization and how it works in multiple ways to reinforce patriarchal power structures in uzma aslam khan’s novel ‘trespassing’. the purpose of the research is to identify the various factors responsible for propagating the evil of psychological violence and suggest ways in which this violence can be curbed. the methodology selected for this research is qualitative. through qualitative research, the researcher has attempted to analyze the narrative structure of the novel and explore how psychological violence inhibits women’s psychological and social growth? further analysis of the novel attempts to extend some interpretations of the novel's analepsis and prolepsis and precisely determine the duration through the accelerated techniques. keywords: genette’s model of narratology, psychological violence, housewifization, locus of control introduction even though there is a substantial literature on the subject of domestic violence, it has remained under-researched and unexplored in the context of south asian women's psychological violence as depicted in pakistani fiction. this study aims to bridge the gap with the narratological analysis of khan’s novel ‘trespassing’ from the perspective of psychological violence as the outcome of housewifization. according to humanity divided: confronting inequality in developing countries (2015), “gender is sophisticated social stratification regardless of one’s socioeconomic class, it’s differences systematically vary across cultures and over time”. gender disparities in most communities lead to males being promoted to higher socioeconomic and political positions than females. promoting gender equality has long been a top priority for nearly all international organizations and national initiatives. gender gap index (2020) ranked pakistan second from last in a list of 151 nations in terms of the prevalence of gender-based inequalities. pakistan's ranking on the list reflects the country's deplorable living circumstances for women, which shows domestic violence as a result of gender inequality. marxist feminist philosophers emphasize that the distinction between men and women is social rather than biological. men and women are divided into masculine and feminine genders when 395 psychological violence reinforcing patriarchal power structure in uzma aslam khan’s trespassing: 395 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.369 they are assigned various societal roles. according to hans bertens (2013) in literary theory, basic gender roles are culturally assigned to the countless generations of women. the same can be said for masculinity, which is associated with strength, logic, and self-reliance (p. 98). women are supposed to be financially meek and subordinate to men because men work outside the home and achieve economic milestones. patriarchal mindsets do not provide women with financial independence. according to griffin and koss (2002), domestic violence is recognized as a global societal issue and one of the top causes of injury among women. according to a common misperception in pakistani society, women are considered a burden in many regions since they are economically and emotionally dependent on men, whether they are mothers, wives, or sisters (p. 21). in this context, female writers in anglophone pakistani fiction have made a significant contribution. they have conducted themselves as enlightened and conscious females. early anglophone fiction depicted women as either cogs in the patriarchal system or targets of patriarchal tyranny in various forms, especially in the works of bapsi sidhwa, qaisra sheraz, monica ali, sara sulehri, faryal gohar and tehmina durrani. nonetheless, the shift in 21st century became visible when female characters/protagonists questioned the nature of patriarchal and coercive customs and traditions. in the case of living in pakistan or not, their fiction or compositions share a similar political, ideological and social point of views. with all these growing consciousness and female emancipation, pakistani writers, regardless of their gender seem to recondition gender representational tropes. this transition can be traced through the fiction of mohsin hamid, kamila shamsie, muhammad hanif and uzma aslam khan. the present study focuses on khan’s novel trespassing (2003) as a startlingly feminine voice in the context of pakistani fiction. female character of ‘anu’ a silent wife in khan’s novel trespassing (2003) remains the center of discussion in the selected narrative as a true example of ‘housewifization’ and victim of psychological violence. maria mies (1998) defines housewifization as a societal process in which women are socially labelled as housewives who rely on their husbands' income for survival. regardless of their real contribution to their family's livelihood, women's social definition as housewives is contrary to men's social definition as breadwinners (180). this study argues that psychological violence is the outcome of housewifization and can be analyzed in terms of “locus of control”. locus of control is the concept of learned helplessness (seligman 1975). abused women often present with the inability to make decisions, inability to fight back, and preoccupied with very negative feelings 396 psychological violence reinforcing patriarchal power structure in uzma aslam khan’s trespassing: 396 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.369 about themselves. “trespassing” does not follow the temporality in a chronological order. therefore, applying genette's theory is appropriate for a detailed analysis of its narrative structure. this research provides a valuable opportunity to analyze the psychological violence identified through the categories of time in the narrative structure of trespassing. review of the related literature the present study focuses on the analysis of locus of control as part of psychological violence in the khan’s novel ‘trespassing’ in terms of genette’s theory of narratology and maria mies’s concept of ‘housewifisation’. feminist pakistani writers highlight and critique how patriarchal ideology operates in the male-centered texts by depicting multiple realities and stereotypical ideas of gender. men's power to dominate within a family can be sanctified, as patriarchy is perpetuated and reproduced through the socialization of patriarchal norms and beliefs transferred from generation to generation (dobash and dobash, 1979). male violence towards women is not only sustained, but also validated within such households (dasgupta, 2000, sagot, 2005). hunnicutt (1992) agrees with dobash and dobash (1979) that patriarchy is perpetuated both ideologically and structurally: patriarchal ideas are exhibited and reinforced by social structures and institutions, perpetuating gender inequities throughout society. according to allan johnson (1997), a culture is patriarchal if it is male-dominated (men hold positions of authority), male-identified (values about what is good/preferred are linked to masculine standards) and male-centered (attention is focused on men and their actions). according to feminist thinkers, domestic violence is associated with patriarchy and is directly linked to the historical development of the isolated nuclear family in a capitalist society. gender role has to do with the segregation of public and private spheres, the establishment of suitable gender roles are social which reinforce the legal and moral obligations of wives to their husbands (bograd 1988). more than a decade ago, goldner (1998) stated: the feminist perspective to abuse and trauma adds a basic, ethical, and political framework to the debate of domestic violence. on these bigger concerns, there must be no compromises or ambiguity, especially when it comes to safety. however, now the moral bottom line has been established, namely a zero tolerance for violence and a focus to safety, accountability, and equity above all else, there should be room for a variety of opinions and approaches to this serious and complex issue. (p. 267) 397 psychological violence reinforcing patriarchal power structure in uzma aslam khan’s trespassing: 397 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.369 women traditionally play the role of wife in the home, assisting and serving their husband as the head of the household, and assimilating with the role of the mother nurtures and rears children. as a result, the gender role of women is socially and culturally built and rooted in patriarchal expectations. women in pakistani society are taught to downplay the violence they face from men, which has an impact on women's views of the brutality of domestic violence they have witnessed. women are trapped in the middle of dominating mainstream conceptions of acceptable behaviour and their own personal experience. male domination, often known as patriarchy, has its roots not only in governmental policy, but also in men's power over women's bodies (millet, 1970). the domestic labour discussion, which took place between 1973 and 1979, did not cover other types of non-wage work that capital uses in its accumulation process. this includes all work done by subsistence farmers and marginalized individuals, the majority of whom are women, in developing countries. in her study production relations without wage labor and labor division, claudia v. werlhof (1983) emphasized two non-wage labour production relations in the colonies, namely housework and subsistence work. maria mies' concept of 'housewifisation' was introduced in her book patriarchy and accumulation on a global scale (1986). patriarchy and accumulation expands and deepens arguments about domestic labour first made by maria mies in her classic case study the lace makers of narsapur (1982). violence, according to walby (1990), is a crucial and relatively autonomous pillar of gender hierarchies. individuals and families are the focus of analysis in the literature on domestic violence. in their study of the 1990s literature, johnson and ferraro (2000) focused on work that dealt with domestic abuse on an individual and family level. the american medical association defines domestic violence as a pattern of physical, sexual, and/or psychological abuse by someone with whom the victim had a close connection. intimidation, threats of physical harm to oneself or a spouse, property destruction, and forced isolation from family, job, and other activities are all examples of psychological abuse. second-wave black feminists coined the term "psychological abuse" to describe the complex ways in which psychological behaviours related to sexuality, ethnicity, gender, class, race, disability, and other factors intersect and experience oppression and power based on their social status. the studies on psychological violence highlights, income inequality and patriarchal division of labour as perpetuating factors for victimization and violence against women (mccloskey,2013). 398 psychological violence reinforcing patriarchal power structure in uzma aslam khan’s trespassing: 398 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.369 psychological violence can be studied in terms of locus of control. in brain research, the locus of control is viewed as a critical part of a character. the idea was first evolved during the 1950s by julian rotter in his book locus of control: antecedents, consequences and interventions. according to psychologists, individuals who accept they have authority over what happens are considered to have an inside locus control. repeated acts of violence reduce a woman's motivation to respond by decreasing her self-esteem; she becomes passive, and she abandons her attempt to leave a battering relationship.' the locus of control alludes to an individual's comprehension of the fundamental essential reasons of events in their day-to-day existence. individuals accept that their lives are in their grasp or in the possession of outer forces, to put it another way (like destiny, god, or incredible others). the locus of control in psychologically abused women reinforces their sense of powerlessness and may lead them to view themselves as "stuck" in a relationship, which can be viewed from the lens of narratology. genette’s theory enables the reader to dissect the fiction and thoroughly examine its structure and thus, facilitating a comprehensive understanding of the text. genette provides a range of ideas concerning narrative components that can be applied to any literary text. these ideas facilitate the understanding of the actions and events of the narrative as it unfolds the understanding of the narrative of text as well as the consequences of what is happening. additionally, genette’s focus on story, narrative and narration encompasses all the general elements of a story: plot, setting, character, theme, and conflict. khan’s “trespassing” combines these structural elements in a precise manner, making the fiction receptive to genette’s narratological analysis of time. khan’s novel ‘trespassing’ unfolds in a non-linear order, make it suitable for the study of narrative time, or more specifically, analepsis (flashback) and prolepsis (flashforward). prince (2012) believes' narrative theory highlights temporality and human beings as temporal beings, performs something that shows the structure of narrative. 'narrative theory's significance for our comprehension is crucial. narrative theory, according to bal (1991), is the study of narrative texts. according to genette (1983) “narrative statement is a kind of oral or written discourse that analyze the event or a series of events in the narrative” (p. 25). in other words, a narrative consists of a story made up of a plot, which involves characters, events, action, and dialogue. genette established three levels of narrative, namely stories, text, and narration. these three levels relate to each other, represented by time, mood, and voice. the present study deals with temporality to explore the psychological violence in 399 psychological violence reinforcing patriarchal power structure in uzma aslam khan’s trespassing: 399 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.369 the selected fiction. in the arena of domestic violence, psychological abuse tends to be given comparatively less attention than physical abuse. one major reason for this belittling of psychological abuse is that amongst mental and legal professionals there is a lack of consensus on what would be the appropriate definition for this abuse. also, there tends to be a general feeling in the masses that physical abuse has greater psychological consequences as compared to psychological abuse. however, statistics indicate that psychological abuse had a much more adverse impact on women as compared to physical abuse. psychological abuse is almost always followed by physical one, so necessary steps need to be taken for both its prevention and treatment (o’ leary and daniel, p. 21). 'the general views of the feminism movement, which suggest that males have the locus of authority and so are the most common perpetrators of violence. the woman's identity is her body, but the man is a well-known qualified human who deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. the present study intends to explore how genette’s model of narratology helps to explore the psychological violence in khan’s novel ‘trespassing’ and how the model connects the concept of locus of control with housewifization? theoretical framework this research focuses on the psychological violence in terms of the theory of ‘housewifization’ by maria mies (1986). the concept of ‘housewifization’ given by maria mies in her book patriarchy and accumulation on a world scale (1986) focuses on the patriarchal-capitalist sexual division of labour, whereby women’s household labour is defined as non-productive and hence non remunerated. it also investigates the ‘locus of control’ as part of psychological violence. cowan and mills in 2004 in their book, “personal inadequacy and intimacy predictors of men's hostility toward women” claim that the ‘locus of control’ is the most potent attitudinal predictor which defines and prompts the violence of men towards women. genette’s narratological analysis is combined with housewifization to explore the context of the psychological violence as the outcome of the asymmetric, division of labour between men and women. the present study investigates how women are vulnerable at their own houses, working like labourers, genette develops four analytical categories mood, instance, level and time, each with its subcategories. genette (1980) claims that time has the unique ability to structure a novel , it allows the reader to know from which the main point a story is being told. the present study applies the analytical categories of mood and time as an 400 psychological violence reinforcing patriarchal power structure in uzma aslam khan’s trespassing: 400 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.369 analytical tool for getting a deep understanding of the intricate narratological design of the novel trespassing. data analysis and interpretation uzma aslam khan is a pakistani diaspora writer who converges on ever-evolving institutional practices in the pakistani society. one such prominent issue is family institution in khan’s trespassing (2003), on which the present study is based. this research focuses on women's representation in khan’s novel ‘trespassing’ with a feministic approach, it aims to breach the stigma regarding women's oppression in pakistan. feminism in the novel concentrates on the description of various ways in which female characters are oppressed in a patriarchal society, as the novel's goal is to inform the reader into action. since the female body is supposed to be kept veiled and silent, exposing violence and injustice through the female body reinforces the message of psychological violence. the present study also uses genette's narrative approaches to comprehend the narrative of 'trespassing.' all narratives, according to genette, must be diegesis (telling). by making the narrative real, they will never be able to achieve the illusion of mimesis (showing). genette comprises four analytical categories, each with its own subcategories: mood, instance, level, and time. the first category, mood, is defined by genette as the distance between the narrator and the narrated text. the narrator can choose from four different subcategories of mood. to achieve the desired effect, the author may shuffle among them at times. uzma aslam khan in her novel ‘trespassing’ has employed the strategies of free direct and narratized speech to allow the characters to narrate their experiences i.e. “i’ll be back soon,’ dia told her driver. ‘you needn’t to follow me’ (part 1). ‘he’s gone mad,’ she whispered, clutching dia. ‘i shouldn’t have told him.’(part 1) the narrator's dominance in the second dimension of mood, function, is evident in the ideological predictions in ‘trespassing’. the imperative questions provide the testimonial for the patriarchal supremacy of male characters on female characters: “that is all you ever have to say: is it cold? do you want more? are you well? is it good enough? woman, why can’t you ever make conversation?”(part 2) in the narrative of trespassing the writer’s perception is heterodiegetic because each character tells everything through their actions and the writer does not appear in the story. she is authorial as well because she narrates the novel from the points of view of the characters based on their material and mental processes. second, there's the issue of narrative time. when does the story's narration commence with a reference to it? a writer may narrate events from 401 psychological violence reinforcing patriarchal power structure in uzma aslam khan’s trespassing: 401 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.369 the past, or he or she may predict or dream about the future. the narrative and the event can be narrated at the same time, or a writer can interpolate any two of them. in khan’s trespassing the major events have taken place in a form of subsequent narration indicating chronological order of novel. focalization, the narrative perspective through which we readers perceive, is the third sub-category of instance. the author used zero focalization in the present research. genette's final category is narrative time. it assists in the analysis of the time relationship between the narration and the storyline. writers have a variety of options when it comes to achieving specific outcomes. trespassing employs various strategies to transpose the speech of the characters. admitting time as a broad concept. uzma aslam khan does not convey her characters' inner lives and motivations in a traditional linear manner. instead, she breaks, alters, and manipulates time, extending out the plot over years. through a succession of analepsis, the readers learn about the character's life (flashbacks). for example, the narration starts with the story of shafqat and dia’s mother in 1960. the narrative of trespassing has a lovely blend of analepsis, in that within one broad analepsis, another analepsis may be located, and within the second, a third instance can be found; therefore, a layer of analepsis is generated. within those analepsis, however, some prolepsis (flashback) occurs. the kind of narrative speed found in the selected fiction is scene based on the dialogues of the characters. housewifization as a social structure economy, in this contemporary age, plays a significant role in determining the worth of individuals. men with powerful financial stature, lead privileged lives whilst women are considered worthless. this study then seeks to address this situation and shows how the deprivation of property and money relegates the status of women in the world. household labors assigned to women as obligatory compulsions, are unpaid tasks whereby women toil from dawn to dusk, assuming the role of domestic slaves. women remain deprived of their basic rights whereas men attain more privileged position in the family unit primarily owing to their control on system and sources of production. this allows married men the liberty to abuse women physically and psychologically. on the other hand, domestic chores have no significance and remain unpaid labor, assigned to women, who are also kept out of property ownership. a woman is supposed to suppress her feelings, compromise her viewpoints, and give up her own ambitions, because they are financially dependent on their husbands. the character of ‘anu’ in khan’s novel ‘trespassing’ is portrayed as passive character, an unpaid 402 psychological violence reinforcing patriarchal power structure in uzma aslam khan’s trespassing: 402 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.369 labourer, dependent and therefore, submissive, and obedient. she is overburdened with domestic unpaid and unappreciated household chores. anu is a helpless character, and her such submissive attitude has certain reasons. the patriarchal roles of men and women define the social upbringing of both genders in distinct ways. not only are men active, productive, and responsible, but they are also aggressive. gender-based social roles, lifestyles, distribution of labour, and stereotypical mind sets are all influenced by patriarchal frameworks. society and culture have been telling us that ‘women need men’ for the completion of women’s identity and to achieve economic stability but even after getting married they must suffer from psychological violence from their husbands because they are economically dependent subjects to them as shown in the character of ‘anu’. psychological violence and locus of control the portrayal of the female character ‘anu’ is very significant and a reflection of the potent controlling effect of patriarchal power structures in the lives of women. the novel ‘trespassing’ reflects how threatening, and intimidating is the influence of her husband’s psychological violence on her. her very nature is crushed, her spirit is killed and simultaneously she is ordered to stay silence. any expression of her pain is obliterated, and she is expected to bear it all alone, having no confidant except god. it is important to note how men have always assumed the center of power throughout the lives of women and by doing so have altered and decided the course of life of the woman as her life partner, compels her to stay at home and work like a mule, taking care of her kids and household work. therefore, it can be observed that even though anu was the victim of the psychological violence, however she is silent and helpless. the male locus of control tended to assume authority and strip off her inherent right to live her own life. not only is anu’s life affected but her son also suffered from these abuses by his father. as depicted in the novel ‘trespassing’ daanish, in distress chewed apple too loudly. anu’s husband is depicting the male locus of control which has dominated women’s lives since eternity. psychological violence is evident in the conversations between anu and her husband in the novel. it is specifically stated how women are treated at their homes. it is often the feminine gender that suffers from psychological violence, as the result of men's unpleasant and domineering behavior. a woman is supposed to hide her feelings, compromise her viewpoints, and give up her own ambitions. lack of self-esteem, lack of confidence, anxiety, and inability to function are psychological implications of this dependency and conflict, as seen in the quiet wife 'anu.' in the novel trespassing, there is also an emphasis 403 psychological violence reinforcing patriarchal power structure in uzma aslam khan’s trespassing: 403 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.369 on being feminine, working in feminine jobs and raise children. the doctor's inflated sense of self importance and violent demeanor toward his wife is quite normal and acceptable by society. a man can vent his frustrations on his wife without fear of retaliation from other family member in marital conflict. moreover, as in the matter of anu the study underscored that it is a challenge for a married woman to return to her family because doing so would jeopardize her parents' honor. the analysis of anu’s character revealed that being female meant caretaking, servitude, and sacrificing one's own wants, but men's violent behavior in the household is considered as acceptable by society. men is portrayed as having the ability to make decisions not only for themselves but also for their wives. it is also acceptable for a man as depicted in the character of anu’s husband to use physical or psychological violence when a woman fails to behave according to gender norms. ideologically loaded words are significant in the novel to depict women physical and psychological violence i.e. “women being killed”, “woman’s reputation.” slammed”, “cold” “women as a product” “you’ve no idea how hostile society gets if you/woman challenge it”. the repetition of "product" in the novel ‘trespassing’ for women is derogatory to women because goods are often used and discarded, not humans. the writer uses the character of anu in trespassing as the instrument to illustrate the women dependency. conclusion from the textual analysis, the researcher deduced the following findings which also answered the study’s research questions. the findings of the study are stated below: • psychological violence strips women off their sense of security, safety, identity, worth, integrity and self-respect. they lose faith in themselves and their abilities as a person. it is evident through the character of “anu” who kept trudging on through all the oppression inflicted upon her because repeated instances of violence had muted her mind and made her feel that perhaps she deserved this treatment and perhaps this is how it is supposed to be. psychological violence which is also the outcome of anu’s economic dependency on her husband affects the individual’s ability to perform in all these domains and thus breaks her, while simultaneously reinforcing patriarchal power structures. • gender differences are enhanced owing to differential socialization, since not only are men and women brought up differently, but they are also taught that different behaviors and attitudes are expected from them. keeping in line with this the treatments which they receive at the hands 404 psychological violence reinforcing patriarchal power structure in uzma aslam khan’s trespassing: 404 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.369 of each other also vary from each other. these gender differences mostly lead to patriarchal terrorism where men are the perpetrators of violence and women are the victims of violence. this is mainly because, women are submissive and financially dependent on their husbands. men are taught to be controlling and authoritative. they are taught to abuse women who are free labourers for them. • it was concluded from the study that a reader can have a clearer grasp of the complicated design of the novel 'trespassing' by using genette’s narratological schemata. the analysis of the temporal categories of novel showed the locus of control of male characters which resulted into psychological violence. the author mocks the existing connection, claiming that the feminine gender should not be handled in such a cruel and barbaric manner. she advocated for a rethinking of the existing male-female relationship. 405 psychological violence reinforcing patriarchal power structure in uzma aslam khan’s trespassing: 405 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.369 references babar, a. (2017). we are all revolutionaries here: militarism, political islam and gender in pakistan. sage publishing india. bal, m. (1997). narratology: introduction to the theory of narrative. bertens, h. (2013). literary theory: the basics. routledge. bograd, m. (1988). "enmeshment, fusion or relatedness?" journal of psychotherapy & the family, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 65-80. dobash, r., dobash, r. e., & dobash, r. p. (1979). violence against wives: a case against the patriarchy. free press. dutton, d. (2006). rethinkng domestic violence. vancouver, bc: ubc press. gelles, r. (1980) "violence in the family: a review of research in the seventies." journal of marriage and the family, vol. 42, no. 4, p. 873. genette, g. (1983). narrative discourse: an essay in method. cornell university press. griffin, m. (2002). "peritraumatic dissociation in domestic violence victims." psycextra dataset. hamel, j. & nicholls, t.l. (2007). family interventions in domestic violence: a handbook of gender-inclusive theory and treatment. new york, ny: springer. caven, y., nowicki, s., & kalechstein, a. (2021). locus of control: antecedents, consequences and interventions using rotter’s definition. frontiers media sa. mies, m. (1998). patriarchy and accumulation on a world scale: women in the international division of labour. palgrave macmillan. schwab, k. (2019). the global gender gap report 2020. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). an ecosophical exploration of war and violence in graphic novel vanni: 144 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.368 an ecosophical exploration of war and violence in graphic novel vanni: a representational visual meta-function analysis afshan abbas 1 dr fauzia janjua 2 1 phd scholar, iiu, islamabad 2 associate professor,iiu, islamabad abstract the present study focuses on the correlation between ecosophy and visual grammar. for this purpose, this study incorporates guattari’s ecosophy through the model of kress and van leeuwen’s visual grammar(2006) to trace the environmental crisis in the graphic novel ‘vanni: a family’s struggle through the sri lankan conflict’ (2009).the study is qualitative in nature based on multimodal discourse analysis. the findings of the study developed arguments for an ecosophical lens as a way of creating a change of vision within our ethical, social, and political spaces. through the representational, interactive, and compositional meanings represented in vanni's visuals, felix guattari's ecosophies highlight the trauma of war and it’ s impact on people and the environment. key terms: guattari’s ecosophy, visual grammar, vanni, multimodality introduction the twenty-first century has made a mark in the anthropocene era by propelling the ecological crisis across the world. environmental issues are discussed extensively in today's society, involving concerns expressed about the extinction of natural resources, various types of life, and the consequent extinction of the human species on the globe as a result of war. according to this perspective, today's environmental issues are the result of deliberate behavior of modern men such as wars, which end in ecological disaster. according to guattari (2009): individual and collective human lifestyles contribute to the continuous deterioration of our world. ecosophy focuses on the broad and deep connections that we all share, the relationships that exist inside, among, and between social processes, economies, ideologies and living systems. it raises awareness of these systems in forms of dynamic assemblages, which can be connected and reinvented in revolutionary ways. (p.22) guattari (1996) saw the necessity to 'alter mentalities to reinvent social practices that would give humanity a sense of responsibility, not only for its own existence, but also for the future of all lives on the earth, for animals and vegetable species' (p. 120). an ecosophical exploration of war and violence in graphic novel vanni: 145 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.368 ecosophy is a practical and theoretical, ethical-political and aesthetic paradigm, a simple and efficient reformation of existing ways of thinking about the human being, society, and the environment. with ecosophy, it is possible to understand that nature and human beings are part of the same ecosystem. guattari's ecosophy is based on three ecosophies: the environment, social interactions, and human subjectivity, and it addresses our understanding as part of the environment in which we live, as well as how we learn and act on environmental issues. in order to trace the consequences of war and violence linked with the environment in the graphic novel ‘vanni by benjamin dix and lindsay pollock, the current study aims to analyze the guattari's ecosophies embedded in ‘vanni’ through the model of visual grammar (2006). problem statement many studies of ecolinguistics focus on the analysis of the language and ignore the analysis of the visuals. consequently, all the messages encoded in the images are neglected and the construction of meaning is solely confined to the analysis of the verbal content. the study however, focusing on analyzing the visuals through employing visual grammar (kress & van leeuwen, 2006) to focus on the ecosophical aspects of the graphic novel. research questions • how does the graphics of vanni employing the model of kress and van leeuwen involve in the meaning making semiotic process regarding the effects of war on environment? • how does the ecosophy by felix guattari in the visuals of vanni investigate the detrimental impact of war on ecology? review of the literature ecolinguistics is a branch of cda that combines discourse analysis with ecological considerations. ecolinguistics employs many of the same techniques as cda, but it views ideology and power relations as concepts that relate to both human and non-human subjects (dash, 2019). how language contributes to the creation of certain stories or narratives, or what stibbe (2015) refers to as "the stories we live by," is an important field of inquiry for ecolinguistics. these are cognitive frameworks that influence how we perceive the human-nature interaction, economic growth, and technological progress, and, as a result, how do we react in respect to the environment. eco criticism claims that the hegemonic narratives to which we are exposed appear between the an ecosophical exploration of war and violence in graphic novel vanni: 146 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.368 lines of a text (stibbe, 2015). these narratives can be identified, however, by analyzing a certain discourse. following the path of multimodal analysis, the ecolinguistic framework can be expanded to different semiotic codes. working from a multimodal approach, kress and van leeuwen (2006) believe that the way we experience reality is influenced by the way images are created and presented (the visual choices we make). kress and van leeuwen (2006) proposed a theory of visual grammar, a multimodal approach to communication that separates three types of meaning: representational, interactional, and compositional, to investigate how visual structures affect human perceptions. graphic novels, in essence, employ visuals and print text to captivate readers and convey stories. readers walk with characters and see from their points of view. both print text and graphics are equally significant in the narrative, as they both provide crucial information. when reading visuals and words, a reader is given considerable freedom in their interpretation (kress, 2004). according to stibbe (2015) narratives govern our lives by naturalizing what is social; we live through stories that bring socially shared signs into play and influence human relationships with humans, other animals, plants, forests, rivers, and the physical environment, as well as refer to the exercise of power by various groups (p. 6). these can be stories regarding massive consumption, economic growth, advertising, intensive agriculture, animal exploitation, and stories that portray nature as a machine or resource to be used or exploited by humanity or they can be stories concerning respect, coexistence, and understanding with a different and more respectful vision of nature. the damage to the ecosystem is being used as a criterion for categorizing these stories. they are regarded harmful if they promote or enable some form of harm to species and the environment and they are considered positive if they encourage attitudes or behaviors that promote care and protection. according to fill (2002) ecolinguistics is a discipline which separates numerous areas of inquiry into several categories from which two main interests emerge: 1. critical analysis of animal/environmental discourse and 2. language ecology. critical analysis of animal/environmental discourse uses cda, framing theory, cognitive linguistics, rhetoric, and systemic-functional linguistics as linguistic tools. the significance of language and other semiotic resources in the creation of hegemonic meanings and the repetition of ideologies in texts and discourses is of particular interest to cds. arran stibbe has recently been active in incorporating an ecosophical exploration of war and violence in graphic novel vanni: 147 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.368 ecolinguistics into critical discourse studies. he stresses that social and ecological issues are not as distinct as one may think, particularly in light of the current imminent ecological crisis (stibbe 2021). ecological destruction is a consequence of oppressive human-to-human relationships. while ecolinguistics recognizes the link between environmental issues and social processes. it goes deeper and explores the repercussions of environmental deterioration and the ecological catastrophe not only on social connections between societies and individuals, but also on other living beings. these include future generations of humans who will be affected by our current actions, as well as non-human life forms such as animals and plants. according to trampe (2017) ecolinguistics analyzes the anthropocentric worldviews that dominate human language and discourse, arguing instead for an ecocentric and biocentric perspective that recognizes the intrinsic worth of all life forms on earth. fill (2017) states that ecolinguistics follows the theory of 'ecology' from biology, where it refers to the interaction of organisms with their environment, to discourse and communication. as a consequence, ecolinguistics is primarily concerned with the relationship between humans, language, and the environment (p. 15). as a result, this ecological viewpoint strengthens critical discourse studies as socially oriented values and norms. to this purpose, stibbe uses the term ecosophy coined by arne naess (1995) a philosopher and founder of the deep ecology movement. stibbe (2015) considered ecosophy as an ecological philosophy consisting of beliefs, values, and norms about the interaction between human civilizations, other living things, and the physical environment (p. 11). according to guattari (2009) we live on a planet where technical-scientific mutations are accelerating and unsustainable development is separating us from our personal, social, and environmental interactions. stibbe sees this ecosophy as a normative framework against which the discourses under investigation are evaluated. theoretical framework ecolinguistics has widened its conventional focus on the environmental view of language to include other sign processes as well. the present study focuses on ecolinguistic approach by delineating the ecosophical framework of felix guattari (2009). in line with the ecosophical approach, the present study focuses on the mental, social, and environmental ecosophies embedded in the graphic novel of vanni. the study employs the model of multimodality (kress and van an ecosophical exploration of war and violence in graphic novel vanni: 148 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.368 leeuwen 2006) as a tool to unveil the ecosophies in the novel. data analysis benjamin (2009) has very skillfully portrayed the tragedy of antony to make it an inclusive theme for his audience and his focus on ecological elements in the graphics make them explicit to understand the deeper level of meaning in the graphic novel ‘vanni’. to explore the ideological meanings of the graphic novel ‘vanni’ in the ecosophical context the present study concentrates on the elements and structure, the participant’s positions, modality, composition, and framing. vanni explores the intimate experiences of conflict, torture, loss, displacement, and transnational migration in the context of mental, social and environmental ecosophies, based on a fictionalized family of antony. the context of second visual is to highlight the peace and prosperous condition of antony’s family. according to the kress and leeuven’s conception of the experiential meta function in images, it relates to narrative processes, concerns the representation of objects and the representation of relationship between those objects (2006). in their approach, the relationships between objects are either realized by vectors formed by movement (action processes) or vectors formed by the direction in which the eyes of an object are looking (reaction processes). an example of an action process can be seen in figure 2. in the action process in figure 2, it is evident that the actors are the antony and his family and the goal is the viewers. according to the model of multimodality, there are three types of circumstances. the circumstance of means concerns the object with which the action was carried out. figure 2 of vanni reveals that the circumstance of means are babies and bowl of food carrying by amma. their vectors are formed towards the viewers who are the implicit goal of their vectors. the second type of circumstance is the circumstance of accompaniment. the final type of circumstance is the circumstance of setting. figure 2 shows an example of a circumstance of setting that is defined by the lightness of the background. the action and reaction processes are also further subdivided to indicate whether they are directed at someone or something (transactional actions/ non transactional). figure 2 represents transactional process because of direct gaze of actors which is directed towards the audience. figure 2 is a kind of still image in terms of the movement. interactive meanings are significant in terms of contact. this can either involve the represented participant looking at the viewer (demand), or not an ecosophical exploration of war and violence in graphic novel vanni: 149 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.368 (offer). figure 2 involves the contact with the viewers through the smile. this increases the attachment with the viewers. in terms of social distance, all actors are standing close to each other representing the close ties of the family. long shots and close shots are showing the full participants, close shots thus create a sense of intimacy between the viewer and the represented participant. attitude is inclusive and subjective as narrative participants share the direct gaze with the viewers which is high and vertical to show equality and engagement with the viewers. the eyes and smiles are significant in terms of the formulation of vertical angles indicating power and peace. the second types of vectors formed by their hands are also important showing the close connection of family i.e. rajini’s hands are forming vectors by holding her babies and amma’s hands are carrying food. their vectors are forming request to let them live in peace. figure 2 is also offering a close relationship of human and animal which is essential part of ecological harmony. the participants are interactive with the viewers. salience has been created by depicting the family without any background information. summary of the visual analysis of figure 2( vanni) representational meaning: narrative process present actors antoni & his family goal viewers speech process material conceptual process absent transactional/non-transactional transactional formation of vectors vertical circumstance present means bowl, babies setting light background accompaniment absent classification present (binary of peace and conflict) overt/covert overt structured/unstructured structured temporal day exclusive/inclusive inclusive spatial context present through cultural dress code symbolic attributive process symbolic / peace and prosperity interactive meaning contact present an ecosophical exploration of war and violence in graphic novel vanni: 150 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.368 gaze direct social distance/ size of frame long and close attitude: subjective/ objective subjective modality: colour saturation black and white contextualization background information is missing compositional meaning information value stative image salience psychological salience framing implicit the figure 6 is based on the sri lankan civil war and antony's family's forced displacement and migration as a representational act as well as its deep, intricate, and analogous entanglement with ecosophy to create synchronous emotive intensities among a larger audience. this way of representation entails a collaborative and participatory engagement with the contributions and perspectives of participants, as well as their distillation and fictionalization through sequential art. in visual 6 of vanni, there is narrative process to show the physical and mental agony of the main character antony, a man represented in visual graphic in a distressing physical and mental state. the closer analysis of graphic 1 in the panel 6 suggests the formation of antony vectors in terms of calling (material process) his lost mother. the vector in the first visual (antony’s hand on his mouth) to call his amma shows that he is in pain, searching for his ‘amma’. the vectors in the 2nd visual of panel represents antony’s inability to breathe due to the polluted environment of dead bodies after bombing. in the 3rd visual, vectors of his hands are formed to call his amma. visual 4 vectors are formed with dropping hands, the direction of his eyes and limbs are towards the ground for the sake of searching his amma’s body among the several dead bodies scattered around him. visual 5 depicts the distress and grief of antony in form of the informal south asian expression of ‘ aiyoo’ it means “oh no” which is an exclamation term used in spoken tamil in south india and sri lanka. moreover, vectors in visual 5 are significant as antony is holding his nose with his hands as he could not breathe in the polluted environment. vectors of visuals 6 depicts antony doing vomiting due to the stinking smell of the corpses around him. visual 7, vectors are formed by his an ecosophical exploration of war and violence in graphic novel vanni: 151 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.368 bent legs as he is sitting and holding his nose with one of his hands. in visual 8, antony is in great distress placing his chin at his hands, thinking about his amma by looking her dead body in front of him. visual 9 of figure 6 vectors are formed through antoni’s constant gaze towards his dead amma to whom he is holding in his arms. the text of the speech bubble is monosyllabic which consists of the material process of calling. as far as circumstance and settings are concerned, the graphics are designed to represent the air attack in vanni which resulted in death of antony’s mother. the visual graphics are represented as overt representation started initially with a single character, antony to move towards multi-layered events contributing to the life story of antony i.e. bombing, killing of his mother, family tragedies resulted from the civil war. the social context (dress, etc.) shows antony, an inhabitant of sri lanka. the brightness of visuals in terms of white color suggests temporal settings of the graphics which is daytime in all the visuals. the modality of the visual of vanni is depicted in the white and black panel (which is highly symbolic) in terms of the mental representation of the character. according to satrapi (2008) black and white panel is significant in terms of highlighting tragic incidents or framing a tragic context. in the last graphic, the vector of antony holding his dead mother in his hands is significant in the context of ecosophical patterns, contributing to the narrative process. the images are arranged from top to bottom, demonstrating sequential representation. contact is represented skillfully in the visuals as a major event in the story as antony is searching for his mother and wants to have immediate contact with her, in the end, his contact turned into an identification of a tragic event (death of his mother). attitude is developed through the monosyllabic material process of calling and the physical appearance of antony which represented his tragedies due to the civil war context. distance is implicitly represented through the tireless journey of antony towards his attainment of peace. the images from the context of ecosophy can be highlighted as the images reveal that even animals are affected by the disasters of war. vectors in the visuals are very obvious and suggestive to the theme of the story. besides, the reactional process of antony is shown as having a serious problem in coping with the world represented as full of tragedies and turmoil. tragedies are evident not only depicting the inner world of the characters but the outer world as well. through white and black panel, the writer, benjamin dix has also highlighted the binary of peace and conflict. in the last graphic, the broken twigs and leaves depict the ecological destruction due to war. an ecosophical exploration of war and violence in graphic novel vanni: 152 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.368 summary of the visual analysis of figure 6 ( vanni) representational meaning narrative process present actors antoni goal viewers speech process material (amma), aiiyo (exclamatory expression) conceptual process absent transactional/ non transactional transactional formation of vectors horizontal, downward, towards the dead body of his amma, circumstance present means weeping, vomiting setting background representing destruction, scattered dead bodies of human and animals, broken trees accompaniment carrying dead body of his amma classification present overt/covert antoni (overt), amma (covert) structured/unstructured structured top to bottom representation of the aftermath of war temporal day exclusive/inclusive inclusive (emotional engagement with viewers) topographical process not any spatial context present through cultural dress code& spatial background symbolic attributive process symbolic / physical and mental tragedy interactive meaning contact searching for the immediate contact, found his amma gaze indirect social distance/ size of frame long and close attitude: subjective/ objective subjective modality: colour saturation black and white representing the tragic incidents an ecosophical exploration of war and violence in graphic novel vanni: 153 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.368 contextualization post war context compositional meaning information value forced displacement & killing salience created through background information framing left aligned, upward information ecosophical analysis today's warfare is typically characterized by heinous acts of violence and brutality caused by bombing and outright genocide of minorities. visuals of vanni depict the traumatic memories of the destruction of antony’s homeland, the loss of his loved ones in the civil war, his subsequent detention, torture, the anthropocentricism of human beings in form of war and it’s disastrous impacts on environmental, mental and social ecosophies. guattari's ecosophy proposed the totalizing dimension, of contemporary issues, causing political, social and cultural dimensions. according to muhlhausler (2003) ecosophy consists of a paradigm shift, where man is aware that he is an inseparable part of the environment. ecosophy embedded in vanni depicting the tragedies in form of human relations (killing of antony’s mother) and human subjectivity (traumatic experiences of vanni), social relations (antony’s longing for his mother), and the disastrous impact on environment, through the three ecosophies: mental, social and environmental. the visual flashbacks in vanni can help to understand the ecosophical patterns. as a result of war, a process of change in the relationship between man and nature, triggered an unequal relationship and significant change in the environment of sri lanka portrayed in the selected novel. the ecosophical analysis of vanni provides a rational appeal for the construction of new socioenvironmental and ecological knowledge. in this way, ecosophy consists of more than just a philosophy of ecology, but a way of thinking about the destruction of nature and human relations in contemporary society. social ecosophy social ecosophy depicts the social ties of individuals with the nature. in social context, antony’s anguish for his mother shows the close family ties. economic semiotics in the visuals an ecosophical exploration of war and violence in graphic novel vanni: 154 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.368 depicts that antony belongs to a low-income group. as shown in the visuals antony belongs to the proletariat class where he is at the base structure. in this context, antony and his family suffered more due to the lack of economic resources and not having social and economic power to save themselves. it is relatable to the unequal division of resources leads towards unequal relationship of men with nature. this environmental pollution is also parallel to the emotional turmoil experienced by antony. background images show devastation of social structures as the outcome of war. the social ecosophy presented in vanni allows thinking about social relations in the perspective of the anthropocentricism of men caused by their promotion of war in the contemporary world. social ecosophy in vanni through the character of antony also highlights the integrated world capitalism leading towards the collective destruction of the society. according to the ecosophical lens of guattari, the present study traces the themes of forced displacement of civilians experiencing the aftermath of war and antony’s distress at observing the victims; humans, animals and nature. social ecosophy is prevalent in the novel as the protagonist is anguished and experienced the trauma of the civil war. the ecological disaster was due to the ‘spectacular violence of anthropos which eradicated trees, killed animals and humans. anthropocentric violence shows that the war caused killing, forced displacement and social segregations. the war also caused displacement as in the case of antony’s mother who was initially displaced due to the war like situation. mental ecosophy mental ecosophy is evident in the graphic novel ‘vanni’ as a philosophical attitude through critical reflection in a way of coexistence and reframing relationship between man, society and nature. it shows the amalgam of “nature” and “society” as inseparable entities, bringing human subjectivity, social multiplicity and environmental diversity as necessary issues. the novel depicts how everything is interconnected, from the depression, trauma to the physical and psychological violence and degradation of the environment. the fundamentals based on the ecosophy of guattari collaborates for the rational and logical development of ecological balance and human subjectivity. this subjectivity refers to how we see the world and ourselves, as well as how we think and behave in order to protect and care for the environment. mental ecosophy in vanni proposes to raise awareness and knowledge of the individuality of man in connection with other individuals, family, an ecosophical exploration of war and violence in graphic novel vanni: 155 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.368 political and social life. it depicts postmodern mutations which transformed the way of living in the modern world. the mental ecosophy in vanni raises the collective contemporary psychological issues as the result of the lack of a meaning of the individuality of man, corrupted by the forces of the world capitalist power and lack of rational approach as it is evident from the mental trauma faced by antony who could not give even proper burial to his beloved mother. thus, according to guattari (2009) mental ecosophy has the capacity to critically analyze the introjection of repressive power by the oppressed as depicted in ‘vanni’. moral subjectivity is not the outcome of ‘singular self’ but also considers society itself in ecological terms. mental ecosophy in vanni highlighted the subjective semiotics that the solution of the problems of modern man, caused by segregations and war, lies in the principle of coexistence in groups and collectives. environmental ecosophy environmental ecosophy is evident in the character of antony which showed himself as an inseparable part of nature. vanni depicts civil war as the cause of great environmental damage and the source of transforming life of the natural habitat. environmental ecosophy brings together the heterogeneity of human changes. environmental ecosophy in vanni reveals the dynamic interrelatedness, of social structures and political phenomena. it also highlights the notion of landscapes. according to guattari (2014) ‘landscape’ refers not to a scenery but a balance of nature and culture. war in vanni has been depicted in the visuals as the destruction of landscapes at sri lanka representing unequal relationship between human and natural life. as a result of our understanding of the three ecosophies, it is critical for us, as human beings as an in separable participants of the environment, to seek a reconciliation of the relationship with the nature to reduce the risks of environmental problems and human interventions. gonçalves (2008) highlights that ecosophy puts into question the action of man in environment, his ways of living as part of the natural ecosystem. in this way, ecosophy consists of the philosophical attitude between the balance of the contemporary way of life and the relationship with the environment. findings employing the theory of visual grammar revealed many of the implicit meanings embedded in the visuals. each metafunction offered various factors upon which the images were analyzed. representational meta-function enabled the researcher to unfold the three types of ecosophies an ecosophical exploration of war and violence in graphic novel vanni: 156 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.368 represented by participants in the visuals. the dominance of transactional processes was evident in the visuals which demands the rational approach from the viewers to stop war as a proponent of environmental destruction. the relationship between participants were also inferred through the analysis of narrative processes in which participants were worried about the ecological crisis. taxonomies were also highlighted in terms of ‘class division’ showing human anthropocentricism. the participants in the visuals have offered the viewers a food for thought to contemplate on the environmental crisis. this engages the viewers to make them understand ecosophies as the only rational approach towards looking at inseparable relationship of man and nature. the disasters of war have been depicted in close-shots employed in the images. the selection of frontal horizontal angles strengthens the relationship between participants and viewers. the visuals of the graphic novel ‘vanni’ highlighted the ideas of environmental protection based on guattari’s ecosophies. the visuals represented ecosophical crisis due to war. the visuals in the selected novel depicted the solution of environmental problems as the social and moral responsibility of man, manifested individually and collectively. the visuals draw attention towards subjective semiotics which evoke the collective consciousness towards environmental solutions. the images defined the need of unity and interconnectedness for the rational conceptualization of ecological issues. in other words, guattari’s ecosophy demands a rational approach that human should reform their vision towards war and violence. thus, the researcher found that visuals of ‘vanni’ shed light on various perspectives of ecological crisis which demand the accountability to the natural environment. moreover, the present study revealed the implicit meanings of the visuals in terms of social, subjective and environmental semiotics. conclusion the analysis of the graphic novel ‘vanni’ depicted through the discussion and analysis that every image is important to find the underlying meaning of drawing the graphics of particular events. also, it can be concluded that the selected images revealed the social, environmental and mental ecosophies due to war and violence in vanni. boff (2014) states that the mission of human beings is not the domination of nature, but to take care of it, as he is a responsible part of the entire planet community. as a result, in today's society, we need the expansion of ecological thinking to include ecosophical thinking as a rational paradigm. ecosophy contributes to the minimization of an ecosophical exploration of war and violence in graphic novel vanni: 157 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.368 devastating impacts of environmental crisis of man and society. it contributes positively to the understanding of the fundamentals of man's feelings and his subjectivity, group experience, territories, care of landscapes, culture and environment. thus, for guattari (2009) the principle of environmental ecosophy is that everything is possible, both the worst and the best. irrationally, both the worst catastrophes are possible, such as the war like situation portrayed in the vanni. on the other hand, a flexible evolution of man is also possible, which uses knowledge and wisdom to improve the world in which he lives, such as the use of what nature offers us in renewable sources and without the destruction of our natural habitat. the visual ecosophical analysis also depicted that “nature” and “culture” emerge as inseparable entities, bringing human subjectivity, social multiplicity, and environmental diversity as necessary issues. the present analysis unites the visuals with the philosophical notions of ecosophy to settle the antinomies between man and nature. ecosophical attitude is depicted in the selected novel ‘vanni’ as the totality of contemporary problems, through the use of rationality. in short, visual grammar offers a way of comprehending civil war in sri lanka, forced relocation, war crimes suffered by antony and his family embedded in social, mental, and environmental ecosophies. an ecosophical exploration of war and violence in graphic novel vanni: 158 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.368 references boff, l. 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(2017). euphemisms for killing animals and for other forms of their use. the routledge handbook of ecolinguistics, 325-341 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315687391 22 @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315687391-12 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315687391-22 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315687391-22 the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations 223 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations riaz hussain1, muhammad iqbal2, amjad saleem3 1 lecturer at the department of english, islamia college peshawar, pakistan riaz.hussain@icp.edu.pk 2associate professor, department of english, islamia college peshawar, pakistan iqbalkhan@icp.edu.pk 3assistant professor, department of english and applied linguistics, university of peshawar, pakistan amjad.saleem@uop.edu.pk abstract this article explores the english and transliterated signs in the linguistic landscape of peshawar. a total of 900 signs were selected out of 5000 signs collected from 36 different locations across the city. sign locations were further categorized as rural, urban/semi-urban, and posh. the study also included twenty-one interviews with citizens featuring shopkeepers, students, teachers, waiters, and sign-writers. informed by the signage, public perceptions, and policy documents, the study provides fresh insights into the study of english in the ll as a marker of socioeconomic status. more importantly, the urduized transliterations suggest not only a glocalised form of language but a linguistic phenomenon indirectly proportional to the social class of the inhabitants where the signs occur. keywords: linguistic landscape, english signs, transliteration, urduization, social class, glocalization 1. introduction in this article we study the public display of english and transliterations as social class markers, the presence of some languages as indicators of modernity and globalization, the signage strategies citizens adopt to cope with the centrifugal forces of globalization and the centripetal forces of modern nationhood. we address these issues in the light of sign specimens from the linguistic landscape of peshawar, the reports of the latest census (2017), public perceptions about languages on signs, and language policy. like most cities around the globe, there is a wide range of issues related to the current linguistic make-up or signage of peshawar: social, political, linguistic, economic, and educational, to name only a few. this complexity of the ll of the city needs to be studied within the contexts of the language and education policies of pakistan; the social, political, and economic realities; and the response and attitude of the people towards public signage of the city. the complexity and variety of the ll of peshawar has a history that commenced with the inception of pakistan, and can be traced back to the days of the british raj. mailto:riaz.hussain@icp.edu.pk mailto:iqbalkhan@icp.edu.pk mailto:amjad.saleem@uop.edu.pk the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations 224 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 linguistic landscape connects a variety of fields and interests researchers from a vast number of diverse disciplines, ranging “from linguistics to geography, education, sociology, politics, environmental studies, semiotics, communication, architecture, urban planning, literacy, applied linguistics, and economics” (shohamy & gorter, 2009, p. 1). scholars working in this area are interested in unravelling the hidden meanings and messages conveyed by studying the languages and signs displayed in public spaces. sociolinguists working in this cross-roads discipline envision both the breadth and the complexity of language in the public space. the environment around us is profuse with language. the verbal signs, images, and graffities are simply overwhelming: the language we encounter “in cities, indoor markets and outdoor shopping centers, shops, schools, offices of government and big corporations, moving buses, campuses, beaches and the cyber space” (shohamy & gorter, 2009, p. 1) ask for our attention. researchers are busy studying not only the presence of language(s) but their intriguing absence as well, particularly in multilingual areas with a political, economic and social tug-of-war. the scope of the field is growing with new insights into the study of public signage. unlike the poststructuralists, researchers of ll do not see linguistic signs as ‘arbitrary’ and ‘random’ in nature. the language on display is reflective of people, identities, representation, class system, social status, policy, economy, multilingualism, multimodalities, and so many other things (ibid). 2. a review of ll studies according to linguistic landscapists, the public display or presentation of language may have several purposes. two of these purposes which are of immense import are the ‘informative’ and ‘symbolic’ functions (landry & bourhis, 1997) of languages on display. the informative part of a sign serves to give information such as address, destination, direction, availability of items, and facilities. moreover, “the informative function of the linguistic landscape provides cues to the linguistic make-up of a particular region or area as well as to its national or territorial boundaries” (ben said, 2010, p. 23). the symbolic section or function of the linguistic sign in the landscape serves a much wider range of purposes than just the mere informative function and is indexical of status, power relations, prestige, ideology and many other things (carr, 2017). furthermore, private language practices may contradict the official or public language policy and practices. discrepancies between the top-down or official the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations 225 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 signage and bottom-up or private signage may constitute a linguistic landscape where suppression, acceptance, tension, adjustment, representation, and instrumentalism emerge as core issues. a number of researchers of ll have studied the interplay of local and non-local languages with respect to the ‘instrumental’ value of these languages (ben said, 2010). many of these studies inform us that, apart from representing the political and social milieu, languages found in the landscape are economically instrumental, that is, these languages are meant to sell and commodify local and multinational products (rosenbaum et al., 1977; ross, 1997; hornsby, 2008; carr, 2017). to attract local and lower class customers, native and local languages are used; on the contrary, when the market aims at getting the attention of the middle and upper classes and international customers, or in order to appear ‘fashionable’, the ll tends to use non-local languages, particularly english (dhongde, 2002). moreover, language in the public spaces is also used as a tool of expressing and effecting globalization: english tends to be the dominant strategic language for achieving a sense of globalization (lanza & woldemariam, 2013; carr, 2017). in cities around the world, the presence of english in the ll has become “one of the obvious markers of the process of globalization” (cenoz & gorter, 2008, p. 57). the vast ‘linguistic capital’ (bourdieu, 1981) of english allows people to employ it for “its prestige and access to middle-class identities” (blommaert, 2003, p. 616; lanza & woldemariam, 2013), its association with modernity, economic affluence, and a trendy life style. while the globalized form of economy is expressed in language practices that are centrifugal in nature, featuring an increasing use of english in the ll, a number of studies suggest a reversed form of this phenomenon where the multinational products and international chains are advertised and sold in the local languages. hence this trend of localizing the global has been called glocalization and sometimes mcdonaldisation (kelly-holmes, 2010). an interesting form of glocalization is the interplay of global and local language forms where the international code of the global language is transcribed in the national script of the local language as argued in the following section. 3. glocalization of language in pakistan the relatively new field of ll research has contributed some promising studies about the multilingual complexities of pakistani cities. the first study in pakistan that is related to the the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations 226 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 phenomenon of an ll is rahman’s (2010) ‘language on wheels’ which explores the languages scribed on trucks in pakistan. rahman’s (2010) findings reveal that urdu is the dominant language (75 %) amongst ‘language on the move,’ followed by pashto and punjabi, whereas english is conspicuous by absence. the selection of signs on moving objects which do not belong to a specific place and represent a particular business seems to be the reason behind the absence of english. manan et al.’s (2017) investigation of language hybridization and glocalization in pakistani lls exhibit a greater complexity of language use than previous researchers suggest about the urduization of english (baumgardner et al. 1993) and the english urdu code-mixing in urdu advertisements (meraj 1993). it is important to mention that english is a foreign language for most pakistanis but has the status of an official language which is used extensively on private as well as official signs. however, the use of english for the most part “manifests itself in the environment in typically indigenized, nativitized, and hybridized forms than in the original english or roman script” (manan et al., 2017, p. 3). this widespread nativitized form of english in pakistan’s lls is what manan et al. (2017) call an “englishized urdu” or “urduized english” (p. 3). writing english in the non-roman scripts is not a unique form of hybridization visible only in pakistan; in fact, the “use of english in non-roman scripts is . . . quite a widespread tendency in global advertising” (bhatia & ritchie, 2006, p 524). the present study, however, proposes that the urduization of english in pakistan is unique and not just an advertising and communicative strategy. it has a sociolinguistic and socioeconomic significance that other studies have scarcely explored. these transliterated uses of english are not just “methods and code-mixing strategies to make it readable and appealing to the needs of the local population” (manan et al., 2017, p. 3). this improvisation of language has a sociolinguistic value which begs a deeper investigation along the lines of social class and economic opportunities, as the paper demonstrates. there are no studies about the ll in pakistan that specifically focus on the relationship of language and social class, the presence of english and its transliterations in the local script as socioeconomic indicators, and the peculiarity of these hybrid forms of language as a distinct type of glocalization. we explore not only the signage of peshawar and the policy documents but the public perceptions of languages to understand the complex relationship between language use and policy, language display in public spaces and its classist implications, and the interplay of local and global dynamics. how the local and the global are blended together the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations 227 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 in the urduized english, and why, are important questions we attempt to answer. moreover, we examine how the ‘prestige’ of english is distributed along lines of class and how it helps maintain tight boundaries of socioeconomic status. 4. methodology this study makes use of three different categories of data: visual and pictorial data collected from 36 locations (see table 4.1 and map 4-1) in peshawar city, input and perceptions of the people via interviews, and policy documents. this triangulation is meant to secure a comprehensive and reliable data and to ensure the validity of the findings. comparing and contrasting the official, pictorial, and interview data should help us identify and analyze connections between the tripartite data. apart from collecting data from these multiple sources, the analysis too employs a mixed method, that is, qualitative as well as semi-quantitative analyses of the data. the primary data includes photographs of signs from all the major roads, streets, bazars and buildings. more than five thousand photos were captured of which 900 photos have been selected for analysis. when further sub-divided, 607 signs were found transliterated urduizations of english and 230 signs were found english monolingual signs. most of the photos were captured at busy markets and shopping centres since the city provides a more diverse and congested environment for signage in comparison to rural areas. the signs have been divided according to the locations where the photographs were captured: urban/semi-urban, posh, and rural. this will help us understand the tendencies and trends of official signs and the variations in linguistic practices in the public space, if any. since more than half of peshawar is rural (census 2017; khyber pakhtunkhwa government, kp.gov.pk), the differences, if any, in signage in the rural and urban and posh and rural are expected to be significant. this article examines only the english and transliterated signs out of the 900 signs selected for this study. the twenty one participants whose perceptions and opinions inform this study were either born in peshawar or had been residing, working, and studying in the city for the past 10 years. a ten-year consistent residential experience at the city of peshawar was determined as a qualification for a participant. majority of the participants who had migrated to peshawar had been living in the city longer than fifteen years. the interviews were conducted in pashto and urdu since a large majority of the citizens speak either pashto or hindko. the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations 228 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 5. data analysis the two types of signs we selected for this study—english and transliterations—provide a revealing window onto the city’s sociolinguistic realities. table (5.1) compares signs from the urban and semi-urban, posh, and rural localities. the english monolingual signs in the three categories present an interesting case where english monolingualism is directly proportional to the social and economic affluence of the people who inhabit the area. the posh locations have 50 % english only signs, almost twice the english signs in the urban/semi-urban areas (25.3 %) and above three times higher than english monolingual signs in rural sites (15 %). this may be interpreted as an index of the socio-economic milieu; that is, upward social mobility, modernity, social status, and globalization are expressed in the greater visibility of english on street signs. other research scholars have stated similar findings that equate high class and status with the proportion of english streets wear (2010; carr, 2017; gorter, 2006; shohamy & gorter, 2009). table 5.1 urban/semi-urban, posh, and rural sign divisions sign location urban/semi-urban (30 locations) posh (2 locations) rural (4 locations) sign category number percentage % number percentage % number percentage % english only 190 25.3 25 50 15 15 transliterated 507 67.6 20 40 80 80 monocodal biscriptal 93 12.4 5 10 4 4 monoscriptal bicodal 185 24.6 4 8 40 40 official 70 9.3 14 28 2 2 private 678 90.4 36 72 98 98 the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations 229 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 in the category of transliterated signs (see figures 5-1, 5-2, and 5-3) significant differences have been found across the three different types of localities. the rural areas have the highest number of transliterations (80 %); the urban/semi-urban areas have the second highest proportion of the english-coded and urdu-scripted signs (67.6 %), whereas the posh areas have a high number of transliterations but comparatively the lowest proportion of these signs (40 %). the immense number of transliterations in the urdu script in rural areas suggest that people find the urdu-scripted signs easy to read since the literacy rate in these areas is lower than the posh and urban areas. the variations in proportion of transliterations also suggest that the residents of the posh areas are relatively less dependent on the urdu script than people living in the rural and urban locations since the former are comparatively more educated and have a better command of english. hence, there are twice as many transliterations in the rural peshawar than we find in the posh areas of the city. but what are the implications of this hybrid language form, the transliterations? what does it suggest about the socioeconomic status of the people? according to manan et al. (2017), “english mostly manifests itself in the environment in typically indigenized, nativitized, and hybridized forms than in the original english or roman script” (p. 3). this glocalization promotes an improvised form of language that mixes the english code with the urdu script which is at the same time an “urduized english” and an “englishized urdu” (ibid). but this is a different type of glocalization. here the products that use this ‘urduized english’ are local and small products as well as a few large-scale businesses. thus, apart from some exceptions, it is not the industrialized international products that tend to use the medium of urdu script to ‘befriend’ and persuade the local population; primarily, it is the local industry that advertises itself in a hybrid language. it is important to note that english is a product itself here, not a mere language: english is being commodified. and it is not just the english language that is being treated as a commodity; every foreign language today “has become a commodity itself and acts as a resource to be produced, controlled, distributed and valued” (kogar, 2014, p. 143). but english is the go-to language for commercial enterprises. in the context of peshawar, urdu is wrapped around the body of english. in other words, the international product—english itself—is being localised and familiarised. the market, thus, owns english as well as urdu by mixing the content of english and the form of urdu, but alienates the local languages. a real glocalization the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations 230 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 would be the localisation of the multinational mega products, presenting and advertising themselves in urdu. an even more real glocalization would be the hybridization of english and pashto or hindko. considering the urdu-english hybridization as an instance of glocalization is complex on so many accounts. first, urdu is a national but not a local language; it enjoys the status of a lingua franca in pakistan but very few people speak urdu in peshawar according the census (2017). second, english is not used as a lingua franca in pakistan. presenting an international linguistic code wrapped in the urdu script is glocalization at the level of language only. since the products advertised in this hybrid language are local, opting for the english code suggests the globalization of a local product. that is why, we suggest that the linguistic interplay of the english code and the urdu script is aimed at borrowing the prestige and power of english for a local product. in this process, localization of english through a re-presentation in the urdu letters is meant to make it readable. it is in this sense that the urduized english is a unique form of glocalization. the unique diglossic situation of the ll of peshawar that seems to value the hybrid language—urduized english—above the vernaculars also expresses a yearning for the english code that is accessible to the people second-hand or in a modified form. we call it a secondhand variety of english because english in the ‘standard’ romanized form is reserved in pakistan for the elite class (rahman, 2010) by virtue of the latter’s distinct and expensive schooling and, of course, their spatial separation from the lower and middle classes. the elite class has perpetuated the language policies of the colonial regime where english was the most prestigious language that only the british could speak ‘correctly.’ the speech and english varieties used by non-british were “often considered as ‘errors’ and ‘deviations’” (kogar, 2014, p. 144). this second-hand variety of english not only implies innovation of language varieties, it also means a class division since most of these hybrid expressions appear in the rural, and semi-urban/urban spaces as compared to the posh localities (see table 5.1). the proportion of the urduized signs is directly indexical of the economic status: the poorer rural areas have more of these signs as compared to the affluent posh spaces and the middle class urbanized locations as the figures in table 5.1 suggest. the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations 231 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 figure 5-1 transliterated signs from three different locations in peshawar perhaps a sociolinguistic reading of the urdu and urduized signs and language and education policy may help us decode this puzzle. language vitality in an ll is dependent not only on the socioeconomic needs a language can fulfil in today’s globalized marketplace or the prestige, status and power a certain language, such as english, enjoys. in addition, while the ‘linguistic capital’ (bourdieu, 1991) of some languages may account for their public display on signs, a state’s language policy and management can promote or cripple a language. a favourable policy can help restore even an endangered language, and an unfavourable policy can obliterate a majority language (wright, 2016). the absence of pashto and hindko and the omnipresence of urdu and urduized english signs in the landscape may be analysed in this context. as the policy documents (see article 251 constitution of pakistan (1973), clauses 13; peshawar development authority act 2017; single national curriculum) suggest, urdu is a language declared not only as the national language but is employed as a language of instruction and is taught as a compulsory subject. so an environment has been created through institutional measures that explicitly or implicitly promotes the acceptance, inevitability, understanding, and readability of urdu. however, it should be noted that this promotion of urduisation is a conscious move to create the mythical version of an urdu-speaking nation that transcends above all other ethnolinguistic and sociopolitical affiliations. it is pertinent to mention that this urduisation and pakistanization is meant for public consumption, excluding the elite who learn and speak english and who have monopolized english, enabling them to sustain the status-quo. the political need of ‘national cohesion’ paradoxically jeopardizes social cohesion through superimposing urdu on the regional languages, pashto and hindko. 6. public perceptions of english and its urduization figure 5-2 figure 5-3 the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations 232 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 the first question we asked the participants was about people’s tendency to write signs in english instead of pashto and hindko, languages of majority. the topmost reason for the anglicized texts in peshawar is the english medium schooling (33.3 %). this suggests that in peshawar english literacy is on the rise like other cities around the world. respondents think that associations of prestige and high class are the next important factors that account for english signage (28.57 %), factors that interest people in different parts of the world to employ english on signs (2010; carr, 2017). economic incentives, according to a number of participants (23.8 %), provide a strong rationale for the written-in-english landscape. the motives of economic globalisation and marketability provide an explanation for the rise of english in writing signs. an equal number of participants (23.8 %) attributed the trend of english signs to the colonial history of pakistan, claiming that english is still a language that people look up to as a prestigious language because it was the language of an erstwhile master, the british. this aspect of the public attitudes, again, corroborates the findings of various studies that relate the popularity of english in some states to their historical colonial milieu where english was the coveted language of the master (muaka, 2020; wright, 2016). a good number of participants (19 %) explained anglicization as a phenomenon occasioned by the inability of the locals to read and write pashto and hindko since these vernaculars are not taught in schools. on the other hand, some respondents (14.28 %) stated that the readability of english makes it a desirable candidate to be used for sign-writing since it is taught as a compulsory subject as well as instrumentalised as a medium of instruction (figure 6-1). these claims make good sense and reinforce the conclusions of other studies (rahman, 2010). three of the interviewees rationalised the greater visibility of english as an example of how the growth of a language manifests the investment of a state’s power, patronage, and interest in that particular language. one of the participants, a 28 year-old phd scholar, explained the monopoly of english by citing a historical example of how persian was once the most powerful language here in peshawar due to the power invested in that language by the mughal empire. the fact that english as a language is favoured and powered by the state is supported by sociolinguists and landscapists (wright, 2016, blommaert, 1999). the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations 233 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 figure 6-1. perceptions about the use of english on signs a couple of participants (9.5 %) associated the multitude of english signs with education, snobbishness, and science and technology. education according to these participants by default nurtures behaviours, desires, and practices of english usage; people tend to use english as a sign of superiority and snobbishness. linguists since the days of the cold war following the second world war have highlighted the desire for english due to the political, economic, scientific, and technological upper hand of the english-speaking states. speaking and using english has therefore become a fashion that affords its users a sense of superiority (rosenbaum et al., 1977). the second question we asked the respondents was about the tendency of citizens to transliterate english words. twenty informants perceived the glocalised or hybrid language form as a marker of the ease with which people can read urdu (figure 6-2). corollary to this major trope of public literacy and comfort in urdu are the socioeconomic, pedagogical, and political dimensions of the urduized english or the englishized urdu. although these reasons are not always obviously stated in the responses of the informants, we can easily deduce the logic behind transliterations to be a more inclusive phenomenon than simply reducing it to public literacy in urdu. what accounts for a greater public literacy also raises the question of public illiteracy in english. besides these reasons, the interviewees suggested additional explanations to the urduization of english such as urdu’s close affinity with arabic, a language pakistanis are expected to have read as a language of the scriptures at homes or religious 9 .5 2 8 .5 7 3 3 .3 2 3 .8 1 9 2 3 .8 1 4 .2 8 4 .7 4 .7 4 .7 9 .5 4 .7 1 4 .2 8 9 .5 percentage the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations 234 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 institutions. a painter and sign-writer who had a twenty-year experience in his field perceived urduized scripts as indexical of languages in this region. people cannot read english, most people cannot, so it is easier for them. . . . the pubic eyes are used to these [urduized] letters. urdu as well as pashto and other languages spoken in this region follow the persian/ arabic script. so the font is more or less the same, and the sounds and letters are familiar for people. that is why, english is transfused into this [script]. another answer related to the above response terms this mixed form, transliteration, as a marker of confused identities. this respondent again points at the state’s linguistic engineering that has resulted in romanticizing english on the one hand and making it inaccessible on the other, producing such linguistic ‘confusions.’ a linguistic confusion has overcome these [people]. these english sounds appear to them very romantic. the fusion of english code and urdu script is what this commentator calls confusion. born out of this fusion is an emergent form of language that blends the glamour of english and the ease of urdu in one package. people crave for english but since many of them are unequipped to use it ‘properly’, they retain the english sounds they are familiar with but change the script to one they understand, urdu. in our discussion of these pictorial signs we interpreted this phenomenon as an effort to blend the prestige of english with the readability of urdu. this participant also refers to the use of english words as a “marketing strategy” that evinces a global trend in today’s marketplaces and especially in countries like south africa with a colonial past; further, the local languages are associated with “low quality,” and the products advertised thus become “doubtful” (muaka, 2020, p. 131). this participant suggests that in peshawar the desire for english and its power and prestige is manifest even in its altered and transliterated form. a female student, in her early twenties, who had previously attended a religious seminary, had a synonymous response to clothing english in an urdu dress. she argued that urdu is similar to arabic which people read in seminaries and schools that helps readers in articulating urdu words without much effort. she maintained that “to people english is a symbol of high social status” ( ان ته لګيدوي سټېټس( )هائي حېثيت لوي د داسې ګرېزي ), which persuades people to use such words in their urdu writing. a lecturer, in his mid-thirties, voiced an almost similar attitude towards this urduized english. the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations 235 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 i think here [in pakistan] the state’s policy regarding languages has resulted in creating these hybrid kind of species out of people. pointing to a transliterated sign “ ٹوئلٹ” (toilet) where we conducted the interview, this informant commented that many people cannot recognize this word if written in the english/roman script. he names such people derogatively as a ‘hybrid’ and ‘confused’ people. it may be posited that the language and education policies of the state, as this respondent asserts, produce individuals who are not sufficiently skilled in english, hence they localize english. our interview with a 28 year-old sign-maker revealed other aspects of transliteration. besides confirming the ease and readability of the urdu script, he commented on the role of sign-writers in the hybrid english forms on signboards. there are painters, scarcely educated, who are usually inclined towards urdu or like urdu since their artistry is expressed in this script. this commentator suggests that sign-makers are usually as ill-equipped in english writing as the general public which results in a linguistic form with an english sound and a local script. in a similar vein, a hindko-speaking undergraduate and a hindko-speaking lecturer ascribed the urduization of english, and their mistakes in spelling words, to their low level of education and their ‘poor’ grasp of english. according to the sign-writer, urdu scripts are more familiar for the masses and that these scripts are easier to articulate for people even from a moving vehicle. further, the sign-writer argued that people use many words of english in urdu such as the word “mobile” for which there is no expression in urdu. indeed, in these transliterations we did come across several examples where the english words rendered in urdu script are technical and scientific expressions for which there no ready urdu equivalents. a twenty-eight year-old student placed urduization in the historical context, explaining the role of the state in promoting urduization. like other participants, he referred to the lexical limitations of urdu which forces urdu speakers and writers to use english diction, such as the use of an english expression “family hall” in urdu writings. while responding to the hybridity of urdu transliterations, an assistant professor of english contended that english words bring “authenticity” to the products advertised. she had also commented this way about the use of english instead of the local vernaculars. moreover, she perceived the urduized english as a technical issue since these transliterated expressions the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations 236 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 have no equivalents in urdu; this makes it easier for sign-readers to grasp the intended message and adds the “falvour of english as well” ( هغې هغه خوند هم پکښې وي د ). these technical words are more familiar to the public in english than their urdu versions if any. two other participants, a hindko-speaking male lecturer and a pashto-speaking female undergraduate, attributed the blend of english and urdu to a mindset in pakistan that believes in english as a ‘standard’ language; so english stamps a good impression on readers, and urdu makes the reading easier. it is pertinent to mention that both the respondents had referred to the use of english on signs in place of pashto and hindko as a matter of “standard” for people. figure 6-2. perceptions about transliterations in urdu script the number of transliterated urdu signs and an enormous range of participants (95.23 %) who think about urduization of english as a normal practice suggest that english is a language accessed and experienced ‘secondhand’ or in a coated form by most pakistanis. the power of english in the social and economic sectors on the one hand, and the insufficient resources and funds allocated for the teaching of english in public schools, on the other hand, produce a breed of people who express their desire for english in its urduized form. figure 62 sums up public perceptions about transliterations of english. 7. conclusion this article examines the englishization and urduization in the linguistic landscape of peshawar in the light of signage and public perceptions. the ll indicates a city segregated into various classes. the english words and scripts abound in the posh peshawar, suggesting a high correlation between socioeconomic affluence and the english language. this confirms other research findings (rahman, 2010) which are not based on the study of ll but a critical survey of the language policies and practices in pakistan. the amount of english on the walls of a 95.23 95.23 14.28 9.5 9.5 4.7 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 ease and readability of urdu literacy in urdu low educated sign-makers english as a standard prestige and status of english english as a mark of authenticity p e rc e ta g e perception about transliterations in urdu the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations 237 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 locality suggests the social class of the residents. there are marked differences in the percentage of english signs and the social status of the residents of posh, urban/semi-urban, and rural peshawar. urduizations increase as we move from posh to urban and suburban zones, inversely proportional to the social and economic class of the citizens who inhabit those areas: the higher the status, the lower the urduization and vice versa. the urduized variety of english has a symbolic as well as a communicative significance. people have a perception that english sells better than other languages due to its status and prestige as a language of the international and national socio-political elite, science and technology, media and entertainment industries, education, business, and advertisement. but since the lower social classes have a limited access to english, their ability to employ its ‘linguistic capital’ seems to be challenged. in order to make up for their lack of command of english, people have a recourse to a ‘second hand’ variety of english: this hybrid form is a localised english written in a script of the lower and middle classes. at the heart of this linguistic glocalization there is a yearning for the english language, a desire that is never fully realised. a marriage of compromise happens where the fancy bride, english, wears the national dress, urdu—a unique product that sounds like english and seems like urdu. the linguistic landscape of peshawar: social hierarchies of english and its transliterations 238 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 references baumgardner, robert j., audrey e.h. kennedy & fauzia shamim. 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(2016). language policy and language planning: from nationalism to globalisation. springer. @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). http://www.pakp.gov.pk/2013/acts/the-peshawar-development-authorityhttps://www.pbs.gov.pk/content/population-census ethical dilemma in tv ads: 212 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.380 ethical dilemma in tv ads: a case study of selected pakistani tv ads within rhetorical traditions dr. amjad ali assistant professor, department of english (islamia college peshawar) dr. syed shujaat ali assistant professor, department of english, kohat university of science and technology kohat mr. imran ali lecturer, department of english, kohat university of science and technology kohat abstract advertising is an unavoidable reality in the modern consumerist world. the ambivalent nature of advertising has made it the subject of vibrant discussion among the marketing critics. but it is an undeniable fact that it has the sole objective of persuading the people to buy more products more often for more money. pakistani tv commercials tread the same track and aim at influencing the consumers to the core for grabbing their hearts in order to get access to their wallets. in the quest for persuasion, these commercials make active use of rhetorical devices and logical fallacies. this paper examines some of the tv commercial ads within rhetorical tradition and attempts to show that advertising as a discourse is steeped in maximization of benefits of the stuff with a total disregard to any ethical consideration. the study makes a textual analysis of selected tv ads within rhetorical traditions. it concludes with logical, though not final, findings that ads coax the consumers with sneaky techniques and seductive images in order to attract their eyes. key words: rhetoric, ethics, tv ads, logical fallacies 1. introduction the world of advertising is an ideological stripe that manipulates audience exactly in the manner that spin doctors and image consultants manipulate them. this manipulation is carried out through diverse means noteworthy among which is rhetoric. zyman (2002) perceives awareness as the basic function of advertising (p. 13). rhetoric, on the other hand, also aims at discovering means to make truth more probable to audience who are not that much convinced about it1. furthermore, aristotle saw rhetoric as the supreme art of persuasion. he declared rhetoric a neutral means by which one could accomplish noble or ignoble ends. according to him, rhetoric could do the greatest good or the greatest harm depending on its use. his rhetoric2, therefore, emerges as a 1 cited by em griffin (2012) in first look at communication theory (new york: mcgraw-hill, p.290). 2 cited in norms of rhetorical culture (1993) by thomas .b. ferrell (new haven & london: yale university press). ethical dilemma in tv ads: 213 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.380 prototype, for both the inquiry and the practice of rhetoric. since, advertising is also fundamentally about persuading the consumers to buy the products; therefore, one can say that rhetoric and advertising share the same board both aiming at bringing about persuasion. but rhetoric as an art has never insulated itself from negative connotations. ferrell (1993) aptly remarks that rhetoric as a discourse is the least trustworthy subject in the western culture (p. 9). moreover, rhetorical performers themselves include within their verbal artillery the denigration of their opponents’ discourse as “mere rhetoric.” quite often we hear people saying that what we need on problem x is less rhetoric and more action from the people concerned. the seductive connotation extended to the term rhetoric can safely be applied to the world of advertising. this extension, on the one hand, fixes the world of advertising in tawdry framework and, on the other hand, brings forth its unethical side. in this study, i want to analyze the world of advertising from the perspective of rhetoric, while at the same time holding out some hope of focusing on its unethical dimension. ferrell (1993) argues that theory in rhetorical tradition does not propose to find and explain what is already present; rather, it is about discerning what is implicit in the uncertainties and frailties of human affairs. expanding the argument he further says that the job of any literary theorist is to find one dark secret at the core of very text, whether it is death, the phallus, the other, the hegemony of the gaze or some ghoulish synthesis (p. 4). following this rhetorical tradition, the purpose of current study is to unfold some dark secrets at the core of tv commercial texts. 2. literature review advertising has become an unnecessary evil in the modern consumerist society. it has attained a de facto umbilical card liaison with the modern industrialized world. the first thing that pops into people’s minds about advertising is that it is a 30 or 60-second commercial. zyman (2002), however, in his landmark study the end of advertising as we know it tries to shatter the traditional ideals about advertising. advertising for him is an overarching term. it is not just 30 or 60-second video clip that is aired on tv, but it the way the product is being packaged, the spokespeople that the company hires to endorse it, the way the company treat its employees and the way they in turn treat the customers, the annual reports, the promotional materials, the articles that get written about the company, the events that the company sponsor, and even the way the ethical dilemma in tv ads: 214 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.380 company handles unexpected business successes and failures. in short, everything the company does communicate something about its brand to its customers and prospective customers. kilbourne (1999) considers advertising a propaganda. advertising, according to her, has assumed very powerful influence because it is not recognized as propaganda. we hold the misguided belief that advertisements do not affect us; they rather shape our attitude and define or dreams. benett and o’reilly (2010) regard consumerism as an inescapable reality in the modern world. they discuss the homogenizing and totalizing nature of consumerism and maintain that a consumerist lifestyle magnifies the strain of everyday living. the psychological effects of consumption are fleeting; no sooner is the object brought home and ensconced in the closet than we crave the fix of something else gift-wrapped. even as buyers fill every inch of their personal space with more stuff, they continue to feel empty inside---perhaps because the very act of consumption takes so much time and thought, leaving little room for personal relationships or activities that enlighten and inspire. benett and a. o’reilly (2010) believe that prosumers catalyze and streamline the modern merchandizing. being leading-edge consumers, they tip the scales of power away from manufacturers and retailers and toward themselves. the initiation of decluttering movement which preaches that happiness lies in owning fewer things is a counterbalance to this squandering of scarce resources and is a welcome shift away from mindless consumption rooted in profound discontent. xing-yu, chang and lee (2021) in their interesting study discuss the role of spatial distance in enhancing or devaluing consumers’ perceptions of the brand. they believe that consumers show more favourable attitude towards the brand whose brand image is associated with status and luxury. consumers readily pay for such products as the distance between the visual representations of the product and the consumer increases. on the contrary, for popular brands the opposite is true. since their brand image has a broad appeal and social connectedness, the closer the distance, the more favorable is consumers’ attitude and the higher their willingness to pay a premium. their findings provide useful insights to marketers on the use of visual cues in advertising and product displays. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00222429211000706 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00222429211000706 ethical dilemma in tv ads: 215 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.380 melnyk, v, francois, m. & valentyne (2022) refer to social norms that mould consumers’ behavior. however, it is not easy to determine the circumstances that may facilitate or obstruct this phenomenon. these social norms cover a wide range of contexts involving the purchase, consumption, use, and disposal of products and services as well as socially approved and disapproved behaviors. their study suggests that the effects of social norms on approved behavior are stable across time and cultures, their effects on disapproved behavior, however, has grown over time and is stronger in survival and traditional cultures. the study is significant because it spotlights the interface between consumerism and social norms. 3. advertising and consumerism the characteristic motive behind advertisements is promoting consumerism. and as benette & o’reilly (2010) observe that consumerism strives to dupe men into believing that consumption is the road to happiness. it tries to make man a spending and producing machine (pp.3-4). marketing, as zyman (2002) brilliantly states, is “about communicating the benefits and features of a product or service in a way that will make customers feel that their life is easier or simpler because of it.” (p. 5) advertisers achieve this end not just through thirty-second tv spots, but they apply every possible tool at hand so as to project the identity of the consumers onto the products. one such psychological tactics is the association of products with celebrities. hence, consumers may or may not buy head & shoulders shampoo for its inherent values but they might buy it simply because the famous cricket star shahid afridi recommends this product in the tv ad. similarly, q mobile is quite persistent in hiring every old and new celebrity as its brand ambassadors. the tv commercials of the company demonstrate the physique and beauty of the celebrities more than the specifications and the virtues of their brands. 3.1. the dark side of tv ads advertising, as it is generally understood, is the art of keeping the company’s before the public. however, in the process of publicizing their brands, the advertisers sideline the functionality of the product and overemphasize the nonfunctional and psychological aspects of the products. they try to colour the personal identity of the buyers with the products. hence, close-up toothpaste may not make the teeth as much healthy as it would ensure a romantic liaison. it can lead ineluctably to a passionate relationship. toyota corolla might be a well-made and efficient ethical dilemma in tv ads: 216 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.380 car but the ad condones the functionality of the car and focuses more on the ensuing strong familial relationship between the father and the son that the car might actuate. these commercials propagate false consciousness3. it promulgates the theory that emotional catharsis lies in material things. parents do not have to worry about the health of their children for dettol soap is there to kill hundred germs though these germs are never specified to the consumers. the soap is advertised as an elixir. parents just need to buy this product and then let them be apathists regarding their kids. taza dum tea energizes you to an unimaginable limit. it can turn a coward into a brave and can solidify the potent potential of the viewers. molty foam guarantees a cordial marital life. it concretizes the existing emotional bond between a father and a daughter. you cannot become a good father unless you buy molty foam for your daughter on the eve of her wedding. if you need to sit before tv and to enjoy the warm company of your kith and kin, bring coke soda home. it makes the cricket match more exciting and can even turn the result in your favour. the ad strikingly illustrates the illusionary side of the advertising world. for what can be more illogical than the assumption that the mere drinking of soda can change reality depicted on tv screen. that’s why o’toole (1981) accurately views advertising as something below average human intelligence (p.11). similarly, modern cooking oils tie people together at home. they may not have any affection running in their family but if they consume dalda or habib cooking oils, they stay united and happy. wall’s kulfa ice cream integrates the disjointed family members. the ad demonstrates the fast-track life of modern time where everyone rushes to carry out their due responsibilities including the little girl who breaks up with her grandfather in order to watch her favorite show on tv. it is only when the mother sets the table with ice cream that all, including the girl, run to sit around the table and start enjoying the much-needed warm company with each other. kulfa ice cream now serves as a binding force generating warmth and care among family members. the objectification of emotion has become order of the day in tv commercials. packard (1980) points out that manufacturers sell hopes and promises to consumers (p. 35). the ideational 3 a marxist term used by h. bertens (2001) in his book literary theory: the basics (new york: routledge, p. 85). the term stands for an illusory state where reality is distorted through an ideology and people are made to believe in artificial as something natural. ethical dilemma in tv ads: 217 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.380 association of the merchandising attracts people and they come not to buy the products but the ideas and the images associated with the commodities. sara may love her mother only when she makes rafhan custard for her. the initial sign she displays on her embroidered cloth is sara. when her mother turns up with the custard, she proudly knits: “sara loves ammi.” a daughter’ love for a mother rests in dessert. most of the ads encourage withdrawal from social arena and facilitate the consumers to sequester themselves in their homes. the home is presented as a place where no family ties run but as a repository of diverse stuff that showcase our appetite for comfort. the purchase of kenwood split ac makes you stay at home. it is starkly emblematic of the fact that modern tech has replaced deeply-run family relations and has made people home lovers. advertising may even resort to diderot effect4 in order to sell more stuff to more people more often and for more money. they are pretty conscious of the fact that a single, irresistible luxury purchase has the potential to set off a chain reaction of new purchases to complement it. it has engrossed consumers in an ongoing cycle of acquisition, endlessly trading up and seeking the next new thing. once new furnishings in place, the room needs to be redone with new bright paint. the mushroom growth of new mobile companies and newer and newer mobile sets also reflect the same gloomy reality. consumers are consistently tempted to discard the old and buy the new. most of the tv ads display linguistic naiveté5.they try to establish an orthodox relationship between the symbol and the thing symbolized. in exchange for plunking down cash for a product or service, we are rewarded with whatever golden glow we seek: social status, sex appeal, superiority, adventure, elation etc. it is pretty clear that advertisers now have started targeting male beautification issues. initially, beauty was considered the exclusive property of women. but now males are also presented as beauty obsessed. “fair and lovely” gives males a dashing look and makes them presentable and appealing to women. it is the same sexual appeal 4 the phenomenon is named after eighteen-century french philosopher denis diderot whose fancy new dressing gown inspired a runaway spending spree as he sought to live up to its high standard. see b. andrew & o. ann (2010). consumed. ( new york: palgrave macmillan, p. 30) 5 the term is used by s.i hayakawa (1947) in language in action (new york: harcourt, brace and company, p. 27). linguistic naiveté means that there is a necessary connection between symbols and things symbolized (between words and what words stand for). when people are more attached to verbal maps (pet theories) then factual territories, they exhibit serious linguistic naiveté. ethical dilemma in tv ads: 218 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.380 and desire for social status that makes men users of the face wash product as shown in the ad. p. slater correctly observes that advertisements are covert porno messages for, like overt pornography, they also arouse sexual excitement in the audience6. 4. rhetoric and tv ads aristotle states artistic (internal) and inartistic (external) proofs that a rhetorician can come up in order to mesmerize the masses. among the three kinds of artistic proofs (logical, ethical and emotional), advertisers, by and large, misapply all the three types of appeals. sirf excel ad promotes filthiness with no moral considerations. the catch slogan of the ad: “dirt is good” belies any ethical standard. the claim made in the ad is highly ambiguous: “sirf excel removes stain in half time.” one really wonders what is half time: 30 seconds or 30 minutes or 30 hours. the ad encourages children to play in the mud and show their mums paying an appreciatory service to their filthy habits. this lackadaisical attitude to the dirt is due to the fact that sirf excel guarantees absolute cleanliness. one can say that the ad is not as much about cleanliness as it is about filthiness. also, the breach of moral code is at the heart of the ad where involvement in unhealthy activities receives smiley faces. while sirf excel may promote unhygienic physical habits, haj mola persuades the audience to give in to gluttony. in the given ad, shahid afridi, the cricket star, is shown as an expert on digestive problems. when he has over loaded himself, he is advised by two kids to take haj mula. the eating disorder no longer survives the moment he has tried the recipe. the ad, definitely, seems to be the promoter of unhealthy eating habits. it tries to make the truth appear probable through always stock-in-trade technique of presenting a hero. but whoever plays in the ad, it is a testifiable fact that it challenges the ethical fabric of nutrition by advocating eating disorder. the same filthiness one sees in ketchup ad. once again children are the target of this ad. they resort to any hygienic and unhygienic act in order to stuff themselves with ketchup. one child eats the fallen stuff on his shirt even though the child seems a school student. the hidden message of the ad is pretty clear; children are educated to make the best of anything no matter how unhealthy the thing might be. 6 quoted by j.o’toole(1981) in the trouble with advertising.(new york & london: chelsea house, p. 12). ethical dilemma in tv ads: 219 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.380 the mother-son relationship is commercialized in shan masala ad. kilbourne (1999) says that ads objectify emotion (p.27). the moral qualm one witnesses in the ad is the codification of this sacred relation in the spice product. the vacuum that the absence of mother creates can safely be filled with shan. this anomalous objectification of human values can be seen in another mobile ad where a female body is commoditized as a mobile set. the slimness of the phone is demonstrated through slimness of a female body. in another ad, always products are cited as reasons for academic achievements. the product is presented as the ultimate solution for any female-related problems. confidence, performance and intelligence are associated with the product. all a girl has to do is to wear the product and enjoy social and educational excellence. the crying woman just needs to get a homage ups and all her worries end. true solace lies in electronic products only. 5. logical fallacies at work advertisers, as a matter of fact, may resort to any ethical or unethical means in order to achieve a persuasive effect. in their quest for persuasiveness, they try to deceive consumers into feeling that their products possess unparalleled excellence thereby tempting them to purchase the products. the arguments presented in the ads, if examine closely, reveal some logical fallacies7. these fallacies weaken the structure of ads and highlight the logical disconnection between the claim, the reasons and the evidence presented in the ads. the use of logical fallacies is like a mirror -image revealing the dark and unethical sides of tv ads. it shows that advertisers are more concerned with persuasion than with arriving at truth. 5.1. faulty use of authority one such fallacy is the faulty use of authority. it occurs when someone who is an expert in one area is used as an authority for another unrelated area. every day we are confronted with this fallacy in media commercials and advertisements. soap industry mostly employs this logical fallacy in their ads. for instance, in safeguard ad, the little girl who is speaking like an intellectual giant warns her younger brother not to eat his food before washing the hands with safeguard. when she is asked about this piece of knowledge, she quotes her mother as an authority. one can really 7 logical fallacy means error in logic. the term is used by g. goshgarian & k. krueger (2009) in their book dialogues (new york: pearson), pp. 48-60. ethical dilemma in tv ads: 220 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.380 question the authenticity of the authority. any specialty in one area does not imply specialty in another area. domesticity is no green card for verifying hygienic concerns. life buoy soap and dettol soap are other ads where this logical fallacy is employed. in these ads, mothers are presented as authorities over physical hygiene without having any specialty in this area. 5.2. bandwagon appeal another logical fallacy frequently practiced in tv ads is bandwagon appeal. this fallacy encourages collectivism among the consumers asking them to buy a particular product for everyone is buying it. it plays on people’s fear of being different, of being excluded: “intelligent mothers use habib cooking oil”; “samsung galaxy is pakistan’s best-selling smart phone.” similarly, volta is pakistan number 1 battery. the basic appeal made in these ads is that of belonging to the group, behaving like the majority. if the customers do not want to be left out, they had better get on the bandwagon and do and think like the rest of pakistanis. 5.3. dicto simpliciter while bandwagon appeal may facilitate communal identity, dicto simpliciter makes a sweeping generalization providing no space for exceptions. almost every toothpaste ad features a dentist who recommends a particular brand. it is generally accepted that dentists are in better position to understand our teeth. but this “rule of thumb” is wrongly employed for being a dentist does not necessarily mean expert in dentistry. there are exceptions to this simplistic generalization. this may even be witnessed in the ads themselves where different dentists recommend different brands of toothpaste. the arguments in these ads exploit stereotypes prevalent in a given culture. and this is what exactly can be seen in ads which feature women as the best cooks or caretakers. being a woman does not essentially mean a good cook or a good caretaker. it is true that cooking and care are areas where women excel, but such approach does not account for exceptions to the rule---working women who are weaker at cooking or caring than the average household women. 