History fiction interface in select contemporary Pakistani novels in English

Abstract

Pakistan has a very turbulent history out of which certain events remain discussed inefficiently in national historiography on account of state-cum-military sponsored discursive restraints. The thesis undertakes to discuss them both, events as well as discursive restraints, through three selected novels: Noor (2003) by Sorayya Khan; A Case of Exploding Mangoes (2008) by Mohammed Hanif; and The Geometry of God (2008) by Uzma Aslam Khan. 1971 civil war, which gave birth to Bangladesh, is discussed through various, some of them totally contradictory, perspectives in the chapter titled The Violence of History: Noor . The selected novel breaks the eerie silence around the watershed moment in Pakistan s history and after engaging with the war issues in details furnishes the solution of forgiveness in order to heal the unattended wounds of soldiers and common public caused by the biased polity. Military s omnipresence keeps the discourses in check in Pakistan but the English novel as a genre seems to navigate through cracks in military bandwagon. The chapter titled Problematization of History: A Case of Exploding Mangoes brings to fore military dictator General Zia ul-Haq s attempts at Islamization during his reign (1977-1988) and how he was killed in a plane crash which still remains a mystery. Hanif s lampooning of Zia divests him of his looming personality as a military strongman in then Pakistan while sending the message to the contemporary military ruler General Pervez Musharraf. The chapter Fictional Gateways to History: The Geometry of God traces the socio-political journey of Pakistan beginning from Zia s era through Musharraf s early years in the twenty-first century. Finally, Conclusion duly establishes that contemporary English fiction has become an agential discourse against as well as along with history or the absence thereof in Pakistan. newline