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EXPLORING THE MODES OF PRIVATE AND PUBLIC PATRIARCHY: A COMPARATIVE TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF PAKISTANI SHORT FICTION IN ENGLISH The study analyzed Pakistani short fiction in English by applying one of the aspects of Systemic Functional Linguistics that is, Transitivity, to explore the experiential meaning in the selected short stories. The principle aim of the study is to expose the representation of Pakistani women and explore the various dynamics of private and public forms of patriarchy through the application of Halliday’s framework of Transitivity (2014). Theorizing Patriarchy by Walby (1990) was used as theoretical frameworks for the study while the system of transitivity provided the analytical framework for the interpretation and analysis of the selected texts. Two Pakistani short fiction writers were selected for the study: Bina Shah and Tariq Rahman. Two short stories by each of the writers were selected through purposive sampling. The selected short stories by Shah were: The Wedding of Sundri and The Good Wife while the short stories selected from Rahman included: Papa and The Trail. The study utilizes mixed method approach to analyze and present the data. The transitivity analysis revealed the public and private modes of oppression in a patriarchal society i.e. Pakistan, where one gender was oppressed and the other was the oppressor. The analysis brought to light the various modes of patriarchy as depicted in the selected texts which included: gender discrimination, honor killing, women marginalization, violation of women and human rights, domestic labour and violence, constraints on getting education, lack of freedom of speech, restrictions on skills learning and training, cultural constraints, physical and psychological abuse, and child marriage.
AN ACOUSTIC STUDY OF DIPHTHONGS IN PAKISTANI ENGLISH Pakistani English has been the subject of research for some time now and naturally different areas of it have already been researched. However, pronunciation is one of the important areas of Pakistani English which needs to be explored further. The current research is based on Pronunciation of Pakistani English and is limited to diphthongs. In this research, it was explored that how Pakistani English has got its own peculiarities and differences in pronunciation, especially, when it comes to diphthongs. For example, native speakers of English pronounce the word go with a glide /ɡəʊ/ due to the diphthongal effect while Pakistani speakers pronounce the same word with a straight sound which may be observed in the sound / و/. In current research, ten words were randomly selected for each diphthong, and twenty four students of Intermediate (Science group) part-II, whose mother tongue was Punjabi, were selected. Later, each participant was given a token word out of the already prepared list and pronunciation of the word was recorded through F-1 OPPO Mobile phone. On the other hand, Cambridge Advanced Learner Dictionary was used to take the token of British pronunciation of all words. Each token, which was one of the diphthongs, was analyzed through PRAAT(5353). Results obtained through PRAAT are in the form of number of pulses, which determine the length of the word, pitches, which show difference of glide, time taken in order to produce the word which once again determines the length of the word and which ultimately shows the difference in pronunciation of the diphthongs. For example the analysis of the data shows that all the participants pronounced /eɪ/ diphthong with a longer duration (0.361 seconds) as compared with the native speaker (0.145 seconds). Likewise, research participants used different pitch (215.517) and number of pulses (44.333) as compared to the British pitch (109.171) and number of pulses (16) in the pronunciation of the word ache. Thus, in current research the results are shown in the form of spectrographs and numeric values. Relevant tables have been prepared and calculated first in Microsoft Excel and then converted into Microsoft Word sheets. On the basis of the collected data and their results, researcher has found out that Pakistani English is different from British English in terms of diphthongs. In the light of this Spectrographic Model, it is concluded that differences in diphthongs’ pronunciation, as generated by PRAAT(5.3.53) are peculiar in nature.