5.4. stacking the deck in addition to these logical fallacies, majority of the ads also make active use of stacking the deck strategy. they give only the evidence that supports their premise while disregard the contrary evidence. u-fone and other mobile networks show only the rosy side to the customers ethical dilemma in tv ads: 221 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.380 and withhold the thorny side. so, very proudly they announce packages but sideline the fact that customers can have these packages to the same networks, not to a different mobile network. they also generally hide the taxes that would be deducted on availing these services. soft and energy drinks proclaim their products as highly energizing without making a mention of the amount of sugar loaded into them. the same apply to all oily products which proudly display the have-not fats but never show the havefats of the product. 6. conclusion advertising aims at disorienting the psyche of the audience and turning them into passive conformists. it sometimes takes human intellect as something highly malleable which can easily be moulded through the much-maligned craft of rhetoric. it is also worth asking here where the ameliorative tendencies of advertising might be found. the ads shown on pakistani tv are not only rooted in rhetorical traditions but also violate the moral code by promoting certain undesirable habits. in the existing world of hyperconsumerism, the individual person itself has become a product to be forever tweaked and enhanced, made better and better and consequently is becoming less and less authentic. consumerism is creating a society that rewards artificiality and evinces little interest in depth. ethical dilemma in tv ads: 222 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.380 references benett, a. & o’reilly, a. (2010). consumed. new york: palgrave macmillan. chu, xing-yu, chang and lee (2021). “values created from far and near: influence of spatial distance on brand evaluation.” journal of marketing. volume 85, issue 6. farrell, b. t. (1993). norms of rhetorical culture. new haven & london: yale university press. goshgarian, g. & krueger, k. (2009). dialogues: an argument rhetoric and reader. new york: pearson longman. kilbourne, j. (1999). can’t buy me love: how advertising changes the way we think and feel. new york: simon and schuster. o’toole, j. (1981). the trouble with advertising. new york & london: chelsea house. melnyk, v, francois, m. &valentyne (2022). “the influence of social norms on consumer behavior: a meta-analysis.” journal of marketing. volume 86, issue 3. packard, v. (1980). the hidden persuaders. brooklyn, ny: ig publishing. zyman, s. (2002). the end of advertising as we know it. hoboken, nj: john willey & sons. @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). error analysis of online academic material submitted for continuous assessment 49 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 error analysis of online academic material submitted for continuous assessment at undergraduate level asma khan1, noormah babar2 1assistant professor of english, university of education, lahore asma.khan@ue.edu.pk 2mphil, university of education, lahore abstract this research study attempted to highlight english language errors committed by undergraduate students in their academic material. english is not the native or local language of citizens of pakistan, it is taught in educational institutions as a compulsory subject. the learners of the english language often make errors in using the english language. the primary goal of this research study was to highlight the common errors committed by the undergraduate students of bs english and ma english. for this purpose, the research framework of error analysis, initiated by corder (1979) was followed. this research study was limited to the public sector universities in pakistan. the researchers collected the assignments of students, analyzed, and counted the possible occurred errors in the assignments, and presented the results quantitatively. moreover, the possible solutions for the errors are also given in this research article. eight different categories of errors were found from the academic assignments of the students in which punctuation and capitalization errors were found in the highest percentage. the study revealed that the learners are not aware of the correct grammatical rules, and they use them incorrectly in their academic works. this research study is significant for the learners, instructors, and language researchers as they can better understand the weak areas of students and it also provides some recommendations for the learners and teachers that can help them minimize the language errors. keywords: academic assessments, error analysis, grammatical rules introduction it is a natural phenomenon that human beings make errors. english is not the native language of pakistan so, there are more chances that the students commit errors in acquiring and speaking english language. there can be miscellaneous reasons behind committing errors. error analysis is one of the significant tools for the teachers that can assist them in analyzing the errors of the students and finding the remedies to minimize the risk of the errors. according to michaelides (1990), error analysis “can be of great value to all those concerned, i.e., teachers, students, and the researchers. for teachers it can offer clear and reliable picture of his students’ knowledge of the target language” (p. 30). the english language students need to be mastered in all the aspects of the english language including syntax, morphology, phonology, and pragmatics, etc but unfortunately, students are not successful in fully grasping the english language. this mailto:asma.khan@ue.edu.pk error analysis of online academic material submitted for continuous assessment 50 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 research study aims to investigate the frequently produced errors by the english language learners in their academic material, submitted for continuous assessments, and give an opportunity to english language learners to know about their weak areas of english language and find out remedies to overcome their errors. background of the study stephen pit corder, an applied linguist, is known as the founder of the field of error analysis since the late 1960s. before the field of error analysis, the researchers and linguists used to believe in the behaviorist approach towards learning the second language, and errors were not given any significance. the researchers used to compare mother tongue and target language using contrastive analysis approach for analyzing the errors and there was the technique of drill exercises to deal with all categories of error. the term interlanguage, coined by selinker (1972) developed the interest of linguists towards exploring and providing strategies to the language learners to overcome the disabilities through which they suffer while learning the second language or target language. corder in 1967 gave great emphasis to the field of error analysis with the publication of his work “error analysis and interlanguage” and other researchers and linguists started working in this field (james, 2013). the corpus for the error analysis from the 1960s to 1970s was kept small and only the selected aspect of language was used to be investigated due to limited sources, the rest of the aspects were left unidentified (kotsyuk, 2015). with the passage of time, there came advances in methods and technology, and in the contemporary era, we find great research work in the field of error analysis and the researchers can freely take assistance from electronic tools for the analysis. english is considered as an international and co-official language of pakistan (constitution of islamic republic of pakistan, 1973). it has been extensively used around the world as a second language because it is the lingua franca of the world. the policymakers along with the teachers usually try to discover the strategies to be more systematic and well organized in english language teaching. error analysis is widely used around the world to highlight the weak areas of language. the error analysis is the technique to highlight the errors and it also provides possible corrections and solutions to overcome such errors. the researchers have been utilizing observational and experimental techniques to point out the weak areas of the language learners. after reviewing the previous literature and research on error analysis, it has been observed that researchers around the world have taken engineering students, business students, secondary school students, and postgraduate students as samples and aimed to analyze their written material, highlighting their frequently produced errors and proposing the remedial action for the errors. however, there is scarce research conducted specifically on english language students in pakistan. moreover, the academic material of the undergraduate english language students submitted to the teachers for continuous assessment has been analyzed for this research instead of just following the traditional way of assigning tasks to the students and then analyzing it. this research article has considered the academic material of undergraduate students of the english department as a sample and analyzed it for evaluation. error analysis of online academic material submitted for continuous assessment 51 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 this research study responded the following questions: • what are the common grammatical errors english language students commit in their academic material submitted for continuous assessment at the undergraduate level? • what are the possible corrections to the errors english students commit? literature review error analysis error analysis is the branch of applied linguistics that aims to highlight the errors occurring in second language learning. corder (1967) has highlighted two roles of error analysis: theoretical and practical. the theoretical role is to relate the learner's knowledge of the target language with the source from where he/she has learned the target language and find out the gaps in his target language learning. the practical role is to provide the remedy to upgrade the methodologies that should result in productive target language learning and teaching (corder, 1981). error analysis at any point in learning a second language is vital in three ways: it is significant for teachers because they can find out that how much the learners have grabbed and how much is left for them to learn; it is significant for researchers as error analysis highlights the strategies and procedures used in language learning; in the last, error analysis is significant for the learner itself as a learner can self evaluate his/her knowledge of the language and he/she can test either their learned structure of language is acceptable or not (corder, 1967). if applied linguistics research is taken under consideration then, it defines error analysis as an outcome of chomsky's theory of linguistic competence in which application of language acquisition can result in errors (corder, 1967). error analysis aims to attain linguistic competence in the target language (richards, 1980) but, reviewing chomsky's concept of competence, learners cannot attain proficiency in the second language because second language competence is built up on the variable set of rules (corder, 1979). error analysis opposes contrastive analysis theory which describes the transfer of knowledge as a compulsory element in the target language learning, but error analysis also considers the cognitive abilities of learners during learning the target language. error analysis provides the underlying processes that occur while learning the target language and highlights the weak areas of learning (keshavarz, 2012). keshavarz (2012) has given three premises of error analysis: 1. language cannot be learned without committing errors 2. errors are important for the research 3. the entire origin of committing errors is not from the native language of learners. errors vs mistakes corder (1967) was first to distinct the terms “error” and “mistake” in linguistic context. according to him, errors are the consequences of lack of competence, and mistakes are caused due to lack of performance. the logic of performance and competence can be significant for researchers to distinguish between errors and mistakes. mistakes are likely to slip into the language error analysis of online academic material submitted for continuous assessment 52 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 by native speakers (johnson, 1988). whereas the learners of the target language perform errors because they are vulnerable in the proficiency of the rules of the target language, and they need to learn those rules and strategies to use the language correctly according to the context to attain competence in the target language (shaughnessy, 1977). the native speakers of a language utter numerous mistakes while delivering a random speech; the reason behind mistakes is not the lack of knowledge but there can be slip of tongue, tiredness, or strong emotions. moreover, the speakers know the core language and correct themselves if they realize their mistakes (corder, 1967). james (2013) defines error as aberrant use of language, instigated unintentionally and not amenable by the instigator itself. conversely, a mistake can be instigated intentionally or unintentionally and amenable by instigator. mistakes are of no importance to the manner of language learning. nevertheless, the trouble of figuring out what is a learner’s mistake and what a learner’s error is one in every of a few troubles and requires effort to examine the errors that are typically accorded them (corder, 1967). research in the field of error analysis nzama (2010) from the university of zululand investigated the errors committed by isizulu speakers and the reasons behind committing errors in learning the english language. she analyzed the essays written by learners of 10th, 11th, and 12th class and the errors she found from the essays were of auxiliary verbs with past tense, use of wrong tense, articles were used inappropriately, singular, and plural forms, incorrect use of prepositions and pronouns, mother tongue interference and infinitives. the significant cause the researcher found out behind the errors is the fault in teaching structure: the teachers are not highly qualified and trained, they lack experience of teaching english language and there is absence of libraries in rural areas’ schools. amiri and puteh (2017) from university teknologi; maylsia, investigated errors of post-graduated malaysian students committed in their academic writing. the participants were asked to write an assignment according to their study’s topic. after analyzing the corpus 389 errors were detected in which sentence structure error was of high percentage: 32.90%. moreover, articles, punctuation and capitalization were also committed greatly in the academic assignments. talpur (2017) from mehran university of engineering and technology proposed a case study in their research work entitled “error analysis of the english essays of the undergraduate engineering students in pakistan”. the experimental technique was opted, and the students were asked to create an essay of 200-300 words. the researcher concluded that the undergraduate engineering students commit grammatical mistakes the most. the spelling and word order errors were also detected frequently in sample. research framework the data collection and analysis for this research follows the traditional approach that has been utilized in the field of error analysis by language researchers for many years, initiated by corder (1975): • classification of errors. error analysis of online academic material submitted for continuous assessment 53 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 • evaluation of errors. • explanation of errors. the first step in conducting the error analysis is to classify the errors from the sample, specified for the research. there are various techniques to classify the errors, the researchers can utilize any of the techniques as per need. one of the techniques is to classify the errors as: omission, addition, substitution, and word order but this classification is not specified as beneficial by corder (1972) for explaining the complications in the learning process. the other category of errors, specified by corder (1975) is to organize the errors “to levels of language description, i.e., errors of orthography or phonology, of morphology or syntax, of vocabulary, and within each level according to systems, e.g., vowel or consonant systems, tense, aspect, number, gender or case” (p. 205-206). the second step is to evaluate the errors. corder (1975) describes two rationales that justify the significance of the evaluation of errors: one is to examine the linguistic competence of the learners in their educational environment and the other rationale is to underline the remedial plans for modifying the language performance. there are many ways for the evaluation of errors proposed by different linguists. the two above-mentioned steps deal with linguistics whereas, the explanation of the errors is connected with understanding the phenomenon of language learning specifically second language. corder(1975) highlights the significance of underlining the causes behind errors in order to take remedial measures for them and performance analysis has to be conducted to evaluate the learners’ language. population and sampling the population for this research study comprised of the english department students of three universities in lahore. as the time and resources were limited for the accomplishment of this research study, 50 academic assessments of undergraduate (bs english, ma english) students submitted to their teachers for continuous assessment were taken as samples. this research implied on simple random sampling technique for the collection of samples. data collection the data for this research was collected by the spontaneous procedure. spontaneous procedures include the collection of data from the learners when they are focused more on the content rather than the grammatical style. academic assignments, examination papers, and essays can be taken as sources for data collection. the topics for collecting data by the spontaneous procedure can include “personal information, future plans, religious, social, and political issues, and the like” (keshavarz, 2012, p. 80). a total of 50 academic assignments of students were collected and the subjects of the assignments were distinct because they were collected from different teachers. data analysis and findings the frequencies and percentage of each category of errors are given in the following table: table 1 most common errors committed by the students. error analysis of online academic material submitted for continuous assessment 54 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 serial no. category frequency percentage (%) 1 punctuation and capitalization 289 31.6% 2 article 164 17.9% 3 tense and subjectverb agreement 154 16.8% 4 preposition 81 8.87% 5 singular/ plural form 79 8.6% 6 redundant words 64 7.009% 7 wrong spellings 58 6.3% 8 pronoun 24 2.6% total 916 100% the above drawn table gives the number of each category of errors found in the academic assignments of undergraduate students. moreover, the percentage of each category of errors is also mentioned in a separate column. the results say that the top three errors committed by students most frequently are: punctuation and capitalization, tenses including subject-verb agreement, and article. punctuation and capitalization findings reveal that the students committed punctuation and capitalization errors the most i.e. 31.6%. some of the examples of this category, taken from the sample are as follows: 1. sr, shehzad mostly follows the authority, or lecture style with proper time management and precise wording. 2. above all she listens to her students like a spiritual mother. 3. students are very polite, obedient, and formal with teachers. 4. while talking with them we use nonverbal language (signs, gestures etc). 5. a domain can be different according to social situations. 6. in this category we may call those relatives with whom we met rarely. 7. with my close cousins, i speak with freedom. 8. according to pervaiz iqbal, testing a phase of teaching is an art. 9. we speak punjabi at house and urdu at university. corrections 1. sr. shehzad mostly follows the authority or lecture style with proper time management and precise wording. 2. above all, she listens to her students like a spiritual mother. error analysis of online academic material submitted for continuous assessment 55 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 3. students are very polite, obedient, and formal with teachers. 4. while talking with them, we use nonverbal language (signs, gestures, etc). 5. a domain can be different according to social situations. 6. in this category, we may call those relatives with whom we met rarely. 7. with my close cousins, i speak with freedom. 8. according to pervaiz iqbal, testing a phase of teaching is an art. 9. we speak punjabi at house and urdu at university. articles the second most committed error is of articles i.e., 17.9%. some of the examples, highlighted from the assignments, are as follows: 1. it’s a tool instrument in order to check the understanding of mental abilities. 2. in this process, there is encoder and a decoder. 3. she engaged students by doing the different tasks in the class. 4. her methodologies are combination. 5. ma’am sidra ahmad is a best teacher. 6. that was a best experience. 7. she was an enthusiastic about her job. 8. teacher is a backbone of a society. corrections 1. it’s a tool instrument in order to check the understanding of mental abilities. 2. in this process, there is an encoder and a decoder. 3. she engaged students by doing different tasks in the class. 4. her methodologies are a combination. 5. ma’am sidra is the best teacher. 6. that was the best experience. 7. she was enthusiastic about her job. 8. a teacher is the backbone of any society. tense and subject-verb agreement this category includes the errors related to the syntax of the english language. 16.8% of the errors, committed by students belong to this category. some of the examples, brought from the assignments of the students are as follows: 1. she always make a balance between the two. 2. she had assign us a task. 3. there are a lot of teachers who has taught me. 4. we were afraid that we will not be able to pass that subject. 5. we will be lucky if she see us in the next semester too. 6. a person who teaches and help people to learn. 7. i will be show respect towards my parents and siblings. error analysis of online academic material submitted for continuous assessment 56 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 8. i have to bought stationary. 9. they sangs about their battles. 10. they did not bothered to the rules of the game. corrections 1. she always makes a balance between the two. 2. she had assigned us a task. 3. there are a lot of teachers who have taught me. 4. we were afraid that we would not be able to pass that subject. 5. we will be lucky if she sees us in the next semester too. 6. a person who teaches and helps people to learn. 7. i will show respect towards my parents and siblings. 8. i have to buy stationery. 9. they sang about their battles. 10. they did not bother to the rules of the game. prepositions students feel difficulty in using the correct preposition in the sentences. some of the examples of such errors are as follows: 1. i met her at a park. 2. we cannot use it by class fellows. 3. i do not get angry any teacher by misbehaving. 4. we use to call each other “tum” instead “ap”. 5. try speak to them formally with a good choice of words. 6. we can order, scold, and laugh each other. 7. there is a limit of sharing with them. 8. we will interact with different society who has different language. 9. why language changed time to time? 10. they are respected to us. 11. she is never biased for any student. 12. at the end, it is to say that madam sidra is the best teacher. corrections 1. i met her in a park. 2. we cannot use it with class fellows. 3. i do not get angry at any teacher by misbehaving. 4. we use to call each other “tum” instead of “ap”. 5. try to speak to them formally with a good choice of words. 6. we can order, scold, and laugh at each other. 7. there is a limit to sharing with them. 8. we will interact with different society that has a different language. 9. why did the language change from time to time? error analysis of online academic material submitted for continuous assessment 57 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 10. they are respected by us. 11. she is never biased toward any student. 12. in the end, it is to say that madam sidra is the best teacher. singular plural form findings show that the students committed errors in quantifying the verbs as singular and plural. some of the examples of the errors, committed by students are as follows: 1. all the teacher who taught us were remarkable and fabulous. 2. her method of teaching and encouragements for class participation encourages you to think critically. 3. how can we reveal different sort of thinkings? 4. we talk to our teachers in a respectful manners. 5. the purpose of all type of testing is the same, to access the basic ability of students. 6. (…) battles, gods, and heros. 7. one of the childrens had arrived from the earth. 8. one of my friend used the word “tum”. corrections 1. all the teachers who taught us were remarkable and fabulous. 2. her method of teaching and encouragement for class participation encourage you to think critically. 3. how can we reveal different sorts of thinking? 4. we talk to our teachers in a respectful manner. 5. the purpose of all types of testing is the same, to access the basic ability of students. 6. (…) battles, gods, and heroes. 7. one of the children had arrived from the earth. 8. one of my friends used the word “tum”. redundant words students have often used the words that are not necessary to use in sentences. some of the examples of such errors are as follows: 1. she used to give detail of each and every point. 2. i realized that many teachers convey their knowledge in their own particular way. 3. it is nice when a professor really enjoys a subject. 4. but in the matter of father, we behave very, very, very much formally. 5. the assigning of marks can be quantitative or it can be qualitative. 6. who knows me even more than my own self. 7. so, personally i believe that we address our family according to moods. 8. i have a really soft-tone voice. error analysis of online academic material submitted for continuous assessment 58 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 9. actually it varies from person to person. 10. novel is basically a fictional work which is written in prose style. corrections 1. she used to give detail of every point. 2. i realized that many teachers convey their knowledge in their particular way. 3. it is nice when a professor enjoys a subject. 4. but in the matter of father, we behave very much formally. 5. the assigning of marks can be quantitative or qualitative. 6. who knows me even more than myself. 7. so, i believe that we address our family according to our moods. 8. i have a soft-tone voice. 9. it varies from person to person. 10. a novel is a fictional work that is written in prose style. wrong spellings students get confused in spelling a few words. some of the examples of such errors are highlighted from the assignments and stated as follows: 1. the varied pattern of bilingual competencey that characterized young children in dual language environment is not well understood. 2. i am going to explain my ways while taking to a teacher. 3. for exampe, the schema for my friend might include information about her appearance. 4. all of them try there level best so that each of us is satisfied. 5. she made us able enough to speak english in a very good way by using interesting techniques like playing drama, script writting, and lyrics of the song etc. 6. we miss mdm sara. 7. social context recognises that people use language and that language is a part of society. 8. scimming is gaining the main idea or gist of the text. 9. measurement can also have the collection of data of both: the performance of teacher and performance of carriculum. 10. all the students were very exited to see the sun. corrections 1. the varied pattern of bilingual competency that characterized young children in dual language environment is not well understood. 2. i am going to explain my ways while talking to a teacher. 3. for example, the schema for my friend might include information about her appearance. 4. all of them try their level best so that each of us is satisfied. error analysis of online academic material submitted for continuous assessment 59 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 5. she made us able enough to speak english in a very good way by using interesting techniques like playing drama, script writing, and lyrics of the song, etc. 6. we miss madam sara. 7. social context recognizes that people use language and that language is a part of society. 8. skimming is gaining the main idea or gist of the text. 9. measurement can also have the collection of data of both: the performance of teacher and the performance of the curriculum. 10. all the students were very excited to see the sun. pronouns students have used the wrong pronouns in some of the sentences. few examples are as follows: 1. formative assessment refers to the understanding level of the student that how much he is getting. 2. this article tells about reading comprehension, strategies, and skills from which a reader can improve their reading skills. 3. he proposes luccetta but she denies to marry her. 4. every teacher teaches us in their best way. 5. she motivates their students through active learning. corrections: 1. formative assessment refers to the understanding level of the student that how much he/she is getting. 2. this article tells about reading comprehension, strategies, and skills from which a reader can improve his/her reading skills. 3. he proposes luccetta but she denies to marry him. 4. every teacher teaches us in his/her best way. 5. she motivates her students through active learning. discussion the analysis of the academic assignments of the students revealed that the students are not compatible enough to use the english language with correct rules. they have frequently committed eight different categories of errors. extensively committed error is punctuation and capitalization. the rationale behind committing this category of error can be the lack of knowledge of the students. most of the students are unaware of the usage of the punctuation marks and they do not put punctuation marks at many required places. most of the students do not know the rules of capitalization and erroneously either capitalize wrong words or do not capitalize the alphabets where required. the second category of error is the incorrect use of articles. students do not use articles at appropriate places. some of the students do not know the use of the article “the” and they often error analysis of online academic material submitted for continuous assessment 60 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 get confused in the use of “a” and “the”. other types of error include singular/ plural forms, incorrect use of prepositions, redundant words, incorrect spelling, and pronouns. the third frequently produced error by the students is tense and subject-verb agreement. students have not mastered the tenses and they use incorrect sentence structures. most of the students are unaware of the rules of conditional sentences. conclusion and recommendations english is the medium of instruction in educational institutions of pakistan, but students lack the mastery of the english language, and it is evident from the analysis done for this research study. the frequently found errors from the assignments of the students include punctuation and capitalization, tense and subject-verb agreement, articles, singular/ plural forms, prepositions, redundant words, wrong spellings, and pronouns. there can be many reasons behind committing errors in english language. english is not the native language of pakistanis, but it is used as the official language in pakistan. children who grow up in pakistan do not have exposure to the english language at an early age. this results in the lack of english language skills in students. in this regard, some recommendations are given below: • the students should utilize time in mastering the grammatical rules of the english language. • the students should read english newspapers and books besides course books. it will help them understand the sentence structures. • the students should frequently visit libraries, learn new english words from reading the literature pieces, and use them in their routine. it will help them enrich their vocabulary. • the students should speak english for communication in their educational institutions. • the students should listen to english news and watch english tv shows. • the students should write their everyday routine or thoughts in english daily. • the teachers should focus on polishing the english language skills (both written and spoken) of the students. • the teachers should assign students extra writing tasks for the improvement of sentence structure. • the teachers should focus on the errors of the students and try to help students in overcoming those errors. • the teachers should highlight and give feedback on the grammatical errors of the students. • the teachers should upgrade their teaching strategies from time to time. • the teachers can utilize remedial teaching strategy that can assist students in modifying their language errors. error analysis of online academic material submitted for continuous assessment 61 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 references amiri, f., puteh, m. 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(2017). error analysis of the english essays of undergraduate engineering students in pakistan: a case study. elf annual research journal, 19(63-78). tukey, j. w. (1977). exploratory data analysis. addison-wesley publishing company. @ 2023 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān 1 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān hamzah abdurraheem, ph.d. department of languages (english unit) al-hikmah university, ilorin, nigeria habduraheem@alhikmah.edu.ng abstract the language and style of the qur’ān are a unique, wondrous and inimitable linguistic compendium. it is replete with remarkable and grandiose styles and expressions. parallelism, and its various sub-types, constitute a generously employed communicative and rhetorical linguistic expression in the qur’ān. this paper investigated grammatical antithetical parallelisms in the qur’ān to demonstrate how they function to establish meaning connection. twenty-one samples were taken from the qur’ān and analysed using the spca syntactic model of systemic functional linguistics. findings revealed that parallelisms in the qur’ān are knitted in two main clauses (compound sentences), complex and compound-complex sentences yoked together in equivalent structures to express diverse themes such as belief versus disbelief, reward versus punishment, uprightness versus evil, monotheism versus polytheism, attributes, qualities and descriptions of allah, etc. the findings also revealed that the parallel structures are constructed in the simple present tense, producing meaningful connection that expresses the themes of universal truth, scientific facts and legislative components in islam that entrench communal harmony and peaceful co-existence. in conclusion, the paper highlights the rhetorical appeal that is conveyed by these parallel structures. keywords: stylistics, qur’ān, parallelism, rhetorical appeal, etc. introduction stylistics, the meeting point between linguistics and literature, emerged in the twentieth century as an academic discipline that replaced and expanded the frontiers of rhetoric. as a subfield of linguistics, stylistics is interested in the formal characteristics of language used in texts, spoken or written, literary or non-literary texts. this suggests that the preferred object of stylistics is not literature alone, popular non-canonical writings are equally the domains of modern stylistics. crystal and davy (1969), short (1996), simpson (2004), leech (2008), and jefferies and mcintyre (2010) assert the central concern of stylistics is the application of modern linguistic tools in the description and analysis of literary and non-literary texts for empirical interpretation. against this background, kates (2001) claims that the goal of stylistics analysis is not merely to describe the former characteristics of text, but also ‘to show their functional significance for the interpretation of the text….’ (pp. 372-373). in other words, the choice of a linguistic option among alternative expressions or the choice of deviant forms that deliberately violate the pre-set rules of mailto:habduraheem@alhikmah.edu.ng a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān 2 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 linguistic code has an underlining rhetorical appeal and stylistic effect that signposts the intended message of the writer. thus, over the decades, the domain of stylistics, the linguistic study of style, has been enriched and ‘fortified’ by insights, discoveries and concepts from supporting disciplines, models from linguistics and literary theories. for instance, the concept of parallelism is a ready-made linguistic principle and method that is appropriated by the stylistician in the description and analysis of texts. parallelism is one of the distinctive features that is employed in oral and written communication, literary and non-literary texts. it is an exquisite manner of expression that jolts the mind of the listener/reader and forces him/her to investigate the meaning connection in the repetitive structures. as a stylo-rhetorical device, parallelism is a core aspect or feature of stylistic studies. both deviation and parallelism are linguistic resources through which foregrounding is achieved in textual composition. it was the prague school of linguistics that deposited the concept of foregrounding into the field of poetics as a stylistic toolkit to defamiliarise the linguistic process to draw the attention of the reader to a significant aesthetic cum semantic implication (leech and short 2007; leech 2008). unlike deviation where the writer/poet disrupts or violates the pre-set rules of language for aesthetic and rhetorical purposes, in parallelism, the speaker/writer persistently limits himself/herself to the same or similar linguistic patterns or options even though the language possesses endless linguistic possibilities of choices through which he/she can select from. parallel linguistic structures that are singled out for the attention of the reader are foregrounded elements that have perceptual prominence (short 1996), and discernible rhetorical figure that produces original meaning (leech and short 2007). they establish a meaningful connection (short 1996), a connection of similarity and contrast (simpson, 2004; leech and short, 2007; jeffrey and mcintyre, 2010; ogunsiji and aluya, 2022). simply put, therefore, parallelism is a kind of linguistic repetition, aptly described by crystal (2004) as “the use of pair sounds, words or constructions” (p. 446). crystal’s view suggests that parallelism is the repetition of sounds, words, phrases, clauses and sentences yoked together in equivalent structures to create a scheme of balance that has rhythmic and rhetorical appeal to the listener or reader. this means that parallelism is anchored on the principle of equivalence (corbett, 1971; kates, 2001) or structural equivalence (leech & short, 2007) and is made more prominent through the adept use of alliteration (leech, 1969). as a form of textual production that arises as a result of the repetition of structures, fabb (1997) groups all instances of parallelism at all linguistic levels into two: semantic parallelism and structural parallelism. semantic parallelism explores the meaning properties of the parallel structure. in other words, semantic parallelism examines the equivalent meaning of components between two sections of a text. put differently, it is when two or more different sections of a text have the same interpretation of the component of meaning. in such an instance, one meaning (one a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān 3 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 part of the parallel structure) reinforces the other, or one part expands the meaning of the other. this is what ojaide (1996) refers to as the additive function of parallelism. quirk, et al (1985) aver that structural parallelism occurs when neighbouring sentences share grammatical features of tense, aspect, and number among sentences or word order to give a strong impression of connectivity. to fabb (1997), cited by maledo (2019), structural parallelism displays the sameness or equivalence of two sections/parts of a text at the level of structure or pattern. that is, structural parallelism is attained or achieved when similar or identical sounds, words, phrases, clauses and sentences of equal grammatical status are connected in parallel grammatical structures. this implies that structural parallelism occurs at the phonological, morphological, graphological, syntactic linguistic levels (leech, 1969; jeffrey & mcintyre, 2010; and abdul-raof, 2018; maledo, 2019). this paper investigates syntactic parallelism in the quran, with a major focus on antithetical parallelism, a sub-set of syntactic parallelism. syntactic parallelism or grammatical parallelism (leech, 1969; corbett, 1971; dror, 2017) creates structural repetitive patterns between phrases, clauses and sentences. dror (2017) identifies three types of syntactic parallelism. they are synonymous, antithetic and synthetic. citing allan (1996), maledo (2019) classifies syntactic parallelism into the following types: synonymous, antithetic, constructive, and climatic parallelism. however, mahdi and khadim (2018) identify six types of syntactic parallelism: synonymous, synthetic, antithetic, climatic, eclectic and emphatic parallelisms. due to space constraints, only antithetical parallelism, the kernel of this paper, will be briefly defined. antithetic parallelism shows the contrast between the first and second parallel structures. that is, the second parallel structure exhibits disparity or difference in the assertion expressed in the first structure. simply put, the second structure denies or rejects the notion of the first parallel statement. antithetic parallelism is a widely used parallelism type in the qur’an, often with appealing and telling rhetorical functions. mainly, parallel constructions function to establish or produce meaning connection, a connection of similarity and contrast. this is what short (1996) refers to parallelism rule. among the functions, leech (1969) avers, is that parallelism signals an emotive force when more than two phrases or clauses of identical patterns are yoked together, and that schematic balancing which is the hallmark of parallel structures produces ‘the elaboration of form that inevitably brings an elaboration of meaning’ (leech and short 2007, p. 21) according to jefferies and mcintyre (2010), ‘parallelism reinforces the positive evaluation of the propositional content’ (p. 33) that compels the reader to look for contrastive meaning connection or link between the parallel structures. dror (2017) adds that complete grammatical parallelism can enhance the effectiveness of the distinction between two opposing sides. in order words, antithetical parallelism indicates the merit, worth or value of one group over the other. parallelism is geared towards an effective description of ideas, creates rhetorical emphasis and gives clarity of message and thematic focus and amplifies the subject matter (ogunsiji and aluya (2022). in some instances, the rhythmic power of a stretch of structures produces musicality that a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān 4 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 is pleasurable or reinforces a melancholy mood. and finally, parallelism helps create cohesive ties in texts, which is regarded as an additive function (ojaide, 1996). research objective this paper investigates antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān. research question how and why antithetical parallelism is employed in the qur’ān? statement of the problem as a sub-type of foregrounding, parallelism is a textual property and a product of linguistic subtlety through which writers create a meaningful connection. experience has shown that many a reader fails to ponder over the depth of meaning that exists between parallel structures and lacks the linguistic skills to unravel and interpret the rhetorical functions and core message/theme buried in parallel constructions, particularly in the qur’ān. the present study sensitizes the readers to identifying antithetical parallelisms and providing the techniques and analysis that would guide them to fully interpret and understand the meaning of antithetical parallelisms in the qur’ān. significance of the study the present research effort adds to the existing body of knowledge on parallelism. it provides additional information on the works of dror (2017) and mahdi and khadim (2018), alharbi (2021) who have investigated parallelism in the qur’ān. however, the present study is elaborately conceived as it analyses many samples from the qur’ān and explains the rhetorical functions behind the usage of each sample of the antithetical parallelism. literature review numerous works have been written on qur’anic linguistics which explicates and interpret the qur’ān using the parameters and tools of modern linguistics. such works include von denffer (1981) philip (2005), el-awa (2006), ushama (2013), saeh (2015), dror (2017), mahdi and khadim, 2018; abdul-rauf (2018), alharbi (2021). however, few of these works dwell extensively on the subject of parallelism. while dror (2017) and mahdi and khadim (2018) fully examine parallelism in the quran, abdulrauf (2018) and alharbi (2021) scantily discuss parallelism. in addition, other related works do not examine parallelism in the quran, but whose insights and findings could be used to buttress studies on parallelism in the quran. such works include abdurraheem (2010), okunowo (2012), maledo (2019) and ogunsiji and aluya (2021). von deffon (1981) investigates the form, language and style of the qur’ān. he avers that the literary form of the qur’ān can be broadly grouped into prose and poetry but dwells extensively on the lexical features of the qur’ān which are non-arabic in origin. he classifies these non-arabic words as loanwords that are borrowed from languages such as greek, persian, turkish and abyssinian. he asserts further that the sound devices of the qur’ān contain poetic features like rhyme, rhythm and other phonetic features, which, however, does not make the qur’ān be a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān 5 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 described as poetry. throughout this study, parallelism as a stylistic feature of the qur’ān is not examined. in his linguistic exploration of the qur’ān, philips (2005) examines some key linguistic concepts which are germane and crucial to the correct and accurate exegesis of the qur’ān. these key linguistic terms, which he identifies as āmm (general), khāṣṣ (specific), muṭlaq (absolute), muqayyad (qualified), mantūq (stated) and mafḥūm (implied), are replete in the qur’ān and have diverse semantic implications that are used to express different shades of meaning. he points out that a profound knowledge and understanding of these key linguistic items, based on the features listed above, would aid a proper understanding of the qur’ān. though the work does not examine parallelism, the finding of the study will be useful in our analysis of parallelistic structures in the qur’ān. in the same vein, ushama (2013) employs modern descriptive linguistic tools to analyse the literary and linguistic style of the qur’ān. in this work, an in-depth study of the unique literary qur’ānic style is explored. specifically, the author discusses significant linguistic styles such as the rhetorical import of the abbreviated letters in the qur’ān, maxims, metaphors, narrative techniques of the qur’ān, the linguistic implication of oaths, parables, similes, etc. however, parallelism is not treated, nor mentioned in his work. similarly, abdul-rauf (2018) embarks on a full-scale linguistic analysis of the qur’ān. it is a comprehensive book on qur’ān discourse. the author provides insights and principles from modern descriptive linguistics to account for useful information and valid statements on the syntactic, semantic and stylistic features of the qur’ān as they relate to the exegesis of the qur’ān. as comprehensive as the book is on the linguistic exploration of the qur’ān, the author does not discuss parallelism, a common and widely use linguistic style. the only reference to parallelism in the book is on page 208 where the author tersely defines it and cites instances where it occurs in the qur’ān, alongside other rhetorical features. dror (2017), mahdi and khadim (2018) and alharbi (2021) are journal articles that investigate parallelism in the qur’ān, though alharbi is not as detailed as the first two. dror (2017) focuses on grammatical parallelism in the qur’ān, using a grammatical pattern of analysis of a b c d e f g, etc. pattern to account for the syntactic relations between the parallel structures instead of subject, verb object and adverb (svoa) or subject, predicator, complement and adjunct (spca) grammatical pattern. he majorly identifies three relationships that exist between two parallel structures. the relationships are synonymous, synthetic and antithetical parallelisms. however, antithetical parallelism dominates his analysis, with a sprinkle of synonymous and synthetic parallelisms. in addition, his analysis of antithetical parallelism addresses topics such as patterns of behaviour between believers and non-believers, parallelisms describing allah’s might, and parallel structures expressing monotheism versus polytheism and god versus devil, etc. mahdi and khadim (2018) investigate the use of parallelism in the last three short chapters of qur’ān: sūratu-n-nās, sūratu’l-falaqq and sūratu’l-ikhlāṣ. their analysis, which focuses on a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān 6 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 these three chapters alone, identifies six types of parallelism that are employed in these three short suwar (chapters). these parallelism types are syntactic parallelism: synonymous, synthetic, antithetic, climatic, eclectic and emphatic parallelisms. in addition, their analysis is not based on any theoretical model but their findings show that parallelism is a major characteristic of all religious texts, an important linguistic tool employed in the qur’ān to communicate to people to influence the reading and reasoning process of the readers to provoke deep understanding of the qur’ānic text. unlike dror (2017) and mahdi and khadim (2018), alharbi’s (2021) paper does not fully concentrate on parallelism. he merely cites parallelism as one of the six techniques through which linguistic appropriateness is achieved in the qur’ānic text. of the numerous examples of parallelism in the qur’ān, alharbi gives only three examples to demonstrate that its employment in the qur’ān is a property of textuality that relates ideas together through appropriate choice of lexical items and intra-sentential and inter-sentential mechanisms. thus, parallelism is not given a profound treatment in his paper. such a profound treatment of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān is the focus of this paper methodology the language and style of the qur’ān are unique, wondrous, incomparable and miraculous (hitti, 2002, ushama 2013). the qur’ān manifests several remarkable styles that are not present in some religious scriptures (ushama, 2013). this assertion lends credence to the linguistic, rhetorical and eloquent inimitability of the qur’ān. thus, the linguistic and literary stylistic features of the qur’ān are indisputably rich and unique, and one such stylistic feature is linguistic parallelism. parallelism is adroitly woven into the fabric of the qur’ān as a discursive strategy. thus, data for this study are drawn from the qur’ān. the qur’ān is a mine of parallelisms as it contains generous examples of parallelism types mentioned by mahdi and khadim (2018) above. however, for the scope of this paper, the analysis will mainly focus on antithetical parallelisms in the qur’ān. dror (2017) asserts that two types of antithetical grammatical parallelism are discernable in the qur’ān: incomplete grammatical parallelism and complete grammatical parallelism. this assertion has been earlier echoed by corbett (1971) who says antithesis resides in words, ideas or both. for this analysis, we shall focus on complete antithetical grammatical parallelisms that are expressed both in words and ideas to give a complete contrast. for analysis, each verse to be analysed will be transliterated and its english translation rendered. it is the english translation that will be analysed using halliday’s systemic functional grammar, precisely the scale and category grammar of spca. employing the spca analytical model is a marked difference from dror’s (2017) a b c d e f, etc pattern, which does not align with any grammatical model. a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān 7 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 analysis the qur’ān is replete with antithetical grammatical parallel structures. antithetical parallelism constitutes a widespread style maker that adorns the qur’ān and remains one of the sound rhetorical appeals through which allāh communicates to the entire humanity. the contrast which is implicated in antithetical parallelisms is employed to express diverse discursive practices and illocutionary forces which are analysed thus, allāh says: s p s p (1) qul jā’al-haq wa zahaqa’l-bāṭil the truth has come and falsehood has vanished (17:81). (2) ta’murūna bi’l-macrūf wa tanhawna cani’l-munkar… s p c p c you enjoin good and forbid evil….(3:110). (3) man yashfac shafācātan ḥasanatan yakun llahu naṣībun minhā, wa man yashfac shafācātan sayyi’atan yakun llahu kiflun minhā (subordinate clause) β (main clause) α whoever intercedes for a good cause will have the reward thereof, β α and whoever intercedes for an evil cause will have a share in its burden (4:85). the three parallel structures are related in that (i) each of the structures contrasts between islamic monotheism and polytheism, belief and disbelief, uprightness and evil; (ii) they are terse, concise and apt, particularly sentences 1 and 2, and address the central message of islam. the punchy sentences (1 and 2) are therefore foregrounded to attain the desired communicative effect in the conscious reader. in all the three examples, schematic balancing is achieved at the level of syntax, but the original meaning and communicative effect lies in ‘truth’ and ‘falsehood’; ‘come’, meaning stable, and ‘vanished’ in sentence 1; ‘enjoin’ and ‘forbid’, and ‘good’ and ‘evil’ in sentence 2; ‘a good cause’ and ‘an evil cause’, ‘reward’ and ‘burden’ in sentence 3. thus, the rhetorical appeal in the three complete antithetical parallelisms rests on provoking the reader’s critical reasoning by contrasting truth and falsehood, belief and disbelief and reward and punishment to establish the disparity between the paired ideas and concepts as put forward by the qur’ān. in addition, the above parallel constructions contain a splendid bundle of information on the fundamental message of islam. having established this message, allāh instructs on the need to always tread the path of righteousness and moral virtues, which is also rhetorically communicated in the following parallel expressions. allāh says in qur’an 5: 2: tāc āwanū cala’l-bbir wa taqwā walā tāc āwanū cala’llthmi wa’l-cudwān, “ p c c p c c a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān 8 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 (4) help one another in goodness and piety, and do not help one another in sin and aggression. this compound, imperative jussive sentence that is couched in antithetical parallelism is an expression of command, mandating humanity to always indulge in good and pious deeds, while the second part of the parallel sentence, crafted in negativity dissuades humanity from wrongdoings. this sentence is attention-catching as it provokes the reader to ponder over and contrast the key lexical items: ‘goodness’ and ‘sin’; ‘piety’ and ‘sin’ and ‘aggression’. other examples of parallelism relating to the theme of uprightness (goodness) and evil abound in the qur’ān: 3:152; 91: 9-10; 24:26; 4: 85; 3:106; 39:38; 40:40. in other places of the qur’ān, allāh employed pairs of parallelistic structures to foreground his might and power on all human, non-human and cosmic creatures. first, in qur’ān 3:26: quli llāhumma mālika’l-mulki tu’tī’l-mulka man tashā’u wa tamzicu’l-mulka miman tashā’u wa tuc izu man tashā’u wa tudhilu man tashā’u, meaning “o allāh, owner of sovereignty s p c c s p c c (5) you give sovereignty to whom you will/ you take away sovereignty from whom you will s p c s p c (6) and you honour whom you will / you abase whom you will. these two pairs of complete antithetical parallelism establish fundamental truths that ultimate and supreme power, authority and control belong to allah alone. he is the one who enthrones, crowns and honours the leader he likes, and dethrones, debases and deflates, by his mighty decree and divine power, whom he wills. to reinforce these attributes and descriptions, and cast this awesome depiction in the heart of the conscious reader, allah crafts the message in embedded clauses, main clauses and subordinate clauses, to set up powerful contrasting expressions. the rhetorical appeal of these highly foregrounded constructions is to jolt the attention of the reader over immaterial power and fleeting position. these parallel structures are pointers that allah makes or mars, depending on his divine wishes. closely connected to qur’ān 3: 26, is verse 27 of the same chapter. again, two pairs of parallel structures are employed to focus on allah’s divine power and unity as he causes the earth to rotate in a counterclockwise direction around its axis to cause day and night. allah says: s p c a s p c a (7) you cause the night to enter into the day/ you cause the day to enter in the night s p c a s p c a (8) and you bring the living out of the dead / and you bring the dead out of the living a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān 9 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 these complete antithetical grammatical structures challenge man to cogitate over the indepth, complex and scientific knowledge involved as the day transformed into the night and the night transformed into the day, leading to the earth rotating around its orbits. this simple but complex alternation of the day and the night and the power to create and not create human lives, are picturesquely presented in marked parallelisms (leech, 1969; 2008): (i) the two pairs have identical grammatical structures: spca, (ii) corresponding pronoun ‘you’ in the clauses, (iii) equivalent present tense which expresses continuity and extension of the proposition into past and future, with no limitation. this parallel construction, particularly sample 7, besides registering allah as the supreme superintendent and 'sculptor' of the universe, further explains the divine orderliness and astronomic balancing of the heavenly bodies in the cosmos since the beginning of creation. thus, the astronomic balancing of the heavenly bodies is stylistically presented in the syntactic balancing of the parallel construction. the unbroken continuity and celestial harmony are also stylistically depicted in the employment of unrestricted simple present tense, which further stresses the universal truth that a supreme being is in charge of the entire universe. this argument is reinforced in the qur’ān as allah repeats the same parallel structure (i.e you cause the night ….) in other places of the qur’ān 22:61; 31: 29; 35: 13 and 57: 6. the cosmic relevance of the day and night in the natural ordering of human affairs is further enhanced, though in a slightly varied linguistic pattern, in other verses of the qur’ān which are also couched in apt but short and succinct parallel structures. these examples are found in qur’ān 74:33-34; 92: 1-2; 91:1-6, etc. adjectives, gradable and non-gradable, are numerously employed in the qur’ān text to vividly depict allah’s innumerable attributes, qualities, descriptions and characteristics. examples of such attributes are al-ghaniy the sufficient, al-hamīd, the praised al-cāzīz, the mighty, alḥakīm the wise, al-kabīr the great. however, the names and attributes attain more prominence and become foregrounded when they are honed and outlined in parallel structures. such parallel examples are gleaned from passages of the qur’ān. in qur’ān 5 verse 98, allah says: ‘iclamū ‘anna llāha shadīdu’l-c iqābi wa’anna llāha ghafūru-r-raḥīm s p c s p c c (9) allah is severe in punishment and (that) allah is forgiving, merciful (5:98) ‘inna rabbaka ladhū magfiratin wa dhū c iqābin ‘ālīmin s p c s p c (10) ….. your lord is the possessor of forgiveness and (your lord is ) the possessor of painful punishment (41:43) fa’inna llaha yuḍilu man yashā’a wa yahdī man yashā’a. s p c c s p c c a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān 10 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 (11) verily, allah sends astray whom he wills and (allah) guides aright whom he wills (16:93) yaghfiru liman yashā’u wa yucadh-dhibu man yashā’u. s p c s p c (12) he forgives whom he pleases and (he) punishes whom he pleases (48:14) faman yuridi llahu ‘an yahdiyahu yashraḥ ṣadrahu li’l-l’islām, faman yurid can yuḍillahu yajc al ṣadrahu ḍayyiqan ḥarajan. β α (13) and whomever allah intends to guide, he opens his breast to islam, β α whomever he intends to send astray, he makes his breast closed and constricted. (6:125) in sentence 9, there is a slight variation in the parallel constructions. this an instance of incomplete antithetical parallelism because in the first clause, the complement (c) component is made of headword, ‘severe’ and the qualifier ‘in punishment’, while in the second clause ‘forgiving’ and ‘merciful’ are two separate linguistic elements that both function as complement (c). yet, they almost function as parallel elements to achieve schematic balancing. given the parallel construction of sentence 10, spc, a complete antithetical parallelism is achieved that gives symmetrical attributes of allah. this symmetrical description heightens the semantic import of qur’ān 42 verse 7: a party shall be in the garden, another party (shall be) in the burning fire. both sentences 9 and 10, pithy and punchy, reverberate the twin concept of allah being the custodian of forgiveness and the custodian of punishment, a parallel linguistic attribute that runs through the texture of the qur’ān. in sample 11, the expressions ‘allah sends astray’ and ‘allah guides aright', and in sample 12 the lexical items 'forgive' and 'punishes' are set in contrast to further underscore other unique attributes of allah. these antithetical parallel sentences produce a schematic balancing that fills the heart of the reader with fear and reverence for allah, the almighty. these attributes are given a wider semantic and pragmatic focus in sample 13 to create textual cohesion among antithetical structures in 11, 12 and 13. this cohesion foregrounds the rhetorical appeal and communicative/ perlocutionary effect divinely embedded in the structures. the perlocutionary effect is that allah’s supremacy and attributes are manifested in diverse ways: striding on the path of truth and righteousness and sprinting on the valley of evil and destruction are subject to the power and control of allah. these divine attributes are foregrounded in several verses of the qur’ān, where they are equally presented in antithetical parallel constructions such as qur’ān 40:40. closely related to the twin concept of forgiveness and punishment is the qur’ān theological theme of reward and punishment. this theme is extensively reiterated in the qur’ān and mostly presented in complete antithetical parallelism. a few examples are stated thus: inna’l-‘abrāra lafī nacīmin wa inna’l-fujjāra lafī jaḥīmin a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān 11 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 s p a s p a (14) the righteous will be in delight, /and the wicked will be in the blazing fire (82: 1314) yaoma naḥshurul muttaqīna ‘ila raḥmāni wafdan, wanasūqul mujrīmīna ila jahannama wirdan s p a c (15) and the garden shall be brought near to the pious / s p a c and the fire shall be made manifest to the erring ones (19: 85-86) these two examples and many others like them in the qur’ān (3:106; 17:8; 33:73; 101: 69; 92: 5-11) are linguistic expressions through which allah contrasts the theme of reward and punishment. those who obey allah's dictates and commands are the pious and righteous servants that will dwell in the delights of blissful gardens. the parallel structures are stylistically couched to draw the attention of a conscious reader to the meaningful connection between the theme of reward and punishment, denotatively marked by paradise and hellfire. the parallel structures are juxtaposed to compel righteous believers into obeying the dictates of allah. this is the core information focus of most parallelisms in the qur’ān. thus, knowledge of allah’s reward and punishment, power and control over his creatures will reinforce the forbearance and patience to always obey his commands and instructions. one such divine command is the one given in qur’ān 16 verse 90 which is couched in complete antithetical parallelism. allāh says: inna llāha ya’muru bicadli wa’l-lhsāni wa’ītā’i dhi’l-qurbā wayanhā canil-faḥshā’i wa’l-munkar wa’l-baghyi s p c c c (16) surely allah enjoins justice and kindness and giving dues to near relatives and s p c c c he forbids lewdness and abomination and rebellion. this short sentence is skillfully crafted in contrasting propositions to jolt the reader's mental alertness to the in-built divine message in the verse. in this verse, a complete antithetical parallelism per se, allah yokes together three virtues (justice, kindness and giving dues to near relatives) that entrench a healthy and vibrant society with three vices (lewdness, abomination and rebellion) that ruin, dislocate and devastate a society. here, the contrast produces an illocutionary act of admonishing that must be obeyed and practically demonstrated in all communities desirous of peaceful harmonious existence and continuous communal stability. as in all instances where allah contrasts righteousness and evil, the simple present tense of the verbs 'enjoins' and 'forbids', which expresses a lack of restrictiveness and limitation in the propositional content of the actions in the sentence, establishes a meaning connection that produces a universal truth. a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān 12 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the legislative components of islam are also adroitly woven into parallel structures. islām invites humanity to critical thinking and sound intellectual reasoning; thus, some of its legislative components are couched in parallelism that compels a conscious and steady reader to look for the meaning connection in such legislative components. in enjoining war to the nascent muslim community, a war of self-defence, the qur’ān 2 verse 216 says: kutiba calaykumu’l-qitālu wahuwa kurhun llakum, wacasā can takrahū shay’an wahuwa khayrun llakum, wacasā can tuḥibū shay’an wahuwa sharru llakum. (17) fighting is enjoined on you, and it is an object of dislike. α β and it may be that you dislike a thing while it is good for you α β and it may be that you love something while it is evil for you. the entire verse is quoted here but the parallel structure yoked together in complex sentences, occurs in the part of the verse that is in bold print. the semantics of the verb kutiba (meaning ‘enjoined on you’) implies the verse is a divine injunction to fight in self-defence, not a war of conquest or a war of material plunder (ali, 2001). in giving out this command to the muslims, allah foregrounds the injunction by contrasting ‘dislike’ and ‘love’, ‘goodness’ and ‘evil’. as a legislative injunction cast in the aesthetics of rhetorical appeal, allah uses schematic balancing to effectively engage the muslims convincingly and intellectually in carrying out his divine guidance by allowing them to visualise the negative consequences of not pursuing the war. allah appeals to them knowing too well that disliking war would amount to fitnah (qur’ān 2: 191) which ali (2001) aptly describes as "affliction, distress, hardship, slaughter, misleading, or causing an error, seduction of faith by any means" (p.85) in addition, qur’ān 2: 275 is another illustration where parallelism is employed to foreground a legislative matter. in this verse, allāh sharply contrasts trading and usury. he says: “wa aḥalla llāhul bayca wa ḥarrama rribā”. (18) s p c s p c allāh has permitted trade and (allāh) has forbidden usury in this verse, cast in epigrammatic terseness, allah sets trading and usury in binary opposition for utter condemnation of usury (ribā). ribā or interest, which by its very nature creates selfishness and cruelty, hard-heartedness, money worship, etc. (ali, 2001), kills the spirit of fellow feeling, sympathy and cooperation. it is therefore ruinous because it hinders social, economic, moral and spiritual progress. the meaning connection between the parallel structure is at the level of lexis: ‘has permitted and ‘has forbidden’ and ‘trade’ and ‘usury’. so, a discerning reader would digest the pragmatic turn of the illocutionary act of condemnation inherent in the verse. this condemnation is further stylistically amplified in the next verse, that is, qur’ān 2:276, where allāh says: “yamḥaqu llāhu rribā wa yurbī aṣ-sadaqāti”. a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān 13 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 s p c (s) p c (19) allāh destroys usury and (allah) gives an increase to charities again, in the above verse, which reinforces qur’ān 2: 275, allāh uses another parallel structure, to reiterate his abhorrence and aversion for usury so that sincere and conscious muslims and all adherents of humanity would distance themselves from riba. to attain this communicative appeal and perlocutionary effect, allāh contrasts ‘destroy’ and ‘increase’ and ‘usury’ and ‘increase in charities' to further impress on the psyche of the reader his complete loathsomeness for usury. note also the symmetric balancing in the choice of the simple present tense ‘destroys’ and ‘gives’ in the parallel structure that denotes unrestricted continuity. still, on foregrounding the component of legislative matters through the use of linguistic parallelism, the qur’ān also employs similarity in issues relating to divorce. in qur’ān 2 verse 229, allah says: ‘aṭṭalāqu marratāni fa’imsākum bimacrūfin ‘awtasrīḥun bi’iḥsānin divorce is twice, s p c a s p c a (20) either you retain her on reasonable terms or (you) release her with kindness. this parallel construction is cast to reform a grave social evil that was rampant in arabia before the advent of islam. then, a lady could be divorced many times and she would be taken back. this severe social malady is here given a mental exposition by providing two options to the reader to ruminate over the contrasting meaning of imsākun ‘retain’ and tasrīḥun ‘release’. the aesthetic cum rhetorical appeal in the parallelism makes the verse a binding and convincing legislative matter that must be adhered to jettison the old and pre-islamic wilful act of divorcing wives as many times as possible and taking them back. moving away from legislative concerns, allāh employs complete antithetical parallelism in qur’ān 12 verses 25-27 to exonerate prophet yūsuf from an allegation of sexual scandal levelled against him by zulaykha, the wife of his master. by allāh’s command and might, a toddler mysteriously spoke in defence of prophet yūsuf in a highly complex grammatical parallel structure far beyond the intellectual grasp of the toddler to vehemently debunk the falsehood in zulaykha’s claim. he said: inkāna qamīṣuhu qudda min qubulin faṣaddaqat wahuwa mina’l-kādhibīn wain kāna qamīṣuhu qudda min duburin fakadhabat wahuwa mina ṣ-ṣādiqīn β α α (21) if his shirt is rent from the front, then she speaks the truth, and he is one of the liars. β α α and if his shirt is rent from behind, then she tells a lie, and he is one of the truthful. a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān 14 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the parallel construction is balanced in terms of syntactic arrangement: each is a compound-complex sentence, containing a subordinate clause and two main clauses that complete the ideas in the subordinate clauses. but the antithetical parallel structure contains some key lexical items through which the toddler foregrounds the veracity of the scenario. for example, he contrasts the adjuncts 'from the front’ and ‘from behind’; the predicator and complement elements ‘speaks the truth’ and ‘tells a lie’, and another complements ‘one of the liars’ and ‘one of the truthful’ to establish the authenticity of the whole sex scandal. here, the parallel example, given its forceful rhetorical appeal, crushes zulaykha’s tissues of lies and reveals the true account of the framed and malicious scandal, a scandal that would have consumed prophet yūsuf, punctured his claim to prophethood and thwarted his missionary activities. thus, the parallel construction is employed to liberate the truth (prophet yūsuf) from the shackles of falsehood. discussion the foregoing has been an analysis of the use of parallelism in the qur’ān. twenty-one samples have been analysed, using spca syntactic pattern. samples 3, 5, 6, 11, 12 and 20 are complex clauses (sentences) which are yoked together to produce parallelisms. all other parallel structures in the samples studied are two main clauses (compound sentences) combined to create parallelisms. these syntactic structures are knitted in parallel structures to express diverse topics and themes. for example, the present study is in tandem with dror’s (2017) finding that parallelism in the qu’rān expresses allāh’s might and control, belief versus disbelief, uprightness versus evil, monotheism versus polytheism, god versus devil, etc. other themes or topics that are derived from the analysis of the parallel structures include reward versus punishment (samples 14 and 15), complex scientific knowledge or facts that express universal truth (samples 7 and 8), attributes, qualities and descriptions of allāh (sample 9 and 10), legislative components of islam (samples 17 18 and 20) and other sundry issues (sample 21). the finding revealed that these parallel structures that express scientific facts, universal truth and legislative components are cast in the simple present tense that conveys unrestricted time, an unbroken and timeless phenomenon. in addition, samples 11, 12 and 13 corroborated ojaide's (1996) and alharbi’s (2021) submission that parallel structures relate ideas together through the choice of the appropriate words to create textual cohesion. cohesion enhances and elaborates ideas and propositions. furthermore, concerning philips's (2005) categorization of key linguistic concepts, analysis of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān shows that the legislative components analysed in samples 17 and 20 are regarded as specific rulings (khāss) meant for a particular situation or circumstance, while samples 18 and 19 are viewed as general rulings (āmm) that apply to all believers in all situations and circumstances. a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān 15 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 conclusion parallelism dominates one of the discourse strategies of the qu’rān. all the types of parallelism identify in our literature review are present in the qur’ān and antithetical parallelism constitutes one of the dominant types. complete antithetical grammatical parallelism is one of the foregrounded style markers in the qur’ān. thus, parallelism is a foregrounded linguistic expression through which allah communicates to humanity in general and to sincerely and devoted believers in particular. parallelism, when employed, produces a connection of similarity and contrast. it is the contrast, however, that establishes the intended meaning/message of the speaker/writer; 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https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/55021166/grammatical_parallelism-libre.pdf?1510818359=&response-content-disposition=inline%3b+filename%3dgrammatical_parallelism_in_the_qur_an.pdf&expires=1677598646&signature=lqfioypalryhkalysvyzsvo3fikoe732mrg8j8v3e3we1fjbn1fdurjz66zk5csxrqrlvid7b~fv3oqmqrxf8vl8ctimxisdmgayovwtbo16qiy7garyenwu4ro1s~h42n~isq5paswlssnoe5nhidinmqu87tqu7t7snsazvbdtzreks76jov8t4s8js1mxdk2r5a~7qungzssx0rs4xhrk-wylzyvxxr7emxq2~pqdzcnwqgvkfryrvikc148glfdoncgvb3repa8jfxwghddeypepdhtpfruzui7kts1~p852b9n-wi1~tzb9unrac4fxkubwb9nizk5b86nr~a__&key-pair-id=apkajlohf5ggslrbv4za a stylistic study of antithetical parallelism in the qur’ān 17 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 el-awa, s. m. s. 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(2 edn). london: pearson education. @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.iasj.net/iasj/article/156933 https://www.ijhumas.com/ojs/index.php/kiuhums/article/view/659/608 https://www.sejongjul.org/archive/view_article?pid=jul-23-1-77 http://www.savap.org.pk/journals/arint./vol.2(2)/2012(2.2-78).pdf quest for female identity: a feminist study of shashi deshpande’s selected novels 442 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 quest for female identity: a feminist study of shashi deshpande’s selected novels muhammad afzal 1 professor dr. najia asrar zaidi 2 1research scholar university of balochistan, quetta pakistan 2department of english university of balochistan, quetta pakistan abstract shashi deshpande’s novels deal with traditional and patriarchal indian set up as well as the difficulties faced by women handling multiple roles in indian society. deshpande’s protagonists belong to typical middle-class family and are caught in the web of traditional patriarchy, set by ideology in one hand and with the desire of independent identity on the other way. all the women characters of deshpande's fiction try to assert themselves both within and without the familiar zones by overcoming the challenges and hindrances and have proved their individuality and unique identity as human beings by taking decisions on their own through suffering and enlightenment. moreover, the present research is qualitative in its approach that is conducted under the feminist theoretical perspectives. keywords: deshpande’s protagonists, indian society, independent female identity, patriarchal society introduction undertaken research aims to locate female identity in indian society in the selected works of indian writer shashi deshpande. undertaken research includes novels that long silence (1988), roots and shadows (1983), the dark holds no terror (1980) and a matter of time (2000). this research refutes the socially acceptable claim that within the family the man is the master and the woman is the inferior and the subordinate partner. deshpande’s work has a status with critical attention of her minute, thoughtful and life like portrayals of urban middle class woman caught in the web of patriarchy on one hand and the urge to make themselves socio-economically independent on the other. her novels wonderfully delineate the inner conflict and anguish, disappointment and dilemma in a woman’s mind, both in the external and internal spheres of life. deshpande’s writings explore the numerous experiences of indian women in domestic and social zones, experiences that are ingrained in “the presumption that (a woman) is an inferior being, of carrying the burden of being an unwanted female child, of having to battle an ingrained, deeply entrenched patriarchal system all of which give rise to problems specific to their sex” (sarkar, 2022, p. 10). to combat such discriminating tendency of our typical patriarchal social structure what is essentially needed is the establishment of an identity, an identity that is specific and unique to an individual, an identity that gives a woman her reason of existence, the motivation to survive strongly without being dependent on anybody. sarkar (2022) observes about shashi deshpande that she has, “the urge to find oneself, to create space to grow on one’s own that seems to be deshpande’s major occupation. personally i think that’s every woman’s problem as well. that’s where deshpande has touched a chord” (sarkar, 2022, p.16). research questions 1. how are the female protagonists of shashi deshpande’s selected works exploited by patriarchal indian society? 2. how do female protagonists of shashi deshpande struggle in indian society to locate their identity? methodology undertaken research is qualitative in its nature where descriptive analysis of the text reflects the issue of identity. the textual analysis of the novel reveals how deshpande considers indian patriarchal society with special reference to the feminist perspective. in the light of feminist approach the selected texts have been analyzed with the help of close reading technique. theoretical framework undertaken research is in the light of feminism theory that focuses on equality of women on socio economic and political fields of life. the theory claims that women are not mere the commodities rather they are beings, and they should be treated as such. it focuses on equality of sexes and often taken against the patriarchal mindset where the breadwinner men are thought to be the center of attention in society and women as well as their part in society is often ignored. in political, philosophical, and fictional discourse feminism has its unique importance as it deals with the marginalized strata of society. theory aims to understand the nature of gender inequality being practiced in society. in the light of this theory the roles of men and women are defined, and every individual is supposed to play his or her role without considering one inferior or superior. the men on patriarchal societies take the women as stereotype. all these things are being conducted with special reference to the indian society. literature review identity plays a vital role to shape a person’s life in society, in recognizing a person’s power and position too. identity enables a human being to have a strong hold on himself/herself without being a dependent crippled creature, often considered as a burden to others. not only this, a person’s identity is the key to his/her survival as an independent entity. without a specific identity a person cannot earn self-respect and cannot even hold the courage to express opinions as an individual. having a definite identity bolster one with a positive aura, selfesteem, clarity of thought, resolute approach, and a determined frame of mind. jll vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 444 giri (2018) asserts that in the traditional patriarchal indian society women consistently play the triple roles of an obedient daughter, a dutiful wife, and a doting self-sacrificing mother. the identity of a woman is entangled in these socially defined roles. scarcely have they found time to think of themselves as an individual human being with a freedom of their own and very often they are brought up in a way to be dependent on men. but with the changing scenario women realized the necessity to create a space of one’s own, an identity of one’s own, independent of the socially ordained roles of a mother, daughter, or wife. shashi deshpande's fiction explores in a magnificent manner a woman’s quest for identity to establish herself, to fulfil her dreams as a human being, to survive as a self-esteemed individual, not as a victim or subordinate one. giri (2018) further argues that in deshpande’s novels there is always a quest for identity. there is always a female narrator in her novels who strive for the identity. they want to assert themselves. almost all the female characters of the deshpande are in quest of their self-identity. virginia woolf (1953), asserts that a woman needs to be liberated, emancipated, to have a space of own to think only about herself as an individual. in fact, woolf vehemently proposes the idea of cultivating one’s mind through writing to make women at par with men in terms of intellectual capability. literary writing by women, woolf observes, cannot only give them financial independence but also to boost up their moral strength and establish their entity as individual human being. as carter (1998) illustrates his views about the female identity in indian society. he argues that freedom in this society is hard to achieve. with special respect to shashi deshpande, he argues that her female characters are in their quest for identity. there is always a passivity in their character to accept socially ordained roles. moreover, it is reflected in her writings a voice of assertion. deshpande reflects an idea that women should be true to themselves. there is nobility in their being that should be declared through their beings in the patriarchal indian society. on the other hand, the women should take their arms against their negation and suppression in society. women should discover themselves and their potentials before it is too late. there is always an inner space that should be expressed through thesir existence. rightly does o. p. bhatnagar (2007) comments that their feminism is actually a realization of women’s own identity and being. it is, moreover, a realization of courage and identity and being true to oneself. the women should do whatever they think better for themselves. women feel that they are suppressed and oppressed as well as tormented in patriarchal society and they do not have control over their own lives that should be given to them. with reference to the undertaken study, it is reflected that how the women are exploited and manipulated in indian society and how do they fall a victim to their psychotic diseases due to the patriarchal control. they are merely used as tools of enjoyment and do not enjoy their freedom of choice. commenting of the character of jaya in that long silence, santwana halder (2005) argues that the novel has a feminist tone in it and protagonist of the novel is feminist in her approach. she devotes herself in quest of her identity and in the end she becomes victorious. she realizes her self-identity and undergoes herself through the process of self-realization. she justifies her stance before her husband who does not acknowledge her. it is revealed to her that actual happiness lies in living life on her own terms and principals rather than to live on the conditions imposed by others. discussion and analysis quest for female identity in that long silence in deshpande’s award-winning novel that long silence (1988) the protagonist jaya embarks on a journey in her quest for an authentic identity as a woman, specifically as a writer on serious social issues regarding women. she feels extremely claustrophobic to portray the character of an ideal wife and a perfect mother so far in her married life. the way she describes her apparently successful marital life with mohan clearly pinpoints her apathy and repugnance towards life. the text illustrates this fact as, “two bullocks yoked together it is more comfortable for them to move in the same direction. to go in different directions would be painful; and what animal would voluntarily choose pain?” (deshpande, 1988, p.8) in the text of the novel the women identity has been represented as a victim of patriarchal mindset. this fact is reflected in the quest of jaya who is never satisfied merely with the identity of being wife of mohan. her identity as a wife of mohan or the mother of rati and rahul does not suit her rather, she wants more as a female. since mohan is mouthpiece of patriarchal set up of indian society so he objects on every action of jaya. he even objects and criticizes the creative bent of mind of his wife. but jaya as a female thinks that it is the suitable time to assert her identity and prefers not to live merely as a typical wife at mohan’s home for the rest of her life. she remains in quest of her identity and is eager to establish it. she observes, “to achieve anything, to become anything, you have got to be hard and ruthless. yes, even if you want to be a saint to love the whole world, you’ve got to stop loving individual human beings first” (deshpande, 1988, p. 78). so far as the identity of a female is represented in the novels of shashi deshpande is concerned, she represents those women have nothing to say in society and it is better for them to stay silent. the women have not been possessed with a tongue. psychologically, the women jll vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 446 are supposed to be silent, hysterical, and neurotic in their nature. the indian patriarchal set up lemmatizes the women merely to the level of pigmy. they are nothing but a sex tool in society. when they are used as a social commodity, they must be a victim of neurosis. they become frustrated and this is what represented in the novels of shashi deshpande. in that long silence this factor has been represented in the following words. this is the factor that is illustrated in the text of the novel as follows, “a woman can never be angry; she can only be neurotic, hysterical, frustrated” (deshpande, 1988, p. 147). the female characters of shashi deshpande revolt against the normal patriarchal set up of indian society. the women are eager to have change in social set up and to undermine the patriarchal mindset. they want equality on human grounds and raise their voice against the cruelty that is put on them by men. the view of female characters of deshpande is that life is itself very easy, but it is made oppressive by social set up of society. from the birth of females, they are made to realize that they are meant to serve and submit that enhances the cruelty of males towards females. in the text of the novel this assumption has been presented in the following way, “it's not just that life is cruel, but that in the very process of our birth we submit to life's cruelty” (deshpande, 1988, p. 102). quest for female identity in roots and shadows deshpande’s another novel roots and shadows (1983) is all about a woman’s effort to proclaim her individuality, to materialize her dreams and how her attempts make her confront with her family and society at large. a modern educated indian woman indu is a journalist, financially self-determining, married with a person of her choice. but she undergoes a huge crisis both in personal and professional lives as she lacks the spirit to assert her feelings emphatically. economic independence does not provide her the power to live life the way she wants because she is dominated at every step by jayant, her husband. to overcome the stifling and strict ambience of her marital life she leaves home to go back to her roots, i.e. her parental home. she once breaks the chains of tradition bound life in search of an autonomous independent life with jayant but in vain. to her utter dismay she now finds that she has lost the capability to live alone. marrying jayant does not give her access to an independent life; rather she loses her individuality in jayant completely, as she pathetically ponders: now i dress the way i want. as i please. as i please? no, that’s not true. when i look in the mirror, i think of jayant. when i dress, i think of jayant. when i undress, i think of him. always what he wants. what he would like. what would please him? and i can’t blame him … it’s the way i want it to be. (deshpande, 1983, p. 49) the realization that she has become ‘fluid with no shape, no form of my own’ once again arouses the latent rebellious attitude in her. she denies surrendering her independence to jayant’s dominating personality. indu’s homecoming after a long break serves as a remedy to her problems, from which she is deliberately escaping. she realizes that she should listen to her conscience, do what she thinks morally right and never compromise with her individuality. indu is a middle-class young girl who belongs to brahman family headed by akka. she becomes aware later in her life that what her roots are and as a writer she observes herself what her shadows are whether she is better as a commercial writer, mother, or a daughter. she rebels against akka and marries jayant against the rigid rules and values. the action of her marriage is to achieve freedom from traditional patriarchal norms and to assert her feminist mentality. in the form of achieving her role as an independent wife she defines herself as a fitting woman. her expression of being a female is expressed in the following lines, “this is my real sorrow that i can never be complete in myself. until i had met jayant, i had not known it i met jayant and lost the ability to be alone” (deshpande, 1983, p. 34). quest for female identity in the dark holds no terror in this novel sarita is the protagonist who presents the female struggle to achieve identity. sarita’s life in deshpande’s fiction the dark holds no terrors. despite achieving professional success as doctor, sarita’s disintegrated life at home, marital discord with manohar and embittered relationship with her parents compel her to review her identity as an individual. in her childhood sarita has been a victim of gender discrimination and she gradually started hating herself for being a girl, as she blurts out in anger: “if you’re a woman, i don’t want to be one” (deshpande, 1980, p. 63). she has faced how her own mother wanted to seal her destiny by marrying off instead of supporting her desire to pursue higher studies in medicine. the astounding words, uttered in utmost disappointment “is that all i am, a responsibility” (deshpande, 1980, p. 144). clearly echo the grim picture of society whereby women are denied access in decision making process of their own lives. in order to prove herself a strong determined woman sarita successfully makes a career in medicine but her disastrous marriage with manohar once again thwarts her personality, crumbles her spirit and she is left with a traumatized mind. the brutal way with which manohar assaults sarita every night totally devastates her, and she feels like a trapped animal with nowhere to escape: “i was pinioned to a position of an abject surrender of myself” (deshpande, 1980, p. 10). her identity as a doctor seems to have failed in boosting up her crushed spirit. but the moment she revisits her parental home to revive her lost relationship, she feels rejuvenated and with her father’s assurance she decides to confront her problems to regain her identity. so far as female identity jll vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 448 is concerned it is more vividly represented in the following lines of novel, “my life is my own somehow, if i have been puppet, it is because i made myself one. i have been clinging unto the tenuous shadow of a marriage whose substance has long since disintegrated because i have been afraid of providing my mother right” (deshpande, 1980, p.220). it is represented in the novel that women are taken as responsibility. the women are thought to be wives and their role is limited to this identity. even in the parental homes they are taken as other’s property and most often there is no proper attention paid to them as compared to male children. deshpande attracts the attention of reader towards a social taboo that if a female refuses to marry she is threatened and questioned. she is made to realize that she is not meant for parental home rather she is meant to be married. since the males are different from females so they are justified if they marry or take time to marry. this is what the text of dark holds no terror represents where saru refuses to marry and her mother threatens her by saying, “will you live with us all your life? why not? you can’t. and dhruva? he’s different. he’s a boy hundred and ninety-nine rupees. that’s the only rule to follow if you want a happy marriage” (deshpande, 1980, p137). quest for female identity in a matter of time what deshpande desires to convey through the character portrayal of sumi is that women must curve their own identity to assert their individuality in lieu of accepting the submissive role of a suffering wife or a self-sacrificing mother. like deshpande’s other protagonists sumi is “a new woman, both enduring and assertive, seeking liberation through education and struggle” (singh, 2013, p. 221). sumi’s individuality and sense of self-esteem make her strong enough to accept with dignity gopal’s sudden withdrawal from the role of a family man. neither sumi crawls before gopal for financial help nor does she expect a forceful patch up: we can never be together again. all these days i have been thinking of him as if he has been suspended in space, in nothingness, since he left us. but he has gone on living, his life has moved on, it will go on without me. so has mine. our lives have diverged, they now move separately, two different streams (deshpande, 2000, p.85). sumi’s earnest search for a job and a house of her own gives her a sense of liberation and pride for herself. she has moved on from the stereotyped role of a docile wife. instead of wailing over her status of a deserted wife and disregarding society’s frowning over her estranged condition, she calmly accepts, “it takes time to get used to sharing your life with another person, now i have got used to being alone” (deshpande, 2000, p.23). sumi’s confidence in starting a new phase of life reflects her sense of freedom as an individual as well as her faith in her potential. conclusion deshpande’s protagonists jaya, indu, sarita and sumi are undoubtedly authentic portrayals with individual characteristics, problems and plights, failures and disappointments of their own. but there is a common thread that binds all, the factor being their quest for identity, yearning for liberty, aspiration for individuality as human being. through her portrayals of such strong women characters deshpande desires to express how women desperately try to assert their individual entity as human being amidst predominant patriarchal social order. the desire to overcome the problems of life springs from resoluteness and unfailing bent of mind that characterize most of deshpande’s heroines. despite various hindrances and pressures from all corners, the protagonists never give up and emerge victorious in their journey from a dependent and subordinated creature to a self-dependent, confident, and motivated human being with an individuality of one’s own. hence it is essential for a woman to curve an identity of her own, to develop her qualities, to hone her potentials, to take her decisions and foremost to live her life on her own terms. jll vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 450 references bhatnagar, o. p. 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(1953). a writer's diary, ed. leonard woolf. new york: new american library. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). shelley: a marxist before karl marx 411 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii.395 shelley: a marxist before karl marx nasir iqbal associate professor department of english, edwardes college, peshawar dr. abdul hamid khan asst professor & head, department of english, qurtuba university, pak abstract this paper attempts to explore shelley’s poetry as a reflection of marxist notion of resistance, highlighting how his poetry replicates the concerns of the oppressed and the disquiets of the working class. repositioning shelley’s works considering marxist poetics, the paper argues that both shelley and marx bring to the fore anxieties and sufferings of the marginalized common folks, presenting both familiar and diverse patterns of resistance against the hegemonies of their own times. focusing on the shelley’s select poetry, the paper posits marxist perspective of struggle for the rights of the deprived working class. keywords: marxist poetics, resistance, working class, shelley’s poetry introduction through-out the ninenteenth century, economic deprivation was one of the major challenges faced by the working class in the otherwise thriving era of industrialization which was the central pre-occupation of the age. the groundbreaking inventions radically transformed lives of people; however, deplorable working conditions in factories and workplaces escalated the miseries of the working class, resulting in numerous up-risings in various parts of europe. among the thinkers and reformers who became the expounders of these exploited people are shelley and marx more prominent, who in their respective ages became the voices of these suppressed classes. although shelley lived earlier than marx, they conform when it comes to pleading the cause of working class. in the 1840s, engels noticed, “shelley had been almost exclusively the property of the working class. the chartists had read him for what he was a tough agitator and revolutionary” (qtd in foot 210). shelley voiced his feelings through poetry while marx materialized his ideas into an organized philosophy. the scientifically explained economic ideas of marx, a child of enlightenment, illustrate a direction to the working class to fight against the exigencies; more importantly, these ideas turned out to be precepts for the society in general. shelley might not have been familiar with terms like bourgeoisies, proletariat, or alienation, coined later by marx and who gave scientific and organized shape to these terms; however, he shelley: a marxist before karl marx 412 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii.395 took upon himself the responsibility of political and economic uplift of the deprived class. shelley knew that the “oppressors would feel their impotence and reluctantly and imperfectly concede some limited portions of the rights of people” (632), however, if this does not happen then, “the last resort of resistance is undoubtedly insurrection” (shelley 633). like shelley, marx believes that revolution is an appropriate answer to the miseries of the working class; considering “overthrow of all existing human condition” (58) is the inevitable phenomenon for human progression. along with being the supporter of revolution, marx conceives an economic system which gets implemented in societies that intend to redress the working condition and life of the working class. moreover, both shelley and marx attack tyranny and stand against the oppressors in the front. if on the one hand, shelley sings of liberty; on the other hand, marx demonstrates to the world how to get rid of the shackles of slavery, monarchy, and capitalism. literature review karl marx’s daughter eleanor marx and his son in law edward claimed in a seminar that marx was a great admirer of shelley and loved reading the poetry of shelley. they remarked further that if shelley had lived later than marx, he would have been a true follower of marx. edward and eleonor sum up there claim of shelley as a socialist in their words, “the possessor can and does dictate terms to the person of that non-possessing class. this was the teaching of shelley. this is the teaching of socialism, and therefore the teaching of socialism, whether it is right or wrong, is also that of shelley. we claim him as a socialist” ( shelley and socialism). marx believed shelley to be a revolutionary and would always been a true guard of socialism. edward and eleonor believe that “the mask of anarchy,” shelley’s famous politically driven poem, mentioned several political figures which was not merely an attack on personalities, a revolutionary act in itself; therefore, it was shelley’s dislike for the monarchy that made him hate prince rageant who embodied princeship and lord castlereagh who represented power and authority (shelley and socialism). bruce woodcock claims that shelley criticizes the modern man’s greed for accumulating wealth at the cost of exploitation of the poor. he knows that working class is the real contributors of social economy. in his poem “queen mab” (1812), he “attacked commerce, capitalism, and money backed up by an extraordinary note identifying human labour as the source of all wealth” shelley: a marxist before karl marx 413 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii.395 (woodcock x111). according to him, shelley advocates a revolution against the exploitation of labors. however, shelley suggests that there is a need for an inner as well as an outer revolution and that revolution as a process should embody its own ideals through the way it enacts itself, a theme which recalls the idealistic selfishness and compassion as advocated in laon and cynthia. (woodcock xvii). moreover, shelley believes that “revolution must be enacted in accordance with the social vision that the revolutionary aspires to, if they are to avoid the bloody excesses which destroyed the french revolution and at the same time, shelley interrogates the limits of such idealism” (woodcock xx). a famous marxist critic, paul foot contends that for shelley, nationalism and jingoism are like abomination; therefore, he is against colonial conquest of england, especially in ireland. hence it is evident that throughout his life he was a republican and anti-militarist. another commonality, according to foot, we could find in shelley and marx is their approach towards religion. shelley was against christianity from the beginning as he considers religion, ‘the halter of superstition’ (56), which make it the most horrible crime of established religion. similarly, karl marx also believes that religion is like opium which serves as a prop for tyranny. foot argues that shelley hates poverty more than anything else, portraying a gory image of poverty in his poem, ‘rosalind and helen’ (1817). that is why shelley proclaims vociferously in an early poem that he is the “friend of the unfriended poor” (67). he is caught up in the angry tirade or idealistic vision. interestingly, foot reaches to the conclusion that shelley is not a socialist in the broader sense of the term; he calls shelley a, leveler. kenneth neill cameron claims that marx believed shelley to be a revolutionary and a socialist for his “sense of identification with the working people of town and country and not just with bourgeois antifeudal sentiments” which clearly manifests his “understanding of the exploitation of labor” (cameron 234). shelley, then, “anticipated the outlook of marx and engels in several ways. he perceived the existence of classes and the class struggle, the value-producing role of labor and its exploitation, the special oppression of women, the repressive function of the state, and the evolution of the world into a classless society” (cameron 236). main argument shelley: a marxist before karl marx 414 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii.395 the argument then gets a validation in the fact that shelley just like marx is widely known as die hard social activist and radical agitator in his youth; both are uneasy souls opposing the established institutions: religious, political, and social. they also possess a knack for sloganeering. it may not be exaggeration to argue that shelley, in his poetry contends the socio-political and revolutionary ideas which later became the main subject of karl marx philosophy. (cameron 236). moreover, there is much in common between the two writers with respect to themes that discuss class exploitation, miseries of industrial workers, socialist point of view and the opposition to aristocratic and the ruling class. for example, in his poem, ‘song to the men of england,’ (1819), shelley shows his disdain against the exploitation of labour and expropriation of the fruits of labour: men of england, wherefore plough for the lords who lay ye low? wherefore weave with toil and care the rich robes your tyrants wear? (405) the poem "song to the men of england" is designed to appeal the less educated section of english society: the workers and the people who fed the wealth of the tyrant. likewise, shelley’s sense of social justice is impersonated through the men of england by which he means the working class in the factories and the peasants working in the fields. he compares the owners of factories to drones which make no efforts and are dependent on others: wherefore feed, clothe, and save from the cradle to the grave those ungrateful drones who would drain your sweat—nay, drink your blood? (405) similarly in another poem “queen mab” shelley has used the same symbol of ‘drones’ which live the lives of parasites. he addresses them: whence thinkest thou, kings and parasites arose? whence that unnatural line of drones, who heap toil and unvanquishable penury on those who build their palaces, and bring https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52304/a-song-men-of-england shelley: a marxist before karl marx 415 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii.395 their daily bread? from vice, black and loathsome vice (21) shelley believed that it was due to these blood-suckers that the working condition in england was deplorable even when it became the industrial power-house of europe. that the, “majority [of] the people of england are destitute and miserable, ill-clothed, ill-fed, ill-educated”. (shelley 615). it was anticipated that the common briton would get benefit of the economic growth; however, the reality was different. the industrial labour was not receiving benefit of this economic activity as a result the labour was getting estranged from the products they produced. consequently, the farmers who left their villages to work in the cities were disappointed. this deprivation and distancing of the labour from their product give birth to uncertainty and sense of insecurity to the working class. shelley lamented that the labors do not get the reward of their challenging work and are kept at bay from their achievements. later marx coins the term ‘alienation’ for such a phenomenon, expostulating four types of alienation. karl marx identified four types of alienation. 1. from products of own labor, 2. from the process of production 3. from species-being 4. from another person (shah 49) in the light of this concept of alienation, shelley believes that the poor workers who produce the product are kept alienated from, thus, having no control over their production. these workers are subsidiaries for the accumulation of wealth of the rich. unfortunately, the workers pay a high price for living such a miserable life; a life of constant pain and suffering. these workers are not able to fulfill their physical and material needs. a precursor of marx, shelley questions the logic of working from morning till late if their labour is futile. he says, there is no real wealth but the labour of man.... to make a manufacturer [worker] work 16 hours where he only worked 8; to turn children into lifeless and bloodless machines at an age when otherwise they would be at play before the cottage doors of their parents. for fourteen hours' labor which they do perform, they receive—no matter in what nominal amount--the price of seven. (shelley and socialism) shelley: a marxist before karl marx 416 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii.395 shelley not only employs his pen to speak specifically to the workers of england; he also practically participated in protests against the harsh industrial laws of his age. even in his early years he had participated in the irish emancipation campaign, distributing pamphlets and motivating the irishmen. shelley continued with this activism and lamented the passivism of effected workers; even furious at the factory workers and condemns them strongly by not revolting. otherwise, shelley believes, with their inaction they will trace their grave and intimate them that, “england be your sepulcher.”(shelley 406). shelley proposes the same says in “fragment; to the people of england”: “people of england, ye who toil and groan/ who reap the harvests which are not your own/ who weave the clothes which your oppressors wear?” . shelley believes that these exploited workers have, then, every right to rebel. before marx, shelley was the one who stood for collective resistance by motivating the masses to “arise, arise, arise! / there is blood on the earth that denies ye bread” (130) to achieve freedom and vouched for “people taking action for themselves through collective resistance” ( mulhallen 170). various revolutionary and freedom movements in europe always inspired shelley as he was expecting a similar uprising in england. there was early trade –union movements and demonstrations for democracy, however, he was among the the earlier poets of the rising industrial age to show the awakening of class consciousness of the workers. his poem, ‘laon and cynthia’ also known as ‘the revolt of islam’ inspired from the french revolution argues that the, “revolutions must be enacted in accordance with the social vision that the revolutionaries aspire to”. (woodcock xx). mulhallen argues that shelley’s thoughts were for reformations, but he believed “a small amount of revolutionary force could be justified in opposition to the large-scale, systematic violence of an exploitative class society” (170). the revolutionary poem “hellas” (1821), inspired from the events in greece where the people had rebelled against the turks, in spirit anticipated the communist manifesto (1848). in the preface of the poem, shelley writes: this is the age of the war of the oppressed against the oppressors, and every one of those ringleaders of the privileged gangs of murderers and swindlers, called sovereigns, look to each other for aid against the common enemy, and suspend their mutual jealousies in the presence of a mightier fear. of this holy alliance all the despots of the earth are virtual shelley: a marxist before karl marx 417 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii.395 members. but a new race has arisen throughout europe, nursed in the abhorrence of the opinions which are its chains, and she will continue to produce fresh generations to accomplish that destiny which tyrants foresee and dread (qtd in cameron 234) due to his defiant stance and rebellious nature, shelley faced strong criticism from the society in general and his family in particular. however, shelley is never deterred by the circumstances and has courageously propagated the cause of the wretched ones. in a pamphlet “an address to the people on the death of prince charlotte” (1822), shelley mourns the execution of bandreth, ludlam and turner. these young men were charged with high treason and were among the first victims of the hazards of industrial revolution. in this pamphlet he reiterates that no doubt the loss of princes charlotte during childbirth is sad, but many women die in england during childbirth. the execution of the three men and the death of princes happened at the same time. he asks the question, ‘do not their hearts beat in their bosoms, and the tears gush from their eyes? (shelley 585). in the address, shelley criticizes the system through which prevailed discontent and disaffection. shelley is the voice of the poor who understands their ills. in ‘rosalind and helen’ (1817), he describes poverty in cold and clear: thou knowest what a thing is poverty among the fallen on evil days ‘tis crime, and fear, and infamy and houseless want in frozen ways wandering ungarmented, and pain and, worse than all, that inward stain foul self contempt, which drown in sneers youth’s starlight smile (qtd in foot 67) shelley hates poverty and believes that poverty is the cause of ills and evils in society. he could not believe that the poor is born poor; it is not a divine law. shelley disagreed with malthus who believed that “certain fallacies exist in human society that usually leads to perennial problem, for example, it is commonly believed that the poor are needed for the society (foot 70). shelley believes this to be propaganda on part of the rich to pacify the poor. he also rejects the hypothesis of malthus that poverty is natural and a divine law (shelley 616). . in response to this, shelley shelley: a marxist before karl marx 418 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii.395 raises his voice vociferously for the downtrodden segments of society by announcing, “i am the friend of the unfriended poor” (qtd in foot 67). this slogan reflects shelley’s sensitive soul, although born in an aristocratic family, raised his voice for the downtrodden. like a true reformer, shelley observes the british society to be in poor condition which is needed to be changed. according to him reformation is needed in various institutions, especially the working condition in factories needed to be improved. bakthawar puri in her work, "a marxist approach in reading percy bysshe shelley’s ‘song to the man of england” argues that this “working class is like bees which are busy working hard in communities to produce for the drones. it illustrates the condition in society, which is, there are a lot of people with the role as working class who serve the daily need of dominating people such as proprietor group” (86). shelley feels pity for the working class whose life, he believes, is without, “leisure, comfort, calm, shelter, food, love’s gentle balm” ( qtd in puri 86). shelley was in favour of an organised movement as he devised in his prose work, a philosophical views of reforms (1822), to fight against oppression and injustice. as his teaching is in harmony with the socialist thought, shelley believes that the tyranny of possessing class is responsible for all evil and misery. it is the ruling class and the state that commits exploitation and oppression. therefore, he argues that “[t]he constituted authorities of the nation, they who possess whether with or without its consent the command of a standing army and of a legion of spies and police officers and hold all the strings of that complicated mechanism with which the hopes and fears of men are moved like puppets?" (shelley 628). like other romantic poets, shelley considered revolution as a solution for woes and deprivation of society calling for an insurgency in many of his poems. however, shelley suggests that there is a need for an inner as well as an outer revolution, that “revolution as a process should embody its own ideals through the manner in which it enacts itself, a theme which recalls the idealistic selfishness and compassion advocated in laon and cynthia” (woodcock xvii). but a time came when he calls for a violent change. shelley calls for the up rise and a change like that was brought by the french revolution a few decades prior: sow seed—but let no tyrant reap: find wealth—let no imposter heap: shelley: a marxist before karl marx 419 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii.395 weave robes—let not the idle wear: forge arms—in your defiance to bear. (405) he encourages farmers to sow the seed, but warns them too that the harvest should not be reaped by the usurpers. dr ashish gupta and riaz ahmad pir argue that the poetry of shelley presents two distinct moods of change. the one mood we see shelley as a violent reformer who want to overthrow all the established institutions. from this mood come poems like, “the revolt of islam,” “queen mab,” “the mask of anarchy” and “prometheus unbound”. however, in his later works we find a different shelley, where “shelley is forever searching, following a vague, beautiful vision, forever sad and forever unsatisfied, always pursuing an ideal, hoping for something better that is to come” (2692). the latter category includes poems such as “ode to the west wind” and “to a skylark” shelley anticipated the outlook of marx and engels in numerous ways. cameron argues that, “he perceived the existence of classes and the class struggle, the value-producing role of labor and its exploitation, the special oppression of women, the repressive function of the state, and the evolution of the world into a classless society” (36). shelley repudiates state institution like monarchy and religion as he believes they are hurdle in the development of man; for him individual is more important. that is why in his narrative poetry we find kings or rulers as anti-heroes or usurpers. in a poem written by the pen name of a suspected person who attempted to murder king george iii in 1786, shelley accuses the rulers: yes! smooth faced tyrants chartered by a power called king, who in the castellated keep of miserable dotage, pace the quay and by the magic of a dreadful word, hated though dreadful, shield their impotence (255-256) the governments were continuously opposing reforms not realizing that the working class in the factories and mills lived a miserable life as they were paid less. when the peterloo massacre occurred in manchester in which the workers protested rising unemployment and poor condition of life, shelley authored his famous poem, “the mask of anarchy” (1819). using a powerful metaphor, shelley intends to unmask the people who are creating anarchy in england and have shelley: a marxist before karl marx 420 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii.395 hidden themselves in the cloak of social order, legitimacy, and morality. these people believe they are creating order while the poet believes it is disorder. shelley encourages the worker to, “stand ye calm and resolute/ like a forest close and mute and to challenge ‘the old laws of england” (399). marie guerti considers that the poem, “serves two purposes: the one immediate, a denunciation of the peterloo massacre, the other more remote, a condemnation of government and ruling class' injustices of the sort which cause the miseries and servitudes of the people” (75). in the poem, shelley has personified murder, fraud, hypocrisy, various destructions, and anarchy. shelley has been critical and satiric at the people in power but he also understands that true freedom can only be achieved through reasoning, with the use of science and intellect as he contends in these lines, “science, poetry, and thought/are thy lamps.” (shelley 396). the poem reveals shelley’s sincere intentions of reforming the british society and to make the working class realise the worth of their hard work. like marx, similarly shelley considers religious institutions as a hurdle in the progress of society calling religion as the ‘halter of superstition.’ (qtd in foot 56). while shelley claims religion as the prop for tyranny while for marx religion is like opium: and many more destructions played in this ghastly masquerade, all disguised, even to the eyes, like bishops, lawyers, peers, or spies. (388). shelley’s disapproval of religious thoughts was rooted since his early life resulting in his expulsion from oxford university after writing the pamphlet, the necessity of atheism. he refused to listen to his father who asked him to recant; his reply was “why should i believe this?” (qtd in foot 51). he believed that religion was based on miracles, prophesies, and martyrdom. shelley’s spiritual belief was influenced by platonism and believed that religion is the perception of the relation in which we stand to the principle of the universe. moreover, christianity, like all other religions, rests upon miracles, prophecies, and martyrdoms (foot 52). furthermore, shelley’s argument for opposing religion is based on the perception that religion support ‘tyranny” as he wrote in “the revolt of islam”: “the will of strength is right—this human state/tyrants, that they may rule, with lies thus desolate” (180). shelley believes in virtue, but his concept of virtue is shelley: a marxist before karl marx 421 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii.395 exempted from the christian concept of reward or punishment believing in the general help for humanity. what can be deduced from his poetry is the fact that shelley has shown keen interest in bringing about a social revolution in england. his understanding of surplus labour ‘exploitation’ and class struggle identify him as a socialist of the modern times. mulhallen points out that, “shelley’s most politically engaged writings expressed great social themes and a yearning for a better world, characterized by economic, social and sexual equality, with emotional force as well as political clarity”. shelley’s life, writing and politics are all closely knitted; they all represent a radical, anti-capitalist tradition of mobilizing the lower class to change the society. frederick engels said that he had learned the poems of shelley by heart. at that time ‘queen mab,’ one of shelley’s major poems, was sometimes called ‘the chartists’ bible.’ woodcock also remarks that in ‘queen mab’, “shelley launches an attack on ,’commerce’, capitalism and money, backed by an extraordinary note identifying human labour as the source of all wealth which has much in common the analysis offered later in the century by karl marx” (x111). shelley concludes his famous poem “the mask of anarchy” with these lines heralding a new age; the age where laws and systems could be questioned: ‘rise like lions after slumber in unvanquishable number shake your chains to earth like dew which in sleep had fallen on you – ye are many – they are few.’ (401) similarly karl marx ends the communist manifesto with working men of all countries, unite! (58). conclusion both shelley and marx, representative writers of their respective ages, depict a realistic picture of their corresponding social environments in their works. to them, the poor have suffered because of the selfish moneyed and elites committing injustices and socio-economic exploitations. the latter group operates in the form of feudal and the industrial classes. works of shelley and marx are reflective of the notion that in every society, especially in the capitalist society, it is the shelley: a marxist before karl marx 422 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii.395 common interests of the classes that become the main cause of exploitation and oppression, therefore, the material concerns morphing into concrete economic, political, and historical conditions give rise to the tug between the haves and have-nots. although industrialization had provided employment opportunities to the poor, the rising capitalists were treating industrial labour in an inhuman way. the peterloo massacre is a clear example of this inhuman treatment. works cited bakthawar, puri. “a marxist approach in reading percy bysshe shelley’s ‘song to the man of england’.”eufoni,vol.3no2, www.openjournal.unpam.ac. accessed 15 sep, 2021 cameron, kenneth neill. “shelley and marx.” the wordsworth circle, 1979, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 234-239. the university of chicago press, https://www.jstor.org/stable/, accessed 20 sep 2021 donovan etal. the poems of shelley volume 111, routledge,1819-1820, p 254, https://books.google.com.pk/books, accessed jan 2, 2021 edward, and eleanor marx-aveling. “shelley and socialism”, 1888, pp. 103-116, www.marxists.org/archive/eleanor-marx/1888/04/shelley-socialism.htmialism. accessed 6 jan. 2021. foot, paul. red shelley. london, sidgwick and jackson, 1980. guertin, marie. “shelley's poetic inspiration and its two sources: the ideals of justice and beauty.” diss. university of ottawa, canada, 1977. marx karl, engels fredrick. the communist manifesto, waris printers lahore, 2016 mulhallen, jacqueline. “percy bysshe shelley: poet and revolutionary” (pluto 2015), ), xiv, 170pp www.plutobooks.com/9780745334615/percy-bysshe-shelley/ accessed on nov 3, 2021 shah, m.iqbal. marxist’s concept of alienation and its impact on human life, al-hikmat vol 35(2015) pp 47, university of the punjab, lahore, pakistan. shelley, percy bysshe. the selected poetry & prose of shelley., edited by bruce woodcock wordsworth poetry library , hertfordshire,2002 https://books.google.com.pk/books http://www.marxists.org/archive/eleanor-marx/1888/04/shelley-socialism.htmialism http://www.plutobooks.com/9780745334615/percy-bysshe-shelley/ shelley: a marxist before karl marx 423 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii.395 shelley, percy bysshe. “fragment: to the people of england.” elyricsworld www.elyricsworld.com/fragment.accessed 14 december . 2021 woodcock, bruce. the selected poetry and prose of shelley. hertfordshire, wordsworth poetry library, 2002. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). economic globalization and postcolonial women: a critical study of monica ali’s brick lane (2003) 449 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii economic globalization and postcolonial women: a critical study of monica ali’s brick lane (2003) dr. kalsoom khan assistant professor, department of english, national university of modern languages, islamabad, kalsoom.khan@numl.edu.pk dr. mumtaz ahmad assistant professor, govt. guru nanak postgraduate college nankana sahib, mumtaz@ggcn.edu.pk dr. qasim shafique assistant professor, department of english, university of faisalabad, qasimmirzaa@gmail.com abstract the present literary study posits the argument that monica ali’s novel brick lane (2003) delineates that global capitalist dicta such as the deregulation of economy, reduction in state responsibility and reliance upon private administration imposed upon the weaker economies of the postcolonial nation-states by global monetary organizations are highly detrimental to the economic status of women. as a result of these policies, governments reduce expenditure on public health, education, housing, and other such areas. women’s neglected health, poor education, low paid jobs and childbirth/care liabilities make them depend greatly on these services and are extremely distressed by these cuts. the shift of industries from global north to south to procure cheap labor has resulted in employment opportunity for southern women yet exploitation far exceeds the rosy prospects. to substantiate the claim in relation to this particular strain and motif in the novel, the theoretical concepts of feminist economics, inequitable wages and sexual exploitation, from within the theory of postcolonial feminism, are applied in the analysis of the fictional work. through a scrutiny of the two central female characters and variations in their economic situation in the novel, the study tries to assess women’s monetary position in relation to the global and local economic processes. keywords: postcolonial feminist economics, neoliberal policies, global monetary organizations, gender-based inequities, sexual exploitation introduction a new millennium ushers into human history and the pace of human technological advancement races, turning the world into a global village. political systems, economies, and cultures develop into hybrid and integrated structures rather than staying fixed as isolated and insular units solely determined by national governments. the umbrella term incorporating the multiple and overlapping progression of transnational and cross-cultural amalgamation is identified as globalization. in the 21st century, it is this phenomenon of globalization which determines the mode of survival for billions across the globe: be it the first world white majority living in the west, the colored third world multitude residing in the postcolonial nation-states or the diaspora communities living at the crossroads of the two. economy, as karl marx historically defined in das capital, forms the founding configuration which decides the superstructure i.e., the religious, cultural, and aesthetic goals to be pursued by a community. economic globalization, therefore, economic globalization and postcolonial women: a critical study of monica ali’s brick lane (2003) 450 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii crafts heart of the globalization experience and stands out as the most momentous and crucial issue pertaining to it. in rerouting the postcolonial, spencer phrases the postcolonial response to the so-called intersection of the national and the global as wary and skeptical (37-40). majority of postcolonial theorists look upon the assimilation of national/local economies with the international trade markets and the laws/ regulations formulated by global economic organizations to govern the integration as an asymmetrical and exploitative imperialist maneuver. they regard it as a machine churning out surplus for the western countries while distributing poverty, debts and dependence to the former colonized regions now forming the backward and impoverished states of the world (slater; tikly; went; beck). most of postcolonial feminist theorists also offer a comprehensive critique of economic globalization affirming it as a modus operandi causing colossal damage to the economic status of postcolonial third world women (jaggar; williams; maira; loomba). a few of the concerns they raise are linked to the exploitation of colored women as cheap labor, lack of public service benefits for them and sexual abuse at the hands of organizers of multinational firms. there are, however, some theorists who call anti-globalization rhetoric as an unfair ruckus and view it as a liberating force for third world women oppressed both by local patriarchal, hegemonic economy as well as by the inequitable national policies hardly safeguarding their welfare. monica ali is a contemporary bangladeshi fiction writer settled in london. brick lane, her first novel published in 2003, was nominated for the booker prize and is worldwide acclaimed as a remarkably rich text, largely depicting the ethnic life of bangladeshi immigrants living around brick lane, a street in the centre of bangladeshi residential community in london. part of the novel delineates characters and lives rooted in dhaka, capital of bangladesh. a critical study of her female characters and their economic condition as they interact with the globalized economy both within the national framework and the diaspora community makes a relevant case to analyze the positive or adverse impact of economic globalization on the lives of postcolonial third world women. thesis statement literature created in the postmodern globalized era displays a particularly ardent sensibility and concern towards globalization, its various dimensions and its impact on diverse regions, ethnicities, and classes. postcolonial female literary writers of the 21st century display a preoccupation with both the subjectivity and objectification of third world women whether it is cultural, political or economic. the present study aims at analyzing how postcolonial literature by female writers strives to highlight the financial dilemmas as well as the economic liberation of the postcolonial women placed in specific backdrops. through a scrutiny of the two central female characters and variations in their economic situation in monica ali’s brick lane, the study tries to assess how an investigation of character sketches leads to an understanding of women’s monetary position in relation to the global and local economic processes. research questions the present study seeks to answer the following questions: 1. what are the major advantages and disadvantages brought by economic globalization to the postcolonial third world women? 2. how does economic globalization affect women of lower class located in the metropolitan area of a south asian postcolonial nation-state? economic globalization and postcolonial women: a critical study of monica ali’s brick lane (2003) 451 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii 3. in what ways are patriarchal society, national economic policy and global economic networks responsible for the poverty and sexual exploitation of lower-class women? 4. what are the predicaments and privileges of third world lower middle-class women residing in the western metropolises as members of asian diaspora? significance of the study the study seeks to investigate how fiction produced by postcolonial female writers is an aesthetic embodiment of the politico-economic struggle carried out by postcolonial masses (especially women) against the discriminatory systems of patriarchy, classism, and imperialism. it endeavors to discuss and debate the postcolonial critique of economic globalization in relation to the lives of women in contemporary postcolonial fiction. this argument, depiction and making connections is not only central to bringing to light the oppression of locally situated women and the diaspora ones by the economic nexus of the local and the global but also to give voice to the liberty and equal opportunity granted by the same process. such research in literary studies, in this case monica ali’s brick lane, brings to the fore the text’s engagement with the nuances of female economy in a variety of contexts. it is also decisive in the origination of strategies about how to cut short the perpetuation of oppression and encourage support of the emancipation through awareness. research methodology in this qualitative research, a close textual analysis of brick lane by monica ali will be carried out to figure out the nature of women’s economic oppression and liberation in the work. the framework of analysis will be evolved based on the post colonialist theoretical critique of economic globalization and its canons of third world women’s exploitation, marginalization and sexualization by the mechanism. it will analyze central female characters in the novel and the shift in their economic status as the story unfolds. through a study of the women’s struggle and liberation depicted in the novel, issues of subjugation/exploitation and empowerment will be explicated. theoretical framework postcolonial discourse has largely been critical of the current phenomenon of globalization; in particular of the economic aspect of it. loomba and slater explicate that globalization is the latest disguise taken up by the old monster of imperialism and colonization which took birth around the seventeenth century. loomba argues that the colonization of the formerly colonized and the present third world countries by the first world/west persists in the form of the cultural, economic, and political disparities between the two (3-7). the postcolonial world is past physical occupation yet its apparently sovereign states are neocolonial since they are now indirectly manipulated and exploited by the west and the newly emergent american empire. neoliberal capitalist economic globalization is regarded as the neo-imperial hegemonic apparatus employed to keep the postcolonial third world impoverished and subjugated (slater 65164). tikly (151-171) asserts that global economic organizations which direct and dictate national markets are controlled by west/america. according to both slater and tikly, these institutions also work in collaboration with the postcolonial ruling elite who, in order to secure kickbacks for themselves; let the neo-imperial economic interventions in. when the national governments are coerced by imf, world bank and wto on policies of local importance like state expenditure on economic globalization and postcolonial women: a critical study of monica ali’s brick lane (2003) 452 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii public services, trade policies, rate of currency exchange etc, national/local exigencies are discounted, and the economic condition of the postcolonial masses deteriorates. they must move in the vicious circle of debt taken by their rulers from the officers of the empire and thus the gap between the rich and the poor widens. theorists like beck, went, chen, and ashcroft emphasize that the postcolonial nation-state monetary policies must be granted due role and authority against the global financial firms so that the inequities caused at the local level can be dealt with efficiently. ashcroft stresses that global capitalism is susceptible to fiscal crashes and in the 2008 backdrop of “corporations dissolving and the share market plummeting”, it were the national governments’ policies that were resorted to and relied upon for economic rescue (73). kinnvall in her article “globalization and religious nationalism: self, identity and the search for ontological security” discusses that as capitalist globalization aggravates the gap between haves and have nots and minimizes the nation-state’s grip, economic affairs become highly unpredictable and unstable for the masses. unregulated neoliberal capitalism in the form of excessive privatization and competitiveness leads to adverse impact on developing economies and results in loss of employment security for the middle and lower classes. it is this economic vulnerability, which is responsible for the extreme, erratic and often violent behavior of “existentially uncertain” and “ontologically insecure” third world masses (741-44). the postcolonial feminist and economist theorists have been critical of the impact of economic globalization on postcolonial women. in this context the women referred to, belong mostly to middle and lower class since the upper class women are comparatively less affected and broadly benefit from economic globalization as their male counterparts do. nelson in her article “rethinking development and globalization: insights from feminist economics” writes that the structural adjustment policies imposed upon the weaker economies of the postcolonial nationstates by global economic networks are highly detrimental to the economic status of women. as a result of these policies, governments have to reduce expenditure on public health, education, housing, and other such areas. women’s neglected health, poor education, low paid jobs and childbirth/care liabilities make them depend greatly on these services and are extremely distressed by these cuts. for example, lack of public health service in third world countries leads to increased mortality rate in women. similarly in case of no state support in the education sector, the number of girls from lower and lower –middle class is at the top of school dropouts. in an economic scenario dominated by powerful white nations, elite investors and global firms, the interest, participation, or influence of the third world women is nowhere to be seen. williams (97-105) raises the question of the privatization dilemma of economic globalization. transnational economic firms insist upon the privatization of various economic sectors e.g., the energy sector to avoid the strict regulatory measures endorsed by the state. global organizations thrive upon this situation where their surplus multiplies due to lack of state interference. deregulation of the industries, renunciation of state responsibility and reliance upon private administration led to multiple factors causing deterioration in women’s status in relation to the workplace. the manipulation of work hours, working environment and salaries may be prescribed by private owners in which the exploitation of female labor increases. the shift of industries from global north to south to procure cheap labor has resulted in employment opportunity for southern women yet exploitation far exceeds the rosy prospects. women form a economic globalization and postcolonial women: a critical study of monica ali’s brick lane (2003) 453 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii proletariat class of their own in the underdeveloped southern countries, particularly in asia, who are compelled to work under oppressive inhuman conditions for minimum wages. the postcolonial governments add insult to the injury by presenting stereotypical images of docile women workers to allure the multinational corporations’ investment. women’s sessility due to their familial duties makes it difficult for them to avoid maltreatment by moving to other places or finding better jobs. tong elucidates (226-228) how postcolonial feminist maria mies theorizes that women in third world are laborers both low-priced and employed for longer working hours than men. she also deliberates over audre lorde’s discussion of the economic state of black women in america who, because of their ethnic/national marginalization, are paid low salaries and drawn into prostitution. jaggar elucidates how brown and black i.e. asian and african diaspora women living in the west are influenced negatively by economic inequities resulting from free trade, reallocation of industries from north to south and the widening gap between the elite and the remaining sections of society (298-314) .she states that the only jobs left for women of color residing in united states are : "mcjobs ,casual, contingency or part-time positions (often in the service sector), which are typically low-paid and lack health or retirement benefits”(305). although unemployment and low hourly wages may take their toll on all workers, the ones invariably victimized are the colored women. jaggar also explicates that neoliberal capitalist globalization has led to an increased sexualization of lower and lower middle class third world women. this sexual exploitation is executed at manifold levels. within the industries run by multinational corporations, no regulatory measures concerning ethics apply and therefore poor laborer women are sexually harassed by managers and executives in charge. third world women are drawn into prostitution and sexservices i.e., are cheaply hired for serving laborers on large agricultural estates owned by filthy rich capitalists, for serving the bosses of international companies and around military camps etc. capitalist globalization also thrives on the profit gained from billion-dollar pornography business. a counter argument to the above-mentioned school of thought is put forward by theorists like gray, kittilson and sandholtz. they argue that the economic status of third world women is ameliorated by the economic intersecting of the world. it has brought openings, equal prospects and new resources for marginalized postcolonial women (293-333). ping is also of the opinion that increased transnational economic exchange has brought individuality, autonomy and economic independence for women which was hardly possible within the traditional orthodox social systems and patriarchal state projects (1278-1281). discussion haseena is the one of the two central female characters and sister to the protagonist nazneen in brick lane. her parents live in a village called gauripur and that’s where she is brought up with her sister. she is a lively and pretty young girl who falls in love with a boy and thinking their love marriage to be impossible in the face of conservative rural customs, runs away to dhaka with her lover. her romantic dreams of a happy-ever-after soon dash to the ground and after going through a few months of tormented married existence, she decides to abandon her husband and seek a new life. she flees to dhaka and finds job in a garment factory where a great number of lower-class women work. the garment factory where women work is looked down upon by the patriarchal society which does not approve of women working outside the house. haseena economic globalization and postcolonial women: a critical study of monica ali’s brick lane (2003) 454 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii expresses the general social response in such terms: “how easy to call the garment girls. zainab says one hundred and fifty girls in one factory getting pregnant. this is kind of thing people say. who going to stop them?” (126). the garment factory sounds synonymous with a brothel for chauvinist men who don’t let their wives’ work. haseena is given quarters to live in on cheap rate and provided with other facilities, yet these are not the privileges of employment. the feudal lord called chaudry, who is the owner of the factory where she works, visits her frequently and soon exploits her sexually. the main clerk in the factory called abdul comes to her rescue and guarantees support when the factory women boycott her due to rumors about her relationship with chaudry. the clerk also ends up maneuvering to make her sleep with him. however, her ill-treatment does not end with sexual abuse. when the duo comes to know that the cat of their sexual misuse concerning haseena is out of the bag, they plot to turn her out of job. the key apprehension is capitalist; they fear that other female workers may be stopped by their families from working in the factory. thus, the economic and sexual maltreatment of a lower class third world woman is thus consummated at the hands of a feudal private industry owner and his administrative manager. if the owner and the administrators exploit her sexually and monetarily, another cog in the capitalist wheel i.e., the fellow laborer does not lag behind. hussain, a drudge in the jute factory, at first sympathizes with her and tries to help in minor tasks. the man abuses her sexually and finally, regarding it as a profitable business, turns into a pimp and contrives to offer her as a prostitute or “floating girl” to men with money. the man suggests to her to make money out of prostitution while youth and vigor are there with her. inside the garment factory, where haseena works with other women, they are allotted the complicated and more time-consuming jobs like sewing and embroidering while men comprise the administrative body as well as take up the easy jobs of cutting cloths and making patterns. supply orders from japan bring money for the capitalist owners but only overtime for the female workers. women’s duties in the domestic sphere, care taking responsibilities and particularly the taxing duties of motherhood are not given any consideration by the local feudal owner. the overtime goes unpaid or meagerly paid for. for the toughest job of brick breaking, women are preferred workers because they settle for cheap wages in order to meet the needs of their children who often assist them in breaking bricks. out of jobs and out of favor with the second husband, haseena ends up at a destitute hostel for prostitutes. the house is set up by brother andrew from canada. an elite class woman lovely and her industrialist husband james recover her from the house to employ her as a maid in their house. in that position, she must do the multiple duties of washing and cleaning jobs as well as the work of an ayah or governess for a meager sum. at night she sleeps on the floor in the baby daughter’s room and has to tend all night to her. her physical and economic exploitation under oppressive working conditions in the household of an industrialist continues until she, once again, runs away for another life. nazneen is sister to haseena and the protagonist of the story. at the age of eighteen, she is married off by her parents to a much older man chanu, a lower middle-class man with a low-paid clerical job, living in london. nazneen comes to live in tower hamlets among the bengali diaspora community the centre of which is the street called brick lane. at first, the only english words she succeeds in speaking are sorry and thank you but soon adapts better. once when she economic globalization and postcolonial women: a critical study of monica ali’s brick lane (2003) 455 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii roams around london on her own, she feels pleased when she conveys herself in english to a white man. when she thinks about her village gauripur back in bangladesh, all that comes to her mind is a hard life. the thought of a life without gas stove and flushing toilet sounds annoying and tiresome to her now. she feels she is better off here so that even when her husband chanu goes out of job, the british government provides free primary education, a place to live in without rent and allowance for the unemployed. when nazneen’s husband quits his job, nazneen starts supporting her family by getting sewing, hemming, buttoning, zipping and all sorts of stitching and mending jobs. she does not go outside the house to do the jobs; rather work is brought home to her by her husband a middleman called karim belonging to the same community. the restriction is not imposed upon her by any external economic factor but by her own patriarchal husband. the money earned thus is meager yet liberates her as an individual and helps the family go on. she manages to send some financial assistance to haseena in dhaka as well. she saves a part for going-back-home project. shahana, her eldest daughter fulfills her cravings for luxury items through her the same income. what nazneen could earn if she could pursue the job outside the house i.e. if she was not inhibited by patriarchal and religious norms, is left for the reader to guess. out of same income through private sewing projects, she even arranges to pay back the amount borrowed by her husband from the usurer woman mrs. salam. it is her skill with the sewing machine and the designing of garments that gives her the courage and economic security to stay behind in england when her husband chanu leaves for bangladesh. razia, her friend from the bengali community, has already set up her garment business and has been going all over places like southall, wembley etc. to get orders for dresses. razia opts her way out of the sweat shop and chooses to work on her own, experimenting with all sorts of private supply demands and designing both eastern and western stuff for the free market. nazneen joins her and manages to raise her daughters, keep the house, and keep up sending to haseena through her free individual enterprise in the neoliberal capitalist marketplace. at the end of the novel, her daughters grant her lifelong wish by taking her to an ice rink. the jubilation of the girls on this summing up occasion and nazneen’s dream of freedom coming true makes razia concludes that “this is england, you can do whatever you like” (409). the closing remark is highly significant as it reflects upon the fair opportunity and liberty meted out to individuals by the global economy unhindered by patriarchal domination, state neglect or sexual exploitation. conclusion the postcolonial feminist critique of economic globalization was applied to monica ali’s brick lane. the prominent features of global economy i.e. exploitation of third world women as cheap labor, reduction in provision of public services by the state, unregulated privatization and sexualization were particularly analyzed in relation to the two central female characters haseena and nazneen. the location and situation of the two postcolonial women was altogether dissimilar since haseena lived in dhaka, bangladesh and nazneen made a member of the bangladeshi diaspora residing in london. haseena fell from a lower middle class to the lowest strata while nazneen stayed the same. haseena’s monetary and sexual exploitation in the garment factory at dhaka has been a consequence less of interaction with global companies like the corporation from japan giving economic globalization and postcolonial women: a critical study of monica ali’s brick lane (2003) 456 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii supply demands for garments. it is the local private owner chaudry and later his manager clerk who first sexually abuse haseena and then contrive to turn her out of job. the local fellow worker hussain drawing her into prostitution is also a product of the national/local patriarchal manipulative system. however, two factors pertaining to and supported by economic globalization can be held responsible for the exploitation and sexualization of haseena: the unqualified privatization of local industry and the lack of state authority/regulation over the financial and ethical environment of the private sector. in nazneen’s diasporic situation, global economy proves economically liberating for her. through private deals and offers for sewing, she succeeds in supporting her family. at the end of the novel, when her husband leaves her alone in london, she acts as an autonomous, liberated, and independent individual by becoming part of the neo-liberal capitalist economy. the global economy gives her financial support and enables her to exercise her agency and subjectivity. the critique of inequities caused by economic globalization holds value and validity in certain respects linked with the economic scenario within the postcolonial nation-state like the private sector. however, the viewpoint of regarding economic globalization as a complete monster does not hold ground in every situation. in the case of bangladeshi diaspora woman nazneen, global economy and its major facets prove to be ameliorating and liberating. works cited ashcroft,bill. “transnation”. rerouting the postcolonial. london &new york: routledge, 2009.36-47. print. beck,ulrich. the cosmopolitan vision. trans. ciaran cronin. cambridge: polity press, 2006. print. chen, tina mai. “thinking through embeddedness: globalization, culture, and the popular”. cultural critique 58 (2004):1-29. project muse. web. 27 march 2013. gray, mark m; kittilson, miki c and sandholtz wayne. “women and globalization: a study of 180 countries”. international organization 60.2 (2006): 293-333. jstor. web. 16 dec. 2013. jaggar, alison m. “is globalization good for women?” comparative literature 53.4(2001):298314. jstor. web.16 dec. 2013. kinnvall, catarina. “globalization and religious nationalism: self, identity and the search for ontological security”. political psychology 25.5(2004): 741-767. jstor. web. 5 march 2012. loomba,ania. colonialism/postcolonialism. london: routledge, 1998.print. marchetti, raffaele. global democracy: for and against. oxon: routledge, 2008.print. nelson,julie a. “rethinking development and globalization: insights from feminist economics”. the good society 14.3 (2005):58-62. jstor. web. 16 dec. 2013. ping, huang. “talking about gender, globalization, and labor in a chinese context”. signs 26.4 (2001): 1278-1281. jstor. web. 16 dec. 2013. slater, david. “postcolonial questions for global times”. review of international political economy 5.4 (1998):647-678. jstor. web. 5 march 2012. spencer, robert. “cosmopolitan criticism”. rerouting the postcolonial. london &new york: economic globalization and postcolonial women: a critical study of monica ali’s brick lane (2003) 457 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii routledge, 2009.36-47. print. tikly, leon. “globalization and education in the postcolonial world: towards a conceptual framework”. comparative education 37.2 (2001):151-177. jstor. web. 5 march 2012. tong, rosemarie. feminist thought. colorado: westview press, 2009. print. williams, susan h. “globalization, privatization, and a feminist public”. indiana journal of global legal studies 4 .1 (1996). jstor.web.16 dec. 2013. went, robert. “economic globalization plus cosmopolitanism?” review of international political economy 11.2 (2004):337-355. jstor. web. 5 march 2012. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). philosophical exploration of existentialism and absurdism in matt haig’s the midnight library 451 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.424 philosophical exploration of existentialism and absurdism in matt haig’s the midnight library muhammad rehan1 gul e zahra2 1 lecturer in english at govt. graduate college dunya pur, district lodhran 2 lecturer in english at govt. associate college for women chowk azam, layyah abstract the philosophy of existentialism has made many writers to pen down their thoughts about the existence of human beings and the meaning of life. existentialist theory states that human beings can establish their own meaning of life just by using their consciousness. the power of free will and personal responsibility can enable the human being to define his meaning of life. however, absurdism contradicts the idea of existentialism by emphasizing that there is no meaning of life, and that meaninglessness leads to suicide. the purpose of this very paper is to explore the existentialist and absurdist themes in matt haig’s novel the midnight library. the qualitative research methodology has been used for this research and the data is collected by purposive sampling. while albert camus’ theory of existentialism and absurdism has been chosen as a theoretical framework for this paper. the analysis testifies that the elements of absurdism and existentialism have been impregnated by matt haig in his novel the midnight library. for future recommendations, the novel can be analyzed by the lens of magical realism and psychoanalysis. keywords: absurdism, existentialism, suicide, the midnight library, albert camus introduction existentialism is a philosophy which came into existence in the late 19th century and reached its zenith in mid-20th century in france when simon de beauvoir, jean paul sartre and albert camus were simultaneously writing on absurdism and existentialism. existentialism says that life has no pre-defined meaning. it is up to human beings to make a meaning out of it in order to live it. human beings have to make rational decision in order to survive in the irrational world. the main focus of existentialists is on human actions, free-will, freedom, choices they make and the decisions they take. existentialism gained popularity as a school of thought right after two fatal world wars. they believed that there is no such thing as god exists. there is no supernatural being which can save people from the catastrophes of war and absurdities of life. therefore, human beings are on their own to create the meaning of life. it can be done by accepting the fact that life means nothingness. at this point, absurdism and existentialism shake hands with one another. the theory of absurdism is associated with albert camus, according to which life is intrinsically meaningless and, search for the meaning goes in vain. no matter what human beings do, they find nothing out of their search from the meaning. as a result, every human being passes philosophical exploration of existentialism and absurdism in matt haig’s the midnight library 452 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.424 through three stages of life. first one is termed as philosophical suicide which means seeking help from some divine being. the second one is physical suicide in which one finds life nothing but boring and meaningless. as a result, one thinks that taking own life will end all the suffering. the third one is acceptance in which one embraces the life the way it is along with all its absurdities. existentialism emerged in opposition to three school of thoughts about the existence of god: (1) atheists who opine that god does not exist at all, (2) theists who believe that god is the reason behind everything and (3) agnostics who believe that it does not matter whether there is a god or not. what matters is how we live our life. danish philosopher soren kierkegaard, who is known as the father of existentialism, is the major figure of this movement. dutch philosopher friedrich nietzsche was also the major propellant of this philosophy. other major figures of existentialist movement who did a great job regarding its development are arthur schopenhauer, georg wilhelm friedrich hegel, fyodor dostoevsky and franz kafka. existentialism, in the twentieth century, the theory of existentialism was also adopted by other prominent writers, including albert camus, jean paul sartre and simone de beauvoir. these writers used the existentialist ideas in their works to the maximum. themes used by them are meaninglessness, nothingness, limited freedom, dread, boredom, pointlessness, social isolation, and commitment. albert camus in the myth of sisyphus (2000) expounded the ideas of pointlessness, existential crisis, nothingness and meaning and purpose of life. sartre in being and nothingness (2003), no exit (1944) and nausea (1949) used these themes. likewise, simon de beauvoir’s the second sex (1989) is also a major work of this movement. one of the major characteristics of existentialism is pessimistic world view: they provide pessimistic vision of the world and incite feelings of uneasiness in reader’s mind. they try to find the answers to the deep questions which are related to sensitive issues like purpose of our existence, the meaning of life and the existence of god. they consider them erudite questions which requires serious answers. the second major characteristic is freedom of choice. existentialists think that every individual has freedom of choice. but we do not have any power over other people’s freedom and our environment. this clash creates absurdity. next one is human existence which has to learn how to differentiate between harsh realities and absurdities which come in the way of life. another important characteristic is individualism and individual ethics which recognizes humans as free and independent single unit not as a ‘part philosophical exploration of existentialism and absurdism in matt haig’s the midnight library 453 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.424 of the whole.’ existentialists look at the human beings free of any tags and prejudices. they do not take into consideration race and ethnicity. according to individual ethics, every individual has freedom of choice. he or she is free in their actions and owe no explanation to anyone. the last characteristic in the list is emotion which is of great importance for existentialists. to understand existentialism, emotions play major role because they are deeply connected with our choices and decisions. similarly, it is also related with absurdism. nothingness, meaninglessness and existence of pointless things and incident are the major part of absurdist works of fiction. this study closely examines the feature of existentialism and absurdism in matt haig’s novel, the midnight library which is full of existentialist and absurdist features. research question • in what manner the elements of existentialism and absurdism are impregnated in matt haig’s work “the midnight library”? significance of the study the aim of the study is to analyze the text of the midnight library by using the theoretical lenses of absurdism and existentialism. this book was published in 2020 so there has been no research work conducted on this novel. that is why, this study will be a good addition to the storehouse of literary knowledge. research framework and methodology this research article is the descriptive qualitative study of “the midnight library (2020)” written by matt haig. the reason for selecting this novel is that it encompasses the philosophical ideas of existentialism and absurdism. the contemporary era is the era of science and technology and the absurdities created by scientific inventions. people are facing existentialist issues to its fullest. method used for data collection is intensive reading, annotating the text and interpretation of the novel keeping in mind the themes of absurdism and existentialism. at the end, the selected and annotated text has been analyzed according to the philosophy produced by albert camus. literature review g. sankar & k. jaya, (2016) in their article the psychological problems and existentialist view of the great two americans ernest hemingway and f. scot fitzgerald-a glimpses explore the aspects of absurdism and existentialism. both of these writers, hemingway and fitzgerald, philosophical exploration of existentialism and absurdism in matt haig’s the midnight library 454 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.424 suffered from the catastrophes of war physically, mentally and financially. the sun also rises (1926) by hemingway depicts the existential disillusionment of the characters. fitzgerald’s the great gatsby (1925) also explores existentialist ideas. the protagonist mr. gatsby is an independent individual who is fighting the absurdities of life. a lot of work has been done on franz kafka’s novels through existentialist lens. mondal (2018) has studied existentialist and absurdist themes in kafka’s novel the trial (1925). in the article she shows kafka’s view about the world i.e., there is no logical connection between our existence and events taking place around us. as this novel revolves around the judicial system, she emphasizes the need of better judiciary for the right working of the system because, without it, universe is as absurd as shown in the novel. couder (2017), has done the absurdist analysis of the novel catch 22 (1961) by joseph heller. the characters in the novel are facing the causalities of war which gives birth to absurdity. the war does not make any sense to them. the writer presents these absurdities in a humorous manner which is known as absurdist humor. according to couder (2017) the use of humor makes the novel interesting for readers as compared to other works of this kind. in the same manner, the authors of this paper have studied the traces of existentialism and absurdism in matt haig’s the midnight library (2020). discussion and analysis after an in depth study of the novel, it is found that matt haig has impregnated his novel the midnight library (2020) with elements of existentialist and absurdist philosophy. every chapter and every event revolves around these philosophies. these elements are abusrdism, the myth of sisyphus, and pessimism. absurdism absurdism is described as the idea that the world is illogical and meaningless, and that the quest for order brings a person into clash with the world around. camus says that absurdity is produced by the conflict, the conflict between our understanding of the universe as something logical and rational and the universe it is (irrational and indifferent towards our expectations). the elements of absurdism are found in abundance in this novel. the novel is about a middle-aged woman, nora seed, who is thirty-five years old. she is suffering from anxiety and depression and wants to die. she tries to kill herself by taking an overdose of anti-depressants. philosophical exploration of existentialism and absurdism in matt haig’s the midnight library 455 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.424 suddenly, life takes an abrupt turn and as a result she is living ‘schrödinger’s life. both dead and alive in your own mind’, as quoted in the book. one day her neighbor, mr. ash tells her that her cat has died on roadside. same day at midnight, she takes an overdose of the anti-depressants to end her life. right at 00:00 at midnight, she wakes up in a place called in-between or midnight library. the library is like a time-machine. she can wish for a different kind of life and can go there. though she has the autonomy to choose a life but not enough to choose its ending.    nora is not happy with her life because she is unable to understand the absurdities in life. her expectations are in clash with the world and people around her. all her wishes are unfulfilled. this sense of unfulfillment leads to anger and disappointment. moreover, the burden of expectations from all the people around her fills her heart with aggression and regrets. she feels that she is an incomplete person. i haven’t become an olympic swimmer. i haven’t become a glaciologist. i haven’t become dan’s wife. i haven’t become a mother. i haven’t become the lead singer of the labyrinths. i haven’t managed to become a truly good or truly happy person. i haven’t managed to look after voltaire. (haig, 2020, p. 32) everyone in her family and around has been a kind of failure in life. they projected their desire on nora. even the librarian, mrs. elm, had expectations from her just like nora’s mother. this is the reason nora angrily compares her to her mother. her sense of individuality is challenged. it all adds to absurdities. it was hard not to compare mrs elm to her mother, who treated nora like a mistake in need of correction. for instance, when she was a baby her mother had been so worried nora’s left ear stuck out more than her right that she’d used sticky tape to address the situation, then disguised it beneath a woollen bonnet. (haig, 2020, p. 13) nora’s life experiences have made her weak. she is emotionally vulnerable. she is always trying to run away from absurd nature of life because it suddenly ends. whenever she confronts the death during her stay in midnight library, she immediately returns to library. “even death was something nora couldn’t do properly, it seemed” (haig, 2020, p. 32). the death of loved ones shakes her existence and affects her mind and body. during her periods of grief, she becomes preoccupied with thoughts, memories and images of her the departed one, faces difficulty accepting the absurd facts and experiences long lasting periods of sadness and philosophical exploration of existentialism and absurdism in matt haig’s the midnight library 456 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.424 yearning. she is unable to understand that death and loss are part and parcel of life. in her root life, she loses both of her parents. in almost all the lives she lived during her stay in midnight library, she loses someone one or other way around. in one life she loses her cat. in another life she loses her brother. in the life where she goes to australia, her friend izzy dies in a car accident. in the life where she marries dan, she loses her relationship because dan is having an extra marital affair. despite all her experiences, she cannot handle loss and keeps running from it. even in one of her songs “howl” her fugitive nature is expressed: to the winter forest and nowhere to go this girl runs from all she know. (haig, 2020, p. 130) the myth of sisyphus camus wrote the novel the myth of sisyphus (2000) in order to present his idea about the myth of sisyphus. sisyphus is a character in greek mythology who was condemned by the gods forever, to move a boulder up a mountain for nothing because it always rolls down to the starting point all over again. by doing this, he understands life. camus says, “one must imagine sisyphus happy”. to entertain herself just like sisyphus, nora keeps on choosing different lives during her stay in midnight library. these different lives are a metaphor for continuous struggle the way sisyphus is doing the rock. just like sisyphus, she finally understands the meaning of live. in one life she was an aid worker in botswana. in one life a cat-sitter. in one life a volunteer in a homeless shelter. in one life she was sleeping on her only friend’s sofa. (haig, 2020, p. 149) in all these lives, she cannot control the events. every time, in search of meaning, she gets disappointed. camus says that human beings keep looking for the purpose of living but, in the long run, they find out that all this search is the wastage of time. no matter what human beings do, they find nothing out of their search from the meaning. as a result, every human being passes through three stages of life. first one is termed as philosophical suicide which means seeking help from some divine being. the second one is physical suicide in which one finds life nothing but boring and meaningless. as a result, one thinks that taking own life will end all the suffering. the third philosophical exploration of existentialism and absurdism in matt haig’s the midnight library 457 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.424 one is acceptance in which one embraces the life the way it is along with all its absurdities. the reaction towards this absurdity and then acceptance is also seen in nora. i think it is easy to imagine there are easier paths,’ she said, realising something for the first time. ‘but maybe there are no easy paths. there are just paths. in one life, i might be married. in another, i might be working in a shop. i might have said yes to this cute guy who asked me out for a coffee. in another i might be researching glaciers in the arctic circle. in another, i might be an olympic swimming champion. who knows? every second of every day we are entering a new universe. and we spend so much time wishing our lives were different, comparing ourselves to other people and to other versions of ourselves, when really most lives contain degrees of good and degrees of bad. (haig, 2020, p. 127) pessimism pessimism is the basic part of existentialism which provides a pessimistic view of the world. the pessimistic themes in the midnight library (2020) are discussed below. anxiety nora is at a stage where having anxiety and depression is like being hurt and feeling-less at the same time. she has a fear of failure but no urge to be productive. she wants friends and family around her but hates to socialize. sometimes she is even numb and feel paralyzed. she is alive but dying every moment. it is a kind of mental paralyses. she is unable to move, think or even speak. for her, breathing is difficult and standing up cause dizziness. she feels difficulty in holding the ground. her mind and body do not obey her. when her cat dies, she feels nothing. she rather envies it for dying because she wants herself die. she knew she should be experiencing pity and despair for her feline friend – and she was but she had to acknowledge something else. as she stared at voltaire’s still and peaceful expression– that total absence of pain – there was an inescapable feeling brewing in the darkness. envy. (haig, 2020, p. 17) her anxiety makes her hide her feelings and indifferent to other’s death just like camus’s hero in the stranger (1954). i’m sorry,’ she told neil, in the scruffy little windowless box of an office. ‘my cat died. last night. and i had to bury him. well, someone helped me bury him. but then i was left philosophical exploration of existentialism and absurdism in matt haig’s the midnight library 458 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.424 alone in my flat and i couldn’t sleep and forgot to set the alarm and didn’t wake up till midday and then had to rush. (haig, 2020, p.18) she had the same reaction when her father died. she was numb for about half an hour, and had stared blankly at the unfinished game of chess. the reality was simply too big to absorb at first, but then it had hit her hard and sideways, taking her off the track she’d known. she had hugged mrs elm so close, crying into her polo neck until her face was raw from the fusion of tears and acrylic. (haig, 2020, p. 31) limited freedom nora always feels bound. she has no freedom. during her child childhood, nora never felt at home. her parents never considered her as person but a source of their atonement. her father wanted her to be an olympic swimmer. her brother wanted her to continue her career as a singer. her boyfriend wanted her to marry him and help him run the bar. she could never find out what she really wanted. these things increased troubles in her life. the married life in the pub had been dan’s dream. the trip to australia had been izzy’s dream, and her regret about not going had been a guilt for her best friend more than a sorrow for herself. the dream of her becoming a swimming champion belonged to her father. and okay, so it was true that she had been interested in the arctic and being a glaciologist when she was younger, but that had been steered quite significantly by her chats with mrs elm herself, back in the school library. and the labyrinths, well, that had always been her brother’s dream. (haig, 2020, p. 137) alienation nora always felt alienated since her teenage. her father stopped caring for her when she rejected to be an olympian. her brother cut his ties with her when she left the band. she felt abandoned after the death her mother. everyone around her doubted her intentions. nothingness nothingness is the aspect of absurdism and existentialism which gives a person feeling that whatever he or she does is insufficient and gives no benefit to anyone. this is the situation with nora. she tries to make everyone happy but ends up hurt and lonely. nora finds out that all her brother cares about is money. when she was reluctant to deliver the talk, he becomes angry at her. “you’re freaking me out. you’re acting not quite yourself” (haig, 2020, p. 80). philosophical exploration of existentialism and absurdism in matt haig’s the midnight library 459 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.424 pointlessness it is like nothingness and is also an important aspect of existentialism. nora finds her life pointless. she does not want to do anything because she believes that it will not change her life in any way. she does not want to use her potential even if someone tries to make her realize. she works at a music shop. the owner, mr. neil, tries to encourage her to do somethings else but she ignores. “that’s a long time. i feel like you are made for better things. you’re in your late thirties” (haig, 2020, p.18). conclusion it can be concluded that matt haig’s novel the midnight library contains the major themes of existentialism and absurdism. these themes are absurdism, pointlessness, meaninglessness and anxiety which are faced by the protagonist, nora. she is in continuous struggle with her surroundings and is trying to assert her individuality in the face of indifferent nature of the world around her. the themes and plot of the novel creates absurdity in the minds of the reader. nora seed is tired of the monotony of life and feels misfit. everyone around her behaves like a parasite. her anxiety robs her all her energies. as a result, all these circumstances lead her to suicide. the novel also suggests that parents should not expect too much from their children. their job is to support and encourage them not to make them a source of reparation. if they do not do so, the result will be the existential crisis. future recommendations for future studies, the novel can be analyzed from the lens of magical realism and psychoanalysis. philosophical exploration of existentialism and absurdism in matt haig’s the midnight library 460 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.424 references beauvoir, s. (1989).the second sex. new york: vintage books. camus, a. (2000).the myth of sisyphus (j. o’brien, trans.). penguin classics. camus, a., & gilbert, s. (1954). the stranger. new york: vintage books. couder, o. (2017). what’s the catch? the nexus of absurdist humour, incongruity, and characterization in joseph heller’s catch22. neophilologus, 101(3), 495-511. g. sankar & k. jaya, 2016. the psychological problems and existentialist view of the great two americans ernest hemingway and f. scot fitzgerald-a glimpses, english literature and language review, academic research publishing group, vol. 2(1), pages 1-6, 01-2016. haig, matt (2020). the midnight library. canongate books sartre, j.-p. (1955). no exit, and three other plays. new york: vintage books. sartre, j.-p. (2003).being and nothingness (h. e. barnes, trans.; 2nd ed.). routledge. sartre, j.-p. (1949).nausea. norfolk, conn: new directions. mondal, d. (2018). the trial by kafka: in the light of absurdism and existentialism. international journal of english literature and culture. doi:10.14662/ijelc2018.041 philosophy basic. (2008-2021). the basics of philosophy.               https://www.philosophybasics.com/movements_existentialism.html       @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.philosophybasics.com/movements_existentialism.html magical hero and systemic racism: an investigation of quentin tarantino’s django unchained (2012) 415 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii magical hero and systemic racism: an investigation of quentin tarantino’s django unchained (2012) salman hamid khan1 dr. irfan ullah shah2 1phd scholar, department of english, linguistics and literature, qurtuba university, peshawar 2assistant professor, department of english, linguistics and literature, qurtuba university, peshawar abstract this paper focuses on one of the most important screenplays, django unchained (2012), by the famous hollywood auteur quentin tarantino. the story revolves around the life of a slave family, and django is the central protagonist, a runaway slave, who had suffered at the hands of the slave owners. the methodology used for the investigation of the portrayal of django is the textual analysis, given the qualitative nature of the research. the theoretical base of the investigation is the critical race theory, which upholds the pervading and continuous presence of racism against african-americans, and most specifically, in its institutionalized manifestation. the paper finds that though there are elements of melodrama and surrealism, the representation of django takes the proto-form of the magical hero. the hero overcomes dire circumstances with the help of dr. schultz. the research finds that despite the apparent mainstream representation of the africanamericans, tarantino did succeed in not only highlights but also contemporariness the racism, discrimination and marginality of the african-americans. keywords: django unchained, quentin tarantino, crt, cultural studies, africanamericans, race introduction quentin tarantino is a hollywood writer-director, famed for his realistic portrayal and dialogues in a number of motion picture films. django unchained (2012), one of quentin tarantino’s most significant screenplays, focuses not only on the most problematic issue of slavery in the us socio-political history, but also on the big question of othering in the postcolonial context. the movie brings to the audience scenes of oppressions and abuses of the black men and women and, more pertinently, on the protagonists django and broomhilda. the story is a typical western genre of film, full of sound and fury, bravado, and showmanship, but deep down it highlights the exploitation of millions of african-american in the southern states, or the ‘slave states’ of the antebellum us. the film’s name alludes to the prospect of freedom and of unchaining of the shackles of slavery. one understanding of the title is that of achieving freedom and living life as django wished it. another is of potential—potential that until the start of the film was unrealized. django has the potential to take life by the reins, and only needed a sliver of a chance to do just that. it can be looked as not only django’s own yearning but the yearning of every man, woman, and child under the yoke of slavery. this sentiment of activity rather than passivity has been echoed in these following words: “three hundred years of humiliation, abuse and deprivation cannot be expected to find voice in a whisper” (king jr., 2013, p. 13). the unchaining of django is in essence the voice of rage that martin luther king jr. spoke of in the above passage. magical hero and systemic racism: an investigation of quentin tarantino’s django unchained (2012) 416 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii research objective this research paper explores the representation of african-americans in cinema with the focus being on the film django unchained (2012) by the writer and director quentin tarantino. it investigates the portrayal of african-americans during the united states’ tumultuous history, lasering in on the lives of people leading up to the american civil war. the horrific concept of slavery can be observed in the film and the screenplay. the exploitative nature of it is at the heart of this research, and the way tarantino almost rewrote history, giving the titular character a chance at something so many people at the time wished for, revenge. framework this study focuses the concept of slavery as understood by the us law at the time of slavery. as such, the theoretical framework proposed in the critical race theory have been applied to this particular body of work. the main perspective for the analysis of the screenplay is the critical race theory, founded by derrick bell, whose view on the institutionalized form of racism has been one of the key theoretical frameworks of modern era. though the theory is us-specific, and mostly focuses on the lives of the african-americans, but over time it went on to include other minorities like asians and latin-americans, which is dominated by the white class. literature review as the research is centered around the concept of systemic racism and critical race theory, the works of richard delgado and jean stefancic are of particular import. their co-authored book by the title critical race theory: the cutting edge (2013) explore the basic premise of the critical race theory, "our social world, with its rules, practices, and assignments of prestige and power, is not fixed; rather, we construct with it words, stories and silence. however, we need not acquiesce in arrangements that are unfair and one-sided. by writing and speaking against them, we may hope to contribute to a better, fairer world” (p. 3). essentially, scholars of crt seek to find tangible, real-world issues related to systemic racism. critical race theory: an introduction, second edition (critical america) (2017) is another such text authored by both richard delgado and jean stefancic, which in a straightforward manner explores salient aspects of crt, its origins, principal themes, leading voices as well as new directions of this movement. the second edition also introduces readers to important new issues, which included education and psychology and greatly expands on issues, which have already been discussed in the previous editions. critical race theory: the key writings that formed the movement (2010) is written and compiled by leading theorists and scholars like kimberlé crenshaw, neil gotanda, and kendall thomas. the introductory chapter of the book explores crt in general as a way to, "examine the entire edifice of contemporary legal thought and doctrine from the viewpoint of law's role in the construction and maintenance of social domination and subordination" (p. 3). discussion and analysis django unchained (2012) is about liberty and freedoms, not of the whole slave population in the deep south of america where slavery was fully backed by the law and supported by the church, though not as aggressively as the plantation owners delightfully practiced. the commodification of the african-american, then called the negroes, is the ultimate stigma of the otherwise free, human, and fair american political and social order. given the four centuries of exploitation and magical hero and systemic racism: an investigation of quentin tarantino’s django unchained (2012) 417 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii oppressions, ruthlessly executed by all denominations of plantation owners, the anguish of django could not be understood in one linear narrative. however, it does present the issue in an empathetic way but to the extent about one family, django and broomhilda, who always wanted to break the chains. the liberty as an idealistic desire of self-fulfillment is missing when the themes of the django unchained (2012) could be fathomed. it is a human desire to be free, and these unfortunate characters are no exception, which tarantino authenticates by referring to the several attempts that they made to run away. it is, in fact, one man’s quest for freedom, for himself and his wife broomhilda and in their desire for freedom could be symbolically understood in the letter ‘r’ stamped on their bodies which defined their destiny, one of the seven slaves is our hero django.... he's fourth in the leg iron line. we may or may not notice a tiny small "r" burned into his cheek ("r" for runaway), but we can't help but notice his back which has been slashed to ribbons by bull whip beatings. (tarantino, 2012, p. 1) the film’s tagline of “life, liberty and the pursuit of vengeance”, in essence its subtitle, is a bastardization of a basic tenet of the us identity of ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’, changing the word ‘happiness’ to that of ‘vengeance’ (tarantino, 2012). revenge is a powerful form of motivation for django. it is because of this that django, after getting his freedom, has the courage to go to candyland, the most dangerous white plantation, symbolizing the face of slavery in its ugliest form. one of the questions that is pertinent to this subtitle is whether this pursuit of revenge is in fact his revenge, motivated by his own suffering, or a communal suffering of all the slaves that have been embodied in the form of django. these views are explicitly there in the works of angela davis (2016). to quote her, “in a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist”.interestingly, there have always been two distinct features of the struggle of the african-american from the slavery era to the 20th century: one was the nonviolent resistance of martin luther king jr. and others, who appealed to the humanity of the majority class, invoking christian beliefs, as opposed to the struggle of malcolm x, which is generally viewed as proactive and even militant, and was once quoted as saying, “a man who stands for nothing will fall for anything” (x, 2022). however, both wanted to integrate in the system, and remain visible and empowered like the majority group. in the latter group, so far as academicians and writers are concerned, the anger that james baldwin expressed in his desire for authenticity, is also in the context of this research, relevant to the anguish against the oppressing white majority. in his words,“not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced” (baldwin, 1962) regarding the desire of the african-americans for real freedom, much has been said by not only black leaders and intellectuals, but white statesmen as well. in this respect, the discourse of abraham lincoln (1989) in the text speeches and writing 1832-1858 epitomizes the very idea of liberty, irrespective of race, class, and gender. he is particularly harsh on the persistence of slavery and believes wholeheartedly in the spirit of freedom, emancipation, and liberty. when the know-nothings get control, it will read, 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics.' when it comes to this i should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty—to russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy. (p. 223) magical hero and systemic racism: an investigation of quentin tarantino’s django unchained (2012) 418 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii one of the recurring cinematic stereotypes for black people is the so-called magical hero who does things in an almost surreal and with supernatural strength. the question before this research is to find out whether the portrayal of african-american in tarantino’s cinema is realistic or racialized like the mainstream hollywood production. in django unchained (2012), the central character is a slave who has been freed by doctor king schultz, a german bounty hunter who is there with respect to his profession, holding the legal documents to bring dead or alive his potential bounties of the speck brothers. it is understood in the context of the narrative and plotline that without his active help we would have not known this black person who is later transformed into what we normally consider to be the magical hero and whosoever sees this transformation in action, wonders “who is this nigger? (tarantino, 2012, p. 141)”. the representation of django and his wife broomhilda, in the screenplay django unchained (2012), could be assessed and analyzed from the theoretical framework of this paper. as a representative trope, the black people in cinema are not presented as fully empowered, for the obvious reasons that the struggle for emancipation in the real sense goes on to this day (bernardi, 1996). however, in the very opening scene, the slaves are shown somewhere in texas and that includes django under the strict supervision of the white slaver and his white underlings who, based on the superiority of their skin, are not only guaranteed protection by the slaver, but the law is also on their side. these are ordinary slaves that we would see later in the play, and we could have a glimpse of the oppression they undergo in a society which is denying their existence as humans. in order to ensure this animal-like existence, the runaways are branded with ‘r’ on their bodies. it is through the device of spaghetti western, a specific genre of films pertaining to life in the american west, that quentin tarantino brings to us the plight of these african-americans (henley, 2015). though not strictly falling into this category, but the deeper analysis reveals that django with little training from his patron rises to the level of the plantation owner, calvin candy with respect to his confidence, skills, courage, and power. as an assistant bounty hunter, to doctor schultz he knows how to kill white criminals, with an obvious weird pleasure because the very idea of killing whites and being paid for it is quite inspiring to him. this may be the anguish and revenge tendency in django, who does his job as bounty hunter. the surprising aspect of this character which, though, has been realistically drawn, is the way in which he adapts to the new life as a free man. his talent to be as good as the white man in this profession is due to the training by doctor schultz that reinforces his abilities. his adjustment to the new realities, in the wake of a lot of resistance by the whites including the lawmen, sheriff marshal and of course, calvin candie. riding alongside doctor schultz, on his horse which he had been provided, django is an aberration and while the white people look at him with annoyance, the black people with wonder and amazement. “they never seen a nigger on a horse before” (tarantino, 2012, p. 12) proclaims django on first coming across this phenomenon. on another occasion when django and the doctor go in search of their bounties to the bennett manor, another plantation, they are riding on their horses to which bennett seriously objects and resists because, “it is against the law for nigger to ride a horse in this territory” (tarantino, 2012, p. 24). as the two professional bounty hunters appear, this mixed reaction speaks for the cultural milieu of the south. they accept django as a free man though with a lot of negative feeling but could not compromise to the point that a black man would be riding a horse which was against the traditional legal system on the plantation. to this reaction, doctor schultz responds by saying that magical hero and systemic racism: an investigation of quentin tarantino’s django unchained (2012) 419 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii “my assistant is not supposed to walk while i’m on the horse, searching for bounties.” however, django knows that these are quite abnormal things for a slave who is no more than a beast at the disposal of the plantation owner, which makes him understandably nervous. “i can’t be walking in no salon in public” (tarantino, 2012). the newly empowered slave is, however, determined to find out his wife who had been sold to some unknown white man, and it is his mission to get her free. “find my wife and buy her freedom” (tarantino, 2012, p. 21) is his plea to the doctor. for doctor schultz this is a new piece of information and his hatred for slavery and love for freedom is one thing which he cannot disregard, and he tells django that he would be with him in this particular job. as a seasoned bounty hunter, working for four years, he knows a lot about the power structure and the legal system of the south, about which django had no knowledge. he tells django that it is not the proper time to go to granville because it is dangerous, not only for black people, but for the whites as well. it is the place where slaves are sold, and the prices are haggled, the circumstances of which may lead to any number of dangerous consequences, due to the tension, firstly because there is a transition going on, and the unexpressed fear of the white people that the black people could rebel. he advises django that they will go to granville “when you get more dangerous” (tarantino, 2012, p. 23), implying that then he would be able to walk tall and be an equal. as a guardian, mentor and savior, doctor schultz trained him in the most appropriate way and tells him that he is not to break his character as an assistant bounty hunter and later as a slaver who wants to buy mandingos. in order to rescue broomhilda, they must go to candyland, and they decide to disguise themselves as slavers because candyland is the notorious place for the mandingo fights. the magical hero has the mission to find his wife and get her free from the chains of slavery, but it is not an easy job and both doctor schultz and django, are aware of that. for django to take his revenge, both lay down a strategy to get each of the perpetrators one by one. this not only includes all the white people who oppressed them, but also the black servants who help the whites to oppress not only django and broomhilda, but the likes of many others. some of them laugh at him, the way he is dressed. others despise him for being a slaver, which according to django, is the meanest of the jobs in the south, because the black people consider such person as despicable. this negative image of django is also cemented by his guise as a mandingo expert, or the so-called one-eyed charlie, but he must go through this in order to execute his plan. interestingly, django is more skilled by not breaking his character while his mentor is about to break his, when he is invited to watch a mandingo fight that ends in the death of the weaker one, and he is extremely hurt watching one man killing another for the pleasure of a white man. django tries to tell him that as a slaver he is not breaking the character while he does, after the fight, and he feels that this is not going to help him and his wife. this aspect of django’s character in a way portrays him as the magical hero who fits in well in any guise and is smart enough to be alert and focused on the dangerous environment at candyland (jordan, 2020). but all this did not go well when one of the slave servants, stephen, sees through these two personas. stephen brings an element of suspense and danger to what had been planned by django and schultz. he obviously knows that they are not who they say they are and as an obedient and self-serving servant to calvin candie, he advises him to be wary of the two guests. one interpretation of this character is that tarantino, with this portrayal, brings in another clichéd character trope of the so-called uncle tom, who symbolizes the subservience of black people to whites. magical hero and systemic racism: an investigation of quentin tarantino’s django unchained (2012) 420 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii stephen, the black butler of candyland, hates django and repeatedly refers to him as ‘nigger’ and cannot reconcile to the idea that django is a free man (tarantino, 2012). the reason as can be understood is that django, while being a runaway slave, has more freedom afforded to him, and has the agency to realize his dreams and desires. stephen, on the other hand, does not, being servile to a white slaver. stephen is someone who has given up on his own people, becoming a self-serving lackey of candie. django justifiably hates stephen and the likes of him, who are more loyal to their enslavers. in the given cultural environment, slave servants like stephen and django the slaver are by-and-large hated by the slaves there. in their role as slaver and submissive servant, both are not respected by the slaves over there. when django and stephen confront each other, the hatred comes to the surface. neither the cunning stephen nor the smart django accept each other when calvin candy intervenes. since stephen is the most confident of his slave servants, candie is all ears when stephen talks about the reason for the two strangers visiting candyland about buying slaves. given the trust he has towards the shrewd slave, candie listens and almost agrees with the conspiracy theory stephen paints in that particular circumstance. he almost interrogates calvin candy, his master, by repeatedly asking “who’s that nigger up that nag” and he repeats when candy tries to avoid that question, ‘who is this nigger’ (tarantino, 2012, p. 141). interestingly, it is django who responds to this, “if you wanna know…you ask me” (2012, p. 92), fully embracing his guise as an independent and free man, unafraid of confrontation regarding his legal status. as a cinematic racial stereotype, django is more or less a magical hero, who suddenly appears from nowhere and is visible everywhere from granville to stephen manor, and ultimately to candyland, the final theater for the actual revenge melodrama (jordan, 2020). django is a slave, like countless others in the south during that time. he, like them, is the economic lifeline of the southern economy. the slaves are not only the workforce who work on plantations mainly of cotton, sugar, rice but the slave system in place is a tragic aspect of socio-legal and political order as they are sold and purchased as commodities. out of this mire, it is next to impossible for a slave man or woman to challenge the system and bring meaningful structural changes that this particular screenplay did not intend. however, empowering an individual in this case, the coming of the white savior and emancipating django, is a cinematic mainstream trope and had its market value as a cultural product. in an interesting dialogue between ace woody, candie’s servant who is a ruthless slaver, the magical hero is not completely destroyed but temporarily defeated. woody tells him that “i know there was something fishy about you all. that line of work” (tarantino, 2012, p. 133). in such circumstances, django as a slave could not have any chance to realize his dream of finding broomhilda, his wife, and getting her free. however, the magical hero conquered all these obstacles by not only killing the workers of the mining company to which he was sold, but also got the other mandingos free. our hero django provides one surprise after another to the caged mandingoes, and they cannot reconcile a slave being capable of doing whatever django did to his enemies. one of them asks in surprise, “who is this nigger” (tarantino, 2012, p. 141). this wondering from the slave’s perspective is a reflection of the element of the supernatural or superhuman aspect of the main protagonist in the screenplay. he not only takes revenge and gets himself free from the white servants, but also opens the cage to emancipate the caged mandingoes along the way, on which they exclaim once more, “who was that nigger?” (tarantino, 2012, p. 141). magical hero and systemic racism: an investigation of quentin tarantino’s django unchained (2012) 421 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii conclusion the preceding discussion reveals one man’s revenge and its far-reaching consequences, which, though is quite dramatic and almost surreal, but did stir the minds of the audience seeing the seething anguish of the slaves and thereby, problematizing slavery and segregation and othering.the big question, however, is of race relationship and racism and racialization that is still alive. django unchained (2012) not only realistically represents slavery and its ugly face, drawing, of course, from the historical point of view, but at the same time rewrites the slave story from the contemporary perspective, wherein the audience, revisits their understanding of the recent race tensions manifested in such slogans as black lives matter, are still faced with denial. as a cultural product, django unchained (2012) is indeed a credible work, which, among other things, has started debate on the issue of race, even at the cost of controversy and contestation. the plot is well-knitted and the action, given its classic rising and failing stages, impacts the viewers. the use of spectacle, for quentin tarantino, is rightly acknowledged and characterization, too, is not below par. magical hero and systemic racism: an investigation of quentin tarantino’s django unchained (2012) 422 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii references delgado, r., & stefancic, j. (2013). critical race theory: the cutting edge. delgado, r., & stefancic, j. (2017). critical race theory an introduction, second edition. nyu press. crenshaw, k., (2010). critical race theory: the key writings; that formed the movement. new york, ny: new press. davis, a. y. (2016). freedom is a constant struggle: ferguson, palestine, and the foundations of a movement. haymarket books. baldwin, j. (1962). as much truth as one can bear. new york times book review, 14(2). lincoln, a. (1989). abraham lincoln: speeches and writings vol. 1 1832-1858 (loa# 45) (vol.1). library of america. bernardi, d. (ed.). (1996). the birth of whiteness: race and the emergence of us cinema. rutgers university press. henley, m. (2015). the south according to quentin tarantino. jordan, e. a. (2020). exploring black" saviors": a content analysis of black characters and racial discourses in obama-era films. king jr., m. l. (2013, november 27). "on being a good neighbor" by martin luther king jr. retrieved july 29, 2022, from https://celestiallands.org/wayside/?p=2172 tarantino, q. (2012). django unchained. retrieved june 13, 2022, from https://imsdb.com/scripts/django-unchained.html x, m. (2022). a quote by malcolm x. retrieved july 29, 2022, from https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/930132-a-man-who-stands-for-nothing-willfall-for-anything @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 269 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi hajra arshad1 dr. ejaz mirza2 dr. muhammad farooq alam3 1phd scholar, national university of modern languages islamabad. pindori77@gmail.com 2assistant professor/head of social sciences, national university of modern languages rawalpindi emirza@numl.edu.pk 3assistant professor, department of english, national university of modern languages rawalpindi farooq.alam@numl.edu.pk abstract the aim of this research was to find the factors affecting the speaking skills of graduate students. the study was conducted in the selected institutions of rawalpindi and islamabad. the objectives of the study were to identify the factors affecting the speaking skills of graduate students and to analyze the students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the factors affecting speaking skills. the sample included 100 studentsfrom three institutions. questionnaires were used to get the information from the graduate students studying english and the english teachers. the data were analyzed using the statistical package of social sciences (spss) program. analyzed data were presented descriptively using graphs. the results of the study show that students make errors when they speak english. future researchers can carry out experimental research to find how differentenglish language teaching method help students to acquire better english-speaking skills. keywords: english speaking skills, esl, english learning barriers, graduate classroom introduction language as a tool is used by different speech communities for interaction and socialization. in different geographical areas of the world, many languages are spoken. english being an international language is spoken all over the world; it is considered the language of science, technology, commerce, and business. keeping in view the significance of the english language, it is spoken in different countries as a second language after ‘mother tongue’. proficiencyinthe english language includes receptive skills (listening & reading) and productive skills (reading &writing) (kie, 2002). following this order, it is clearly shown that listening skills make good speaking. similarly, good reading skills ensure good writing skills. these receptive skills help the student to empower their productive skills. the main language procedure is to be followed while learning a second language and l2 becomes the ‘mother language’ if it is used where the target language is used. according to gass andselinker (2001),this procedure is used in learning a second language in a classroom setting. most of us know that languages are structures of arbitrary verbal symbols, which allow all individuals of certain beliefs or other people who have learned the system of that culture, mailto:pindori77@gmail.com mailto:emirza@numl.edu.pk mailto:farooq.alam@numl.edu.pk factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 270 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii communication, or interaction. by our utterances, we do not utter words only, we also encode messages for the decoders. in esl classrooms, the emphasis remains on the reading and writing skills of the students as speaking skill is not evaluated in the examination. proficiency in speaking skills needs a lot of dedication and practice. the mother tongue is learned through the environment. so, the language instructor should provide the same environment to the students for language learning instead of cramming the rules. this also helps the learners to mind their nerves while speaking. problem statement for majority of pakistani students, english is second or third language of acquisition. at tertiary level of education, english is used as a medium of instruction. researches show that the students are under pressure to acquire english language and the stress to learn english affects the academic performance of university students. in the 21st century, acquisition of oral communication skills is equally important for a good career. in other words, learners engaged in learning a second language utilize the linguistic resources of their respective languages. it is seen that students memorize the content for exams but their oral communication skills are not polished. the current study aims to investigate the factors affecting the english-speaking skills of graduate students. moreover, it looks for the communication barriers, which affect the oral communication skills of graduate students. research objectives 1) to identify the common errors encountered by graduate students in speaking english. 2) to find the aspects affecting graduate students’ acquisition of speaking skills in english. research questions 1) what types of common errors do graduate students usually encounter in speaking english? 2) which factors affect the acquisition of english-speaking skills of graduate students? significance of the study the findings of the research will provide solutions to the problems faced by the teachers of english, students, and administrators while learning speaking skills. it will help teachers to develop their pedagogies to help graduate students to overcome english-speaking barriers. moreover, the results of this study will help graduate students to understand the significance of english as a language thus expediting the acquisition process. review of literature the following section provides a brief review of available literature with regards to the phenomenon related to understudy. factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 271 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii knowledge of the second language research studies claim that people cannot acquire or learn a language without significant exposure to the target language. people must understand and successfullycommunicate in the target language (e.g. english language) to become second language speakers. asher (2003) augments that the esl (english as second language) teachers demonstrate the language for esl learners to explain the content and context of the language. to listen and speak a second language (s), learners must have a listening and speaking attitude (krashen, 1988); this helps learners gain knowledge and can utilize it in reading and writing. richard and rodger (2001) argue that in conventional pedagogies of esl, the speaking skills of learners are overlooked and the major emphasis remains on improving the reading and writing skills of esl learners. for example, in gtm (grammar translation method), the reading and writing skills of esl learners are the main focus of teaching, whereas the listening and speaking skills of students are given the least importance. eminent scholars like ur (2000) claim that all language skills including listening, speaking, reading, writing,and speaking are vital for powerful correspondence. a similarviewpoint is given by baker and westrup (2003) who assumed that students who speakenglish canget better training, securing great positions, and getting advancement in their learning. characteristics of speaking mazouzi (2013)says that speaking practice can enable students to build up their informative skills. the principal normal for speaking is familiarity and it is the maintopic of educators in expressing speaking ability. as per hughes (2002), familiarity tells about the capacity of students who can talk in correspondence to the context and engage the audience members, if students’ communication is not justified with the context, it can cause boredom to listeners and audience members might lose interest in the speech of students. hugh further adds that familiarity defines the ability to reply comprehensibly by connecting the words, which helps in articulation by using accurate pitch and stress patterns. another characteristic of speaking performance is exactness. students should be familiarwith the remote language. esl teachers mustemphasize precision in their instructing procedure. moreover, students should pay special attention toprecision when speaking, for example, sentence structure, words, and expression (mazouzi, 2013). thornbury (2005) directed thatstudents should know the right use of language and expressions and also be familiar with the length and articulations in different settings. precision regarding lexis intends to choose appropriate words in reasonable settings. he further adds that articulation is the minimal element of information students normally focus on. students should be familiar with the phonological, and syntactic patterns of language to have precision while speaking.moreover, they should know about the pitch and sound of words. this helps students to speak the english language more successfully. factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 272 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii speaking problems of esl learners there are a few difficulties in speaking ability that instructors can run over in helping understudies to talk in the classroom. the constraints involved in speaking esl are shyness, low interest in a second language, and the liberty of using the first language or mother tongue (tuan and mai, 2015). students commit errors in esl and this creates embarrassing situations for the students.littlewood (2007) communicated that a language classroom can create problems for students who are poor at speaking the english language. pastry and westrup (2003) explained that esl learners have poor knowledge of english vocabulary and grammar rules, and it isextremely troublesome for students to answer when their teachers question in english. they do not know what to be said, which vocabulary item to be applied, or how to construct sentence structure according to a reasonable setting. the less interactive, teacher-centered, classrooms turned out to be another reason for the poor speaking skills of esl learners. these classrooms provide the least participation to students. a few students overwhelm the entire class while others do not talk. the last difficulty identified with the speaking capacity is that when a few students share a similar primary language, they speak in speaking class with comfort as it is not an issue for them but others do have difficulty in speaking (tuan and mai, 2015). moreover, the utilization of primary language is exceptionally normal for students to utilize. ifinstructors do not instruct to talk in english, students will naturally use their first language to relateinformation to their fellow students. capability, availability, and operation of instructional resources effective instructions may be acknowledged if the material used for instruction is beneficial in the classroom mutai (2006) said in his investigation that if the material is not used in learning it rebounds the entire procedure (igwe et al., 2014). a similar argument is built bykitheka (2005) saying that a couple of instructional materials are effectively used for improving learning and accomplishment of instructive objectives and goals. the creator additionally includes that deficiency of these materials could prompt poor execution in institutions. methodology this research is quantitative in nature. it is a descriptive study and a convenient sampling technique was used to carry out this study. the sample comprised 100 graduate students studying in institutions, which are numl, fjwu, and bpgcw. data were collected through standardized questionnaires. the questionnaire had 18 items in the form of statements. likert scale having options of strongly disagree (sd) disagree (d), neutral (n), agree (a),and strongly agree (sa)was used. the respondents were asked to choose one of the options for each statement. 5 experts validated the questionnaire. factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 273 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii delimitations the present research involved institutions located in rawalpindi and islamabad only. secondly, depending on the nature of the study, only graduate students were sampled. the sample size for the study includes only three institutions and 35 students from each institution filled questionnaire.the data was analyzed through the spss. results this study intends to observe the factors affecting the speaking skills of graduate students for this purpose sample of 100 was selected. table 1 shows the statements of tools and percentages of responses for each statement. table 1 percentages of responses against each statement item sd d n a sa 1. english as a medium of instruction can improve the teaching of english. 0 0 16 55 29 2. your teacher speaks urdu while teaching english class. 14 22 24 38 2 3. your teacher encourages you to participate in classroom activities. 6 1 3 38 52 4. the environment of institution can have positive impact in learning english. 2 7 4 49 38 5.effective use of different a.v aids can improve the teaching of english. 1 7 22 59 11 6. learning the english language is mostly a matter of learning a lot of grammar rules. 0 0 12 51 37 7. i have positive aptitude for english learning. 0 3 6 68 23 8. i feel shy while speaking english in front of my class fellows. 0 20 37 28 15 9. family support has a strong influence on english speaking skills of students. 2 7 8 53 30 10. there is influence of family background on students’ english speaking skills. 0 15 4 48 33 11. mother-tongue can affect the speaking skills of students. 0 7 8 68 17 12. inspiration is a key element in second language learning. 1 3 7 54 35 13. active listeners are always good english speakers. 2 8 3 40 47 14. lack of confidence canaffect the speaking skills of students studying english as a subject. 0 4 8 50 38 15. it is important to rehearse and practice language to attain 0 9 17 46 28 factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 274 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii english language competency. 16. it is easier for someone who already speaks a foreign language to learn another one. 2 37 22 28 11 17. if students are allowed to make mistakes in the beginning, it becomes hard for them to correct at later stages. 17 15 18 41 9 18. everyone can learn to speak a foreign language. 2 10 21 56 11 figure 1: english as the medium of instruction can improve the teaching of english the above figure shows that 16% of the students were neutral, 55% of students agreed and 29% of the students strongly agreed with the statement. overall, the majority agrees that using english as the medium of instruction (mei) can help in improving the english language skills of students. figure 2: using urdu for teaching english subject in response to the second statement, 14% of the students strongly disagreed that their teachers do not speak urdu while teaching english class, 22% of students disagreed with that, 24% observed as neutral, 38% agreed and 2% strongly agreed with that.the majority of the respondents agreed withthe second statement. factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 275 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii figure 3: encouraging attitude of english teachers to engage students in classroom activities table 3 shows that 6% of the students strongly disagreed with that, 1% of the students disagreed means their teachers do not encourage them to participate in classroom activities, 3% observed as neutral, 38% expressed agreement and 52% strongly agreed with the third statement. it shows that esl teachers teaching at the graduate level are aware of the students’ needs and have an encouraging attitude towards students. this kind of attitude can motivate students to be more interactive in classroom discussions, which can ultimately help students in developing good communication and interactive skills. figure 4: the role of the institution environment on the english speaking skills of learners 2% of the students strongly disagreed with the statement that the institutional environment has a role in improving the english-speaking skills of students, 7% of the students disagreed, 4% observed as neutral, 49% agreed with the statement and 38% strongly agreed with that. overall, the percentage of agreed participants is significant and it can be said that the institutional environment can play a major role in improving the english speaking skills of esl learners. factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 276 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii figure 5: the role of av aids in improving the teaching of english 1% of the students strongly disagreed, 7% disagreed, 22% were neutral, 59% agreed and 11% strongly agree with statement number 5. overall, the majority of the participants agreed that the use of av aids in english language teaching can play important role in improving the english speaking skills of graduate students. figure 6: learning english means learning english grammar rules table 6 shows responses about english language learning along with a lot of grammar rules, 0 % disagreed, 12% were neutral, 51% agreed and 37% strongly agreed with that.the majority of the participants have a conception that learning the english language means learning grammar. factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 277 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii figure 7: students’ positive attitude toward learning english as a language only 3% disagreed, 6% were neutral, 68% agreed and 23% strongly agreed with statement number 7. overall, the majority agreed that learners have a positive attitude towards learning english as a second language. figure 8: students feel shy while speaking english in front of the class 20% disagreed, 37% were neutral, 28% agreed and 15% strongly agreed with that.the majority agreed with the statement and the percentage of neutral participants was high. the shyness of the students acts as a barrier and due to this reason;students fail to develop good english speaking skills. figure 9: role of family support in improving english speaking skills 2% strongly disagreed with that, 7% disagreed, 8% were neutral, and 83% agreed with to statement that family support has a strong influence on developing english-speaking skills of graduate students. since domestic and academic languages are different for most pakistani graduate students, at home parents encourage family members to speak ‘mother tongue’ or urdu; the only place for english speaking practice is the classroom. factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 278 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii figure 10: the role of family background on students' english speaking skills 15% disagreed, 4% were neutral, and 81% agreed that the family background of students influences the english speaking skills of graduate students. figure 11: ‘mother tongue’ affects english speaking skills of learners 7% disagreed, 8% were neutral, 68% agreed and 17% strongly agreed with that. so, the majority of participants agreed that ‘mother tongue’ influences the esl learners’ speaking skills.the majority of pakistanis come from a rural background and the majority of them have a regional language as their ‘mother tongue’. for pakistani children usually ‘mother tongue’ is l1, after those students learn urdu as a second language. the english language is used as an academic and official language but it rarely has any domestic use. the expression of the mother tongue is strong and when these learners speak english, the listener can easily feel the influence of the mother tongue in the utterances of the speakers. factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 279 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii figure 12: role of inspiration in learning the english language 3% disagree that inspiration has a role to play in learning the english language, 7% were neutral, 54% agreed and 35% strongly agreed with that. figure 13: active learners are good english speakers figure 13 shows responses about active listeners who are always good speakers.82% strongly disagreed with that, 8% disagreed, 3% were neutral, 40% agree and 47% strongly agreed with that. overall, the majority of students feel that active learning is a strong reason to learn english. figure 14: lack of confidence and learning english factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 280 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii figure 14 shows responses about lack of confidence and its impact on the speaking skills of students studying english as a subject; 4% disagree, 8% were neutral, 50% agreed and 38% strongly agreed with that. 88 percent of students agreed which shows that lack of confidence is one of the significant barriers to improving the english speaking skills of students and learning english as a subject. figure 15: english speaking practice and english speaking skills 9% disagreed, 17% were neutral, 46% agreed and 28% strongly agreed with that. overall, the majority of the students agreed that practicing english is one of the factors in improving their english-speaking skills. as mentioned previously, esl classrooms are the best place to practice english conversations and improve the speaking skills of graduate students. figure 16: learning english is easy for learners who speak a foreign language in responses about the statement 16, 2% strongly disagree with that, 37% disagree, 22% were neutral, 28% agree and 11% strongly agree with that. although the majority agreed, the percentage of neutral and disagreed responses is also high. factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 281 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii figure 17: correcting language errors atthe start can help in learning the correct language figure 17 shows responses to the statement thatif students are allowed to make mistakes, in the beginning, it becomes hard for them to correct at later stages. 17% strongly disagreed with that, 15% disagreed, 18% were neutral, 41% agreed and 9% strongly agreed. figure 18: everyone can learn to speak a foreign language 2% strongly disagree with that, 10% disagreed, 21% were neutral, 56% agreed and 11% of the students strongly agreed with that. findings english as a medium of instruction and role of institutional environment about majority of the students agreed that their teachers use the english language as the medium of instruction for teaching english. it helps inthe improvement of english among students. otherwise, students translate twice to comprehend the content. there were multiple responses from the students that their teachers speak urdu while teaching in english. teachers use translanguaging pedagogies, but this may demotivate the students because most students follow their teachers as role models. the teachers want to improve the content learning abilities of students and play the role of facilitators, students usually imitate the instructors and intentionally or unintentionally do not give much attention to improving english-speaking skills. factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 282 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii half of the students agreed that the environment of the institution can have a positive impact on learning english which means that a positive environment of the institution can play a vital role in learning english. effective use of different a.v aids in classroom activities half of the students express a strong agreement that their teachers encourage them to participate in classroom activities. it is a positive sign for the enhancement of english in students. about majority of the students agreed that effective use of different a.v aids can improve the teaching of english. its means that using different a.v aids can improve the teaching of english so english teachers try to use different a.v aids during the teaching of english. learning english and grammar rules half of the students agreed that a lot of grammar is to be learned for learning the english language,which means that students must learn grammar rules for learning the english language. positive aptitude for english learning most of the students agreed that they have a positive aptitude for english learning. when someone has a positive attitudetowardlearning anything they learn quickly and efficiently. lack of confidence and shyness some of the students were neutral while responding to the statement that students feel shy while speaking english in front of their class fellows. it shows that they don’t have enough confidence to face their class fellows while speaking in class, here teachers can play a vital role by motivating and encouraging shy students and trying to give them enough confidence that they can face their class fellows. half of the students agreed that lack of confidence can affect the speaking skills of students studying english as a subject. confidence is the key to success without confidence we can not attain anything. so students must try to develop confidence and teachers must try to adopt such strategies through which students' confidence levels increase. influence of family support and family background the majority of the students agreed that family support has a strong influence on their englishspeaking skills of students. it means that those students belongto strong families they have strong english-speaking skills.about half of the students agreed that there is an influence of family background on students’ english-speaking skills, it shows that those students who have an educated family background have good english-speaking skills because in educated families’ students learn a lot from their parent’s siblings and surroundings. effects of ‘mother tongue’ the majority of the students agreed that ‘mother tongue’can affect their speaking skills of students. as we are not native speakers of english so there is always the influence of our mother tongue on our english speaking skills. inspiration is a key element the majority of the students agreed that inspiration is a key element in second language factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 283 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii learning. as our students are learning english as a second language until they are not inspired they cannot learn the english language because inspiration is the key element in second language learning. importance of english-speaking practice and active listening about half of the students agreed that it is important to rehearse and practice language to attain english language competency, it is a common phenomenon that without practicing, no one can attain competency in anything. about half of the students strongly agreed that active listeners are always good english speakers. obviously, without paying attention no one can learn anything. mistakes in the beginning about half of the students agreed that if students are allowed to make mistakes, in the beginning, it becomes hard for them to correct at later stages. if teachers do not correct the students at earlier stages, it will become their habit, so teachers should correct the mistakes of the students at the earlier stages. learning a foreign language there were multiple responses to the statement that language is easy to learn for those who already speak a foreign language. about half of the students agreed that in learning of foreign language,for this they have to put their efforts, they have to build confidence and practice a lot. conclusions english language acquisition can be achieved if students are provided with av aids and given chance to speak freelyto improve their vocabulary for use. the methods used in the classroom setting, the instruction can motivate students to speak or demotivate them inthe learning process. in our country,mostteachers use the direct method of teaching which demotivated the students because in direct methods teachers are active and the students’ role is passive so there is less participation from the students which decreases their confidence. learning english as a second language, in our society where english is not our first language so there is always the influence of our mother tongue. so our students made errors while speaking in english. students’ wrong pronunciations and direct translation from their mother tongue to english is the main problem while speaking. as this study found many factors which affectthe speaking skills of graduate students like motivation, the influence of mother tongue,family foundation and condition, inspiration, poor direction, poor listening aptitude, absence of confidence, nervousness, absence of appropriate vocabulary, age, and admission. factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 284 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii recommendations recommendations from the findings of the study include; 1. instructional materials help inthe teaching of english-speaking skills and they should be used over time. so our institution must use new and modern instructional material and different a.v aids for enhancement of the speaking skills. 2. teachers should use learner-oriented strategies like role play and dialogue, instead of a direct method in which students’ role is passive. these strategies help in building confidence and minimize mother tongue use. teachers should use advanced strategies while instructing in english class. 3. students should be encouraged and motivated by teachers. it will help them to develop an interest in reading like newspapers, educational magazines, articles, and storybooks. it will increase their vocabulary. students should practice speaking english in school and at home. students might communicate in english with fellow students and insist to respond in english. 4. students should be encouraged to participate in debates and speeches to improvetheir english-speaking skills and teacher should appreciate students. references asher, j. j. (2003). learning another language through actions (6th edition). los gatos, ca: sky oaks. baker, j., &westrup, h. (2000). the english language teacher’s handbook: how to teachlarge classes with few resources. london: continuum. gass, s. m., &selinker, l. (2001). second language acquisition: an introductory course (2nd ed.). mahwah, nj: erlbaum. hughes, r. (2002). teaching and researching speaking. new york: pearson. igwe, i. o., igu, n. c. n. & ogba, f. n. (2014). effects of instructional materials on students’ achievement in social studies in lower basic education in nigeria. proceedings of the international conference on 21st century education at dubai knowledge village, 2, 37-44. kenya institute of education (kie) (2002).teacher preparation guide for secondary education curriculum.kenya institute of education. kitheka, a.m. (2005). factors contributing to students‟ poor performance in the kenyan certificate of secondary education.unpublished master of education thesis, kenyatta university. retrieved from ir-library.ku.ac.ke/ krashen, s. d. (1988). second language acquisition and second language learning. new york: prentice-hall. littlewood, w. (2007). communicative language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. factors affecting english speaking skills: evidence from graduate students in rawalpindi 285 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii mang’eni, e. n. (2010). learners verbal communication in english language during classroom interaction in londiani division, kipkelion district. unpublished master of education thesis, kenyatta university. mazouzi, s. (2013).analysis of some factors affecting learners’ oral performance.a case study: 3rd year pupils of menaa’s middle schools. m. a. dissertation, department of foreign languages, english division, faculty of letters and languages, mohamed khider university of biskra, people’s democratic republic of algeria mutai, b. k. (2006). how to write quality research proposal: a complete and simplified recipe. new york: talley. richards, j. c., & rodgers, t. s. (2001).approaches and methods in languageteaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. thornbury, s. (2005).how to teach speaking. london: longman. tuan, n. h., & mai, t. n. (2015). factors affecting students’ speaking performance at le thanhhienhigh school.asian journal of educational research, 3(2), 8-23 ur, p. (2000). a course in language teaching: practice and theory. cambridge university press. @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). an investigation into the role of language in regional connectivity in afghanistan and pakistan 341 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii an investigation into the role of language in regional connectivity in afghanistan and pakistan nasim gul1 dr. salma khatoon2 dr.syed sabih ul hassan3 1m. phil english linguistic scholar, kohat university of science & technology 2kohat university of science & technology 3kohat university of science & technology abstract this article intends to explore the role of the regional language pashto spoken in afghanistan and pakistan in regional connectivity. the aim of this study is to reveal whether the role of pashto language is positive or negative in the regional connectivity between the two neighbouring countries. the impacts of pashto on pakistan and afghanistan cultures are taken into consideration because it is claimed that language is culture and culture is language. furthermore, sapir (1921) also added that due to the close association of language and culture, with each other, one cannot be understood/appreciated without the knowledge/comprehension of the other. it implies that the present study investigates the correlation between pashto language and pashtun culture in both countries. the data for this study is collected from pashto language poets, authors, mphil, and phd scholars belonging to pakistan and afghanistan. the findings of the study revealed that the regional language pashto plays a vitally important role in regional connectivity between pakistan and afghanistan. the study also found that people of both countries are inclined towards the purification and learning of pashto language along with the learning of english language in the same territories. therefore, they are also learning culture and social norms in both countries alike. the findings of the study also revealed that pashto language in both countries can be used as a tool for dialogues to strengthen peace, trade, and business. keywords: pashto language, regional connectivity, pakistan & afghanistan introduction ‘regional connectivity’ or ‘regionalism’ is one of the key topics under discussion in pakistan in the present scenario. it is often used to refer to pakistan-china relations through chinapakistan economic corridor (cpec) as a mega project because it brings the two countries in firm connections in many ways, for instance, through trade, business, education, jobs, etc. to develop infrastructure in both countries. it implies that ‘regional connectivity’ is very important for a country’s development. it is not unusual for a country’ regional contexts to offer numerous problems and opportunities (escap, 2014). for 40 years long war in afghanistan has greatly contributed to instability and has also had very bad impacts on pakistan’s culture, society, politics, education, peace, and prosperity. pakistan is very rich and diverse in regional connectivity because an investigation into the role of language in regional connectivity in afghanistan and pakistan 342 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii of the strategic importance of its geographical location. china is considered a key ally of pakistan on the basis of its support in the developments in the arena of trade, jobs, economic growth and freeing itself from energy crisis (khursheed et al., 2019). likewise, on the basis of the same language, culture, society, social norms afghanistan and pakistan, or khyber pakhtunkhwa, the province of pakistan are closely related. it also means that regional connectivity considers the social, cultural, linguistic, political economic and religious aspects of the countries. therefore, this paper explores the role that regional language “pashto” or “pakhto” plays in the processes of regional connectivity and integration between afghanistan and pakistan. pashto language pedagogy and policy need to be situated within wider political, social, and economic contexts to bring connectivity between the countries afghanistan and pakistan because language is considered one of the main sources of countries integration and prosperity. it is quite understandable that language is the basic and important means of communication. it helps in understanding of both countries’ cultures. research questions 1. what is the role of regional language (pashto) in regional connectivity between pakistan and afghanistan? 