Postcolonial Feminism and Pakistani Fiction

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the presence of feminism in Pakistani fiction in the postcolonial perspective and attempts to glocalize the feministic trends available in Pakistani fiction in terms of the wider scenario of feminism in the world. The women’s portrayal in Pakistani fiction shows a remarkable feministic tendency of the writers in accordance with the changing times in Indo-Pak subcontinent under the influence of British colonialism in India. The first change in the portrayal of women came because of the reformist agenda of the Indian Muslims and the second major development took place because of the Progressive Writers Movement, which provided a basis for the new images of women created by the modern Pakistani diaspora writers. Therefore, most of the issues discussed by the Pakistani writers of fiction can be discussed and analyzed with reference to the theory of postcolonial feminism. The paper deals with the differences between Western feminism and postcolonial feminism in the light of views of postcolonial critics regarding various aspects of postcolonial feminism. With reference to this discussion, an endeavor will be made to explore postcolonial feminist fiction to assess the role of fiction writers in representing the issues of women in the context of Pakistani political situation.