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PORTRAYAL OF PANAMAGATE IN PAKISTANI AND BRITISH ENGLISH PRINT MEDIA USING HALLIDAYAN TRANSITIVITY This thesis presents the findings of the linguistic discourse analysis performed on the selected editorials and headline articles of English newspapers from Pakistan and the United Kingdom covering the Panama gate issue. The analysis that is employed, takes the aid of the Systemic Functional Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis which utilizes the framework of transitivity theory and Fairclough’s three-dimensional model respectively. The analysis attempts to realize the ideational meaning of the utterances through the grammatical choices used. The linguistic choices adopted throughout the text are complex and varied and the transitivity analysis provides meaning by linking them. Using transitivity analysis the researcher has categorized the processes in their relative categories. The deeper analysis has been conducted to read the context of the situation and how the burning issue of Panama Case affected the political scenario worldwide. Every example was analyzed in two steps: first was the textual analysis done through transitivity theory leading to the second step which was to look into the discourse practice and the socio-cultural practices in which a text is produced and consumed. Following the mentioned process the acquired results were discussed and conclusions generated. The findings of the study pointed out the fact that the material process dominates every other one in the transitivity pattern. This pattern also varied in selected newspapers of both countries. It also affirms that the text does sometimes represent the writer’s point of view about an issue. The visible difference of culture and political context in the country of Pakistan and the United Kingdom marked the answer of the question that there is a reflection of the culture and linguistic choices are intrinsically motivated sometimes. The strategies used to deemphasize and emphasize a certain participant of the process and the shift of focus has also been recognized by the researcher. The percentage of usage of transitivity processes and their potential implication has also been discussed by the researcher in the following chapters. The unexplored areas in the newspaper discourse on semantic and morphological levels have been put up as suggestions for further research.
TRACING IDEOLOGICAL HAILING IN IDENTITY FORMATION: AN INTERPELLATIVE STUDY OF JACKSON-BROWN’S DRINKING FROM A BITTER CUP AND NAQVI’S HOME BOY The present research explores and analyses Angela Jackson- Brown’s Drinking from a Bitter Cup and H. M Naqvi’s Home Boy by invoking Louis Althusser’s theory of ideology and the concept of interpellation. The deep-rooted influence of ideology in someone’s life cannot be put aside. It is so overwhelming that there is nobody living outside its sphere of influence. Successful ideology is the one that is thought as a natural way of looking at things in the world. Althusser, after much contemplation reaches the realm of ideology to develop, as he says, what Marx only initiated. He opens to question the inescapable influence of ideology in public sphere. According to him ideology is “imaginary relationship” that controls the “real conditions of existence”. The main characters in the selected novels seem that they are free in their choices and are unaware of the fact that they have no choices of their own. In fact, things are imposed upon them. Different ideologies not only hail and purport what to do and what not to do but they also enforce a certain kind of thinking in specific ways. The present study also focusses on the subjectivity of such hailed individuals who are the products of the dominant social forces in the form of ideologies. For carrying out the analysis of the selected texts with the chosen lens, I have used close textual analysis as my research method. The research attempts to investigate how actions of characters are restricted by the false consciousness of ideology which is inculcated by ideological state apparatuses (ISAs). Thus, this study is likely to productively contribute in the production of knowledge in studies on culture and ideology.
NEO-SINCERITY: A POST-POSTMODERNIST CRITIQUE OF MOHSIN HAMID’S EXIT WEST This study addresses the issue of the literary reception and representation of the renascent fanaticism, neo-sincerity, which is becoming zeitgeist of the contemporary world. Focusing Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, I have explored the fictional rendering of the prevailing political insurgencies and cultural anomalies. The theoretical foundation of the study is in the post-postmodernist realization of the revival of the essentialist ideologies and parochial policies. It has been made explicit that the welcoming west of the past has transformed into a cultural crucible for the emigrants—epitomized in the characters of Saeed and Nadia. Moreover, it has also been brought to the limelight that one of the most effective triggers for the current wave of hatred in the western social consciousness is Islamophobia. Delving into the issue of racial and religious prejudices, I have tried to explore the fictional representation of the western movement from the ideal of co-existence to the dogmatic essentialism. Thus, the study helps to understand how the contemporary Pakistani literature in English approaches current global traumas and cultural trends.