2. in what ways (positive or negative) does the pashto language impact the regional connectivity between pakistan and afghanistan? literature review in this section, related research studies are briefly reviewed to strengthen and support the current study. owing to pakistan’s complex neighborhoods, in south asia, central asia, the middle east and china. it is very important to decide what “pakistan regional context” really means. pakistan shares its borders with unstable, economic, and politically established countries. thus, pakistan develops its foreign policy and strengthens bonds with nearby countries as added by khursheed et al., (2019). presently, the discussion on ‘regional connectivity is mainly based on china-pakistan economic corridor (cpec). it is very comprehensible because pakistan needs much more, better, and modern infrastructure. the benefits and progress in terms of construction of infrastructure in cpec framework is very understandable and impressive. at the same time, public discussion seems too much focused on cpec. it seems to be ignoring the connections with other closely related regional countries. these connections could be due to various important factors such as social, political, linguistic, religion etc. relations with afghanistan, according to khursheed et al (2019), could also be highly relevant in near future. it implies that with or without cpec afghanistan as neighbor country could not be ignored by pakistan because afghanistan shares close geographical, linguistic, social, cultural, political, and religious borders with pakistan. linking, with central asian countries will be very difficult without afghanistan. so, “regional an investigation into the role of language in regional connectivity in afghanistan and pakistan 343 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii connectivity” between afghanistan and pakistan is very important especially in terms of peace, trade, and business. the current study is mainly focused on the regional language “pashto” commonly spoken in both countries i.e., how it works to bring both countries in close relations to each other because language is the main source of communication and relations across the world. thematic analysis (ta) is a method for systematically identifying, organizing, and offering insight into, patterns of meaning (themes) across a dataset. through focusing on meaning across a dataset, ta allows the researcher to see and make sense of collective or shared meanings and experiences. identifying unique and idiosyncratic meanings and experiences found only within a single data item is not the focus of ta. this method, then, is a way of identifying what is common to the way a topic is talked or written about, and of making sense of those commonalities. (cooper, et.al., 2012) data interpretations and discussion the main aim of this research article is to investigate the role of regional language pashto in bringing regional connectivity between the two neighbor countries i.e., afghanistan and pakistan, especially afghanistan and khyber pakhtunkhwa formerly known as the north-west frontier province of pakistan. for this purpose, interviews are conducted from the pashto language experts i.e., mphil and phd scholars and poets. in total 17 participants, 10 mphil and 7 phd scholars are interviewed. the data taken from the participants is analyzed below. responses to question no one. i.e. what is the role of regional language (pashto) in regional connectivity between pakistan and afghanistan? i. the role of pashto language is very positive, because it links the two immediate neighbor countries afghanistan and pakistan. ii. yes, for interrelations between afghanistan and pakistan or any other country language is a key factor. it is the way of expression and communication between afghanistan and pakistan. iii. language plays an important role in a country’s regional connectivity, and it is true in relation to pakistan and afghanistan. pashto is spoken in both the country as pashtuns live at the both sides of the pak-afghan borders. this gives the pashto language a key role of connecting the people of these two neighboring countries. iv. pashto language is widely spoken in khyber pakhtunkhwa, pakistan, and afghanistan, which links pashtuns in both countries. so, the importance of pashto language cannot be ignored in regional connectivity. v. as a language is means of communication and information, and it is true regarding pashto language, which is the regional language spoken in khyber pakhtunkhwa and widely in afghanistan, and pashto is national language of afghanistan. an investigation into the role of language in regional connectivity in afghanistan and pakistan 344 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii vi. pashto language is very important and the role of it is very positive because it connects pashtuns of khyber pakhtunkhwa to pashtuns of afghanistan. it is the language spoken by around 18 million people. vii. in regional connectivity the role of pashto language is very positive because pashto is the native language of pashtuns, where they live, they speak pashto. and it is one of the two official languages spoken in afghanistan. in persian literature pashto is called “afghani” because it is mainly spoken in afghanistan. pashto is also the second largest regional language, mainly spoken in province khyber pakhtunkhwa and in the northern districts of the province baluchistan. viii. yes, very true, pashto is an important language for regional integration between pakistan and afghanistan. it is not only a language spoken in the two countries with large population, but pashto is also considered as a culture of pashtun. it is very important to know that all other languages are only languages spoken by their native speakers. pashto is native, regional, and home language of pashtuns and it is their culture as well. for example, pashtuns have pashto which means they are very respectable, loyal, hard workers and true friends. so, they are strongly connected with their neighbor countries pakistan and afghanistan. pashtuns in pakistan, love pashtuns in afghanistan due to the sameness in their language which is pashto. pashto works very great in regional connectivity between afghanistan and pakistan. ix. pashto is language as well as a code of conduct and it shows the belief and social system of the pashtuns or afghan living in pakistan and afghanistan. x. language is considered a system of binary opposition and it helps in understanding of others as mentioned in gul.,et al (2022). it is true regarding the pashto language because it helps in understanding others in pakistan and afghanistan. it implies that pashto language is a great source of regional connectivity between pakistan and afghanistan because it helps in negotiation. considering the responses to the question no 1, it can be argued that regional language pashto plays a pivotal role in regional connectivity and integration between afghanistan and khyber pakhtunkhwa and mostly baluchistan provinces of pakistan. so, the role of regional pashto in regional connectivity cannot be ignored like other components of regional integration, regional language pashto could also be taken into consideration. almost all the participants of the study have agreed that pashto as a language is mainly used for communication as a main means of education, trades, jobs, business and literature appreciation for ethnic group of pashto in both of the countries. it implies that pakistan and afghanistan are linked, or they can be more strongly linked while using this source of language in positive ways for positive purposes. it also means that pashtuns are considered a single ethnic group inhabited in both countries. as we found in the participants responses through language comes culture and social norms of the speakers together. so, pashtuns in both countries share common culture, language, and religion as an investigation into the role of language in regional connectivity in afghanistan and pakistan 345 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii well. therefore, they are culturally, and linguistically interconnected on the basis of the same language, in afghanistan and pakistan. it can be true to say that regional language pashto pave the way for regional connectivity in two countries. responses to question no 2. i.e. whether regional language (pashto) impacts are positive or negative on the regional connectivity between pakistan and afghanistan? in question no 1, general comments are taken from the participants under the investigation of the study i.e., what is the role of regional language pashto in regional connectivity between afghanistan and pakistan. the researchers found that the role of pashto in integration of pakistan and afghanistan is very important and impressive and cannot be totally ignored. the second question gives important views of the pashto language impacts on regional connectivity in afghanistan and pakistan, whether these impacts are positive or negative. i. yes, the impacts of pashto language are very positive on regional connectivity between afghanistan and pakistan because pashtuns have a very strong linguistic identity. along with political and economic components of integration in pakistan and afghanistan, great poet of pashto language used pashto language as a rally for the unity of pashtuns. likewise, pir bayazid also used pashto language as an expedient means to spread his message to the pashtun masses. khushal khan khattak, selections from the poetry of the afghans so, regional connectivity is possible using regional language pashto in both countries. ii. generally, a language plays a positive role in regional connectivity contexts between or among countries but in case of pashto it can say the role is negative due to some political parties. or certain slogans used by group of people to create violence in both countries. so, in short, in case of pakistan and afghanistan regional connectivity, the role of pashto language is negative. people of pakistan and afghanistan are very different in nature though their language is same. iii. again, pashto language plays an important positive role in regional connectivity between afghanistan and pakistan. it is a matter of closeness for the people of afghanistan and pakistan to be agreed upon pashto language and pashto culture in both countries. iv. some people or some political parties are using pashto language for their political gains and support in afghanistan and pakistan. they have hidden agendas in their mind for the future of pakistan and afghanistan. they want to bring chaos to both countries while using pashto language as a means of communication and convincing the masses. they use pashto language as a weapon to create violence in both countries. v. as it was said earlier that pashto is not only a language spoken by pashtuns and it is also a culture. so, the pashto language helps a lot to bring regional connectivity between afghanistan and pakistan. an investigation into the role of language in regional connectivity in afghanistan and pakistan 346 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii vi. pashto language plays very important role in regional connectivity between afghanistan and pakistan because people living in both countries are very alike in their culture, values and social norms. to great extent they have sameness in their food, dress etc. vii. like a one nation making three components are essential such as the geography, language, and generation. among these languages is at the utmost, it links two nations very strongly. in case of pakistan and afghanistan this is very true, because pashto language is the regional language for pashtuns in both countries and code of life and code of conduct, culture as well for pashtuns in both countries. viii. the impact of pashto language on regional connectivity is very positive because it spoken in pakistan and afghanistan by many as a native language. therefore, they share and express common belief and social norms which helps in creating or bounding strong relations. from the responses of the participants to the question no 2, it can be inferred that regional language pashto plays very positive roles in regional connectivity between afghanistan and pakistan. almost all the participants opined that both of the countries share similar culture, social norms, and code of conduct. therefore, pashto language could be used as a positive means of communication to strengthen the social and cultural ties between pakistan and afghanistan. it can also be inferred from the participant’s responses that pashto language in both countries could be used as a tool for dialogues to maintain peace and prosperity and strengthen trades, business, and education opportunities. theme no 1: positive role it implies that pashto/afghani plays positive role in regional connectivity between pakistan and afghanistan. theme no 2: same culture and same language in both countries language and culture are same or in other words language culture are feeding one another. so, it is also positive aspects language for regional connectivity between pakistan and afghanistan. theme no 3: language and beliefs language is a means of communication. it is also medium for the expression of feelings and emotions. people living in afghanistan and pakistan shares common beliefs which pave ways for regional connectivity between pakistan and afghanistan. theme no 4: language is culture and culture is language in both countries mostly culture and language which pashto are same. people who are living in pakistan and afghanistan shares common food, dresses, festivals, and religion. these are the factors contribute to the connectivity of any country. likewise, they contribute to regional connectivity between pakistan and afghanistan. an investigation into the role of language in regional connectivity in afghanistan and pakistan 347 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii conclusion keeping in view the discussion on the role of regional language pashto in “regional connectivity” between afghanistan and pakistan. it is argued that regional language pashto plays a very important and positive role like other components used for regional connectivity/integration for instance, politics, religion, culture, and economic growth etc. pashto language can link both countries in a true sense. the study also found that pashto language can be used to bring unity among the pashtuns in both countries. pashto language in both countries could be used as a tool for dialogues to maintain peace and prosperity and strengthen trades, business, and education opportunities. it has the power to connect all its speakers to understand each other culture, values etc. in both countries. pashto language is not only a native language of pashtuns, but also their remarkable mark of identity, culture, and society. therefore, the impacts of pashto language are very positive on regional connectivity between afghanistan and pakistan. pashto language can also be a positive sign for the prospects of regional connectivity between pakistan and afghanistan an investigation into the role of language in regional connectivity in afghanistan and pakistan 348 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii references bibi, h., & khalil, h. (2017). khushal khan khattak and his political thoughts. pakistan journal of history and culture, 38(2). cooper, h. e., camic, p. m., long, d. l., panter, a. t., rindskopf, d. e., & sher, k. j. (2012). apa handbook of research methods in psychology, vol 2: research designs: quantitative, qualitative, neuropsychological, and biological (pp. x-701). american psychological association. escap, u. (2014). economic and social survey of asia and the pacific 2014: regional connectivity for shared prosperity. economic and social survey of asia and the pacific. escap, u. (2014). regional connectivity for shared prosperity. gul, n., farooq, a., & ali, a. (2022). saussure’s concept of binary oppositions: looking through the lens of the holy qur’an. al-azhār, 8(01), 111-119. hilali, a. z. (2002). the costs and benefits of the afghan war for pakistan. contemporary south asia, 11(3), 291-310. idrees, m., salman, a., & makarevic, n. (2017). china-pakistan economic corridor: the coincidence of economic expediency and political deviousness. sochi journal of economy, 11(2), 107-115. imran, s. (2020). pakastani university english language teachers' cognitions and practices (doctoral dissertation, university of portsmouth). khursheed, a., haider, s. k., mustafa, f., & akhtar, a. (2019). china–pakistan economic corridor: a harbinger of economic prosperity and regional peace. asian journal of german and european studies, 4(1), 1-15. qassem, a. s., & durand, h. m. (2008). pak-afghan relations: the durand line issue. policy perspectives, 87-102. razvi, m. (1979). pak-afghan relations since 1947: an analysis. pakistan horizon, 32(4), 34 50. sapir, e. (1921). language: an introduction to the study of speech. harcourt, brace. tambo, e., khayeka-wandabwa, c., muchiri, g. w., liu, y. n., tang, s., & zhou, x. n. (2019). china's belt and road initiative: incorporating public health measures toward global economic growth and shared prosperity. global health journal, 3(2), 46-49. wazir, n. j., tobawal, m. u., & kakar, a. r. a brief about persian poetry of khushal khan khattak. balochistan. @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). a merciless mother: nature paying back in richard power’s the overstory 458 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii a merciless mother: nature paying back in richard power’s the overstory sibgha tanveer mphil scholar, the university of lahore, sargodha someone_8912@yahoo.com maryam javed lecturer in english, the university of lahore, sargodha maryam.javed@ell.uol.edu.pk abstract the current study deals with the interdependency between human and the non-human world in richard powers’ the overstory. it further explicates the lack of coherence between human and non-human environment. one of the basic objectives of this research is to study human behavior with respect to his relation to nature and the ecosystem. the eco-critical analysis of any of the narratives reveals the attitude of nature towards mankind. the researchers contend that nature now has turned into a retaliator while formerly being treated badly in the hands of a man. therefore, it takes revenge in the form of natural disaster and brings epidemics like covid-19. the ecocritical perspective of the text leads to comprehend the contemporary set-up of environment and makes man understand what he needs to associate that goes side by. the present study suggests new research for further understanding and evaluation about the significance of the non-human world and how to overcome the upcoming environmental issues such as famines, deforestation, droughts, global warming etc. keywords: interdependency, pandemic (corona virus), human & non-human world 1. introduction nowadays, when the world is becoming a global village and different fields of studies have become an interdisciplinary hub, the interdependency of nature and other fields of studies are evident and doubtless. therefore, the relationship of nature with literature is an unbreakable connection. the human and non-human world collaborates to coexist and act respectively. the environment and the man have a connection just as the connection of a mother with her children. nature behaves as a mother and the human beings as soiled children. the more man cares about his surrounding the more nature reacts back to him. if man tries to behave destructively nature would take revenge and destroy the very existence of man in reaction. the current scenario of pandemic is also giving the same notion. it entails the story of the very relationship between nature and its habitants. the present research also elucidates the fact that human and nature react towards each other in the same manner. the man when takes care of nature, it provides a serene horizon of life to him and when he tries to destruct his environments, it simply reacts in the most rebellious way. as written in the environmental imagination by lawrence buell, in chapter three representing the environment he alludes to barry lopez’s landscapes and narrative: i think of two landscapes___ one outside the self, the other within. the external landscape is the one we see___ not only the line and the color of the land and its shading at different times of the day, but also its plants and animals in season, its weather, its geology, the record of its climate and evolution . . . one learns a landscape finally not by knowing the mailto:someone_8912@yahoo.com mailto:maryam.javed@ell.uol.edu.pk a merciless mother: nature paying back in richard power’s the overstory 459 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii name or identity of everything in it, but by perceiving the relationship in it---like that between the sparrow and the twig. . . the second landscape i think of is an interior one, a kind of projection within a person of a part of the exterior landscape . . . the speculations, institutions and formal ideas we refer to as “mind” are a set of relationships in the interior landscape with purpose and order . . . the interior landscape responds to the character and subtlety of exterior landscape; the shape of the individual is affected by land as it is by genes. (buell, 1995, p.83) the eco-critical approach makes it easier to the readers and future researchers to identify the evident connection between nature and human beings. they take the literary works and analyze the work with eco-centric perspective that is their particular emphasis is on the representation of the natural world. this opens up a new horizon of catching up the significance of the connection between the outer worlds with the inner world of a self of a person. the similar relationship of nature with the lives of different characters in richard power’s the overstory is appreciated. the story involves the lives of nine different people from different fields of life. they share a similar connection among them that is built up by nature particularly the trees. they finally got to get together to save nature. they stand up for the protection of the tress against deforestation in the story. some of them suffer different kinds of anxieties and misdirection of their goals when they ignore the silent messages from the trees. 1.1. background of the study the present research takes an eco-critical theory to analyze decadent features of nature particularly of trees responsible for rejuvenation and regeneration in the overstory by richard powers. moreover, the current scenario of pandemic is deliberately an undoubted answer to what is written in power’s novel the overstory. the research talks about how nature takes revenge and strikes back when there occurs an imbalance in the ecosystem which is been built on certain rules of nature. as it is seen in the present condition of the world that the nature is destroyed by violating the rules set by it and consequently the human race has to suffer from corona virus. an ecocriticism is a lens through which the striking features of nature are discussed. this work discusses the very powers of nature specifically trees providing shelter, food, oxygen and shadow for even after the death approaches man. in the current pandemic scenario, mankind is be confined to the four walls of his house which is evident in the story of two of the characters of the overstory; ray brinkman and dorothy brinkman. moreover, nature not only strikes back in a violent way rather it also reminds mankind that death is a reality for him but for rejuvenation nature utilized death and decadence. 1.2. research questions 1) what are the instances of nature behaving mercilessly to pay man back? 2. research methodology to carry out this work, the researcher adopted the qualitative method of analyzing this research work. there is involved a closed textual reading of the novel by power’s the overstory. the novel is taken as a primary data source. textual evidences will be extracted to reach the findings as data analysis. the data follows the eco-critical perspective of literature according to lawrence buell. moreover, textual evidences and reviews are taken as evidence to justify my work. as we are all aware of the fact that the world is going through consecutive waves of pandemic, and it is taken as one of the evidence as nature strikes back. a merciless mother: nature paying back in richard power’s the overstory 460 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii 3. theoretical framework for the present research, the researcher has chosen the ecocriticism reader: landmarks in literary ecology the work of cheryll glotfelty and the environmental imagination by lawrence buell. both the theorists have talked about the interdependency of nature with human beings. the connection is obvious between the two entities. moreover, the concept nature strikes back has been amalgamated in the present research to advocate the current scenario of the world. cheryll glotfelty is the first acknowledged founder in usa who has started this movement of talking about environment and human beings. she also co-founded the asle (the association of literature and environment). asle also has its own ‘house journal’ named isle (interdisciplinary studies in literature and environment). therefore, this is an american eco criticism striving to made ways for its set of assumptions, procedure, and doctrines. 4. literature review ali (2020) identified the problem of human violent approach towards nature. he says that human beings are taking the advantage of nature without providing the same kind of improvement to the natural world. he tries to shift our attention to the relationship of man with his surroundings. he expresses that nature is not the other rather we are a part of it. it’s necessary to act for the survival of the green world that is the main cause of human subsistence on this planet earth before the world turns into a catastrophe. he suggests that human beings should turn to the fact that present outbreak of covid-19 is a threat to the contemporary social and economic order. moreover, it’s necessary for human confidence. he states: “from critical theory studies we get to learn that disasters have social meaning, and they impact human conception of the world on both micro (psychological) and macro level (socio-political). for example in 18th century the lisbon earthquake (1755) provoked the western world towards crude materialism and challenged the providential optimism. similarly, the current outbreak of covid-19 pandemic is also challenging the contemporary corporate social and economic order and its related human confidence”. (ali, 2020) he says that this is one of the ways that nature communicates with us and reminds us how we are part of it although people take such happenings as wrath of god. he states: “in other words, such catastrophic events have the ability of destroying the ongoing accepted notions about the world. nevertheless, a proper understanding of such crises is to consider it as nature’s intervention or presence”. (ali 2020) mandal (2018) examined the perspective of postcolonial eco-criticism in arundhati roy’s the ministry of utmost happiness. she expresses the dangers of overpowering actions of mankind over nature. these will lead the impeding dangers mankind will suffer in the future. she recommends the lives of people in accordance with nature and caters upon the facts of costly living. she tries to decode the ecological imperialism in the first world. she points out some of the unethical modernization which parts in changing the actual form and shape of lower species, and comments: two bulls live in the service lane outside my flat. in the daytime, they appear quite normal but at night they grow tall… when they piss, they lift their legs like dogs… these days one is never sure whether a bull is a dog, or an ear of corn is actually a leg of pork or a beef steak. but perhaps this is the path of genuine modernity? (p. 299) a merciless mother: nature paying back in richard power’s the overstory 461 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii roy reveals that the environmental destruction of euro-american ideology of development which is a disguised form of imperialism and neo-colonialism. herdiana (2018) examined the ability of nature to heal and protect the physical and mental health of children in the secret garden by frances hudgson burnett. he explores the consequences of children interacting with nature. he finds out how a child is transitioned from illness to wellness. the powerful positive impact of nature on human health is prominent in each event of the narrative. herdiana employed the eco-critical theory in order to prove that how much it is benefitting for mankind to be in touch with nature. the interdependency of human over nature is necessary for improvement of the whole humanity. romadhon (2011) extracts evidences from james cameron’s film avatar (2009) about nature’s behavior towards its habitants. he entails in his essay that there is an inter-relational connection between human and nature. nature reacts the way man reacts to her. it heals when it’s been taken care of, and it destroys when it falls maltreated in the hands of man. in his article an analysis of environmental issues using ecocriticism in james cameron's film avatar, he states: the film entitled avatar describes the various relationship of nature with its varied characters; human and non-human. nature, in this film, conceives both as a hospitable and hostile force depend on how characters treat it. this reveals that each different character has also different opinion about nature that lead into different attitude toward it. the arrogances of human being, that consider nature as an object to explore, bring them to be apart from the rest of nature. on the other hand, the nonhuman creatures and a number of human represent as a part of nature and live in harmony with it because they respect it. (romadhon, 2011) not only the present time but nineteenth century has novel frankenstein had also an ecocritical view. mary shelley explores the crisis of environmental change in her novel when industrialization was just at its beginning. phillips (2006) examines the 19th century novel frankenstein through the lens of eco-criticism. he discovers that even the idea of writing the novel has been conceived on the stormy night on lake geneva at villa diodati. it was the month of june when the weather was turning stormy due to the erosion of indonesian volcano. this results in crop failure, starvation and other societal riots. the novel reveals underlying themes of environmental changes resulted in crisis of natural world. phillips writes: “rather than representing the horrors of the industrial revolution, victor frankenstein’s monster symbolizes the capacity of nature to instigate environmental crisis of biblical proportions.” (phillips, 2006) therefore, the role of non-human existence plays an integral part of events happen in the human world. may it be the undertakings about the outburst of natural phenomena, or changes on the individual or societal level? the eco-critical critics talks about how nature works with the human world. there is this uniformity between the two entities that holds them together to exist in harmony and balance. lawrence buell pens down the fact that both human and non-human world coexists and, in his book, the environmental imagination he quotes carolyn porter as: “we confront a virtually horizon less discursive field in which …the traditional boundaries between the literary and the extra literary have faded” (buell, 1995, p.85). a merciless mother: nature paying back in richard power’s the overstory 462 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii powers intends to emphasize on the co-relationship of human beings with its non-human environment. in the preface of the overstoryhe introduces the interdependency of nature and mankind as: that’s the trouble with people, their root problem. life runs alongside them, unseen. right here, right next. creating the soil. cycling water. trading in nutrients. making weather. building atmosphere. feeding and curing and sheltering more kinds of creatures than people know how to count. (powers, p.4) a chorus of living wood sings to the woman: if your mind were only a slightly greener thing, we’d drown you in meaning.” (powers, p.4) these lines expound how the non-human world goes side by side with the human world. the natural world is very much in collaboration with the world of machines and human beings. the balance is evidently with the support of natural world. the imbalance may lead us to the great extent of environmental apocalypticism. the ecological cycle may destruct with the modernized cause of disproportion in the industrialized world. moreover, it’s a necessary take to practice humanity which is impossible without taking care of our environment or stay apart from the nonhuman surroundings. powers quote this fact in a narrative aptitude in the first portion nicholas hoel as: “old trees are our parents, and our parents’ parents, perchance. if you would learn the secret of nature, you must practice more humanity” (powers, p.5). the researcher finds once in a while different evidences from the text to support the idea of interdependency of man and nature. the co-existent ongoing phenomenon is the only ways to the possible equilibrate in the environment. for instance, growth goes side by side in both the human and the non-human world. “when it’s time to plant, vi is pregnant. their firstborn dies in infancy, killed by a thing that doesn’t yet have a name. one of the six chestnut fails to sprout” (powers, pp.6.7). thus, both beings go hand in hand with the exposition of the work which is an evident example of how interdependent are the two entities. it’s a new perspective to analyze text with an eco-centric approach. 5. a reflection on approaching pandemic in power’s the overstory the overstory by richard powers is a novel published in 2018 and won the title for ‘the pulitzer prize for fiction’ in 2019. the novel includes nine main characters and every one of them has his/her autonomous role in their respective aspect of life. they all gather up for a solo purpose of saving the life of redwoods. although all these nine people do not know each other but there is one unique connection between them is trees. all of them have their personal connection with nature (trees) which speak to them and connect with them with their special power. the connection illustrates the humanlike nature of trees and the way they are in connection with each other. belonging to different disciplines of life doesn’t bring them peace and tranquility until they find their association with trees. the technique of personification employed by writers enables them to associate human desires, sentiments, emotions, human traits, and qualities to the non-living or living elements, often including the speeches or words uttered and gestures of the element or object that is personified. powers frequently employed this technique of personification to aware his readers to find the worlds of ‘trees’ identical to their world. if this notion is true then there is a relationship between person and trees which is not just a connection but more than that as stated in his work by powers; a merciless mother: nature paying back in richard power’s the overstory 463 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii “he feels he is casting rocks at a sentient being, with a duller sense than his own, yet still a blood relation. old trees are our parents, and our parents’ parents. if you would learn the secrets of nature, you must practice more humanity….” (powers, 2018, p. 5). the extract comprehensively gives two ideas of how personhood of nature implies deep connection of man and nature precisely with ‘trees’ in powers’ work. the relationship is of fatherson somehow. the connection doesn’t only exist in the ecosystem but it’s more like a family system. it entails all about the ancestry. moreover, if the relationship is accepted by both particularly by human beings there will be more humanity on earth and less destruction towards nature. buell has also added some lines from thoreau’s walden. buell talks about how intensely thoreau bonded himself with the pond in walden. he takes examples from thoreau’s work and has quoted as: “he writes of it as his “neighbor”, (wa 86) his great bed-fellow (272), his soul-mate in its isolation, himself feeling “no more lonely” than it: “what company has that lonely lake, i pray?”(137). repeatedly he imagines walden as a living thing. the pond is a hermit (194), a squaw (295), an eye, an iris (186, 176)” (buell, 1995, p. 208). buell also claims that personifying this planet and its elements supports lovelock to construct a bridge between ecology and ethics. the connection helps to make the masses aware of the living feature and its powers as living beings on earth. moreover, the novel is replete with a lot of personifying features of nature. among them, there is a quality of nature to give birth and nurture. that’s why many of the writers, poets and literary figures entitled nature as mother nature. like a mother, like a maternal existence it nourishes its children and provide for them. it gives life to not only its own race but also it helps the other species including human beings to survive on this planet earth. this quality of reproductive system is stated in the book by placing the planting season parallel to vi’s pregnancy. the firstborn child of the hoel’s family died equivalent to which one of the six chestnuts also fails to sprout too. nature is not only behaving as human beings but also keeps itself assimilated with them. the family suffers the loss so does the chestnut. with the passage of time the character hoel has three children and a chestnut grove too. (powers, 2018, para. 4) along with the same physical potentials, the trees share abstract ideas of emotion such as grief, mirth, happiness, anger, convulsion, and contempt. moreover, the quality of guidance and supervision is another empowering feature of trees. nature provides guard to the living as well as to the dead too. when hoel’s father dies he buries him under the same tree he planted himself. the tree casts shade like a shelter from rain and the savageness of nature in order to keep its planter under the same generosity it has gathered from him. it has the quality of being indebted and obliged. it never forgets and always be thankful to those who favors it. that’s why the chestnut tree stays thankful towards his planter even after his death. the overstory hides every now and then messages to its readers about why we should save nature. our environment needs to be preserved reciprocal to the fact that we are saving ourselves. a tree or plant if it is a living being has the same developmental stage of growth. a child born after the mother carries him/her in her womb for fix duration and gives birth at the time when he gets ready to face the world. similarly, a plant or a tree has been sown by its farmer or planter under the earth where the earth takes care of the seedlings as a fetus and helps to nourish it in a big tree or a fruitful plant. how beautifully nature accompanies with the human existence in the same a merciless mother: nature paying back in richard power’s the overstory 464 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii way. but unfortunately, mankind is ignorant of his surroundings and consciously and unconsciously confounds his environment and hurts the mother nature. as a growing child mother keeps a memory track of her child by taking pictures and by telling stories. likewise, the hoel family has this practice of taking pictures of their sentinel trees after every season to know how much it has changed and notify the developmental stages of the chestnut. the tree also keeps the same track as human beings from its childhood to adolescence, stepping into the stage of maturity and leads itself to old age and leaving the wisdom with its remnants. the life span has the history, and it must be transferred from one generation to another which is why john hoel promises himself to go with the family’s old practice of taking pictures of the chestnut tree. powers dedicated the second chapter to mimi ma. she is an engineer and the daughter of chinese immigrant. the father who is saving the family treasure and misfortune from the time his father alarms him of the upcoming industrial arrival and which would probably wipe out the very history of the family, is finally handing over the treasure the three rings to his daughter ma. man finds himself the only center and end of this universe and he takes his surroundings as a docile entity to him. this leads him to the imprudent apex of ignorance. subsequently he falls in the hands of natural castigations similar to casualties by droughts, famines, global warming, flooding, soil erosion, air pollution and to the very prominent pandemic (corona virus) the world is facing currently. there is less amount of oxygen and industrialization brings about and outburst of air pollution. this is the foremost cause of diseases likeair congestion, asthma, respiratory issues and bronchitis. the world is going through a lockdown where people distanced themselves with the outer world. man, who finds himself he ends and the center is confined to the four walls of his house. man is at fault, and it is stated by powers as: “it’s a grand, luxurious act of self-deceit, an outright lie, that claim of kant’s: as far as non-humans are concerned, we have no direct duties. all exists merely as a means to an end. that end is man” (powers, p. 314). shahzad ali validates the research’s yielding findings that man is at great fault when he thinks that he is the center and everything around him is subservient to him and his practices. in his article coronavirus pandemic: nature strikes back he emphasizes on the fact that the relationship between nature and its habitants is wrongly taken as ‘human’ vs. ‘nature’. he states that; “the problem with the dichotomy of nature versus human is that we are treating nature as an unanticipated ‘other’ and therefore consider ‘nature’ alien to our existence and progress” (ali, 2020). rather he believes on the japanese religious belief that nature is a divine being which must be worshipped to maintain the progress and prosperity of its inhabitants. the framework ecocriticism also emphasizes on this notion that nature should be taken as an existence which is responsible for the existence of mankind not the human is responsible for the existence of his environment. a glimpse to the lockdown situation is perceived in the part of dorothy and ray brinkman. the couple has promised to plant anything on their yearly wedding anniversary to compensate the inefficiency of childlessness. but for some reason they forget to perform the ritual. as stated,: “for some reason, when their anniversary comes, the brinkmans again forget to plant anything.” (powers, p. 263) a merciless mother: nature paying back in richard power’s the overstory 465 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii consequently, the couple dives into the depths of infuriation towards each other. at the brink of separation ray brinkman suffers a stroke and confines to bed. he loses the ability to speak. his wife decides to stay with him and read aloud to him to put him at calm. this gives her reason to not to leave him against her former decision. the point is validated through powers’ own words in an interview he has given to gqs brett martin. in the story, the couple learns to stay inside the silver yard visible from his bedroom window and they learn to live according to treetime. they alter into their new consciousness, and they focus on a tiny patch of natural world. the writer confirms to the source that the piece is a religious conversion. but in the current wave of pandemic, he also throws light and says: we’ve been hypnotized by this idea that we won the battle against nature, that the only modern story left—the only dramatic and interesting story—is our battle with ourselves, with each other, and with our inner demons. that’s what literature has become. the coronavirus is just a very rapid refutation of this idea that we live in a completely humanmoderated, human-mastered, human-controlled world, and that all the stories will basically be about ourselves. we haven’t even begun to see the ways in which that notion is going to fall apart in the years ahead. we’ve gotten a pretty good taste of it but, you know when this virus goes, there’s going to be another one. in order for literature to understand who we are, how we got here, and where we’re going, how to survive sheltering in place will be the smaller part of the question. the larger part is how to incorporate the reality of this moment into the story we’re telling about ourselves and our place here. (powers, 2020) thus, there is a dire need to understand and comprehend nature as a living being and without its existence the survival of mankind is impossible. the current situation is one of the reasons that mankind takes the non-human environment as a commodity. but powers says in the overstory that: “she remembers the buddha's words: a tree is a wondrous thing that shelters, feeds, and protects all living things. it even offers shade to the axmen who destroy it. and with those words, she has her book's end” (powers, 2018). mankind must remember the statement mentioned above by one of the characters of the overstory patricia to attain his salvation. conclusion the study has explored the regard for nature been forgotten by the human world and now nature is set on taking revenge from the human world. powers through the characters in his narrative the overstory (2018) expounds the need of present situation of the world. he clarifies the very connection of man with his surrounding significant existence indispensible for his safe future and survival. the paper ponders over some of the reasons of how and why nature strikes back in retaliation to its inhabitants ignorant of its existence. lack of coherence between man and his surrounding leads the world to its worse that is evident in the shape of pandemic. this study can be helpful not only in the field of literature but environmental studies too. those set to serve nature can find this novel an inspiration and this research a true reflection of their objectives. a merciless mother: nature paying back in richard power’s the overstory 466 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii references ali, s. (2020). coronavirus pandemic: nature strikes back?.review of human rights, 6(1), xxvxxxi. buell, l. (1995). the environmental imagination: thoreau, nature writing, and the formation of american culture. cambridge, ma: belknap press of harvard university press. barry, p. (2009). beginning theory: an introduction to literary and cultural theory. manchester, uk: manchester university press. mandal, s. (2018). an analysis from the perspectives of postcolonial ecocriticism of arundhati roy’s the ministry of utmost happiness. an international journal in english, 9(1), 58-66. herdiana, i. (2018). nature’s role towards mental and physical healing reflected on the secret garden by frances hudgson burnett: an eco-critical reading. vivid: journal of language and literature, 7(2), 51-56. romadhon, r. (2011). an analysis of environmental issues using ecocriticism in james cameron's film avatar. phillips, b. (2006). frankenstein and mary shelley's" wet ungenial summer". atlantis, 59-68. retrieved from: https://www.gq.com/story/richard-powers-on-next-book-virus-and-nature @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.gq.com/story/richard-powers-on-next-book-virus-and-nature code-switching in language classrooms: a comparative study of university teachers’ beliefs 407 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii code-switching in language classrooms: a comparative study of university teachers’ beliefs shaista shehzadi1, arshad ali2, and ayyaz mahmood3 1 lecturer, department of english, national university of modern languages, pakistan shaista.shehzadi@numl.edu.pk 2 associate professor, department of english, national university of modern languages, pakistan arali@numl.edu.pk 3 assistant professor, department of english, national university of modern languages, pakistan aymahmood@numl.edu.pk abstract the subject of first language (l1) usage or code-switching in relation to l2 (second language) education and learning has been a source of contention in the field of second language acquisition for decades. the assumption that first language (l1) must be used for second language (l2) education and learning has thus been supported by a number of studies, while some other works have provided evidence of the drawbacks of that l1 implementation. as of now, it is widely acknowledged that the idea of "belief" is a key factor influencing second language (l2) education and understanding. the current investigation compares the beliefs of various university teachers and instructors about the use of l1 in language classrooms in two different universities of two main cities, namely the university of lahore and the national university of modern language in lahore and multan, respectively. in this research, it has been examined whether or not multan and lahore efl lecturers have similar or divergent views on the use of l1 in their language courses. a questionnaire based on teachers' beliefs was used to collect the data. twenty efl teachers from both settings were involved in the study. the research found that the opinions of two efl teachers regarding the use of l1 for their approach to their subject of classroom management and cs for interpersonal connections were significantly different from one another. keywords: first language, second language, code-switching, language education, efl 1. introduction howatt (2004) notes that while some researchers are of the opinion that teaching l2 with the help of l1 can never help students achieve a higher level of regularity, others see l1 as a useful system for teaching current language patterns/expressions or for providing crucial guidelines. it is further persuaded that no l1 interference in education is necessary to achieve the goal of refining students' understanding of l2. similar to this, halliwell and jones (1991) think that l2 instruction should generally be focused on enhancing students' communication skills and they become better at thinking in a foreign language as a result. they found that students do not even require interpretation because they can comprehend the message without being aware of the words' actual meanings or contexts. contrarily, few researchers (harbord, 1992) agree that l1 should not be avoided when teaching l2, and that understanding l1 is necessary if you want to become fluent in l2. another argument for why learning l1 is essential for learning l2 is that if students haven't learned how to properly use the foreign language, they will not be able to express themselves clearly and will not be able to further develop their ability to reason logically (harbord,1992). considering a different study that looked at the effects of l2 education interpretation, durce (2013) found that teaching l2 through l1 translation was viewed as particularly effective in some specific situations. additionally, elmetwally (2012) notes that using an l1 will aid in code-switching in language classrooms: a comparative study of university teachers’ beliefs 408 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii successful schooling when considering the findings of work that was based on the questioning of various students and teachers about their beliefs regarding using urdu for teaching in pakistan. in her research, al.h (2010) examined the viewpoint that teachers and students in pakistan express regarding incorporating urdu into english classrooms. findings from her research showed that educators and students share a positive outlook on incorporating first language (l1) for the teaching of second language (l2). in addition, mahado (2013), who focused on the viewpoint of efl educators regarding the use of creole in language classrooms in pakistani schools, found that while urdu-only strategies can help students gain the most valuable exposure to that language, using creole can give different students the freedom to participate effectively during their learning interactions. in this way, hansen (2012) found that efl instructors prefer to use their native tongue since doing so requires adequate planning and preparation for the best way to convey english precisely. additionally, instructors of english, especially those who thoroughly research the efl regions, instructors of more scholarly subjects taught in english, and the students taking these emi and efl courses are unable to imagine how, in their practical circumstances, l1 (first language) can be completely avoid. furthermore, they are unable to understand why it should be avoided when, in reality, doing so makes learning easier and quicker and has no negative effects on or delays the process of learning a particular language. regarding their perspectives on the use of l1, there is little difference between instructors of english major learners and instructors of non-english major learners (song, 2009). additionally, this study shows that l1 may also be unavoidable in l2 classrooms, even if students have no trouble understanding what is being said. thompson (2006) emphasises the importance of investigating learner and instructor convictions in order to change existing convictions that contradict the language securing hypothesis and to support convictions that will frequently lead to more prominent learning and possible language acquiring. according to the findings of yao's (2011) review, the majority of learners are not energised by their instructors and, as a result, require more consolation. uysal and bardakci (2014) discovered in their research that instructors do not accept that new advancements can be used in their classroom settings, and as a result, most educators focused their working works on demonstrating a more conventional expressed logical technique for language structure because of variables like time constraints, crowded classes, low learner inspiration, commotion and classroom board issues, reading material, focal assistance, social apprehension, and social apprehension. another idea brought up by nuttall (1982) states, for language instructors, there is a lot of work to do. for example, they could utilize proper texts and exercises that emphasise students' consideration of the actual text. in this research, we are attempting to track down the distinctions and similitudes in the conviction of educators towards involving l1 in classrooms between efl university instructors in lahore and multan to discover, what are the explanations for utilizing l1 after extensive stretch and wide way of thinking behind the methodologies in instructing the english language in efl classrooms. 1.1. research questions 1. what are the beliefs of lahore university teachers toward the use of l1 in english language classes? 2. what are multan university teachers' beliefs toward using l1 in english classes? 3. do english as foreign language teachers at lahore and multan universities differ in their beliefs toward using l1 in the language classroom? code-switching in language classrooms: a comparative study of university teachers’ beliefs 409 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii 2. literature review several scholars and scientists have worked on language, particularly code switching. the first work we will look at is by valdes-fallis (1978), who claims that code-mixing or switching is the agreement of two different codes performed by the move. simply put, it is the combination of two different words or phrases. according to gumperz (1982), collocation refers to the combining of two different linguistic frameworks or systems. three different types of code-mixing and code-switching will predominate: first, tag switching 2) interor intra-sentential 3) at the word or expression level. code-switching is a common occurrence in language classrooms. nowadays, students have mixed feelings about the instructors switching or mixing their codes in the classrooms. according to s. krashen (1982), openness to understandable details is crucial for successful language acquisition. code-mixing, which occurs unintentionally by the teacher during class, is regarded as a special methodology to help students understand some challenging ideas by giving them a solid foundation and lowering their anxiety in the classroom setting. the use of codeswitching enables the less able students to participate in class discussions and helps them understand some complex ideas. it has been noted that code-mixing has been extremely helpful in reducing the class's weaker students' agitation, anxiety, silence, and hesitation. there are many uses for code switching. the concepts and knowledge being taught, the reading material, and student comprehensions are all communicated using code-switching. additionally, it enhances the classroom environment and helps create strong relationships between the teacher and the students. statistics show that 64% of students credit their high test scores to teachers who frequently use the code-mixing technique, which they believe helps in their understanding of the material and higher test scores (alenezi, 2010). 3. research methodology the data for this study was collected from two different university teachers in two different cities, namely efl teachers at the university of lahore and efl teachers at numl, multan. the researchers gathered data by emailing a questionnaire to ten efl teachers from both universities. the researcher used convenient sampling to collect data from ten efl teachers at each university. 4. data analysis to answer the main research questions and determine whether lahore university english teachers and multan university english teachers have comparable or variable convictions about using their first language (l1), urdu, in english language classrooms, data was entered into spss version 16. t-tests were also used to compare the results of two different groups. table 1 displays the mean, standard deviation, and standard error mean for each type of poll for two different groups. table 1 group statistics nationality n mean std. deviation std. error mean teacher’s personal lahore 2 0 12.6000 2.06219 .46112 multan 2 0 13.8000 4.9481 5 1.10644 subject access lahore 2 0 21.8500 2.79614 .62524 code-switching in language classrooms: a comparative study of university teachers’ beliefs 410 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii multan 2 0 15.2500 5.11834 1.14449 classroom management lahore 2 0 21.1500 3.32890 .74436 multan 2 0 14.1500 4.79336 1.07183 cs for interpersonal relations lahore 2 0 22.0500 3.26827 .73081 multan 2 0 14.6000 5.60451 1.25321 the t-test table is used to determine whether two groups from lahore and multan have similar or opposing views on using l1 in language learning classrooms. looking at this table, we can see that two groups from lahore and multan are participating. it demonstrates how similar or dissimilar these two groups are in terms of their commitment to involving the l1 in language classrooms. as shown in table (2), the aftereffects of methods for the primary class, which are teachers' personal, differ from the next three classifications. however, the mean of the second category, subject access, differs between groups. table 2. independent sample t-test levine’s test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means f sig. sig. (2 tailed) mean difference standard error difference 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper teacher’s personal equal variances assumed 4.802 0.000 0.324 -1.20000 1.19869 3.62661 1.22662 equal variances not assumed .326 1.200001.19868 3.666731.26673 subject access equal variances assumed 8.440 .006 .000 6.60000 1.30414 3.95990 9.24010 equal variances not assumed .000 6.60000 1.30414 3.93435 9.26565 classroom management equal variances assumed 2.438 .127 .000 7.00000 1.30495 4.35827 9.64173 equal variances not assumed .000 7.00000 1.30495 4.34764 9.65236 cs for interpersonal relations equal variances assumed 9.328 .004 .000 7.45000 1.45073 4.51316 10.38684 equal variances not assumed .000 7.45000 1.45073 4.48959 10.41041 the results of this test simply show that the method of understanding two distinct groups from two distinct cities is fundamentally very unique. however, there is no significant difference between the two groups with the main classification that addresses the inquiries from 1 to 5. all things considered, we can argue that the interest taking instructors are all efl educators who are educating in two cities with particularly similar urdu statuses; however, their conviction for using first language (l1) is varied, which addresses the main research questions. code-switching in language classrooms: a comparative study of university teachers’ beliefs 411 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii 5. discussion twenty english teachers from lahore university and multan university were interviewed. the researchers asked them a variety of questions, including their thoughts on the teaching profession and, in particular, the use of l1 in english classrooms. the researchers conducted an opinion poll to assess teachers' attitude toward using (l1) in the classroom and to learn how they handle code-switching and code-mixing. this poll consisted of four sections and nearly twenty items. perspectives of teachers to involve the first language (l1) in efl classrooms were examined under 4 sub-headings: attitudes of teachers towards those teachers who use l1 in their classroom (q1-q5); attitude of teachers towards using l1 in making students understand the subject material (q6-q10); attitudes of teachers towards using l1 in classroom, management (q11-q15); and attitudes of teachers towards using l1 in their interpersonal relations (q16-q20). the results from spss are displayed in table number 3. table 3 percentage of the questionnaire responses of each participating group n questions nationality agree % not sure % disagree % 1 if the instructor uses the (l1)/ first language in the classroom, then he/she can communicate more properly. lahore 35 25 40 multan 50 25 25 2 problems in comprehension may occur if the instructor uses the first language in the classroom. lahore 15 15 70 multan 30 25 55 3 it is believed that language is contaminated if the instructor uses the first language in the classroom. lahore 15 15 70 multan 45 05 60 4 instructors who use first languages in classroom are limited to urdu. lahore 35 15 50 multan 35 20 45 5 instructors who use first languages in classrooms are experts in english. lahore 25 40 35 multan 10 40 50 6 if the instructor is applying the first language in classroom then he/she can do so on every topic in the classroom. lahore 75 15 10 multan 20 35 45 7 grammatical points and lexical items in the text can be explained in a better way if the instructor uses the first language in the classroom. lahore 90 0 10 multan 55 20 25 8 cultural topics of course can be explained in a much better way if the instructor uses the first language in the classroom. lahore 100 0 0 multan 55 15 30 9 it becomes much easier for the teacher to explain the cultural topics if he/she try to explain them with help of the first language. lahore 90 5 multan 35 45 10 10 the content of the lesson is delivered in a more easy way if the instructor try to explain it with the help of the first language lahore 100 0 0 multan 50 20 30 11 instructors can give more clear instructions to the students if he/she uses the first language. lahore 85 0 15 multan 65 15 20 12 the use of the first language is a better and easier way of maintaining discipline in the classroom. lahore 80 10 10 multan 30 25 45 13 teachers can easily engage the student's attention in the classroom if he/she uses the first language. lahore 95 5 0 multan 35 30 35 code-switching in language classrooms: a comparative study of university teachers’ beliefs 412 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii 14 the teacher can easily make the students sit quite in the classroom if they use the first language in the class. lahore 85 5 10 multan 25 30 45 15 teachers can handle the students and give directions to them in a more easy way if they use the first language in the classroom. lahore 75 20 multan 10 25 65 16 to encourage the student more, the instructor can use the first language in the class. lahore 90 10 0 multan 30 10 60 17 using the first language in the classroom is a good and better way of applauding the students. lahore 85 5 10 multan 40 10 50 18 the use of the first language in the classroom is another way of brightening up the atmosphere of the classroom. lahore 100 0 0 multan 55 25 20 19 if the teacher uses the first language in the classroom then he/she can more easily give remarks on student's response in the classroom lahore 90 0 30 multan 35 20 45 2 0 instructors who use their first language in classroom can debate with learners more finely (reduce distance). lahore 95 0 5 multan 60 15 25 segment one: teachers attitudes towards those who use l1 in their classrooms primary question deals with the teacher’s perception towards those teachers who use l1 in their classrooms. table 3 shows that 25% lahore university teachers were not sure that using l1 in classrooms can communicate their thoughts freely and evidently. moreover, 20-25 per cent of instructors disagreed with this point. the next inquiry concerns the instructor's attitude to see whether the instructor's utilization of l1 brings on any sort of trouble in getting what the instructor is conveying or not. in total 30-40% lahori teachers disagree or empathetically disagree. almost 5-10% of the teachers agree with this point and 10% of lahori teachers and 20% of multani instructors agreed yet 15% of lahori and 25% of multani instructors are neutral. thus, it is accepted that involving first language (l1) for two settings can assist instructors with better explanation of the topic. with the responses to the assertion of, "instructors who utilize the first language in classrooms can more readily teach the learners". lahori instructors likewise would in general agree with the statement. the outcome shows that 80% of lahori instructors also agreed. while 30% of university instructors in multan agreed with this assertion. segment two: teachers attitudes to use first language (l1) in connection to understanding subject material this segment attempts to research teachers' perspectives on whether involving l1 in the classrooms will assist learners to understand the topic or not. if we talk about the past, we come to know that there was no huge contrast between the conviction of university instructors of lahore and multan in involving first language l1 in classrooms. table number 3 shows the startling after-effects of inquiry six. 15% of multan educators differ with the opinion of lahori teachers. it is found that 75% of the lahore educators agreed and strongly agreed on this point and 35% of multani and 15% of the lahori also agreed that by using l1 students understand the topic more clearly. segment three: attitudes to using first language (l1) in connection to classrooms management the researchers learned from this study that instructors who use l1 in the classroom can more easily explain the task. the outcome exhibits that 85% of lahori instructors and 65% of code-switching in language classrooms: a comparative study of university teachers’ beliefs 413 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii multani instructors agreed that using l1 helps them to manage classrooms while just 15% of lahori and 20% of multani instructors disagreed, and 15 % of multan instructors were neutral. it is accepted that involving l1 for classroom management can assist instructors to give a better explanation of classroom task. with the response to the assertion of, "instructors who utilize the first language in the classrooms can more readily teach the learners". lahori instructors likewise would in general agree with the statement. the outcome shows that 80% of lahori educators agreed while the 30% of university instructors in multan agreed with this assertion and 25% of the instructors of multan and 10% university instructors in lahore were neutral. segment four: attitudes to using the first language (l1) in connection to interpersonal relations we found in this research that instructors who code-switch from english to first language (l1) can more easily empower the learners. the outcome of this research tells us that 90% of lahori instructors agreed while, just 60% of multan university educators disagreed and 10 per cent were not sure about this. this connects well to the way that in lahore university conversely with multan universities in efl classroom instructors accept that it is important to support learners when they are trying a new language. in the last inquiry, “instructors utilize the first language in the classroom can more readily haggle with the learners (lessen distance)” while 95% of the examples from the lahore agreed and strongly agreed 05% of multan members agreed and strongly agreed and 25% communicated disagreement. 6. conclusion it has been observed that if we include first language (l1) in the language classroom, it remains a hot topic in the domain of l2 (second language) education and schooling. the current study was conducted to investigate the differences and similarities of efl instructors teaching english to university level students in lahore and multan. the findings revealed a significant difference in the attitudes of two groups. various types of t-tests were used to obtain the required results. furthermore, data is analyzed in spss to gain a better understanding of the contrasts. in general, we can argue that efl instructors' conviction in incorporating first language (l1) into classrooms differs in two distinct concentrated settings. as a result, in the context of efl and esl, using l1 in the classroom should not be studied and generalized. code-switching in language classrooms: a comparative study of university teachers’ beliefs 414 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii references adnan, m. a. m., mohamad, s., yusoff, m. a., & ghazali, z. 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(1991). on target: teaching in the target language. pathfinder 5. a cilt series for language teachers. howatt, a. p. r. with hg widdowson (2004) a history of english language teaching. khoshnaw, s. i. h. (2014). an investigation into the use of l1 in efl classes in the kurdistan region of iraq (master's thesis, eastern mediterranean university (emu)-doğu akdeniz üniversitesi (daü)). krashen, s. (1981). second language acquisition. second language learning, 3(7), 19-39. mahadeo, s. k. (2013). the l1 in l2 learning: mauritian teachers' beliefs and attitudes. in the european conference on language learning, university of mauritian, mauritian. @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). exploring the distinctive american aboriginal culture in louis erdrich's the antelope wife 18 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 exploring the distinctive american aboriginal culture in louis erdrich's the antelope wife ramesh prasad adhikary, phd orc id: 0000-0002-9889-3825 assistant professor, department of english, tribhuvan university, mahendra multiple campus, nepalgunj rameshadhikary29@gmail.com abstract the objective of this study is to investigate and analyze the various cultural aspects of native americans in louis erdrich's novel the antelope wife. this research also aims to examine how the novel challenges the marginalization of native american culture by mainstream western culture. the novel is analyzed using a qualitative approach through close reading and interpretation of the text. native american thinkers such as gerard vizenor, george elias, and anna secco provide theoretical insights that support the analysis. the research finds that the antelope wife portrays the complexity and plurality of native american culture caused by different customs, language, rituals, and religion. the novel highlights the valorization of native american culture through the lifestyle, clothing, behavior, attitudes, and values of protagonist scranton roy and other native american characters. the research also shows how the novel challenges the relative marginalization of native american culture by mainstream western culture by foregrounding native american culture. due to its rich and nuanced representation of native american society, the study concludes that the antelope wife is an important contribution to native american literature. the novel challenges the marginalization of native american culture by mainstream western culture by highlighting the richness and diversity of native american culture. the research emphasizes the importance of recognizing and valuing diverse cultures and calls for greater respect and appreciation for native american culture. keywords: diversity, marginalization, mainstream, native american culture, plurality, western culture, introduction louise erdrich's novel, the antelope wife, is the focus of this research, which examines how it assigns value to native american culture. furthermore, the study centers on the enhancement of knowledge pertaining to the richness and diversity inherent in native american culture. the actions, attitudes, beliefs, clothing, and lifestyles of the characters portrayed in the novel present the richness of their culture. the specific cultural and sociopolitical realities of native american locations are the subject of this study. the current research explores the aspects of native american culture's valorization that mainstream western culture has concealed. to advance native american culture through study, this research utilizes the insights of native american studies philosophers such as gerald mailto:rameshadhikary29@gmail.com exploring the distinctive american aboriginal culture in louis erdrich's the antelope wife 19 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 vizenor, george elias, anna secco, and others, who possess a profound understanding of the subject. through the inclusion of native american culture, mysticism, issues of salvation, and the triumph of native american cultural practices in the novel the antelope wife, which demonstrates the americans' steadfast devotion to their culture, erdrich has challenged the relative marginalization of native american society with the negative stereotypes from the west. protagonist scranton roy and other native american characters in the book illustrate this. throughout the story, the distinctive language and culture of native americans are used to highlight the distinctiveness of the american aboriginal people. aboriginal culture refers to the "living cultural heritage of aboriginal people, which includes knowledge, beliefs, values, customs, languages, laws, music, dance, storytelling, art, and spirituality" (aiatsis, 2020, para. 2). aboriginal culture is deeply connected to the land and the environment, and traditional practices and beliefs emphasize the importance of sustainability, respect for nature, and living in harmony with the natural world (aiatsis, 2020). according to gipp and amundson (2018), native american refers to "individuals who are citizens or members of tribal nations or communities, have a cultural and historical connection to an indigenous community or communities, and/or identify themselves as indigenous" (p. 20). the authors note that native american people have a unique status as both citizens of the united states and members of sovereign tribal nations, and their experiences are shaped by both their tribal identities and their interactions with mainstream american society. louise erdrich grew up in wahpeton, north dakota, where her parents used to work in the bureau of indian affairs. he was born in little falls, minnesota in 1954. in 1979, she graduated with a master's degree from john hopkins university. her chippewa heritage is reflected in erdrich's literary work, which spans fiction, poetry, short stories, essays, and literary criticism. in these works, the complicated sexual and family relationships experienced by native americans of mixed and full bloodlines are explored as they grapple with issues of identity in a white, european-american culture. louise erdrich, an enrolled member of the turtle mountain band of chippewa indians, also known as ojibwa and chippewa, is regarded as one of the most significant authors of the second wave of the native american renaissance. she examines the idea of baptism by blood, water, or the essential desire for redemption in the roman catholic tradition in her critically acclaimed a book of poetry, baptism of desire. in her book the beet queen, erdrich delves into the enduring enigma of the human condition with empathy, humor, and strength while weaving a vivid and emotionally powerful tale of desertion, sexual infatuation, jealously, and undying love. in the antelope wife, louise erdrich continues to explore the lives of the families found in her earlier novels, using her characteristic unsentimental and honest style to capture the native american experience of despair, magic, and humor. the antelope wife is portrayed as a graceful woman who remains elusive and silent, with a mystical connection to nature. her journey to find love and survive has a profound impact on the lives of those exploring the distinctive american aboriginal culture in louis erdrich's the antelope wife 20 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 around her. erdrich weaves together themes of ancestry, fate, tragedy, and redemption to create a tapestry that is both modern and timeless, leaving a lasting impression on the reader. a post-civil war cavalry attack on an indigenous community sets the tone for the antelope wife. when a newborn girl was born in the community, blue prairie women tied her to a dog's back, which the dog subsequently jumped off of in panic. scranton roy, one of the troops, dismounted and started after the infant. he took her into his arms, nursed her, gave her the name matilda, and nurtured her as his own daughter. matilda's teacher, who scranton roy married, gave birth to a boy after their union. augustus was his given name. blue prairie woman, a female, became pregnant through her husband shawano, a male, and gave birth to twin girls called josephette (zosie) and mary; nevertheless, she was compelled to leave the infant twin behind in order to look for her first-born kid. she found matilda and gave her directions, but she quickly died from a condition common to white people. she changed the name of her daughter to the other side of the earth and made plans for an antelope herd to watch over her till she passed away. the narrative then discusses the lives of scranton roy, matilda, augustus, and zosie and mary shawano's contemporary children. beads by cally whiteheart roy is the narrator and imaginative reenactor of their lives. roy is a descendant of some of those characters. although though she tended to focus more of her narration on the life of her mother, rozin, she is unquestionably a crucial character in the story. the antelope wife's core is centered on rozin's violent conflicts with cally's father richard whiteheart beads and her handsome lover and eventual second husband frank shawano. in the antelope wife, the stereotypical narrator cally narrates and combines several tales to shed light on the background of individuals and situations that seem peculiar to her. for instance, cally imagines the history of sweetheart calico, a character with unusual behavior who may be partially antelope based on cally's perception of her conduct. moreover, chapters told by a dog are inserted between cally's narratives. the novel has comedy throughout and is both tough and humorous. the two ladies, sweetheart calico and rozin, ultimately find happiness by emancipating themselves from tyrannical husbands. objective of the study 1. to investigate and analyze the various cultural aspects of native americans portrayed in louis erdrich's novel the antelope wife. 2. to examine how the novel challenges the marginalization of native american culture by mainstream western culture. 3. to provide a nuanced and complex portrayal of native american culture and to emphasize the importance of recognizing and valuing diverse cultures, specifically native american culture. the review of literature since its release, the antelope wife by erdrich has garnered several critical reviews. this exceptional book is both a complex tale of mysterious individuals and a brazenly exploring the distinctive american aboriginal culture in louis erdrich's the antelope wife 21 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 unsettling reflection on the struggle to create a future full of promise and hope out of the remnants of the past. various reviewers have examined the work from different angles. native peoples' emotionally uprooted existence as they attempt to uphold tribal customs while yielding to the temptation of the larger civilization are the topic erdrich explores. across time and across bloodlines, family stories seem to repeat themselves in patterns and waves. she presents the narrative of native americans who are uniquely valorizing their culture in a wonderfully written tale of intricate interactions among future generations. ken kessey states the following under this circumstance: the intricate craft of native american beadwork is the central metaphor upon which erdrich strings her multiple, intertwined narratives. everything is all knotted up in a tangle. a pull one string of this family and the whole web will tremble. family - both immediate and ancestral -is a tensile bond that links the novel's characters, as much a hangman's noose as a lifeline. (p. 4) hence it can be seen that the author has the best success when writing about his own people, whether they are interacting with one another or having chaotic connections with the english or americans. kessey (2006) goes on to discuss the narrative elements of edridch's works, which she uses to illustrate the native american cultures and customs. the characters in the story, which is completely alien to western culture, vividly show the family nexus and its obligation upon the members and society. the novel, keplom (2005) opinion, is smart and fascinating. the narrative begins like a nightmare with an american cavalry attack on an ojibwa village, the death of an elderly woman who utters a critical phrase, the unintended kidnapping of a child, and a mother's agonizing quest. over time, a kidnapping, suicide, and a child's death all happen. he receives a blitzkuchen recipe, a strip of lover's calico, and a blue bead necklace as signs of his fate: two complementary tales of troubled marriages generate the emotional white heat in erdrich's novel, despite the presence of many stories. sweetheart calico, silent and wrathful, is the ''antelope wife'' of the title, named for the fabric that ties her to klaus shawano, the man who abducts and enchants her away from the open places where land meets sky. she languishes in the urban prison of gakahbekong (contemporary minneapolis, where much of the novel's action takes place). even more affecting is the story of rozin -one of a number of twins who populate this populous novel -and her husband, richard whiteheart beads, the charismatic, selfdestructive man whom she feels a ''hopeless mixture of tenderness, hatred, exhaustion. (p. 23) in erdrich's story, there are a lot of inexplicable disappearances, mythical stories, and human frailties. it also has a dog that cracks sexist jokes and a lady that is bare-chested when her anniversary is approaching. erdrich highlights the contrasts of daily existence, exemplified by braided grandmothers who adhere to tradition but wear eyeliner and sneakers. love, desire, and longing have the power to seduce both men and women, who become slaves to alcohol, secrets, or hope. exploring the distinctive american aboriginal culture in louis erdrich's the antelope wife 22 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 derek wright claims that the concept of freedom may be viewed as a scientific metaphor. thus, the phrase "free state" seems to refer to the ad hoc movement of electrons about the atomic nucleus, whose speed and position may be detected, but never simultaneously, and which are said to be "in a free state" since their movement cannot be exactly charted. like the characters in the narrative, particles move in unexpected, unsuspected ways. the work eventually honors the bravery of pursuing one's predetermined route in the world and overcoming fate's trials, even though the plot occasionally sags under an excess of emotional complexity. it is a convincing illustration of erdrich's narrative prowess. like the chaotic motion of subatomic particles, the narrative's flow has a wandering, associative form of logic that encourages a variety of potentially false correspondences between its episodes. family stories pass down from one generation to the next through recurrent patterns. in a sensual novel, erdrich returns to the emotionally uprooted lives of native americans who struggle to maintain tribal customs while falling prey to the pull of larger culture. in the opening scene of the novel, american cavalry besiege an ojibwa village, which reads like a fever dream and ends with the death of an elderly lady who utters a vital line. a dramatic mingling of tragedy, farce, and spiritual revelation connects the progeny of the white soldier who kidnaps the newborn and the bereaved ojibwa mother. over time, there is a further kidnapping, a child dies, and a person commits suicide. a blue-beaded necklace, a piece of sweetheart calico, and a recipe for blitzkuchen are used to predict fate. a nude wife surprises her husband on their anniversary while the dog delivers naughty jokes in front of onlookers. men and women are enslaved to alcohol, closely held secrets, or the alluring force of hope in every generation. love, desire, and longing enchant them. this demonstrates erdrich's narrative talent through several narrations. erdrich strives to address all the many facets of native american life by developing several story strands. in this regard, aime larsen explains: the intricate craft of native american beadwork is the central metaphor upon which erdrich strings her multiple, intertwined narratives: everything is all knotted up in a tangle. a pull one string of this family and the whole web will tremble. two complementary tales of troubled marriages generate the emotional white heat in erdrich's novel, despite its inclusion of many stories. sweetheart calico, silent and wrathful, is the ''antelope wife'' of the title, named for the fabric that ties her to klaus shawano, the man who abducts and enchants her away from the open places where land meets sky. (p. 59) according to aime larsen, erdrich effectively portrays native people' cultural position by using diverse and entwined narrative styles. this story has a heavy emphasis on topics related to marriage, love, and sexuality in order to illustrate various family structures. by combining two parallel tales of unhappy marriages with a complicated familial nexus, the work is special in its own right, claims aime larsen. exploring the distinctive american aboriginal culture in louis erdrich's the antelope wife 23 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 in the antelope wife by louise erdrich, the story takes place in minneapolis, but there are connections to the ancestral land where three families, white, ojibwa, and mixed blood, were brought together. according to vanessa guignery, erdrich's writing style is a blend of geographical, human, and literary elements that create a complex narrative weaving together both native american storytelling and post-modern literature. this hybrid technique establishes a liminal territory that appears to be "cracked apart." the antelope wife, according to vanessa guignery, is a complicated book that combines ancient native american tribal culture with postmodern literature. examples of hybridization include the combination of several native american tales into postmodern literary forms. the literature review provides a comprehensive overview of the critical reviews of the antelope wife by erdrich. the reviewers discuss the themes and elements of the novel, such as family ties, native american culture and traditions, troubled marriages, mythic legends, and personal weaknesses. but they haven’t touched the issue of the uniqueness of aboriginal culture of native americans in the novel the antelope wife. this research is unique as the researcher has raised a novel issue in it. methodology this study employs a library-based approach and utilizes a rigorous discursive analytical method that draws upon native american vocabularies and authentic sources. the research is founded upon the examination of texts related to the native american cultural issue, and the application of these texts from the perspective of native american culture is used as a tool. the researchers use vizenor's (1968) writings on the issue of native american culture, as well as the theories of other native american cultural theorists such as george elias and anna secco (1992), to support the hypothesis of this research. texts, journals, and novels related to the issue of native american culture, which are used as tools to apply the perspective of native american culture to the analysis. writings by theorists on the issue of native american culture, such as gerald vizenor, george elias, and anna secco have been used for this research. this research is librarybased research, which would involve searching for and gathering relevant sources from various academic databases, archives, and libraries. the discursive analytical method, which involves closely examining and analyzing the texts and sources to identify and interpret key themes and patterns related to the research question. close reading, which involved analyzing specific excerpts from the novels to provide evidence for the hypothesis. the application of the native american perspective, using vocabularies and cultural perspectives of native american culture to analyze and interpret the texts and sources. the field of native american studies has seen an increased interest in hybridity, transnationalism, and diaspora, leading to mixed reactions. arnold krupat was one of the first critics to view native american literature as a form of resistance against efforts to establish imperial hegemony and essentialist definitions of native identity, using cultural translation, hybridity, and interstitial spaces. gerald's research in "recovering american indian intellectual traditions" focuses on native american culture and how they have been exploring the distinctive american aboriginal culture in louis erdrich's the antelope wife 24 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 "othered" by mainstream western culture. these theoretical issues have been used for the analysis of the novel. native americans have unique clothing and eating habits that are steeped in tradition. different tribes in north america had their own distinct styles of dress, headdress, and ornamentation. native americans are indigenous people who settled in parts of the united states, canada, alaska, and hawaii, and are believed to have arrived in north america thousands of years ago. it's estimated that there were up to two million indigenous people living in the united states and canada at the time of european discovery. many researchers believe that native americans migrated from asia and parts of europe by crossing the bering strait and traveling across oceans. textual analysis in her 1998 novel the antelope woman, erdrich integrates a wide range of motifs, symbols, and viewpoints pertaining to the cultural renewal processes occurring in modern native american society. these elements have been mythologically crafted to mirror the experiences, problems, events, and contradictions that many native americans face challenges as they attempt to blend their varied cultural traits and legacies into a strong and unified identity. the main images and figures illustrate a perceived gulf between native american and non-native american cultures. this division appears in a variety of dualistic pictures, such as twins, gender ambiguity, and connections between humans and animals. the novel's diversity of people, lifestyles, and viewpoints highlight the wide-ranging implications of cultural renewal and heightens its complexity. the antelope wife is a tale that depicts pictures and symbols of native american culture's resurgence and makes recommendations for how to preserve traditions while thriving in the contemporary world. in erdrich's novel, the antelope wife, the author, who is herself of german and chippewa descent, prominently features characters who share similar mixed-blood backgrounds. through the exploration of these characters and their experiences, the novel investigates the complexities and misunderstandings inherent in the concept of being "mixed" or "split." the narrative takes identity into account in light of current indian, american, and human experiences. in a 1987 interview, erdrich stressed the importance of an identity issues and the challenges associated with blending non-indian and indian cultures. her book does, however, imply that negotiating the difficulties of divided, mixed, or blended worlds is possible. lorena stookey contends that the novel's depiction of characters surviving a tragedy and celebration of the life-affirming force of the resolve to endure make perseverance in the face of apparent incompatibility an important issue. in the antelope wife, erdrich shifts her focus from the north dakota town that served as the setting for her earlier works to fresh group of people and issues in minnesota. the three complex, interrelated extended families at the core of this novel, which crosses generations and nations, are the roys, the whiteheart beads, and the shawanos. the protagonist, who stands in for three families, embodies virtues. she is an intelligent, young native woman. the characters in this work who experience existential failure are those exploring the distinctive american aboriginal culture in louis erdrich's the antelope wife 25 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 who, on the other hand, are unable to let go of the past (or view it honestly) or who are too deeply steeped in the negative aspects of current western civilization. the antelope wife goes beyond being a simple book since its themes are similar to the twin tales that are common in native american cultures. myths, which are accounts of a culture's distant past or origin, can operate as a benchmark for moral behavior. it is appropriate that there be a legendary representation of the resurgence of ojibwe culture. the writings of claude lévi-strauss and paul radin, which explore native american twin myths that relate to erdrich's story, are helpful in illuminating the mythological aspects of the antelope wife. lévi-strauss and radin both believe that twin tales are "common" and "fundamental" examples of native american myths. they are so common and well-liked among american indians that they inevitably draw notice. erdrich's work, which closely follows the twin tale pattern, shows how they have affected him. in his paper titled "the fundamental myth of the north american peoples," radin acknowledges the myth as a flexible storytelling structure. folktales, myths, and legends, he claims, "pour into each other ceaselessly and continuously" (p. 19). the "shape and substance" of myths, according to radin, "is not set," which would be impossible given the ongoing flow of new influences and goals that permeate all human groups (p. 370). radin's concept of the genre's flexibility better explains the genuine stories that he and other fieldworkers frequently encounter. it's true, he says, that every age tries to "rewrite" its folktales (370). similar to this, franz boas, one of the pioneers of anthropology in the united states, notes the diversity of generic form and content in his analysis of the northwest coast indian myths: "it would seem that mythological worlds have been built up only to be shattered again and that new worlds were built from the fragments" (p. 18). erdrich commences the novel by depicting the twins engaged in sewing, and this introductory scene serves as a formal indicator of the book's themes. the imagery in the opening passage confirms the idea of a divided and polarized world. the novel portrays the difficult circumstances faced by native americans who have lived in america since ancient times, and highlights their strained relationship with mainstream americans, who consider them outsiders in their own land. the following lines symbolize the fragmented nature of human existence, particularly for native americans: ever since the beginning these twins are sewing. one sews with the light and one with the dark. the first twin’s beads are cut-glass whites and pales, and the other twin’s beads are glittering deep red and blue-black indigo. one twin uses an awl made of an otter’s sharpened penis bone; the other uses that of a bear. they sew with a single sinew thread, in, out, fast and furious, each trying to set one more bead into the pattern than her sister, each trying to upset the balance of the world. (1) the aforementioned statement indicates how the book's basic ideas of balance and division are made plain very once. native americans' "fast and furious" labor on a complicated pattern of "bright and dark" is unequivocal proof of their dualistic existence. the antelope wife emphasizes these underlying social issues of conflict or division as fundamental and enduring aspects of myth by highlighting the legendary trait of twins. the exploring the distinctive american aboriginal culture in louis erdrich's the antelope wife 26 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 one thread here relates to humanity, through which we may dissolve all of the distinctions between native and mainstream americans, as has been done from ancient times. as it characterized as the condition of light and dark, humanity's solitary danger might stitch the hierarchy between them. despite the main character, the antelope wife, exhibits a divide between a woman and a hoofed one, the twin hero cally finds a replacement for her lost twin sister deanna. according to levi-strauss (1966), incipient twin hood, such as anything that has physical characteristics like a cleft palate or cloven hooves that give the appearance that it is going to split apart, is just as important as genuine twins in reflecting the underlying duality that is typical of myth. as seen by the fact that erdrich frequently refers to "hooved ones" rather than merely deer or antelope, she is aware that the distinctive characteristic of antelope and deer is their split hooves. furthermore, upon so hungry's marriage to a deer, she becomes connected to all creatures possessing hooves. as a result, it is deemed acceptable for the antelope, who share a hooved identity with the deer, to provide care for matilda, the daughter of their related hooved counterparts and the ancestor of the antelope wife, as they reside on the plains. lévi-strauss (1966) asserts that a twin, whether possible or actual, is always linked to and represents inborn dualities that need to be symbolically resolved or mediated (99). in the antelope wife, several characters have problems that need to be fixed or managed. these crises make up the novel's climactic scenes. native american language is used to elevate the cultural heritage of native people in the antelope wife. the novel's opening section uses native american language to highlight native american culture. the following words indicate that matilda roy, who was held captive by scranton roy and later bonded with a dog, spoke in her own language: he braced himself against her to pull free, set his boot between her legs to tug the blade from her stomach, and as he did so tried to avoid her eyes but did not manage. his gaze was drawn into hers and he sank with it into the dark unaccompanied moment before his birth. there was a word he uttered in her language: daashkikaa. daashkikaa. he saw his mother, yanked the bayonet out with a huge cry, and began to run. (50) the extracted lines demonstrate that our cultural rules do not permanently fix the association between the signifier and the signified. after spending years healing in the forest in the wake of the devastation, he "saves" the baby and raises it to become matilda roy, scranton roy's daughter. matilda seems pleased in the white world, the new society, with a schoolteacher she likes as a friend, then sister, and who would have become her stepmother. she may be aware that she is in a foreign country, but her true mother, blue prairie woman, cannot bear to lose her child and longs to be reunited with her. a blue prairie woman's close relationship with shwano led to the birth of twins. the following sentences demonstrate how marriage in native american tradition is only seen as a component of sex: exploring the distinctive american aboriginal culture in louis erdrich's the antelope wife 27 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 they got teased too much and moved farther off, into the brush, into the nesting ground of shy and holy loons. there, no one could hear them. in solitude they made love until they became gaunt and hungry, pale windigos with aching eyes, tongues of flame. twins are born of such immoderation. by the time her husband left again with his sled of traps, she was pregnant and calm. (13) the woman spends each day scanning the horizon in search of her daughter, causing her to be referred to as "other side of the earth," further emphasizing the idea of a division. in american culture, the conversation around marriage often centers on sex, but for native americans, sex did not hold such a central role in marriage. rather, it was expected that young people engage in sexual activities prior to getting married, and sex was not necessarily restricted to marriage. the character named other side of the earth is mourning the loss of a daughter to this strange white society, just like so many indian parents before them. as the death of her daughter "cracks apart" her life, she leaves her twins and travels west till she meets her first daughter. the twins were left with their grandmother, who was feeding them. they become ill while traveling with their grandparents and receive medical attention from the healers. native american cultural practice explicitly emphasizes the healing provided by healers, as seen by the following lines: those old ladies? sure! they’re healers, bead workers, tanners of hides. they make cedar boxes. or they work as language consultants in the school system. maybe one’s a housekeeper for a priest. the other dances. i hear she won the senior ladies traditional twelve years in a row. bums, they roam the streets. windigos, they ate a husband. oh, too bad, one or the other died and was buried the month before. tough luck, i missed her. (71) many native americans still follow their ancestral faiths and use conventional medicine. the high newborn mortality rate is a result of both a harsh physical environment and a high frequency of diarrhea. native american culture is inherently rooted in the ritual practice of spiritual healing. in the commercial society of today, this practice may seem important and out of the ordinary, but for native americans, it is an integral part of daily existence. these customs have been followed from the beginning of time. seven years old matilda roy satisfied in her current situation with her teacher, who would later wed scranton roy, and her "father" roy. she can sense her mother's presence and is aware of the allure of another realm. she eventually departs with the sound of clattering beads and a brief message that reads, "she came for me, i left with her," taking the blue beads that were on her cradle board when scranton saved her. the mixed feelings that many native american kids experienced when they were taken away and integrated into the white world, whether through boarding schools or other institutions, are reflected in matilda's story. they felt a great tug in their old culture and family, even if they did not completely understand it, despite the fact that they had grown to love some parts or people in the new environment. as matilda doesn't know her mother's language, she is unable to converse with her, but she is still drawn to her and her culture. exploring the distinctive american aboriginal culture in louis erdrich's the antelope wife 28 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 klaus shawano, a trader who works at contemporary powwows and is fixated with the fabled antelope woman, is introduced in the book. by receiving medication from an elder, he wants to win her over. both an antelope and a woman, the antelope wife is thought to be a direct descendent of matilda roy, who was abandoned to live among antelope. the mother of cally, rozina roy, struggles with her identity and lives in the neighborhood where klaus returns with the antelope wife. in this novel, the two episodes of hunger and thirst enhance the mythological aspects. in contrast to blue prairie woman, who gets fulfillment for her hunger by finding beauty in animal who becomes her, klaus cannot slake his thirst until he drinks from mississippi. cally's grandmother's grandma, blue prairie woman, taught her "the deer husband" story, which she has treasured and retold. as a young lady, her ancestor enters the woods to make a full lunch for herself. despite eating "the entire rabbit, she's curious to learn more. she wanted to swallow her own arm. they called her name such a hunger. with her hatchet in hand, she approaches the deer with the idea that she will eat him once he joins her. nonetheless, she finds it fascinating when she stares into his eyes since she can detect sincere yearning. instead of eating him, she shares her stew with him. the author states it in the following lines: unafraid. she had this feeling. full. so this was what other people felt. she looked over at the deer. his eyes were steady and warm with a deep black light … who he is. no different. of course, too bad that he’s a deer. still, she made a bed out of young hemlock branches and curled against his short, stiff pelt. she began to live with him, stayed with him out in the woods, and traveled with him on into the open spaces. became beloved by his family, too. (56) with her spouse the deer, so hungry is happy. she makes a decision in her kinship idiom that is typical of native american tales of her relationship to nature. instead of consanguinity, the structural relationship is based on an affinal link. this illustrates how nature is viewed as a possible companion in native american cosmology, where there is a reciprocal relationship. she thus perceives the deer as "no different." in actuality, indians in north america have a long tradition of creating tales about a husband and wife who are animals. that indicates a better and healthier connection with nature than modern americans have, who, like richard, are more likely to destroy environment or kill and eat nature than to see it as a partner. the native american society hasn't always had a harmonious connection with nature, which makes sense. and so hungry was quite keen to eat the deer before she understood he may be her spouse. similarly, other characters in the novel are willing to eat puppies in soup. in mythical stories about animal weddings, nature is not romanticized; rather, it is depicted as a partner, one that we must make an effort to get along with, just as we do with spouses. so hungry succeed in her quest despite the assistance from her family, but klaus and richard fail. the truth is that her family drags her from this world. her brothers kill her husband. so hungry still maintains close ties to "the hooved ones," who twice saved her kid. they exploring the distinctive american aboriginal culture in louis erdrich's the antelope wife 29 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 first warn her of the approaching attack, giving her time to cling to a dog's back and save her child. she eventually recommends matilda to the hooved ones after she has passed away. it's likely that matilda is the deer husband's daughter, which would explain why she's able to coexist among animals with hooves and give birth to a line of descendants who would turn into "antelope women" like the title character. it's important that this story and the other traditional tales it alludes to demonstrate that even among traditional native americans, the concept of mixed blood was not unusual. her own experience proves that it is okay to mix different racial groups, cultures, and species. she plays a symbolic role resembling that of a ‘bricoleur’. because he is thirsty, klaus notices an image that represents the strange and dangerous longing he has for his antelope wife: "he couldn't stop his imagination from changing his sweetheart into a disney character a blue fairy. her radiance increased. her words were as cold as a river, and her smile ultimately turned into a jagged expression of sympathy (94). he confuses his love for the mythical fairies from his childhood with his love for this "magical" being, who is made up of an antelope and a lady. this vision of her overwhelms him in the same way that his love for sweetheart, calico did. he feels that he must give in to his want to drink since his desires outweigh his sensitivities. in his mind's eye, she torments his thirst: his lady love was still there in the back of his mind, standing in a ball of blue light. “i’d like a drink of water,” he said to her. she had a glass of water in her hand, too, sweetheart calico, but she poured it out in front of his eyes. the molecules dissolved all around him and did nothing for his thirst. (94) his sweetheart is still seen by klaus as the disney fairy who is shown as "standing in a ball of blue light." sweetheart calico is unable or unwilling to satisfy his desire, however muc he needs and wants her to. the nutrients the fairy delivers is just as enigmatic as the molecular-looking dust it produces with her wand. so hungry's acute appetite is satisfied by developing a close relationship with nature with the help of her deer husband. traditional stories usually include descriptions of these exceptional cravings and the methods used to satiate them, which might be confusing to modern readers. if this story had been left untold, it may have become a forgotten allusion to an earlier time without any bearing on the current narrative. it is extensive and allencompassing in scope. hence, hungry's deeds have consequences and parallels for her descendants in contemporary minneapolis. one of these offspring is sweetheart calico, the antelope wife, the result of so hungry's marriage to her deer partner. furthermore, so hungry's extreme hunger and the never-ending thirst of klaus are complementary. while less blatantly or entirely animalistic than so hungry's deer husband, klaus also marries a non-human. it is logical to assume that the animal partner of klaus will also have some diluted traits given the loss of both his ancestry and his connection to the traditional customs (i.e. half-human). his connection with her is as modern as he is, including a kidnapping in a van, a wedding night spent in a hotel, and a terrible hunger brought on by alcohol-induced dehydration. exploring the distinctive american aboriginal culture in louis erdrich's the antelope wife 30 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 klaus shawano has a thirst that rivals so hungry's voracious appetite in intensity. it seems klaus has unquenchable hunger while she observes customs, communes with nature, and finds fulfillment there. his wife shares his desire for freedom. stookey (1999) wrote that the spell of their unfulfilled desires imprisoned and trapped both character and as a result, they spend their days in a state of waiting. when richard learns klaus is ill as the two of them are binge drinking, he rejects his repeated screams for help. he can't help but be drawn to sweetheart calico. this is undoubtedly the root source of both problems. cultural studies of native americans mostly interpret the culture. in order to understand cultures throughout the world, it is vital to look for fundamental absolute values. in the absence of a foundational set of values, the defense of "this is my/our culture" may end up becoming the strongest one, compelling the other side either to concede or to respect it. the promotion of native american culture depends heavily on cultural knowledge. this is particularly crucial because one of the objectives is to elevate the culture and spread it around the world, yet we have a tendency to perceive most civilizations as patriarchal. conclusion in edrich's novel, the problem of native american culture is made explicit. scranton roy, the protagonist, and other native american characters act as mediums for edrich's depiction of native american culture. native people are ‘othered’ from mainstream american society while being native americans and the novel explores this by focusing on the distinctive language, culture, rituals, and religion of native americans. characters are the finest way to illustrate how the culture is divided between the past and the present. in terms of native american culture and how it has evolved in the modern world, antelope wife represents the link between the past and the present. she represents native american culture by being both an antelope and a woman/wife. this book contains enough stories, characters, activities, and performances to understand native american culture. when describing native american culture, erdrich emphasizes the distinctiveness of words like ‘daashkikaa,’ the practice of spiritual healing, the culture of tobacco, clothing, and other rituals, as well as the pastoral setting and relationships that native americans have with their animal companions. by having her main character reflect both past and current native americanness, erdrich protects the identity and culture. erdrich succeeds in keeping her cultural stance as comparable to that of current americans while preventing native americanism from being incorporated into mainstream american history. native american culture is strengthened when native american terms like "daashkikaa daashkikaa" are used. exploring the distinctive american aboriginal culture in louis erdrich's the antelope wife 31 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 references australian institute of aboriginal and torres strait islander studies. (2020). what is aboriginal and torres strait islander culture? https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4434691 darnell, r. (1991). american indian reference books for children and young adults. englewood, libraries unlimited, inc. erdrich, l. (1998). the antelope wife. new york, ny : harper flamingo. gipp, g., & amundson, r. (2018). american indian education: counter narratives in racism, struggle, and the law. routledge. doi: http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315163585 keplom, j (2005). new lights on native american novelists in english. new delhi: sarup and sons. kessey, k. (2006). history and culture in the american context, gale virtual reference library. kuiper, k. (2011). native american culture. new york: britannica educational publishing, lévi-strauss c. (1966). the savage mind: the nature of human society series. the university of chicago press, secco, a. (1992) the search for origin through storytelling in native." rsa journal of american studies,1 (1). stoddard, a. l. (2009). purpose of a vision of quest in native culture." alternative spirituality, 12 november. vizenor, g. (1968). darkness in louis bearheart. the university of cambridge press. @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4434691 http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315163585 language of covid-19: 250 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii language of covid-19: a verbal & visual analysis of humor prevalent in caricature genre of media discourse sadia mumtaz1 munazza khurshid2 zara khalid3 1mphil scholar, fatima jinnah women university, rawalpindi 2mphil scholar, foundation university, islamabad 3mphil scholar, foundation university, islamabad abstract languages continue to develop, modify, and reshape during unprecedented situations (paton, 2020). language fluidity and its flexible nature tend to be weapons in the hands of linguists and artists to cope with unprecedented difficult times. the current situation caused by the covid-19 pandemic is posing significant socio-cultural challenges globally and specifically in pakistan. the present study attempted to explore the role of the caricature genre in covid-19 media discourse in terms of expressing humour by different verbal and visual elements of language. the sample was selected from four pakistani newspapers the nation, the express tribune, dawn, and pakistan today (january 2020 to april 2020) by purposive sampling. the data was qualitatively analyzed under the framework of gtvh proposed by attardo & raskin (1991). the study revealed that skilled integration of innumerable verbal and visual rhetoric not only functions in terms of persuading the reader through implicit humour prevailing in caricature discourse but also communicates thoughtful information with the use of various literary devices like satire, irony, symbolism, analogy, etc. in this way, media discourse strengthens and motivates individuals and governments to confront the grim situation caused by coronavirus with ultimate laughter. this study will provide insights for future researchers to explore the element of humour prevalent in social media discourse like twitter, instagram, and memes by unveiling implied meanings to better relate to the pakistani context. keywords: language, humour, socio-cultural change, caricatures, covid-19 discourse 1. introduction language is an exceptional social phenomenon which continues to work in the phase of construction and reconstruction by adopting several linguistic and visual modalities. language and society serve for a dialectical relationship (fairclough, 1992) in which language is shaped by society and society shapes the language in various circumstances. society comprises various social practices that consist of diverse social elements that can affect and can be affected by the discourse. humor is a universally practiced phenomenon which differs in its very nature across different socio-cultural contexts. in the late 19th century humor was considered as a defense mechanism against obstacles and elements of distress (freud, 1928). according to psychoanalytic theory (martin & ford, 2018), humor not only helps to release fear and anxiety but also presents the intimidating perspectives of reality in a humorous way. for freud (1905), humor serves as a catharsis for pessimistic energy. as per wilson, kasriel, and rust (1977) humor is an adaptive technique which helps individuals in better survival during severe conditions. language is fluid and flexible in nature. it encompasses various terminologies with the passage of time that is the sign of living and dynamic language. english is lingua franca and shows language of covid-19: 251 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 such synthetic powers in terms of revival of old affixes and creation of new ones (offne, 1995). this continuous growth and change are essential for life and vigor of any language. the english language is flexible and adaptable to the needs and demands of any unprecedented situation. it is slowly embracing the modifications and shifting day to day. with the passage of time, there are several changes that have evolved in terms of culture, heritage, attitude, and social environment. hence, a rigid language cannot exist, so it must be dynamic and adaptive so that it fits into every situation. according to illinois gov. j.b. pritzker, a pandemic is “an unprecedented public health challenge” requiring an “unprecedented solution” (borrelli, 2020). in the time of crises and unprecedented situations, there would be more pressure on existing language resources. language serves for fulfillment of the communicative needs of society, and it is normally considered that poor language with good intentions often do more harm than good. therefore, a good, comprehensive, and effective language is very important for successfully dealing with unprecedented situations. language change occurs at all domains; in terms of new vocabulary or word formation by the processes like coinage, blending, acronym etc, use of phrases, figurative language, visual language encompassing gestures, signs, and symbols etc. every change is linked to specific context and circumstances in which it occurs. linguistic change is directly related to the expected outcomes of a situation, it is used as a tool to accomplish certain tasks and objectives. humor is a very complicated phenomenon, and it is generally treated as “a form of social play” (vandaele, 2010). due to its varied nature its precise definition is difficult that is why different researchers attempted to encompass its variant nature by its various definitions. according to the dictionary of english language turner (1986) humor can be defined as “the faculty of perceiving or expressing what is amusing or comical”. as per attardo (1998) “linguists, psychologists and anthropologists have taken humor to be an all-encompassing category, covering any event or object that elicits laughter, amuses or is felt to be funny”. the (bremmer & roodenburg, 1997) view that humor is a message transmitted through different mediums, including action, writing, speech, or images, and it evokes smile or laughter. humor is always a complex interaction due to linguistic, social, psychological, ideological, and historical factors. due to its complex nature, humor is being studied in different disciplines with various perspectives along with linguists who studied it by focusing on various linguistic (text) and nonlinguistic means (visuals). different theories have been given in order to define, explain, and analyze humor in different verbal and visual comics. caricature is an important but oblivious genre of media discourse in pakistani context specifically in covid-19 circumstances. caricature artists/ cartoonists adopt several techniques like labeling, exaggeration, symbolism, analogies etc to create humor. there always lies an implicit or hidden meaning in this form of art by means of verbal and visual tactics in order to express their opinion with changing times, targeting particular audiences. a small image or short text expresses a trend, psyche, society, culture and belief (shaikh, tariq, & saqlain, 2016 ). it is an art or skill in the hands of artists to target a larger audience. caricature artists are integrating literary devices along with visuals to create humor in order to spread awareness and persuade people towards particular interpretation. along with persuasion, it also serves for ridiculing or criticizing any thought, person, or situation through text and graphics. this study attempted to investigate both verbal and semiotic language structures employed in covid-19 caricatures in terms of humor formation. the framework for analysis is adopted language of covid-19: 252 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 from general theory of verbal humor (gtvh) developed by attardo & raskin (1991). according to attardo & raskin (1991) model of analyzing humor, there are six elements that can contribute towards humor depiction: 1. the language (la): it accounts for phonological, morphological, lexical, syntactic, semantic, elements for verbalization of text. 2. narrative strategy (ns) includes strategies employed for narration like dialogue-type, expository, riddles etc. 3. target (ta) is described as an individual, a group, behavior or an ideological target that is criticized and ridiculed. 4. the situation (si) usually refers to the social context of humor. 5. the logical mechanism (lm): relationship between figure and its background. 6. script opposition (so): it involves overlapping and opposing concepts the primary concern of this theory is to analyze language structures with respect to six elements provided by the gtvh model in order to understand how the genre of caricature/cartoon in media discourse is helping individuals to cope up with difficult times in a lighter mood and less stress. 1.1. statement of the problem the study focuses on the role and use of different strategies for creating humor through caricatures in covid-19 discourse of pakistan. languages always play a vital role in unprecedented times. it continues to adapt various possible forms to achieve certain targeted outcomes. the current covid-19 pandemic has a strong linguistic impact along with certain other repercussions, so the intended study attempted to unveil the role played by media discourse by using several verbal and nonverbal linguistic modalities for creating humor in order to cope up with difficult situations. 1.2. significance of study this study is an attempt to provide a comprehensive analysis on the powerful role of pakistani caricature discourse in creation of humor to produce a soothing effect on an individual’s nerves during covid-19 misery. the current covid-19 pandemic is bringing change in society and language is shaped by society, so it is changing with the passing time and circumstances. this study will reveal that integrating humor with new covid-19 related words and vocabulary is an effective strategy to confront distressing issues and to raise awareness. this study will contribute to existing pakistani literature in terms of elucidating visual humoristic function through caricature genre in pakistani context targeting specifically covid19 media discourse. it will provide an opportunity for other researchers to explore the role of humorous verbal and visual mediums as a powerful way to teach kids about covid-19. 1.3. research gap this study tried to fill the gap of research based in pakistani context, on elements of humor in covid-19 discourses. it will contribute towards exploring the most essential and effective element of creating laughter and amusement in this nerve-racking situation caused by a pandemic. 1.4. delimitation and limitation of study the study is delimited to the caricature genre of media discourse due to limitation of time and resources while it is limited to qualitative analysis of caricature discourse and does not account for an experimental analysis due to current lockdown scenario caused by covid-19 pandemic. 1.5. operational definitions of key terms language of covid-19: 253 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 following are the key terms used in this study along with their operational definitions: hyperbole it tends to be an expression of exaggeration used to ridicule or create humor by over emphasizing the content. symbolism it is a term used to convey meaning beyond its literal purpose which is often used to symbolize two different abstract ideas. satire satire is a figurative device used to criticize, ridicule, and expose one’s stupidity or vices especially in the context of politics and other topical issues. idiom it is a fabricated language which presents meaning other than its literal meaning. irony irony is a literary technique which signifies the ultimate opposite of what is literally spoken or written to create humorous and emphatic effect. metaphorical proverb it is formulaic language that is based on traditional insightful sayings that refers to one thing by mentioning another. sarcasm sarcasm employs humorous ways to mock someone or something. 1.6. research objectives ➢ to analyze the impact of language change for generating humor during covid-19 in pakistan ➢ to explore linguistic and visual strategies causing humor prevalent in pakistani caricature discourse 1.7. research questions 1. how language change is contributing towards creating humor during covid-19? 2. what are the strategies employed in pakistani caricatures for humor enactment? 