Сommenting on “Notes of Larionov”, Mikhail Shishkin defined his own authorial role in it as follows: «A novel is a means of finding the way to that very primordial love. The author for the characters is similar to God». One can extrapolate this by saying that the author is not only and not as much God to the fictional characters as a ps…[Read more]

To determine the social status of a person, Sorokin coined the idea of Social space. This theme is useful in analyzing the relative position of a person in one’s group and one’s horizontal or vertical movement within and to other groups. Novel is a symbolic space, which makes possible for writers to construct the relative social status of…[Read more]

In this article, much discussed and popular novel of Nazir Ahmad, Miratul Uroos is analyzed in gender perspective. With the analysis of its main character Asghari, it is argued that novelistic fiction brings about in Urdu literature possibilities of human Agency, especially for the hitherto silenced voices of oppressed gender. This character also…[Read more]

Urdu literature saw a “Reform boom” in the second half of nineteenth century. Most of the literati were engaged in understanding, and presenting their views on, the rapidly changing world around them. This article analyses a text produced in 1893 by Shad Azeemabadi, enhancing the need for reform in the Zenana. By underscoring the relationship of…[Read more]

Nazir Ahmad, often considered to be the first Urdu novelist, used narratives for understanding the quickly changing world around him, and in his work, shaped expanding possibilities and new roles for Muslim ashrāf women. Although he is usually thought of as a cleric who had a traditional approach towards society and new forms of knowledge, in…[Read more]