by Sofia Hussain and Dr. Munazza Yaqoob, International Islamic University, Pakistan
Please ask questions or respond in the comments.
Video Presentation: “Telling the Untold Tales of Women’s Hearts: A Study of Fiction in English by Pakistani and Indian Women Authors”
Filed under miscellaneous oddities, Speakers, Uncategorized, Video Presentations
Dr Munazza Yaqoob & Ms Sofia Hussain, this presentation is a valuable addition in the archive of women studies. it is indeed a good intellectual effort to highlight the contribution of Pakistan women writers not only in raising the voice of marginalized women but also to understand complex psyche of Pakistani women. This presentation has raised many debatable issues related to Pakistani society particularly the communication gap between two genders which forces women to indulge themselves in self-talking or interior monologues.
Now when I see around I realize how confined we had been in our internal world. Fearing to raise our voices we kept ourselves in cocoon. interior monologue was our escape to find some space to reflect our thoughts but at the same time it can be seen as a form of resistance by women who refuse to conversate with oppressers. This interior monologue most of the time can be seen as shattering of ones personality; a person who is all broken and scattered until and unless there is a hope and support to express what one wants to. Women and all marginalized groups need to have space to express so that we may understand them. Without discovering the untold stories and without listening to all the voices human civilization can’t be steered to better direction.
Agreed Sonia, interior monologues in these fictional texts serve as silent form of resistance but women authors have attempted to voice this silence and thereby registered the resistance
narrative style and strategies of women authors are different from male authors; what are points of difference and why? though both are representing social reality…. this is the central research question of this presentation.
Dr. Munazza Yaqoob, another very interesting point of this resistance is “homogeneity of suppression” of women of lower and upper classes. so these stories are also helping to bridge the gap or gulf which exist between women of those social classes. through these stories women of both classes have realized that class difference does not matter; their problems are same and their marginalization is similar in nature. in this regard these authors’ work should be appreciated who have transcended social boundaries and have discusses problem of all women.
Dr Munazza Yaqoob, “narrative style and strategies of women authors are different from male authors”..This disjointed, broken style in some ways, is also a manifestation of these writers’ own complicated and marginalized position.
Well, I find this video presentation by Dr. Munazza Yaqoob and Sofia Hussain very informative. As we see that women are always marginalized in the society. No matter how educated we are but still the power, anger and strength is shown by men on women whether physically or mentally. The narrative style and strategies which we see in women author’s books, are far more different then men.As we all know that silence is captivating so we also see this technique in the narration style. Female author delineate the inner feelings in the form of long monologues, which made the women anti social. They becomes self obsessed. The gender discrimination is quite obvious. The most important technique in narration is the development of one’s *consciousness*. The narrative style is broken like it is said in presentation because of flashback technique. But what i think is that broken patterns are more attractive and it gives a gripping read and attract the male’s psyche. As we know women are not provided with proper platform to express there voice, so there untold stories as a fiction will lead us all to think otherwise. This presentation sums up everything very well.
I must say that it is a magnificent piece of work by Dr. Munazza Yaqoob and Ms. Sofia Hussain. I would like to appreciate their in-depth analysis on the psyche of women of sub-continent. very few people have this capability to think so deeply and profoundly and highlight the actual dilemma of women of our society.
This presentation has also brought to limelight the efforts of Pakistani and Indian women writers in this regard so i would like to appreciate their efforts to project women issues through their research. Very good effort indeed.
I had enjoyed attending the presentation of this paper at the International Conference and did even more over this forum .
1)consciousness 2) documentation 3)working collectively to safeguard the rights of women – the agenda of the female writers from this part of the world …!
…the broken narratives, the stream of consciousness ,the internal musings …this is something we discussed in detail with our teachers at the English Reading Forum as well .
all in all , a thoroughly interesting research paper . I ,congratulate Dr.Munazzza Yaqoob and Ms.Sophea Hussain on getting their research published.
PS : what i find interesting is that there are hardly any female writers from Pakistan who depict the supression and marginalization of women, at the hands of women …
Madiha, don’t think that it is interesting to attend a conference while sitting at home through this video presentation. I also feel as if I have the real experience of this conference held by the marginalized mainstream. rather this video has given advantage of this debate as well. we all have discussed it n have come up with different perspectives:) I am grateful to the organizers of this conference to comeup with new innovative idea of video uploading
so Madiha I m happy these techniques your teachers discuss with you in the classrooms..It is pleasant to see that people from post-colonial world are now more aware of their post-colonial condition and they are making efforts to raise consciousness of others about themselves as well. Teachers are playing the best part in this process
graduate classes are engaged in critical debates on post-colonial authors like Bapsi sidhwa, Uzma Aslam, Kamla Shamsi, Hanif Muhammad, Khushwat Singh n many more.
PS. Madiha for your information, Tehmina Durrani in her fiction Blasphemy has talked about the oppression of women at the hands of women.
Ok ma`am …Thank you for the clarification ,I am sorry there was a big misunderstanding on my part
. And yes, the video blogging kind of a presentation is real good
PS: I always thought tehmina durrani is a one-book author . glad to know of her other work . i surely will give her work a read in a couple of weeks n we will discuss it whenever you are free ma`am .