2. literature review covid-19 is setting new norms and innovations in the linguistics field too. different linguists and researchers are contributing their part to deal with exceptional situations with more responsible and productive ways in order to fulfill certain requirements. language change often tends to be initiated under different pandemics, epidemics and other socio-political circumstances (paton, 2020). the earliest of this appears in the 1347-50 age of great plague, termed as ‘pestilence’ later reduced to ‘pest’ having different connotations nowadays. smallpox (1560s), epidemic, pandemic (17th century), black plague (1600s), black death, selfisolate, self-quarantine (17th century), self-quarantined (adjective) etc, names to report different infectious diseases in different sudden situations. due to expansion of world, the diseases also expand and so do language and reported several new and modified linguistic developments like yellow fever (1738), spanish influenza (1890) reduced to spanish flu in great epidemic of 1918, polio (1911) from poliomyelitis (1878), aids (1982), sars (2003), and corona virus due to its resemblance with solar corona appeared first in 1968 but now it is part of every discourse in 2020 due to great devastation caused by coronavirus also known as covid-19. language of covid-19: 254 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 humor is universal but culture specific. according to (jiang, li, & hou, 2019) different individuals perceive humor differently with respect to their socio-cultural context. the study argued that both eastern and western cultures mostly use humor as a coping strategy in order to deal with difficult situations, but their frequency of usage and perceptions may differ. different psychologists suggested that humor tends to boost our immune systems by relieving additional stress, anxiety, and tension. thus, contributes towards optimistic emotions and notions (cheung & yue, 2012), (martin & ford, 2018), (lefcourt, 2001). a research study was conducted by susan (2020) on the impact of changing language in unprecedented times. researcher reported the use of technical vocabulary used during covid-19 pandemic crafted from public discourses. the study suggests that language choices are sub consciously crafted in unprecedented times and serves as an only effective medium for the construction of a sense of responsibility in the public. different linguistic choices like choice of words, phrases, metaphors, and other grammatical elements are strong enough to achieve certain outcomes during unexpected situations of pandemics. in the context of global crises during various pandemics, many words and phrases have become frequently used and become part of everyday discourse. these are certain linguistic developments that are continuously studied by various researchers. the oed editorial (2020) analyzed the language corpora in terms of language used during covid-19 in various discourses. frequency of covid-19 vocabulary was analyzed from december 2019 to march, 2020 that shows various developments in language usage, semantic differentiations, grammatical transformations etc. this study depicted how an unprecedented situation motivates language resources to increase their exposure and usability with various reshaping and reconstruction of available resources. there is increased usage of some words during covid-19 pandemic which were observed and analyzed by different researchers and lexicographers. semantic webs and word-formation approaches of covid-10 vocabulary suggested the increased frequency of usage along with most words being modified, coined, blended, and clipped in order to produce diversified meanings. these words are dominating the global discourse nowadays through government statements, science papers, international policies, social media, newspapers, and other mediums of communication (li, 2021). current global situation suggests that social change brings immense linguistic change. covid-19 a shorten form of coronavirus disease 2019, (wfh) working from home first attested as noun in 1995 and as verb in 2001, self-isolation (1834), self-isolating (1841), social distancing (1957) , the term infodemic (a portmanteau word from information and epidemic) coined in 2003 for the sars epidemic , ppe (personal protective equipment) 1977. there are number of slang terms that were introduced during covid-19 for creating humor in depressing time like covidiot (a blend of covid-19 and idiot) who disregards healthy and safety guidelines about corona virus, zoom-bombing (interruption of unwanted guests during zoom meetings), doom scrolling (tendency to scroll bad news), clipping of corona to ‘rona’, zooming (as a verb), etc (oed, 2020). 2.1. previous studies in a study done by shaikh, tariq, and saqlain, (2016), a semiotic analysis of political cartoons published during the 2003 election was explored. it presented a clear picture of how communication tools through the internet and mass media integrate to produce dominant political https://oed.com/view/entry/88407009 language of covid-19: 255 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 themes. the study analyzed the manipulating strategies used in political cartoons in terms of persuading to vote in favor of respective parties. the study on political caricature discourse depicts the role of symbolic significance in terms of carrying social and ideological meanings (abdulrafay & khan, 2018). the researchers analyzed the role of print media in manipulating the public opinion in favor of different political parties. the cda of the study suggested the biases of print media toward the government and ridiculing the opposition parties by its humorous caricature discourse. according to niaki and rakhshandehnia ( 2015), humor is considered as a consequence of civilization by which ideologies are introduced in society and contribute towards power and dominance of certain groups and classes. the researchers explored the humor discourse prevalent in short story “spring in the ashes” by zakria tamer, which employed the use of verbal, situation, and character humor to depict distancing of syrian people from humane-islamic life. political cartoons constitute a multimodal genre within media discourses. the sani (2012) examined the role of verbal and visual elements of political cartoons formulated by nigerian cartoonists to construct a satire to initiate positive and local reforms in nigeria. the study concluded the lexical typology comprises five elements; coinage, loan word, word class, connotation, and denotation along with the frequent use of interjections to express their strong emotions and feelings. the research study by baig (2019) suggested the usage of both semiotic and linguistic discourses as a powerful means of constructing desired belief and achieving preferred response. the study explored the role of humor in advertising genre. the researcher wraps up the study with the finding that humor is monotony breaker and serves for bestselling strategy for advertisements. individuals are persuaded by the humor and marketers are employing humor as a weapon in advertising discourse. they recommended the use of sensible and intelligent use of humor to promote the products and if it is handled properly, it will captivate the interest of consumer towards the product. another study exploited the use of syntactic structures to enhance humor recognition. experimental analysis and results demonstrate that independent syntactic structures can help to identify the kind and content of humor (liu, zhang, & song, 2018). linguistic insights of the study cited those humorous texts use simple words with complex sentence structures, more vivid with auxiliary adverbs, negation and rhetoric questions, involve more personal pronouns and questions as in conversations. this study provided a completely new insight of humor computation by indicating stylistic characteristics of humor. the study by tsakona (2009) suggested the complex nature of analyzing humor due to its implicit nature. the study stated that in cartoon discourse meaning is created through two semiotic modes: visual and verbal for communicating a message implicitly. researchers used the framework of gtvh with a social semiotic approach to identify pun, exaggerations, contradiction, and neologism etc. which accounts for encoding of humor. the study concluded that in cartoons there are humorous representations of beliefs and views that are all part of visual literacy. change is the central element for the healthy growth and development of language. in an unprecedented situation, language plays a vital role for meeting communicative needs of a society by adapting and reshaping new vocabularies, linguistic and visual modalities of a language via certain processes. humor is playing a crucial role in terms of coping up with the current situation language of covid-19: 256 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 with a sense of relief and responsible behavior by using rhetoric for convincing and communicating an imperative message. 3. research methodology the current study employed a qualitative approach and is exploratory in research design. a qualitative research approach presents a more detailed and comprehensive overview of the problem. barbour (2008) stated the importance of qualitative methods as they expose and pick up the mechanisms existing between different variables with detailed explanations and interpretations. it also provides an opportunity to explore “embedded processes” (barbour, 2008, p. 13). hence, a qualitative approach was adopted to explore the synthesis of verbal and visual strategies in order to create humor amid covid-19 pandemic. the sample consisted of caricatures on covid-19 from four pakistani newspapers; (the news, the express tribune, pakistan today, dawn) and sample is drawn by purposive sampling from january 2020 to april 2020. the framework for analysis has been taken from general theory of verbal humor (gtvh) developed by attardo & raskin,(1991) focusing on five main elements of theory except (script opposition/so) to analyze humor with respect to its targeted socio-culture context. the study explores both verbal and visual elements of caricatures embedded with implicit goals and targets to be fulfilled through skilled usage of language structures. the primary concern of this theory is to analyze language structures with respect to six elements provided by the gtvh model in order to understand how incorporation of humor in the genre of caricature/cartoon in media discourse is working along covid-19 pandemic. 3.1. theoretical framework different linguistic theories emerged for producing humorous effect in terms of semantic, pragmatic, and syntactic viewpoints. two most influential linguistic theories of humor are semantic script theory of humor (ssth) formulated by raskin (1985) and general theory of verbal humor (gtvh) developed by victor raskin and salvatore attardo (1991). ssth deals with cognitive linguistic structures to make text funny and humorous while gtvh accounts for six elements or knowledge resources to expose implicit humor in text. according to (attardo, 1998), gtvh can be applied to a variety of humorous texts that can range from short narratives like simple jokes to long narratives like sitcoms, comics etc. the (paolillo, 1998) adopted gtvh for the analysis of comics and stresses which recommends its “easily extendable nature to visual humor such as comics”. language of covid-19: 257 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 fig. a. attardo and raskin (1991) model of analyzing humor 4. data analysis following are the data selected by purposive sampling, representing different covid-19 caricatures in pakistani context. all these caricatures appeared during covid-19 from december 2019 to april 2020 in pakistani newspapers; (the news, the express tribune, pakistan today, dawn). the data has been explored and analyzed in the perspectives of incorporating verbal and visual tactics to instill humor in targeted audiences during covid-19 pandemic. covid-19 pandemic is bringing social change along with linguistic change (oed, 2020). it is leading towards the use of old words but with increased frequency in addition to new words formed by coinage, blending, compounding, and words having different connotations. language change exhibiting through caricatures in media discourse is often an innovative technique which serves as a means of attracting audience in twofold discourse attributes. figurative devices play a significant role to convey implicit meanings which are used by caricature artists to satire, symbolize and exaggerate the existing covid-19 pandemic situation. figure 1, 2, 3, 4 data interpretation in term of gtvh knowledge resources fig.1 fig.2 fig.3 fig.4 logical mechanism symbolism & satire symbolism & irony satire satire via metaphorical proverb situation population response towards lockdown lockdown confusion during covid-19 lack of clarity towards covid-19 gov irresponsible response towards who target pakistani population & government government of pakistan government of pakistan government of pakistan narrative strategy newspaper caricature newspaper caricature newspaper caricature newspaper caricature language verbal/visual verbal/visual verbal/visual verbal/visual language of covid-19: 258 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 fig.1. dawn newspaper fig.2. dawn newspaper language change: the word ‘lockdown’ has several connotations with passing time. initially in the 19th century ‘lockdown’ meant for enforced isolation for security and now in covid-19 situation it is used in the sense of staying at homes. lockdown is frequently used in two senses in pakistan i.e. complete lockdown (areas completely banned for any kind of movement), smart lockdown (closing of selective areas that are experiencing virus outbreak). in fig.1, a man is standing on a pump labeled with ‘lockdown’ and using that pump to fill up air in the balloon that is symbolical of coronavirus. here two symbolisms are used for the meaning making process; one is lockdown ‘pump’ along with ‘man’ depicting pakistani population response towards lockdown and the other one is coronavirus shaped ‘ball’ that is symbolic to the current covid-19 situation. it is an implicit satire on the pakistani population that are intentionally violating the lockdown and thus increasing corona cases rapidly. the fig.2 represents the two thoughts prevailing in pakistan; one who are in favor of partial lockdown and other who are in favor of complete lockdown while the pakistan flag on a car is symbolic to the whole pakistan. another hidden relation is made by pointing complete lockdown towards the sides of pakistani minorities with white side of the flag while partial lockdown is at the green side that accounts for majorities of pakistan. this presents the irony of pakistan in terms of dealing with covid-19 response where minorities are poor people and middle-class population overcoming the difficulties due to complete lockdown whereas majority depicts upper middle and elite class that are experiencing partial lockdown. fig.3. the nation fig.4. the nation language of covid-19: 259 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 satire is a criticism wrapped in humor, employed to ridicule a person, thought or action. the colored caricature of the pakistani prime minister in fig.3 portrays the lack of clarity in terms of dealing with coronavirus with full confidence and coolness. blindfolded image with a thumbsup sign expresses pakistan’s attitude towards the corona situation. government has no clear policies, sound initiatives and plans but still showing buoyancy that everything is alright and under control. in fig.4 satire is represented using a metaphorical proverb (go in one ear and out the other) with excellent integration of imagery with smart labels. a man symbolizes the world health organization (who) that is showing great concern for the pakistani government while government response is just like nothing hence paying no heed towards alarming notices. listening from one ear and excluding it from another. figure 5, 6, 7, 8 data interpretation in term of gtvh knowledge resources fig.5 fig.6 fig.7 fig.8 logical mechanism idiomatic language/irony analogy/symbolism & labeling satire symbolism situation population irresponsible response towards quarantining families suffering due to corona mishandling of situation; eating & resting comparing women of baby speck vs. corona speck target pakistani population pakistani families pakistani people pakistani females narrative strategy newspaper caricature newspaper caricature newspaper caricature newspaper caricature language verbal/visual verbal/visual verbal/visual verbal/visual fig.5.the nation fig.6. the nation fig.5 flattening the curve in covid-19 situation refers to a community isolation measure in order to keep the number of corona cases at minimal. idiomatic language is also introduced during covid-19 in order to produce certain effects through verbal and visual mediums. while here in the above figure pakistani population is depicted as flattening the curve of their belly fat by eating and resting during quarantine days. this social reality is depicted in quite a humorous language of covid-19: 260 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 way in terms of the harsh irony of the pakistani population who are wrongly interpreting the corona situation and increasing other serious problems by their irresponsible attitude towards corona precautions. fig.6 symbolism is an important medium of communication that helps to analyze deeper meaning of text and visuals. this figure illustrates the existing condition of pakistani families. the artist integrated the visuals and textual tactics to create humor by utilizing symbolism. mother with three kids crying is symbolic to prevailing tensions and situations in pakistani families due to the enclosures of schools during covid-19. labeling and analogy: to have a humorous effect, ‘coronavirus’ is labeled as an analogical term to ‘rona virus’ by making an implicit comparison in both due to similarity of impact and consequences. it has been depicted that in the world, people are more concerned about coronavirus and its destruction while pakistani families are more triggered due to ‘rona virus’ because both are making life miserable however in different but relatable contexts. fig.7. pakistan today e-paper fig.8. pakistan today e-paper coronaspeck is a newly invented slang term during covid-19 which has connotation of a person having increased fat during quarantine situation and its literal meaning is ‘coronavirus fat’. this word in fig.7 is itself satirical and ironic targeting the population of a country who are erroneously handling the quarantine situation by eating, resting and watching netflix. in fig.8, two women are being compared; one with low fat who is experiencing fat due to baby birth ‘baby speck’ while other women symbolizes women with increased fat during coronavirus situations due to eating and resting in the days of quarantine, lockdown and isolation. figure 9,10,11,12 data interpretation in term of gtvh: knowledge resources fig.9 fig.10 fig.11 &12 logical mechanism exaggeration, symbolism & satire labeling & sarcasm labeling and satire situation tiger force performing like turtle reality of lockdown smart lockdown & economy revival as blind folded target gov tiger force pakistani government pakistani government narrative strategy newspaper caricature newspaper caricature newspaper caricature language verbal/visual verbal/visual verbal/visual language of covid-19: 261 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 fig.9. the nation fig.10. the nation exaggeration and satire: humor usually embeds satire; its basic purpose is to have a punching remark on bitter realities prevailing in the country with a crisp of humor. in fig.9 tiger force is symbolically related with turtle due to its slow speed. the cartoonist exaggerated the notion of tiger force that was formulated by the pakistani government for spreading awareness about the corona pandemic. turtle is known for its slow speed and lazy nature and that is symbolized by labeling of ‘tiger force’ on it because it is assumed in pakistani context that tiger force is of no use, and they are not performing precisely in corona situation. labeling and sarcasm: the fig.10 depicts sarcasm expressed by different language structures adopted for creation of meaning. ‘sarcasm is sharp, bitter, cutting expression tempered by humor and largely context dependent’. here sarcasm is employed by an ambivalence strategy that is mixing two opposite concepts. it clearly targets the government’s current initiatives in terms of smart lockdown and points out the fact that when you only pretend to have lockdown but in reality no lockdown is practiced that is what smart lockdown is in pakistan. fig.11. pakistan today e-paper fig.12. pakistan today e-paper labeling and satire: the above comparative figures (fig.11 and fig.12) depicts how language changes with changing situations, visuals are same but utilized in two different contexts by cartoonists. it largely contributes towards the notion of how language is shaping society. in the language of covid-19: 262 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 right figure smart lockdown is illustrated as blindfolded people that do not know where to impose and where to lift. this image is situated in black background to have a special effect in terms of meaning of walking in the dark without knowing where to go in a stable way. all this leads to satire on government policies and initiatives in terms of smart lockdown. figure 13,14,15,16 data interpretation in term of gtvh knowledge resources fig.13 fig.14 fig.15 fig.16 logical mechanism symbolism & satire analogy/symbolism metaphorical reference of proverb/satire labeling, pun & satire situation crucial situation of pakistan against coronavirus no social distancing leads to death gov verbal threats but no action gov calm attitude towards increasing corona cases target pakistani gov & population pakistani population pakistani gov pakistani gov narrative strategy newspaper caricature newspaper caricature newspaper caricature newspaper caricature language verbal/visual verbal verbal/visual verbal/visual fig.13. dawn newspaper fig.14. dawn newspaper symbolism and satire: the above fig.13 depicts a satire on the situation in pakistan due to covid-19 pandemic that is leading its people towards death due to ill management and lack of clarity in actions and plans. a big crocodile is symbolized as coronavirus due to its hazardous nature while pakistan is symbolized as an ambulance due to its critical nature that is on verge of death and destruction. here in fig.14 the cartoonist employed an excellent use of analogy between social distancing and death for demanding seriousness towards the current situation in a humorous way. ‘six foot apart’ is analogical to the concept of social distancing in current situation which says to have approximately six feet distance from each other and ‘six foot under’ is analogical to death because in muslim culture people are buried which measures about six foot down the earth. language of covid-19: 263 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 fig.15. pakistan today e-paper fig.16. pakistan today e-paper usage of proverb for satire: “a man of words but no action” this is what represented in above fig.15 to convey the real essence of verbal threats by the pakistani government. the image is in resemblance with the pm of pakistan and used as a synecdoche to account for the whole government. labeling and satire: again, a satirical situation is depicted in the above frame fig.16 and pakistani cartoonists are taking a dig at the government in terms of increased number of corona cases in the country and the government’s silly attitude towards it. here ‘explosive rise’ is used as pun in order to relate the current situation with virus devastation. visual contributes towards a great meaning making process along with text. coronavirus is spreading quickly and is near to have an explosion, but the government is still calming the population and waiting for a huge rise. figure 17, 18 data interpretation in term of gtvh knowledge resources fig.17 fig.18 logical mechanism exaggeration, irony ironic & satirical situation government childish response towards adverse destruction of virus pretending to impose forced lockdown by confused government target pakistani government pakistani government narrative strategy newspaper caricature newspaper caricature language verbal/visual verbal/visual language of covid-19: 264 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 fig.17. pakistan today e-paper fig.18. pakistan today e-paper exaggeration: sometimes the cartoonist uses the exaggeration technique to overdo the thoughts and action. here in fig.17 depicts the irony of the situation existing in pakistan by utilizing exaggeration strategy. this shows the intensity of covid-19 pandemic and implies that huge destruction of coronavirus is causing a lot of casualties and economic crises in pakistan while the pakistani government response is just like a small bucket of water which is no threat for the virus at all. the above fig.18 illustrates the attitude of the government towards covid-19 situation that is ironic and satirical in its sense but embedded in humor with great use of imagery. comics and caricatures are largely context dependent, and it usually consists of an implicit meaning that contributes towards huge phenomena. here the confused attitude and response of the government is represented through text and visual integration. government is trying to practice law by force but do not have clear plans and policies on what to do and how to tackle the current situation. government itself, caught in its ambiguity, just likes walking on a curved slide having no way to move on despite just sticking to one position and pretending the enforcement of practicing law in covid-19 scenario. 5. results and discussions an analysis of above-mentioned data, using the framework of gtvh (1991) truly reveals that media discourse is synthesizing implicit verbal and nonverbal techniques for creating humor along with absolute wit and serious awareness in destroying the situation of covid-19 pandemic in pakistan. the study revealed that there are immense vocabulary changes and language modifications that are exposed in the caricature genre used by pakistani artists to convey implicit humor. the selected and analyzed images suggested that collision of verbal and nonverbal tactics are creating outright humor and one of the most frequent textual strategies is use of figurative language however images are most often adopted as visual strategy. figurative language is significant in terms of exposing two-fold meanings and conveying hidden meaning, so the caricature genre is leading its way to impart implicit humor. the images depicted momentous impact of language like innovation of new terminologies like coronaspeck, rona virus (c.f. figure 6,7,8), along with usage of several idiomatic phrases ‘flatten the curve’ and proverbs ‘go in one ear and out the other’ to present unusual circumstance in unusual, comical, and witty way (c.f. language of covid-19: 265 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 figure 4,5). the analyzed genre explored some analogies that are been utilized for creating awareness and cautioning from destructive situation of covid-19 pandemic by taking precautionary measures like ‘six feet apart or six feet under’ (c.f. figure 14). the caricature artists ridicule the government prerogatives (like tiger force, smart lockdown) in terms of combating coronavirus situation by implicit satire, sarcasm, and humorous sarcasm (c.f. figure 9, 18). the visuals made for showing government’s ambiguous strategies like blind-folded cartoons (c.f. figure 11,12), imprecise initiatives and static verbal dialogues for imposing smart and complete lockdown is showed in a completely new way through caricature genre (c.f. figure 2,10,15). comical cartoon characters and images are being produced to show deadly coronavirus and irresponsible yet humorous attitude of pakistani population and government towards it (c.f. figure 1, 16, 17). the data suggested the targeted audience to bring change in their non-serious attitude towards coronavirus and instead of resting, eating during quarantine and increasing ‘coronaspeck’ they should adopt suggested measures of who like social distancing, smart lockdown, exercising and thus maintaining healthy habits. they also visualized the hilarious situation of houses due to enclosures of schools amid covid-19 pandemic and coined a new term ‘rona virus’ to make it relatable. media discourse is presenting deep moral lessons comically yet intelligently by not only exposing the situation prevailing in pakistan amid covid-19 pandemic like exponential rise in covid-19 cases despite lockdown and other measures but also suggesting to adopt requisite attitude to avoid surplus destruction. 6. conclusion evidently, the current research study analyzes the humoristic expression integrated with both verbal and visual elements in covid-19 discourse through caricature genre. the selected data presents a vivid picture of the current covid-19 situation of pakistan along with government and population attitude/response towards it. the study concluded the fact that there exists a dialectical relationship between language and society, in a current situation changing circumstances is affecting language change by including new or modified vocabulary in addition to certain slang terms that are used in quite humorous ways. figurative language is frequently used for textual interpretation of language while images were used as nonverbal tactic for creating humor. caricature discourse account for two main functions by standing with notion of ‘to kill two birds with one stone’; first one is being rhetoric in function i.e. attracting and persuading individuals by employing various language structures for creating humor and other function is to communicate productive information by using satire, irony, exaggeration, symbolism and analogy to bring serious attention towards coronavirus situation. therefore, it suggests that by the incorporation of healthy habits and serious attitude we can combat coronavirus situation in quite productive way so instead of just eating, resting and lack of practical implications of so-called smart lockdown policy, we can practice it with responsible attitude by taking preventive measures and maintaining healthy routine to decrease mortality and infection rate. the study further contributed that humor is an effective strategy for confronting a covid-19 situation with increasing laughter and ease. it will help to achieve better results by mocking the government and population attitude towards the coronavirus situation implicitly in a humorous way thus creating an eye-opening context if not handled properly. the humor element prevalent in caricature genre is contributing to cope up with covid-19 hard times; with sound introspection, developing a sense of responsibility, logical actions both from government and citizens. this study recommends language of covid-19: 266 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii.363 future researchers to explore the role of other covid-19 discourses for creating optimistic notion of motivation for individuals in difficult times by revealing various implied meanings incorporated through linguistic and nonlinguistic linguistics features in various discourses. language of covid-19: 267 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 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(1977). genetic and family origins of humor preferences: a twin study. psychol. rep. 41, 659–660. doi: 10.2466/pr0.1977.41.2.659. @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). a contrapuntal analysis of othering in rabindranath tagore’s “kabuliwala” and tariq rahman’s “charity” 349 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii a contrapuntal analysis of othering in rabindranath tagore’s “kabuliwala” and tariq rahman’s “charity” ms. yamima edwin1 dr. atteq ur rahman2 1ph.d. scholar of english, islamia college peshawar 2assistant professor of english, islamia college peshawar abstract this research paper analyzes two modern short stories rabindranath tagore’s “kabuliwala” and tariq rahman’s “charity” through the conceptual lens of othering. within the broader theoretical framework of postcolonialism, the concept of othering entails the dichotomy of the demonic other and the exotic other. the mentioned writers, through their respective characters of the kabuliwala and the clerk, provide an insight into the stereotypical discourse which constitutes and permeates a society segregated on the basis of cultural and class differences. through a contrapuntal analysis of the said texts, this paper explores how the dominant community perceives and stereotypes the marginalized as the other. it also propounds the reasons behind the psychological constructions of fear and fascination revolving around the other, whic1h contribute to forming the image of the demonic and exotic other. the aim of the paper is to make the readers realize the significance of the acceptance of the other in order to build a society inclusive of all its multiple divisions. key words: othering, demonic and exotic other, marginalized, dominant, community introduction cultural and class differences permeate in any multicultural society whose individuals are either ignorant or discriminatory of its marginalized communities. the roots of segregation, marginalization and alienation lie in the diverse categories of class, culture, race and/or religion. such categories give birth to essentially two divisions within a society, the dominating elites and the suppressed groups. rabindranath tagore’s “kabuliwala” and tariq rahman’s “charity” aptly represent the oblivious and derogatory attitude of the elite community through their characters of mini and her family, and bobby and rabab, respectively. besides, the two prominent characters of the kabuliwala and the clerk constitute the marginalized community whose lack of voice, identity or any kind of representation in the society impel the reader to ponder over the existence of such bias. it is indeed a matter of serious concern that the members of the dominant community are either unaware of the culture of the minorities — as in “kabuliwala” — or are prejudiced towards their very existence — as in “charity”. the initial reaction of mini and her family towards the afghan kabuliwala is replete with fear and unacceptability. although this fear transforms into fascination of the kabuliwala because of his alien culture, yet the desired inclusivity of the afghan culture within the bengali-dominated society is never seen to be achieved throughout the story. quite similar is the case with bobby and rabab, who are initially fascinated by the poverty of the interior city of rawalpindi which they consider as the real pakistan. however, upon visiting the clerk’s house located at the heart of the slum areas of the city, the image of the poverty-stricken 1 (note: this research uses mohammad a. quayum’s english translation of “kabuliwala” by rabindranath tagore) a contrapuntal analysis of othering in rabindranath tagore’s “kabuliwala” and tariq rahman’s “charity” 350 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii locals takes a gruesome intensity of filth and repulsion, thus invoking fear in the two diasporic teenagers. the clerk, as opposed to the kabuliwala, is more vocal in asserting his identity in an attempt to subvert the stereotypical notions of incivility and vulgarity associated with the locals and perpetuated by the elite class. this fear and fascination revolving around the minority community result in labeling them, what edward said refers to, as the other in the society. in accordance with said’s concept of the other, both the kabuliwala and the clerk can aptly be defined as perfect embodiments of the demonic and the exotic other. several instances in the two stories depict how the dominant community perceives them either as individuals to be feared, the demonic other, or to be fascinated, the exotic other, thus propagating a discourse which perpetuates segregation and alienation rather than acceptance and inclusion of the marginalized communities in a multicultural society. literature review the short stories “kabuliwala” and “charity” have been analyzed as representations of class and cultural differences, and complexity of human relationships. scholars aziz ahmad and tariq khan (2019) have read “charity” from the perspective of cultural clash within the postcolonial discourse. several critics also highlight the characters of the story as apt depictions of the colonial mindset, resulting in a cultural collision between the elite colonizer and the marginal colonized. in contrast to “charity”, the focus of “kabuliwala” shifts towards the discernment of complex human relationships and alienation. this is evident in s. nancy jaya’s (2020) article which accentuates the parallelism between the filial bond of a bengali father with his daughter and that of an afghan father with his daughter. her article emphasizes upon the sentiments of a father yearning to meet his daughter, a peculiar emotion which surpasses all cultural barriers. moreover, rafia khan et al. (2022) discuss “kabuliwala” from the standpoint of its narrative stylistics, whereas malashri lal (2010) studies it from the viewpoint of othering — a principle necessary to create unity in diversity. however, none of these articles investigate edward said’s concept of othering, particularly in terms of the fear of the demonic other and the fascination of the exotic other, which this paper endeavors to explore. methodology this research follows the methodology of contrapuntal analysis of the dominant and marginalized cultures portrayed in the two primary texts. through their close textual analysis, and an in-depth study of their characters — like the kabuliwala, mini and her family in tagore’s “kabuliwala”, and bobby, rabab and the clerk in rahman’s “charity” — the paper focuses on the perception of the dominant community towards the minority. by keeping in view edward said’s concept of othering, this perception of the dominant culture oscillates between the feelings of fear and fascination of the marginalized termed as the other. various secondary sources, including books and published articles, have been employed to examine the perspectives of other researchers regarding the diversity of cultures portrayed in both stories. discussion and textual analysis stories by writers such as rabindranath tagore and tariq rahman constitute the quintessence in the literary canon of modern short story. both the writers, although having their native roots in the indian sub-continent, do not merely appeal to the oriental readers but also to those of the west due to the richness and universality of their themes which surpass the bounds of a contrapuntal analysis of othering in rabindranath tagore’s “kabuliwala” and tariq rahman’s “charity” 351 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii time and space. one such pertinent theme which dominates multiple writings of tagore and rahman is the plights and predicaments of the marginalized community. “kabuliwala” by tagore and “charity” by rahman are amongst their several popular short stories which aptly represent a society segregated on the cruel yet crucial divisions of culture, race, class and ideology. this paper analyzes such a society as depicted in the two aforementioned short stories through the lens of edward said’s concept of othering, which is one of the essential elements framing the theory of postcolonialism in the literary discourse. during the middle of the twentieth century, postcolonial theory gained widespread recognition in literature with the publication of books like orientalism by the famous postcolonial critic edward w. said (1978). said’s works explore not just the consequences of imperialism on both the ruler as well as the ruled, but also aim to analyze literature and revise history from the perspectives of the marginalized groups in a society. although the concept of othering was first introduced in the postcolonial theory by gayatri chakravorty spivak in her essay “the rani of sirmur”, it was further elaborated by edward said whose connotations widened the horizon of the said concept and generated a discourse which embodied all marginalized or suppressed communities as the other in a multicultural society. this paper evaluates two apt examples of the depiction of such marginalized communities, found in tagore’s “kabuliwala” and rahman’s “charity”, and accentuates the concept of othering not through the perspective of postcolonialism but through the lens of cultural and socio-ideological multiplicities present in society. published in 1892, the short story entitled “kabuliwala”, composed by the first indian nobel laureate in literature rabindranath tagore, gained widespread recognition when it was translated into english. originally written in bengali, the story revolves around the bengali culture, particularly depicting a stereotypical bengali family of a little girl named mini. the second short story “charity” by tariq rahman, unlike “kabuliwala”, depicts a society of the postpartitioned indian subcontinent, particularly that of pakistan. published in the collection entitled the legacy and other short stories in 1989, the story revolves around two pakistani diasporic teenagers bobby and rabab who are on a visit to islamabad, pakistan from europe. both the stories, although written almost a century apart, run parallel to each other by delineating strikingly analogous societies which are segregated on the basis of cultural and class differences. moreover, the characters of the two stories resemble in terms of their experiences revolving around discrimination of the marginalized community. according to edward said (1995), the creation of binaries or what he terms as othering occurs when critical, academic or any other text is conditioned and institutionalized by the reigning culture to promote its dogmas and play second fiddle with any other culture. said re-evaluates the meaning of text and calls it worldly. the word othering is often considered a pejorative term as it implies the perspective of the dominant or privileged community towards the marginalized, ultimately resulting in discrimination. tagore and rahman, through the selected short stories, subvert this established narrative by giving a distinct voice and identity to the characters representing the marginalized. this is evident from the standpoint of the narrative techniques of their stories which is in the first person personal pronoun “i”. in case of tagore, this “i” represents the dominant culture, that is of bengal whereas for rahman, “i” represents the “westernised elite of pakistan” (p. 87). although written from the perspective of the privileged class and culture, yet both stories do not fail to address the stereotypical notions attached with the other. in fact, the a contrapuntal analysis of othering in rabindranath tagore’s “kabuliwala” and tariq rahman’s “charity” 352 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii stories implicitly yet thoroughly accentuate the importance of assimilating the other with the dominant community to maintain a social balance. edward said (1995) asserts that the process of othering is initiated by “power, of domination, of varying degree of a complex hegemony” (p. 5). although said defines othering in terms of oriental versus occidental, it also includes “us/them, the west/the rest, center/margin, metropolitan/colonial subjects, vocal/silent” (moosavinia et al., 2011, p. 105). the concept of othering subsumes all such binaries. othering is represented in the two stories when the characters of the kabuliwala and the clerk are introduced. both these characters are identified merely on the basis of either their place of origin — in case of the kabuliwala as being from kabul, afghanistan — or their profession — as in case of the clerk. mini, the little bengali girl, upon seeing the afghan vender on the street just outside her house starts “calling out at the top of her voice, ‘kabuliwala, o kabuliwala!’” (tagore, 1). the kabuliwala constitutes the other in the eyes of mini whose family symbolizes the dominant bengali culture of the society. quite similar is the attitude of the pakistani diasporic youngsters, bobby and rabab, who refer to a native man as ‘the clerk’. “the clerk‘s---for he was a clerk---house was towards the end of the street” (rahman, 91). the clerk constitutes the other in the eyes of bobby and rabab who are a symbolic representation of the rampant ideology of westernism controlling the elite class. it is pertinent to mention here that mini’s father gets acquainted with the real name of the kabuliwala, which is rahamat, after a few interactions. however, in case of the clerk, neither bobby nor rabab invest any effort in finding out his real name. this namelessness on part of the clerk, although unintentionally normalized by the elite class, is evident of the fact that individual identities of the marginalized remain suppressed, sidelined or unrecognized. the description of the physical appearance of the kabuliwala as well as the clerk is an exemplary evidence of how the dominant gaze dehumanizes and alienates the marginalized by considering them as inferiors or savages. right from the onset of the story, mini’s father depicts a rather pitiful image of the kabuliwala by describing him as “a tall, shabbily clothed afghan street vender, with a turban on his head, a bag over his shoulder and a few boxes of dry grapes in his hands [who] was passing through the street slowly” (tagore, 1). mini’s father initially considers the kabuliwala as a “nuisance with a sack over his shoulder [who] will show up in a moment and [he] won’t be able to finish writing the seventeenth chapter of [his] novel” (p. 1). his “customary sack”, “long hair” and “burly look” reflect the physical characteristics often stereotyped with the image of a thief or a savage (p. 5). although mini’s father gradually establishes camaraderie with the kabuliwala as the story progresses, eventually expressing his sympathy for him as a father towards the end, yet it cannot be denied that the majority community of kolkata, bengal perceives this afghan man as the other in their society. the depiction of the clerk’s appearance as well as the place of his dwelling is no less pitiful than that of the kabuliwala’s. bobby recounts the clerk’s miserable demeanor by calling him “a reedy looking man of twenty five or thereabouts [who] wore shabby clothes…he had an intensely absurd look on his face and his eyes were full of naked longing” for bobby’s attractive girlfriend, rabab (rahman, 90). his “leering” looks, “drooling” mouth and “gaping” eyes are all reflective of the animalistic features associated with the other (p. 90). bobby even refers to him as a “grinning half-starved ape” that is ready to devour rabab anytime (p. 90). commenting on the stereotypes related with the east, praveen v. in his paper “postcolonialism: edward said & gayatri spivak” (2016) argues that “…the orient [is] deemed remote, unchanging, primitive or a contrapuntal analysis of othering in rabindranath tagore’s “kabuliwala” and tariq rahman’s “charity” 353 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii backward…strange, fantastic, bizarre,…represent[ing] arabs murderers and violent, the lazy indian and the inscrutable chinamen…coward, lazy, uncivilized…while the west [is] usually presented [as] culturally sound and civilized” (p. 48). this “primitive”, “bizarre” and “uncivilized” image of the natives is evident in bobby’s perception and discernment of the clerk who is presented as a detestable local, nothing less than a beast. it is imperative to note here that bobby considers rabab and himself as the representatives of the western, elite class of pakistan. for him, “[wearing] jeans, listen[ing] to pop music”, and studying from european institutions are the key features of a modern generic man which they proudly possess (rahman, 87). although bobby realizes that their ancestral heritage lies amongst such native pakistanis, yet neither bobby nor rabab pay any heed to assimilating themselves in their culture while exploring it. the striking difference which sets them apart from the natives and eventually becomes a subject of the clerk’s gaze is their dress, particulary rabab’s “hip-hugging jeans”, that makes her “voluptuous curves” stand out in contrast to the women wearing “black burqah[s]” (p. 88). ironically, at one instance, while sitting amongst the locals in a “dirt, dingy” restaurant, bobby describes their countenances as “coarse brown” (p. 89). this clearly evinces that how the dominant culture of the west influences in creating discrimination amongst people of the same race. moreover, bobby’s urge to employ the word ‘native’ as an abuse to show his scorn at the staring waiter evidently manifests that bobby and rabab regard themselves as the privileged diaspora of superior race while the natives as inferior. two essential components of othering include the demonic and the exotic other which are evident in the responses and attitudes of other characters towards the kabuliwala and the clerk. lois tyson, in her book critical theory today (2006), portrays the other in terms of its demonic and exotic characteristics in the following words: th[e] practice of judging all who are different as less than fully human is called othering…the “savage” is usually considered evil as well as inferior (the demonic other). but sometimes the “savage” is perceived as possessing a “primitive” beauty or nobility born of a closeness to nature (the exotic other). (p. 420) throughout the stories, the kabuliwala and the clerk come forth as the “savage” assuming the role of either the demonic or the exotic other, depending upon the perceptions and reactions of the other characters. the reactions of the members belonging to the dominant community oscillate between fear and fascination of the kabuliwala and the clerk; in some instances, this fear categorizes them as the demonic other while in other instances, the fascination of the other takes over the privileged members who perceive the two as the exotic. such categorizations, although unintentional and implicit, play a significant role in perpetuating the notion of otherization of the marginalized members in a society. tagore and rahman sketch several instances in their stories which depict fear and fascination of the other instilled in the hearts of the members of the privileged class and culture. this fear and fascination present the other as everything which the dominant community is not, that is, demonic, “…exotic, alien, dangerous, unreliable, to be tamed, exhibited, a threat” to the other members, an “alter ego” and an “inferior reflection” of the dominant class and culture (moosavinia et al., 2011, p. 105). such characteristics construct the stereotypical notions associated with the identities of the marginalized, such as the kabuliwala and the clerk, which are further perpetuated by the reactions and attitude of the dominant community towards them. a befitting representation of this fear of the other can be found in the character of mini’s mother a contrapuntal analysis of othering in rabindranath tagore’s “kabuliwala” and tariq rahman’s “charity” 354 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii whose reaction upon finding out the growing friendship between the kabuliwala and her daughter is no less replete with suspicion. she was not free of suspicion about the kabuliwala, rahamat, and nagged [mini’s father] to keep a watchful eye on him. whenever [mini’s father] sought to make light of her suspicions, she asked [him] a few pointed questions: ‘are there no such instances of child abduction? isn’t slave-trade still in practice in afghanistan? is it altogether impossible for a giant afghan to kidnap a little child? (tagore, 3) such groundless suspicion indicates how fear of a man, belonging to another culture, has penetrated deep into the hearts of the locals who no longer trust any outsider. although the kabuliwala is a regular vender of that area, still the questions posed by mini’s mother instigate feelings of insecurity and skepticism regarding him. mini’s initial reaction towards the kabuliwala is also immersed in “unfounded fear” just like her mother (tagore, 2). in fact, it is the repercussion of her mother’s upbringing and her perception of the afghan man, which has been passed on to her daughter, that results in mini dashing inside her house upon seeing the kabuliwala approach her. according to mini’s father, “she ha[s] this childish fear that if someone looked through the bag of this afghan man, several living children like herself would be found in there” (p. 1). this “childish fear” of mini undoubtedly resonates with the fear of the demonic other. however, the fear is soon transformed into fascination when young mini, due to her personality being “chatty” and “feisty”, befriends the kabuliwala in no time (p. 1). nonetheless, this fear re-surfaces towards the end of the story when the kabuliwala, after serving his sentence of eight years, returns to mini’s house with the hope of meeting her. mini’s father “ha[s] never seen a homicide before…he wishe[s] he would leave the house immediately on this auspicious day” (p. 5). although mini’s father later empathizes with the kabuliwala, he initially fears that the unwelcomed presence of a convict might hinder the celebrations of her daughter’s wedding. this attests that the fear of the other, no matter how unjustified it is, always lurks amongst the members of the dominant culture. disgust and aversion replaces fear, in case of the clerk, which are other attributes associated with the demonic other and are vividly evident in the characters of bobby and rabab. in the eyes of bobby, the clerk comes forth as a “reedy creature” with an “unhealthy face” and a “cadaverous expression”, who has an “obscene swagger” urging bobby “to beat his face into a pulp” (rahman, 91). rabab, too, with her “cold eyes expressed more disdain for him then she had ever expressed for a dying fly. he was a non-entity for her” (p. 91). this repulsive depiction of the clerk represents how the members of the dominant social class consider the other as crude and uncivilized. furthermore, the abhorrent sight of the poverty-stricken places — including the clerk’s house in a slum — which bobby and rabab visit are all indicative of the implicit yet pervasive and “unbridgeable gap” that exists between the culture of the elite class and that of the other (p. 89). in the research paper entitled “cultural clash: a postcolonial analysis of tariq rahman’s “charity””, ahmad and khan (2019) critiques that this “unbridgeable” distance is due to the “financial misappropriation in a class-led environment, that in turn creates a gap between cultures” (p. 51). while portraying the slums, bobby uses such humiliating phrases like “the very house of squalor” where “the sun could never have peeped even once in a day”. it is “the heart of wretchedness” where “even god seemed to be much too far from these wretched members of the globe”. this is where the demonic other, represented by the “vulgar poverty” and “impoverished humanity”, resides breathing in “petrified and stagnant” air (rahman, p. 89-91). such culture of a contrapuntal analysis of othering in rabindranath tagore’s “kabuliwala” and tariq rahman’s “charity” 355 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii the lower marginalized class is alien to the two diasporic teenagers who are astonished and disgusted by its filth. the other is not just looked at through the lens of the demonic other; many a times, fear replaces fascination and for the dominant community, the other becomes the exotic. this is precisely the aura which exudes the kabuliwala once mini’s father begins having regular conversations with him. mini’s father is “like an exile in [his] own home as [his] mind constantly likes to travel to other places. the moment [he] hear[s] the name of a foreign country, [his] mind longs to visit that unknown place” (tagore, 3). the curiosity of the unknown attracts mini’s father towards the alien culture of the kabuliwala. he is profoundly fascinated by the non-conformity of this stranger and shows immense interest in his incessant tales of his homeland, afghanistan. mini’s father mitigate[s] his desire for travelling…by talking to this man from kabul…[who] blare[s] out stories of his homeland in his broken bengali and [mini’s father] fancie[s] it all before [his] eyes: tall, rugged, impassable mountains…red-hot with torrid heat, and a caravan moving through the narrow, dusty passageway in between; turbaned traders and travellers passing by, some on camel back, others on foot (p. 3) the above quote narrates a detailed description of a land and culture utterly mysterious to mini’s father, which gives birth to feelings of fascination and amazement of the other. the character of the kabuliwala thereby also comes forth as the exotic other while reminiscing over his life in afghanistan. a similar fascination engulfs bobby and rabab when they set off to explore the area of raja bazaar in the internal city of rawalpindi to see the “novel realities of [their] country” (rahman, 88). the fact that bobby labels this excursion as an “adventure” of “cultural exploration” clearly justifies the fascination exhibited by the privileged class towards the other (p. 88). with a discerning eye, they are attracted towards the exotic other which comes forth in the form of a “strange medley of the medieval and the modern” in the old city, where centuries old tongas and japanese cars rush simultaneously on the congested streets, thus colliding the twentieth century with the fifteenth (p. 89). moreover, bobby and rabab’s bus ride also becomes an emblem of the fascination of the exotic other. the “burqah” clad women, “snowy beard[ed]” men, “unblossom[ed]” school-boys and “innocently happy faced school-girls” are all spectacles of intent observation and captivation for the diasporic youngsters (p. 88). in this manner, “the public bus [becomes] a cultural hub symbolising the behavioural pattern and lifestyle of the commoners and the elite gentry as enthusiastic onlookers” (ahmad and khan, 2019, p. 50). upon entering the slum area of the city, disgust soon takes over bobby and rabab, however, it cannot be denied that their curiosity and fascination of an alien class and culture impel them to explore the exotic other. findings and implications in their short stories “kabuliwala” and “charity”, rabindranath tagore and tariq rahman through their respective characters of the kabuliwala and the clerk succeed in creating a world which is not far from reality. these characters, belonging to the marginalized community, become subjects of fear and fascination by the members of the dominant class and culture. the discriminatory mindset of the dominant community is evident through the characters of mini and her family, bobby and rabab who perceive the kabuliwala and the clerk as either the demonic or the exotic other. however, it is worth mentioning that both writers do not silence the voice of a contrapuntal analysis of othering in rabindranath tagore’s “kabuliwala” and tariq rahman’s “charity” 356 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii the other. in fact, the kabuliwala and the clerk display their distinct identities in an assertive manner as soon as they seek an opportunity. in a multicultural society, segregation based on class and cultural differences is a matter of serious debate. the two stories, subtly yet effectively, focus on the significance of social integration and inclusivity of all members, whether dominant or marginalized, in order to maintain a social balance. a contrapuntal analysis of othering in rabindranath tagore’s “kabuliwala” and tariq rahman’s “charity” 357 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii references ahmad, a. & khan, t. (2019). cultural clash: a postcolonial analysis of tariq rahman’s “charity”. journal of history and culture, xl(2), 43-54. jaya, s. n. (2020, may). rabindranath tagore’s kabuliwala: an exemplary tribute to filial love. journal of interdisciplinary cycle research, xii(v), 1-6. issn no: 0022-1945. khan, r., et al. (2022, april-june). a study of the narrative and discourse strategies in rabindranath tagore kabuliwala. journal of development and social sciences, 3(2), 61-70. http://dx.doi.org/10.47205/jdss.2022(3-ii)07. lal, m. (2010, may). tagore, imaging the ‘other’: reflections on the wife’s letter & kabuliwala. asian and african studies, xiv(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2010.-14.1.1-8. moosavinia, s. r., et al. (2011). edward said’s orientalism and the study of the self and the other in orwell’s burmese days. studies in literature and language, 2(1), 103-113. www.cscanada.org. praveen, a. v. (2016, aug). postcolonialism: edward said & gayatri spivak. research journal of recent sciences, 5(8), 47-50. www.isca.me. rahman, t. (1989). the legacy and other stories. commonwealth publishers. said, e. w. (1995). orientalism. london: penguin books. tagore, r. (2009, may). kabuliwala (m. a. qauyam, trans.). transnational literature, 1(2), 1-6. fhrc.flinders.edu.au/transnational/home.html. (original work published 1892) tyson, l. (2006). critical theory today: a user-friendly guide. 2nd ed. london & new york: routledge. @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 390 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 1dr. abdul malik abbasi, 2dr. imtiaz husain, 3ms. ahlam khan 1sindh madressatul islam university, karachi, amabbasi@smiu.edu.pk 2sindh madressatul islam university, karachi imtiaz@smiu.edu.pk 3sindh madressatul islam university, karachi ahlamkhan055@gmail.com abstract the study aims to explore the awareness of parents-teachers regarding linguistic disabilities among children. it further hypothesizes that both parents and teachers have no awareness in terms of learning disabilities among children. these disorders refer to dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, auditory, and the autism spectrum. children with these disorders struggle in learning basic skills such as reading, writing, mathematics, spelling, and speech that cannot be dispensed with mental handicaps, sensory shortfalls, and emotional disturbances. these children are generally classified as slow, behind, incapable, and failures. most importantly, autism spectrum disorder has become the order of the day among children. this is a developmental disorder caused by differences in children’s brain patterning. additionally, the study focuses on to what extent parents, teachers, and school heads are aware and how they can help minimize these issues. for this, a mixed-method design was utilized to investigate learning disabilities among children and how these can be overcome. the primary data were collected founded on focused interview groups with parents and teachers coupled with the responses constructed on a questionnaire with multiple choices containing 30 statements. the sampling size (n=22) was taken from different universities in sindh that were highly educated-cum-experienced parents, doctors, professors, and schoolteachers. the findings of the study reveal that the teachers and parents had inadequate awareness of children’s learning disabilities. it has been recommended that parents and teachers should be educated through different platforms for the diagnostic analysis of children with learning disabilities to offer their children a right to learn linguistic skills. keywords: learning, linguistic, disability, awareness, parents, teachers introduction learning disability is a very common phenomenon among children that can harm their mental growth. the factors which can cause learning disabilities may be heredity, illness during birth and after birth, and stress during infancy. accidents after birth including head injuries, malnutrition, toxic exposure, weakening illness, and injury in early childhood affecting brain development, such as road accidents, child abuse, very premature birth, and certain genes transmitted from parents, can affect the developmental stage of the brain. the learning disability types are as follows: dyslexia, a particular disorder that affects reading and language-based processing skills. dysgraphia is a particular disorder involving handwriting and fine motor skills. dyscalculia is a specific disorder affecting the ability to understand numbers and learn mathematical facts. auditory processing order affects about 5% of school-age children. what they say, as most children do, cannot be processed. this is because they cannot completely align their ear and mind. language processing order makes it difficult in understanding and makes sense of the words they hear. non-verbal learning disability makes it hard to understand the words they hear and to make sense of them. in visual/perceptual motor mailto:amabbasi@smiu.edu.pk mailto:imtiaz@smiu.edu.pk mailto:ahlamkhan055@gmail.com exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 391 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii deficit, the question is how the brain makes sense of what it sees. so far it has not been proven. some researchers have discovered that it can occur because of extreme head injury, or some researchers have discovered that it can occur because of being premature. every child has a right to receive help in learning according to their capacity. every nation and society must provide equal educational rights to every child, whether they are normal or abnormal children. children having difficulty in learning are not special; they are normal but slow learners due to some learning issues; they are not quick learners. two aspects are committed to equality of opportunity: fair access to school education and equal success in school. children have great difficulty in learning especially in areas of different subjects. it is very important to understand that this type of disability can be very detrimental to a child’s life and can affect him/her along with family, friends, and the educational system. it happens when the information is not processed properly, making it very difficult for a child to learn. the parents or the teachers know how to teach children who are going through this problem when the child with learning problems is sometimes surprised because his/her parents were also going through the same situation. these children have difficulties in only some areas of learning, though they have other different skills in other areas of their interests. this happens when the child’s talent is not focused whereas only the disorderly situation of the child is focused. it happens to children who have difficulty in learning since their teachers and parents do not understand how to figure out the specific area of difficulty and how to deal with that area. as a result, these children do not get the attention they deserve, then they become more prone to learning disability problems and are unable to move forward and succeed in reaching their destination. lack of awareness among parents happens to be the number one problem. there is a great need to pay attention to identifying this area of learning disabilities by discussing with the parents and teachers and researchers concerned to solve the problem of children. it is important to investigate the confounding factors that affect children learning abilities causing disabilities to rise. according to one study, about 1.8 million pakistanis have learning disabilities, of which 0.5 million lived in urban and 1.3 million in rural areas. people in rural areas have strong superstitious beliefs about the causes of learning disabilities and there are no learning facilities in rural areas whereas in urban areas there is a need to disseminate awareness among parents and teachers. objectives the objectives of the study are as follows: • to make parents and teachers aware of themselves first in the field of learning disabilities to save their children’s future. • to minimize the effects of disability, consider such remedial techniques that can be used by teachers to build and save the children’s future. purpose the purpose of this paper is to create awareness among parents and teachers in pakistan and to help them out for a better future. literature review this section will overview the prior work on learning disabilities. key topics in the literature review and state procedure for identifying and assisting esl learners and learners in general who face problems of learning disabilities. furthermore, it also outlines the latest recommendations and procedures adopted by the 20 states with the highest population of english exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 392 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii learners. the study provides information to school officials who are establishing procedures to decide which children with learning disabilities can be included in special education classes rather than receiving other types of assistance. pre-school biomarker for literacy auditory processing of noise, this research indicates that neural processing of consonants in noisy environments is essential for language learning. children who have difficulty listening in loud environments can fail to understand the language they hear daily, putting them at risk for literacy issues. evaluating the neural coding of speech in noise may provide an objective neurophysiological marker for these at-risk kids, allowing for early and tailored strategies that could help them escape a life of failing with literacy. teaching children with intellectual disabilities in the twenty-first century with assistive technology, the paper briefs the importance, advantages, and intent of assisting children with intellectual disabilities with assistive technology. the paper further addresses the different forms of assistive technology systems that have been designed and used to support children with intellectual difficulties with written language, reading, hearing, memory, and mathematical problems. the difficulties in implementing assistive technology in developing countries were discussed. aladwani and shaye (2013) researched the awareness of kuwaiti primary school teachers’ early symptoms of dyslexia and their lack of understanding of the problems involved with dyslexia children suffering. they concluded that kuwaiti teachers were aware of this issue, but there was a lack of time, and being overwhelmed with day-to-day school schedules and responsibilities, discourage them from doing so (aladwani & shaye, 2013). malua (2010) measured the teacher’s understanding and action for students with learning disabilities in comprehensive schooling in the makarda division. analysis of the result was that teachers were aware of progressive schooling in their schools. some various measures ensure comprehensive education, e.g., corrective methods, straightforward guidance, structured phonics, and the use of communication. the individual learning needs of the pupils and the teachers who are professionally trained to deal with students with learning disabilities in inclusive education (malusa & kamau-kan'ethe, 2010). sharma and samuel (2010) examined the knowledge that teachers have about studying disabilities, and the rules of the government and the cbse board. this was a cross-section study with a survey of 100 teachers from private english middle schools in ludhiana, punjab. they reported that while teachers appeared to know about lucknow, but had only a slight idea of it, only a few teachers were aware of the government’s provisions. many of the teachers criticized the student’s behavior and home atmosphere for the bad results of their tests (sharma & samuel , 2010). al-khatib (2007) studied the awareness of learning disorders among jordanian standard education teachers and whether this knowledge varied because of various variables. the survey included 405 daily classroom teachers who taught students in grades 1 through 6 in 30 schools spanning three jordanian districts. teachers took a 40-item test developed by the researcher that had positive psychometric properties. teachers have a modest degree of understanding of intellectual disorders, according to the findings. female teachers were found to be marginally more experienced than male teachers in four out of five cases. teachers' awareness levels were irrelevant to their age, teaching experience, or academic credentials (al khatib, 2007). exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 393 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii pitonyak (2005) states ‘difficult habits are messages that can teach us important things about a person and the quality of his or her life' (pitonyak, 2005). though, recent several incidents (cooper, 2012) have shown, facility reactions to demanding behavior often include seclusion, treatment, and locked doors. according to current studies, successful help necessitate a strongly individualized approach from multidisciplinary clinicians, administrators, and commissioners who are dedicated to spending time carefully listening to the concerns of people and their communities, well-informed in planning and providing effective local support, and capable of identifying and addressing bad practice as soon as it happens. research on supporting people with autistic spectrum disorders (asds) and challenging behavior, according to research, a significant number of children with autism who have serious speech impairments use challenging actions as a means of verbal expression in their classrooms (chiang, 2008). children with intellectual disabilities and asds may benefit from early intervention to reduce the creation of severely demanding actions (emerson, 1996). in reviewing the literature on learning disability intervention studies, (tunmer, chapman, greaney, & prochnow, 2002) brought up a conceptual topic that has far-reaching implications “the inability to separate the issue of how children learn from the question of how children should be taught has hampered previous research on learning and learning difficulties.” the first issue focuses on student characteristics, while the second is more concerned with intervention characteristics. in the challenge of rich vocabulary instruction for children with developmental language disorder (dld), the reactions of children with developmental language disorder (dld) to rich vocabulary instruction were studied for this case study. children with dld took part in a language intervention that was mixed into a science camp. rich vocabulary training benefits some children with dld, but the gains are modest. the researchers recommend that more experiments be conducted with vocabulary approaches that are more specifically tailored to individual needs, and that more studies are performed with vocabulary interventions that are more precisely tailored to individual needs. how myths around learning disabilities deprive many people of their ability to succeed and contribute to school and at work. many individuals with learning disorders are deprived of things and participate in education and at work because of myths regarding learning disabilities. according to this paper, all children, including those with developmental disabilities, should have the skills and services they need to live better lives with the right intervention and support. as a result, even more people with developmental disabilities will be able to develop the adaptive capabilities required to seamlessly incorporate the use of assistive technologies and other services into their work. it compiles the most statistics, facts, and data on people with learning disabilities in the united states. understanding learning and attention issues; addressing troubled students; promoting academic success; mental, cognitive, and behavioral challenges; adapting to life after high school; and proposed policy, and forms are the six main areas covered in the study. in areas including integration in general education classes, administrative events, and dropout rates for children with academic and focus problems, the study provides state snapshots that identify important data points and references to national averages. dysfunction of rapid neural adaptation in dyslexia, according to the report, individuals with the reading disorder dyslexia can have a wide variety of brain abnormalities. using advanced brain imaging, scientists discovered that adults and children with dyslexia have a lower capacity exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 394 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii to respond to sensory input than individuals without the condition. and the distinctions were not limited to the brain's reaction to written words, as one would imagine. dyslexics were even less adaptable in their reactions to images of faces and objects. according to research lead author tyler perrachione, they have deficits that are more common, affecting the whole brain. the results point to the underlying causes of dyslexia. theories of dyslexia the following hypotheses should not be considered rivals, but rather attempts to understand the root causes of a common collection of symptoms from various scientific viewpoints and backgrounds. cerebellar theory ramus, et al. (2003) state that, another view is represented by the automaticity/cerebellar theory of dyslexia. here the biological claim is that the cerebellum of people with dyslexia is mildly dysfunctional and that a few cognitive severities ensue. for starters, the cerebellum is involved in muscle coordination and, as a result, speech articulation. deficient phonological representations are thought to result from delayed or dysfunctional articulation. second, the cerebellum assists in the automation of previously mastered activities such as walking, typing, and reading. the learning of grapheme-phoneme correspondences, for example, would be hampered by a limited ability to automate. the cerebellar hypothesis is supported by evidence of dyslexics' low success in a variety of motor activities; dual tasks showing reduced equilibrium automatize, and time prediction, a non-motor cerebellar task. anatomical, metabolic, and activation variations in the cerebellum in dyslexics have also been found (ramus, et al., 2003). evolutionary hypothesis reading, according to this hypothesis, is an abnormal behavior performed behavior for a very short time in our evolutionary past (dalby, 1986). most western communities have only encouraged mass reading for less than a century, and as a result, the forces that form their behavior with no evidence that dyslexia is caused by pathology, but there is plenty of evidence for cerebral variation or variations. the artificial role of reading brings these important disparities to the test (dalby, 1986). magnocellular theory there is a unifying hypothesis that tries to incorporate all the above-mentioned observations. the magnocellular hypothesis, which is a generalization of the visual theory, states that magnocellular dysfunction is not limited to visual pathways but affects all modalities (visual, auditory, and tactile) (ramus, et al., 2003). phonological deficit theory people with dyslexia, according to the phonological deficit hypothesis, have a particular deficiency in the representation, handling, and/or retrieval of speech sounds. it illustrates dyslexics' reading difficulties by stating that learning to read an alphabetic system necessitates learning the grapheme/phoneme correspondence, (ramus, et al., 2003) described it as the correspondence between letters and constituent sounds of the voice. rapid the auditory processing theory the rapid auditory processing hypothesis is a counterargument to the phonological deficiency theory, which notes that the main difficulty is hearing short or quickly shifting sounds. evidence that people with dyslexia perform poorly on a variety of auditory functions, including pitch discrimination and temporal order judgment (ramus, et al., 2003), confirms this hypothesis. exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 395 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii mathematical learning disabilities the advances of modern technologies also experienced a relative increase in the use of digital handheld devices during and after the covid-19 pandemic. smart gadgets were used for learning purposes in terms of online education. whereas mobiles emit radiofrequency electromagnet radiation, and the blue rays of the digital screens are the blue region in the visible light spectrum with high levels of short wavelength hurting brains as well as neurons activities as the first instance and later causing disability in learning and understanding of mathematical logic. an experiment was conducted on rats to observe the several neurological consequences that have been reported and behavioral and learning as well as memory loss in rats were reported (aslan, 2017); (hasan, jahan, islam, & islam, 2022). mathematical understanding is based on the logic of brain cells as connected neurons for good performance of mathematical calculation. whereas failure may cause a mathematical learning disability (mld). (soares, 2015) reported 11% of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd). another study showed dyslexia and dysgraphia are expected in up to 45 % of children with adhd (dupaul & gormley, 2013 ). most of the students and adults having dyscalculia face problems in solving mathematical puzzles and feel frustrated and bored. furthermore, such individuals' brains need more teaching and learning experiences and more practice to develop their neural networks. (morsany, van bers, mccrmack, & mcgourty, 2018) (soares, 2015) (dupaul & gormley, 2013 ) noted that the children having dyscalculia also face dyslexia, a learning disability in reading among half of the studied children and the estimated prevalence of dyscalculia in the school population is around 3 to 6%. research query & hypothesis r: how can parents and teachers help their children overcome their disabilities in learning? h: parents and teachers have no awareness of their children’s learning disabilities. methodology a mixed-method design was utilized to investigate the problems of children with learning disabilities and to make teachers and parents aware of children with learning disabilities. the primary data were based on focused interviews with (n=22) parents-teachers along with a questionnaire based on 30 statements filled out by the selected parents, doctors, professors, and teachers. whereas secondary data were collected from different websites and different research papers research design a questionnaire was developed consisting of 30 statements about learning disabilities in children filled out by the selected parents, doctors, professors, and teachers. the questionnaire contains multiple choice optionsyes-no-maybe, agree-disagree-neutral, true-false-don’t know. convenience sampling the sampling size was a total of (n=22) from different universities from karachi, sindh whose ages varied from 21 to 51, three respondents from the university of karachi, eight respondents from educated parents, three respondents from nasra school and beacon house, karachi, one respondent from iba karachi, one respondent from ilma university karachi, one from sindh university, one from pak kiet university, one from biztek university, one from dow university, one from government officer, one from hamdard university. out of 22, (n=12) participants were female, and (n=10) participants were male. exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 396 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii data analysis and results the data were collected, and the results were put in an excel sheet for interpretation of the results. the pie charts were developed given the responses of participating stakeholders. figure 1 illustrates the statistical results. figure 1 illustrates that ‘learning disability, is a disorder found in children of normal intelligence who have difficulties in learning specific skills. figure 1. statistical results figure 1 shows that 96% agree that children suffer from learning disorders in specific areas of learning. these processing issues can interfere with learning basic skills such as reading, writing, mathematics, speech, spelling, etc. it also interferes with high-level abilities such as coordination, abstract timing, long-or-short term memory, timely preparation, etc. figure 2 illustrates that ‘it is also due to genetic and neurobiological causes that alter brain functioning in a manner which affects one or more cognitive processes related to learning’. figure 2. statistical results figure 2 shows that 86% responded ‘yes’ that it also happens due to genetic and neurobiological causes. sometimes children have learning disabilities because they find that one of their parents also had this type of problem in childhood. neurobiological problems sometimes exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 397 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii occur because of a severe accident in childhood or premature birth. it also occurs when a child is a victim of abuse at a very little age. while 9% responded ‘maybe’. figure 3 illustrates the result of the statement: ‘disability awareness programs at schools, have led young children to gain empathy and have positive attitudes.’ figure 3. statistical results figure 3 data revealed that 91% responded ‘yes’. this shows that 91% of people think that there must be institutional arrangements made for children with learning disabilities. there are large numbers of children who have learning disabilities, but there are no specific institutions for them. the national centre for learning disabilities recommends that schools use multi-tiered systems of support (mtss) to identify and support students who may have a learning disability. while 9% responded ‘maybe’. figure 4 illustrates the result for the statement: ‘creating reachable goals for students suffering from learning disability includes main guidelines like identifying the need, setting realistic objectives, and monitoring progress regularly’. figure 4. statistical results figure 4 illustrates that 82 agree that there should be several reachable goals set up for children having learning disabilities. first, the needs should be identified to provide an environment that ensures rapid development for students who require it is important. without a exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 398 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii way to bring about accelerated growth, students can be vulnerable. goals should be written to explain what parent-teachers expect the child to achieve and calculated by daily evaluations. students with learning disabilities require enough time to improve their skills. monitoring success and changing resources are essential to achieving progress. for children with intellectual disabilities, tracking of progress should be advised every week. progress monitoring must be performed regularly enough to encourage educators to analyze student data and change the guidance, if appropriate. figure 5 illustrates the result of the statement: ‘learning disabilities have no cure, but early intervention can lessen their effects.’ figure 5. statistical results figure 5 shows that 77% responded affirmatively that teachers-parents must take some actions and preventive measures to overcome the problems of the children. all children need love, encouragement, support, and attention. a child with learning disabilities can develop ways to cope with their disabilities. having guidance earlier increases the chance of achievement at school and later in life. while 9% contradicted the statement and 14% did not have an opinion on this statement. figure 6 illustrates the result for the question ‘is learning disability also connected to processing deficit?’ as follows: figure 6. statistical results figure 6 revealed the data that 82% responded ‘yes’ to the question. this shows that 82 percent consider that processing deficit is connected to learning disabilities. when students have a cognitive deficit, it is difficult to make sense of sensory data. this makes it possible for a pupil to succeed in a typical classroom without any preparation guidance. these deficiencies are most exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 399 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii commonly auditory or visual, which can make it difficult for students to identify and recall essential details required to succeed. while 9% responded ‘no’ and 9% responded ‘maybe’. figure 7 illustrates that ‘adhd is a disorder that includes difficulty staying focused and paying attention, controlling behavior, and hyperactivity’. figure 7. statistical results figure 7 shows that 86% responded ‘yes’ to this statement. adhd stands for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. it is a disorder that occurs apparently in some nursery and early school children. it is difficult for these children to monitor or pay attention to their actions. it is estimated that between 3 and 5 percent of children have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd) or around 2 million children in the united states. this means that in a classroom of 24 to 30 children, at least one of them may have adhd. while 14% responded ‘maybe’. figure 8 illustrates that ‘planning, organization, strategizing, attention to details and managing time and space are also called executive functioning’. figure 8. statistical results figure 9 shows the result for the statement that 77% responded ‘yes’ for executive functioning in learning disabilities. they think those children who suffer from executive functioning may have trouble remembering what they hear or what they read, have trouble completing tasks, have trouble managing their time, and have trouble organizing their thought. executive function is a mental skill that includes working memory, flexible thinking, and selfcontrol. generally, people use these functions in their daily routines to learn and work. planning, organization, strategizing, attention, and managing time, and space all are included in executive exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 400 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii functioning. figure 9 illustrates that a ‘good attitude would not solve the problems associated with learning disability, but it can give child hope and confidence that things can improve and that they will eventually succeed’. figure 9. statistical results figure 10 statement unveils that 86% responded ‘yes’ that this problem is not solved by a good attitude, but it can help children with difficulties. experts can help the children develop lessons by focusing on the children’s strengths and discovering ways to compensate for their failures of them. while 10% responded ‘maybe’ that they don’t know if this is helpful for the children or not. discussion use of technologies in minimizing learning disabilities this section overviews how technology helps students with learning disabilities succeed in school. assistive technology is defined as an umbrella term that refers to any service-based product or technology that helps people with disabilities of varying ages to engage in activities in their everyday lives, school, job, or leisure time. students with learning disabilities are not dumb or lazy. they are typically intellectual and on par with or above average. a learning disorder is a term used to describe a particular type of learning problem, such as students who have difficulties in writing, reading, hearing, and speaking. kids with learning disabilities may be diagnosed at the primary school level. this is possible because students in primary school face these problems and teachers can recognize children with prominent linguistic/learning disorders at school whereas parents at home. in addition, assistive devices can support students with disabilities in performing and meeting their goals. there is a plethora of technological options. abbreviation expanders, for example, are software programs that allow a user to build, store, and reuse abbreviations for commonly used terms or phrases. audio books & publications-audio books are the books that have been registered therefore these can be listened to. electronic mathematical worksheets are programming applications that can aid students with arranging and solving mathematical problems. there is a range of technologies that support students in meeting their goals. students with reading disabilities, for example, can have a technology that can translate textbooks by a device that can scan and read them, such as optical character recognition, and students with exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 401 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii impaired vision can use expanded text. there is an alternate keyboard, which has unique overlays that customize the look and purpose of a regular keyboard. students struggling with mathematics may benefit from an automated mathematical worksheet, which allows them to measure and solve mathematical problems. students who struggle with writing can benefit from a speech recognition software application, which allows them to dictate a phrase through a microphone and make it appear on the computer screen as a letter. to summarize, there are many technological tools available today that can assist students in achieving academic achievement in terms of minimizing their learning disorders. data interpretation and output this section attempts to cope with dyslexia affecting students while learning. in general, seven types of problems that dyslexic students face have been found based on the responses collected and authors’ teaching observations at various educational institutes in terms of general aspects of dyslexic students. table 1. difficulties with reading sn reading disabilities 1 incredibly slow reading speed 2 word blurring and distortion 3 photographic, catastrophic, interference, and controllable are examples of multisyllabic terms misread. 4 leaving out words like at, where, where, who, when, what, below, and against. 5 understanding complicated sentences 6 reading small print with a font size of 12 or 13. 7 reviewing photocopies of low quality. 8 uses white paper as a reading board. 9 mathematical symbol ambiguity spelling difficulties 1 importance: impotence, brown-drowning, cursing-cruising, and cake-baking. 2 liturgy, leathery, liturgy, and liturgy 3 doing a lot of erasures/cross-outs, makes writing seem sloppy. 4 misplacing letters or phrases and/or omitting them. notetaking difficulties 1 reading skill 2 taking notes while learning 3 writing legible notes 4 writing quickly enough to copy from the board writing difficulties 6 writing simply reflects thoughts 7 childish writing 8 weak sentence structure 9 insufficient or absent punctuation 10 combining sounds with multisyllabic words 11 letter and/or number reverse speaking difficulties exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 402 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii 1 oral inability to articulate thoughts accurately 2 quick and often cluttered speech 3 failure to talk clearly during interviews or oral tests 4 failure to speak about a given topic within a time frame during the interview 5 omitting terms (believed to have been said) 6 omitting terms (believed to have been said) 7 phrases that are repeated (believed not to have been said) 8 pronunciation difficulties of multisyllabic terms 9 while listening, choosing the right word 10 substituting words listening difficulties 1 in a loud environment 2 where the instructor uses foreign terms without providing visual support. 3 misunderstanding instructions. 4 eliminating critical details. mathematical difficulties 1 mathematics reading 2 arithmetic processing 3 mathematics understanding 4 scenario-based language processing 5 visual-spatial confusion 6 keeping procedures in proper order 7 basic mathematical perception 8 object comparison 9 estimations 10 logical disability 11 magnitude (bigger, small; more, less) 12 pattern recognition 13 matching objects 14 symbolic intuition 15 pace from informal to formal mathematics 16 hierarchical connectivity in arithmetic organization skills difficulties 1 forgetting duties and/or meetings 2 leaving books at home 3 missing documents 4 underestimating the amount of time taken to accomplish activities 5 being lost in an unknown building (or, sometimes, a familiar building) 6 contradictory left-right, west-east, and up-and-down. dealing with dyscalculia in the class to improve mathematics skills among the students, first, we need to identify their strengths and then acknowledge them by reconfiguring what is difficult. most of the learners never had the connection between mathematics and meaning, so, it is helpful to encourage them to estimate their exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 403 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii answers before they begin to solve. children may perform well in a group rather than in assigning tasks individually. therefore, it is recommended to assign the task to a group. whereas the use of graph paper may improve the understanding of the numbers. clear instruction and selection of medium of instruction may also reduce the gap in the understanding of the subject. furthermore, the use of metaphors during the explanation may also help them to make connectivity with the subject. mlds often occur in combinations of difficulties like language processing problems, visual-spatial confusion, memory, and sequence difficulties as well as unusually high anxiety among younger children. an instructor may intervene to advocate such problems during class with manipulation, time for exploration, and discussion. the use of advanced teaching ads may also reduce the mlds and improve the clear understanding of mathematics subjects. dealing with dyslexia in the class students with dyslexia must develop alternate learning methods. by the time a student enters university, he or she would have established tactics, most often without realizing it. planning, writing essays, taking notes, and accurately reading the amount of knowledge needed, on the other hand, can be challenging and time-consuming. exams and continuous revision can also be intimidating and exhausting. depending on the settings where the dyslexic individual is, several options for exclusive care of dyslexic pupils in the classroom may be proposed. in conjunction with the problems mentioned in the preceding section and in terms of university courses, here are some outlines to deal with. these solutions are split into two categories. the first seven solutions are discussed in the preceding section, whereas the second seven are more general as follows: table 2. instructions for the dyslexic students sn instructions for the dyslexic students 1 dyslexic students should be allowed to pre-read and take notes, and handouts should be circulated ahead of time. 2 notes and handouts should be written in big print on colored paper with a simple script. 3 as far as possible, color headings and bullet points can be included. 4 paint may also be used to illustrate essential details. 5 the importance of short and regular analysis sessions should be stressed. 6 the instructor does not hurry an answer; he must allow them time to understand and choose the relevant phrase. 7 the instructor should try to locate appropriate compliment points. solutions 1 dyslexic pupils can be given more time in tests. the amount of additional time given (5, 10, 15, or 20 minutes per hour) will be calculated by testing at dyslexia centers before they are formed in the university, which will be dependent on the effect of their dyslexia on their speed and accuracy in both reading and writing. 2 any dyslexic students may be allowed to take exams using a portable (laptop) computer. 3 students with extreme dyslexia can be provided with an amanuensis (a person who helps them copy what they say) or a reader for their tests. 4 a university's faculty personnel may also choose to isolate dyslexic students by placing them in a separate class, but this practice may be complicated, particularly in the early exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 404 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii stages, since it takes time to better diagnose dyslexic students. any people cannot be diagnosed until later in their studies. 5 following an assessment, all changes for psychiatric, functional, or viva voce tests can be made on an individual basis, in coordination with the dyslexia supervisor, course coordinators, and the examinations section. 6 there is no explanation that a dyslexic student should be taught separate lexical objects or grammatical constructs from the rest of the class. the only changes the teacher must make are to the instructional approach, not the material. the most important rule for teachers to remember is that steady improvement is the secret to effective instruction. 7 every university in pakistan should have at least a small center for coping with dyslexic students. since experts from both disciplines would cooperate in the center, it is best that it is housed at the department of psychology and education and managed in collaboration with the department of english language. summary linguistics/learning disabilities can include a variety of several different problems, behaviors, and difficulties. the essence of learning disorders means that the ability of a child to make safe choices about themselves or others is more likely to be affected. in support of their decision-making/capability assessment, great caution should be taken to listen and interacting with a person with a learning disability. extra time and extra tips should be designed: reliable decisionmaking capacity cannot be reached after a single conversation. when children with learning disabilities practice their preferences in certain areas, they can conflict with the biases and anxieties of others. it is also important to work with the individual and their parents and practitioners to ensure that their ‘best interests can be genuinely decided and delivered. the way parents behave and respond to challenges has a huge influence on children. only a positive mindset cannot fix the issues associated with learning difficulties, however, it can give a child motivation and trust that things will change and that they will ultimately flourish. parents and teachers must understand the problem and the behavior of children who have learning disabilities. parents and teachers should focus on their strengths, not only just on their weaknesses. learning disability represents one area of vulnerability, but there are also other areas of strength. learning disability awareness in schools is incredibly relevant and educates children to become better citizens. researchers also found that school autism recognition services have helped young children to develop sympathy and constructive attitudes. this attitude grows in an individual, making them better citizens as they mature. conclusion to conclude a very significant study that develops the idea that people realize the importance of children who have linguistic/learning disabilities and understand their behavior. for children with learning disabilities, such constructive motivation help ensure that they emerge with a good sense of self-worth, confidence, trust, and the determination to keep working even though things around them are challenging. all children need love, affirmation, and guidance. parents and teachers should look for opportunities to support children with learning disabilities by asking for ways to help themselves. as a parent, (shefketi, 2020) the job of a parent is not to cure it, but to support a child with the social and emotional instruments by which they need to work through difficulties. in the long term, facing a challenge such as a learning disability it will make your child exploring awareness of learning disabilities among children 405 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii grow stronger and more resilient. this awareness will be helpful for teachers and parents to understand the behavior of children with learning disorders. references al khatib, j. 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(2010, june). teachers awareness and intervention for primary school pupils with learning disabilities in inclusive education in makadara division kenya. retrieved from www.ku.ac.ke: http://www.ku.ac.ke/schools/graduate/images/stories/docs/abstracts/2010/june/teachers_a warene morgana, k., van bers, b., mccormack, t., & mcgourty, j. (2018). the prevalence of specific learning disorders in mathematics and comorbidity with other developmental disorders in primary school-age children. british journal of psychology, 917-940. pitonyak, d. (2005, november ). things you can do to support a person with difficult behaviors. retrieved from www.dimagine.com : http://pathfindersforautism.org/docs/10things-to-support.pdf ramus, f., rosen, s., dakin, s., day, b., castellote, j., white, s., & frith, u. 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(2002). the contribution of educational psychology to intervention research and practice. international journal of disability, development, and education, 11-29. @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). interactive functions of kaně (کنه) in ordinary pashto conversation 286 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii interactive functions of kaně (کنه) in ordinary pashto conversation 1sultan muhammad 2dr. salma khatoon (corresponding author) 3 prof. dr. ayesha sohail 1assistant professor, department of english, hazara university, mansehra 2lecturer, department of english, kohat university of science & technology, kohat 3professor, department of english, university of azad jammu & kashmir, muzzafarabad abstract in recent years, there has been a considerable interest in the analysis of various linguistic and interactional devices that speakers use during ordinary conversation. very few studies have explored the use of interactional devices during ordinary conversation by speakers of urdu and other local languages in pakistan, except pashto. this paper presents results of the study that explored different interactive functions of kaně (کنه) in ordinary pashto conversation. it shows that kaně has different functions and meanings in different contexts. it argues that it is not the position of kaně in the turn-constructional unit (tcu) that contributes to its different functions but the kind of sequential environment or the specific context in which kaně occurs changes its function. the audio-recorded data for this study consisted of 11 selected fragments out the total 17 fragments with a total running time of 74 minutes and 37 seconds. using conversational analysis (ca) methodology, analysis of the interactional data indicated that kaně serves the following three functions: (1) it is used, when attached to the end of declarative statements; as a tag question or tag-like turn-final question for confirmation, (2) when attached at the end of imperative statements to make some request, it serves as a word for expressing emphasis, and (3) when kaně occurs at the end of an utterance which is produced with louder pitch than other words in the surrounding environment and the final vowel of kaně at the end of the utterance is elongated, it expresses strong insistence. keywords: ca, interactive functions, kaně, pashto, ordinary conversation, interactional devices, tcu introduction talk or ordinary conversations in which human beings engage with each other almost everyday are the “primordial” sites of “social life”, “social organization”, and “actions” (schegloff, 1996, p. 4). with this view of ordinary human interactions, it is not surprising to see that conversation analysis (ca) has the naturally-occurring ordinary spoken interaction as its primary object of analysis. ca studies the organization and order of social action in all forms of talk-in-interaction. it not only demonstrates the types of understandings conversationalists display to each other but also the ways they do so with reference to the interactional organization. this shows that the main interest of the ca analyst is in uncovering the underlying machinery which enables interactants to achieve this organization and order (seedhouse, 2005, p. 166). it is through the turn-taking system that participants in conversation achieve this organization and order and it is this organization of taking turns to talk which is fundamental to conversation (sacks, schegloff, & jefferson, 1974, p. 696). speakers construct turns from unit-types and design utterances in turns using structural units which are describable. these units-types may consist of lexical items, phrases, clauses, and sentences and they constitute, what sacks et al. (1974, pp. 701-702) call; “turn-constructional units” (tcus). speakers deploy, monitor, manipulate, and interpret a variety of resources during interaction, including grammatical structures which are partially interactive functions of kaně (کنه) in ordinary pashto conversation 287 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii shaped by interactional considerations (schegloff, 1996; schegloff, koshik, jacoby, & olsher, 2002, p. 15) because aspects of language structures are designed for conversational use (sacks et al., 1974). this shows that participants in conversation use many different linguistic resources and devices for interactional purposes in order to make talk-in-interaction meaningful. the interactants use these resources within and at the end of tcus to mark transition relevance places (trps), manage turns, and coordinate order and overall organization. these resources and conversational devices show verbal choices and conversational behaviors of speakers of different languages. the present study, exploring various interactive functions of the pashto word or particle kaně; is also an attempt to highlight conversational behaviors and verbal choices of pashto speakers in ordinary pashto conversation as far as the use of the word kaně is concerned. research questions this study had the following two research questions: 1. what are the different interactive functions of kaně in ordinary pashto conversation? 2. how kaně serves different functions and conveys different meanings in ordinary pashto conversation in different sequential environments? literature review a large body of research in ca has demonstrated regularities in the ways speakers construct turn units. a very good example of such regularities, as discussed by goodwin (1981); is in projecting the ends of turns and in extending a turn beyond the trps. trps are points of intonational completion, syntactic completion, and pragmatic completion (ford & thompson, 1996). this means that speaker has different choices and resources to end a turn. one of the interactional devices that speakers use to mark the ends of turns or trps is tag questions or tag-like question particles. as the analysis and discussion of the interactional data for the present study will show later, one of the major functions of kaně in ordinary pashto conversation, which is similar in meaning to urdu turn-final ‘na’; is that of a tag or tag-like turn-final question particle for requesting confirmation. the use of tag questions in english or tag-like turn-final question particles in other languages have received much attention. according to sacks et al. (1974), tag question is an “exit technique” to turn taking (p. 718). tag questions or tag-like turn-final questions are a type of polar questions which are classified into polar interrogatives and declarative questions. tag question is a type of declarative questions (englert, 2010; stivers, 2010). tag questions have social meaning and they are used for constructing stances (moore & poodesva, 2009). according to stivers (2010), tag questions are used to request confirmation. while exploring the question-response sequences in american english, she found that polar questions made 70%, q-word questions 27%, and alternative questions 3% of the total data. in addition, she also found that repair initiation, requests for confirmation, and offers or request for information were the types of social actions achieved through these question types along with repetitional answers or yes-no token as response types. investigating the ways dutch interactants formulate their utterances to make them recognizable as doing questioning and the options they rely on to respond to these questions, englert (2010) found that dutch speakers used six different markers to mark an utterance turn-finally as a tag question. analyzing a collection of 419 question/response sequences in tzeltal, brown (2010) found that tzeltal speakers made much more use of polar than of content questions to confirm answers to the polar questions like many others. tzeltal has two lexical markers, depending on which slot they occur in the clause: the interrogative particle ‘bal’ (second interactive functions of kaně (کنه) in ordinary pashto conversation 288 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii slot), and the turn-final tag-like question-marking particle ‘bi’ (final slot). in his study of the question–response system in japanese, hayashi (2010) found polar questions making 85% , q-word 15%, and alternative less than 1% of the total data—350 question–response pairs. tag questions made 30% of the polar question types. in addition, he found that the tag-like sentence final expressions, such as ‘janai’ and its variants, the modal ‘deshoo’ or ‘[declarative sentence]+ deshoo according to shigemitsu (2014), and sentence-final particles ‘yo’ and ‘ne’; were used for seeking agreement or confirmation to the proposition in the preceding part of the sentence. in her study of the question-response system of danish, heinemann (2010) found that danish speakers used more interrogatively and negatively formatted questions as compared to speakers of languages that have the same grammatical options. in addition, danish speakers use a higher number of questions for making suggestions, offers and requests. they do not use repetition to answer a question as often as other languages. tags in danish either consist of the turn-final adverbs like ‘ikk’ or ‘vel’ or full sentential tags. with the exception of sohail’s (2011) study and a term paper on interactive function of ‘na’ in urdu conversation by bukhari (n.d), no other published research study was found on tag questions or tag-like questions in ordinary conversations in urdu or pashto and other local languages in pakistan. according to sohial (2011, p. 36), declarative questions are the most common question types that speakers use in urdu conversation and the questions formatted with urdu ‘na’ has the following two functions: (1) an agreement seeking particle and (2) a kind of insistence requesting the listener to accede to the request. bukhari (n.d) found that ‘na’ is a meaningful and important part of ordinary urdu conversation and it is used to express confirmation, insistence, suggestion, and request depending on the context in which it occurs. this review of the previous scholarly literature related to the conversational behaviors and the use of interactional resources and devices for the organization of ordinary conversation in different languages of the world except pashto shows a wide gap in research. the present study attempted to fill in this gap by investigating different interactive functions and uses of kaně in ordinary pashto conversation and the specific sequential environments in which it occurs with different meanings. materials and methods as the main focus of this study was to explore and analyze the interactive functions of kaně and how it serves different functions depending on the contexts and sequential environments in which it occurs, ca methodology was used to collect and analyze data and report the results. participants the participants, both male and female; of this study were native speakers of pashto, coming from various regions of the khyber pakhtunkhwa. they were speaking different regional varieties of pashto. ten friends and colleagues were contacted initially and requested for the recording of their telephonic conversations with either family members or friends or colleagues. they were told about the general nature and broader purpose of the study i.e., the study tries to find out the conversational and interactional techniques that pashto speakers use and the ways pashto-speaking people talk to each other. they were told that the data would be anonymous and unnamed. they were ensured that no one’s actual names (either their names or names of person/places who/which they refer to) would be used; instead the interactive functions of kaně (کنه) in ordinary pashto conversation 289 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii researchers would assign factious names. after seeking their consent, they were told about the deadline by which the researchers would need the recordings. data collection procedures the data of the present study consist of a total 17 audio recordings of ordinary telephone conversations, recorded using audio recorder of the cell phones. as already stated, ten friends who were requested to participate in the study and who agreed provided the recorded data via emails. most of the calls were recorded by the researchers while talking to those friends and colleagues. data analysis procedures all the 17 audio recordings, with a total running time of 74 minutes and 37 seconds; were transcribed into pashto, using pashto orthography to see striking features in ordinary pashto conversations. kaně was found to be one of the striking features in the conversations. however, not all recorded conversations had kaně. only 11 recorded conversation contained instances of kaně. the selected 11 fragments of ordinary telephone conversations (audiorecorded with a total running time of 51 minutes and 47 seconds) in pashto were again transcribed. mcgregor’s (1992) transliteration conventions were used for the transcription of the data. some transcription notation symbols devised by jefferson (sacks, schegloff, & jefferson, 1974) were also employed in the transcription, where necessary and as required to mark overlap, rising intonation contour, and stressed pitch etc. the turns where instances of kaně occur have been indicated in bold letters. capital letters have not been used in transcription, except for names and some transcription notation or symbol to mark louder pitch. only two punctuation marks (i.e., comma and question mark) have been used in the transcribed fragments. as far the translation of pashto into english in the analysis is concerned, the required punctuation marks were used. in turns where english words were used by the participants, those words have been italicized. utterances referred to in the analysis have been marked with arrow. another most important point to be highlighted here regarding the data is that not all eleven selected and analyzed fragments have been presented in the analysis section of this study. only few selected fragments have been used that clearly show different uses and meanings of kaně as examples to illustrate various functions of kaně. results and discussion this section presents results of the analysis of the few selected fragments from the interactional data, followed by discussion of the results. as the analysis in the following sections shows, pashto speakers use kaně in ordinary conversation to convey different meanings and carry out different functions depending on the context and the sequential environment in which it occurs. as emerged from the analysis of the interactional data, the various functions and meanings of kaně are reported and discussed turn by turn in the following paragraphs. 1. use of kaně as a tag question or tag-like question particle as pointed out earlier, tag questions or tag-like turn-final questions are a sub-type of polar questions. polar interrogatives and declarative questions are the two major types of polar questions. tag questions fall within the category of declarative questions. as highlighted in the introduction section of this paper, tag questions are mostly used by speakers for confirmation. the following fragment exemplifies two instances of the tag question or tag-like turn-final question particle kaně in ordinary pashto conversation. kaně xi 1. s.→ khīr dy śukar dy hassebě tĕ room ky ′y kanĕ? interactive functions of kaně (کنه) in ordinary pashto conversation 290 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii 2. h.→ av room ky īiem 3. s.→ īarĕ īav kar ūkĕ dě ma valĕ table kum nĕ dy 4. h. aṁ 5. s.→ tĕ daghaltĕ lag ūksĕ īav charger pruvt dy? 6. h. aṁ 7. s. śtĕ īav charger? 8. h. ūdrīgĕ 9. s. śtĕ? lag drūnd ghundy dy 10. h.→ barĕ dy puv? av dĕ īav pruvt khuv dy lakĕ haghĕ::white colour manz ky ′y tar taly dy 11. s. av daghĕ:: py scotch tape py śtĕ? 12. h. a bilkul av 13. s.→ drūnd dy kanĕ?(.) heavy ghundy ky dy kaně? 14. h.→ av av heavy dy bilkul 15. s. śĕ zĕ bas ṭhīk dĕ sayi dĕ(.) nuvr? 16. h. bilkul khīr dy sarĕ ṭhīk ṭhak this extract has been taken from the telephone conversation between two roommates sameer (s) and hasseeb (h). prior to the selected fragment, they have been exchanging the ‘how life is going on?’ types of opening statements, called pre-sequences which are typical of telephone conversation openings. the fragment begins with the routine response (khīr dy śukar dy —i’m alright/everything is alright. thanks) of the caller to a ‘how are you?’ type of pre-sequence by the recipient in the prior turn. this is immediately followed by a tag question or tag-like inquiry of the caller to confirm recipient’s presence in the room (hassebě tĕ room ky ′y kanĕ?—haseeb you are in room, aren’t you?). the recipient responds to it in turn 2 first with a minimal positive response ‘av’—yes and then confirmatory response (room ky īiem — i’m in room), which is an upgrade on ‘av’ in the same turn. the caller tells the reason for call in turns 3 and 5, requesting the recipient to do him a favor (īarĕ īav kar ūkĕ dě ma valĕ table kum nĕ dy) and see whether or not there is a charger on his table in the room (tĕ daghaltĕ lag ūksĕ īav charger pruvt dy?). in turn 10, the recipient confirms by telling him about the charger there on the table (…av dĕ īav pruvt khuv dy...). the caller asks again by using tag questions in turn 13 to confirm whether or not it is heavy (drūnd dy kanĕ?(.)heavy ghundy ky dy kaně?—it’s heavy, isn’t it?). the recipient positively responds to it, using again a repeated minimal response ‘av av’ and upgrade on it with the following confirmatory response (av av heavy dy bilkul—yes, yes it is heavy exactly). the two instances of kaně show that it occurs at the end of the tcus in both turns (1 and 13) and that both the statements are declarative statements with kaně at the end, functioning as a tag or tag-like turn-final question. the speaker uses the tag questions with kaně in both turns for confirmation—first checking with his roommate whether or not he is in room and second whether or not it is the same heavy like charger. the next fragment exemplifies another instance of the use of kaně (in bold) as a tag or tag-like turn-final question for the same purpose—confirmation. kaně vii 1. k.→ dĕ multipurp multipurpose nĕ dĕ senate hall a cabīany khu tĕ sarĕ vy kanĕ? cheif proctor sarě bě vy makhky kaně? 2. h.→ av ma sarĕ dy 3. k.→ aus aum śtĕ aikhtiīar ky dy? 4. h. av interactive functions of kaně (کنه) in ordinary pashto conversation 291 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii 5. k.→ khĕ jumarat pĕ ūraz bandy bĕ multipurpose hall muvng tĕ pakar vy dĕ:: daghĕ senate hall 6. h.→ jumarat pĕ ūraz? 7. k.→ av jumarat pĕ ūraz bandy(.)aṭha′īs tarīkh bandy this fragment has been taken from a telephone conversation between two colleagues hanif (h) and kamran (k) who are talking about the senate hall and its keys and availability on specific date. the selected fragment begins with a tag or tag-like question of the caller (dĕ multipurp multipurpose nĕ dĕ senate hall a cabīany khu tĕ sarĕ vy kanĕ? cheif proctor sarě bě vy makhky kaně?—you have the keys of the of the multipurp, not multipurpose, the senate hall, right? the chief proctor would have them before, right?). the recipient responds to this inquiry with double confirmatory responses ‘av’—english yes and ‘ma sarĕ dy —i have them). the later is an upgrade on minimal positive response ‘av’. this shows that pashto speakers prefer to say more than just a minimal positive response to give confirmation and respond to tag questions. it is this tag-like particle kaně that makes it a tag or tag-like question when used at the end of the tcu. through the use of this tag question, the caller seems to be doing the following two things: (1) confirming that he has the keys, though the caller knows that the chief proctor would have keys of the senate hall in the past and perhaps he has the halls under his control now and (2) minimizing the chances of a dispreferred response. it seems as if, through the use of the tag question; the caller is trying to get a particular answer and preferred response, i..e., yes i do have the keys and you will have the hall. this is apparent from the response of the recipient in turn 2 and later turns where the recipient ensures him about the availability of the hall to the caller as requested. as argued by heinemann (2010) and moore and poodesva (2009), it is the very nature of tag questions that they are strongly biased towards a particular answer and used as a means of conducing particular points of view and this example confirms these findings. after the pre-sequences in turns 1 and 3, the caller indicates the reason for call and requests the recipient for the senate hall on thursday in turns 5 and (khĕ jumarat pĕ ūraz bandy bĕ multipurpose hall muvng tĕ pakar vy dĕ:: daghĕ senate hall —ok. on thursday, we will need multipurpose hall, the senate hall). the recipient asks to confirms the day, perhaps trying to know which thursday; by repeating the first two words of the request statement of the caller in turn 5 (jumarat pĕ ūraz?