Re-Orientalising Partition: Internalised Trauma and Cultural Self-Representation in Between the Dust and Clay

Abstract

Pakistani English literature often walks a fine line between staying rooted in local culture and appealing to international audiences, particularly in how it presents gender roles and traditions. Farroqi’s Between Clay and Dust (2012) is a compelling example of this tension, portraying rural Pakistani society through the lens of anglophone writer. However, such portrayals raise important questions about whether they reinforce Western stereotypes or challenge them or present the general true picture of the society. This study examined the novel through the lens of Lau’s Re-orientalism theory, to explore how Farooqi represent Pakistani culture in the context of internalization and self-orientalizing, hybridity and fluidity, commercialization and commodification. The research used textual analysis as method of analysis. The analysis showed that there are considerable evidences in the selected Pakistani novels that suggest that Pakistani anglophone writers are engaged in the act of Re-orientalism through internalizing, self-orientalising, presentation of hybridity and fluidity of ideologies and identities, and commecialisation and commodification of cultural tropes that are cherishingly devoured by western readers and are a commercial success at global level. The study ends with the recommendations that more novels could be studied from the said perspective in order to gather more evidence and certain other tenets of re-orientalism could also be added in future researches.