Intertextual, Literary and Intercultural Influences in the Poetry of Perveen Shakir
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Intertextual, literary and intercultural influences in the poetry of Perveen Shakir Item type Thesis Authors Peters, Katherine Downloaded 26-Apr-2017 15:06:53 Item License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ Link to item http://hdl.handle.net/10545/621552 1 UNIVERSITY OF DERBY INTERTEXTUAL, LITERARY & INTERCULTURAL INFLUENCES IN THE POETRY OF PERVEEN SHAKIR Katherine Peters Doctor of Philosophy 2016 2 Contents Abstract…………………………………………………….........................................5 Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………...7 Note on translations…………………………………………………………………..9 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..10 Chapter 1. Khushboo (Fragrance): A portrait of the poet as a young girl …… 63 1.1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………..63 1.2. The poems ……………………… ……………………………………………..64 1.3. Defining ghazal…………………………………………………………………………65 1.4. Khushboo: an introduction……………………………………………………...67 1.5. Poems of hidden love…………………………………………………………. .68 i. Departmental store mein (In a Departmental Store) ……………………………. 68 ii. Aaina (Mirror)………………………………………………………………...74 iii. Sirf aik larki (Only a Girl)…………………………………………………...77 1.6. Poems of passion and sexuality…………………………………………………79 i. Ecstasy…………………………………………………………………………80 ii. Wasteland…………………………………………………………………….. 84 iii. Nun…………………………………………………………………………...92 Chapter 2. Sadburg (Marigold): Shakir and the genesis of a radical......................98 2.1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………..98 3 2.2. Political poems……………………………………………………………………103 i. Zill-e ellahi ki problems (His Majesty’s Problems)……………………………...104 ii. Adrikni (Help Me/Rescue Me)………………………………………………...110 iii. Shaam-e-ghareeban (The Evening of 10th Muharram/A HaplessTraveller)…..111 iv. Macbeth……………………………………………………………………….114 2.3. Poems mixing feminine/feminist stances………………………………………..120 i. Working Woman………………………………………………………………....121 ii. A Stenographer………………………………………………………………….125 Chapter 3. Mother, Motherhood and Motherland in Khud-Kalami (Talking to Oneself/Soliloquy)........................................................................................................131 3.1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………..131 3.2. Poems of tension and conflict: womanhood vs. motherhood……………………..135 i. Khud-Kalami (Talking to Oneself)………………………………………………..136 ii. Misfit ……………………………………………………………………………...143 iii. Che-kunam (What Should I Do?) ………………………………………………..154 iv. A Poem for Farogh Furrukhzad…………………………………………………..156 v. Phulon ka kya hoga? (What Will Happen to the Flowers?)……………………….163 3.3. Return to nisvani: poems of motherhood…………………………………………..167 i. Navishta (Ordained/It Has Been Written…)………………………………………..168 ii. Mera laal (My Ruby, My Darling Child)……………………………………….....173 iii. Teri mohni surat (Your Charming Face)………………………………………….178 iv. Kaenaat ke khaliq (O, Creator of the World)……………………………………..181 Chapter 4. Women without a voice: third-world feminism in Inkaar (Refusal/Denial)…………………………………………………………………………186 4.1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………....186 4.2. The poems…………………………………………………………………………...187 4.3. Nation and the woman……………………………………………………………….189 i. Shahzadi ka almia (Tragedy of a Princess)…………………………………………..189 ii. Nadamat (A Regret)…………………………………………………………………198 4 4.4. Prose poem dealing with social issues……………………………………………….198 Bashira kee ghar wali (The Wife of Bashira)……………………………………….....199 4.5. Female poets of Pakistan: female sexuality vs. Muslim society………………...........212 Tomato Ketchup...............................................................................................................212 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................231 Bibliography........................................................................................................................237 Appendix 1..........................................................................................................................1-62 5 ABSTRACT This thesis explores the Urdu poetry of Perveen Shakir, a Pakistani, third-world, Muslim, female poet, in her socio-cultural, religious and political context. The entire four collections written between 1977 and 1990 are analysed in order to depict the stages of her life: girl, woman, mother and poet. The collections were written during extreme political pressure of martial law, dictatorship and the Islamisation of General Zia’s regime (1977- 1988). The thesis argues that Shakir, an educated self-aware Pakistani Muslim woman, is formulating new feminist ideas and concepts of individual freedom through her unconventional love poetry; in that way crossing the limits of her traditional ‘feminine’ nisvani