—on thursday?). the caller responds to this inquiry by repeating the day and adding minimal confirmatory response token ‘av’ (yes) to upgrade on the request in turn 5 (av jumarat pĕ ūraz bandy —yes, on thursday), followed by a pause; along with the date in the final tcu (aṭha′īs tarīkh bandy—on 28). in the remaining part of the conversation the recipient asks the caller that he or someone else should remind him so that he may check the booking list. these instances of kaně indicate that pashto speakers form tag questions or tag-like turn-final questions by attaching the word or particle kaně at the end of a declarative sentence in which confirmation about something is requested. it is in this specific context and sequential environment that kaně functions as a tag or tag-like question for confirmation. 2. use of kaně for expressing emphasis the following selected fragment exemplifies three occurrences of kaně, where the first occurrence shows that the caller asks the recipient with emphasis to do something that he explains in turn 27 and the other two instances show that the caller uses kaně to emphasize on doing something on his own. kaně i interactive functions of kaně (کنه) in ordinary pashto conversation 292 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii 16. w.→ haghĕ khuv dĕ jy haghĕ līkal khuv dy khamakha jy 17. s.→ huṁ(.)nuv bīa?(0.1)tě dasy ūkĕ kanĕ 18. w. jy 19. s. paper bĕ saba sě ṭa′m khatmīgy stasuv? 20. w. barě bajy jy 21. s. barě bajy bĕ khatmīgy? 22. w. av jy 23. s.→ za zě maskhuvtan bīa ta sarĕ khabary kaūm zě haghĕ daghĕ guvram khalid guvramĕ kanĕ 24. w. jy 25. s.→ kĕ haghĕ vy kanĕ 26. w. jy 27. s.→ haghĕ tĕ bĕ zě auva′m nuv haghĕ bĕ talĕ pīsy raky blĕ:: ūraz cy bīa zě razam bīa bĕ varlĕ zě varkam prior to the selected fragment, the caller sameen (s) and the recipient wasif (w) have been talking about the reason for the previous call of the recipient that the caller could not receive, the caller’s plan of coming home, and buying and bringing practical notebooks for them while coming back home on friday. in turn 16, the recipient responds to the previous inquiries of the caller in which he has been expressing his concern about delay in preparing and writing practical notebooks till friday by telling the caller that they definitely have to write practical notebooks (haghĕ khuv dĕ jy haghĕ līkal khuv dy khamakha jy). turn 17 is important because after a minimal response token, followed by a pause of less than 0.1 second, the caller asks a question asking for alternate option (nuv bīa?) with a following 0.1 second pause, the caller tells the recipient with emphasis to do something as he tells him (huṁ(.)nuv bīa? (0.1) tě dasy ūkĕ kanĕ— ‘so then. you do like this). it is important to note about the nature of this type of question that is directed to figure out the alternate. after a short pause of 0.1 seconds when the recipient does not respond, the caller presents his own alternate option in turn 27, emphasizing the recipient to go to khalid and he will give him the money (haghĕ tĕ bĕ zě auva′m nuv haghĕ bĕ talĕ pīsy raky blĕ:: ūraz cy bīa zě razam bīa bĕ varlĕ zě varkam). kanĕ also occurs in turns 23 and 25 in which the caller tells the recipient what he is going to do to grant his request (zě haghĕ daghĕ guvram khalid guvramĕ kanĕ—i will check khalid) and (kĕ haghĕ vy kanĕ—if he is there), but these occurrences are not the typical examples of kanĕ to express emphasis. in its typical function in turn 17, kaně occurs at the end of imperative statement, used for asking/requesting someone for something; where the caller is suggesting the recipient with emphasis to do something the way he wants him to do. it is in this environment of asking or requesting for something and telling what should be done as an alternate that kaně functions to express emphasis. another occurrence in the following fragment (bold letters) illustrates the same function of kaně (i.e., asking or requesting someone to do some kind of favor or something with emphasis) more clearly. kaně iii 5. s. tě bě dasy cal ūky kaně 6. m. āṁ 7. s. tě sahar sě time ravikhīgy? 8. m. āṁ(.) tě kar vaīa khīr vakhty bě rapasam(.)vly? kě sě ẓarurat vy nu vaīa interactive functions of kaně (کنه) in ordinary pashto conversation 293 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii 9. s.→ dasy cal dy kaně cy cy ta tě zě khpal śanakhaty karḍ number message ky līgamě 10. m. āṁ hāṁ 11. s.→ av bahar hamid dy sarě easypaisa::daghě dě facility dě varsarě 12. m. av 13. s. → daghě pīsy cy ta sarě kumy paraty dy kaně 14. m. āṁ hāṁ 15. s.→ nuv dě daghy ně bě panj hazar rupy′ khan wali īa kareem lě varky kaně ma tě easypaisa bandy ravulīgy this fragment has been taken from a telephone conversation between two colleagues. the caller shamim (s) has called the recipient mateen (m) to make a request for doing him a favor that he expresses in turns 13 and 15 (daghě pīsy cy ta sarě kumy paraty dy kaně. nuv dě daghy ně bě panj hazar rupy′ khan wali īa kareem lě varky kaně ma tě easypaisa bandy ravulīgy—the money that you have. so, give five thousand from that to khan wali or kareem and send me via easypaisa). prior to the selected fragment of conversation, they have been talking about what is going on in life through the type of questions that are designed by the speakers not so much for seeking information but as preliminary moves, known as prerequets; which typically occur prior to requests in ordinary conversation. the selected extract begins with the request initiation turn from the caller, in the form of imperative statement; asking the recipient to do something (tě bě dasy cal ūky kaně— (i want) you (to) do (something) like this). it is followed by the minimal response (āṁ) of the recipient to show positive alignment, signaling to the caller to continue. the turns 7-15 indicate the ways both the caller and the recipient attempt to figure out the details of when and how the request for transfer of money via easypaisa should be granted, emphasizing important details using kaně at the end of tcus. the selected instance of kaně (in bold letters) indicate one of its functions, i.e., to expresses emphasize. in this typical function and meaning for expressing emphasis, kaně in turn 5 occurs at the end of an imperative statement in which the caller is requesting the recipient with emphasis to do him a favor, expressed in turn 15. 3. use of kaně for expressing insistence pashto speakers also use kaně for expressing strong insistence. though the word kaně occurs in the following two fragments at different places, it is important to note that in its typical function (i.e., highlighted in bold and capital letters) it expresses strong insistence. kaně v 15. g.→ hmm zě khuv zě khu dasy ghuvarě kaūm na kaně ma sarě bě khu tě help ka′y nu bas ṭgīk dě tě pě passive śuruv‘ kary dě nu sta passive śu mood dy khuv mood khuv bě hum ma sarě khuv bě tě kay′ rasarě(.)kě tě bě y′ ně ka′y rasarě? 16. s.→ na kaūm khu bě zě kaūm darsarě dasy dě cy tě khuv sě ūgurě pakhpalě khuv sě ūgurě ↑kaně:: 17. g. huṁ 18. s.→ lakě cy help vy haghě khu bě zě kaūumě darsarě ma khuv da ně dy vely cy zě ně kaūm ṭě ūgurě lag zan py puy′ kě pě daghěsīzuvnuv tuvl daghā article cy kum dy tuvl article ūguvrě prior to the selected fragment, taken from the telephone conversation between two classmates (g and s); they have been talking about an article, help, the choice of topics, and interactive functions of kaně (کنه) in ordinary pashto conversation 294 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii important things to be read in that article. the selected fragment begins with the minimal response token of the recipient ‘hmm’ which seems to be stronger than the minimal response tokens ‘huṁ’ of the recipient in previous turns, expressing neutral responses. however, in turn 15, the recipient appears to have become more attentive, taking the caller’s offer to be a dispreferred one in the previous turns as she emphatically denies that she is not going to make a choice like that (hmm zě khuv zě khu dasy ghuvarě kaūm na kaně) because she wants him to help her even if it is on modality and mood (ma sarě bě khu tě help ka′y nu bas ṭhīk dě tě pě passive śuruv kary dě nu sta passive śu mood dy khu mood khu bě hum ma sarě khu bě tě kay′ rasarě(.)kě tě bě y′ ně ka′y rasarě?—i want you to help me. it is ok, you have started working on passive so you work on that but as far mood is concerned i want you to help me in that. won’t you?). the question of the recipient in last tcu after a brief pause within the same turn expresses her concern to which the caller responds positively in turn 16 (na kaūm khu bě zě kaūm darsarě—i will definitely help you) but insists on the recipient to see/read something on her own (dasy dě cy tě khuv sě ūgurě pakhpalě khuv sě ūgurě ↑kaně::). the caller utters the words in the final tcu louder than other words and elongates the last vowel in kaně with a rising intonation contour to express the strong degree of insistence. this shows that kaně here also occurs at the end of the tcu, but the string of words of the tcu in which kaně occurs is produced with louder pitch than other words in the surrounding environment and the word kaně with elongated final vowel. the following fragment exemplifies another instance of kaně with the same function. the selected fragment has been taken from a telephone conversation between two friends a (the caller) and b (the recipient). they both are talking about data collection and recording of conversations. kaně vi (00.05.18) 3. a.→ suvk bĕ record ↑ky? 4. b. sṁ? 5. a.→ suvk bĕ record ↑ky? 6. b.→ va′y sě sě bĕ zě record kam sě bĕ zě khpal friends tĕ auvaīim 7. a.→ na nuv dy khuv bĕ asy aum khbary ka′y ca sarĕ kĕ dĕ sarĕ recorder vy dĕ sarĕ pĕ fuvn bandy [ 8. b.→ va′y zamapĕ fuvn ky recorder niśtĕ↑kanĕ::] 9. a. sṁ va′y zamĕ fuvn ky recorder niśtĕ? 10. b. av the selected fragment begins with the question of the caller asking her friend (suvk bĕ record ky?—who will record?, followed by question response of the recipient (sṁ?— what?), showing her lack of understanding the question of the caller, in response to which the caller repeats the previous query in exactly the same words (suvk bĕ record ky?—who will record?). the recipient tells her friend that (he) says that he will record some himself and for some he will ask his friends (va′y sě sě bĕ zě record kam sě bĕ zě khpal friends tĕ auvaīim). in the next turn, the caller seems to be expressing her concern by saying that he (someone who has been asked for recording data) will be definitely talking to someone and he can do it himself if he has recorder on phone (na nuv dy khuv bĕ asy aum khbary ka′y ca sarĕ kĕ dĕ sarĕ recorder vy dĕ sarĕ pĕ fuvn bandy). the overlap response of the recipient in turn 8 is important. by producing her response with rising intonation contour and elongated final vowel in kaně she tries to dispel her friend’s concern by telling her that she likes that option but tells the caller with strong degree of insistence that he says that he does not have interactive functions of kaně (کنه) in ordinary pashto conversation 295 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii recorder on phone (va′y zamapĕ fuvn ky recorder niśtĕ↑kanĕ::]) it is this rising intonation contour and elongated final vowel of the word kaně that differentiates its strong insistence function from other two functions and meanings, discussed earlier. conclusion and implications the analysis of the results indicate that pashto speakers use kaně in turn-final position as (1) a tag question or tag-like turn-final question particle with declarative statements for confirmation, (2) a turn-final word with imperative statements, showing request; for expressing emphasis, and (3) a word with rising intonation contour and final elongated vowel in as shown here (↑kaně::) at the end of utterances with louder pitch than the words in its surrounding environment for expressing strong insistence either on doing or not doing something. moreover, as the results reveal; these three different functions and meanings of kaně are highly dependent on the context and specific sequential environments in which it occurs. results indicate that pashto speakers formulate tag questions or tag-like turn-final questions by attaching the particle or word kaně at the end of a declarative sentence and use tag question in ordinary conversation for confirmation mainly. what differentiates this meaning and function of kaně from the other uses of kaně, especially the use of kaně for emphasis; is that kaně occurs at the end of a declarative statement in which confirmation about something is requested. when kaně is used with an imperative sentence at the end of the turn, it functions as a word for emphasis and in that context (requesting for something or some kind of favor) it conveys the meaning of emphasis on doing something or on some important information and details related to granting the request. as far the third function of kaně is concerned, i.e., to show or express strong insistence; analysis of the results indicate that it is the louder pitch of the strings of words in the utterance or tcu in which kaně occurs at the end and rising intonation contour with elongated final vowel sound that very clearly distinguishes its ‘strong insistence’ function and meaning from the other two functions and meanings of kaně. further research studies need to be conducted (1) to see whether or not kaně has more functions and meanings in ordinary pashto conversation (2) to examine the sequential environment and the responses to the turns in which kaně occurs to figure out the precise nature of kaně and its functions and meanings as it also appears to be functioning as a turn management unit. interactive functions of kaně (کنه) in ordinary pashto conversation 296 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii references brown, p. 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(2010). an overview of the question-response system in american english. journal of pragmatics, 42, 2772–2781. @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). http://www.researchgate.net/publication/238751771_conversational_organizat http://www.researchgate.net/publication/238751771_conversational_organizat https://www.t-kougei.ac.jp/research/pdf/vol37https://www.t-kougei.ac.jp/research/pdf/vol37pragma stylistic features as an interpretative tool: an analysis of dawn newspaper headlines 461 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 pragma stylistic features as an interpretative tool: an analysis of dawn newspaper headlines sundas mehreen 1 dr. sarwet rasul 2 yasmin akhtar 3 1m.phil graduate, fatima jinnah women university, rawalpindi 2chairperson, department of english, fatima jinnah women university, rawalpindi 3lecturer, department of english, fatima jinnah women university, rawalpindi abstract the combined studies of pragmatics and stylistics are less explored and often approached as pragma stylistics and pragmatics of style. the burgeoning field of interdisciplinary studies is well documented (edwards, 1996, klein 1990, 1996) and is the need of the day in this information age in order to get a clear understanding of the intricacies of language use in media texts. the fruitful link between pragmatics and stylistics can be exploited for an in-depth study of language use in media. however, the current study examines the representation of pakistani english newspaper headlines in terms of interpretation by adapting the pragmatic stylistic framework propounded by black (2006). the sample for the study consists of 28 front-page headlines from the daily dawn, a top-rated and the oldest english newspaper in pakistan. the data inquiry is undertaken with the analytical paradigm of descriptive qualitative interpretational analysis. the analysis provides evidence that pragmatic stylistics features govern the interpretation of the headlines from the writer/editor’s perspective. the variational use of pragmatic stylistic features in headlines cater to the variation of news events. the study concludes that being a governing factor in interpretation, pragmatic stylistic features are crucial to be understood by the writers. keywords: pragmatic stylistics, interpretation, descriptive analysis, media discourse 1. introduction the inevitable nexus between language, communication, and media contribute to the fabric of present-day society to a great extent. despite digital technology and the advent of the internet, print media, such as newspapers, magazines, etc. not only hold their ground as efficient sources of information (kim and ward, 2012) but also support social sustainability (fortunatia and o'sullivan, 2019). newman survey (newman, et al, 2019) demonstrates that the average level of trust in news is 49%, which is the main factor that can be tempered easily to create a mindset, promote an ideology or build an image and lead the public towards a certain desired interpretation of the newspaper text. newspaper is conventionally considered a written media with the highest readership, as van dijk (1986) mentions that "for most citizens, the news is perhaps the type of written discourse with which they are confronted most frequently" (p. 156). newspaper headline being a striking feature of newspaper is skimmed by most of the readers. headlines play a significant role in the comprehension, perception, and processing of the news text by the reader and express the quintessence of the news story with utmost brevity and attract the attention of the readers (ungerer, 2000). hence the headlines are deemed an appropriate medium to be manipulated in the expression of desired perspectives and ideologies (farrokhi et al, 2019). newspapers headlines because of their unique linguistic features and functions have been extensively studied from different perspectives e.g. (abba & musa, 2015; monsefi pragma stylistic features as an interpretative tool: an analysis of dawn newspaper headlines 462 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 and mahadi 2017; ismail, 2016; ismajli, 2020 etc.). however, these studies lack comprehensiveness and take either a stylistic, or pragmatic analysis separately. recently stylistics is seen approaching pragmatics to understand, discuss and identify numerous features of literary and non-literary texts, especially, in the domain of interpretation. this juncture of stylistics and pragmatics resulted in a new sub-branch of linguistics called pragma stylistic or pragmatic stylistics, a term coined by hickey (1993), which has been used as a useful framework for text analysis. black (2006) contributed to the field by propounding a systematic framework for the pragmatic stylistic analysis of the text and found the pragmatic theories useful in the interpretation of literary and non-literary text. for further profoundness, pragma-stylistics offers more complete explanations for many unexplained phenomena than stylistics or pragmatics can do alone (black, 2006). the present study, along with demonstrating the feasibility of black’s (2006) pragmatic stylistic framework to the analysis of the language of newspaper headlines, a non-literary text, also attempts to explore the way the pragma stylistic features influence a certain desired interpretation of the newspaper headlines. 1.2. aims and objectives the aim of the present endeavor is to explore the linguistic strategies employed in the headlines by the newsmakers in order to influence a certain desired interpretation of the english newspaper headlines within the purview of the pragmatic stylistics framework propounded by elizabeth black (2006). the particular focus of the study is on the following objectives: • to explore which linguistic resources/features are manipulated to make the readers interpret the headlines of the newspaper the daily dawn in the desired direction • to examine how and to what extent the identified linguistic resources/features contribute to the interpretation of the newspaper headlines in the daily dawn • to establish the feasibility of pragmatic stylistic framework( black, 2006) in exploring the role of linguistic resources leading to the interpretation of the selected newspaper headlines the present study is significant as it attempts to combine two genres, i.e. pragmatics and stylistics, and collectively applies pragmatic theories and stylistic features to the newspaper headlines, to reach at a comprehensive understanding of the understudied phenomenon than stylistics or pragmatics can do alone. furthermore, the study comes out as the first of its kind to study newspaper headlines from this perspective and has both practical and theoretical significance. the study is important for its theoretical contribution to the knowledge in the domains of media discourse, pragmatic stylistic, and overall, to the field of linguistics. the practical contribution of the study lies in demonstrating the way linguistic resources can be manipulated for ideological purposes and the possible ways of seeing through them and decoding them. thus, the study sensitizes the possible ways through which the discursive structures are utilized to make a certain mindset and, hence, power is exercised through discursive means to achieve the ideological aims. considering the sociopolitical environment in pakistan, where most of the masses are semiliterate and depend on the opinion of others, particularly, the educated elite, critical analysis of news language can provide an insight into the process of news production. the analysis also lays bare the real agenda behind the manipulation of the linguistic resources by the media groups. 1.3. research methodology: sample and framework type of research pragma stylistic features as an interpretative tool: an analysis of dawn newspaper headlines 463 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the current study undertakes a descriptive and interpretative analysis of newspaper headlines, hence, it is qualitative in nature. it takes guidelines from the assumption that reality is socially constructed and the analysis of any text needs to be contextualized (reeves & hedberg, 2003). the referential equivalent method is employed to examine the data grounded in e.g. socio-political, sociocultural, and socioeconomic factors. the data is organized through axial coding or general domains (hills et al, 1997). in this study, the data is organized under pragmatic stylistic features as suggested by black (2006). flexibility, a marking feature of descriptive analysis (elliott & timulak, 2005), makes the use of presupposition and implicature inevitable in this research. 1.4. study sample the sample for the study comprises 28 purposively chosen first-page headlines from the english newspaper the daily dawn. the data is collected randomly from the newspapers published from 21 december to 27 december 2017. the rationale for selecting the daily dawn newspaper is its largest readership because of its being the oldest english newspaper in pakistan. the daily dawn has been rated as the topmost read newspaper in pakistan by pakwired.com (2014). the data was collected from the website of the daily dawn newspaper by accessing the archive section (appendix a). 1.5. theoretical framework and model for analysis the present study is underpinned by pragmatic stylistic theory, a sub-branch of linguistics, and defined as stylistics with the addition of a pragmatic component. it emerged from van dijk’s (1972) suggestion of reserving stylistics as theoretical and linguistic branch of both linguistics and stylistics wherein there is its practical coincidence with the theory of performance and pragmatics, hence, resulting in a new sub-branch of pragma stylistics. through this combined theoretical nexus the understudy phenomena can be explained in a more comprehensive and complete way than by either pragmatic or stylistic study alone. the study adopts black’s pragmatic stylistic (2006) framework for the analysis of the data. black (2006) in her model of analysis elucidates the way pragmatics plays a part in the stylistic analysis of written discourse and proposes essential elements in the interpretational process of written discourse. according to black (2006), meaning-making is an interpretative process that varies from reader to reader and depends on non-grammatical and non-semantic aspects of language besides the linguistic features. the present study analyses the data through the following selected dimensions of the framework propounded by black (2006): tense; speech acts; cooperative principle and maxims; dietic expressions; hybrid discourse cooperative principle, hybrid discourse, and echoic discourse (black, 2006). figure 3.1 discourse tense present tense past tense future tense pragma stylistic features as an interpretative tool: an analysis of dawn newspaper headlines 464 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 2. literature review in the analysis of media text an overlap in the fields of discourse and communication is inevitable leading to the term media discourse which is broadly defined by spitulnik (2017) as a type of communication not conducted in face to face manner. pajunen (2008) mentions the newspaper discourse as a type of widely read media discourse. the global access to newspapers makes them useful tools to influence opinions and attitudes. newspaper text carries different news reports and stories and each of which is preceded by headlines. headlines briefly and artfully summarize the essence of the detailed news report and due to their unique linguistic features and functions have attracted the attention of scholarly research in different disciples including linguistics, media studies, and discourse, etc. according to reah (2002), in newspaper texts, very often readers only browse the headlines and stop to read those articles with the most attractive headings. headlines are important because they are used to stir up readers' attention, create curiosity and give information quickly and accurately (ungerer 2000; develotte and rechniewski 2001; van dijk 2013). because of their potential to make use of different linguistic features, newspaper headlines are constructed and manipulated to achieve certain purposes (al-hindawi, 2018). according to missikova (2007), the comprehension of a written text is aided by a tracing process which uses linguistic or extra linguistic clues such as stylistic features, context, presupposition, implicature etc. to decode information and bridge textual gaps. the aforementioned linguistic items fall under stylistics and pragmatics respectively, hence, a comprehensive analysis of such texts demands combined tools from pragmatic and stylistic. although both pragmatics and stylistics approach language differently (galita, 2011) recently modern stylistic studies have shown an inclination towards the study of the function of linguistic utterances. the resultant studies are called pragmastylistic or pragmatic stylistics studies. since 1990 pragmatic stylistics emerged as a distinct branch of linguistics. black (2006) presented a systematic theoretical framework for pragmatic stylistics analysis of literary and non-literary text alike. black (2006) along with theorizing the field, also demonstrates the application of this framework to different types of texts in her book. the field is further enriched by the contribution of the chinese scholars through the application of black’s work to different texts (jobbert, 2008). the most eminent works that stand out in this regard include zhao chaozhu (2001) for his pragmatic analysis of implicatures; zongxin (2002) work on pragmastylistics of dramatic texts and tu jing’s (2005) review of literary pragmatics (yijun, 2019). chovanec (2003) studied data from 242 newspaper headlines from the electronic telegraph, a british daily newspaper. the study identified three types of present tenses on the basis of the function it is made to fulfill, namely, stating a past event; foregrounding other tenses; presenting headlines based on nominalization. the present study gets a guideline from the aforementioned study in the organization of the analysis of tenses. likewise, praskova (2003) collected extensive data comprising 200 headlines from different british newspapers with the aim to determine the most recurrent grammatical features of the headlines and identified some common characteristics of the headlines. however, the study pointed out the difficulty of coming up with generalized patterns due to the diversity of multiple grammatical features and their different combinations in the headlines. in the same vein, widyanti (2010) following a descriptive qualitative method analyzed data collected from harper’s bazar magazine published in 2012 and analyzed the use of figurative devices, namely, metaphor, metonymy, personification, synecdoche, and hyperbole that perform different functions and give the headlines a flavor of advertising language. on the other hand, a study conducted by chang (2014), used a combined pragmatic and stylistic framework for mistry drama with the intent to find out the pragmatic functions of dialogues. the study successfully demonstrated the use of pragmatic pragma stylistic features as an interpretative tool: an analysis of dawn newspaper headlines 465 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 concepts to achieve aesthetic effects through dialogues. the current study takes insight from chang’s study in the presentation of pragmatic stylistic features of speech acts and implicatures. chinelo (2015) studied headlines selected from the national dailies and demonstrated how ambiguous speech acts serve as stylistic devices to engage the readers’ attention. the study effectively presented the impact of pragmatic ambiguities on the style of the text. a similar study was carried out by alake (2017) to find out the stylistic impact produced through the exploitation of different linguistic resources in the data consisting of electronic advanced fee fraud text. the analysis was carried out through combining pragmatic and stylistic tools. the study concluded that the fee fraud texts have persuasive functions and can be categorized as a sub-genre of advertisement. the current study is unique in the sense that it aims at studying the henceforth unexplored domain of news headlines in pakistani context from the purview of pragma stylistic framework to find out the role of pragma stylistic features in enforcing a particular interpretation of the headiness on the readers. 3. data analysis and discussion the following six pragmatic stylistic features are identified in the selected data: tense; speech acts; cooperative principle and maxims; dietic expressions; hybrid discourse. the analysis focuses on how these features, which are based on different pragmatic stylistic perspectives, act as influencing agents and contribute to a certain interpretation of the selected english newspaper headlines. 3.1. tenses the distinctive linguistic style of the headlines hinges on the functional use of different tenses and the role these tenses play in the interpretation of the newspaper content (hameed, 2008). four major categories of tenses i.e. the present, past, future, and ambiguous tenses have been identified in the data. the occurrence of each tense is quantitatively presented in the tabular form below. table 1 numeric distribution of tenses in headlines name of newspap er present tense past tense future tense ambiguous total fr. pr. fr. pr. fr. pr. fr. pr. fr. the daily dawn 21 (75%) 3 (11%) nil 0% 4 (14%) 28 3.1.1. present tense the data reveals that in majority of the headlines (75%) present tense is used. this tense is used to perform the function of not only reporting some events taking place in the present but also of stating the events that happened in past or may take place in future. according to halliday (1985 as cited in chovanec, 2003), this extensive use of present tense in the headlines is a characteristic feature of newspaper discourse. this suggests that the reported events are recent and of urgent nature and, hence, need to be given prompt attention (moe, 2014). most of the sample headlines are stated in simple present tense which is termed ‘historic present’ by chovanec (2014). for instance, dawn-23(2) nisar backs pml-n move to name shahbaz as pm candidate’ and dawn-25(1) kp threatens to boycott cci over ‘trespass’ inform the readers of nisar’s backing of pml-n’s move to propose shabaz sharif pragma stylistic features as an interpretative tool: an analysis of dawn newspaper headlines 466 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 as pm candidate and of kp’s warning of boycott to cci over trespass respectively. though these two events have taken place in the past or near past but the headlines employ verbs ‘backs’ and ‘threatens’ instead of ‘backed’ and ‘threatened’ which not only adds sensationalism to the news by indicating its immediacy but also leaves a strong impact on the reader by suggesting a recent economic relief, on the one hand, and lurking danger to the lives, on the other hand, respectively. hence, through the use of present tense and invocation of contextual clues the readers are made to interpret the given headlines in the desired direction. furthermore, through the use of present tense readers’ attention is focused on the main verb and object in the sentence, foregrounding the main actor and action leading the reader to easily interpret the information. this point is further demonstrated by the following examples from the data. ‘dawn-21(2) pakistan issues visas to spy jadhav’s mother, wife ; dawn22(4) un assembly rejects us jerusalem move’ another pragmatic stylistic feature found in the data is the use of present tense with reverse order of clause or phrase where the main actor is stated at the end preceded by the comment made by the actor/ agent. there are four occurrences of this feature with the purpose to create a sensation or hype by foregrounding the main agent. through the use of this stylistic technique readers’ attention is shifted from the speaker to the content of the statement guiding the reader to interpret the headline devoid of the agent, in order to absolve the agent from blame or responsibility. the following example from the data demonstrates this strategy. dawn-22(2) pakistan’s view on terror list accepted in new heart of asia declaration: fo another example from dawn-27(1) -musharraf treason case behind disqualification, says sharif some of the headlines are also observed to have infinitive form and elliptical. e.g. dawn-23(2) nisar backs pml-n move to name shahbaz as pm candidate and dawn-25(3) pml-n asks qadri to rely on courts, not agitation in these headlines the infinitive is used to refer to an event that is to take place in future time. however, in this headline present tense is used at the initial position in the sentence which is meant to mislead them into interpreting that the reported event is an urgent matter claiming their utmost attention, e.g. dawn-24(1) pti to launch movement for fata-kp merger. this headline contains infinitive that indicates a lack of specification of the time of occurrence of the event. the headlines framed in such a way can fit to express any time depending on the context. the abovecited headline implies a future event by the use of the infinitive. through the use of infinitives, the writers manipulate readers’ interpretation of the headlines by making them perceive a future event as a present one while at the same time emphasizing the urgent nature of the event. in the selected sample, past tense occurred only 3(11%) times e.g. dawn-21(1) isolation forced govt to sign deal with protesters, senate told’. past tense is mostly used to quote someone else’s words, called ‘pieces of other’s discourse’ (black, 2006), e.g. dawn-22(1) pm tasked to forge consensus on fata reforms bill. the aforementioned headline reports the third party i.e. senate’s discourse, hence, it is recounted by the use of past tense. there is also the use of other stylistic elements, such as, semicolons, colons, commas, etc. in lieu of reporting verbs. through this stylistic device reader’s attention is diverted from the main agent to the stated comment in the sentence. hence, this stylistic feature contributes to a different interpretation of the piece of news than could have resulted from omitting this feature. 3.1.2. ambiguous tense in the data, 4 (14%) headlines could not be put into any tense category because of the lack of any obvious tense marker. this leads to ambiguity and results in multiple interpretations of the given headlines. this ambiguity functions in masking agency and, hence, avoiding blame or responsibility. stylistically, this function is achieved through the use of omission and nominalization. pragma stylistic features as an interpretative tool: an analysis of dawn newspaper headlines 467 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 (a) omissions an omission that is considered to be a matter of choice in the newspaper discourse(lemke, horch & reich, 2017), is also found in the selected newspaper headlines. the data reveals 4 instances of unnecessary omissions. this stylistic feature seems to be utilized to save newspaper space. some of the omissions of the words carrying low information render the sentence ambiguous and make the headline strike like a punch line of an advertisement. the function of such omissions is to intrigue curiosity in readers (pajunen, 2008). dawn-21(4) no headway in govt-jirga talks on fata reforms another headline from the data e.g. dawn-25(4) us-israel-india nexus in the making: rabbani sounds like a phrase because of omission of helping verb has been, hence, it makes the readers interpret the information by foregrounding that something worth mentioning has taken place and reader’s attention is directed to the main agent. (b) nominalization the selected data shows the use of nominalization in headlines, for instance, dawn-21(1) isolation forced govt to sign deal with protesters, senate told. this headline manipulates the grammatical rules and gives ambiguous meaning. in the above-cited example, the nominalized word masks the agency foregrounding the government as intended by the writer or the editor. it also performs a persuasive function during the interpretation process. 3.2. deictic expressions deixis, especially, temporal and spatial are used as pointing devices in a given context, according to yule (2000). the stylistic technique is sparingly used in the selected data as only one instance of temporal deixis is found, e.g. ‘dawn-ecp says delimitation of constituencies to begin on jan 15’. however, three instances of social deixis are identified in the data. through the use of this stylistic device the writer presents through the use of this stylistic device the writer makes the issue recent and immediate. the aforementioned example from the data hints at the perennial social relationship of the reader with the prime minister in the national context. likewise in this headline dawn-23(4) fo assails pence over ‘inappropriate’ remarks in kabul. in this headline ‘fo’ is a social deixis. the use of the social deixis in an abbreviated form highlights the main agent of the news. it also highlights the social power associated with the agent and, hence, contributes to the interpretation of the news headline in this context. 3.3. speech acts this part of the analysis is based on the speech act theory propounded by austin and searle (1962) to explore the common speech acts. the analysis also attempts to explore the role of these speech acts in the interpretation of the given news considering the socio-political context of pakistan. the following table demonstrates the most recurrent performative act patterns found in the data. according to the frequency, representatives with 13(46%) occurrences are the most recurrent speech acts while declarative acts with 8 (29%) occurrences are second and commissives are the third most frequently utilized illocutions occuring43(14%) while expressives and directives have the least frequency that is 2(7%) and 1(4%) respectively. table 2 distribution pattern of types of perfomative acts s.no. type of speech act frequency percentage 1. represenatives 13 46 % pragma stylistic features as an interpretative tool: an analysis of dawn newspaper headlines 468 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 2. expressives 02 7% 3. directives 01 4% 4. commissives 4 14% 5. declaratives 08 29% total 28 3.3.1. locutionary acts in newspaper headlines all the headlines in the selected sample are rhetic acts. the headlines require the reader to know the events and political figures which are referred to in the background of the headlines and provide a context for the interpretation of the particular news. for instance, dawn-21(2) pakistan issues visas to spy jadhav’s mother, wife the mentioned headline refers back to an event about the involvement of a captured indian in an attacks in baluchistan. 3.3.2. illocutionary act in newspaper headlines the data demonstrates extensive use of illocutionary acts due to the fact that each news naturally has some context and background which makes it perform some action in the mind of the readers. due to this aspect, the informative and persuasive functions of the news headlines are enhanced (botha, 2017). representatives acts are “statements and descriptions” (black, p.31, 2006) and through these speech act speakers’ world view in accordance with their understanding is offered. an overwhelming majority of representatives (46%) are found in the data. for instance, the headline, dawn-21(4) no headway in govt-jirga talks on fata reforms conveys to the readers the stalemate in the talks between government and jirga on the issue of fata. because of frequent overlap between illocutionary acts and perlocutions their role in the interpretation is discussed under the heading of perlocutionary acts. expressive speech acts exhibit a speaker’s attitude, such as applauding, condoling, blaming, or expressing pleasure, and have an interpersonal function (black, 2006). there is only one instance of this speech act in the study sample i.e. dawn-23(4) fo assails pence over ‘inappropriate’ remarks in kabul. directive speech acts are essentially commands (black, 2006). the selected sample has two instances of this speech act i.e. dawn-22(1) pm tasked to forge consensus on fata reforms bill the use of the directives makes the readers interpret the news as coming directly from the authoritative figure of the prime minister. in this way the headline is made to have a forceful impact on the readers. the news is interpreted as if the promised task will be fulfilled. commissives are used sparingly in the headlines and occur only 4 (14%) times in the data. commissive speech acts which include promises or threats etc. are employed by a speaker to commit himself to some future course of action (black, 2006). these perform the function of expressing promises, future plans, or commitments by the politicians or government authorities in the political news. for instance, ‘dawn-24(1) pti to launch movement for fata-kp merger’ informs the reader about the possible merger of fata and kp, which is a potential menace to the opposition. likewise more examples in the data are: dawn-24(4) despite criticism, cj vows to fight for people’s rights and dawn-25(1) kp threatens to boycott cci over ‘trespass’. the role of these stylistic features in the interpretation of the given headlines is of preparing the readers to accept the results of the news unquestioningly. pragma stylistic features as an interpretative tool: an analysis of dawn newspaper headlines 469 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the data reveals 8 (29 %) occurrences of declaratives that overlap with representatives of assertive nature. these also emphasize specific statements and the readers readily accept this headline due to the insistent nature of the statement. other declaratives found in the data are used to make the statements made by either political figures or institutions emphatic and insistent, e.g. dawn-22(2) pakistan’s view on terror list accepted in new heart of asia declaration: fo and dawn-23(3) no evidence against bloggers accused of blasphemy: fia. thus, the use of the declarative in the headlines emphasizes the reported news and persuades the readers in accepting the news at its face value without questioning its veracity. 3.3.3. perlocutionary acts in newspaper headlines the resultant impact of the speech act on the readers includes informing, encouraging, promising, criticizing, hypothesizing, insisting, blaming, suggesting, appreciating, and persuading. the use of the representative and declarative speech acts in the given headline persuades the readers of the veracity of the news. e.g. ‘dawn-26(1) envoy says iran not giving arms to houthis’ is a representative which insists on the demand of not being called a major terrorist ally. through the use of ‘envoy’ as an authentic source, the writer affects the interpretation of the headline in the desired direction. since the news is ascribed to the authoritative figure of the “envoy” hence, it persuades the readers to accept the news as an authentic one. other than the use of persuasion as a technique through exploiting the linguistic resources, readers’ interpretation is also affected by the use of other representatives, such as threatening and suggesting, etc. for example, ‘dawn-24(1) pti to launch movement for fata-kp merger’ suggests an upcoming happening opposite to this headline, ‘dawn-25(1) kp threatens to boycott cci over ‘trespass’ which is an indirect threat. the commissive speech acts due to their suggestive nature make the readers interpret the given headline positively, e.g., dawn-22(1) pm tasked to forge consensus on fata reforms bill’ and ‘dawn-24(1) pti to launch movement for fata-kp merger’. 3.3.4. ambiguity in the division of speech acts the analysis of the selected sample shows an overlap in different types of speech acts, due to which multidimensional contextual clues lead to multiple interpretations causing ambiguity (nwala & umukoro, 2017). such speech acts are very often deliberately used by the journalists in the headlines to provoke inquisitiveness in readers about the news (ezekulie, 2015). the analysis of the data reveals 4 headlines with ambiguous speech acts e.g. ‘dawn-24(4) despite criticism, cj vows to fight for people’s rights’. the aforementioned headline can be labeled as commissive if we interpret as chief justice vowing to fight for the rights of the masses, and at the same time, it can also be labeled as representative if we interpret it as appreciation of the chief justice for commitment to stand up for the rights of the people. on the other hand, ‘dawn-24(1) pti to launch movement for fata-kp merger’ is a representative as well as declarative. this ambiguity in conveying clear meanings renders the headline open to multiple interpretations (nwala & umukoro, 2017). 3.4. maxims of quantity, quality and manner in the data, maxims show a common trend and seem to play a significant part in influencing the point of view from which interpretation of the headlines is made within the socio-political context of pakistan. headlines show flouting of different maxims which is evident from the statistics given in the table below. table 2 pragma stylistic features as an interpretative tool: an analysis of dawn newspaper headlines 470 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 distribution pattern of types of perfomative acts s.no. type of maxims observance flouting 1. quality 26 02 1. quantity 10 18 2. manner 24 4 3. relevance 28 0 the selected sample shows that in 18 occurrences maxim of quantity is compromised. most of these violations take the shape of abbreviations. the reason of this stylistic technique seems to make the headlines, catchy and attractive for the readers, giving it promotional effects like advertisements and also to save space. as liu (2012) opines that headlines which are shorter in length have more probability to be retained by the memory and have promotional effects like advertisements. a few examples of the use of abbreviation as a way to flout maxim of quantity are: ‘dawn-24(4) despite criticism, cj vows to fight for people’s rights’. ‘dawn-24(1) pti to launch movement for fata-kp merger’ in the data two headlines violates the maxim of quality while 26 headlines conform to this maxim. ‘dawn-25(4) us-israel-india nexus in the making: rabbani’, violates maxim of quality. through the use of metaphoric expression in the headline “nexus in the making” intensity of cooperation between india and israel on multiple levels is suggested which in the backdrop of strained india pakistan relations gives the readers a tinge of insecurity. the readers, being pakistani patriotic citizens interpret the news as a signal of potential danger and feel insecure in the context of india pakistan’s conflicting situation and could sense some ill will brewing that may be harmful to pakistan. the headline is, thus, interpreted in the socio-political background of the countries and their relationship. maxim of manner is violated only in four headlines in the selected data. this stylistic feature, in ‘dawn-25(4) us-israel-india nexus in the making: rabbani’ shows semantic ambiguity and, hence, is open to multiple interpretations based on a personal level of creativity and knowledge of the readers. the headline cannot be categorized under any tense, and, hence gives ambiguous meaning. 3.5. direct and indirect discourse through direct discourse a text is hauled out from its original context and planted in a new and different context through the use of discourse markers, such as, quotation marks and reporting verbs. this assigned syntactic position lures the readers to view the given news in terms of second discourse context (black, 2006). the understudy data reveals 6 occurrences of direct discourse. however, direct discourse found in the data is marked by differences in punctuation as conventional stylistic features. for example, ‘dawn-23(3) no evidence against bloggers accused of blasphemy: fia’ and ‘dawn25(4) us-israel-india nexus in the making: rabbani’ in the data some of direct discourse employs commas instead of quotation marks. for example, dawn-21(1) isolation forced govt to sign deal with protesters, senate told’. in free indirect discourse, omniscient narrator is used (maier, 2017) and the main clause states the notion with the use of exclamation marks and slang and omission of reporting verbs (black, 2006). pragma stylistic features as an interpretative tool: an analysis of dawn newspaper headlines 471 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 there are 12 occurrences of free indirect discourse found in the data, e.g. ‘dawn-23(4) fo assails pence over ‘inappropriate’ remarks in kabul’ and ‘dawnnisar backs pmln move to name shahbaz as pm candidate’. through the choice of verbs, such as, ‘seeks’ and ‘backs’, the editor/writer makes the reader interpret the words in the desired direction guided by the reporting verbs though the original news consist of pope and nisar’s locution. the reader is made to conform unconsciously to the perspective of the editor. redeker (1996) calls the headiness in this category ‘journalist’s commentary’. the boundaries between original news and editor’s commentary are blurred and through the use of fid interpretation 3.6. hybrid discourse black (2006) mentions that hybrid discourse is generated when two language systems coexist in one discourse either in the form of a single word, phrase or clause due to which the perspective of the whole sentence is changed. through the use of this stylistic technique, the interpretation of a headline is influenced. this term is broad enough to cover and overlap with intertextuality, free indirect discourse and garden path utterances and will be analyzed under the following heads. 3.7. intertextuality intertextuality, a technique for the production of hybrid discourse, echoes one text into another (black, 2006). there are 2 instances of intertextuality found in the data. for example, dawn-22(1) pm tasked to forge consensus on fata reforms bill, in this headline, the phrase ‘forge consensus’ is a common idiomatic expression in the english language and it refers to “making something by exerting”. hence, the phrase suggests and struggle discourse that is blended with the struggle of creating consensus. however, the interpretation of such headlines depends on the socio-political contextual knowledge of the reader. 3.8. garden path utterances sometimes the writers/editors leave the headline open-ended by phrasing it in an ambiguous manner and leaving it open for interpretation in multiple ways by the readers. black (2006) terms such statements as garden path utterances, which make the readers stumble upon unexpected meanings fallaciously. the understudy data has 8% garden path utterances showing two patterns: phrase-based; clause based. phrase based utterances, such as dawn-25(4) us-israel-india nexus in the making: rabbani’, create hybridity due to its ambiguous nature and offer multiple interpretations concealing the actual news. the readers are left wondering about the type of nexus between the us and israel. similarly, ‘dawn-26(3) how kashmir found mention in ‘islamabad declaration’, this headline is in the form of a question and gives incomplete information the making the readers wonder about the correct interpretations from the multiple explanations. at the same time it intrigues curiosity in readers to pursue the full story in order to make sense of the headline. 4. findings and conclusion the analysis of the selected headlines through the prism of pragmatic stylistic framework propounded by black(2006) shows that the newsmakers exploit different linguistic resources for the purpose of not only attracting readers’ attention but also in influencing their interpretation of the given headline in the desired direction and hence achieve the ideological aims. a great amount of guesswork is required in the interpretation of the utterances. it also involves the ability of drawing inferences to get at the meanings intended by the speaker. a knowledge of the pragmatic and stylistic dimensions of language is of great value as it deals with meaning and interpretation based on particular use of language and aspects of the context respectively (lyons, 1977). the study finds that the news makers pragma stylistic features as an interpretative tool: an analysis of dawn newspaper headlines 472 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 use linguistic resources to tilt the construction of headlines in order to make the readers interpret it in the desired way without explicitly stating it. the data analysis reveals the use of tenses, deictic expressions, speech acts, maxims, direct and indirect discourse and hybrid discourse as recurrent pragmatic stylistic features in pakistani english newspaper headlines. the study also sought to find out the contribution of these pragmatic stylistic features in swaying readers’ interpretation of the given headlines. the analysis of the data highlights that tenses are the most extensively used features that are instrumental in swaying reader’s interpretation of the headlines. the linguistic clues and resources are exploited by the editors to focus the reader’s attention on certain facts while making them overlook others. the present tense is the most used tense in the understudy headlines with the stylistic variation of reversing the order of phrases and clauses, infinitive, nominalization, omission, etc. to influence the interpretation of the headlines. through the use of past tense in the form of rhetorical questions, the headlines are made suggestive and open-ended leading to multiple possible interpretations. however, the highest ratio of impact on the interpretation is seen through the use of ambiguous tense. such headlines lack any tense marker and, hence cannot be placed under one category. among different pragmatic stylistic features, the category of deictic expressions is the least used feature in the headlines. the findings of the study indicate the contribution of speech acts in foregrounding and backgrounding in delivering the message in the intended direction, thus affecting interpretation. the quantitative use of representatives is (46%), expressive (7%), directive (4%) commissives (14%), and declaratives (29%) in the data. the representatives are made to function in making the reader accept the veracity of the news through their insistence nature. commisives foretell while expressives and directives involve readers’ feelings and compliance respectively. the declaratives announce the tiding forcefully. the notable violation found in the data is that of the maxim of quality and manner. in the flouting of these maxims metaphors are used as stylistic tools leading to multiple interpretations due to their suggestive nature. the stylistic features, such as, commas and quotation marks , and omission of reporting verbs are also used in an overwhelming majority not only as stylistic features but also to make the headlines topical sentences through which editors’ opinions are fused with the actual news affecting the interpretation of the headlines. likewise, hybrid discourse, intertextuality, and garden path utterances are also used as linguistic tools in the sample headlines. pragmatic stylistic framework by black (2006), a recent development in linguistics, is one of the methodologies which can best be utilized to find out the meaning-making process and the underlying ideological positions. the study provides clarity to the application of the pragmatic stylistic framework to the non-literary discourse, i.e. newspaper headlines an untapped domain so far. the study proves the viability of the framework in examining the textual and contextual features of the newspaper headlines from a critical angle. in the light of the findings of the present study, it can be concluded that newspaper headlines contain different pragmatic and stylistic features. these stylistic and contextual clues, as asserted by van dijk (1988) activate the general knowledge of the readers about language and assist in the interpretation and meaning-making process of the given text. newsmakers purposively through the construction of the news in a particular way make the readers arrive at proper inferences. hence, the headlines along with performing their main function of informing the reader also exert a deep influence on public opinion and convince them to accept the point of view expressed in the article. pragma stylistic features as an interpretative tool: an analysis of dawn newspaper headlines 473 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 references al-hindawi, p. f. h. 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"a literature review on cooperative principle." in 4th international conference on contemporary education, social sciences and humanities (iccessh 2019), pp. 974-978. atlantis press, 2019. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). pragma stylistic features as an interpretative tool: an analysis of dawn newspaper headlines 475 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 appendix a the daily dawn web archive https://www.dawn.com/newspaper/front-page/2017-12-21 dawn-21(1) isolation forced govt to sign deal with protesters, senate told dawn-21(2) pakistan issues visas to spy jadhav’s mother, wife dawn-21(3) ihc stays dar’s trial in accountability court dawn-21(4) no headway in govt-jirga talks on fata reforms https://www.dawn.com/newspaper/front-page/2017-12-22 dawn-22(1) pm tasked to forge consensus on fata reforms bill dawn-22(2) pakistan’s view on terror list accepted in new heart of asia declaration: fo dawn-22(3) fo says india misused list for political point scoring. dawn-22(4) pakistan to retain full spectrum deterrence policy https://www.dawn.com/newspaper/front-page/2017-12-23 dawn-23(1) ecp says delimitation of constituencies to begin on jan 15 dawn-23(2) nisar backs pml-n move to name shahbaz as pm candidate dawn-23(3) no evidence against bloggers accused of blasphemy: fia dawn-23(4) fo assails pence over ‘inappropriate’ remarks in kabul https://www.dawn.com/newspaper/front-page/2017-12-24 dawn-24(1) pti to launch movement for fata-kp merger dawn-24(2) pakistan, iran agree on joint aerial border monitoring dawn-24(3) new delhi confirms visit of jadhav’s mother, wife dawn-24(4) despite criticism, cj vows to fight for people’s rights https://www.dawn.com/newspaper/front-page/2017-12-25 dawn-25(1) kp threatens to boycott cci over ‘trespass’ dawn-25(2) dawn’s history project comes to an end dawn-25(3) pml-n asks qadri to rely on courts, not agitation dawn-25(4) us-israel-india nexus in the making: rabbani https://www.dawn.com/newspaper/front-page/2017-12-26 dawn-26(1) envoy says iran not giving arms to houthis dawn-26(2) historic decision on fata-kp merger taken dawn-26(3) how kashmir found mention in ‘islamabad declaration’ dawn-26(4) indian spy on death row allowed to meet family https://www.dawn.com/newspaper/front-page/2017-10-27 dawn-27(1) ecp accepts imran’s apology, drops contempt petitions dawn-27(2) sc summons record of internees at 45 centres dawn-27(3) abbasi defends lng contract with qatar dawn-27(4) arrest warrants issued for ex-pm sharif https://www.dawn.com/archive/2017-12-22 https://www.dawn.com/newspaper/front-page/2017-12-23 the role of politeness strategies in forming the public self-image of an organization: 312 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii the role of politeness strategies in forming the public self-image of an organization: a mini-ethnographic case study of the punjab police through the pragmatic lens 1abdul ahad jajja 2rashid hussain 3iram arshad 1lecturer, faculty of languages and literature, university of central punjab, lahore 2lecturer, faculty of languages and literature, university of central punjab, lahore 3lecturer, department of english, national university of modern languages, lahore abstract the police are an important part of a society, responsible for the upkeep of law and order and listening to the public’s grievances. the latter is the concern of this study, which focuses on analysing the politeness strategies used by the members of the punjab police in conversation with the complainants in the police stations of lahore. moreover, this paper also studies how politeness strategies are used by the police to impart its own public selfimage (face) to the public. the study adopted the politeness strategies framework (positive, negative, bald on-record, off record) outlined originally by brown and levinson (1987) to tag utterances exchanged between the police and the complainants. the study used a miniethnographic case study for the collection of data from police stations through observations, field notes and semi-structured interviews. three police stations were observed for triangulation purposes where interactions between the complainants and the front-desk officers were noted down. moreover, interviews were taken from front-desk officers, subinspectors, inspectors and shos. the observations and supporting interviews have shown that the police are keen on maintaining a positive face (i.e., maintaining solidarity and cordialness) which was in contrast to the complainants who by default maintained a negative face (i.e., maintained a serious demeanour, and had a more direct, to-the-point attitude). this goes on to show the conscious effort made by the police to maintain a friendly outlook, and shun stereotypical tags of being impolite, rude, and overpowering with the complainants. keywords: politeness, politeness strategies, punjab police introduction organizations are formed of a group of people, i.e., the employees, who are working collectively to achieve a goal, or a set of goals, set out by the organization (glass, 1991; blau & scott, 1962; montana & charnov, 1993). these people cumulatively form an identity, and thus the public self-image of an organization. the interaction of the employees with the clients of an organization to be referred here onwards as customers then becomes a matter of great attention for an organization. it is because this interaction is responsible for disseminating the public selfimage of the organization. to know what such a public self-image would entail for an organization, and how politeness plays a role in its dissemination, this study has been conducted. the advantages for organizations of effective communication with customers include successful problem-solving, enhanced customer relationships, saving of time and money, and a better decision-making process (van staden et al., 2002). and amongst the elements of a the role of politeness strategies in forming the public self-image of an organization: 313 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii meaningful and effective communication is the usage of politeness (brown & levinson, 1987; watts et al., 1992), which is linked directly with the public self-image of the interlocutors. public self-image has been explained by david goffman (1959, 1967) as the positive social value an individual lay a claim to within a particular interaction, by the line others assume s/he has taken. here line refers to the repeated actions that the person does in order to maintain the public image over a period of time. goffman termed this concept as “face”, which he claimed to be inherent to every person. he also held that most of the people are usually concerned with the opinion that others have of them. to address such a concern, a framework was devised by brown and levinson (1987) in the form of their politeness theory. it propounds that politeness is the act of catering to other individuals face during a conversation, so as not to threaten it (brown & levinson, 1987). similarly, organizations are bodies which communicate with other individuals, as well as other organizations. in doing so, naturally, they are conferred with a public self-image, or face we might call it. this might or might not behave like, or entail the constituents of an individual’s face, and of the usage of politeness, but this paper nonetheless claims its existence and constituents. in order to define the face of an organization, and how politeness comes into play, this study will present a hypothesis and test it out against empirical evidence. hypothesis it is hypothesised in the current study that there exists a face of an organization, on the same line as goffman’s (1967) face and facework theory of individuals. this face will be termed organizational face and is defined as the positive corporate value an organization stakes a claim to, and for which it takes a line – that is, it performs certain repeated actions – that its customers come to expect from it over a time. in goffman’s consideration, face is an image with “approved social attributes”, and an image that others might share as well. likewise, an organization has a face with sanctioned corporate attributes, whereby its face is also shared by the employees. thus, an organization has to adopt a particular organizational face and be consistent with it, so that the society ultimately expects the same from it repeatedly. the formulation of organizational face takes further inspiration from brown and levinson’s (1987) politeness theory, and their concept of face-threatening acts (ftas). as such, and by default, an organizational face of any rational organization is the desire or want to satisfy its customers and maintain its corporate image. it is hypothesised here that like individuals, organizations too have organizational face wants, and will protect its face wants through facework in an interaction. it will use organizational politeness, to allay any threats to its organizational face. moreover, during such a consideration we refer to a model organization (mo), on the lines of a model person (mp), which is an organization capable of making rational decisions. face of an organization, as that of an individual, gets threatened via face threatening acts (fta’s). it’s different here in the sense that the face-threatening acts of the organization towards its customers, rather than the vice versa, threaten the face of an organization. to cope with such a phenomenon, organizations then use organizational politeness strategies to mitigate such face threats, the particulars of which is a topic for another study and will not be touched upon here. face theory and politeness theory penelope brown and stephen levinson (1987) gave an elaborate account of politeness phenomenon universals. they used the concept of “face” given by erving goffman (1967) for describing “human interactions that revolved around being polite” (redmond, 2015, p. 2). the role of politeness strategies in forming the public self-image of an organization: 314 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii goffman (1967) described face as “the positive social value a person effectively claims for himself (or herself) by the line others assume he (or she) has taken during a particular contact” (p. 5). using the same concept, brown and levinson (1987) outline face as “the want to be unimpeded and the want to be approved of in certain respects” (p. 63). these wants, termed as face-wants, have been categorised into two specific kinds: one being “the desire (in some respects) to be approved of”, termed as positive face wants, and the other being “the desire to be un-impeded in one’s actions”, termed as negative face wants (brown & levinson, 1987, p.13). though goffman was the one who implied this concept, it were really brown and levinson who came up with the two face types, based on the face wants that humans subscribe to, i.e., negative face wants and positive face wants. fundamental to politeness is the concept of intrinsic face threatening acts (fta’s) which has been derived from austin (1962) and searle’s (1979) speech act theory and adapted accordingly. ftas are acts which are inherently a threat to the face of the speaker and the addressee engaged in a conversation (brown & levinson, 1987). it is therefore in the interest of the participants to avoid ftas since each participant wants their own face to remain intact and would avoid threatening others’ as well. brown and levinson (1987) say that “any rational agent will seek to avoid these face-threatening acts, or will employ certain strategies to minimize the threat” (p. 68). brown and levinson (1987) put forward that a rational agent is the one who would take care of the following three wants: 1. the want to communicate the content of the fta x. 2. the want to be efficient or urgent. 3. the want to maintain h’s face to any degree. unless (2) is greater than (3), s will want to minimize the threat of his/her fta. (p. 68) goffman (1967) deliberated that a person’s own face and that of the other person have the same constructs. exactly what to feel towards a person’s face is dependent on the dynamics of the interaction group and the self-generated definition of the particular situation. goffman said a person is in face when the line taken presents an image of the self that is: (1) internally constant, (2) supported by evidence delivered by other participants, and (3) verified by neutral agencies in the situation. in the words of brown and levinson (1987), these concepts have been defined as follows: 1. positive face: “the positive consistent self-image or ‘personality’ (crucially including the desire that this self-image be appreciated and approved of) claimed by interactants” (p. 61). 2. negative face: “the basic claim to territories, personal pre serves, rights to non-distraction i.e., to freedom of action and freedom from imposition.” brown and levinson (1987) came up with a number of strategies that the speakers can utilize for catering to other people’s positive and negative face wants. these are labelled: 1) bald on-record, as being the most threatening action to the face, followed by 2) positive politeness strategies, 3) negative politeness strategies, and 4) off record strategies being the least threatening. in total there are ten negative politeness strategies, fifteen positive politeness strategies and fifteen off record strategies, which have been laid out by brown and levinson. these strategies will help in the sorting and analysis of data. the current study focuses on assessing the threats to both the addressee’s (h) and the speaker’s (s) face wants. it will be through observing the interaction between the organization, i.e., the police department and the customers, i.e., the complainants. the role of politeness strategies in forming the public self-image of an organization: 315 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii methodology mini-ethnographic case study this is a qualitative study and uses the mini-ethnographic case study for the collection of data. this model is a combination of an ethnography and a case study, in order to tailor fit research studies which, aim at having the best of both methods while attempting to negate the shortcomings (fusch et. al., 2017). it remains helpful in managing the time constraints of a study, which otherwise the aforementioned two approaches do not cater to. moreover, it allows for variety in methods especially for areas of limited access such as the police station in the current study. the following was also kept in mind while choosing this particular and novel approach, “a study design that enables one to best answer the research question (or hypothesis) …that assists the researcher in reaching data saturation and…can complete the study within a reasonable time frame with minimal cost. (fusch et. al., 2017, p. 923)” methods a number of data collection methods have been utilized, as provided by this methodology. the fieldwork includes (1) direct observation, of the interaction between the complainants and the police, (2) field notes, for jotting down helpful observations during the tenure of the field work and finally (3) semi-structured interviews with the selected participants (fusch et. al., 2017). with these data collection methods, the research tool of open-ended questionnaires, as well as the researcher himself, were used to delve deeper into the understanding of concepts of face of the interviewees, and the general phenomenon. for the general guideline for doing qualitative research, instructions as laid out in robert k. yin’s (2016), “qualitative research from start to finish” were followed during the planning stage, and during the fieldwork, for the accurate execution of this mini-ethnographic case study. the current study focuses on language, and the data collection emphasizes especially on the complaint process, where observations were made of the interaction between public and police, for possible face-threatening acts, and usage of politeness strategies. it was supplemented through data from the semi-structured interviews of the police, and the public. visits were made to a total of three police stations, all of which were visited in a single day. a total of nine interviews were conducted which included two complainants, two sho’s, two si’s, two front-desk officers, and one moharrir. similarly, apart from observations during interviews, specific observations were taken into consideration of three complainants, of which two were also interviewed. each of the complainants interacted with a different ranked police officer, i.e., with a sho, a front-desk officer, and an investigation officer respectively. on an average one hour at each police station was spent. politeness strategies framework the data would be analysed using brown and levinson’s (1987) politeness strategies framework. this framework details the different type of strategies for different politeness levels. brown and levinson came up with a total of 15 strategies for performing positive politeness, 10 strategies for performing negative politeness and 15 strategies for when a person remains offrecord. these strategies were used as the basis for the analysis. the speech of the participants during the observation and interview was classified according to the types of strategies they used during interlocution. in a regular conversation, the participants would normally use all of the above politeness strategies, and the same would be true for the participants under observation for this study. however, the ones who use a particular set of strategies more often would obviously inform the role of politeness strategies in forming the public self-image of an organization: 316 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii us more about their conversation styles and politeness usage. this would enable in the analysis of the police officers and complainants’ speech pattern, and potentially inform about who among these is more polite and uses what kind of politeness. the below schematics give a fairer idea of all the possible strategies suggested by brown and levinson. figure 1 positive politeness strategies schematic (brown and levinson, 1987, p. 102) figure 2 negative politeness strategies schematic (brown and levinson, 1987, p. 131) figure 3 off record strategies schematic (brown and levinson, 1987, p. 214) the role of politeness strategies in forming the public self-image of an organization: 317 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii population the punjab police of lahore is the population of this study, and has been delimited to only the police stations of lahore. moreover, all the other departments of the punjab police, for example the traffic police, special branch, etc., have not been included in this study. lahore with its huge population of over 15 million citizens, as per pakistan bureau of statistics (2017) recent survey, has people of a diverse social class. lahore was chosen primarily for its ease of access to the researchers and for traversing, as well as for its wide network of police stations, amounting to a total of 89. the stations are split into policing “circles”, and these are further classified under the six administrative “divisions” of lahore. sample stratified sampling technique was used to look for a sufficiently representable data which had a minimum chance of bias. it enabled for control on the sample under study while at the same time ensuring randomness of the selections. the stratification allowed the researcher to cater to the hierarchy of the police stations, by taking into account divisions and circles. therefore, for the proper representation of the population, a police station from each of the divisions was demarcated, which sum up to six. the six of these police station were selected at random from each of the divisions, without any regard to the police circles. the divisions of lahore include the following: 1. saddar division 2. iqbal town division 3. cantonment division 4. model town division 5. city division 6. civil lines division despite the ambitious target of six police stations, the researcher managed to access only three police stations due to the exertion required for gaining access to the stations, as well as due to the time constraints of the study. nonetheless, three was the least number of police stations required for purposes of triangulation, and this goal was sufficiently achieved. the police stations eventually studied were from the cantonment division, city division and civil lines division respectively. ethical considerations the role of politeness strategies in forming the public self-image of an organization: 318 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii in view of the sensitivity surrounding such a study, certain information has been redacted and/or kept confidential to avoid possible identification of the personnel involved. this step included retracting the exact police stations name’s where the study took place, as well as the names of the police officers. permission for audio as well as video recordings, either overtly or covertly, was not provided by the concerned officers and were avoided during the interviews, rather, hand-notes were made use of for data collection. due permission, verbally, was taken from the heads of the police stations, to conduct the field work and observe the happenings in the police station. a permission letter, authorised by the thesis supervisor, was kept at hand and shown wherever asked. observations at the police stations among the observations made at the police stations, one was of how the hierarchy of the police played a role in the interaction with the public. police stations only had police officers of grade bps-16 and below, meaning the public only came in direct contact with the lower ranked police officials. among these officials, first contact of the public was with a front-desk officers, or in some cases with a moharrir (note taker) who are at the entry-level rank. if the complaint is of a serious nature and time taking, only then the complainants got to interact with higher ranked officials in a police station. one of the first signs of cognizance among the police of the need to enhance its organizational face, is the establishment of front-desks in almost every police station in punjab. as per the official website of the punjab police, front desks were set up back in the year 2016, when major police reforms came about after the model town massacre in which over 14 student protestors were killed amidst violent clashes (2016). these are a separate, renovated area within a police station where the complainants file their complaints. the front-desk officers are unranked and newly recruited graduates, without any uniforms who work more like customer support agents than police officers. they use formal language, including proper salutations and greetings coupled with serious cum polite behaviour. analysis and discussion interviews of police officers the first question asked from the participants was about their belief in the existence of their organization’s face, put to them as its public self-image (translated in urdu as khaaqa for one participant). across the board, the interviewees accepted unanimously that the police had a face, which they defined as the police’s self-image among the public. the answer to the question that followed shows the correct interpretation of the concept of face by the participants. the second question asked the participants about the kind or type of public self-image that the police would like to portray to the public, through communication. most interviewees proceeded to answer this question in continuation with the first question. this act reflected on the participant’s part their increasing willingness to communicate what constituted their organizational face. once again, a common ground was achieved on the answers to the second question. the responses included the police being considered as “caring”, “a people’s servant”, “cooperating”, “a public helper” and “property of the public”. the interviewees painted a similar picture of the expected face of the police. some interviewees went back in time to blame the tarnished image of the police on the image associated with the british indian mode of policing and with it, which has not been fully gotten rid of. media, especially electronic, was singled out as the chief reason for the maligned image of the police. the interviewees credited exaggerated one-sided news stories as well as the the role of politeness strategies in forming the public self-image of an organization: 319 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii negative depiction of police in films and teledramas as being counter to their efforts of portraying the expected face of the police. table 1 police officers’ response summary sr. questions aggregate responses 1 do you believe your organization has a public self-image? they unanimously answered in a “yes”. 2 what kind of public self-image would you like to portray through communication? they wanted to promote themselves as “caring”, “cooperating”, “property of the public”, “a people’s servant” and “a public helper”. 3 how do you portray your organization’s public self-image? the public self-image is portrayed through “politeness”, “front-desks”, “social media”, “civility”, “polite language”, “traditional media” “courtesy”, and “chai (tea)’. 4 has it ever happened that the actions of a complainant threatened the public image of the police? complainants’ acts didn’t hurt the public image, it only affected the internal proceedings, through, “vendetta”, “darkhwast baazi” (constant appealing) and “revenge”. 5 has it ever happened that the actions of an employee threatened the public image of the police? it has and mostly by “the lower cadre officers” who are in contact with the public. moreover, it was through “impolite behaviour” and due to its “biased media reporting”. the third question asked the interviewees how the police was trying to portray its face. yielding varied replies, the police officer who were more mindful of the current affairs of the organization were better able to answer the questions. as was expected, the newly introduced front-desks was on the top of agenda for all, claiming that introduction of this measure was a step towards improving the image of the police. courtesy was pointed out as one of the other factors in bettering the image of police, and it was done through acts of politeness, and offering tea to the complainants on their arrival to the station. continuing the same trend, the fourth question yielded answers with unanimity, asking the interviewees whether the actions of the complainants could threaten the public self-image of the police. the case of darkhwast baazi (incessant appealing) meted out to the police officers by some ill-behaved complainants resonated with all the respondents. this is a case in which an application is written against some of the police officers to the gazetted police officers, usually revolving around the mishandling of their cases, who then take action against the lower ranked officers. this unruly behaviour of the applicants was also attributed to a lack of understanding of the law and jurisdiction of the police. but importantly, no such cases were reported in which acts of the complainants were responsible for hurting the public image of the police, resonating with the hypothesis’s claim. the fifth and last question from the interviewees was whether the actions of the police officials had any impact on the public self-image of the police. a sho of a police station pointed towards the police employees of the lower cadre, who also happen to be the ones most in contact the role of politeness strategies in forming the public self-image of an organization: 320 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii with the general public, as the major contributors of threats to the face of the police. he pointed towards the impolite behaviour by the police officials with the public as the cause for the degradation of the organizations image. interviewees were adamant at pointing at the presence of good and bad people in any organization, and claimed same was the case with the police. this shows the constant mindset towards maintenance of face by the police officials, that when faced with a scenario of interviews and possibly of a chance at improving their own image, they would lunge at it. that is not to say the same also happens while the actual day to day affairs are happening. one interviewee pointed to the old setup of moharrirs as bribe takers in order to timely dispense of the people’s complaints. claiming that media was keen on picking up such incidents and had a propensity of reporting these quite vociferously, which led to considerable damage to the police’s image. the interviewers emphasized that since the actions of a few individuals had impact on the whole organization, the department had strict measures in place to take action against such troublesome individuals in the department. the police-complainant interaction compared to the police officials, not a lot of complainants were available for the interviews during the period of the fieldwork, so much so that a proper interview became possible. the rest two complainants were simply observed during the fieldwork, in order to understand their correspondence with the police officers. the first of the observations was made of three people, who came to the police station for lodging a lost item complaint. initial observation gave an impression that the complainants lived abroad, probably in an english-speaking country due to their conversation being in a british accented english. during their interaction with the female front desk officer, highly animated and at times frustrated conversation took place. the complainants wanted the complaint challan to be backdated by a day due to insurance requirements, however, the front-desk officer pointed out the computer program as not being able to perform such an action. a senior police officer, seeing the tense environment, came from across the room to intervene and ask the matter himself. “madam ji, aapka kia masla hai?” (madam, what is bothering you?), asked the officer. “mera wallet gum gaya hai, uski complaint lodge karwani aur mujhay sirf slip chahiye insurance claim karnay k liye.” (i’ve lost my wallet and i’ve to lodge its complaint so i can get a complaint slip), replied the complainant. the officer asked for clarification from the front-desk officer, and then moved to the complainant for further information. assessing the scenario, he suggested the complainant to go for filing a fir, which, however the complainant was reluctant to do. “madam mein to kahoun ga k aap fir katwa lain, chori ka case hai.” (madam, i would suggest you get a fir registered, since it’s a robbery case), the officer insisted. the complainant conversed with her fellows in english lamenting the state of affairs of the police organization, and venting her frustration. “they’re not gonna help us. such unprofessional behaviour they have.”, she quipped. it’s quite evident from this chain of events that the police officer was not complying with the complainant’s negative face, rather was using positive politeness strategies for conversation, as referenced in the table 2. the officer was adamant at giving his advice and said, “mein to aapko yehi mashwara doun ga k aap chori ki information bhi dalwa dain.” (i would suggest that you get the information of the money added in the report as well). the complainants were dead set on what they wanted, and were looking back and forth at the front-desk officer and the police officer for clues, before finally leaving with the slip they got. the role of politeness strategies in forming the public self-image of an organization: 321 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii in the above interactions, the female front-desk officer had a more focused and serious demeanour with the complainants, and conversed in urdu, using mostly negative politeness. however, the senior police officer frequently code-switched between urdu and punjabi, and used positive politeness strategies, and disregarded face of the complainants. the complainants were using bald-on record strategies, mixed with negative politeness, as can be expected from someone in distress. it is a case of what goffman (1967) describes as being out of face. keeping in mind the critical situation, the researcher approached the complainant for an interview. initially being denied by the female chief complainant, her younger fellow obliged. the second question was asked straight on, to which he was sure that an organization had the responsibility, to cater to the public’s face. he, however, also expressed concern at the mishandling of their complaint, and the treatment meted out to them. however, he did agree that the police behaved politely but lamented that it was of no use since their queries were not catered to, pointing to the police being out of face. this point is interesting, since theoretically, polite behaviour usually comes at the cost of grice’s (1975) maxims of cooperation, in this particular case the maxims of quantity (give enough information and not more) and relation (only say what is required). another observation was made of a man, in his forties and of low-income strata, pleading to the sho for leniency. the sho knew him already and used positive politeness strategies with him. he came with a plea to allow his little stall in the outskirts of a university, which had been ordered removed as part of a crackdown against cigarettes sellers outside universities. “janab, tussi ay karo k koi hor shay rakh lo apnay khokhay tay. bachay bohat si shaiwan kha lainday. nimko waghera lay k rakho.” (how about you put some other things at your stall. students like variety. consider having nimko.) said the police officer. “sir ji, mein tawanno das raya, bachay ay shaiwan nai lainday. thora jeya reham karo, minno na hatawo.” (sir, i’m telling you; students don’t eat such stuff. have mercy, and don’t remove my stall.) appealed the complainant. in these responses the police officer is seen strategies of positive politeness such as s7: small talk, s8: joke and s9: presuppose h’s concerns. the sho remained quite affable despite having an unwavering stance and showed solidarity by being mostly positively polite. the pleader constantly maintained a negative face, and went on to cry while pleading, which did not put a dent on the sho’s demeanour, and neither on solidarity. table 2 comparison of politeness strategies usage by police officials and complainants police officers officer 1 (si) officer 2 (si) officer 3 (front-desk officer) officer 4 (sho) face mainly positive mainly positive slightly negative mainly positive complainant complainant 1 complainant 2 complainant 3 face slightly negative mainly negative slightly negative the role of politeness strategies in forming the public self-image of an organization: 322 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii some extracts (of police officials) “chaa tay piyo gay tussi?” (would you like some tea?) “mein to aapko kahoun ga k iski fir bhi daair karwa dain. chori ka case hai, baad mein aapka hi bhalla hai.” (i would recommend that you file a fir. it’s a case of a robbery, and would benefit you later.) “ma’am, aapka kaam hojaye ga, aap fikar na kijiye.” (ma’am, your query will be resolved, don’t worry.) “yar mein tawano tajweez daina k tussi apnay khokhay tay koi hor shaiwan rakh lawo, koi nimko waghera.” (i would recommend that you stock up your stall with other things too, like nimko and stuff.) politeness strategies positive: s1: notice/attend to h needs, s7: small talk negative: bald onrecord: very less off record: positive: s1: notice/attend to h needs, s3: intensify interest to h, s5: seek agreement, s6: avoid disagreement, s7: small talk, s9: presuppose h’s concerns, s13: s asks for reasons negative: s8: state fta as a general rule bald on-record: very less off record: positive: s1: notice/attend to h needs, s6: avoid disagreement, s9: presuppose h’s concerns, s11: be optimistic, s13: give (or ask for) reasons negative: s1: conventionally indirect, s2: question, hedge, s4: minimize the imposition, s5: give deference, s6: apologize, s8: state the fta as a general rule bald on-record: very less off record: positive: s1: notice/attend to h needs, s3: intensify interest to h, s5: seek agreement, s6: avoid disagreement, s7: small talk, s8: joke, s9: presuppose h’s concerns negative: s4: minimize the imposition, rx, s5: give deference to h, s8: state fta as a general rule bald on-record: very less off record: s14: s displaces h does s cater to h’s face? insufficiently insufficiently sufficiently insufficiently conclusion the study has given interesting insights to the usage of politeness by the police and by the complainants. one of the trends visible from the observations and supporting interviews is that the police were keen on maintaining a positive face. such a face type claims that the person is more willing to maintain solidarity and cordialness with the other conversant. this is the type of face used mostly with friends and with close kin with whom there is a cordial relation. it makes sense the role of politeness strategies in forming the public self-image of an organization: 323 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii for the police to go ahead with this approach considering that the interviews revealed the punjab police’s active approach in improving their image in front of the public as a friendly and peoplefirst institute. on the contrary, it was observed that the complainants by default maintained a negative face, which is not at all surprising considering the complainants were in distress and in no mood for cordiality. this face type claims that the person is maintaining a serious demeanour, and has a more direct, to-the-point attitude. such a style is typical of conversations with strangers, at the workplace and at formal settings. this study has eventually shown that there is a conscious effort being made by the punjab police to maintain a friendly outlook. their eventual goal is to shun the stereotypical tags of being impolite, rude and overpowering with the complainants. by using positive politeness with the complainants, the police are trying to do exactly this where complainants are treated more as friendly visitors in distress whose complaints need to be heard and resolved in an amicable manner. recommendations with the insights provided by this study into the relation between effective language usage and the general image of an organizations, it paves way for further studies into the phenomenon by linguistic, pragmatic and management scholars, as well as by government researchers. the study recommends organizations to put focus on training their employees on the usage of language that promotes their organization’s face as well as cater to the customer’s face. moreover, the punjab police ought to learn from this study the importance of building their own. it needs to especially train the lower cadre, who are more in contact with the public. the role of politeness strategies in forming the public self-image of an organization: 324 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii references austin, j. (1962). how to do things with words. oxford: oxford university press. blau, p. m., & scott, w. r. (1962). formal organizations: a comparative approach. san francisco: chandler, pg. 5 brown, p., and levinson, s. (1987). politeness: some universals in language usage. cambridge: cambridge university press. front desks changing police face | punjab police. (2016). punjabpolice.gov.pk. retrieved 18 may 2022, from https://www.punjabpolice.gov.pk/node/4443 fusch, p. i., fusch, g. e., & ness, l. r. (2017). how to conduct a mini-ethnographic case study: a guide for novice researchers. the qualitative report, 22(3), 923-941. retrieved from https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol22/iss3/16 glass, john f. (1991). understanding organizations and the workplace. california. university of california. pg. 1. goffman, e. (1967). interaction ritual essays on face-to-face behaviour. pantheon books. ny. pg. 5-10. goffman, e. (1959). the presentation of self in everyday life. garden city, n.y.: doubleday. grice, h. p. (1975) logic and conversation. in p. cole and j. morgan (eds) studies in syntax and semantics iii: speech acts. new york: academic press, 183-98. jamal, asad. (2010). police organizations in pakistan. commonwealth human rights initiative. lahore. 9. kawai, maho. (2013). the application of politeness theory into english education in japan. linkoping university. lim, t. & bowers, j. (1991). facework solidarity, approbation, and tact. human communication research, 17, 415450. montana, p. and charnov, b. (1993) management: a streamlined course for students and business people. hauppauge, new york: barron’s business review series. pp. 155. pakistan bureau of statistics. (2017). block wise provisional summary results of 6th population & housing census. retrieved 18 may 2022, from http://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/bwpsr/punjab/lahore_summary.pdf politeness. (2022) in dictionary.cambridge.org. retrieved 24 june 2022, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/politeness redmond, mark v. (2015). face and politeness theories. english technical reports and white papers. 2. http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/engl_reports/2searle, j. r. (1979). expression and meaning: studies in the theory of speech acts. cambridge: cambridge university press. human rights watch. (2016). this crooked system: police abuse and reform in pakistan. retrieved 15 may 2022, from https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/09/26/crookedsystem/police-abuse-and-reform-pakistan watts, r. (2003). politeness (key topics in sociolinguistics). cambridge: cambridge university press. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511615184 watts, richard, ide, sachiko & konrad ehlich. (1992). introduction. in richard watts, sachiko ide & konrad ehlich (eds.) politeness in language. studies in its history, theory and practice, 1–17. berlin: mouton de gruyter. yin, r. k. (2016). qualitative research from start to finish. new york: guilford press. https://www.punjabpolice.gov.pk/node/4443 the role of politeness strategies in forming the public self-image of an organization: 325 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii appendix a questionnaire from the police organization 1. do you believe your organization has a public self-image? (kia aap samajhtay/samajhti hain k aapkay idaray ka aik image hai?) 2. what kind of public self-image would you like to portray through communication? (aap apnay idaray ki kia image zaahir karna chaahtay hain, khaas tor pay zubaan k istemaal say?) 3. how do you portray your organization’s public self-image? (aap apnay idaray ki image ko kis tarah ayaan kartay hain?) 4. has it ever happened that the actions of a complainant threatened the public image of the police? (kabhi kisi darkhwast guzaar ki kisi harkat say aapkay idaray ki image kharab houi?) 5. has it ever happened that the actions of an employee threatened the public image of the police? (kabhi kisi mulaazim ki kisi harkat say aapkay idaray ki image kharab houi?) from complainants 1. do you believe that you have a public self-image? (kia aap samajhtay/samajhti hain k aapki koi image hai?) 2. do you feel that an organization should cater to your public self-image? (kia aap samajhtay/samajhti hain k aik idara aapki image ko khatarkhwa mein laaye?) 3. was your face catered to during the interaction with the police? (kia aapki image ko khatarkhwa mein rakha gaya jab aap nay police say baat cheet ki?) 4. did you feel the police used polite language? (kia police nay aapkay saath polite/naram mazaji ka rawaiya ikhtiar kia?) @ 2022 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 406 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: an archaeo-semiotic appraisal dr. zafar ullah instructor in english department; virtual university, islamabad, pakistan, dr. muhammad farooq alam assistant professor in english department, numl, rawalpindi hamas shahid m.phil scholar, numl, islamabad abstract this study aims to analyse the archaeo-semiotic discourse inscribed on the gravestones of the soldiers of world war i and world war ii buried in gora qabristan christian cemetery, rawalpindi. epitaphic discourse is assessed through the triangulation of the semiotic theory of roland barthes, and paul wason’s theory of archaeology of rank. the prime objective of the study is to decode the symbols incised on the epitaphs. epitaphs of soldiers of the british army are replete with information about the history, culture, archaeology, religious, political and national identities of the deceased ones. the patriotism of soldiers is emphasized through the inscription on military epitaphs. connotative meanings shed light on religious, historical and cultural aspects. mortuary facility has been investigated to explore the location of epitaphs and construction material of gravestones by analysing semiotic signs, shapes and sizes of gravestones. major findings reveal that soldiers’ epitaphs manifest military, social and cultural and historical discourse. keywords: theology, discourse, epitaphs, regiment, inscription, symbols 1. introduction the archaeo-semiotic analysis is a procedure to evaluate communication taking place through symbols, verbal, pictorial or textual data. archaeologists are of opinion that comprehending meaning is the main purpose (binford, 1983; hodder, 1986). archaeosemiotic analysis helps to draw all possible meanings existing in a discourse. discourse is any spoken, written, verbal or non-verbal communication. discourse is the totality of codified language used in a given field of intellectual enquiry and social practice, such as legal discourse, medical discourse, religious discourse etc (cruse, 2006). discourse analysis deals with assessing language based on the context of its use. the word epitaph is derived from greek, epitaphios "a funeral oration" from epi "at, over" and taphos "tomb" is a short text honouring a deceased person. strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 407 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 the wide-ranging public must be aware of archaeology as this study deals with the assessment of gravestones and inscriptions upon them. the scientific study of historic or prehistoric peoples and their cultures by analysis of their artefacts, inscriptions, monuments, and other such remains, especially those that have been excavated. this research focuses on analysing the inscriptions of epitaphs and probing their meanings. this research deals with semiotics as well, which is defined by one of its founders, the swiss linguist ferdinand de saussure, as the study of signs and symbols existing in any society (cruse, 2006). the basis of this research is archaeo-semiotic discourse analysis. in this research, archaeological signs carved on the gravestones have been analysed in the light of the semiotic theory which proposes to expose the hidden meaning of signs. barthes (1977) posited denotative and connotative meanings and also coded iconic messages and noncoded iconic messages. in addition to this theory, another theory of archaeology of rank (wason, 1994) has been applied from an archaeological perspective. both theories have been triangulated to get the desired goals and to respond to research questions. most people are unable to decode the semiotic and linguistic features of epitaphs erected in gora cemetery rawalpindi. it is the least explored area. there are several types of the cross (christian symbols), regiment names, monograms of their respective battalions and regiments, their slogans, biblical quotes and types of stones. moreover, many people are ignorant of the historical perspective highlighted in the epitaphs. on a whole, there is a dire need to decipher linguistic, semiotic, historic, and archaeological aspects from the epitaphs. the current study endeavours to accomplish the following objectives: i. to decode semiotic and linguistic features of epitaphs. ii. to shed light upon the verbal discourse carved on gravestones. iii. to explore coded iconic and non-coded iconic messages on the epitaphs. iv. to analyse the structure of tombstones and raw material used for construction. this study addresses the following research question: unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 408 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 i. how do epitaphs of world war martyrs from gora qabristan rawalpindi portray archaeo-semiotic features? the significance of this study is that it analyses the information of the deceased persons. along with it, it tells briefly about semantics, history, culture and biblical aspects. the researcher conducts an in-depth analysis of the epitaphs of soldiers’ graves. ranks, beliefs and other important traits of the martyrs have been analysed in detail. as the delimitation of theory is concerned, the study in hand refers to only 10 epitaphs of martyrs of world war 1 and world war 2 from gora qabristan rawalpindi. the semiotic theory of roland barthes (1977) has been applied to assess the inscription on the gravestones. 2. literature review epitaph defined religious, societal and personal traits of the late. the date and cause of death are inscribed on the tombstones and they can be attractive, decorated and mocking. the last powerful toss of the human mind at the time of fronting death is represented by an epitaph (ward, 1957, p. 34). the epitaph serves as the last reminder of a person (lattimore, 1962). present research illustrates that epitaphs have great symbolic significance along with being attractive and pessimistic. the political and economic position of the late was shown by romans through inscriptions on gravestones. there was variation in the gravestones based on the social class of the departed person (meyer, 1990). etchings depicted the selfhood of the gone built by the world in olden times. the current research also discusses the distinct personalities of soldiers. inscriptions on the gravestones were a means to preserve tales and the aggregate of past events (vita, 1999). the study in hand informs about the history of british forces in the sub-continent and the diversity present in their ranks. (rainville, 1999) conducted research on mortuary diversity in new hampshire in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. the assumption that the socioeconomic status of a person was accurately indicated by funerary practices and gravestones was tested by the researcher. possible correlations between different variables of gravestones and the opinions of the residents of unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 409 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 hanover township about death, the identity of an individual, organisation of family, and societal structure were investigated in this article. with the help of data collected from a time period of one hundred and fifty years, the researcher distinguished between temporal trends of community in the selection of gravestones and the depiction of individual family choices. the researcher found out that the form, material, and style of tombstones were dictated by beliefs regarding demise rather than social status (rainville, 1999, p. 541). in 2003, research was carried out about the history of behaviour of the citizens of sydney towards the human remains of europe. four case studies of graveyards were presented that were changed drastically. the behaviour towards the dead and graveyards was depicted through changes undergone by these burial sites. they showed the fluctuation of times gone by, tradition, innovativeness and religiousness from 1840 to 2000. in this way, people working in these zones got a detailed view of history and culture (karskens, 2003, p. 42). different types of symbols were engraved on gravestones like doves, crosses, angels, bibles and gates of heaven. flowers were a symbol of life and death, and friendship as well. their meaning had changed over time as flowers were a symbol of love and reward (ritter, 2012). natali (2008) explored the importance of new burial practices in her paper. it focused on the perception that tamil people considered those tigers’ cemeteries to be holy places. they called those combatants gods and worship them. tamil people used the word “seed bodies” instead of dead bodies and a stone was erected in the commemoration of the maaveerar which in tamil meant mighty champions. the change in funerary performance from cremation to burial indicated the importance of the tamil tigers in the nation building process. americans used to arrange for proper interment rehearses for the deceased even in the time of civil war when there were abundant bodies of departed souls. so, this is not a novel notion of entombing the late. the research was carried out in 2008 in which the cultural history of historic burial places of new jersey was depicted from the seventeenth century to the twenty-first century. the research not only provided a guide to unusual and unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 410 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 interesting burial places but also showed how inscriptions on gravestones reflected the diverse history and varied cultures. we got a glimpse of the past through inscriptions on tombstones and the epitaphic language carved on them. we also got to know about the material those gravestones were made from, and the different designs inscribed on them. both the authors of this book physically examined the cemeteries of new jersey. over nine hundred burial grounds in new jersey were covered in the field research. same sites were visited from different viewpoints in order to complete the study. the researchers took photographs and signatures of the carvers to record them (veit, 2008, pp. 1-2). newstok (2009) discussed the poetics of epitaphs in early modern england. her research represented epitaphs as a portion of the literary category. it told us how people dealt with death and the memory of the dead at different times. it shed light on the recitation of epitaphs in early modern england in elizabethan genres such as dissertations on poetics and rhetoric, chronicles of history and verses related to elegies. epitaphs served to strengthen the reality of accounts of history. they not only provided evidence in histories but also served as proof in case of new dissertations on poetry. epitaphs had the power to arrest the bodily movement of readers and move them emotionally because of their motivating power, epitaphs were admired in the fifteenth-through eighteenth centuries. ripley (2011) conducted research on gravestone analysis which manifested that a demographic analysis could help to analyse trends in the size of the population, death rate and birth rate. from an archaeological perspective, an appraisal of the epitaphs and structure of tombstones and their embellishment could highlight essential information about the life of dwellers of greene county. also, variations in their style of living could be discerned. for understanding funerary practices and tombstone assessment, the style of ornamentation played a crucial role (ripley, 2011). meghan e. ripley further focused on the pattern with respect to the size of the tombstone and the age of the person at the time of death. small monuments were limited to young people whereas large headstones were used for old people. medium sized tombstones were used for persons of changing ages. unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 411 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 the attitude of people in choosing the stone for the grave is also very significant. previously whatever stone was acceptable for graves but in the 19th-century marble was widely used which was later replaced by granite stones. information was inscribed by hand on the stones but later laser was used to etch the grave markings (ritter, 2012). ritter (2012) applied a symbolic-interactionist approach to comprehend the narrative of the self of the departed people. according to ritter, a gravestone was a way to commemorate a deceased person. data were collected from 350 graves in 15 rural and urban cemeteries. it compared the changes in gravestones that occurred with the passage of time. the influence of socio-cultural and socio-economic rank on tombstones was described by callis (2013). according to her, differences in gender were depicted through epitaphs. the data were analysed with the aid of data sheets and field examinations. five divisions were made to analyse data i.e. connection or relationship, the occurrence of the epitaph, doings in a lifetime, comments regarding religion, and poetry or prose. archaeology and designs of epitaphs were not discussed by her. morgan (2015) investigated the epitaphs and tombstones in the graveyards at albury, new south wales. the purpose of this research was to know about changes in the memorialisation traditions of australia starting from the middle of the nineteenth century. the study showed how grief was reflected through epitaphs and memorial trends. the secularisation process and world war i were the reasons for the public mourning to come to an end. after world war ii death was moved out of its outdated place due to bureaucracy and medicine, and so, death was styled as designed country parks in graveyards. public celebration and remembering the deceased were made culturally acceptable at the end of the twentieth century because of the role played by psychiatrists in promoting the notion to accept the grief. this way of remembering, favoured more customised and individual tombstones and gravestones than grand funerals. however, there was no permanent memorial for those who were cremated. the current study assessed military and religious discourse inscribed on the epitaphs of gora qabristan , rawalpindi. connotative and denotative meanings were unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 412 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 explored and coded iconic and non-coded iconic messages were probed as well. the belief of a dead person in the life after death played its part in funerary practices. the presence of a christian cross indicated the religious belief of the deceased. 3. research methodology the study in hand followed mixed methods to assess the epitaphs of gravestones. triangulation of theories was done to conduct this research. triangulation is the use of multiple theories to deduce the outcomes of research (denzin, 1978). in this research, two theories were triangulated to achieve the goals of the research. the semiotic theory of roland barthes (1977) was triangulated with the theory of archaeology of rank (wason, 1994). from an archaeological point of view, wason’s theory of archaeology of rank was applied, whereas roland barthes’ semiotic theory was applied to explore semiotic insight. the semiotic theory helped to analyse and interpret the coded iconic messages, non-coded iconic messages, literal and figurative meanings of inscriptions and the theory of archaeology of rank assisted in analysing the interment facility. the theory of archaeology of rank also scrutinized the structure of gravestones. also, through the theory of archaeology of rank, the researcher evaluated the location of the burials whether they were away from the community or within the community. to conduct this research, mixed methods were used. mixed methods encompass both qualitative and quantitative data as an approach to inquiry (creswell, 2017). the study at hand was exploratory analytical research. this research was done with the help of both qualitative and quantitative data. the number of graves and other classifications were quantitative while their interpretation was qualitative. the semiotic theory of roland barthes (1977) and the theory of archaeology of rank by wason (1994) were triangulated to interpret the inscriptions and analyse the mortuary facility. the signs of gravestones were investigated according to the semiotic theory of barthes and wason‟s theory of archaeology of rank which was helpful in the analysis of the structure of gravestones with respect to their sizes, location and other features. data were explained and interpreted with the help of digitized images of epitaphs. it also facilitated the interpretation of key findings unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 413 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 regarding epitaphs and tombstones. the researcher had visited gora qabristan rawalpindi to get the photographs of epitaphs. the data of this study was qualitative and quantitative. the number of graves and other classifications were quantitative whereas their interpretation was qualitative. the data were analysed and interpreted through images of the epitaphs. the researcher visited gora cemetery rawalpindi once to get the photographs of the epitaphs. 