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Elixir Journal 48671 Ayesha Ashraf et al./ Elixir Literature 111 (2017) 48671-48675 Available online at www.elixirpublishers.com (Elixir International Journal) Literature Elixir Literature 111 (2017) 48671-48675 A Postmodern Critique of Contemporary Pakistani English Novels in the Light of Historiographic Metafiction Ayesha Ashraf1, Suwaibah Qadri2 and Samra Sarfraz Khan3 1Lecturer Department of English, Lahore Leads University, Lahore, Pakistan. 2Co-operative Lecturer Department of Political Science, University of Karachi, Pakistan. 3Lecturer Department of General History, University of Karachi, Pakistan. ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: The present research attempts to analyze Pakistani English novels namely A Case of Received: 28 August 2017; Exploding Mangoes (2008), The Scatter Here is too Great (2014), and A Season for Received in revised form: Martyrs (2014) as historiographic metafiction. Linda Hutcheon proposed historiographic 1October 2017; metafiction as a theory that re-conceptualizes history by combining fact and fiction. Accepted: 10 October 2017; Pakistani novelists represent social, political and historical issues of the region through this genre of postmodern fiction. This study shows that official history related to Keywords partition, military rule and politics is being questioned in the selected texts. Textual Postmodernism, analysis is used as a research method. Linda hutcheon, © 2017 Elixir All rights reserved. Pakistani English Fiction, Historiographic metafiction, Metanarrative. Introduction It is, infact, one of the controversial historical events that “History . is a nightmare from which I am trying to has influenced the emotional, historical, and cultural progress, awake.” ( James Joyce). of both the countries i.e. Pakistan and India, till date. Linda Hutcheon, a Canadian postmodern theorist, used Therefore, this event has been observed, interpreted, rewritten the term historiographic metafiction for the first time, in the and represented by fiction writers of both the affected form of a theory. According to her, historiographic countries. Like Indian, Pakistani English fiction, too, retells metafiction reproduces history through a combination of fact, this tragic experience of partition from critical and plural fiction, parody, fragmentation, irony, and other postmodern perspectives; moreover, it incorporates history and, in this devices. Hutcheon in her book A Poetics of Postmodernism way, blurs the distinction between reality and imagination. (1983) states, „“It‟s theoretical self-awareness of history and Kamila Shamsie, Sara Suleri, Bapsi Sidhwa, Mumtaz fiction as human constructs … is made the grounds for its Shahnawaz, Muhammad Hanif, Bina Shah and Bilal Tanweer rethinking and reworking of the forms and contents of the are few writers who have written and explored this historical past (5).” Historiographic metafiction, as a genre, explores event of 1947. The novels, written by these authors, present the limits and boundaries of traditional historical discourse as the event from the standpoints of women, children, slaves, it generates multiple alternative versions, in order to narrate minority and the marginalized sections of society. history. It, also, deconstructs binary oppositions such as The current research is based on the study of three master/slave, top/bottom, true/false, rational/irrational, contemporary novels namely A Case of Exploding Mangoes, objective/subjective, and colonizer/colonized. According to The Scatter Here is to Great, and The Season of Martyrs. postmodern philosophy, history is discursive, because it is These novels are written by well known and globally constructed, subjectively, through text therefore, the concepts recognized authors including Muhammad Hanif, Bilal of, accuracy, neutrality, and reality are no more applicable. Tanweer and Bina Shah. Muhammad Hanif was born in Historiographic metafiction, as a postmodern genre, mistrusts Pakistan, in 1964. Initially, he served as army officer but left crucial ideals of conventional history like; truth, precision and later, to join journalism. He has written three novels, and his accuracy. It favors the generation of pluralistic versions of famous novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes was published in history in the same way as supported by another theorist Paul 2008. Bina Shah, a renowned novelist and journalist, belongs Ricoeur, who supports this fusion of history and fiction when, to Pakistan. She was born, in 1972, in Karachi, a major city of he, in his book History and Truth, regards historiographic Pakistan. She completed her studies from Harvard Graduate metafiction as an innovative rewriting of history. School of Education, America. She has written four novels In south Asian