LANGUAGE APPREHENSION IN ENGLISH LEARNERS AND ITS IMPACT ON THEIR AFFECTIVE OUTCOMES English as a second or foreign language has remained a problem for the people of different age groups and especially for the English language learners. The problem gets even more serious when communication in a second language is required. Learners feel great stress and anxiety when they communicate or present something in English. It in turn affects their academic performance in the form of fewer marks and lower grades. In order to see the effect of communication apprehension (CA) on oral communication skills of the learners, the researcher has tried to investigate the causes of communication apprehension in Pakistani learners studying English language at Diploma level at NUML and IIUI. The researcher has also tried to investigate the effects of CA on affective side of language learning. Mixed method approach has been used to collect data for the present research. Quantitative data were collected through questionnaires from 350 students which were analyzed through SPSS while qualitative data were collected from 18 students and eight teachers through interviews which were analyzed thematically. After analyzing the data it has been found that learners feel communication apprehension (CA) when they speak in English. This communication apprehension acts as a hurdle in the process of learning to speak in English and affects their communication skills. The research has shown many causes and effects of CA which present the problematic nature of CA as in many cases learners either completely leave communication in English or try to avoid it to escape insult and embarrassment. Also, it has been found that CA affects learners’ affective factors like motivation, attitude and self-esteem which play a vital role in any learning situation. These affective factors are crucial as they decide the amount of input in any learning situation. If these affective factors are affected due to CA, then it can result in issues in the form of lower outcomes and poor performance. For this purpose, syllabus should be designed with more speaking activities through which students could be involved in maximum speaking. Furthermore, teachers should motivate their students to speak in English. They can help their students to come out of negative attitude towards English language by involving them in maximum usage of English in a relaxed environment.
Labyrinth without Centre: A Historiographic Metafictional Study of Ghosh, Vizenor and Dangarembga. ABSTRACT Thesis Title: Labyrinth without Center: A Historiographic Metafictional Study of Ghosh, Vizenor and Dangarembga This study is designed to trace the subversion of official version of history in fiction through Postmodern Historigraphic Metafiction. Historiographic Metafiction dismantles the metanarrative of official history and raises the voice of the silenced subjects. This study examines three novels from different colonized regions and traces the effects of colonization on cross-cultural national and individual identities. The study is, thus, grounded in Linda Hutcheon’s Postmodern Historiographic Metafictional theory for the investigation of the subversive strategies employed by the colonizers. The study shows that fiction unveils official history and provides new perspectives of untold historical events. The subversion is done through the device of parody, self reflexivity and intertextuality. It exhibits that truth has different dimensions and cannot be governed by one specific meta narrative. History in the same vein has different perspectives and mini narratives are equally important as meta narratives. The study highlights the main discursive strategies that are education, language, culture and religion through which the binary of us and them identity was constructed. The study shows that the colonial experiences pertaining to the three regions are the same with regard to identity construction and deconstruction. The literature of all three regions exhibits resistance against the brutality and cultural genocide by the colonizers. The study is significant as it proves that fiction is also a document of history which is equally important as the meta narrative of official history. The study adds a significant dimension in the theory of Postmodern Historigraphic Metafiction by studying it through postcolonial lens.
Environmental Injustice: A Queer Ecofeminist Study of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness The research explores and analyses Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness through the lens of Greta Gaard’s Queer Ecofeminism. The research deals with the treatment and projection of nature in the Booker’s Prize winner novel by Arundhati Roy in the light of the principles of ecocriticsm. Roy presents a complete and contemporary picture of India’s nature, humanity, politics, religion, development and environmental crisis. At the same time it draws the attention of the reader towards the ongoing development and globalization process where “luxury” is dominating the “necessity”. The novel is analyzed through these ideas by looking at the identity quest of the protagonist Anjum and her relation to the nature; sometimes too close and then far away, parallel to the culture; where a transgender cannot live a peaceful life in a noble family. Environmental concerns are traced though the representation of chaos and human/animal representation in the society as presented by Arundhati Roy. Roy’s imagery is analyzed so as to find the reason of their existence and to see if it has any connection with the politics, economics, development and industrialization etc. Many events of the novel refer to the environmental crisis faced by this region of the world. The unhealthy nutrition among the human population is highlighted where injected chickens are produced for commercial use. The army occupation of the Indian held Kashmir by its large number of troops exerts a great burden on the natural resources of this beautiful green valley. Due to the busy activities of army, roads are constructed and development can be seen to facilitate these troops in every possible manner. All these social injustices are highlighted and analyzed so as to evaluate their interconnections with each other according to the theoretical ideas of Greta Gaard. Gaard stresses to put an equal emphasis on all the oppressed groups and to focus on the interconnections between all the oppressed groups. She believes that a combination of same authority is responsible for the exploitation of the oppressed groups as she has explained that in her essay. The use of political narratives can usually be seen for oppressing the oppressed. This research therefore is focused to lay an equal emphasis on all the oppressed groups as suggested by Gaard.