demands, whilst she is also struggling under the extreme cultural, political and religious pressure of a Muslim society which conflicts with her liberal ‘feminist’ thinking. Shakir is constantly shifting between two positions: a traditional ‘feminine’ nisvani and a ‘feminist’ position. Influenced by her Eastern culture she clings to the traditional identity, sometimes due to her own personal choice, and sometimes under her cultural pressure, unwilling to alienate her traditional self which understands that a husband is a symbol of respect and security for a Pakistani woman. Influenced by western culture she reveals her liberal feminist voice openly writing about her sexual needs and also writing about her marginalised position from which she criticises the politics of patriarchy. This intercultural influence in the Urdu poetry of Shakir is reflected through these overlapping and co-existing positions, where she is neither a true feminist poet by western standards (anti-sexist and anti- patriarchal) nor a clear traditional ‘feminine’ nisvani. In the end, she compromises in order to survive in her Islamic culture, re-adjusting and rethinking her liberal feminist ideas. The main concern of the thesis is to explain the complex and multi-layered meanings of the term ‘woman’ in the Pakistani cultural context. The analysis has shown that in Pakistani culture the concept of self or individual freedom for a Pakistani Muslim woman is not a simple question. This study focuses on various stages of Shakir’s biographical journey employing the theoretical framework of dialogism which reveals the development of feminisms, and how they balance in the end. 6 No critical study on Shakir from a third-world postcolonial Pakistani perspective, analysing her poetry within a theoretical framework, has been written so far, and therefore this study is an invaluable contribution to current scholarly knowledge of the discipline. This study also contributes in another way, as it is the first work in English at this level. 7 Acknowledgements My gratitude first goes to my late parents Feroze-ud-din and Florence Feroze. I want to especially thank my father; without his prayers and blessing I would have never got this far both in my studies and in life. My brothers Innocent and Vincent and my sisters Anne, Caroline and Angelina are equally part of this thanks for their endless support and prayers. I also thank my lovely husband Rev’d Geoffrey Peters; no acknowledgement, be it public or private, would do justice to his patience, support and understanding which (however bitterly tested by this project’s demands on my time) never slackened. I thank him for always being there and taking all the responsibilities to give me more time to study. Without his support this thesis would have never been completed. Thanks to my three darlings; niece Nida and nephews Obed and Nabeel for pampering me during my doctoral program. My special gratitude to my supervisors Professor Neil Campbell, Director of Studies, Department of Arts, Design and Technology, University of Derby and Dr Christine Berberich (now at Portsmouth University) for their tireless efforts in bringing this thesis to fruition. I thank them both from the depths of my heart for their non-stop encouragement, the long and critical discussions that helped give substance to my work, and their unwavering belief in me, not to mention their unlimited patience. A special thank you is also due to Professor Huw Davies, Dean of Faculty of Arts, Design and Technology at the University of Derby for allowing me discounted fees during my years of research, which helped me continue my studies. I would also like to thank my home department in Pakistan, the Ministry of Education, Islamabad, for allowing me leave to complete my research. Many special thanks to Parveen Qadir Agha, the Chairperson of the Parveen Shakir Trust, Islamabad, Pakistan, for providing me with material and current publications on Shakir. I am also grateful to her for never failing to post any material to me in the UK. I also wish to thank her for introducing me to Dr Sultana Baksh, research scholar on Shakir. My special thanks to Dr Sultana Baksh for helping me during my yearly trips to Pakistan with lengthy discussions on Shakir’s poetic collections. Particular gratitude goes to her again for discussing with me the translations of a number of Shakir’s poems. At the same time many thanks to Iftikhar Arif, for his help and 8 for introducing to Amina Yaqin, Kishwar Naheed, Amjad Islam Amjad, the late Ahmad Faraz, the late Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, and any others who have helped and encouraged me. Particular thanks to Dr Baidar Bakht, Shakir’s translator, in Toronto, Canada, for helping me with translations of the forewords of the first two collections, and selected poems of Shakir for the thesis, as translations