4. results and discussion this section presents images of epitaphs and their archaeological as well as semiotic features. figure 1 epitaph of a.t. rowe this gravestone belongs to a. t. rowe who departed during world war ii. the gravestone is made up of white marble. marble of white colour has denotative as well as connotative meaning. marble slab has been carved because of its durability and reliability. the use of white marble depicts that soldiers are given great respect. religious affiliation is shown through white colour. the sacrifice and sincerity of soldiers is regarded by the white marble. the soldier’s age is inscribed on the gravestone which shows that he died very young. he belonged to the ‘royal engineers’ as it is carved on the tombstone which is the unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 414 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 coded iconic message. the non-coded iconic message is that this was one of the corps of the british army in the subcontinent. british chivalric order of garter uses the french maxim ‘honi soit qui mal y pense’ as their motto. it means "may he be shamed who thinks badly of it”. the badge of royal engineers is non-voided and metallic having the royal cypher of king george iv inside the crowned garter encircled by a garland. ‘royal engineers’ is inscribed on the lower side of the badge. eternity is symbolised by a wreath. at the top of the badge, a crown is placed through which power and control are represented. the rule of the british empire can be also seen through this crown. the crown also shows the association of soldiers with the british empire. in this way, a soldier is given respect and honour. patriotism present within soldiers is also depicted through the crown. the rank of a soldier is ‘serjeant’ which means the soldier was a non-commissioned officer in the british army. the big carving of the cross shows the religious belief of the deceased. a large sized shows the great importance of religion in the life of the departed. below the cross, a christian quotation is carved, “we cannot lord thy purpose see but all is well that is done by thee.” it shows his staunch belief in life after death. figure 2 epitaph of winfred lucy rose unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 415 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 figure 2 epitaph belongs to a senior commander who died during world war ii. commanders were the officers in the army during the second world war. the logo ‘wac india’ stands for ‘women’s auxillary corps’ in order to support the warfare struggle. it had the purpose of giving special training to the women of the nation for national defence. this logo is carved inside a wreath encircling it. the wreath demonstrates perpetuity. pride in their identity and profession is evident through the carving of the badge. religious identity is depicted through the cross. the religious aspect is highlighted through the big size of the cross. below the cross best wishes are etched in the form of supplication. ‘god’s greatest gift remembrance’ shows her friends and relatives miss her. ‘grant her eternal rest o lord’ displays their finest desires for her afterlife. epitaphs show the national as well as religious eminence of the dead. the stone used for graves is white marble that is used for graves of soldiers on a large scale. marble of white colour is used to give honour to the soldiers who gave a marvellous performance in world war ii. white is the indication of honesty and security. figure 3 epitaph of t. shiels unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 416 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 this epitaph belongs to a soldier who departed during world war ii. the soldier belonged to ‘army educational corps’ which was supposed to train the troops in the field of education. the normal task of the educational corps was totally changed during the second world war. there was an increase in the workload of education centres of the army because mentally and physically proficient troops were required. as a result, army educational corps had to serve throughout the war in many different localities and theatres. training time was doubled with people being taught in jails, clinics and camps for displaced people. the collar badge of the army educational corps is engraved on the tombstone consisting of a book that is coded iconic message, while the non-coded iconic message is that it is a symbol of imparting education and enlightenment. two flags are etched that showing patriotism. conquest is symbolised through flags as well. it can be interpreted that the two flags show the rule of the british empire. flags also demonstrate the identity of their respective organisations. it can be inferred that because of military association flags show the agenda of the british government. the etching of a huge cross shows the spiritual affiliation of the late. a pair of crossed rifles is engraved as well that is carried by army persons from lance corporal to master sergeant. martial nature is depicted through these crossed rifles. it can be inferred that it refers to the troops being mentally equipped. as this logo is related to the army educational corps, it can be associated with the physical and mental strength of soldiers. the rank of a soldier is engraved as ‘serjeant’ which was a rank for non-commissioned officers in the british army during world war ii. ritter (2012) said that marble was eminently used in the 19th century. the analysis of epitaphs shows that marble in white colour was used mostly for entombing in the late twentieth century. peacetime is symbolised by white colour which can mean that soldiers fought to bring peace to the world. it can also mean that they are resting in peace now as they have served humanity as far as they could. countless reverence is given to troops by the use of expensive white marble. unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 417 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 figure 4 epitaph of a.w. davis the soldier died in 1944 and had the rank of ‘corporal’ which tells that the late was a junior non-commissioned officer in the royal air force. the royal air force (raf) is the british aerial force for warfare. it was formed near the end of world war i. it played a key role especially in defending the united kingdom from the attacks of nazi germany’s air force during the second world war. its purpose was to provide an active air force in order to secure and defend the united kingdom as well as promote peace and harmony in all areas of the world. their purpose was to make an impact on the behaviour of people by exercising their power. a circlet is formed on their logo and on that circle motto of the royal air force is etched in latin in a circular form that is, ‘per ardua ad astra’ which denotatively means “through adversity to stars”. its connotative meaning is that hard work leads to success. the troops of this force were highly trained and ready to serve anytime. in christianity, a circle shows an existence that is never going to end. the circle represents no start and no expiration. in other words, it is the symbol of eternity. inside the circle, an eagle is inscribed. eagle is the symbol of power, vigour, high spirit and perpetuity. in christianity, resurrection is symbolised by the eagle. so, connotatively, the eagle unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 418 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 demonstrates the power, agility and enthusiasm of the royal air force. the circlet is surmounted by the crown. legitimacy, victory, control and honour are symbolised by the crown. it can be deduced how powerful british empire was as it was said that british empire never witnesses sunset. the information about the societal and economic belonging of the dead is contained in epitaphs (meyer, 1990). occupation, nationwide and political identity of the late is depicted by epitaphs. political ideology and the highest order of the british empire is evident through the carving of the crown at the top. the religious belief of soldiers is evident from the etching of a huge cross. the crucifix is symbolised by the cross. all different types of christian crosses generally represent christianity. white coloured marble is used to pay homage to the troops who sacrificed their lives to bring peace to the world. marble is an expensive stone which is best deserved by the martyrs and people who served humanity. figure 5 epitaph of mcp ritchie the inscription shows that the soldier died in world war ii. the rank of the soldier was second lieutenant which was a rank for commissioned officers in british army. british indian army had the ist punjab regiment from 1922 to 1947. ist punjab regiment was taken by pakistan army on pakistan’s independence in 1947. in 1956, punjab unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 419 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 regiment was formed by its combination with the 14th, 15th and 16th punjab regiments. ist punjab regiment is inscribed on the cap badge. the shape of the badge is irregular. an elephant, superimposed on the sun, is standing on the slab on which ‘assaye’ is engraved. ‘ist punjab regiment’ is carved in an arc on the upper side of the elephant. a chinese dragon is etched below the slab. on the top of the cap badge is the crown. the crown is the emblem of british rule. the wreath is associated with eternal life. in various mythologies and religious traditions, elephants are considered a symbol of power, protection and insight. the first and tenth battalion of ist punjab regiment got the ‘assaye’ tablet as a battle honour for taking part in the battle of assaye. the first and second battalions won the ‘china dragon’ as a battle honour. traditionally china's dragon symbolises power, especially power over water, rainfall, floods etc (overmyer, 2009, p. 129). in east-asian culture, the dragon symbolises supremacy, authority and a good lot of people who deserve it. the chinese dragon symbolises imperial power which reinforces the idea of the supremacy of the british empire. sun is the symbol of power, vigour, and life, especially eternal life is depicted by the brightly shining sun. it can be the representative of the authority of the empire of britain as it was expected that british rule would be everlasting. also, it can represent the eternity gained by those martyrs who sacrificed their lives for mankind. it can also symbolise the strength of the ist punjab regiment which was praised by the british government for its valour and zeal. belief in christianity is represented through the cross. below the cross lovely words from family members are etched. “beloved husband of evelyn and father of gordon thy will be done”, shows affection and adoration from family to the deceased. these carvings show that the late was a nice person who was sadly missed. again the usage of white marble is to pay homage to soldiers. peace and a sense of security are imparted through white colour. the researcher has visited that part of gora qabristan rawalpindi where epitaphs are of the same size, colour and shape. unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 420 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 figure 6 epitaph of a. h. claridge the epitaph shows that the soldier died during first world war and he had the rank of ‘private’, which was the lowest rank in the army of britain. this term has been derived from “private soldiers” which was used in medieval times to indicate those people who were privately hired. the gigantic cross clearly puts emphasis on the holy aspect. the soldier belonged to somerset light infantry (13th foot prince albert’s). this infantry played a key role in the first and second world wars. in its logo, there is an arc above the crown on which jellalabad is inscribed that was the garrison of infantry. 13th regiment foot was formed to overcome the great lack of men for public service. the crown is the harbinger of british reign in the world as it denotes command and control. below the crown, two ropes are combined to form a cross with petals which denotes resurrection. the lower petal is not visible because of the carving of the knot of ropes, making the upper and side petals visible which can be related to the concept of trinity. the knot ties the two ropes together and the two ropes are further fastened below to an alpine horn trumpet on both sides which can be understood in the sense of determination, steadfastness and strength. musical instruments play a great role in military services. trumpets were used in the army to summon the soldiers or to make an announcement. they were also used in the funerary practices of soldiers apart from wartime. romans used to play the trumpets on victory unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 421 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 processions (meucci, 1989, pp. 85-97). ‘xiii’ is carved above the trumpet and below the knot of ropes which shows the 13th foot. white dyed costly marble is a tribute to soldiers who served humanity with uprightness and fearlessness. white colour is the harbinger of tranquillity and hence, it is the indicator of the ceasefire. it can also be taken that the soldier is in his grave where he is residing in peace. the coffin is also white in colour which means the person travels away from this world of hustle and bustle to a world where there is peace waiting for him. white also symbolises purity which can be taken as the purity and sincerity of soldiers. figure 7 epitaph of h. clarkson the soldier died during world war i while serving in yorkshire regiment. the rank of the soldier was ‘private’ which shows he was serving on the lowest rank in british army. ‘alexandra, the princess of wales’s own yorkshire regiment’ was the title of this regiment in world war i. twenty four battalions of the yorkshire regiment were raised in world war i. the number of men serving in these battalions was 65,000 out of which 24,000 were injured and 9,000 people died. the cap badge is etched inside a big cross carved on the gravestone indicating the holy significance. the shape of cap badge s irregular. there is a crown at the top signifying the british reign. the placement of the crown at the top shows the splendour and grandeur of the british empire. two vertical unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 422 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 small rods converge at a point beneath the crown, and an arc joins both the rods from the middle making it almost look like the letter a, consisting across in it reinforcing the holy aspect of christianity. in christianity, jesus christ was crucified on the cross for preaching christianity. here a parallel can be drawn that soldiers sacrificed their lives for mankind which was the way of jesus christ. ‘alexandra, the princess of wales’s own yorkshire regt’ is imprinted on the cap badge which was the title of yorkshire regiment. at the bottom of the cap badge, a flower is imprinted that can be taken as the love and passion of soldiers for humanity and god as flowers are associated with love and warmth. the theory of archaeology of rank discusses mortuary facilities. the epitaphs under study have white marble gravestones of rectangular shape. they are medium-sized epitaphs, that is, not too big, not too small. soldiers are buried within the community and the place where the graves of martyrs of both the world wars are present, generally it is named a section of gora cemetery. figure 8 epitaph of a. tummon this epitaph is of a soldier who served in world war ii. the soldier had the rank of warrant officer class i which is a rank for commissioned officers in the british army. the element of christian belief is made prominent by the impression of a huge cross. unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 423 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 ‘r.e.m.e.’ is incised on the gravestone below the name of a soldier which is a coded iconic message. its non-coded iconic message is that it stands for ‘royal electrical and mechanical engineers’. it was formed in 1942 in order to face the challenges of technology. it produced skilled electricians and mechanics. before the formation of r.e.m.e. maintenance of engineering machinery, weapons and other types of equipment for communications was done through several different corps. many flaws were exposed in this system because of the advancement in technology and the complexity of machinery and weapons. in order to meet these sorts of challenges corps of royal electrical and mechanical engineers was formed in october 1942. the cap badge of r.e.m.e. is incised on the gravestone which consists of an oval garland which symbolises immortality consisting of the crown on the head. the crown is the sign of british imperialism and its grandeur is implied through its positioning on the top. a compass points on the wreath and the letters r.e.m.e have been inscribed on four small shields. a pair of callipers is formed within the oval garland which is a coded iconic message and the non-coded iconic message is that mechanical engineering and metal working makes use of callipers. the usage of white marble shows that soldiers are honoured. the erected epitaph is of the same size and shape as other epitaphs are. the burial site is present within the community and has got road access so, it can be easily reached. figure 9 f.m. holloway unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 424 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 the age of the soldier carved on the stone shows that he died during world war ii at a very young age. he had the rank of ‘captain’ which expresses that he was a commissioned officer in the indian electrical and mechanical engineers corps. the badge of the corps is inscribed on the gravestone which has a five-pointed ‘star of india’ on the top of which there is a crown representing the splendour of the british empire as the crown symbolises triumph and respect. a thick wreath of laurels surrounds the star with i.e.m.e inscribed on the base of the wreath which depicts perpetuity. the star on the badge, too, can be analysed as stars are always there in the sky as a symbol of eternity and heavenly guidance. they have also acted as guides for travellers in past. in christianity, a fivepointed star symbolises the five wounds of jesus christ. so, the star on the badge represents the divine act of soldiers of saving humanity by sacrificing their irreplaceable lives for a higher motive. the motto of corps ‘omnia facimus’ is inscribed on a circle around the star which is a latin phrase meaning ‘we can do anything’. i.e.m.e. stands for indian electrical and mechanical engineers. the corps of royal electrical and mechanical engineers (r.e.m.e.) was formed in 1942 to repair and maintain the types of equipment of the british army, but an equivalent to r.e.m.e. was needed, so, the corps of indian electrical and mechanical engineers was formed on 15 october 1943. the word ‘indian’ was removed from the name ‘indian electrical and mechanical engineers’ after the independence of india. the presence of the cross highlights the religious identity of the buried. at the bottom of the gravestone, the line ‘at the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember is incised which is taken from the poem “for the fallen” by laurence binyon. he wrote this poem for the dead people of war. it is a tribute to the martyrs who showed acts of bravery in wartime. it shows that his close ones miss him and they are proud of his service in the war. the rectangular shaped white marble gravestone is erected along with other graves of the same shape and size. the use of white coloured marble implies that soldiers were sincerely serving the british empire. the massive use of white marble denotes the tribute unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 425 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 paid to soldiers. this gravestone is present among other gravestones in a section of gora cemetery rawalpindi. figure 10 epitaph of n. h. evans the inscription on the epitaph shows that the troop died at a very young age in the second world war. the rank incised on the epitaph is ‘private’ which denotatively means ‘personal’ but at that time it was the lowest rank in british army. he belonged to the parachute regiment of the army air corps. the army air corps was formed in 1942 as a new branch of army aviation. winston churchill, prime minister of the united kingdom at that time announced the formation of the army air corps. there were several regiments initially in this corps one of which was the parachute regiment which was an aerial infantry battalion of the british army. on the top of the epitaph cap badge of the parachute regiment is carved in a circle. the circle is the symbol of immortality in christianity when carved on epitaphs as a circle has no end, so, a never-ending life is represented through this circle. the cap badge has an opened parachute in the centre along with wings on both sides that spread horizontally. above the opened parachute, there is a crown and a lion. the crown is the representative of nobility and conquest. the lion is generally considered the king of animals because of its strength and bravery. in england, the lion is used as a symbol in a coat of arms and it is a symbol of headship, esteem, reliability, audacity and power that can be linked to the rule of britain over the world. unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 426 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 according to bell (1990), the dead are dealt with according to their cultural values and communal dogmas. the political and national and religious view of the dead is highlighted through epitaphs. there is a christian cross carved at the centre of the epitaph which reflects the religious orientation of the dead person. at the bottom of the epitaph, these words are carved: ‘years may come and go but memories never die, not forgotten by those who loved him’. these words show how much his close ones loved him. these heartwarming words might be from his friends or family. they truly depict the love and esteem granted to the soldier. the theory of archaeology of rank allows the researcher to investigate interment facilities. white coloured rectangular epitaph is erected to give honour to the deceased. white colour symbolises peace, hence it stands for the effort of soldiers to spread peace around the globe. 5. findings and conclusion this research shows that epitaphs of soldiers are significant reservoirs of military, social and cultural history. when the semiotics theory of roland barthes is applied passion, love and devotion of soldiers for their country is evident. epitaphs not only expose the religious identity of the dead but also show people’s behaviour towards the dead. denotative meanings are decoded to know their link with connotative meanings. coded iconic messages have been decoded to know what is symbolised by the signs incised on the gravestones. the non-coded iconic messages show those cultural implications regarding signs, as badges represent the nationalism of soldiers. so, the non-coded iconic message here is patriotism which is implied by the coded iconic message that is carved badge. the wreath symbolises immortality whereas its non-coded iconic message is that soldiers are martyred and they have gained eternity. it can be related to the islamic view of martyrs where they are not allowed to be called dead because they are alive in heaven and fed by god. the discourse of epitaphs admires the efforts of soldiers for mankind. when epitaphs were analysed according to paul wason’s theory of archaeology of rank, the mortuary facility was discussed. it was noted that there were gravestones of white coloured marble of rectangular shape and middle size. the part where soldiers of world war i and ii are buried is kept neat and clean. the burial place is within the community unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 427 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 near the roadside. the burial place is the part of gora cemetery, that is, it is a section of gora cemetery. the research also highlights the great architecture of that time regarding the archaeology of epitaphs. the dates carved on epitaphs take viewers back to that very time of history. the shapes and sizes of gravestones tell us about the architecture. the ranks of soldiers are also depicted through inscriptions. names of different regiments are carved on the epitaphs which show the structure and management of the british army. concludingly, this research talks about the importance of epitaphs of soldiers. soldiers play a great role in the destiny of a nation. epitaphs are proofs of their patriotism. mottos of regiments are encouraging as the phrase‘omina facimus’ inspires the troops to remain determined and fight for their country. this research also evokes religious sentiments in troops which helps them to remain persistent in their struggle for bringing peace to this world. epitaphs are a great source of knowledge about history, archaeology, religion, and funerary practices throughout different time periods in past. they are the representatives of the culture of people who are living and also depict the social status of the dead as it usually happens that rich people have expensive epitaphs and poor people don’t have lavish looking epitaphs. denotative meanings have great value symbolically. culture has been shown through connotative meanings and history can be explored as well. the current research has only discussed the epitaphs of soldiers focusing on the discourse of the army, but there are other sections of the cemetery where there are graves of people of other ages as there are children, women, men and old men of varying ages. two more christian cemeteries are there which can be visited to expand this research. unveiling epitaphic discourse in gora cemetery rawalpindi, pakistan: 428 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.404 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(2012). how to read barthes' image-music-text. london, uk: pluto press. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 476 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 the role of subtitles in learning a second language: a case study of selected urdu/english bilinguals iram arshad1 arisha khan2 madiha rani3 1lecturer, numl, lahore campus 2mphil, applied linguistics umt, lahore campus 3lecturer, numl, lahore campus abstract this study investigates the use of subtitles in learning the english language in high school. this was an experimental study. the data was collected from 20 male and female students. they were ninth and tenth-grades students at a local school. they had urdu as the national language and english as the most prestigious second language for communication. in the first phase, the data was based on the participants' cumulative performance in the english language. furthermore, the same group was exposed to english subtitles of harry potter part i and part iii films for six weeks. as a result of this intervention. the participants learned different words and grammatical features, which outnumbered their previous performance. the study revealed that there was a significant improvement in the participants' competence and performance in the english language. this study, in a way, contributes to pedagogical activity for learning and teaching the english language. keywords: role of subtitles, english language learning, pedagogical activity, bilingualism introduction the research is conducted to know the influence of subtitles on learning english as a second language. english is acknowledged/ has reached the status of global lingua franca. in the previous years, numerous non-english nations have created and used different computerized frameworks to support english as a second language and they are introducing different ways of teaching and learning english (almeida & costa,2014). additionally, most non-english nations expect their children to learn the english language at an early stage. for that purpose, subtitles play an important role in deducting/ covering the pace of the english language. the videos with subtitles are more effective for the viewers because they have a good understanding of the video clips, and they would know what the lexemes are used in those clips. this is an attraction too. people get highly inspired by those who are fluent in spoken english. the english language teachers are a favourite of their pupils, and they always fanaticize their english teachers at each level of study. so, every man wants not only to learn the english language but also to have good fluency in speaking. in pakistan, students have non-english backgrounds. moreover, the teachers do not deliver lectures in english rather they focus on completing the targeted syllabus instead of motivating students by practicing the english language in the classroom. it is least effective if learning or teaching english is restricted to books only. watching video clips, news, etc. with english subtitles is very helpful in learning english. sometimes students do not want to learn from books, subtitled video material is a good alternative that has a the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 477 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 great impact on learning. as it starts with improving reading skills that integrate speaking and writing skills. subtitles not only enhance the lexical knowledge of the students but also increase their listening capacity. they further help in bringing new additions to vocabulary for viewers as the videos involve different topics, cultural norms, etc. the students come to schools with many issues regarding the english language such as bad comprehension, constrained vocabulary, slow analysing, awful grammar, and worst conversational abilities. movies with subtitles can help overcome most of their problems. the related field of second language acquisition (sla) has been a great way of developing enthusiasm for the examination of the impacts of subtitled and captioned varying media materials on a few spaces of language learning/acquisition. scholarly discourse, in this manner, has developed, giving ascend to plenty of concentrates that have contributed towards an increasingly strong comprehension of the learning forms which the students experience while engaged in video observing scenes inside and outside instructional situations. moreover, to present a meaningful context for language learning, the interest in the use of subtitled/captioned films may have additionally been driven ahead for different reasons. neumann and koskinen point out a minimum of three of them, specifically: (i) videos’ combination of sounds and photos would possibly decorate the connection between the words and the meanings (ii) the enjoyment characteristic of movies can be taken as a bonus over texts (iii) the fact that viewing could be perceived as a cognitively lively experience when a suitable fabric is used. people in pakistan are often suggested to watch english movies to improve their lexical knowledge. there is a difference in results of subtitled english movies and non-subtitled english movies as subtitles' viewers have more appropriate and sound vocabulary knowledge than the others. the main idea of watching the video with subtitles is to prepare students for their speech in the target language, the way they are going to listen to the english language the same way they would try to pronounce it, which would result in close to native-like command in speaking and understanding english. vocabulary is the cardinal segment in the language acquisition process for the second language. purpose of the study the purpose of the study is to investigate the role of subtitles for pakistani urdu and english bilinguals in learning the english language. in pakistan, there are some specific rules which continue from generation to generation for teaching and learning the english language. learning and teaching can be done apart from the books and subtitles play a vital role in this regard. subtitles are a different and interesting way of teaching and learning a language. the researcher wants to give a new perspective on foreign language learning, especially for vocabulary. this research will open new directions for learning vocabulary through subtitles. aims and objectives the study aims at investigating the role of subtitled videos in learning the vocabulary of english as a foreign language. the study will focus on the significant impact of a subtitle in learning vocabulary. the videos with subtitles are a new and useful way of learning a language. this study tried to investigate the viable effects of using english subtitles in the improvement of english vocabulary. the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 478 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 research question 1. what is the impact of subtitled videos on the vocabulary of english language learners in ninth and tenth grade at high schools in lahore? significance of the study in the subtitled video clips, the speech, and the imagery both works concurrently which increases the speed of learning of the pupil. according to the dual coding theory, the learners and teachers perform well when there is a sum of images and vocabulary together. videos with subtitles have a tremendous effect on the learning of vocabulary. vocabulary is indispensable to the language and has a crucial role in language learning and teaching. there are many ways of learning vocabulary. one of them can be reading novels but a plenitude of time is required for memorizing novel words. after memorizing them, they are forgotten if not used frequently. videos with subtitles are a time taking process but once the participant memorizes them, he/she does not forget them. while focusing on vocabulary building, the pronunciation is also refined by repeated listening and is corrected automatically and then the person uses it right. therefore, subtitled videos play a significant role in language learning and teaching. it is clear to all the students and teachers of the english foreign language that there is no way for efl. there are different methods applied in this regard. in the mainstream now we can say that audio-visual material like videos (with and without subtitles) is rich in teaching and learning english as a foreign language. literature review the importance of vocabulary in second language acquisition in acquiring any language, vocabulary performs an important role. vocabulary is the key term that is helpful in any language for communication as well as for understanding the language and pronunciation is important in listening if any person does not understand the language, he would not be able to answer in that situation. there is a bundle of research done in learning the second language and especially in learning vocabulary in the second language. and less has been done specifically on pronunciation. however, there are fewer theories that explain the whole process, this process is complex, and it differs according to the context. the literature review would focus on the background knowledge of vocabulary in the second language and its use in the learning process. the focus would be on each bit of vocabulary. furthermore, the topic, which is discussed by the researcher, learning through subtitles, explores the vision of the learner as it is a greater help while learning vocabulary through subtitles. vocabulary is the major and main part of learning the language. according to laufer and goldstein (2004), words are the basic component of meaning. words have the authority that they can build the whole comprehension and can make the whole expression of a person. knowing the different meanings of the word can open different aspects of knowledge and learning for the learners. laufer and goldstein (2004) argue that the knowledge of words or lexemes could be described as the total of all the knowledge, the knowledge of speech, pronunciation, the knowledge of words and their meanings, and the way those words can be used. significance of input in foreign language learning from an academic angle, input has picked up significance inside the subject of unknown dialect guidance; ellis (2012) emphasizes the essentialness of info-based arrangement over yieldbased instruction for apprentices of a language that have a low phase of skill ability. low talent learners, in expressions of confined semantic and syntactic comprehension, may not be fit to the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 479 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 efficiently complete sure commitments that are helpful for language production. consequently, unpractised persons need to acquire satisfactory presentation to second language enter, particularly abroad language newcomers who've compelled exchange with neighbourhood sound framework or increasingly capable clients of the target language. it might be contended that video substances establish rich and adequate contributions for second language learners. moreover, the oral format of the entry procured from sound unmistakable substances such as recordings and motion pictures might be more prominent and ground-breaking than the contribution from a composing design, together with published substances, for thought processes. benefits of english subtitled videos in learning vocabulary videos with subtitles have been excessively used in language study halls, for different purposes. three channels add to passing on the substance of subtitled video: the aural channel soundtrack, the verbal-visual channel with captions, and the non-verbal obvious channel, the visual pictures (austad, 2013). baltova (1999) out that the concurrent existence of those three channels strengthens adapting more than un-subtitled videos, or writings furnished with going with previews. yewalle and bruyker(2007) contend that reading general captions are compulsory conduct with observing visual signs. in an extensively cited watch transfer correspondingly accentuation; just as arguing that even though captions are naturally looked at, the soundtracks likewise are mechanically processed by methods for watchers (bird & williams 2002). active learning through subtitles specialists have considered various gifts of the utilization of subtitled recordings inside the examination room. for instance, pescosolido (1990) contended that the utilization of recordings might be vital in considering and instructing and featured that fiery becoming acquainted with might be empowered and higher bolstered using broad media materials from the celebrated subculture zone. then again champoux(1999) directed educators in regards to using movies inside the investigation room as motion picture scenes may be solid distractions inside the school space for a couple of understudies and the utilization of films in talk rooms can also decrease the time for hypothetical exchanges. steward et al. (2009) contended that after measurements alluded to in writings aren’t customary with insights found in movies, undergrads tend to remember wrong certainties as opposed to adjusting irregularities in records, which wants to be dealt with cautiously. methodology research design the research design implemented in this study is qualitative. in this regard, the data was collected by two tests i.e., pre-test and post-test from the sample of the study. the participants of the sample are those who learn english as their compulsory subject and have limited knowledge of the english language. after collecting the data, it was analyzed manually. data collection the instruments used for data collection are two types of tests, one is a pre-test, and the other is a post-test. the two tests are taken as a research tool. the pre-test is conducted to gather the previous knowledge of the vocabulary of the learners. the second is the post-test which was taken place when the researcher showed videos with subtitles to the participants. this test was conducted to highlight the comparison as it showed the difference in the knowledge of the vocabulary of the learner of english as a foreign language. the post-test was set in a way that it can be applied to any high school english language learner in pakistan as the questions were the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 480 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 general according to the film and the basic concept of the magic and imaginary land. the pre-test was taken before they watched the film and at that stage, the answers were on general topics. when they had watched the movie, their vocabulary was taken in comparison to the pre-test. the population of the study is the high schools of lahore as they study english as their compulsory subject. the researcher has selected participants of both genders i.e., male and female. these learners do not interact with native speakers of english; they do not have exposure in their lives too frequently to communicate with native speakers. the traditions, cultures, and norms of pakistani society are far away from english society; their language also depicts their values and traditions. sample twenty male and female participants were selected who were learners of the english language from the high school level. the age of the participants varied from 13 to 16. the researcher also wanted to make a point that age was also a big factor that influenced learning, as some learners who were elder could have more vocabulary knowledge, but these were very few in quantity. for having fair results through the research, the researcher has selected the same age group. the institutions selected by the researcher have registered schools in the city that were teaching english as a compulsory subject. it should be clear that if the teacher is showing subtitled videos, then s/he should report all the matters to the researcher. data analysis the researcher used a qualitative method for data analysis. the tests were analyzed by the description method. the description of extracted words from the pre-test and post-test vocabulary was analyzed by the researcher manually. the results of the pre and post-test were analyzed which provided the results that how much vocabulary was improved by watching a film with subtitles. data analysis pre-tests pre-tests were taken to evaluate the prior knowledge of the participants’ vocabulary, which they had before the showing of subtitled videos. data was gathered from 20 participants, including males and females, aging between 13 to 16 years. all the participants were not deficient in their vocabulary, some had a good grasp but were unable to use it according to the situation. each participant had to write three essays which were analyzed accordingly. the description consisted of eight rubrics and was extracted through reading the essays. these rubrics consisted of the major mistakes of the participants, which were done in most of the essays, due to which the researcher selected those rubrics. the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 481 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 figure4.1highlights of structural mistakes in figure 4.1 by the participant one use of vocabulary after analysing pre-tests, the researcher found that the vocabulary of participants was not so high. they were not using enriched and refined language. some students were very poor in their vocabulary as they were repeating common words. and some words were used which were not appropriate according to the situation. vocabulary items were shown through dotted lines; the words were underlined through dotted lines. see figure 4.1. frequency of words the average length of the essay for matriculation level was 200 to 300 words. it was surprising that no participant was reaching this length. some participants were writing close to the length, and some were below the average. some participants were not able to write even one hundred words. the researcher selected an essay that was low in frequency. see figure 4.1. spelling mistakes spelling mistakes were the major issue in all the essays. the participants were weak in their spelling. some participants made mistakes because of the omission of words; they omitted words sometimes from the initial positions and sometimes from the ending of words. for example, participants wrote “no” instead of “know”, this kind of mistake was common. the other reason for poor spelling was pronunciation problems participants used to spell words according to their pronunciation. one cause was unawareness of sound, and the other was some spellings that were confusing like “on” and “ion” and this created confusion for the participants. the spelling mistakes in the essay were shown by underlining them. see figure 4.1. repetition of words all the participants were repeating vocabulary items in pre-tests. there were many reasons for the repetition. the major reason was less knowledge of vocabulary. participants were using the the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 482 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 same lexical items repeatedly. the other reason was to improve the frequency of words; they were doing repetition to increase the number of words. in the figure, repetition was shown in the brackets ( ). see figure 4.1. use of tenses some participants were not using the correct forms of verbs. they were using the first form of the verb in the first part of the sentence and the third form in the latter part of the sentence. some students wrote verbs that did not even exist in the english language e.g. “thoughted” instead of thought. incorrect forms of verbs were shown in circles. all the tenses, present, and past, were mixed in many of the essays. each participant made similar mistakes of tenses as in the example “my mind got boosted when i do gardening”. see figure 4.1. understanding of the concept some participants were good at understanding the topic of the essay. but some were not clear; they deviated from one concept to another. many participants made this mistake; they started with their favorite personality and ended up discussing their best friend. some were having a proper understanding of the concepts, but they were unable to convey that concept that was because of low vocabulary knowledge. see figure 4.1. use of articles many participants used excessive articles. by excessive it is meant that articles were used where they were not required. in the above figure, the article was not used excessively but there were some essays in which it was used excessively. the researcher used a sign of * where she found the excessive or less usage of articles. see figure 4.1. use of singular plurals the other major mistake was the use of singular and plurals, participants were not using “s” and “es” correctly. some participants were confused about using the helping verb to mark singularity and plurality. the sign for singular plurals was {}. see figure 4.1. figure4.2. highlights of grammatical mistakes in figure 4.2 by the participant two the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 483 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 use of vocabulary vocabulary is the most important factor in language proficiency. to learn a language, learning its vocabulary is considered pivotal. many cases were found who wanted to learn the second language but were either poor in their vocabulary or if they learned a word with its meaning s/he was unable to use that word. subtitled videos provided courage to the participants for learning new vocabulary and make them use the words they learned or have in their knowledge. participants took some time to realize the deficiency in their vocabulary knowledge, but they admitted that if they wanted to learn english as their second language, they would have to learn vocabulary. they were involved enough for learning new vocabulary through video with subtitles. as noted in figure 4.2. frequency of words some participants tried to increase the number of words in an essay, but they were not close to the average length. as in the first essays of the pre-test, participants were not able to write a good length, the same case was in the second essays of all the participants. one participant was good in his writing style and the length of the essay. he wrote the second essay close to the required length, which had a better frequency of words. the participant tried to write a long essay and he wrote it well. as noted in figure 4.2. spelling mistakes as was discussed above that, spelling mistakes were the major issue in all the essays. spelling mistakes were the biggest weakness of all the participants. some participants committed spelling mistakes even in their post-tests, but the number of mistakes was less. but in this essay, there were far fewer spelling mistakes. as noted in figure 4.2. repetition of words repetition of words was done in each essay; the researcher already explained the reasons for it. in the post-test repetition was less because at that stage the participants had enough knowledge so that they could use the alternate words. repetition usually happened to increase the length of the essay. repetition of words was shown by the sign of brackets (). in this essay, the participant repeated the words like “someone”, “shrilling” etc. as noted in figure 4.2. use of tense tenses were the mistakes that usually happened while the participants were writing something which involved the difference in time, i.e. the present, past, or future. while talking about something like that, the participants mixed all the tenses and created a mess. they used wrong helping verbs, and incorrect forms of verbs according to the tense. in this essay, there was also a problem in the usage of present and past tense mixtures. as noted in figure 4.2. understanding of the concept when a participant writes something regarding any topic, the topic should be clear in his/her mind so that s/he could give a complete description according to the topic. some participants were not clear in their concept, they start from one point and ended the work somewhere else. nonetheless, the participant of this essay was clear in his concept, as he wrote the essay quite coherently. as noted in figure 4.2. use of articles in learning english, articles should be used appropriately. but in the pre-test, the articles were used sparingly. some participants used the articles in excessive amounts, and some did not the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 484 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 use the articles even when it was required. in the essay given here, for example, the use of the article “a” was more. as noted in figure 4.2. use of singular plurals the other major mistake was the use of singulars and plurals, participants were not using “s” and “es” correctly. some participants were confused about using helping verbs regarding singularity and plurality. the sign for singular plurals was {}. helping verbs were used in this essay according to singular and plurals. as noted in figure 4.2. figure 4.3.highlights of sentence mistakes in figure 4.3 by participant three use of vocabulary in the pre-tests, there was a big problem with vocabulary. participants while writing pretests were using the same vocabulary because they were having less knowledge of vocabulary. the comparison between pre-test and post-test essays was to acquire the knowledge of vocabulary usage. the comparison showed the significance of subtitled videos as they improved the vocabulary knowledge of participants. in the pre-test, participants were not writing the correct pronunciation according to the situation. teachers should provide new and easy ways of learning vocabulary so that they could improve their learning skills. an example of poor vocabulary was this essay. in this essay the participant used very poor vocabulary; there were only a few words used like “attention”, “attractive”, “magician”, “rubbing” etc. as shown in figure 4.3. the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 485 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 frequency of words participants were not interested in learning vocabulary to write a good-length essay because they considered essay writing as a boring task and chose to write the length which they could write easily. in such a situation, the frequency of their words was less and not according to the required length. in the essay, in figure 4.3 the participant was unable to write a good length essay. she settled on writing a long paragraph instead of an essay. as shown in figure 4.3. spelling mistakes participants were making spelling mistakes because of homophones as well. some words sounded like, and the participants were confused about the spelling. for example, in this essay there was a mistake with the “dis” sound usually found in the words “dislike”, and “disagree”. but here the participant was confused because of the sound and used “described” instead of “described”. there were other mistakes as well like “immagne” instead of “imagine” as shown in figure 4.3. repetition of words repetition of words was done in each essay; the researcher already explained the reasons for repetition. in the post-test, repetition would be less because at that stage the participants would have enough knowledge so that they could use the alternate words. repetition usually happened to increase the length of the essay. repetition of words was shown by the sign of brackets (). in this essay there was the repetition of a few words e.g. magician, do, people as shown in figure 4.3. use of tense the participants were not following tenses according to the time. they used present, past, and future helping verbs and incorrect forms of verbs mostly in pre-tests and fewer mistakes in post-tests. some participants were not sure about the usage of then and than. in this essay, there were mistakes in sentence structure. sentences were ambiguous and incomplete, as shown in figure 4.3. understanding of the concept the concept was the topic on which the participants had to write an essay; some participants were good enough in their understanding of the concept. some were not clear about the topic and if they were clear they were unable to jot down it on paper. the concept was clear to the participant as shown in figure 4.3. use of articles the articles in this passage were used according to the situation. in this essay “a” was used more than “the”, as shown in figure 4.3. use of singular plurals there was a common thing found in all the essays which is the use of singular plurals. singular plurals could be identified from “s” and “es” and from helping verbs. those verbs could provide the knowledge of singular plurals, as shown in figure 4.3. post-tests post-tests were taken to analyze the difference between the previous knowledge of vocabulary and the present knowledge after watching the videos with subtitles. it answered the questions of how much the frequency of participants’ words had increased. it also depicted the diversity of vocabulary learned by the participants through subtitled videos. participants for the post-test were the same twenty male and female. three essays of pre-tests were taken from the the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 486 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 participants and three essays’ test was taken for post-test. there was a clear difference found in the results for most participants. some participants were having good vocabulary learned to use vocabulary to make sentence structure reduce repetition and learn the usage of articles and singular plurals. figure 4.11improvement of vocabulary in figure 4.11 by participant one the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 487 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 use of vocabulary after the analysis of the pre-tests when the researcher analyzed the post-test, she found a difference in vocabulary. post-tests were having rich vocabulary than pre-tests. as in this essay, the participant used more vocabulary items than pre-tests e.g., climbs, mountains, tragedies, imaginary, interested, exploring, capped, adventuresome, favourite, planned, etc. see figure 4.11. frequency of words the word limit in the post-test was better than in the pre-tests. in the pre-test, there was only one participant who reached near the length of 200 words but in the post-test, almost all the participants wrote their essays according to the required length. see figure 4.11. spelling mistakes this was the major problem found in pre-tests as well as in post-tests. this was the problem that took the most time to overcome. participants in the post-test were also doing spelling mistakes, but the last essays they wrote were not having more spelling mistakes. for example, in this essay the participants wrote the spellings of many words wrong e.g., climbes was written instead of climbs, the rear was written instead of real, favurite was written instead of favourite, etc. see figure 4.11. repetition of words there was repetition in some post-tests, but it was not excessively done in this essay some words like hill station were repeated but it was because of the topic of the essay since it revolved around such words. see figure 4.11. use of tense the subtitled videos were good enough for participants that they improved their tense mistakes, they tried to copy the style of how the characters in the films were speaking in this way first consciously and then unconsciously they followed the correct tenses. in this essay, there was no tense mistake found by the researcher. see figure 4.11. understanding of the concept the participant was good in her understanding of the concept of the topic. it was well written by the participant. the topic was “a visit to a hill station” and it was explained well. there were different places discussed in the essay which beautify the scenery. see figure 4.11. use of articles articles were used appropriately, “the” was used more than “a” in this essay. see figure 4.11. use of singular plurals in pre-tests, singular and plurals were one of the major issues, in this essay “s” was used correctly but there was one mistake by the researcher she did not use “es” correctly with “climb”, where “s” should be used instead of “es”. see figure 4.11. the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 488 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 489 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 figure 4.12highlights the usage of vocabulary in figure 4.12 by participants two use of vocabulary vocabulary was the major issue for the learners of english as a second language; if they learned a vocabulary item, they were unable to use that word in their conversation. after learning through subtitled videos, participants were able to use new words in their essays. for example, in this essay the participant used many words like important, promoting, knowledge, libraries, different, problem, afford, borrow, valuable, famous, complex, comfortable, architectural, cultural, diversity, glory, located, constructed, culture, inconvenient, etc. as shown the figure 4.12. frequency of words the frequency of words was improved in these essays. this essay consisted of 270 words which was the required length. as shown the figure 4.12. spelling mistakes some of them were good at their spelling mistakes and after making their focus on spelling, they were good at their spelling. this participant was good in her spelling and did not make any spelling mistakes. as shown the figure 4.12. repetition of words there was repetition in some post-tests, but it was not excessively done. in all the essays only, a few words were repeated which were the keywords of the essay. as shown the figure 4.12. use of tense the use of tense was improved from pre-test essays. the tenses used in this essay were correct; the participant did not do any mistakes in this regard. as shown the figure 4.12. understanding of the concept the understanding of concepts was clear in most of this essay. the topic was about the library, and it was written very well. the choice of words was correct, and the concept was written clearly and to the point. there were references to different libraries given by the participants. as shown the figure 4.12. the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 490 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 use of articles the participant used articles in this essay excessively. she used “the” and “a” in each line which was not required. as shown the figure 4.12. use of singular plurals in this essay, the singular plurals were used correctly in this essay for example comes, plays, libraries, looks, types, prices, books, etc. as shown the figure 4.12. the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 491 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 492 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 figure 4.13 improvement of frequency in figure 4.13 by participant three use of vocabulary the use of vocabulary in this essay was improved from the pre-tests e.g., interested, inspired, glory, power, adventure, adventuresome, excited, overjoyed, destination, enthusiastic, breath-taking, phenomenal, pleasant, expensive, beauty, etc. as indicated in figure 4.13. frequency of words the frequency of words was improved; the word length was 300 words which was the target length of a matriculation level essay. as indicated in figure 4.13. spelling mistakes there were very few mistakes of spelling in the post-test essay as in this essay the participant wrote “capid” instead of writing capped. as indicated in figure 4.13. repetition of words repetition of words was less in post-test essays. as indicated in figure 4.13. use of tense the use of tense was improved from pre-test essays. the tenses used in this essay were correct; the participant did not make any mistake in this regard. the essay was described well as a story. as indicated in figure 4.13. understanding of the concept the concept of this essay was clear to the participants. as indicated in figure 4.13. use of articles the articles were used appropriately in this essay. the participant was aware of where to use the articles, and where to use definite articles and indefinite articles. as indicated in figure 4.13. use of singular plurals in this essay, the participant did use correct singular plurals. the participant used the helping verb according to the subject and it was used correctly that with plurals the verb was plural and with singular, it was singular for example, “a hill station is a village or a town high up in the hills”. the other example from“s” and “es” was peaking, seems, makes, etc. as indicated in figure 4.13. discussion in most of the essays in the pre-test participants were unable to follow the required length of essays. participants were writing the essays, but they were not focusing on the frequency as their vocabulary was not so high. it was about all the participants; only one or two participants could write the essays closer to the requirement. while writing the essays after watching the subtitled videos on daily basis, subtitles helped the participants to make them able to write more as the pictures which were shown while analysing clear the point. they were having more content and their frequency increased. this process was time taking as it was shown clearly by the analysis that when the participants started watching videos, their improvement was slow but when this process was continued, and participants were used to it than their results were satisfying and there was a rapid improvement by the participants. the frequency of the first post-test essay and the last post-test essay is clearly shown in the picture. in a comparison of pre-test essays, all the post-test essays were having a good frequency. the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 493 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 conclusion there was the following research question was set to study this research. the research question was what is the impact of subtitled videos on the vocabulary of english language learners in ninth and tenth grade at high school in lahore? the difference between the results of pre-tests and post-tests clearly shows the impact of subtitles on learners. the qualitative research method was used in this research. the data was collected from twenty male and female participants from two schools in lahore. the result shows that there was an improvement in vocabulary knowledge, frequency, and spelling mistakes. there was also improvement in grammatical mistakes and singular plurals. subtitles can reinforce the understanding of expressions that are context-bound in the english language. learners learn the understanding of meanings that are according to the context as a word can have multiple meanings and they are used individually and have different meanings according to the context. captions make the participants learn those meaning which are contextbound. subtitles also help in acquiring new words and help in learning idioms of the english language. subtitles also make the students understand the humour of the english language to the participants as this was difficult to understand for the participants without subtitles. when students can understand the humour of a second language, the environment of the class will be easy and enjoyable for the students and the teacher. the other point is that subtitles can help the students to enhance their concentration because if they will lose their concentration, they will not be able to read subtitles. for that purpose, they will develop a strong habit of learning with concentration. contributions of the study the research contributes to the present body of its knowledge because of its findings. this research gives a useful perspective for learning english as a second language. this is the age of electronics and students should be provided with new and easier ways of learning in the fields where they have an interest. the researcher tried to highlight the education system through her study as this system follows rote memorization for students till the matriculation level. the researcher considers rote memorization inappropriate and unproductive for the students who do not do rote memorization. according to the researcher, it destroys the creativity of a student. subtitles give knowledge of vocabulary to the students so that they can use the words and write in their language. rote memorization weakens the vocabulary of students as they do not try to learn vocabulary items. subtitles help to develop the vocabulary of the students; they encounter new words some from their own culture and some from another region. i discussed the problems students face while learning a second language from books, i took pre-tests for previous knowledge and then post-tests after making them watch subtitled videos to show the problems and subtitles as their solution to those problems. while i was doing research, i pointed out different rubrics which were the basic problems for the learner, and in post-tests, it was shown that many of the problems could be solved through subtitles. subtitles not only enhance the vocabulary knowledge of the students but also improve their grammar, pronunciation, and communication skills of students. the researcher pointed out that this activity has been considered a pedagogically solid activity and reinforcing this exercise can create some more activities related to the english the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 494 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 language. for example, it can give different vocabulary exercises like fill in the blanks, grammatical exercises, etc. directions for future research this study will hopefully provide future researchers with the benefit as this study did not cover many aspects that future researchers can study. following directions can be helpful to explore related fields. 1. future researchers can work on this topic by addressing teachers as they are the ones who implement ways of teaching in classrooms. 2. the researcher used pre-tests and post-tests for this study, but other researchers can use questionnaires and surveys in this regard. they also can take interviews with participants from students and teachers as well. 3. improvement in spelling mistakes from subtitled videos is the vast domain to study in english. as this study just touches this area but could not do justice to this vast domain so future researchers can work on this domain also. the role of subtitles in learning a second language: 495 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue ii | july – dec | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5iii.411 references alipour, m., gorjian, b., & kouravand, l. g. (2012). the effects of pedagogical and authentic films on efl learners ‘vocabulary learning: the role of subtitles. advances in asian social science, 3(4), 734-738. almeida, p. a., & costa, p. d. (2014). foreign language acquisition: the role of subtitling. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 141, 1234-1238. bianchi, f., & ciabattoni, t. (2008). captions and subtitles in efl learning: an investigative study in a comprehensive computer environment. eut-edizioniuniversità di trieste. bird, s. a. (2005). language learning edutainment: mixing motives in digital resources. relc journal, 36(3), 311-339. canning-wilson, c., & wallace, j. (2000). practical aspects of using video in the foreign language classroom. the internet tesl journal, 6(11), 36-1. cardillo, d. s. (1996). using a foreign film to improve second language proficiency: video vs. interactive multimedia. journal of educational technology systems, 25(2), 169-177. garnier, m. (2014). intentional vocabulary learning from watching dvds with subtitles: a case study of an ‘average learner of french. international journal of research studies in language learning, 3(1), 21-32. lavaur, j. m., & bairstow, d. (2011). languages on the screen: is film comprehension related to the viewers’ fluency level and the language in the subtitles? international journal of psychology, 46(6), 455-462. matielo, r., d'ely, r. c. s. f., & baretta, l. (2015). the effects of interlingual and intralingual subtitles on second language learning/acquisition: a state-of-the-art review. trabalhosemlinguísticaaplicada, 54(1), 161-182. sakunkoo, n., & sakunkoo, p. (2013).gliflix: using movie subtitles for language learning. in proceedings of the 26th symposium on user interface software and technology.acm. schwarz, m. (2012). learning with lady gaga & co.: incidental efl vocabulary acquisition from pop songs. na. talaván, n. (2010). subtitling as a task and subtitles as support: pedagogical applications. in new insights into audio-visual translation and media accessibility (pp. 285-299).brillrodopi. walsh, m. (2010). multimodal literacy: what does it mean for classroom practice? australian journal of language and literacy, the, 33(3), 211. wang, y. c. (2012). learning l2 vocabulary with american tv drama" from the learner's perspective". english language teaching, 5(8), 217-225. yuksel, d., & tanriverdi, b. (2009). effects of watching captioned movie clip on vocabulary development of efl learners. online submission, 8(2). zanón, n. t. (2006). using subtitles to enhance foreign language learning. portalinguarum: revistainternacional de didáctica de laslenguasextranjeras, (6), 4. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). e1e4497f-4746-4191-8eb0-f7ea245d6a02/799cb493-00f7-4795-9a83-b017c6321278 syntactic analysis of pakistani english: 469 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii syntactic analysis of pakistani english: a case study of male and female bloggers’ language of baluchistan durdana rafique assistant professor, department of english, university of turbat (uot) durdana.rafiq@uot.edu.pk dr. zia ur rehman assistant professor, department of pakistani languages aiou, islamabad zia.rehman@aiou.edu.pk tanvir ahmed phd scholar, department of pakistani languages, aiou islamabad. tanviruot@gmail.com abstract the influence of english in all fields of life cannot be ignored and it has influenced all people belonging to any field of life living in any area of the world. the english used in pakistan is different from the standard british english. it is called an institutionalized variety of english, according to rahman (2000). this study aims to add the existing research on pakistani english by exploring the syntactic features of pakistani english in the blogs of male and female bloggers of baluchistan. the researcher uses the theory of noam chomsky transformational generative grammar. (2002). he says that grammar is generative because it can produce an infinite number of sentences from the set of finite rules. the population for the present study consists of male bloggers and female bloggers from all over baluchistan. total number of 7 blog posts is selected by the researcher. a simple random sampling technique is used for collecting data. 4 male bloggers and 4 female bloggers belonging to different ethnic groups are selected, based on social genre. 3 blogs are from male bloggers and 4 are from female bloggers due to the limitation of time. the blogs are selected from e-news websites, i.e. daily times, the baloch nation, baluchistan voice, the dawn news, the friday times, and sada-e-baluchistan. the findings of the study show that there are differences found in the language in the blogs of male and female bloggers of baluchistan in using pakistani english. it is analyzed that male bloggers use syntactic features which are more inclined towards bse as compared to females. however, the changes in the syntactic features of the language of bloggers also show that the sentences are transformed from the simple sentence into another sentence, by conforming the facts that how changes occur with either same meanings or different meanings keywords: blogs, bloggers, pakistani english, transformational generative grammar, syntax introduction language is one of the most important phenomena of human life. language plays a vital role in describing who we are and how we are different from other speech communities. language is evolving regularly. according to aitchison (1981), changes in the english language occur in the same way as changes in other languages of the world. the english language is a global language. english occupies a very important place in the world. the influence of english in all fields of life cannot be ignored and it has influenced all people belonging to any field of life living in any area of the world. mailto:durdana.rafiq@uot.edu.pk mailto:zia.rehman@aiou.edu.pk mailto:tanviruot@gmail.com syntactic analysis of pakistani english: 470 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii the variety of english used in pakistan has undergone several changes. it is called pakistani english because of the influence of the societal and cultural impact on the language. the english used in pakistan is different from the standard british english. it is called an institutionalized variety of english, according to rahman (2000). he also asserts that there are four varieties of pakistani english. his ideas of pakistani english are based on the ideas of kachru. he divided the varieties into acrolect, mesolect, basilect and anglicized varieties. tariq rahman creates a model which he calls pakistani standard english by using the features from variety b and variety c. this model contains features which are intelligible not only among the speakers of pakistan but also among the speakers of foreign languages. the study of syntax allows constructing sentences in any language. anyone who knows the rules of syntax is also able to construct sentences from the limited number of rules. according to chomsky (2002), syntax deals with the processes and rules of the language used for the construction of sentences. he asserts that grammar is transformational as well as generative. by transformation he believes that a simple sentence can be transformed into other sentences either with the same meaning or different meaning. the process of transformation occurs by the addition of words or by the movement of the position of the words. the second part of his theory is generative because it can generate an unlimited number of sentences from the limited number of rules. this study aims to add the existing research on pakistani english by exploring the syntactic features of pakistani english in the blogs of male and female bloggers of balochistan. the study of blogs is an emerging area of significance. the linguistic variations of blogs are an important feature of research. purpose of the study the purpose of selecting blog posts from the news blog is to analyze the variation of syntactic structure to identify which specific variety of pakistani english is used by the bloggers of baluchistan as mentioned by tariq rahman in his book of pakistani english (1992). the researcher intends to work with bloggers in baluchistan, who are not only recognized nationally but also internationally. research questions q1. what are the syntactic structures reflected in the blog posts of male and female bloggers of baluchistan? q2. which specific variety of pakistani english is executed in the language of male and female bloggers of baluchistan? research objectives 1. to find out the syntactic structure as reflected in the blog posts of male and female bloggers of baluchistan. 2. to identify the specific variety of pakistani english as executed in the language of male and female bloggers of baluchistan. significance of the study the research will be useful for other researchers who are interested in investigating the syntactic structures of the sentences in the blog posts written by the male and female bloggers of baluchistan. this study is innovative in a sense it discusses the areas which have not been discussed before in relation with the theory of noam chomsky. the study will help the future syntactic analysis of pakistani english: 471 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii researchers to have an effective understanding of the syntactic structures of the language of bloggers. problem statement men and women use language differently according to different situations and cultures (lakoff, 1975). several studies have been done on the differences between the language of males and females. they are exposed to life differently. the difference in the expressions used by males and females is due to their life experiences and difference in exposure (colley et al., 2004; uchenata, 1992). baluchistan is the largest province of pakistan in terms of land; it is at the same time, one of the least populated provinces of pakistan (baloch & ahmad, 2011). the researcher intends to work on the bloggers’ language in baluchistan. some of the features of pakistani english have been highlighted by many researchers such as a.mehboob (2004), baumgardner (1993), t.rafat (2013), bergstrom (2021), in order to validate the claims made by them on the basis of intuitive studies of the variety of pakistani english. so far, no work is found to the best of my knowledge on the syntactical analysis of pakistani english using the transformational generative grammar by noam chomsky to substantiate the analytical ground of the study. the study aims to deal with the syntactic features of blogs and gives an overview of blogs and their corresponding linguistic properties and aspects in the language of bloggers of baluchistan. theoretical framework and research methodology the researcher uses the theory of noam chomsky transformational generative grammar. (2002). he says that grammar is generative because it can produce an infinite number of sentences from the set of finite rules. the other part of his theory is transformational which shows that he developed this theory in his book ‘aspect of syntactic structures a simple sentence can be transformed into other sentences with either same meanings or different meanings. this process of transformation occurs by the help of the set of rules which he named as transformational rules. it shows the relationship of the words in the sentence and understanding of the syntactic relationships through the process of transformation with the help of deep structures and surface structures. the population for the present study consists of male bloggers and female bloggers from all over baluchistan. for the purpose of representativeness, the bloggers who are selected are recognized not only nationally but also internationally. the bloggers belonging to different ethnic groups are residing in baluchistan. total number of 7 blog posts is selected by the researcher. a simple random sampling technique is used for collecting data. 4 male bloggers and 4 female bloggers belonging to different ethnic groups are selected, based on social genre. 3 blogs are from male bloggers and 4 are from female bloggers due to the limitation of time. the blogs are selected from e-news websites, i.e. daily times, the baloch nation, baluchistan voice, the dawn news, the friday times, and sada-e-baluchistan. the data is collected during the period 2019-2021. the participants update their blogs frequently with time. the language used by the bloggers is english. rahman divides pakistani varieties of english into four sub-categories. a. anglicized english: this variety that pakistanis speak in british settings. they have been exposed to english for a long period. syntactic analysis of pakistani english: 472 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii b. acrolect variety: this variety is developed by the pakistani speakers in educational institutions as a medium of instruction. this variety is different from british english in terms of its linguistic features such as semantics, phonology, syntax, lexis and morphology. c. mesolect: it is totally different from british english and it is used by pakistani speakers whose medium of instruction in schools is urdu. d. basilect: it is a kind of pakistani english pidgin. it is used by speakers who are not much educated. the researcher focuses only on a correct variety (variety b) of pakistani english. following characteristics will be observed in the blog posts of male and female bloggers of baluchistan. i. the omission of definite articles in pakistani english. ii. the use of progressive aspects with habitual and completed action. iii. certain verbs considered stative in bse are used in progressive in pe e.g do, hear, see, have and other verbs. iv. pe use of preposition plus an –ing participle is used. v. in pe indirect objects are frequently omitted. vi. in be the infinitive of purpose is similar to an infinite complement and has in ‘order to’, simply to answer the questions for what purpose or simply ‘why’. in pe the form gerund replaces the infinitive of purpose. vii. difference in the use of prepositions. viii. addition of preposition which is mostly avoided in bse. ix. omission of dummy auxiliary do, does, did. x. lack of agreement of the verb. xi. the indefinite article may be omitted. the current research employs a qualitative mode of inquiry to investigate syntactic and distinguishing features of pakistani english. the use of qualitative, secondary data has made this research comprehensive and relevant. the researchers have chosen the qualitative design because it facilitates in-depth investigation (creswell, 2012). delimitation the study is delimited to only the blog posts of male and female bloggers of balochistan. the study collects data from only 4 males and 3 female bloggers of balochistan. moreover, for the analysis of the syntactic structure of pakistani english only the acrolect variety of tariq rahman pakistani english was used. the study is also delimited to the syntactical analysis and transformational generative grammar of pakistani english in order to find out the specific variety of pakistani english. literature review language is one of the most important elements of human life. language is used to express our emotions, ideas, and feelings in life. syntax plays a very important role to understand the structure of the sentence. according to greason (1998), syntax deals with the construction of the smaller units of the language to the larger construction. as mentioned by chomsky (2002), syntax deals with the rules and processes of the construction of sentences in any language. several studies have been made on the syntactical analysis of the text. according to astuti research (2007), there are three positions of the modifiers in the syntactical analysis of the noun syntactic analysis of pakistani english: 473 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii phrase in his work on the novel of jane austin pride and prejudices. the examples are prepositions (noun+modifier), post position (modifier+noun) and after and before noun (noun+modifier+noun). and these positions are based on the grammatical structures. syntactical analysis plays a very important role to analyze the structure of any piece of literary work. as mentioned by h.g widdowson (1975), syntactical analysis is the mediation between two areas i.e. literary criticism and linguistics. the complete understanding of any literary piece of work is dependent upon the complete understanding of the syntactic properties of the text. culler (19981), asserted that in order to understand the structure of the sentence it is important to understand the internal structure of the grammar which shapes its structure, different types of strategies are identified by the researchers and linguists. leech (1969), analysis lexical, phonological, graph logical, semantics and grammatical variations in the literary works. another work was done by plett (2010), according to him syntactical analysis deals with the relations, rearrangement and cancellation. he further says that the deviation in syntax is the result of mismatches between good and bad grammar. pakistani english pakistani english is considered an institutionalized variety of english. it is the variety which is used in the educational institutions and written forms. according to kachru (1986), pakistani english is a different variety of english which is the result of the nativised discourse and is used as a tool for creative writing in various genres. baumgardner (1998), conducted research on the attitude of the pakistani towards the lexical acceptability in pakistani english. the findings of the study show that the pakistani norm is emerging quickly. talat (2002) also studies the changes in the process of pakistani english and finds out that the change in the pakistani english is due to the product of english rather than the results. most of the studies done on pakistani english are in the field of lexis. majority of the linguists work on the process of formation of words and lexis in the field of pakistani english research. baumgardner (1990), kachru (1975) and rahman (1990). as asserted by damron (2004), pakistan english is different in terms of intonational patterns. the reason for this difference is the influence of urdu language on pakistani english. pakistani english is not devoid of deviations. these deviations are embedded in the english of pakistan in such a way that it is now considered as the part of pakistan english. similar study was conducted by hassan (2000), on the lexical variation of pakistani english. the findings of his study show that deviation occurs at the level of lexis, morphology, and phonology. according to reeves (1984), pakistan is considered as the second home for britisher because of the lively nature of english used in pakistan by the common masses. another study conducted by kennedy (1993), on use of english language for expressing emotions. the findings of his study show that pakistan variety is identified by its grammar and lexis. blogs males and females are exposed to life differently. according to uchenata (1992), the difference in the expression of males and females is due to their life experiences and difference in exposure. several studies have been done on the use of male and female language. as mentioned by mulac & weiman (1988), men use more directive language as compared to women. women tend to produce question words in their natural language settings. in another study conducted by baker (2013), the study focused on the issues related to the representation of gender in online syntactic analysis of pakistani english: 474 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii personal advertisements by the adults of malaysia. the findings of the study revealed that identities are constructed through personal advertisements. some studies are also done on the uses of hedges while dealing with gender-based differences. according to lee (2003), males and females have different preferences in using hedging words to express their feelings. the findings of the study revealed that difference exists in the choices of vocabulary and lexical diversity. another remarkable work is done by robin lakoff (1975), in the study she worked at the level of phrases. she investigated two types of phrases in women’s speech. lakoff identified hedges and tag questions in the speech of women. other researchers found out the level of uncertainty in the speeches of women. women use more uncertain expressions than males. cognitive and perceptual words are more found in women's speeches. as asserted by biber and conrad (1998), women use more adverbs, conjunctions, and modal auxiliary verbs in their speech. whereas some recent studies found different results. muracher and thomson (2001), worked on male and female email communication. the results of the study show that men and women use language in the same way. the use of questions, apology, and appreciation by both genders is the same. women are more polite in the use of language than men. analysis the syntactic analysis of distinguishing features of pe in the blog posts of bloggers’ language. the data for this study consisted of all the sentences of the blog posts of male and female bloggers of baluchistan. the unit of analysis was all the sentences keeping in view the variety b (acrolect) features of tariq rahman and noam chomsky transformational generative grammar helps to understand the syntactic features of the sentences and how changes are taking place through transformational generative grammar, which according to chomsky grammar generates and transforms sentences. the total number of three males and four female bloggers were selected for the study. for the purpose of representativeness male and female bloggers belonging to different ethnic groups were selected so that they may represent different issues ranging from different topics like social genres topics ranging from food, clothing, climate, politics and other social issues. moreover the male bloggers are more in number as compared to female bloggers that is why four female bloggers and three male bloggers are selected for this purpose. female bloggers 1. breaking stereotypes about the hazara community: tilyan aslam the model of tariq rahman pakistani english and noam chomsky transformational generative grammar helps to explain the syntactic variations of features between bse and nonnative varieties of english as well as how changes are taking place through transformation because grammar generates and transforms sentences. the researcher focused only on the characteristics of the variety b (acrolect) from the book of tariq rahman pakistani english. after going through the details of the blog post of the female blogger, the researcher identified following syntactic features of pakistani english. i. the omission of the definite article syntactic analysis of pakistani english: 475 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii according to tariq rahman the omission of definite articles is a common phenomenon in pakistani english. e.g. a. hazaras are peace loving people in θ city hajarat, afghanistan. b. in quetta, θ hazara community lives in hazara town mariabad. it was found out that only in two places the definite article was omitted. so it can be said that such kind of syntactic deviation is not commonly found in the language of this female blogger belonging to the province of baluchistan the reason for this deviation from bse is the absence of a parallel category of the article in the deictic systems of south asian languages (kachru 1969: 32).and it also shows how the transformation in the syntactic structure brought changes in the structure of the sentence. ii.the use of the progressive aspect with habitual and completed action and certain stative verbs. following examples are extracted from the blog post of the blogger. a. i like exploring hazara town, like finding a new quetta. b. the people are coming from many areas. c. i do like visiting places and exploring history. iii.in pakistani english the adjective is followed by a to+infinitive e.g a. they are rude to attack other communities. b. this town has so much to serve us. c. affordable stuff to buy and yummy dishes to try with. iv.use of preposition unnecessarily a. they fought against poverty. b. the evenings to enjoy the things of. v.use of progressive form with stative verbs e.g. a. the best of seeing the things. b. i am amazed to hear such things about the town. c. the stereotypical feeling made them aware. d. being warm and welcoming vi.the use of would and could. the auxiliaries would and could are used for will and can. e.g a. i could see people walking free. b. all i would conclude is to learn from them. second article child labor: a dark side of pakistan by mahnoor mustafa after going through the blog post of the female blogger, the researcher identified the following syntactic features of pakistani english. the features identified by the researcher are highlighted as below. i. the omission of the definite article as mentioned by tariq rahman, the omission of definite articles commonly occurred in pakistani english. syntactic analysis of pakistani english: 476 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii e.g a. every morning on my way to ɸ library in quetta. b. child labour is barrier to ɸ children joy. c. a recent study of ɸ society for empowering human resource (sehr) highlights children are working as child labour. d. government has failed to provide free education. ii.the use of –ing progressive aspect with stative verb. e.g a. seeing the sufferings of children. b. government is not believing in the miseries of the children. iii.the adjective followed by a to infinitive in pakistani english. e.g a. poverty gives rise to child labour. b. children's access to education is an evident strategy. c. many children are suffering from emotional and mental trauma. moreover, it was also found out that the blogger has used the infinitive of purpose according to bse which is the same as a to + infinite complement to answer the question for what purpose? ‘in order to’ is used for this purpose. e.g a.the concerned authority must come up with effective policy in order to provide protection against child labor. b. children are forced to work in order to survive in society. c. i work in order to carry out the responsibility of my family. the above examples from the blog post of a female blogger shows that the language is more inclined towards bse according to the differences discussed by tariq rahman in his book ‘pakistani english’. third article impact of tourism on a country by mahan aslam the following syntactic features are identified by the researcher from the blogpost of the female blogger by keeping in view the tariq rahman variety of acrolect in pakistani english. following syntactic features are observed in the blog post. i.the omission of the definite article the omission of the definite article is found in many instances in the article of mahan blog. ‘impact of tourism on a country ‘. in the places where there was a need for placement of definite articles, it was omitted by the writer. according to tariq rahman the reason for such omission is due to the absence of a parallel category of the article in the deictic system of the languages of south asia. and this makes pakistani english different from bse. tariq rahman used the symbol ɸ as the symbol of omitted article. ii.in pakistani english the adjective is frequently followed by a to+ infinitive. e.g a. tourism has also proved productive to create a change. b. it becomes the first priority to work and give. c. more and more projects in order to give an advanced shape to the country. d. tourism is a productive opportunity to make peace among the advanced countries of the world. syntactic analysis of pakistani english: 477 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii however, there are some sentences also showing syntactic structures following bse. for example adjective complementation by an –ing participle clause which was made up of an adjective+an optional preposition and + a gerund participle clause. e.g a. the government has not succeeded in minimizing the sufferings of the tourists. b. one of the most important benefits of tourism is it helped in improving the construction of roads and parks. c. in pakistani english the for+gerund replaces the infinitive of purpose as compared to bse, where the infinitive of purpose is the same as to – infinite complement to answer the question of ‘for what purpose’?. e.g. ‘…..because tourists take an insight into each and everything while visiting a country ,but the examples following the syntactic structures of bse are prevailing in this article. e.g a. people get jobs in order to become rich. b. a country maintains its infra-structure in order to give an advanced shape to the country. iii.differences in the use of preposition. according to tariq rahman pakistani speakers use preposition where needed and use preposition where not needed by pakistani writers or speakers. fourth article the flaws in our education: why are pakistani students struggling with mathematics by saadeqa khan in this blog the writer shows some variation from bse but her language seems to be more inclined towards bse. i.the omission of definite article in some places the writer omitted the definite article where needed but in many places she has used the definite article according to the standard of british english as mentioned by tariq rahman in his book ‘pakistani english’. e.g. a. ɸ study of maths gives reason to solve a problem. b. according to ɸ published statistics ɸ average maths score for students in ɸ national education assessment system. throughout the article, the blogger omitted the use of definite article in two places only. whereas in other instances she has followed the use of definite articles where needed according to tariq rahman views on pakistani english. ii.the use of progressive aspect with habitual and completed actions and certain stative verbs so far as the use of the progressive aspect with completed and habitual actions is concerned the blogger has not used any such sentence according to the variety b (acrolect) as mentioned by tariq rahman. so, it seems that the language used by the blogger is very close to the bse as mentioned by tariq rahman. iii.adjectives followed by the to + infinitive there are many examples of the sentences where an adjective is followed by a to +infinitive. syntactic analysis of pakistani english: 478 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii e.g a. it gives us reason to hope that every problem disappears. b. this is due to the severe problem of resistance. c. they were sad to hear about the program. d. she is happy to learn maths. iv.in pakistani english for + gerund is replaced by infinitive of purpose in this article the blogger has not used any example of pakistani english for + gerund by the infinitive for the purpose of as mentioned by tariq rahman in his book ‘pakistani english. but there are sentences that show the answer to the question of purpose according to the bse. e.g.: a. the teachers are hired to teach the subject. b. the students are introduced to new subjects in order to promote their skills. c. training programs are introduced in order to make them aware of advancement. v.the auxiliary could and would are used for will and can in pakistani english according to tariq rahman in the article, it was found out that the blogger has not used ‘would and could’ for ‘will and can’. she has used the auxiliary ‘will and can’ in the same way it has used by the bse speakers in their language e.g. a. the government will make necessary changes. b. the government will have to strengthen the education system. c. quality education will soon be accessible to rich and poor. male bloggers article one traffic on the pakistan-afghanistan border surges by asim ahmed khan the model of tariq rahman pakistani english and noam chomsky theory of transformational generative grammar helps to explain the differences in grammatical features between bse and non-native varieties of english as well as how changes are taking place through transformation because grammar generates and transforms sentences. the researcher focused only on the characteristics of the variety b (acrolect) from the book of tariq rahman ‘pakistani english’.after going through the details of the blog post of the male blogger, the researcher identified the following syntactic features of pakistani english. i.the omission of definite article e.g. a. ɸ federal ministry of border affairs is responsible for idps. b. i think ɸ taliban’s are involved in unrest of pakistan. throughout the article by asim khan, only in two places the definite article was omitted. ii.the use of the progressive aspect with habitual and completed actions, and use of progress aspect with certain stative verbs. the use of the progress aspect with habitual action and completed action was not found in the blog post of asim khan. instead he uses the rule which is more inclined towards bse according to tariq rahman definition of bse. syntactic analysis of pakistani english: 479 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii e.g a. abdullah khan often visits the pak-afghan borders. b. fatima hails from ghazni, afghanistan c. her husband always works during the summer season. d. afghan people often take up permanent residency in pakistan. ii.adjective is frequently followed by a to-infinitive. according to tariq rahman, in pakistani english the adjective is frequently followed by a to-infinitive whereas in bse adjective complementation occurs by an-ing participle clause, made of an adjective+optional preposition+gerund. e.g. a. the officials have not succeeded in decreasing the issue of the people. b. the afghans have returned by manipulating the environment of the country. c. talibans have buried everything behind to ensure new life for their families. however, only one sentence is used in the language of the blogger where it has been found out that the adjective is followed by a to-infinitive according to tariq rahman variety of acrolect. these examples show how the sentences are transformed from one sentence to another. iv. in pakistani english the for+gerund replaces the infinitive of purpose. e.g a. vehicles are full of people charging double the price. b. rozi khan left afghanistan to live a peaceful life. c. he came to pakistan to live a better future. d. she tries to live by sewing clothes. v. difference in the use of prepositions. according to tariq rahman, pakistani speakers and writers face difficulty while speaking or writing english. the type of errors in prepositions is also found in the writing of this blogger. e.g. a. people sitting in the closed door cannot understand the woes of the poor. b. engineers and doctors are waiting for more opportunities. second article ecology: balochistan siberian secret by rafiullah mondokhail. i.the omission of the definite article. in this blog post the researchers found out that the rule for the omission of definite articles as mentioned by tariq rahman was not used by the blogger. rather the blogger used it appropriately throughout the blog post according to the rule of bse as mentioned by tariq rahman in his book, pakistani english (1992). e.g. a. the zhob valley falls on the migratory route of the train. b. the hunters use a pair of tamed cranes. c. the officials explain that there are no funds allocated at the district level. d. the migratory cranes swoop down close to the captured pair. ii. the use of the progressive aspect with certain stative verbs by going through the details of the blog post, it was found out that the blogger has used progressive aspect with certain stative verbs in the blog post by the blogger. e.g. syntactic analysis of pakistani english: 480 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii a. knowing no boundaries, the flocks fly across rivers. b. the cranes like to congregate near the zhob river. c. concerning the season, the cranes fly back to their native habitat. iii.pakistani english adjective is followed by a to+infinitive according to tariq rahman, pakistani english is followed by a to+infinitive. the examples of such cases are extracted from the blog post of the blogger. e.g. a. siberian cranes are expensive to buy. b. the locals are excited to hear about the cranes. c. ashraf ali, the wild officer, was pleased to welcome the cranes. iv. in pakistani english, a preposition+ing participle is used. according to tariq rahman, in pakistani english a preposition+ing participle is used as compared to bse where adjective complementation by a to-infinitive consists of an adjective+a to-infinitive. e.g. a. the cranes had migrated after moving to the river. b. the necks, wings and entangles before migrating cranes sweep down close to the pair. however, some of the examples from the blog post show resemblance to bse like adjective-complementation, adjective+to infinitive. e.g. a. it is difficult for the cranes to breathe because the river smells horrible. v. majority of the sentences used by the blogger in his blog post show the use of infinitives of purpose according to bse to answer the question of purpose. e.g. a. the biting cold weather compels the birds to find a new region. b. the number of cranes is migrating to preserve and protect themselves from being hunted. c. the birds are tied by a swirling iron weight in order to entangle. d. the hunters used mp-3 voice recordings of the cranes. honking to lure, migrating flock. third article balochistan paving the way for robotics education in pakistan by saeed yousuf after going through the details of the blog post, the following characteristics features of tariq rahman pakistani english have been identified by the researcher and how the sentences are transformed by using the features of pakistani english. i. the omission of the definite article e.g. a. ɸ secretary secondary education balochistan chaired a high profile discussion. b. attending ɸ meetings ɸ representatives from nine robotics organizations all across pakistan. c. ɸ education department reiterated ɸ balochistan’s government commitment. in this blogspot it was also identified that the blogger has not used any progressive aspect with habitual and completed actions. syntactic analysis of pakistani english: 481 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii ii. pe replaces for+gerund replaces the infinitive of purpose. e.g a.balochistan secondary education department works for promoting a healthy environment in the institute. b. the department conducted a meeting for collaborating between the education departments of the country. iii. differences in the use of prepositions preposition is the most common error by the speakers of pakistani english. the reason for such error is due to the influence of the mother tongue on l2. the other reason for such mistake is due to the non equalevancy. some of the examples are extracted from the language of the blogger by the researcher by keeping in view the characteristic features of acrolect variety of tariq rahman pakistani english. e.g. a. secretary education is going to help to raise funding for deserving students. b. majority of the people cannot agree to the proposed criteria. c. things will change in a few moments. findings and conclusion pakistani english will keep on changing and developing with the passage of time in interaction with the regional languages of pakistan. this research is conducted on non-native speakers of english belonging to the province of baluchistan. the findings of the study show that there are differences found in the language in the blogs of male and female bloggers of baluchistan in using pakistani english. it is analyzed that male bloggers use syntactic features which are more inclined towards bse as compared to females. however, the changes in the syntactic features of the language of bloggers also show that the sentences are transformed from the simple sentence into another sentence, by conforming the facts that how changes occur with either same meanings or different meanings. it was observed that this process of transformation occurs by the addition of words or by the movement of the position of the word. however, there are some instances found out from the blog posts of female bloggers showing that some syntactic structures of pakistani english are not followed by them in some places like the auxiliary would and could are not used in the same way as in pakistani english. the other example is from the blogs of female bloggers that the use of for + gerund by the infinitive for the sake of purpose as mentioned by tariq rahman in his book ‘pakistani english’ is not used according to the correct variety of pakistani english and answers the question of purpose according to the bse. the findings of the study also show that the characteristics of pakistani english as mentioned by tariq rahman in his book ‘pakistani english’ are reflected in the language of both male and female bloggers of baluchistan, pakistan. male and females use language differently because they are different humans. the definite article was omitted by the female bloggers more than male bloggers. male bloggers seem to be more inclined towards bse as reflected in their writings as compared to females. the deviation in syntactic features according to tariq rahman is found more in female blogs as compared to males’ bloggers in terms of omission of definite articles, use of progressive aspects with stative verbs, replacement of for gerund for purpose and differences in the use of prepositions. syntactic analysis of pakistani english: 482 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii future recommendation the research is based on some of the characteristics features of pakistani english and focusing on only the acrolect variety of pakistani english. however there are many other varieties of pakistani english as mentioned by tariq rahman. future researchers can work on other varieties to find out the differences in the language of male and female bloggers in other provinces of pakistan. the researcher focused only on noam chomsky transformational generative grammar. there are other theories of syntax that can be applied for analysis. syntactic analysis of pakistani english: 483 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v5ii references baloch, h. a., baloch, a. s., & ahmed, b.(2011) an old phonological study of new persian and balochi. barnfield, k., & buchstaller, i. (2010). intensifiers on teesside: longitudinal developments and new trends. english world-wide, 31(3), 252-287. doi: 10.1075/eww.31.3.02bar baumgardner, r. j. (ed.) (1996). south asian english: structure, use and users. urbana and chicago:university of illinois press. biber, d., conrad, s., & reppen, r. (1998). corpus linguistics: investigating language structure and use. cambridge: cambridge university press carter, r., mccarthy, m., mark, g., & o’keeffe, a. (2011). english grammar today: an a-z of spoken and written grammar. cambridge: cambridge university press. datta, s. and sarkar, s. (2008). a comparative study of statistical features of language in blogsvs-splogs. acm new york. pp. 63-66. dovidio, j. f., brown, c. e., heltman, k., ellyson, s. l., & keating, c. garcía gómez, a. (2010). competing narratives, gender and threaded identity in cyberspace. journal of gender studies, 19 (1): 27-42. routledge. huffaker, d. a. and calvert, s. l. (2005). gender, identity, and language use in teenage blogs. journal of computer-mediated communication, 10: 00. doi:10.1111/j.10836101.2005.tb00238. kachru, b. b. (1976). models of english for the third world: white man's linguistic burden or language pragmatics? tesol quarterly, 10(2), 22 1-239. kachru, b. b. (1981). the pragmatics of non-native varieties of english. in english for crosscultural communication, 15-39. lakoff, r. (1975). language and woman’s place. new york: harper colophon books. lee, c. (2003). how does instant messaging affect interaction between the genders? stanford, ca: the mercury project for instant messaging studies at stanford university. retrieved january 4,2005 from http://www.stanford.edu/class/pwr325/group2/projects/lee.html. methods. function of language 2(1), 1–33. amsterdam: john benjamins. leech, g. (1991). the state of the art in corpus linguistics. in: aijmer, k./altenberg, b. (eds.). english corpus linguistics: studies in honor of jan svartvik. longman. mulac, a.,wiemann,j. m.,widenmann, s. j., & gibson, t.w. (1988). male/female language differences and effects in same-sex and mixed-sex dyads: the gender-linked language effect. communication monographs, 55, 315–335. nowson, s. (2006). the language of weblogs: a study of genre and individual differences. phd dissertation. institute for communicating and collaborative systems school of informatics, university of edinburgh. @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). http://www.stanford.edu/class/pwr325/group2/projects/lee.html. efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 424 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance dr. shahzad ul hassan farooqi assistant professor, college of education zulfi, (postal code: 11932)1712) majmaah university, saudi arabia abstract this article is based on a longitudinal writing program to evaluate the efficacy of journal as a viable free-writing technique in saudi efl scenario. data taken from 54 students of english language major at a saudi university is studied. forty-five students participate in a six-week-long program during which an hour-long session is held every week. students choose topics of their own interest, along with some prompts from teachers to write in english without fear of committing errors. a correlation is sought between fluency (measured in terms of the number of lines) and the number of errors. results show an increase of written lines from an average of 9.86 to 15.24 lines per journal while a sharp decrease is observed in spelling errors from 6.1 per journal to 3.28. capitalization errors also show a steep decline from 3.2 per journal to 0.33. a similar downward pattern is observed in the case of period (full stop) related errors whose average is noted 1.77 per journal initially and 0.86 by the end. errors related to the subject-verb agreement also show a sharp dip from 3.42 to 1.83 till the middle of the program, however, move up to 3.61 which suggests that it is an area where saudi efl learners need more attention. the study shows that journal writing helped in improving writing output and controlling errors without being bogged down by the fear of error hunting. students also showed 68.8 percent approval of free-writing journal as a viable technique to improve writing skill. keywords: journal, free-writing techniques, saudi efl learners, learners’ performance introduction foreign language learning poses multifarious challenges to efl learners, and they are required to considerably expose themselves to language learning practices to invigorate four basic skills including listening, reading, speaking and writing (brown, 2000). out of these skills, writing is an important as well as a complex skill. francis bacon, undrlining the importance of writing, opines that “reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man” (1908, p.234). tribble (1997) believes writing is a basic requirement in the ever-enlarging global market wherein english is emerging as a lingua franca. williams (2001) is of the view that writing is the most problematic area for efl learners. the researcher’s personal experience also shows that the writing skill is nothing less than a challenge for saudi efl learners . it demands conversion of ideas into sentences along with grammatic accuracy. in the modern age of speed and accuracy, one has to produce written language with minimum chances of errors. the only way to improve writing is to practice writing. according to hamp and heasley “ even writing that nobody reads except yourself is good practice” (2006) . in this regard teachers must facilitate and encourage learners to write frequently and as much as possible (eshghinejad, 2016). free-writing journal is efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 425 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 one such technique that provides ample freedom to the students to write on topics of their own interest, monitor their progress and be motivated. ferris (2014) considers journal an effective technique for motivating the students to write more. in a journal, students write about their everyday experiences, feelings and observations. such activity can become more fun if supplemented by picture prompts like maps, drawings and songs (dyment & o’connell, 2007). hence, a free-writing program was launched for students of english major at a saudi university so that they could learn writing in a fear-free environment. students’ writing progress is meassured in five areas adapted from previous researches: the number of lines they produce, spellings, capitalization, agreement of subjects and verbs, and period-related errors (alahmadi 2019; alharthi, 2020; hamid, 2006). a correlation is sought between the number of lines and the errors, which is analysed statistically and presented graphically. hypothesis free-writing journal is an effective technique for increasing the quantity and quality of academic writing of efl students who have had enough exposure to the language. research questions 1. what is the efficacy of the free-writing journal as a technique in improving students’ writing? 2. how does journal writing motivate learners to maximize their writing output and reduce errors? 3. what is perception of saudi efl learners regarding free-writing journal as an effective technique for improving writing? research objectives • the basic aim of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of journal as freewriting technique for improving the writing skill of saudi efl learners. • secondly, the study is to apprise students of the benefits of free-writing journals for maximizing their writing output and minimizing errors. • thirdly, it is a case study of a specific program launched to improve the writing of students and monitor their performance. • fourthly, the study will establish free-writing journal as an effective technique for incorporation in future study plans in saudi efl scenarios. significance of the research english language learning and teaching has gained tremendous popularity in the gulf region over the past few decades. but, despite great efforts, funding, and reforms, government and private support, the standard of english language is facing great challenges in arab countries (almahrooqi & denman, 2014; alqahtani, 2018; alrabai, 2018; alrashidi & phan, 2015; ashraf, 2018; javid & al-malki, 2018; moskovsky, 2018). elyas and picard (2018), particularly singling out writing, held lack of motivation responsible for this failure. many studies conducted in saudi efl scenario specifically underlined the need to improve writing (gawi, 2012: mustafa, 2012). efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 426 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 alharthi (2021) opines that “mastering writing is the utmost complex task” for learners. encouraging them to write more is one way to solve the problem. in this regard the current study evaluates the efficacy of journal writing as a remedial technique for helping students with poor writing output. it also aims at encouraging students to write without fear of being error hunted, think autonomously and monitor their performance. besides, it will help teachers and students to set new priorities in future study plans by incorporating journal as regular feature of writing courses. literature review because of its global role as lingua franca, english is fast becoming focus of attention in saudi arabia both for its educational as well as commercial value (baker, 2003;mahboob & elyas, 2014). the development and progress in the country and arrival of international companies has opened the job market for the local saudi people. schutz (2011) believes that literacy requirements of societies will keep on increasing in future. english is the first foreign language that has made inroads into strictly arabic dominated society. hence, achieving optimum communicative proficiency in english is necessary for the saudi youth (loony, 2004). however, it is a difficult task (al-mahrooqi, 2014). meanwhile, it is observed that more attention is given to spoken skill which gets further impetus by foreign scholarships which provide conducive environment for improvement of speaking (smith & abouammoh, 2013). on the other hand, various studies suggest that mastering writing skill is one of the most difficult tasks for efl learners (burns & richards, 2018; marzec-stawiarska, 2014; szyszka, 2016). particularly for arabic speaking efl learners it poses real challenge (al-hazmi, 2006; al-samdani, 2010; ezza, 2010). but how to improve writing? the answer is simple and straight…by writing. nation (2007) calls for applying “time-for-task” principle for improving writing. it means that the more you do, the more you learn. free-writing is one such technique which gives the learner a sense of liberty without fear of committing errors and results in more fluency. filewych (2019) says that free-writing means writing any idea or thought that comes to one’s mind at a particular moment without stopping. its primary feature is flow of ideas expressed with optimum level of grammatic accuracy without distractions or apprehensions.we may define free-writing as writing without stopping and without consideration of editing or even fear of making errors. peter elbow (1973, 1998), who is credited with inception of the idea of freewriting, viewed it as a useful technique in which learners fully depend on their already learned vocabulary and write spontaneously without worry of finding the right word (elbow, 1998). brown (1994) believes that fluency in writing means to have a steady flow of language without any “self-or-other correction at all” (p.113). it pertains to students’ ability to “produce a lot of language” without “hesitations”, or “interruptions” (casanave, 2004, p. 67). in didactic and rule governed teaching atmosphere, patterson (2014) believes that free-writing opens a new vista of experience for students. according to o’brien and baugh (2013), freedom to select a topic of their own interest gives student ample opportunity to write adequately. this gives them freedom to select words of their own choice and express freely. efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 427 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 free writing can be guided, unguided (hwang, 2010) as well as private and public (elbow, 2008). if there is a pre-decided topic, it is guided free-writing, but when no topic is specified, it is unguided. (belanoff et al., 1991). in recent years there has been a shift from elbow’s spontaneous writing to a more focused free-writing which is topic oriented. such studies yielded immediate and successful results not only at certain discipline levels but also in the higher education (fishman, 1997; somerville and crème, 2005). free-writing journal is a technique which provides ample freedom to the students to write on topics of their interest, monitor their progress and be motivated. ferris (2014) believes that such a technique can be effectively motivating for the students to write more. in journal, students write about their everyday experiences and observations. it can eb made more interesting by supplementing it with picture prompts like maps, drawings and songs (dyment & o’connell, 2007). moreover, journal as free-writing technique can be reflective and personal in nature. it can be used as self-motivated learning strategy for writing as well as a classroom method for teaching and improving writing. many researches uphold efficacy of journal as a viable free-writing technique for the improvement of efl learners’ writing skills. these researches advocate its benefits in improving students’ ability to think, compose, and narrate their ideas. spaventa defines journal as “notebooks in which writers keep a record of ideas, opinions and description of daily life and help writers develop their creativity” (2000, p.168). casanave (2011), underlining the importance of journal writing, opines that regular writing yields better results. hamp and heasley (2006) call for writing journal about anything interesting on daily basis. many other pedagogues and scholars found a significant relationship between journal writing and improvement in the writing skills of the students. in this regard studies conducted by holmes & moulton (1997), piazza, (2003), cowler (2010), peyton & reed (1990), peyton (1990), casanave (2011) are of particular importance. freewriting journal is an activity in which students are asked to write about a topic on regular basis within limited time span for improving their writing. it helps them put into practice the language they have already learnt. they have a chance to self-monitor their progress without having the fear of being error hunted. delineating its various procedural steps, patterson (2014) provides following four guidelines for students engaged in an effective free-writing journal activity. • plan what you want to say (i.e. brainstorm and outline). • don’t worry about errors; don’t stop to correct. instead of erasing, just cross words out and continue writing. • wait until the writing time is over before checking your dictionary. • write as much as possible. challenge yourself to continually write more than you did in your previous journal entry. brainstorming, selection of topic, continuous writing, and evaluation and monitoring of the output by students themselves as well as the teacher are some of the important steps. the main objective is to enhance fluency and maximize output. after formal research expanding over four efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 428 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 years, patterson (2014) upholds the efficacy of free-writing journal as a technique for improving writing fluency and output. researchers like cumming (2012) who have a critical approach towards free-writing, opine that focus on quantity and fluency may have negative effect on the quality of writing because accuracy is compromised in free-writing. nevertheless, other researchers are convinced of the benefits of general practice of free-writing journal and gradual monitoring of the progress which can also be augmented by the teachers’ feedback and class discussions. keeping all these things in mind the researcher believes that free-writing in the form of journal writing can be hugely beneficial for the saudi students. and for this reason, this research is conducted to introduce the students with this writing technique and measure their outputs. for the purpose of this research, the researcher is going to use journal as a type of free-writing and in this activity, guided as well as unguided public free-writing journal technique will be used because writings will be shared by the students and the teacher. research methodology this is a mixed method study that applies quantitative and qualitative approach. the study was conducted in the english department of a saudi university. three-pronged strategy has been adopted for data collection which includes: 1writing program based on journal free-writing technique. 2comparison of students’ class exams. 