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PORTRAYAL OF PAKISTANI WOMEN BY PAKISTANI-AMERICAN SHORT FICTION WRITERS USING TRANSITIVITY The present study investigates the portrayal of Pakistani women as depicted in Pakistani-American short fiction. The data is gathered from two Pakistani- American short fiction writers, namely: DaniyalMueenuddin and Shaila Abdullah. For the analysis of the text, Transitivity is used as analytical framework. As transitivity has been used in many researches for the understanding of characters, to study society and social norms, and to excavate the ideological stance of the author, therefore, this research contributes to the framework of Transitivity. In this study, the emphasis is laid upon different transitivity patterns used by Abdullah and Mueenuddin to understand the relation between diversified transitivity patterns and the variations in meaning making. The study will utilize the guidelines provided by Burton (1982) for the application of Transitivity. For the interpretation of the selected texts, the study employs Mills’ (2012) feminist transitivity analysis. Hence, in a series of step-wise analyses, enough objective data is obtained to reveal the fact that in Shaila Abdullah’s short stories women characters are passive and victimized by the patriarchal society. The central characters remain passive and ineffectual in changing their circumstances despite the huge space devoted to them in the entire discourse. On the contrary, the women characters presented by DaniyalMueenuddin are active and more influential in controlling the male participants. This study answers the question of how meanings are constructed in the text through the use of language and how the authors’ ideological stances are represented in the text through word choices.
POSTCOLONIAL ECOCRITICISM: AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF GHOSH AND SILKO’S FICTION ABSTRACT This dissertation endeavors to explore and capture the colonial tactics to occupy natives and their lands and its effects on native environments via Indian and Native American postcolonial literature. It revolves around the boundaries of colonial influence on places, humans and animals. To view colonial tactics of occupation in the selected texts the concepts of new materialism have been added to the theory of postcolonial ecocriticism. By incorporating newmaterialism, colonial occupation can be seen ‘as a machine’ which produces commodities for economic benefits. This ‘machine’ produces dynamic processes which are an integral part of diverse anti environmental strategies of the colonizers created to achieve certain goals. Every process can be seen as a whole which is composed of systematic underlying process of creating and maintaining the empire. This research, however views only three dynamic processes of occupation e.g. Myth of Development, Environmental Racism and Biocolonization. By delimiting the research to two significant writers of different geopolitical regions (Leslie Marmon Silko Native American and Amitav Ghosh Indian), the research demonstrates that postcolonial environmental destruction is a commonplace feature in the work of both writers. Ghosh’s texts draw attention to development as a continuing process of occupation and recognize political relationalities of sustainable development and state vampirism and its effect on Indian environments. Silko’s texts encompass Biocolonization and Environmental Racism as the systematic practices and policies that Euro-Americans draw on to extend and maintain their control over the Native Americans and their lands.Moreover the selected texts also gesture beyond historical discourse to a global context by particularizing issues that affect the planet as a whole. The research also explores how the colonial tactics of occupation are constructed through the systematic processes of knowing and materializing the colonial subjects. For theoretical framework, this research is reliant on Graham Huggan and Hellen Tiffins’ Postcolonial Ecocriticism: Literature, Animals, Environment (2010). Textual analysis has been used as a method for the analysis of the selected texts but it is further delimited to Catherine Belsey’s concept of historical background and intertextuality.