history, certain historical events, which and a few collections of short stories. She is a regular are still in debate due to their influence on contemporary columnist for Dawn news paper; one of the leading scenario, hold great importance for instance; 1947 Partition of newspapers of Pakistan. Her novel A Season for Martyres subcontinent. was published in 2014. Bilal Tanweer was born in Karachi. Tele: E-mail address: [email protected] © 2017 Elixir All rights reserved 48672 Ayesha Ashraf et al./ Elixir Literature 111 (2017) 48671-48675 He is a novelist, a poet and a translator, who has earned his military and politics, and their institutional and legitimate degree in MFA (Creative Writing) from US. Tanweer, being impact on the country. The work, of renowned historians like a name in new generation writers of Pakistani English fiction, Ayesha Jalal, Tariq Ali, Saeed Shafqat, and Husain Haqqani, records the ongoing social, cultural, historical and political reflects upon the military as an institution that lacks the issues of Karachi in his debut novel The Scatter Here is Too ability to fulfill due responsibilities with reference to its role Great (2013). The study aims to explore the selected texts in in Pakistan. the light of historiographic metafiction as these texts rewrite In 1947, downfall of British government divided history as a blend of irony, parody, fact, and fiction. The subcontinent into two separate countries i.e. Pakistan and present research further explores the theories of India. Millions of Hindus and Muslims were killed, on both postmodernism propounded by Linda Hutcheon and Jean sides of the countries, due to the clashes and, still, the Francois Lyotard. partition trauma not only resides in the psyche of people but, Research Objectives constantly haunts them too. It is still a controversial historical The research aims at: event, and it is interrogated, in contemporary times, in terms • Evaluating the contemporary postmodern English fiction of its necessity, validity, objectivity, ligitimacy and produced by Pakistani authors. consequences. Though, we find the record of partition in • Extending the conceptual dimension of the research to official discourse but, it is from the narrow perspectives of historiographic metafiction. British government, Muslim league, or congress, only. The • Highlighting the plural narratives which retell various selected novels examine and represent the event from the historical events. various viewpoints of marginalized, slaves, layman, women Literature Review or children. Infact, Pakistani English novelists critically Historiographic metafiction views fiction as a possibility perceive 1947 event, in their fiction, as H. V. Hodson states, to interpret and rewrite history both thematically, and “Every historian, however impartial and careful of the stylistically. Linda Hutcheon, as the originator of the term, truth…must have a personal point of view, without which states in her book A Poetics of Postmodernism (1988) that, history is anemic and my view point cannot but be British “by this I mean those well-known and popular novels which and that only an Indian or a Pakistani could write from the are both intensely self-reflexive and yet paradoxically also viewpoint of his own people and leaders.”1 The literary lay claim to historical events and personages (5).” Unlike representation of history, from the perspective of natives, conventional history, historiographic metafiction, as a celebrate the marginalized sections of binary oppositions i.e. postmodern genre problematises the traditional historical colonizer/colonized, master/slave, male/female, truth/falsity, „truth‟ through fusion of fact and fiction, as Salman Rushdie and objectivity/subjectivity. Historiographic metafiction refers this postmodern blend as, „chutnification of history‟. generates micro narratives as it focuses on the colonized, Alice in her thesis titled The End of History in slave, women, falsehood and subjectivity. English Historiographic Metafiction (2011) states that, A Case of Exploding Mangoes exposes the loopholes in „Hutcheon considers historical consciousness and reflection the institution of military and politics, through the mouth upon history to be fundamental in the postmodern literary piece of elite, officers, and low rank commoners. Generally, experience; according to her, historiographic metafiction it is considered that military is there to defend its people but, perfectly represents the poetics of postmodernism (1).‟ Keith the novel, presents mininarratives which deconstruct this Jenkins views in his Re-Thinking History (1991) that, traditional „constructed‟ image. The novel critically „History is a chronological collection of discourses about the interrogates the stance, taken by the politicians, in the
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