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Title TRACING MARTYRDOM AND VICTIMHOOD: A STUDY OF THE AUTO/BIOGRAPHIES OF ZULFIKAR ALI BHUTTO’S IF I AM ASSASSINATED AND FATIMA BHUTTO’S SONGS OF BLOOD AND SWORD By SAMEEN TAHIR

Author(s) SAMEEN TAHIR

Abstract This poststructuralist study uses trauma literary theory to analyze the auto/biographies of ZAB and FB, the members of historical and political significant family in Pakistan. While focusing on the association of selected auto/biographers with Pakistani politics, this dissertation locates the role of auto/biographies in constructing certain narratives for cultural and political purposes. The aim of this study is to investigate the power of auto/biographies merely not in construction of the narratives of martyrdom and victimhood, but in representing these narratives as a source to invoke cultural trauma as well. This multidisciplinary research also studies individual traumas of the subjects of selected auto/biographies, and their influence on the memory of the targeted audience to shape collective traumas. It explores the portrayal of the subjects as victims of state violence and analyzes their emergence as martyrs for sacrificing their lives to fight state violence. Moreover, it examines the purpose behind the narratives of martyrdom and victimhood as tools to construct cultural trauma. The association of a leader‘s death or fall of his/her regime is investigated as an occurrence of cultural trauma, in this research. The life narratives of his physical and emotional traumas, described in auto/biographies, are analyzed as his/her journey from victimisation to victimhood. This journey throws light on the leader‘s ideology that the partisans promote after his/her death. The ideology of a martyr as a cause to sacrifice life is analyzed as catalyst for martyr-making. Since, the leaders are acknowledged for their services and sacrifices, the aspects of martyrdom and victimhood are traced out in this dissertation as means of invoking collective memory for their recognition. The name of Bhutto family still holds a place in Pakistani political and cultural history even after the assassinations of ZAB, MB, SB and BB. Demonstrating these deaths as narratives of cultural trauma, this research scrutinizes over the function of the selected auto/biographies in their recognition as victims and martyrs. The study is delimited to ZAB‘s autobiography, If I am Assassinated (1979) and FB‘s biography on MB, Songs of Blood and Sword (2010). Key Words: Trauma, Collective trauma, Collective memory, Cultural trauma, Martyrdom, Martyr, Ideology, Victimisation, Victimhood.

Type Thesis/Dissertation MS

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Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2021-08-20

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