POWER DYNAMICS VIS-À-VIS IDENTITY CRISIS IN TABOO: A STYLISTIC STUDY This qualitative mode of study draws on textual analysis of Fauzia Saeed’s book Taboo from a feminist stylistic perspective. The study highlights the power exertion of standard community on marginalized community. Moreover, it focuses on the identity of women as oppressor on the same gender as well as oppressed by male gender in patriarchal society. The study also highlights the marginalization of men in brothel communities of Lahore, Pakistan. The search mainly examines the text through the lens of feminist stylistic presented by Sara Mills Model (1995). The checklist provided by Mills (1995) has been used for textual analysis at three levels, which include word level, phrase/sentence level and discourse level. The researcher studies lexical categories, grammatical features and discourse markers used by Dr. Fauzia Saeed’s in her book Taboo. Textual analysis shows the writer has used the vernaculars in order to highlight the depth of social practices in two different communities co-existing in closed vicinity. The writer also explains that how the same lexical item carries different meaning in two different settings and how the context modifies the meaning of words. The author draws a comparison of oppressor and oppressed genders in standard community and non-standard community. The writer uses figurative language, cohesive devices, contextual markers, semantic derogation and naming and andro-centricism description to describe the implied meaning of the text in order to unveil the discriminatory linguistic and social practices towards genders for readers. The findings of the research unleash the linguistic choices of dominant and oppressed genders in two different communities. The linguistic choices of genders show the power dynamics and have a crucial role in marginalization of gender, identity crisis, propagation of gender identities and ideologies in the two communities. Keywords: Power dynamics, Taboo, marginalization, double marginalization, minorities
A SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF KINSELLA’S MY (NOT SO) PERFECT LIFE This research explores the issues related to social identities with reference to My (not so) Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella. An individual’s identity is a combination of things outside an individual’s control such as the society they belong to, the culture they are brought up in, the peers they interact with, the kind of education they acquire and many such as well as some things that an individual keep on the inside such as their beliefs, values, and such. This research develops a critique Kinsella’s My (not so) Perfect Life and to support the argument, the critique has been grounded in Tajfel and Turner’s Social Identity Theory. It explains what compels an individual to make fake social identities and its consequences. This research is qualitative in nature and has employed textual analysis method. The analysis shows that a person associates self-esteem with the group they identify with and one’s social identity. If that individual finds himself inferior when compared to members in other social groups, then it leads to a lowered self-esteem. Low self-esteem pushes the individual to either leave their social group to enter the one they feel is better for them, which is called ‘exit’ or to raise the level and standing of their existing group so it stands as an equal in comparison to other groups, this is called ‘voice’. This research is also significant as it studies identity from a social perspective that is inclusive of an individual’s sensibilities.
Environmental Racism: A Critical Study of Linda Hogan’s Fiction” ABSTRACT This thesis is a critical study reflecting the insight of racism and environmental philosophy in Linda Hogan’s fiction. This study illustrates that the human beings and their non-human neighbors such as land, animals and plants are not separate; they are tied in a close relationship with one other. Environmental policies and their unjust enforcement disturb life of human beings by changing their environment. The primary purpose of this research is to delineate ways in which institutions of modernity (laws and policies) have participated in law-enforcement as well as taking control over environment and native communities. The overwhelming theme of the research is that the wave of creation and development results in the devastation of natural environment in the shape of deforestation, water pollution, land pollution and so on. Through the analysis of Linda Hogan’s fictional works, the researcher enlists several policies that harms both the Native Americans and their natural environment. These policies include relocation, zoning, road construction, dam construction, oil extraction, and war. Indigenous communities, as a marginalized group, suffer a lot due to land restriction and exploitation of their zones. They also encounter psychological trauma. Rapid industrial practices over the years have resulted in deforestation. As a consequence, many animal and plant species are swiftly becoming either extinct or endangered. This analysis reveals the treatment of human as “other”, treatment of nonhuman as “other,” and the response of “othering”. The issues that the researcher explores throughout this research are zoning and speciesism in relation to environmental racism.
Ecological Preference and Antagonistic Acculturation: An Eco-Critical/-Cultural Study of Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire The research investigates Kamila Shamsie’s HF through the lenses of Ecocriticism and Acculturation. The novel recounts the life of two families from expatriate Pakistani Muslim community living in Britain. The text under observation represents the cultural push and pull which the characters face while living in different cultural and ecological surroundings. The main argument rests on the assumption that the culture and environment, simultaneously, exert a kind of pressure over the characters in the novel that makes them react to these forces of push and pull according to their own experiences as Muslim immigrant. The study concludes that ecology that surrounds the characters becomes a source of relief; on the contrary, due to acculturative stress, they begin to develop internal resistance towards host culture and to some extent towards their native culture as well. To support the main argument of this critical study, the researcher has selected the theory presented by Stephen Kaplan and Rachel Kaplan in their work The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective along with Hirano Kenichiro’s description of cultural contact in his work “Acculturation for Resistance”. This project engages Kaplan and Kaplan’s idea of Ecological Preference to determine the push factor, and Kenichiro’s concept of Antagonistic Acculturation to explore the pull factor for the analysis of the selected text. The current study, adopting textual analysis as a research method, is likely to be a significant contribution to the production of knowledge in the area of Eco-critical/-cultural studies.