A FEMINIST READING OF SELECT SHORT STORIES OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT AND SADAT HASAN MANTO THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy IN ENGLISH BY ANEYES UL ISLAM UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROF. SAMI RAFIQ DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (U.P.), INDIA 2018 Prof. Sami Rafiq Department of English Department of English Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh - 202002 (INDIA) Certificate This is to certify that Mr. ANEYES UL ISLAM has completed his Ph.D. thesis entitled, “A FEMINIST READING OF SELECT SHORT STORIES OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT AND SADAT HASAN MANTO” under my supervision. To the best of my knowledge, it is his own work. I recommend this thesis for submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English. (Prof. Sami Rafiq) Supervisor DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH – 202002 This is to certify that Mr. ANEYES UL ISLAM (Enrolment No. GH-3375) has completed the following formalities successfully which are required for the submission of a Ph.D. thesis as per the university ordinances. 1. Completion of the Course Work 2. Presentation of Pre-submission Seminar 3. Published two papers based on the thesis 4. Presented two papers in international conferences (Signature of the Chairperson of the Department) ANNEXURE I CANDIDATES’S DECLARATION I, Aneyes Ul Islam, Department of English, certify that the work embodied in this Ph.D. thesis is my own bonafide work carried out by me under the supervision of Professor Sami Rafiq, Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. The matter embodied in this Ph.D. thesis has not been submitted for the award of any other degree. I declare that I have faithfully acknowledged, given credit to and referred to the research workers wherever their works have been cited in the text and the body of the thesis. I further certify that I have not wilfully lifted up some other’s work, para, text, data, result etc., reported in the journals, books, magazines, reports, dissertations, thesis, etc., or available at web sites and included them in this Ph.D. thesis and cited as my own work. (Signature of the candidate) Date: ……………….. ANEYES UL ISLAM ........................................................................................................................................ Certificate from the Supervisor This is to certify that the above statement made by the candidate is correct to the best of my knowledge. ………………………… (Signature of the supervisor) PROF. SAMI RAFIQ Department of English A.M.U, Aligarh- India (Signature of the Chairman of the Department with seal) ANNEXTRE II COURSE/ COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION/ PRE- SUBMISSION SEMINAR COMPLETION CERTIFICATE This is to certify that MR ANEYES UL ISLAM (GH3375), Department of English, has satisfactorily completed the course work/ comprehensive examination and pre-submission seminar requirement which is part of his Ph.D. programme. Date: ……………… (Signature of the Chairman of the Department) ANNEXURE III COPYRIGHT TRANSFER CERTIFICATE Title of the Thesis: A FEMINIST READING OF SELECT SHORT STORIES OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT AND SADAT HASAN MANTO Candidate’s Name: ANEYES UL ISLAM Copyright Transfer The undersigned hereby assigns to the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh copyright that may exist in and for the above thesis submitted for the award of the Ph.D. degree. Signature of the Candidate Note: However, the author may reproduce or authorize others to reproduce material extracted verbatim from the thesis or derivative of the thesis for author’s personal use provide that the source and the University’s copyright notice are indicated ACKNOWLEDGMENT First of all, I would like to express my sincere and heartfelt thanks to my supervisor, Professor Sami Rafiq, whose experienced guidance, inspirational supervision, and kind support led me to complete my thesis. Her encouraging and erudite suggestions, comprehensive checking and illuminating correction shaped my scholarly inclination during the course of my research. I am extremely grateful to Professor Asim Siddiqui, the Chairperson, Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, for his consistent support and insightful clarifications and suggestions throughout the course. I am also grateful to Mr. Suhail Ishaque and other members of the staff at the Department of English. I highly appreciate the generous cooperation and the assistance of the staff of Maulana Azad Library, AMU, Aligarh. I would like to thank all my friends and colleagues, especially Ajaz Ahmad Hajam, Manzoor Ahmad Najar and Mohd. Mohsin Wani who encouraged and supported me throughout this project. I am especially thankful to Firdous Ahmad Mir for proof- reading my thesis. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the support and guidance which I received from my uncle, Dr. Mohiudin Zore Kashmiri, and my parents for their unconditional love and care. Aneyes ul Islam A FEMINIST READING OF SELECT SHORT STORIES OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT AND SADAT HASAN MANTO ABSTRACT OF THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy IN ENGLISH BY ANEYES UL ISLAM UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROF. SAMI RAFIQ DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (U.P.), INDIA 2018 i ABSTRACT This thesis entitled “A Feminist Reading of Select Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant and Sadat Hasan Manto” is an attempt to critically evaluate the short stories of Maupassant and Manto from a comparative feminist perspective. Acknowledged as the masters of modern French and Urdu short story respectively, both the writers have been unconventional and innovative, sceptical and radical in their approach to life, unveiling the hypocrisy of society by highlighting its unbalanced power structures beneath the illusionary and fabricated masks of different power controlling institutions. These dominant institutions against which the writers have raised their voices have been the target of criticism in their stories to highlight the suppression and exploitation of the lower classes of society. Maupassant and Manto speak for these marginalized people, especially prostitutes, towards whom the society has been always indifferent and its different institutions have acted as mediums of exploitation and oppression. Therefore, both the writers have created many memorable characters of female prostitutes whose agony of emotions, bruised soul, heart-wrenching condition, burning agitation, palpable desires and flattering hope is revealed in their stories. Besides their selection of subject and choice of themes, their style and techniques are also what the writers are known for. Since both Maupassant and Manto were prolific short stories writers, they have some three hundred short stories each to their credit, based on the various subjects, which they have claimed to be realistic in approach - a product of their focused observations and experiences. It becomes, therefore, more difficult to draw the parallels and find common threads of thought out of their varied oeuvres. Further, both the writes belonged to the two different literatures, cultures, ages and literary sensibilities. Maupassant lived in the second half of nineteenth-century France, a period that witnessed a radical change not only in social, political, cultural, religious and literary fields, but historians have identified it as a period of gender chaos and masculinity crises. The emergence of „New Woman‟ in the period, a pro-feminist group of woman writers, activists, and reformers, turned upside down the conventional notions about sex, sexuality, gender, class, and patriarchy. Whereas, Sadat Hasan Manto lived in the first half of the twentieth century in India which is known as a „terrain of struggle‟ and this period also led to some drastic changes in every sphere of life. Apart from socio-political changes, the change in the literary ii scene was also significant. First, the introduction of the new genre such as the short story into the Urdu literature; second, a radical change in the subject and content from purely aesthetic to a functional or utilitarian perspective. However, in spite of various differences in cultural, contextual, and literary sensibilities, the short stories of Maupassant and Manto bear great resemblance. For example, the themes like the shortness of human life, sexuality, patriarchal tyranny, socio-political hypocrisy, and economic and sexual exploitation in prostitution etc. have been dealt with by both the writers. Their short stories criticize every kind of socio-political horrors of oppression. Moreover, both the writers have been unconventional to write specifically about the woman, who is sexually exploited, physically victimized, emotionally silenced, and socially marginalized, and when pushed into prostitution, she is commoditized and rendered into an object of pleasure. Their wrath on patriarchal hypocrisy, male double standards, and politicized powerful institutions can be equally seen in their stories. Therefore, it is in this context that Manto‟s critics such as Mumtaz Shireen, Leslie A. Flemming, and many others have considered Manto as „the heir of Maupassant‟ and entitled him as the Maupassant of Urdu literature. Manto himself has acknowledged Maupassant as his fictional and spiritual father. However, the thorough feminist study of the short stories of both the writers has brought forth some contrasting elements, particularly in their representation of female characters. The attitude of Maupassant which one discerns in his stories is predominantly misogynist; whereas, in Manto‟s stories, the sympathetic