3a five grade likert scale based questionnaire consisting of 15 questions, circulated through google forms to evaluate students’ motivational and behavioral response towards efficacy of the journal writing technique in improving their writing skill. prior to that, a pilot study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of questionnaire and consultation was sought from experts to remove some flaws and enrich certain areas. on the basis of expert’s advice last two questions of the questionnaire were kept open ended allowing the researchers to collect general suggestions and ideas of the students regarding the writing program and the journal writing technique which are discussed qualitatively at the end of the study for future improvement. the free-writing programme using journal as free-writing technique a careful program was designed for effective results. as prescribed by patterson (2014) well-stepped procedure is adopted to chalk out the writing programme. in this programme a session of one hour was held every week for six consecutive weeks. in total 270 pieces of free-writing journals were produced by 45 students and their output ranged from 4 to 38 lines. these pieces of writing were carefully evaluated for spelling, capitalization, subject-verb and period related errors. at the end of the programme a questionnaire was distributed among the students comprising likert scale multiple choices as well as some openended questions to get students feedback regarding the effectiveness of the journal as free-writing technique. the participants forty five students (shown as s1-s45 in graphs) from four different classes of writing courses majoring in english language participate in the free-writing program and their efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 429 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 performance is graphically and statistically evaluated on the basis of average output under five variables including number of lines students wrote, spelling and capitalization errors, agreement of subject and verb in the sentence and placement of punctuation period at the end. as the students were from different levels of writing classes, the main focus was to measure their writing output by providing them motivation as well as a free environment without the fear of committing errors. the diversity of students was itself an impetus for them as students from any level could compete with others in terms of their writing output. procedural steps before starting the writing activity, students were given ample time to think about their favorite topics for that particular day. they were also given some prompts to select a topic which may be from their class lesson or an event of their interest (patterson, 2014). to enable them expand their imaginative capacities, they were encouraged to do pre-writing activities like brainstorming, clustering and outlining ideas regarding a particular topic. in line with alliotta’s (2018) suggestion, students were briefed about the importance of their task and need of focusing at it. they were motivated to write in english without being afraid of committing errors which excited them because in academic setting they had always been afraid of committing errors. to ensure that the students understood the procedure well, the researcher explained the idea of freewriting journal and its objectives. they were instructed to simply write without worrying about editing or producing a perfect piece of writing. in the beginning of every hour students were also provided feedback on their performance in previous week’s session. a writing booklet, specifically designed for this task, was provided to keep the record of the performance of each student (appendix a). so, while embarking upon the new journal writing activity, students not only look at their previous errors but also listen to the teachers’ feedback to avoid them in future. however, they were told that no marking or grading is going to be done on the basis of their errors and they have to take their performance as a challenge wherein they have to compare their performance with that of their fellows as well as compare each days performance with the previous day. for this purpose a google sheet was developed and shared with each student on which he could monitor his performance graphically as well as numerically. finally,a correlation is sought between the overall output in terms of the number of lines and the number of errors they commit. the whole correlation is presented in form of graphs and evaluated through statistical data analysis showing average increase and decrease of the progress in specific variables. data analysis 1: results of the program before the beginning of the program all the 45 participating students are briefed about the concept of journal writing. they are guided about the one-hour weekly exercise and the time distribution. the time of the session is divided into three parts; review and feedback, brainstorming, writing. in review time, students are able to see their previous session’s performance in graphic and numeric form. moreover controlled feedback was given. pedagogues efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 430 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 in efl teaching have been expressing divergent views regarding feedback in freewriting. some question its effectiveness (truscott (1996, 2007), while others opine that it is desirable (chandler, 2003; ferris, 2006; truscott, 1996).researcher also believes that feedback is necessary to keep the students apprised of their performance level which motivates them for further action. students’ output is calculated in terms of lines they write in every session and a correlation is developed with the number of errors they make in every line. specially dedicated booklet with numbered lines helps students count lines they write and errors they make in four fields. every field was given a code word like; subject-verb agreement (sv), spelling (sp), period or dot (d), capitalization (cap). first of all, the lines are counted to determine student’s output. later four types of errors are separately discerned, highlighted and counted for the frequency which is then mentioned at the specific space given at the end of the booklet page. the whole activity is then uploaded on google sheet and shared with students. lines the most basic purpose of free-writing is to enhance writing fluency. as previous researches have shown that after free-writing student’s output increased considerably (tahseldar, 2018; casanave, 2011). the same result we find in our research. the following table 1 shows day-wise performance of students during the writing program. students’ average (mean) output ranges from about 6 to 20 lines. mean of overall lines per day from day 1 to day six reflects an impressive overall improvement from 9.86 lines to 15.24 lines. it means that all the students who produced average 9.86 lines on the day 1, wrote average 15 lines on day 6. name day1 day 2 day 3 day 4 day 5 day 6 mean differene column percentage individallines/day day1-day6 improvement s1 7 12 2 12 16 19 11.33333333 12 171.43% s2 7 11 8 12 17 20 12.5 13 185.71% s3 3 6 11 13 18 20 11.83333333 17 566.67% s4 8 12 13 8 9 7 9.5 -1 -12.50% s5 8 6 9 10 11 21 10.83333333 13 162.50% s6 7 8 7 7 9 10 8 3 42.86% s7 8 11 12 14 16 18 13.16666667 10 125.00% s8 11 14 11 6 7 11 10 0 0.00% s9 9 10 13 12 11 15 11.66666667 6 66.67% s10 5 8 9 11 10 17 10 12 240.00% s11 5 10 9 9 11 20 10.66666667 15 300.00% s12 8 9 7 3 6 6 6.5 -2 -25.00% s13 19 14 17 15 12 17 15.66666667 -2 -10.53% s14 7 12 9 15 15 22 13.33333333 15 214.29% efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 431 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 s15 1 0 9 10 12 14 22 12.83333333 12 120.00% s16 1 7 12 15 16 12 15 14.5 -2 -11.76% s17 5 9 6 7 5 4 6 -1 -20.00% s18 1 2 9 8 4 10 11 9 -1 -8.33% s19 1 0 6 6 9 7 10 8 0 0.00% s20 1 3 10 8 7 6 11 9.166666667 -2 -15.38% s21 6 10 7 9 11 13 9.333333333 7 116.67% s22 1 4 14 8 10 11 12 11.5 -2 -14.29% s23 9 10 9 14 19 23 14 14 155.56% s24 6 7 8 10 14 18 10.5 12 200.00% s25 1 3 10 12 11 13 12 11.83333333 -1 -7.69% s26 1 5 11 13 14 10 13 12.66666667 -2 -13.33% s27 1 1 10 9 8 10 8 9.333333333 -3 -27.27% s28 8 7 5 8 6 7 6.833333333 -1 -12.50% s29 5 10 5 4 6 5 5.833333333 0 0.00% s30 2 0 13 35 14 18 22 20.33333333 2 10.00% s31 9 13 20 20 21 22 17.5 13 144.44% s32 7 12 17 18 17 21 15.33333333 14 200.00% s33 1 4 14 19 20 21 21 18.16666667 7 50.00% s34 3 8 19 9 12 14 15 17.83333333 -23 -60.53% s35 1 9 12 10 18 16 17 15.33333333 -2 -10.53% s36 7 12 9 15 15 22 13.33333333 15 214.29% s37 6 12 2 12 16 19 11.16666667 13 216.67% s38 7 11 8 12 17 20 12.5 13 185.71% s39 8 10 13 8 8 7 9 -1 -12.50% efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 432 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 s40 7 8 10 9 11 20 10.83333333 13 185.71% s41 6 8 6 9 10 11 8.333333333 5 83.33% s42 7 12 11 16 14 18 13 11 157.14% s43 1 0 13 12 7 6 12 10 2 20.00% s44 8 11 12 13 11 16 11.83333333 8 100.00% s45 5 7 10 11 0 16 9.83333333 11 220.00% mean overa ll lines/ day 9 .86 10.53 10.42 11.2 12.15 15.24 table 1: overall performance of students from day 1 to day 6. this improvement of fluency is graphically shown in the graph 1 in which we see a steady upward trend in the average daily output of the lines written by students. this analysis reflects that the overall average of lines written by each student on day 1 was 9.86, which, after going up to 10.53 on day 2, observes a slight dip on day 3 with 10.42 lines. however, the momentum continues increasing and the output reaches up to an average of 15.24 lines on the day 6 which shows a sharp increase in fluency of students. graph 1: average lines written by student in each session every week. on day 6, students make a remarkable jump of 5.38 lines on average as compared to the day 1, which is an impressive evidence of their improved fluencyl with the passage of time. as this progress was uploaded on a google sheet (see graph 2) shared with students, they could see it on weekly basis which proved a great impetus for enhancement of their interest in writing. the graph 2, shows an upward trend which means more writing. it exhibits a steady progress from low efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 433 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 to prolific output in case of most students. inspite of increase and decrease in the number of lines on day2,3,4, and 5, the output increases on day 6 as compared to day 1 in most cases. graph 2: number of lines written by students in each session and progress trends. day 1 and day 6 were treated as pretest and post test days. the table 1, difference column shows how much difference is seen in the writing output of students on these two days. 27 students out of 45 improve their output while 3 remain stable (shown as 0 difference) , whereas 15 students show a decline in writing output. the improvement of output on day 6 ranges from 2 lines to 17 lines which is an impressive gain. in terms of percentage, students’ improvement ranges from 10% to 566%. graph 3 exhibits the overall gain of the free-writing journal program. graph 3: overall improvement level based on graph 2 and the difference column of table 1. studetns who remained stable on the pretest and postest days also show improvement. we can see on table 1 that student (s8) produced similar number of lines on day 1 and day 6, but he wrote more on day 2 and produced 14 lines as compared to 11 on day 1. similarly, student (s29) also wrote 10 lines on day 2 as compared to 5 lines on day 1. same can be seen in case of student (s4) who, showed regressive writing output from 8 lines on day 1 to 7 lines on day 6, however, he 27 15 3 0 10 20 30 students who improved output students who decreased output students who remained stable efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 434 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 showed improvement by writing 12 lines on day 2 and 13 lines on day 3 consecutively. similar is the situation of student (s39). during the discussion and feedback time prior to every week’s writing activity the researcher asked the students about reasons behind this sudden proliferation. resultantly it transpired that students may write more if the topic is of their interest and a considerable brainstorming is done before the activity. however, free-writing itself was an impetus to write more. thus the analysis yields that majority of the students gained benefit from the writing activity. the researcher believes that if implemented consistently, such an activity may yield further improved results. spellings english spellings is a complex area for efl learners because english is a non-phonetic language. it means that spellings of english words are not always the same as they are pronounced. in other words the sounds and spellings of many english words are not the same. alzamil (2020) is of the view in his study that 15% errors conducted by saudi students are related to spellings. the researcher finds that writing more, continuous feedback and self-monitoring of one’s own performance reduces spelling errors. hence, alongside steady increase in the number of writing lines as seen earlier in graph 1, the overall trend of the number of spelling errors as shown on graph 4 reflects decrease of spelling errors from an average of 6.1 on day 1 to 3.28 on day 6. graph 4: average spelling errors made by students. this decrease is, however, not steady and shows an up and down pattern. during first three days it shows downward trend and students make less spelling errors on day 2 and day 3 as compared to day 1. average of spelling errors was 5.13 on day 2, and 4.05 on day 3. but day 4 and day 5 outnumbered previous days. during these two days there is an upward trend and on day 5 students make 6.38 spelling errors on average. according to post-activity discussion of the researcher with students, following two reasons caused this. the first reason was that students wrote on new topics from day 2 to day 5. the second cause was the increase of the writing fluency efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 435 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 itself. as students were writing more, they were making more errors. as the topics given to students on day 1 and day 6 were the same, the familiarity of topics resulted in reduced number of spelling errors which shows that students were learning from their reflective experience. moreover, if we look at the overall trend of spelling errors, except day 5, there is a clear downward trend as students keep on learning from their writing activity. capitalization capitalization is yet another area where saudi students face problems. alzamil (2020) in his study shows that 26% errors are related to capitalization. it is a micro yet important feature of english writing wherein students have to use upper case and lower case in english letters according to the rules of english language (siddiqui, 2015). in this study capitalization errors show a steep decline from an average of 3.2 per student on day 1 to 0.33 by the end of the program on day 6. graph 5: average capitalization errors made by students. in this regard the researcher focused on capitalization of first letter of the first word in a sentence and capitalization of proper nouns, besides, names of days, months and places. students were given detailed feedback and rules of capitalization which they internalized quickly keeping in view the competitive nature of the activity. students gradually learnt from their writing activity, feedback and visual representation of their performance in google sheet. resultantly, they were motivated to put more effort to control their capitalization related errors. period (full stop) this category also follows the same pattern. period (full stop) related errors decrease from an average of 1.77 by students on day 1 to 0.86 by the end. efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 436 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 graph 5: average full stop errors made by students. keeping in view the overall increase in lines from 9.86 to 15.24 on average from day 1 to day 6, the graph 5 reflects an impressive decrease in number of period (full stop) related errors and exhibits gradual learning on part of the students wherein overall output of lines is increasing while full stop related errors are decreasing. during the sicussion, it transpird that failure to put a full stop at the end of the sentence is rather an error which students were committing unknowingly. once they were able to see their performance results on the google sheet, they paid attention to what was told to them in the feedback sessions. hence, an impulsive desire was inclulcated in them to focus on this issue. subject-verb agreement errors subject-verb agreement is one of the most challenging areas of grammar for saudi efl learners. pedagogues highlight it as special category which poses challenge to new learners (ferris, 2001; bushong and mihai, 2014). following alahmadi (2019), focus was given to verb erros with singular and plural subjects. errors were carefully marked and counted. results reveal that freewriting does help students improve in this regard but as the approach of the free-writing method is not focused on error hunting, increase in fluency and output may lead to more errors. the data reveals that students made more errors on the first day of writing activity. but when they were briefed about their performance next time before the activity, their errors show a sharp decrease. efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 437 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 graph 6: subject-verb agreement errors. the graph reflects a deep dip from 3.42 on day 1 to 1.95 on day 2 and 1.83 on day 3, however, the number of errors starts increasing from day 4 and resaches 3.61. on day 6 it reverts to lower position of 3.42 which is samde as the day 1. on day 2 and 3 students were making some conscious effort to control the errors, however, the compulsion to write more led them to commit more subject-verb agreement errors. in order to increase their output in terms of lines, they compromised their grammatical accuracy for which they perhaps required more time to think and ponder. moreover, new topics posed new challenges to writers. but as the free-writing activity is supposed to be time bound without paying much attention to deeper grammatic rules, students committed more errors in this field. keeping in view the performance in writing output, it can be evaluated positively because the more you do something, the more chances you have to make a error until you learn and correct. overall, graphic and statistic data show that journal writing helped students in improving their output and control their errors without being bogged down by the fear of error hunting. comparison of students’ final exam results this section is based on the comparison of final exams’ grades of students who participated in free-writing program and those who did not and only attended regular writing classes. for this purpose two groups were established; the free-writing group (fwg) and the class group (cg). both these groups include total 19 students of the writing classes. the free-writing group has 11 students while the class group comprised of 8 students. grades the free-writing group (fwg), who attended the writing program along with regular writing class, achieved higher grades in the final exam as compared to the class group (cg) who did not attend free-writing program and only depended on regular classwork. as the graph 7 shows free-writing group 100 % occupied the a+ and a grade slots while the class group could not achieve these grades. free-writing group is also present in b+ and c grades which reflects that free-writing group maintained its presence in higher grades. whereas, class group begins to show efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 438 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 up from b+ and is absolutely absent in b grade. while it resurges in grade c+ again and remains present in all the lower grades even till grade f. graph 7: comparison of grades of class group and free-writing group marks range the marks range of both the groups also reflects that free-writing group achieved more marks. the graph 8 below exhibits range of marks of students belonging to the two groups. a list of marks attained by students of both groups was prepared in which duplicates were mentioned once. this graph reflects that the marks of free-writing group range from 70 to 95 well above the class group whose range begins from meager 40 and reaches up to 87 only. graph 8: comparison of marks range of class group and free-writing group hence, this analysis shows that the students who attend the free-writing journal program not only increased their output from day 1 to day 6, but also achieved higher grades and marks in the final exam of their respective levels. it also reflected in exams papers of both the groups that the free-writing group is more prolific and fluent in writing as compared to the class group. freewriting group’s understanding of capitalization, punctuation and spelling is much better than the class group. as an example (appendix b) we can see the same task solved by two students of freewriting group and class group. the answers to the task reflect that the student of free-writing group is prolific in his writing as compared to the student of class group. the paragraph written by the student of class group makes little sense, has fewer lines and abounds in errors. students’ response to the program 0% 50% 100% grade a+ grade a grade b+ grade b grade c+ grade c grade d+ grade d grade e+ grade e grade f c o m p a r i s o n o f g ra d e s o f c l a s s g r o u p a n d f r e e wr i t i n g g r o u p class group free writing group 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 class group 40 60 70 77 85 87 free writing group 70 80 82 85 86 90 95 010 2030 4050 6070 8090 100 m a rk s o u t o f 1 0 0 comparison of final exam marks range class group free writing group efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 439 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the third stage of analysis is based on data collected through a survey prepared to know the students’ response to free-writing journal and their opinion about the program. the survey comprised of 15 questions including two open-ended questions to provide freedom to students to express their ideas in detail. the survey results in graph 9 show an aggressive 68.8 percent approval for free-writing journal as a viable technique to improve writing skill among saudi efl learners as well as its positive impact on their writing fluency. graph 9: overall positive perception of students towards the free-writing journal activity. besides, the researcher also collected students’ opinions, problems, issues and suggestions in the researcher's diary after every session of writing for a better understanding of their experience of the free-writing journal program. students’ feedback and response to the whole activity is sreally helpful in getting better insight into their ideas, their problems and ways of handling them (pietrikova,2015). following is the summery of the students perception regarding the free-writing journal activity. better awareness of free-writing journal the program was a new experience for the students in the sense that for the first time they were doing the writing activity in a stress-free environment in which they were not being hunted for errors. at the end of every session they were having a sense of engagement, accomplishment and productivity. it was a self-monitoring activity wherein they could track their own progress. hence, while responding to questions regarding the efficacy of the free-writing journal most of them responded that it was enjoyable and engaging experience. the program also enhanced confidence level of the students as their hesitation of writing was replaced with sense of achievement. most of them reported increased comfort level while during the writing activity which earlier always gave them anxiety and perplexity. the hence, they appreciated free-writing journal’s technique because it was an activity without teachers’ direct criticism, overt didacticism and absolute correctness. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 questions 68.2 72.7 63.6 63.7 63.6 68.2 77.3 59.1 72.8 76.2 63.6 77.3 68.2 68.8 68.8 % average of strongly agreed +agreed responses average efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 440 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 they felt improved sense of curiosity and analysis as new topics compelled them to think deeply about things and events around them. some students confided that now they could relate their life with their writing experience and write about things they loved. one student opined “the activity not only enhanced my writing proficiency but also my thinking efficiency”. the idea of google sheet, showing students’ output in form of graphs, and exhibiting their performance in comparison with other students was a massive success which students appreciated and liked most because they could monitor their performance and have a sense of competition with other participants. they also expressed their positive opinion about the post and pre-activity feedback and evaluation. althugh error hunting is not the target of free-writing activity, the feedback highlights errors and students become unconsciously cautious about them resulting in improved writing. students also found the activity good for finding areas wherein they needed improvement. hence, it brought self-realization and awareness about their abilities as well as their shortcoming vis a vis writing skill. in terms of fluency and proficiency, the program worked wonders for students and they were surprised to see their progress in form of increased writing output in short time during the program. as the activity was timebound, students had to really stretch their abilities of writing and thinking to their limits. some of them reported that they had improved their fluency which, earlier, was always blocked by the idea of “correctness”. they said that finding the best word was always difficult for them but now they could express themselves through words which could express their ideas in a simple way as the activity made them proficient writers if not accurate ones. results and conclusion besides proving the efficacy of the free-writing journal as a viable metheod for writing improvement, results of the study show that students increased their writing output as well as awareness about errors. during this program students were not hunted for their errors but through a regular and relative feedback without fear of losing marks or any other punishment, they made progress. students put their ordinary vocabulary into use and expressed their ideas in simple way. it also created motivation and inculcated a sense of competition in students. results stand in conformity with previous researches which uphold free-writing journal as an important technique for writing improvement (alharthi, 2021; brown, 1994; casanave, 2004; patterson, 2014; o’brien & baugh, 2013; fishman, 1997; somerville and crème, 2005; ferris, 2014; spaventa, 2000; casanave, 2011; hamp and heasley, 2006; holmes and moulton, 1997; piazza, 2003; cowler, 2010; peyton and reed, 1990; peyton, 1990; casanave, 2011). the research also highlighted the beneficial impact of free-writing journal on the students’ grades and performance in exams. moreover, the results highlighted the areas of language wherein saudi efl learners needed more attention. recommendations on the basis of this research, it is recommended that free-writing journal must be incorporated as a regular segment of writing courses because it promotes fluency, increases motivation and enhances consciousness of grammatical errors leading to self-accountability and efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 441 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 self-monitoring. the journal writing may also be considered as a regular co-curricular activity. it is also important that the efficacy of free-writing journal should also be studied in other courses as it can also help improve reflective thinking and efficiency of thought processing. the researcher also recommends trainings and workshops for teachers to implement journal writing technique as part of the regular writing classes or as a co-curricular activity so that they should be in a better position to guide their students in writing. efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 442 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 references alahmadi, n. 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(2018). the impact of journal writing on cycle two efl students writing achievement. international journal of science and research, 7(5), 1774–1787. https://doi.org/10.21275/art20182913 tribble , c .(1997) writing .(2nd ed .) oxford : oxford university press truscott, j. (1996). the case against grammar correction in l2 writing classes. language learning, 42(2), 327–369. doi:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1996.tb01238.x https://doi.org/10.2167/illt039.0 https://scholar.utc.edu/mps/vol19/iss1/3 efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 446 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 williams, j. a. (2001). classroom conversations: opportunities to learn for esl students in mainstream classrooms. embracing pluralism worldwide, 54(8), 750– 757.https://www.jstor.org/stable/20204989 @ 2021 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 447 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 appendix a (notebook ) efficacy of journal as free-writing technique: a study of saudi efl learners’ performance 448 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 5 | issue i | jan – june | 2021 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 appendix b writing performance of the student who attended free-writing program. writing performance of the student who did not attend free-writing program. comparative analysis in symbols: d. h. lawrence’s women in love and rumi’s mystical poetry 62 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 comparative analysis in symbols: d. h. lawrence’s women in love and rumi’s mystical poetry dolat khan1, sami ullah khan2, mubarak ali lashari3 1faculty of english language and literature, university of agriculture, water and marine sciences, uthal, pakistan registrar@ug.edu.pk 2faculty of english language and literature, university of agriculture, water and marine sciences, uthal, pakistan sami.eng@luawms.edu.pk 3institute of english language and literature, university of sindh, jamshoro, pakistan mubarak.lashari@usindh.edu.pk *corresponding authors abstract there is an unending critical chasm regarding the roots of lawrence’s strange theology of ‘dark gods. his fiction such as women in love reveals a pretentious and dull world of extended symbols. most prominent symbols are associated with sexual contents where characters are acutely aware of each other’s sexuality. therefore, it is evident that many readers are unable to grasp lawrence’s world, apparently because of his literary sensibility of rich religious symbolism. furthermore, lawrence’s ideas and symbols can be seen in the critical tradition of psychoanalysis and in postmodern fashion. this paper argues that symbols in lawrence’s fiction, particularly in his woman in love have a religious and mystical connotation. this aspect of lawrence’s symbolism can be appreciated profitably with some parallel analysis of rumi’s mystical poetry. the paper has taken most prominent themes of love, ecstasy and union and their symbolic delineation in woman in love, analyzing them with rumi’s handling of the aforementioned themes. lawrence’s religious vision is clear in his use of biblical symbols in his fiction, however, his world is not based on biblical world alone, for he calls bible the jewish moral book and a stick to beat an immoral dog, however, he was very much fascinated by the symbols and fantasies in the apocalypse. he says that symbols in the apocalypse lead us to the chaldean and to persian. there is a deep connection between lawrence`s appreciation of ancient eastern myths and his use of symbolism, as this paper has argued, reveals a connection between lawrence`s symbolism and the ancient persian religions and medieval sufism of rumi and others, which has influenced lawrence’s imaginations. keywords: love, mystical, symbolism 1. introduction it would not be wrong to say that women in love is a novel of ideas where lawrence explicitly expresses his views about human life in general and the spiritual consciousness of men. in his speeches, birkin, the main character in the novel, expresses his notions and opinion about different topics from life, death, and love. the story of the novel explores the reality and truthfulness of birkin’s philosophy of life. although lawrence never says anything about the sources of his philosophy about life, death, truth, and love, he explains these ideas in an unmistakably clear voice through birkin. if we search for these ideas, we will find that nowhere are these ideas as clearly expressed as in the sufi doctrine of the medieval persian masters. comparative analysis in symbols: d. h. lawrence’s women in love and rumi’s mystical poetry 63 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 according to jessie chambers, lawrence’s early sweetheart and a very sympathetic companion in his early life, lawrence rarely acknowledges sources of his ideas. she informs us in her memoirs and letters that she used to judge his latest readings through his conversations in which he often emphasized the ideas he had happened to come across. she gives examples of the english romantics and nietzschean ideas. likewise, in women in love, lawrence constantly refers to the ‘will to power’ and refutes and rebukes it through birkin and through its failure in gerald’s character, but never explicitly mentions nietzsche or any other german philosophers whose ideas he refers to in the novel. similarly, there are many instances of medieval and ancient religious imagery and symbols in women in love. nonetheless, as moynahan observes, “through symbolism lawrence was able to project his prophetic, anti-traditional values within the matrix of narrative form” (moynahan, 1956, p. 56). as an artist, he applied an especial metaphoric language either to extend or to emphases what has been already expressed in arguments or in some cases will be expressed later. likewise, one such description says much about the spiritual and mystical nature of the text in women in love. when birkin is struggling to convey his concept of ‘love’ with ursula, she begins detesting birkin’s prophetic posture. she despises this image of birkin’s, which she calls ‘salvator mundi’ (the saviour), a reference to christ who preaches a mysterious concept of love. exasperated with his own arguments birkin drops some daisies on the water, which starts moving on the water like a ‘dervish dance’, “it turned slowly round in a slow, slow dervish dance, as it veered away” (lawrence, 2008, p. 157). this fascinates ursula, and she experiences a strange feeling of awe and amusement which frightens her. she wonders, “why did they move so strongly and mystically” (lawrence, 2008, p. 158). it is worth noting that dervish dance is called sama or whirling dance which is the spiritual dance of sufis started by rumi. rumi says about sama, “when a mystic begins a dance, / he reaches out to heaven to hear: / god reveals the mystery, / for those able to bear. / merriment must be selfless; / hearts burn like incense!” (rumi, 1979, p. 265). according to sufi sources, every moment and every movement in sama has a symbolic meaning that is a form of prayer for them. this mystical dance of sufis has been popularized in the west by the name of dervish dance since the 19th century. dervish is another word for sufi in farsi. it shows that lawrence was not only aware of rumi’s dervish dance but the way he applies the image of this sufi concept shows that he was also aware of its connotation and spiritual significance. 2. literature review lawrence’s symbolic use of language and images is the main concern of this study. critics like charles michael burrack and virginia hyde try to explain lawrence symbolic images in judea-christian traditions. for hyde lawrence evokes biblical images and images from ‘old civilizations’ to communicate ‘beyond words` (hyde, 1992, p. 35). she sees lawrence’s symbols as references to a ‘universal archetypes’ which go back to ancient egyptian, chaldean, and other sources. she suggests that the cosmological symbols we find in new and old testaments have themselves come from ancient traditions of pre-christian civilizations. while burrack argues that lawrence may have experienced ‘magical and mystical’ visions (burack, 2005, p. 98). he traces lawrence’s, as he calls, ‘language of sacred experiences’ to another ancient civilization the hindu tantric. he says, “yogic theory is at the heart of lawrence’s subjective science” (burack, 2005, p. 139). it is interesting to note that ‘intuitive knowledge’ or as burrack calls it ‘subjective science’ comparative analysis in symbols: d. h. lawrence’s women in love and rumi’s mystical poetry 64 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 has found its fullest expression and manifestation in sufi mystic tradition which both these critics do not mention. much earlier in these studies moynahan describes lawrence’s ‘narrative symbolism’ as an instrument to his ‘peculiar vision’ of the world (1956, p. 76). he argues that lawrence as a typical ‘prophetic’ writer goes back to traditional wisdom to create a ‘new order of values`. she considers lawrence’s going back to traditional wisdom, as a revolt against the modern scientific world view. according to moynahan, lawrence`s purpose in his symbolic language which she calls ‘symbolic rituals’ was to show the difference between the world vision he had and the modern scientific world view of the reader and in this way, he wants to project a holistic view of the world. she insists on a secular interpretation of lawrence’s symbolism. however, another important critic who had a personal relation with lawrence, murry records his knowledge of lawrence’s life and work in which he maintains that lawrence’s art was a kind of his homage to ‘almighty god’ (1954, p. 211). nevertheless, murry says that lawrence had a ‘definite and personal conception of the nature of ‘almighty god’. for me, this is a very significant view and particularly, coming from somebody who knew lawrence so closely. one can find a parallel concept of a subjective view of god in sufi literature. he regards lawrence’s symbolism as a parable to present his understanding of human spiritual history. however, difficulty with murry, as he later admits, is that he stresses too much on his own memories and impression of man as he saw him in his lifetime instead of lawrence`s art as presented in his novels. nonetheless, murry’s treatment of some of the poems by lawrence and lawrence’s novel women in love could be of interest to this study. sagar, like leavis, thinks that lawrence was writing in the imaginative tradition of blake and whitman. for sagar (2008), lawrence evokes mythical symbols to preserve the meanings of those myths as an artist. however, the most significant criticism of lawrence’s work comes with the emergence of new criticism during the 50s and 60s. most important criticism comes from two very influential literary critics of english literature: t. s. eliot and f. r. leavis. eliot’s criticism which most of the critics in leavisian traditions consider as actually unfounded and erroneous but to me eliot was much more aware of lawrence’s intentions and beliefs than others. because eliot’s point of view represents the traditional and orthodox thought or framework, which every conventional religion intends to enforce. eliot’s attack on lawrence represents eliot`s religious morality and he regards lawrence`s views to be considered as heretical. the fact, that, eliot’s traditionalist school of thought within the ‘new criticism’ was not comfortable with lawrence and particularly with lawrence’s views of individualistic thinking and intuitional freedom, suggests that lawrence was crossing the boundaries of strictly law-abiding milieu of orthodox religion and morality. but the important thing is not that lawrence was not writing within the conventional norms of religious sensibilities; because in this case we can see there were others who could be accused of heretic attitude towards orthodox morality. even eliot himself was the biggest critic of his age and some of the conventions and longed for medieval grandeur. and there were secular writers of repute without any religious obligations as well. hence, for me what distinguishes lawrence’s art from the bulk of the modernist artistic creations of the first quarter of twentieth century, such as joyce, pound, and woolf, is his spiritual insight. it seems to me, what annoyed the religious moralists like eliot the most was not his non-religious or heretic attitude but his deeply religious sensibility on a different level, which was some sort of spiritual comparative analysis in symbols: d. h. lawrence’s women in love and rumi’s mystical poetry 65 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 awakening or mystical awareness. eliot in his anti-lawrence polemic makes it quite clear that it is lawrence’s religion, instead of non-religion, that disturbs him most. spilka quotes eliot as saying: “the point is that lawrence started life wholly free from any restriction of tradition or institution, that he had no guidance except the inner light, the most untrustworthy and deceitful guide that ever offered itself to wandering humanity” (1955, p. 44). f. r. leavis, whose powerful voice in support of lawrence and his art renewed a new interest in his work and it is evident that leavis’s critical studies became instrumental in reading lawrence with new perspectives by the later critic, in his critique on eliot’s attack on lawrence, leavis regards eliot’s attitude as ‘anglo-catholistic’. leavis says, “eliot’s attitude to life is, not less than flaubert’s, one of distaste and disgust” (1967, p. 68). leavis considers lawrence’s art in the tradition of blake and whitman and calls them ‘two ancestors’ of lawrence. it is significant to note that both these alleged ‘ancestors’ of lawrence were famous for their deeply spiritual and imaginative poetry. whitman’s transcendental love is what sufis call ‘ishq elahi’ (intense love of god), which enables the ‘ishiq’ or ‘lover’ to transcendent self or ‘ego’ into universal love or ‘cosmological truth’, which for them is god. once the lover reaches on the level calls ‘miraj e ishq’ or ‘transcendent love’, god or the truth reveals itself and this is the level of ultimate consciousness of self which merges with god or truth, and everything becomes ‘haq’ (truth). for leavis what brings lawrence’s art closer to whitman’s poetry is whitman’s “ache of ‘amorous love’ and his enthusiasm for merging” (1967, p. 196). there is nothing closer to sufis philosophy of ‘ishq’ than this. leavis regards lawrence as a genius and the greatest novelist of his time. leavis considers the very rare positive early criticism of lawrence’s lifetime and of the period immediate after his death, the critics such as forster and huxley, to initiate his revival of lawrence’s studies. his is the most eloquent and strongest voice in support of lawrence’s art, although he does not give much thought to lawrence’s ideas of self-consciousness and spiritual fulfilment. however, he recognizes certain mystical traces in lawrence’s use of language, as he says about the poetic language lawrence writes his fictions, “words here are used in the way, not of eloquence but of creative poetry. the kind of intense apprehension of the unity of life. it goes with his ability to talk about-to evoke‘blood-intimacy’ and ‘blood-togetherness” (leavis, 1967, p. 342). it seems impossible for most of the critics to ignore the deep spiritual insight in lawrence, but everyone has exerted his own meaning and explanation in this regard. another important critic of lawrence, graham hough thinks that lawrence’s asking for impartial love corresponds to his rejection of ‘christian-love’ (1963, p. 56). hough, however, rightly observes that, lawrence’s prophet in his short story the man who died, “dreads the love of which he had once been a preacher, the love that compels” (1963, p. 87). accordingly, for hough, lawrence believes in an impartial love relation, a kind of ‘the whitmanesque universal brotherhood’. but hough rejects it on the pretext that it is impossible and against christian concept of love and relationship. hough further criticizes lawrence for his evocation of what he calls ‘dark gods’ and which for hough produce fascist ideas and such dark forces are against democratic ideals. he thinks lawrence’s vulnerability and rootedness from his own society and community make him less likely to ‘know the political reality’. hough commends lawrence for his sincere efforts; but at the same time accuses him of ‘ignorance’ and ‘misguided’ effort to understand the nature of christian love and comparative analysis in symbols: d. h. lawrence’s women in love and rumi’s mystical poetry 66 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 resurrection of true faith. these are same accusations, the jurists, theologians, and orthodox moralist of every age found their sufi poets and dervishes guilty of. 3. symbols in woman in love and some parallel with rumi there are three kinds of symbols. first, there are symbols running throughout the novel like ‘love’, which is the most powerful symbol in the book. ‘love’, human ‘physicality’ and ‘naked nature’ or the natural world are such forces which mystify, transport, and transform the characters and their inner selves. through their relationships and associations, the characters come to know each other and become aware of the reality of their intentions. birkin’s transformation comes through his association with and love for ursula. it is through his love for ursula that he becomes aware of the truth of his inner desires. after meeting her he tells gerald he believes in the ‘finality of love’ and he also detests hermione’s pretensions and her ‘sensuousness’ that he calls ‘pornographic’ and lustful. he wants a different ‘sensuality’, which he has never been able to express. he avoids hermione but once he finds her side by side with ursula in the classroom scene the presence of ursula transports him and mystifies him to such an extent that he can now see the difference between hermione’s idea of bodily pleasure and ‘sensuousness’ and his own need for sensual fulfilment. hers is mechanical, destructive, and untrue while his is mystical, fulfilling and comes through ‘dark blood knowledge’. he says of his idea of physicality and sensual love, that it is a “dark involuntary being. it is death to one self-, but it is the coming into being of another” (lawrence, 2008, p. 132). rumi puts it another way, the idea of false self and true self, “the words, ‘i am the truth’ were light in mansur’s (hallaj) mouth, / in the mouth of pharaoh ‘i am lord supreme’ was blasphemy. / the staff in the hand of moses was a witness, / in the hands of the magicians it was naught” (rumi, 1979, p. 365). the difference between hermione’s physicality and natural being and birkin’s sensual fulfilment and physicality is the same as hallaj’s and pharoah’s claims of ‘godship’. then there are direct references to biblical, greek, and ancient mythical sources. such symbolic references only explain and extend the plot of the story in general. for instance, gerald’s physical strength, pleasure, self-confident beauty, and his attitude of extracting happiness from possession remind ursula of the greek god of wine dionysus. lawrence clearly does not approve of dionysus’ way of ecstatic pleasure as birkin says he does not like ‘dionysus ecstasy’. while talking to gerald about the ‘love of a woman’ and ‘finality of love’ gerald’s views bring birkin into a state of mind which reminds him of the biblical story of ‘sodom’ and wishes another destruction of humans like the ‘sodom’ story, which he thinks will save the natural world from the destruction of human will. again, when birkin meets ursula after his illness and they talk about the prospects of a happy life, ursula’s immature views of ‘jolly lives’ make him detest ‘humanity’. he concludes that all these ‘healthy bodies of men and women’ are like ‘apple of sodom’ and ‘dead sea fruit’ rosy from outside and ‘dry-rotten’ and ‘corrupt ash’ inside. in another instance, when gerald comes to gudrun in the night after the devastating effects of his father’s death, where to gudrun he looks like son of zeus the greek god because as the narrator tells us he has come to prove himself, he has come to prove his will and for ‘vindication’. gudrun let him conquer her and satisfy his ego, which is the destructive part of their story. their story reminds birkin of ‘sea-born aphrodite’ or venus the greek goddess of love, which he calls comparative analysis in symbols: d. h. lawrence’s women in love and rumi’s mystical poetry 67 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 ‘the dark river of dissolution’ (lawrence, 2008, p. 234). on the other hand, birkin is also referred to as the son of god but with a different perspective. when ursula and birkin set out to make love for the first time not in their bed at home but in the natural world of trees and darkness, a very significant reference to a biblical hymn sets the scene: “glory to thee my god this night / for all the blessings of the light” (lawrence, 2008, p. 276). it seems lawrence refers to birkin as a god of love. before their coming together, ursula goes through a mystical transportation into ‘a strange’ world of ‘transcendent reality’. this reminds ursula of the old ‘magical’ world of genesis, and she thinks of birkin as son of god who has chosen a fair daughter of earth to make love with her. nevertheless, she does not see him as christ as the biblical or rather new testaments son of god who wants to save the humanity from original sin (which ursula calls the old adam in men and a trick of men against women’s integrity and dignity). there are many more such images and references to judeo-christian traditions and ancient myths. however, the limited space of this dissertation does not allow us to go after each symbol and allusion here. 3.1. symbolic events there are certain events and narrative descriptions in the novel, which have their symbolic importance too. description of snow and trees and flowery summer has a symbolic significance. the novel is full of mystical and fascinating images of the natural world, which have the quality of transporting the reader into a transcendental world beyond material existence. the use of language is also symbolic in the sense that it is very close to poetry in certain places. the poetic mode of language seems deliberate, and the intention is likely to create a spiritual and metaphysical element in the narration. it is worth noting that, the poetic mode of expression and allegorical language is a permanent feature in sufism. almost all the great sufi masters have expressed their message to the world in poetic, highly imaginative, and allegorical way. in this way, they have successfully popularized their message, even today people read their poetry as fondly as ever. for instant, rumi is considered as one of the greatest lyrical poets of all times and he is one of five top selling poets in the united state during 2009 and he is the most popular poet in new york. the poetry of the sufis is full of images like ‘wine’ and ‘wine server female figure’ called ‘saqi’. the sensuous images of wine (mehy), pub (meh khana) and the beloved or wine server (saqi) float on the surface of the sufi couplets refreshing the reader’s senses and as a result awakening one to feelings his own self. wine in sufism indicates to the intoxicating effect of love, rumi says, “’tis the ferment of love that possesses the wine.’ (whinfield, 1898, p. 2) other symbols like flame or light (hararat) signify life force and inner self i. e. the truth of life in the sufi literature. hafez brings together the images of ‘light’ and ‘wine’ quite with extraordinary poetic success, “the sages gain their deepest love by wine’s resplendent light, / the inward gem of everyone this ruby brings to light.” (stepaniants, 1989, p. 38) 3.2. symbolism in characterization the characters in the novel have their symbolic implications. the characters of gerald and hermione symbolize egoistic individualism and the possessive nature of ‘will power’. these also indicate the false image of ‘sensuousness’ and body pleasure. however, the characters of gudrun and pussum symbolize a corrupted concept of love. ursula and birkin on the other hand, struggle with their passions of feelings successfully and represent the ‘true union’ of love and the spiritual association in a true human relationship. there are clear implications that lawrence brings forth comparative analysis in symbols: d. h. lawrence’s women in love and rumi’s mystical poetry 68 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 the character of gerald crich to show the failure of imagination. gerald awakens with a different consciousness than birkin, he becomes aware of his power to rule and subjugate. when he takes over the mining business of his father, we are told what he thinks of this responsibility, “now, suddenly, with a sort of exultation, he laid hold of the world.” (2008, p. 229) he for the first time becomes aware of his name (c. b. & co.) on the wagons, which gives him a “vision of power”. he starts thinking like a powerhouse rather in mechanical terms who controls everything and can mold things by the sheer power of his will. the narrator records his thought process in these words, “the will of man was the determining factor. man was the arch-god of earth.” (2008, p. 231) he is successful in bits, but he fails, even the impression his personality leaves on others shows the contradiction and failure of his character. gudrun, who admires him cannot help noticing his ‘sinister’ attitude. early in the novel during the wedding scene gudrun thinks of gerald as, “his gleaming beauty, maleness, like a young, good-humored, smiling wolf, did not blind her to the significant, sinister stillness in his bearing, the lurking danger of his unsubdued temper.” (2008, p. 13) and more significantly she thinks of him as a representative of a certain world with the ambitions of a beast not human when she says of him as “his totem is the wolf”. however, the ultimate failure of his designs symbolizes the fate of modern man, the narrator informs of his destructive design as final pronouncement in the ‘industrial magnate’ chapter, it is concluded that, “what he wanted was the pure fulfilment of his own will in the struggle with the natural conditions.” (2008: p. 231) it is a kind of a prediction in early in the novel, which turns out to be true at the end. birkin, on the other hand, is after the fulfilment of his own ‘self’ rather than his ‘will’ as is the case with gerald. birkin symbolizes the positive forces of ‘self’ and the richness of human soul. he strives to gain spiritual strength through human relationships. his awakening to his spiritual strength is different from gerald’s awareness of the power of his will. in ‘excurse’ chapter, birkin’s spirits become conscious of a new reality after resolving his all differences with ursula, “as if he had just come awake, like a thing that is born, like a bird when it comes out of an egg, into a new universe.” (2008, p. 323) hermione and gerald, on the other hand, lack such robust self as the narrator informs us of hermione’s ultimate weakness, “she did not know herself what it was. it was a lack of robust self…a deficiency of being within her.” (2008, p. 15) this deficiency within self-defines the fates of all the other characters in the novel except for birkin and ursula who strive hard to accomplish a sort of richness of spirits in their soul. 3.3. extended symbolism of ecstasy and its different manifestations gordon (1969) describes the form of women in love as a tension between ‘poetic interest in states’ and ‘novelistic interest in characters.’ gordon might not have called it a tension in form if he had seen lawrence’s pronouncement that he is not going to create the ‘egoistic’ and ‘static’ characters of a realist novel in women in love. however, gordon is right in his observation that “like blake, lawrence was interested not in ‘individuals’ but in ‘states’” (1969, p. 51). the ecstatic state of mind is one such concept lawrence deals with in women in love. lawrence differentiates the sacred power of transcendent euphoria from mental frenzy and excitement. rumi says, “worldly senses are the ladder of earth, / spiritual senses are the ladder of heaven.” (whinfield, 1898, p. 8) lawrence wants the ‘spiritual senses’ to prevail on one’s consciousness. however, before we investigate his description of spiritual senses, let us see how he brings forward different ‘states’ of ecstasy. for instance, hermione’s act of violence against birkin at her home in breadalby takes place in an ecstatic condition of anger. her egoistic self goes mad when birkin comparative analysis in symbols: d. h. lawrence’s women in love and rumi’s mystical poetry 69 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 argues and defeats her hypocritical statement that ‘all men are equal in spirit’. lawrence describes her condition, “it was dynamic hatred and loathing, coming strong and black out of the unconsciousness. she heard his words in her unconscious self, consciously she was as if deafened, she paid no heed to them.” and, then she thrills to her strength and is quite delighted, “what delight in strength, what delirium of pleasure! she was going to have her consummation of voluptuous ecstasy at last!” (2008, p. 107-8) she acts violently to fulfil her ecstatic condition. birkin reacts to this frantic act of violation with confusion and agitation, but he instinctively goes into nature. he finds nature responsive, and he walks naked into the vegetation, which makes him free and happy. he feels a sort of communion with nature, which is an initial form of awakening of spirits. after his initial awakening to the fact of his spiritual desires, in the presence of ursula, during nature and in his hostile relationship with hermione early in the story, birkin, in the middle of story, gets further into his divine initiation. birkin and ursula are separated from each other when birkin goes to the south of france for some time. both go through a spiritual transformation isolated from each other and the climax of this transformation culminates into a total loss of egoistic self while both observe the ‘split moon’ in the pond in an isolated manner from each other (the further significance of the moon scene will be discussed later in the dissertation). they meet after this mystical revolution of the inner self, though they resume their previous argument about their relationship but with different understandings and consequences. furthermore, lawrence knows before they can achieve their goal of ecstatic love and happiness another western misconception of ecstatic spontaneity must be refuted, and the spirits of birkin and ursula washed clean from all the rust of western thoughts of love, relations, and happiness. birkin wants their spirits to be free so that their souls can reflect the ultimate truth of delight and rapture. when birkin tries to convey this to ursula, she understands it in her own western perspective of greek mythical terms of ‘serving female’ and she rebukes birkin for his godly manner of wanting her to ‘serve’ his delighted spirits. it is the ancient greek concept of dionysic pleasure and the conventional religious paradise of ‘serving virgins’ in her mind which so exasperates her often. birkin, understanding her apprehensions regarding such a conception of love and submission, reassures her, “i don’t mean let yourself go in the dionysic ecstatic way,” he goes as far as rejection of all kinds of conventional happiness, he says, “but i hate ecstasy, dionysic or any other. it’s like going round in a squirrel cage” (2008, p. 260). he insists on an independent and liberated happiness, he wants the delight of liberated souls. he tells her, “i want you not to care about yourself, just to be there and not to care about yourself, not insist-be glad and sure and indifferent” (2008, p. 260). if we compare this kind of ecstatic condition with sufi tradition, we will find it very close to what sufi poet rumi said during the thirteenth century that, “for what is this divine voice but the inward voice? / the spirit’s eye and ear possess this sense, / the eye and ear of reason and sense lack it. / the word ‘compulsion’ makes me impatient for love’s sake; / ‘tis he who loves not who is fettered by compulsion. / this is close communion with god, not compulsion, / the shining of the sun, and not a dark cloud” (whinfield, 1898, p. 26). hafez, another great sufi master of the age, calls for his sweetheart to come with him in these words, “take wine, be joyful and come!” (clarke, 1998, p. 754) to continue with ursula and birkin’s story of spiritual communion in love, when birkin is left alone after ursula has gone, he feels ‘wistful’ and ‘yearning’. he becomes more and more aware of his soul’s desires for her, “he knew he did not want a further sensual experiencesomething deeper, darker, than ordinary life could give.” (2008, p. 262) now he is on another level comparative analysis in symbols: d. h. lawrence’s women in love and rumi’s mystical poetry 70 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 of existence, he has been transported to a spiritual ‘state’ where he becomes aware of his own desires of higher love and union with beloved and he also differentiates between the available conventional ‘knowledge in dissolution’ in his society and his own lofty idea of love. this reminds him of the majestic african female figure in a painting in halliday’s place. earlier in the novel gerald has been fascinated with the physical pain of ‘laboring female’ figure and asks birkin why it is so elegant in pain. birkin simply tells him ‘it is art’. now he is becoming aware of its full significance, he associates himself with the ‘creative posture’ of this female figure to which ‘art’ has granted permanency. he thinks the figure in the painting must belong to an ancient ‘holy’ civilization, which must have a desire for ‘creation’ which reveals that he is becoming aware in his soul. but that civilization was lost long ago because, “since the relation between the senses and the outspoken mind had broken, leaving the experience all in one sort, mystically sensual.” this broken relationship between body and mind resulted in ‘knowledge in dissolution and corruption’, which makes us worship false gods and fake desires. he ponders on western civilization and is frightened by his own strange revelation that this civilization is an extension of those ‘broken relationships’ which ended to the ‘holy’ african civilization ‘thousands of years ago’. he concludes that the only way of ‘freedom’ from this destruction is to make a ‘gentle communion’. he thinks that “there was the paradisal entry into pure, single being, the individual soul taking precedence over love and desire for union, stronger than any pangs of emotion, a lovely state of free-proud singleness”. (2008: p. 265) this sudden revelation of his subjective truth forces him to propose ursula at once. intoxication in lawrence as in sufism is the state of mind before perfect ‘union’. intoxication has its symbolic significance in sufi doctrine; it is one mode of being which helps the enchanted lover (sufi) on his way to the union with beloved. sufis used to perform sama a kind of dance to achieve a particular state of mind which prepares them for their final journey to find out the ‘ultimate truth’. rumi describes this state of mind in these words, “frenzied lovers worship wine/ and dance to the music/ of a water wheel. / they turn like a wheel/ and shed tears like water. / don’t fault a drunken dervish; / he thrusts his hands and feet, / because he is drowning.” (moyne, 2009, p. 56) in the chapter ‘excurse’ ursula and birkin go on a drive in birkin’s car, though ursula consents to accompany him but she is ‘closed and responding’. however, soon after they come closer after a bitter argument about birkin relationship with hermione. birkin is aware of ursula’s lack of response to his spiritual needs, because he thinks “ursula was still at the emotional personal level.” he wants ursula to go ‘beyond herself as to accept him at the quick of death’ (2008, p. 316). in the evening and after a lot of emotional outbursts ursula realizes the power of spiritual love in birkin. she becomes aware of the different nature of this experience with birkin, “this was neither love nor passion. it was the daughters of men coming back to the sons of god.” (2008, p. 325) ursula becomes intoxicated and unconscious of any reason after she finds her, in lawrence’s words, ‘perfect equilibrium like stars’ with birkin; she is no longer able to think in material terms of the world. she does not want to answer birkin as the reader is informed that, “she did not want to be disturbed into taking thought.” she is just remotely aware of the world around herself, “even as he went into the light, public place, he remained dark and magic” to her. (2008, pp. 330-1) she is no longer conscious of material existence as such, but she is mystically aware of birkin’s presence. this presence is not ordinary material existence rather an artistic and more real presence like ‘the great carven statues of real egypt’. she feels herself ‘liberated’ into ‘perfection’ and the narrator inform us that it is her comparative analysis in symbols: d. h. lawrence’s women in love and rumi’s mystical poetry 71 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 ‘sustaining anticipation’ which has such an intoxicating effect on her. this is a higher level of awareness than the material sense of things. symbolism of union: annihilation of self and ultimate union kalnins argues in her analysis of lawrence’s apocalyptic concepts that for lawrence, “revelation was a symbolic account of how to attain inner harmony as well as a sense of living connection with the greater universe” (1995, p. 12). search for a greater ‘truth’ beyond the material world has always been a passion for all the philosophers of ‘being’ (existential questions). lawrence hints to his mode of enquiry for attaining the ‘ultimate’ knowledge of the cosmos in his fantasia of unconscious that from early greek philosophers to plato and from st. john to frazer he has just taken clues and through these clues, he mainly goes forward by his ‘intuition’ only. it is like sufis ‘initiation’; they take their initial step with the help from existing religious knowledge and then go through different stages of the exploration of their ‘inner self’ in an intoxicated state of unconsciousness and awake into a reality of themselves which has been hidden from them all their lives. this privileged state of revelation is called the ‘ultimate union’ where ‘i’ loses its meaning and there will be no more personal pronouns like ‘i’ and ‘you’. likewise, birkin in women in love wants to meet ursula at this level of being where their present selves become strangers to them and he wants a bond in such a state of existence, which for him means a lasting relation. in one place birkin says, “i only want us to know what we are.” rumi asks this question hundreds of years ago when the islamic theologians have already solved the question of ‘creation’ and ‘existence’ for themselves; but they obviously could not induce rumi into their world of pseudo rationalism. rumi says, “neither this body am i, nor soul, / nor these fleeting images passing by, / nor concepts and thoughts, mental images / nor yet sentiments and the psych’s / labyrinth. / who then am i? a consciousness / without origin, / not born in time, nor begotten here below, / i am that which was, is and ever / shall be, / a jewel in the crown of the / divine self, / a star in the firmament of the / luminous one” (nasr, 2007, p. 11). sufis believe in a dual existence, and they believe that after the death of this phenomenon self the real ‘self’ will be exposed to a reality, which cannot be described, like birkin’s ‘dark’ and ‘invisible’ knowledge or state of knowing in women in love. stepaniants, in his research on the philosophical aspects of sufism, notes, “the death of the phenomenal self opens the way to the essential knowledge in which there is no distinction of subject and object and the truth of the unity of being is attained” (1989, p. 46). this truth based ‘happiness’ and love are an obsession for birkin which exasperates ursula at first, because she thinks that she does not want for its ‘truthfulness’ and to know the reality of anything but she wants love for its own sake. however, birkin seems to have other plans and other things to accomplish from his ‘love’ relationship with ursula and they struggle on throughout the novel. moreover, the reader finds in many places the concept, rather literary, the word ‘annihilation’ in women in love. for instance, in the moony chapter ursula feels empty and ‘nothingness’ inside becomes restless and goes to forest to find some solace and comfort in the company of animals and trees in the forest because she thinks she cannot make herself happy in the company of human beings for “she had a profound grudge against the human being” (2008, p. 252). in the forest, she finds birkin talking with himself and throwing stones in the pond to obliterate the reflection of the moon in the pond. the moon has a dual existence, one is in the sky, which is beyond obliteration, and another is the reflection in the pond, which is vulnerable to comparative analysis in symbols: d. h. lawrence’s women in love and rumi’s mystical poetry 72 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 birkin’s stones. birkin’s stone obliterates it for a while, disperses its light and breaks its unity and existence, but soon afterward the ‘heart’ and ‘light’ in it, which has its source in the real moon of sky, come together, “he saw the moon regathering itself insidiously, saw the heart of the rose intertwining vigorously and blindly, calling back the scattered fragments, winning home the fragments in a pulse and in effort of return.” (2008, p. 256-7) ursula who a little while earlier was cursing the moon for its brightness, which was disturbing her, now becomes anxious and interrupts birkin from stoning the moon. this makes her hopeful and gives her the strength to resume her previous arguments about love with birkin. birkin on the other hand is fascinated by the power of light in the moon, becomes conscious of what he wants from ursula, “there is a golden light in you, which i wish you could give me.” (2008, p. 259) birkin wants ursula’s ‘golden light’ which has the power to unify with reality, which has unified the ‘reflected moon’ in the pond with ‘the moon’ in the sky. in rumi’s word, “into my heart’s night, along a narrow way / i groped and lo! the light, an infinite land of day.” (stepaniants 1989, p. 44) in another instance, lawrence describes a love scene between gudrun and gerald in these words, “she passed away, everything in her was melted down and fluid…sleeping in him as lightning sleeps in a pure, soft stone. so, she was passed away and gone in him, and he was perfected.” (2008, p. 345) it seems she is no more and there is only ‘he’ is remaining. she annihilates into her object of love and remains unified with him. in rumi’s allegorical language one sees an explicit example, “one went to the door of the beloved and / knocked. a voice asked, ‘who is there’ / he answered, ‘it is i’. / the voice said, ‘there is no room for me and thee’; / after a year of solitude and deprivation he returned and knocked. / a voice from within asked, ‘who is there’ / the man said, ‘it is thee’ / the door was opened for him” (whinfield, 1898, pp. 47-48). the reader is constantly reminded of a mysterious mode of thought in the novel and one is aware of the diminishing personalities of the characters and the inner transformations taking place during event. birkin and ursula both want their relationship to develop but at the same time they resist each other until their ‘inner selves’ transform to a certain level where like rumi’s ‘voice in the room’ they are allowed to enter a union of their soul. 4. conclusion lawrence’s use of symbolism clearly points towards his mystical vision. as we witnessed in the analysis of his novel woman in love, he contradicts the psychic interpretation of love relationship. instead, in his symbolic use of language, he demonstrates a religious sensibility in his delineation of the theme of love and in his characterization. he takes very simple and plan events of love making and the characters’ interaction with nature and build a symbolic world of spiritual and mystical meaning. as we have witnessed in his portrayal of love relationship between two different couples, each couple seeks greater symbolic meaning in their pursuit of love. birkin and ursula seek a metaphysical union between them; they struggle to connect their bodily relationship with their non-material and spiritual existence. similarly, gudrun and gerald want to overcome their material and physically reality, however, in a much destructive way than the other couple. rumi’s voice and his great symbolic poetry helped us to understand the spiritual connotation of lawrence’s indication to an inner meaning of his metaphorical language in his woman in love. as we observed in above analysis of woman in love that the question why birkin needs an accomplished woman like ursula to attain his mysterious knowledge and truth of his own self is very interesting. however, as we observed it is always the case with mystical lovers comparative analysis in symbols: d. h. lawrence’s women in love and rumi’s mystical poetry 73 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 of truth throughout the history. this obsession of birkin with ursula and even gerald brings him closer to sufi poets’ search for ‘the truth’. most sufi poets have composed their ‘dewans` or the poetic discourses apparently in ‘love’ and devotion for either some male or female friend or in some cases in remembrance of some unknown woman. in the extreme case of hafez, it is sometimes handsome boys whose features moved him to write his everlastingly beautiful ghazals (couplets) which are full of images like ‘wine’ and ‘sensual’ beauty. he very famously once wrote about a certain handsome boy who worked in a chemist shop in the bazaar of sheraz in present day iran that, it is a paradox that it is the chemist boy who has brought this sickness in heart and him (hafez) is still forced to go to him for medicine. rumi wrote a whole book of his love poems in the remembrance of his darvesh friend shams tabrizi whom he said his soul mate. stepeniants observes in this regard, “sufis expressed their desire and adoration for the transcendental, that is for god, in the easily comprehensible form of man’s carnal love for woman” (1989. p. 286). hundreds of legendry sufi poets and saints in the sub-continent are still celebrated for their teachings of peace and love; their poetry mostly consists of love poems either directly addressed or in remembrance of their sweethearts. acknowledgements trevor norris of london metropolitan university, london has been a great source of encouragement during the research and write up of this paper. he has read and corrected part of the draft before finalization. comparative analysis in symbols: d. h. lawrence’s women in love and rumi’s mystical poetry 74 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 references arberry, a. j. 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(1937). studies in classic american literature. london: heinemann. comparative analysis in symbols: d. h. lawrence’s women in love and rumi’s mystical poetry 75 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue ii | jully – dec | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 lawrence, d. h. (1962). symbolic meaning: the uncollected versions of “studies in classic american literature.” london: centaur press. lawrence, d. h. (1962). the collected letters of d. h. lawrence. edited with an introduction by harry t. moore. london: heinemann. lawrence, d. h. (1962). the symbolic meaning. the uncollected versions of “studies in classic american literature”. edited by armin arnold, etc. pp. xi. 264. centaur press: fontwell. lawrence, d. h (1985). study of thomas hardy and other essays; ed. by steele, bruce. cambridge: cambridge university press. lawrence, d. h. (1962). twilight in italy. s. l., viking. lawrence, d. h. (2008). women in love. oxford: oxford university press. leavis, f. r. (1967). d h lawrence novelist. london: chatto & windus. meyers, j. ed. (1985). d. h. lawrence and tradition. london: ath lone press. moynahan, j. l. (1956). symbolism and meaning in the fiction of d h lawrence. s. l., harvard university. moyne, j. & (maulana). j. al-d. r. (2009) rumi and the sufi tradition. mazda publishers. murry, j. m. (1954). d h lawrence: son of woman. london: jonathan cape. muḥammad, k. & oriental, t. f. (1906). lawā’iḥ, a treatise on ṣūfism... facsimile of an old ms. with a translation by e. h. whinfield, m. a., and mīrzā muḥammad ḳazvīnī, and preface on the influence of greek philosophy on ṣūfism. london. nasr, s. h. (2007). the garden of truth: the vision and practice of sufism, islam’s mystical tradition. new york: harperone. ryu, d.-s. (2005). d. h. lawrence’s the rainbow and women in love: a critical study. new york: peter lang. sagar, k. 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(1979). masnavi i ma’navi: teachings of rumi: the spiritual couplets of maulańa jalálu-’d-dín muhammad i rúmí. london: octagon. wallace, j. (2005). d. h. lawrence, science and the posthuman. palgrave macmillan. zangenehpour, f. (2000). sufism and the quest for spiritual fulfillment in d. h. lawrence’s the rainbow. göteborg: acta universitatis gothoburgensis. @ 2023 by the author. licensee university of chitral, journal of linguistics & literature, pakistan. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). transcending genealogical boundaries in vicious: a postcolonial reading 376 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii transcending genealogical boundaries in vicious: a postcolonial reading ayesha areej bushra naz mphil scholar, department of english literature, iub assistant professor, department of english literature, iub abstract essentially relentless and hegemonic in nature and extent, settler colonialism regulates its continuity through the occupation, and exploitation of lands and possessions. settler colonialism operates in terms of interlocking structures of oppression built-in race, wealth, etc., in tandem with a process of decolonization to operate to transcend this erasure by means of resistance in greater force. this conflict unsettles the native’s genealogical relationship with history and culture and problematizes the issues of provenance. fanon, in the wretched of the earth, presents the imperial world as compartmentalized while wolfe's settler colonialism and elimination of the native blurs the division of good and evil i.e. colonizer and the colonized, of this manichaean world by expounding how violence is a weapon of the colonizer, which according to fanon, is later stolen by the colonized and the clash between them though leads to decolonization yet turns them into an obsession for each other that schwab’s vicious complicates. i argue that the characters of v.e. schwab’s vicious represent the compartments of the colonial world; eli and victor represent the colonizer while serena and sydney represent the colonized and their aggressive confrontation leads the novel’s narrative towards decolonization yet renders them as fanonian ghosts, in tandem questioning the credibility of the perceived good of the colonizer and enforced evil of the colonized. keywords: fanon, wolfe, decolonization, genocide, assimilation, settler colonialism introduction essentially relentless and hegemonic in nature and extent, settler colonialism regulates its continuity through occupation, exploitation of lands and possessions. settler colonialism operates in terms of interlocking structures of oppression built in race, wealth etc., in tandem a process of decolonization too operates to transcend this erasure by means of resistance in greater force. this conflict unsettles the native’s genealogical relationship with history and culture and problematizes the issues of provenance. fanon, in the wretched of the earth, presents the imperial world as compartmentalised while wolfe's essay settler colonialism and elimination of the native, blurs the division of good and evil i.e. coloniser and the colonised, of this manichaean world by expounding how violence is a weapon of the coloniser, which according to fanon, is later stolen by the colonised and the clash between them though leads to decolonisation yet turns them into obsession for each other. wolfe argues that the elimination of indigenous natives was a structure rather than an event; it was carried out step by step, altering its nature as the need arose. he explains how indigeneity was eliminated through execution i.e. direct killing, removal i.e. displacement of the indigenous natives and assimilation i.e. merging them into the empire. fanon’s theory of violence and decolonisation complements wolfe’s s logic of elimination and focuses on the transcending genealogical boundaries in vicious: a postcolonial reading 377 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii experience of the colonizer and colonised to see how both go through this crisis of provenance and origin. i argue that the characters of v.e. schwab’s vicious represent the compartments of the colonial world; eli and victor represent the coloniser while serena and sydney represent the colonised and their aggressive confrontation leads the novel’s narrative towards decolonisation yet renders them as fanonian ghosts, in tandem questioning the credibility of the perceived good of the coloniser and enforced evil of the colonised. keeping in mind the speculative features of the novel, it is possible to develop an imperialistic narrative revolving around racism and othering based on the actions and motives of the characters involved. literature review ajayi (2018), carries out a hermeneutic study of literature to expound on the usage of the monster metaphor as a violent offender in various literary works, including vicious, and points to its implications in psychotherapy and forensic science. he asserts that "because a ‘good’ person is unaware of the monster within him does not mean the monster does not exist" (ajayi, 2018). he enforces that every human has a monster within and merely uses the violent offender as a tool for projection and in the process dehumanises him. the violent offender is thus “no longer seen to be human because he has perpetrated what another considers outside the realm of humanness” (ajayi, 2018). this suggests “that the metaphor monster allows for the violent offender’s human dignity to be stripped off him” (ajayi, 2018). this, ajayi entails, has implications in the realm of psychotherapy as psychotherapists may also be subject to this impaired dichotomy of human and monster. he suggests that a better understanding of the metaphor monster may "challenge(s) ‘black and white’ thinking" (ajayi, 2018) which unfairly suggests that “to be human is thus equated to being ‘good’” (ajayi, 2018) and aid both the psychotherapists and the violent offender in separating the evil part from the human and understanding that the monster is “universal, and an inherent aspect of our humanness” (ajayi, 2018) ultimately brings the violent and the victim at a point of distinct identity to justify the conflict. the scope of this study is limited to a social scenario and the concepts of morality, bending away from a politic perspective, which i elaborate in this article with reference to vicious. on the contrary, considering vicious as a fantasy literature, maroua (2018), conducts a psychoanalytical reading of vicious which states that the novel has no presence of good in either eli or victor rather theirs is a battle of “evil versus evil” (maroua, 2018) in freudian perspective of the formation of desire due to a sense of lack and loss. victor's lack of a 'loved object' in the form of his parents' neglect leads to his jealousy towards eli. while eli's loss of his girlfriend and best friend creates a void in him that he desperately seeks to fill and the supposed responsibility given to him by god himself fits this emptied mould of his perfectly. she maintains that the battle between good and evil is “a fight with no victorious” (maroua, 2018) thereby problematizing this manichean division. following this, maroua (2018) argues that "it does not matter what are your beliefs, thoughts and ideologies, because at the end of the day, each and every one of us is harbouring a monster, a sleeping devil waiting to be awakened". although this study mentions that in vicious “superpowers lead to the destruction of the generated good in each and every character in the novel” (maroua, 2018) and that a tendency towards violence is backed by "set of beliefs and desires which are normally presented as; taking control over a kingdom, a land, or even earth as transcending genealogical boundaries in vicious: a postcolonial reading 378 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii whole" as maroua (2018) points to the possibility of a political lens, it bends its focus towards individual psychologies of the two main characters instead of observing it as a consequence of a structural, and historical phenomenon of political and power hegemony. however, i suggest that this concept can be exploited in a political context by showcasing how the characters of vicious divided into the coloniser and the colonised, end up losing sense of their origin and identity as their genealogy fades with their obsessive hatred towards once another decreasing the credibility of a manichean division in an imperial context. methodology wolfe referring to the events that followed in the wake of the colonial settler's arrival on native land defines settler colonialism as “an inclusive, land-centred project that coordinates a comprehensive range of agencies, from the metropolitan centre to the frontier encampment, with a view to eliminating indigenous societies” (2006). what commonly was popularised as an historical event is presented as a rational systematic structure aimed to achieve an imperially constructive end i.e. elimination of the native's right to land. according to wolfe (2006) "settler colonialism is inherently eliminatory" which means keeping the native alive did more harm than good to the settlers as the natives had developed cultural ties to their land, making it a communal property rather than an individual one. for them "where they are is who they are" (wolfe, 2006). this element opposed the desire of the settlers to utilize the native land as private property. wolfe (2006) describes this contest for land as "contest(s) for life". in contrast, wolfe (2006) describes the systematic growth of the african population for cheap labour used as a technique of assimilation as a better alternative to elimination through mass killings as "it does not involve such a disruptive affront to the rule of law that is ideologically central to the cohesion of settler colony". wolfe describes this elimination as "an organizing principle" rather than "a one-off event" which makes it a continual process. wolfe (2006) describes the settler coloniser’s gradual takeover of the native’s land in steps. initially, this is carried out through frontier killings, or mass murder of the native backed by the excuse of it being a work of the outlaws. this points to outright extermination of the natives. the second step is removal, or displacement in regular terms, where the natives were forced to either annex themselves with the empire or leave their lands. the third step i.e. assimilation, acted as a direct consequence of the second step. wolfe (2006) describes assimilation as “one of a range of strategies of elimination that become favoured in particular historical circumstances”. hence, when removal was no longer possible, the borders were dissolved, and the remaining natives were made a part of the empire through coercion, and missions. this structural elimination of the colonised native is complemented by fanon's theory of violence who sees violence as an instrument used by the coloniser to achieve his imperial goals but also to observe how this violence perpetrates resistance between them and the colonised. he presents the colonial world as “divided into compartments” (1968) of the coloniser and the colonised; a dichotomy reflecting manicheanism. keeping this context in mind, in his theory of violence, fanon asserts that violence is the instrument that reduces the native to "bestiary" (1968) and simultaneously awakens the suppressed human who then uses this violence to assert his humanity. this 'seesaw' relationship is at the crux of decolonisation. he describes the coloniser as transcending genealogical boundaries in vicious: a postcolonial reading 379 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii the bringer of violence to the colonised, as can be witnessed in wolfe’s study, but he, fanon argues, becomes complacent and ignores the possibility of his own violence turned against him, as all the colonised native learns from a coloniser is the effective use of violent force to achieve a desired end. fanon explicates this dichotomy in black skin, white masks: there is a fact: white men consider themselves superior to black men. there is another fact: black men want to prove to white men, at all costs, the richness of their thought, the equal value of their intellect (fanon, 1986). furthermore fanon, like wolfe, divides the colonised into categories i.e. the common native and the elite native. fanon's description of a "national bourgeoisie" also holds great significance in this study. fanon defines a national bourgeoisie as an intermediary whose "duty" as aghamelu and ejike describe is "to ensure that colonial administration runs smoothly and effectively" (aghamelu & ejike, 2017). fanon concludes with the increase in violence of the coloniser, the natives’ "struggle for freedom" escalates and eventually both become each other’s preoccupation. obsessed with violence their actions and strategies problematize the question of their identities. discussion eli the eliminator eli cardale, later known as eli ever, in wolfe’s concept, is an exterminator who represents the atrocities of frontier wars and other physical genocides carried out under imperialism (wolfe, 2006). this method of extermination is also listed out as one of the possible ways to ‘civilise’ the american by wilson as “the most effective and at the same time vastly the most economical solution of the problem” (wilson, 1882). “these military tactics” naz explains, “were justified as necessary based on the ‘uncivilized’ nature of the ‘natives’” (naz, 2022). this is what eli’s mindset seems to be about eos. eli’s philosophy, his ideals and his logic is also reminiscent of how a myriad of the elements such as the white man’s burden, narcissism and the superiority complex, eurocentrism, racism and othering “allows the powerful states to revisit their civilization mission under human rights, moral disciplining, and social wellbeing of these poor nations” (naz, 2021) thereby problematizing a eurocentric manichean division. eli is an ambitious and narcissistic individual who is described as "precocious, frighteningly charming, the kind of guy who got away with everything, thanks to his good genes and quick wits" by victor, his best friend at their first encounter, on whom he had started to "grow" (15). yet victor's observations also describe him as "wrong" (16). he could catch "moment(s) when his roommate’s face and his words, his look and his meaning, would not line up” (16). these fleeting instances fascinated victor, much in the same way the native is taken in by the charm of the coloniser at their first contact. to the native, the coloniser is a source of fascination and fear; something that bhabha (1984) calls ambivalence that continues till decolonization occurs and “destabilizes the identity of both” (naz, 2022). during class, when eli is to choose the topic for his thesis, he chooses to explore the existence of eos (extra ordinaries). this "dangerous, and hungry" (24) intention of his to 'discover' the existence of eos which later turns into a genocide of the specie is reminiscent of “..the european sovereigns who laid claim to the territories of non-christian (or, in later secularized versions, uncivilized) inhabitants of the rest of the world: justifications for this claim transcending genealogical boundaries in vicious: a postcolonial reading 380 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii were...the doctrine of discovery” (wolfe, 2006) the significance that land held for the coloniser, in the context of the novel, the existence of eos and the power associated with them did for eli. for him, “eoness” (172) equalled a deterrent for his desire to dominate which stimulates him into carrying out a genocide of the specie. thus, eos “were not killed, driven away, romanticized, assimilated, fenced in, bred white, and otherwise eliminated “as the holders of the powers but as eos (wolfe, 2006). it is shown early on in the novel that eli's plan is heavily dependent on his belief in religion. as when serena asks him, who gave him the right to play “judge and jury and executioner”, eli’s answer is “god” (189-190). in fact, he rationalises his massacre of the eos as a purpose given to him by god himself, to purge the earth of the unnaturalness that eos are characterised with. this is a reflection of what grewcock (2018) calls, ““civilising” native peoples through christianity”. it reminds one piercingly of the white man's burden according to which, the coloniser, the christian, the better human, has a responsibility to help the barbarian, the monster, the eo, be a better, enlightened, and civilised being. althusser (2014) further adds to this point by listing out the “ideological state apparatuses (isas)”, especially education and religion used to disseminate this ideology to the natives. a question may be raised in this context; 'what if the monster is unable to be civilised?' the answer would probably be, 'then rid the world of him' and that is what eli and the coloniser did as to them the native “is alleged unruly, uncontainable, uncivilized, disordered, unachievable and evil” (naz, 2022). yet ajayi (2018) disagrees with this view when he points to the universality of the monster and advocates that it is a part of “humanness”. eli prefers to call his killings "removals" because "it made the targets sound less like humans, which they weren’t really" claiming that it is only a matter of "semantics" (174) ignoring how “renaming is central to the cadastral effacement/replacement” (wolfe, 2006) and how the term changes meaning and purpose of his murderous spree. to the people, the media and himself, eli cardale is a hero. yet one is not to forget that eli himself is an eo, which presents a new perspective on his perceived heroism; if eli has the same attributes as the eos he is seeking to exterminate, does he deserve to live? satre (1968) elaborates on this question by asking the coloniser, “can he not here recognize his own cruelty turned against himself?” what right, then, does he have to judge them? a question which sydney clarke, an eo asks eli, and the colonised, once awakened from their slumber, aware of their humanity as fanon describes it, ask the coloniser. and which the coloniser is, to this day, unable to answer. eli seems to think that the privilege he has over others, his power of healing, is a gift from god because it is “reflexive” (134) i.e. cannot harm others. and that it has something to do with his nature-inherent superiority. aghamelu and ejike (2017) confirm this superiority complex of the coloniser that eli mirrors here as: “narcissism and chauvinism permeate the consciousness of the settlers”. yet victor tries to break eli’s fixation with intrinsic superiority and reminds him time and again, it has nothing to do with "nature", "it's not about god. it's about us. the way we think" (105). this points to the reality of eli’s and the coloniser's claims regarding their superiority; that it is not inherent but made up and that he “does not call the native to god's ways but to the ways of the white man, of the master, of the oppressor” (fanon, 1968). it is due to their imposition of their eurocentric discourse and violent methods that the idea of 'we're built different' is instilled into the minds of the colonised and the coloniser himself. this superiority is based on the “ideas about what we‟ (colonial west) do and what they‟ (orient) cannot do or understand as the european thinker or man does” (naz & ahmad, 2022). it is to be noted that when eli is confronted transcending genealogical boundaries in vicious: a postcolonial reading 381 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii several times by victor about how god did not privilege him, he astutely answers "he did. he would. he had to.” (160). eli’s mental state here is mirrored by that of winston churchill as described by islam that it is “captured by such descriptors as ‘racism’ and ‘religious bias’. what this recognition of ‘false’ cognition captures is the fact that the subjective and intangible feelings and beliefs held by people can affect the objective validity of an action undertaken with the influence of those beliefs.” (islam, 2019) thus, eli too, twists his own tendency towards violence into another gift given to him by god to make him strong enough to carry out his harsh mission. “a grim task" (125) as he calls it that he has to undertake despite how cruel and toll-taking it can be. a review by thequirkybooknerd.wordpress.com advocates this point: eli believes that he is doing right, that he is being heroic and fulfilling god’s will, and it would be impossible for anyone working under that type of extreme delusion to see their own—or potentially someone else’s—immorality (2016). barta (2008) also emphasises this point by stating, “the killing-whether officially sanctioned or not was understood as necessary to the establishment of the new economic and social order”. similarly for eli, his 'cleansing' is approved by god, he “didn’t feel like there was any evil in himself. if anything, he felt hands, strong and steady, guiding him when he pulled the trigger”. in fact, to him, it “felt like faith” (168). eli calls his ‘responsibility’ a “mission” (173). a word that liebersohn (2016) argues “was not just a metaphor for the process of bringing outsiders into a scientific and secular civilization, but referred to an actual ambition to make converts for christianity”, which points to the word having an ulterior motive. eli also uses this word as a mitigating disguise for his genocide of the eos. a reflection of the reasoning of the coloniser can be glimpsed in this particular narrative of eli's. in various colonies, missionaries were sent to educate the native population. as being the privileged race, they had a responsibility to make the less privileged better, to free the native from the “thraldom of the tribe” (wolfe, 2006). they used to call these institutions 'mission'. apart from a religious motive, under the guise of educating the natives, they were exterminated physically and mentally. eli also explicitly dehumanises the eos for “settler colonialism has ( have) typically employed the organizing grammar of race” (wolfe, 2006) which as brown in her review recognises, is his want for dominance and an excuse for his killings (2018). eli’s narrative here exposes that “violence in the colonies does not only have for its aim the keeping of these enslaved men at arm's length; it seeks to dehumanize them” (satre 1968). "eli (he) called eos shadows, shaped like the people who made them but grey inside", "hollow" (150) and "a devil wearing another's (victor’s) skin" (135). he does not see eos as humans. just as the coloniser refuses to see the native as human. this dehumanisation allows him to justify his violent treatment of the eos, as morals only apply to human and the eos lie outside this boundary. similarly, in the tongue of the occident, the orient is a barbarian; a monster that needs taming. the coloniser looks down at the native as he would look down at an animal; sometimes weak, sometimes threatening; a tameable monster. although eli is also an eo, he forces himself to believe that he is "different" (150) and “stronger” (173) while other eos are "wrong" (151).this leads him to create a binary system of self versus other. when serena, a normal eo, puts herself and eli in the same category, eli's reaction is one of annoyance as he rambles "us. us. us. what on earth is (was) happening?”(197) morrison (2017) sees this as the coloniser’s desire to assert his normalcy, the he is not a beast like the native, in is case, like the eo. he doesn't want to be considered one of transcending genealogical boundaries in vicious: a postcolonial reading 382 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii the eos, or an eo to be considered the same as him, as to him “ such a mismatch would be perverse and unnatural” (naz, 2022) which is unreasonable based on the fact that he after all is an eo. this points to his imperfect sense of self “for denial is always a retroactive process; a half acknowledgement of that otherness which has left its traumatic mark” (bhabha, 2003). serena, on the other hand, calls this desire of eli’s a "complex" of wanting to be "in control" as was the case with the coloniser (224). similar to wolfe’s conclusion of an ‘eliminator’, eli’s desire of dominance through physical elimination is rendered futile as he is hindered by the law. in addition to this, his obsession with murdering eos due to which “this imperious being, crazed by his absolute power and by the fear of losing it, no longer remembers clearly that he was once a man; he takes himself for a horsewhip or a gun” (satre, 1968) is cut short when ‘decolonisation ’takes place due to the reaction od sydney and serena to his dehumanisation of them. he loses all the support of the police with serena’s death and is locked up in a jail where he belonged. he too becomes a ghost of fanon, in his aggression for he loses his sense of self and only views himself as a weapon of god. victor the assimilator if one is to put victor vale in an imperial context, one would call him an assimilator. according to wolfe, assimilation is a technique through which the native’s capabilities are exploited, his distinct identity is merged with that of the empire's and his land is taken away, little by little. assimilation was used in opposition to the straight forward killings that eli also carries out. although, theoretically it was advocated by the coloniser to be in the benefit of the colonised, yet wolfe proves how practically it was not. according to him, assimilation in its subtle ways also leads to the elimination of the native (wolfe, 2006). grewcock (2018) adds to wolfe’s point, by calling assimilation a “civilising policy” and stating, “assimilation maintained the colonial practice of separate systems of regulation and control of indigenous peoples”. these ideologies to ‘civilise’ the native, according to althusser (2014) were “beneath the ruling ideology” and indeed they worked in the coloniser’s benefit. what they were actually doing, especially in settler colonies was to turn the native into a ‘dead’ object that they can later use in whatever way they and their people desired. they “came (come) to believe that the domestication of the “inferior races" will come about by the conditioning of their reflexes” (satre, 1968). similarly, victor although seems to be on the eo's side, yet from the very start his intentions have a exploitative tinge. when eli discloses his intentions of exploring the existence of eos, "something small and dangerous takes (was taking) shape in victor as eli spoke. an idea. a way to twist eli’s discovery into his, or at least, into theirs." (38) in fact, it is on his instigation that eli decides to 'cross the line' in the wake of his thesis. a review at publishers weekly describes, “victor isn’t a particularly nice man, but he has enough conscience left to know that eli needs to stopped” (2013) yet, much like eli, a darker side, a "metallic glint", in eli's words, to which he was "drawn", can be glimpsed in him (161). this is complemented by his power to control, not ‘inflict’, pain which can be seen as a reflection of his true nature; controlling in an ultimately damaging way. victor, through his assimilatory tactics, succeeds in making sydney believe that he is on her side, by calling her power a “gift” (135) and by asserting that he wants to protect her and the other eos from eli. yet his thought process exposes the real reason for his appeal to “work together”, which is wanting to retain the "cooperation" of "the loyal guard and the impossible girl" (205-206) to achieve his personal ambitions of killing eli. thus, to him, “...his (my) friend is part of his (my) scheme..” (fanon, 1968). in contrast, to sydney, victor becomes "safe" (273) as she transcending genealogical boundaries in vicious: a postcolonial reading 383 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii tells mitch "i am not afraid of him". but mitch’s warning that " there are no good men in this game" (219), exposes he is merely the better of the two evils or perhaps even worse. as brown recognises in her review that victor's claim to be a protector of eos is a mere "side dish" to his real purpose of enacting revenge and killing eli (2018). although, victor presents himself to the “law” protecting the eos from eli’s “violence”, it is clear that these two characters and their motives are “inexplicably linked” as law needs violence to prove its worth in a society “as regulator(s) of sovereign claim” (miéville, 2006). hence, victor’s blatant opposition to eli, a cold blooded murderer to the eo specie, allows him to stand in good light. eli's "loss becomes (is) his (my) gain" (177). in the same wake, assimilation being in opposition to the blatant genocide of the natives, is viewed as more humane; an attempt at saving the native as wilson calls it “the only course the coloniser’s (our) sense of duty and humanity could...entertain” (wilson, 1882). yet, as wolfe exposes, it actually works in tandem to the physical genocide for their objectives ultimately align in favour of the empire. as both victor’s deceptive “native voluntarism” and eli's “murderous activities” are to exploit eos for personal gain; be it revenge or mental satisfaction (wolfe, 2006). maroua (2018) advocates this connection by terming the conflict of eli and victor as “evil versus evil”, blending the supposed boundary between the two “superheroes without empathy” (dan, 2019). victor's exploitative and manipulative nature is further revealed when we are given a glimpse into his opinion regarding eos, which unexpectedly is similar to that of eli's. contrary to his apparent 'saviour of the eos' image, he calls them "damaged", "weapon" and "things that could be bent and twisted and broken and used" (230). this dehumanisation renders victor in the same category as eli. a review at amyjsnealice.com advocates this view by stating “eli and victor are both morally grey and questionable characters who have committed atrocious acts” (2019). neville (1947) describes this mind-set of victor as a form of imperialism where “no backsliding, changes or let-down behind authority’s back must be permitted...the end in view will justify the means employed”. like eli, he sees eos as the other to his self despite being an eo himself. victor’s power to inflict subtle pain in the people around that "induce(s) a subconscious aversion to his presence." (226) is a complement to his role of elimination as it helps him have subconscious hold over the target of his gaze created by fear and powerlessness which. this is a “sign of a double articulation; a complex strategy of reform, regulation, and discipline, which "appropriates" the other as it visualizes power” (bhabha, 1984). victor’s enticement of dominic to help him through threats like "“i’m giving you a choice,” and “go back inside and wait to die. or go home and wait to die. or stay with me and live.” (251) is reflected in wilson’s view on how the coloniser’s treatment of the native had left him “in a better condition than ever before to receive and profit by the assistance which our sense of duty should teach us to extend to him” (wilson, 1882). in actuality, victor merely exploits dominic’s needs and weakness to bend him into his very own ‘weapon’ as does the coloniser make a tool of the colonised in the guise of bettering his condition. this points to the western narrative of 'protection' according to which the native 'needs' the coloniser to survive. while in actuality, it is a technique to gain power through “political, intellectual and moral control” (naz & ahmad, 2022). this, according to grewcock (2018) “strip(s) them [the natives]of their agency”. in this imperialistic context, the native’s naturally deficient self needs the civiliser's superior logic in order to live and he, too, is left with a similar choice: 'listen to the master, or die’ or in wolfe’s words “have our settler world, but lose your transcending genealogical boundaries in vicious: a postcolonial reading 384 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii indigenous soul” (wolfe, 2006). hence in victor’s narrative “violence may not always be used, but it is always implicit” (miéville, 2006). victor, although seemingly a saviour, also resembles “an imperialist intent on claiming, conquering, and colonizing another’s world” (naz, 2022). he exploits the eos gravely albeit his way is more implicit than eli’s. in reality, victor can be seen to be “completely possessed” (fanon, 1968) by his desire to enact his vengeance on eli. yet this obsessive pursuit of his and the exploitation of eos he carries out in its wake are rendered futile as he loses his life at eli’s hands at the end. this is a reflection of how fanon describes that violence in an imperial world turns it wielders into “djinns” (fanon, 1968) or ghosts; obsessed with each other without an end in sight till everything is lost; a narrative that flawlessly reflects victor and eli’s obsessive ambitions regarding each other and the eos. eos the colonised natives eos, in the strict context of the novel, are an altered from of human beings seen as an 'exotic' specie which reflects the situation of the natives in an imperial context. according to the findings of eli's research, the eos lose their "souls" and gain supernatural powers after going through near death experience (nde). this nde analysed in its simplest form is the line where humans turn to monsters which, in an imperialistic context, represents the point where the native owners of the land, become the colonised. it is significant that the natives had always been humans, but were turned to something less than humanity but at the same time more the human; inhuman in all its senses, when the coloniser arrived (coates, 2017). professor lyne had also added to the research, by introducing some additional terms: "post-traumatic death disorder” (172) which refers to the strong connection of becoming an eo to extreme trauma which reflects the trauma that accompanies the state of being colonised. this trauma is not only physical but also mental, akin to death; the transition from one life to another, from the life of freedom to that of slavery. as in fanon’s words, “their first encounter was marked by violence and their existence together.” (fanon, 1968) another term is “rebirth principle, or the patients’ desire either to escape the life they had before, or to redefine themselves based on their ability.” (173) this mirrors the condition of the natives post colonisation and points to the ambivalence of “colonial mimicry” they face that bhabha (1984, p.126) describes as “the desire for a reformed, recognizable other, as a subject of a difference that is almost the same, but not quite”. despite having powers that normal people lack, eos are discriminated against throughout the novel. they are despised as a race to an unimaginable extent. the plight of the eos, hence can be categorised as racism and is reminiscent of the racism exerted on the natives of an imperial colony during and after its rule. race, coates (2017) argues is advocated as being “somehow a feature of the natural world and racism the predictable result of it” which benefits certain ethnic groups, especially those in power. in this light, the natives of a colony, who were a different race from 'white' were always inferior. the whites were “rich“ in all its senses merely because “they (you) were (are) white” (fanon, 1968) thereby “identifying the dependency of the poor nations upon the rich” (naz, 2021). the eurocentric belief that white is the standard advocated the ideology that white is natural, colour is not; if you want to be natural, be like the white and hence “the advance of civilization was a triumphant progress, morally justified and probably inevitable” (barta, 2005). yet complete merging was impossible. on this basis, the natives were dehumanised; transcending genealogical boundaries in vicious: a postcolonial reading 385 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii as are the eos on the basis of their difference from the 'standard' human. regarding this fanon states: when you examine at close quarters the colonial context, it is evident that what parcels out the world is to begin with the fact of belonging to or not belonging to a given race, a given species. (fanon, 1968, p.40) serena journey of the elite native to enlightenment eli is a stout believer of the opinion that all eos must die yet he retains serena clarke, who can control the police for him because of her power to control minds. serena is the ‘native intellectual’ of fanon, “who knows how to fabricate the colonized from a subject position to an agentative object” (naz, 2022) and helps the coloniser gain trust of the internal and external forces of the colony. her power complements her role to which fanon provides a colonial context:“ the agents of government” where agents are the police and the government is eli, “ speak the language of pure force”. “the intermediary” that is serena,” does not lighten the oppression, nor seek to hide the domination; she (he) shows them up and puts them into practice with the clear conscience of an upholder of the peace; yet she (he) is the bringer of violence” (fanon, 1968). but as the intellectual native is not a mere lifeless puppet, serena also proves to be more than eli’s right-hand woman. eli's self-made, self-righteous world is confronted by serena, who despite being his accomplice puts forth bitter truths that are hard for him to swallow. these questions are applicable in the imperialistic context because a discriminated and colonised native would also present similar questions to the coloniser. thus, through the character of serena, the novel presents a counter discourse to the imperial one that eli imposes. she asks him essential questions, which the other eos are not strong enough to ask, and the answers to which leave noticeable cracks in his ‘perfect’ reasoning. at one point when eli claims that being an eo, she shouldn't exist, she counters by questioning “i’m dangerous. i shouldn’t exist. but what gives you the right to kill me?” to this eli's answer is “because i can” (184). which is a suggestion towards him abusing his power to reach selfish ends. clearly just because one can is not enough of a reason to kill someone. yet this is the sole reason why most genocides were carried out, whether in a colonial context or outside it. eli's straight forward answers and serena's witty counters represent how ridiculous the coloniser's logic seems to the colonised native. although serena realises her fallacy at the end of the novel, and decides to disobey eli, the coloniser, she loses her life. from the point of contact with eli, serena’s identity is stained to the point that she becomes a ‘ghost’ in fanon’s terms. eli bends her opinion about eos to his own and turns her into a puppet of his regime, which ultimately takes her life. sydney journey of the exploited native to decolonisation sydney is the representation of the colonised native in fanon’s terms. while sydney is a young teenage girl, who was shot by eli for being an eo. yet she also counters eli's allegations of “your power is wrong, and it makes you a danger” by reminding him of the reality that “she's (i’m) not the one holding a gun” (125). something, the ruling coloniser also needs to be reminded of as it is him who is holding the gun, who possess control and power over the native, not vice versa. after this incident, sydney's life is turned upside down even though she was living quite normally before, even as an eo. this brings to the forefront the question "when do we stop being human?" (margaret, 2019) and refers to the fact that it is merely eli's perspective that turns eos into monsters and, as fanon argues, his actions that drive them to extreme measures. this stance of eli mirrors the ideology of the coloniser that “allowed the savage, within culture itself, to be transcending genealogical boundaries in vicious: a postcolonial reading 386 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii isolated from civilized man” (claude, 1963). the discrimination that sydney faces as a young eo, can be seen from the changes she develops over time and is akin to the one faced by a native at the hands of the coloniser since the moment he is colonised. as according to liebersohn (2016) “civilizing process at its most aggressive attempted to bring about a fundamental psychological transformation of peoples not yet integrated into modern european culture”. the trauma she faces at her first contact with eli's world of imperial control and extermination, results in her ‘losing innocence’. as victor observes "she’d been betrayed, shot, saved, healed, hurt, healed again, forced to resurrect two men, only to witness the reassassination of one of them." and he admits that she had been dragged into all this by "eli and then by victor” (229). yet nowhere does any of them feel responsible for sydney’s ‘damaged’ life as the native “is not only physically and socio-economically colonized, but even their experiences as to colonial oppressions are obfuscated by imperious justifications (naz & ahmad, 2022). wolfe stresses on focusing on the degrading effects of colonialism as imposed by both eli and victor instead of comparing them by stating “disdaining unseemly comparative evaluations—“which is worse?”—between (to stay with the us case) indian dispossession and black slavery, we should delineate their mutuality”(wolfe, 2013). as in addition to eli’s murderous pursuit, victor, had also played a part in taking the kid out of her through his "pragmatic execution, his promises and his threats" (229) till she becomes aggressive enough to cheerfully exclaim about eli, "i hope he[victor] hurts him... a lot”. (218)this transition of her from being exploited by violence to becoming violent is stated by satre (1968) in his preface to the wretched of the earth that “the native cures himself of colonial neurosis by thrusting out the settler through force of arms. when this rage boils over, he rediscovers his lost innocence and he comes to know himself in that he himself creates his self”. sydney also longs to "belong" (267), a desire persistent in the native whose land, identity and life have been stripped away. she is afraid of being left alone in a world where "she would be running or maybe she would be killed, too" (248); a world that would never accept her. in her own homeland, she would become a stranger; a refugee. barta (2008) reflects these feelings of sydney when she talks about the condition of aborigines in an imperialistic world, “aborigines could hardly envisage a future in such a cataclysmic world”. sydney not only mirrors the feeling of the natives under an exploitative and colonial regime but also presents a narrative of them finding “their lost self-respect, courage and their sense of self-worth” (fashina, 1989) that leads to decolonisation. this is reflected in the fact that although victor thinks sydney "wasn’t normal” (230) yet till the end of the novel, she proves to be the most normal and humane character; just like mitch who is a human. the similarities in mitch and sydney shatter the stereotypes both eli and victor have about eos. sydney has a soul, she is not "hollowed" (271) and just as much a human as mitch is. which is a strong reminder to the colonial world of the past and the neocolonial world of today; the natives, the coloured, the powerless are just as much human as any other and “that the settler's skin is not of any more value than a native's skin; and it must be said that this discovery shakes the world in a very necessary manner” (fanon, 1968). which leads them to fight, improve and be better as sydney does by confronting her sister serena by telling her “i don’t feel broken...and even if i am, i can fix other people” (270). sydney’s power of bringing the dead to life complements her role as the native, as although she is viewed as inferior, her power bestows her the self-worth that fanon argues the native needs for successful liberation (fanon, 1968). although, sydney had always been subversive to her sister, her standoff with her is reflected in fanon’s (1968) words that he states about a native who finally stands up for himself and realises transcending genealogical boundaries in vicious: a postcolonial reading 387 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii that “my life is worth as much as the settler's, his glance no longer shrivels me up nor freezes me, and his voice no longer turns me into stone”. at this confrontation by sydney, serena, whom eli had managed to convince into helping him kill eos, even her own sister, realizes “the falseness of eli’s (his) theory” (fanon, 1968) that maybe eli was wrong and all eos weren’t broken" (271). she witnesses that sydney " wasn’t truly dead. this sydney was alive in a way the other had never been. it shone through her skin" (271). this is where she begins to doubt eli's words which according to fanon (1968) is the first step towards decolonisation. according to fanon, it is very important for the colonised to realize his own humanity to be able to fight off the coloniser. once the native realises he can have as much agency as the coloniser, that is when the process of decolonisation starts as does the countdown to eli's doom. yet with eli’s end, comes their own; serena is burned and sydney is scarred forever as “both oppressor and oppressed are subject to the same oppression, one is its agent and the other its object” (naz, 2022). sydney’s unrelenting pursuit to break free of eli’s destructive colonial regime, although is successful yet her identity as a human is altered forever and she becomes a ‘ghost’. the colonial world takes the lives of serena and victor, the people she cared for. her ‘eoness’ has become a part of her identity as even at the end of the novel, victor’s influence on her is undying. although she questions the point of their feverish battle, she admits the inevitability of it as the from the moment of the coloniser’s arrival on native land, their clash becomes fate. conclusion colonisation and decolonisation are presented as processes bloodied by melancholy and violence by wolfe and fanon. destruction, pain and futility is reflected in all four narratives which is complemented by the novel’s end where eli ends up in jail while victor is killed. on the other hand, serena is burned and sydney is a child with her innocence lost and scarred forever. this points as to how their obsessive aggression for each other turns them into ghosts, the difference between the colonizer and the colonized becomes fuzzy and shadowy, literally and metaphorically, thereby problematizing their identity, history and origin. references aghamelu, f. c., & ejike, e. c. 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(2019, april 22). review: vicious by v. e. schwab. amyjanealice, retrieved october 9, 2022, from https://www.amyjanealice.com/2019/04/review-vicious-by-v-eschwab.html https://www.igwebuikeresearchinstitute.org/ transcending genealogical boundaries in vicious: a postcolonial reading 388 university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature vol. 6 | issue i | jan – june | 2022 issn (e): 2663-1512, issn (p): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6ii althusser, l. (2014). on the reproduction of capitalism: ideology and ideological state apparatuses. (g.m. goshgarian, trans.). verso. barta, t. (2005). mr darwin's shooters: on natural selection and the naturalizing of genocide. patterns of prejudice, 39(2), 116-137. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313220500106170 barta t. (2008). relations of genocide : land and lives in the colonization of australia. genocide, 2, 102-114. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446261804 bhabha, h. k. (2003). bhabha on fanon. in d. milne (ed.), modern critical thought an anthology of theorists writing on theorists (pp. 286-310). wiley-blackwell. bhabha, h. k. (1984, 28 october). of mimicry and man: the ambivalence of colonial discourse. discipleship: a special issue on psychoanalysis, 28, 125-133. https://doi.org/10.2307/778467 brown, a. (2018, may 30). extraordinary extraordinaries: vicious by v.e. schwab. tor, retrieved october 9, 2022, from https://www.tor.com/2018/05/30/book-reviews-viciousby-v-e-schwab/?preview_id=363592 claude, lévi-strauss. (1963). structural anthropology. basic books. coates, ta-nehisi. (2017). foreword. in the origin of others (vii-xvii). harvard university press. dan, w. (2019, december 23). review: vicious by v.e. schwab. elitist book reviews, retrieved october 9, 2022, from https://elitistbookreviews.com/2015/03/20/vicious/ fanon, f. (1968). the wretched of the earth. (c. farrington, trans.). grove press. fanon, f. (1986). black skin, white masks. 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