UCP Journal of Languages & Literature (HEC Recognized-Y Category)

A Study of Karen Horney’s Neurotic Crisis in Nadeem Aslam’s The Golden Legend (2017)

fatima tarik — 2024-10-09

This research paper tends to explore the anxiety caused by the absence of love and affection, which generates complexes in the personality of the sufferers. The Golden Legend by Nadeem Aslam is a satisfactory illustration of the neurotic crisis, presented by Karen Horney. This paper highlights the calamity of “basic anxiety” (Horney) caused by interpersonal and mutual relationships. It leads a person to develop the yearning for compliance, withdrawal or aggression (Horney), as all the characters in the novel develop their personality with the urging desire for stability, while the trauma is instilled in their minds by the dominant societal factors. It is an exorbitant novel about the mental trauma executed on the minds of the margins of society by the intolerant and aggressive attitude of the majority class. This novel revolves around the character of Nargis, who after her husband's death is in search of stability and tries to find solace in the people around her but the society and norms cause neurosis in her personality. The neurosis disturbs the basic health and energy of the mind, which leads to the alienation process. The same crisis is with the other characters of the novel, as Imran, Helen, Lily and Ayesha are going through the same struggle to fit in society but the strict beliefs do not allow them to have their basic right of love and affection. This deprivation creates mental illness, which develops the traumatic situation. This paper views the novel through the character’s yearning for company, love and kindness. The gap is created in the formation of healthy relationships due to fixed societal prejudice and anger against the marginalized class, causing evil in the society "Basic Evil' (Horney). This gap widens when these people start hiding themselves under the veil of aggressive and compliant attitude. So this paper analyses the fear in the hearts of the people due to societal build boundaries.

Foucault's Power Knowledge Discourse and Panoptical Strands in the Construction of Psyche and Decoloniality in Light in August

Saliha Junaid — 2024-10-09

This research paper intends to explore the revolting resistance by the blacks and the problematic domains of reconstructionist movements and white ostracism under the dominant ideology of white supremacists. The black existential crisis and search for identity has led a creation of 'black burden' through the ironic conception of the white man's burden. The American literature is engulfed with the dominant thematic concerns of racial traumas, identity crisis and white superior regimes under their colonial matrix of power. Contrarily to this notion, Light in August represents a revolutionary rebellion and violent case of resistance against the privileged ideologies in Mississippi through the protagonist Joe Christmas. Significantly, the selected text, Light in August is a unique masterpiece as it introduces the notion of black Xenophobia against whites who are already labelled with their white xenophobic concepts. In this regard, this paper utilizes the theoretical framework of power, knowledge and panoptic theory represented by Michel Foucault. It highlights that both white power produces their knowledge and discourse upon blacks to make them feel, inferior and subjugated under the dominance of their white color who keep an eye on the negroes. The paper brings into account sadomasochism and psychoanalytical neurotic stratifications in the blacks through Foucault's perspectives. Besides the exploration of black racial resistance, the paper puts forth the issue of white religious fanaticism in context of white ostracism in order to call for the decolonial agenda as its fundamental motif. Thus, this research paper provides some solving strategies to the questions regarding the methodologies of black resistance and white ostracism.

A Quest for Balance: Reconciling the Apollonian and Dionysiac Poles in Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Muhammad Masroor Zafar — 2024-10-09

This research article examines Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance using Nietzsche's theory of Apollonian and Dionysiac impulses as a framework. It sees the motorcycle journey in the novel as an Apollonian quest for balance and harmony in the tumultuous world of 1960s America. Apollo represented rationality, clarity, and order while Dionysus symbolized irrationality, ecstasy, and chaos. This tension between order and chaos fuels the evolution of the narrator’s consciousness through the motorcycle journey to unity and a holistic understanding of life. Applying Nietzsche’s dichotomy between Apollonian and Dionysiac, this article studies the novel as a quest for balance between order and chaos, reason and emotion. The study investigates the conflict between the character of the narrator and his alter ego, Phaedrus, as a reason for the quest for Apollonian harmony and understanding. Moreover, it examines Phaedrus’s trajectory from madness to reconciliation and the role of Chris in facilitating the narrator’s reconciliation with Phaedrus through memories and flashbacks. The methodology involves close reading and textual analysis of the novel’s quest narrative by the character of the narrator throughout the motorcycle journey. The approach elaborates on the natural imagery of plains, mountains, and oceans, which is symbolic and parallels the novel's plot. The approach analyses the author's perspective on the conflict between the counter-culture and the mainstream culture. The narrator's first-person narrative is examined for the quest narrative technique of the novel, which pursues balance and harmony. The study also highlights Pirsig’s criticism of Western culture and the modern human condition. Hence, the study seeks the reconciliation of Apollonian and Dionysian impulses within the narrative, offering insights into the human condition and Pirsig’s recommendation for the pursuit of Apollonian understanding. The research contributes to the understanding of modern humanity's pursuit of balance and harmony in the twenty-first century.

Entrapment of Dualistic Binaries in William Golding’s Lord of The Flies

Hina Ali Khan — 2024-10-09

This essay analyzes how William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies creates the dualistic binary of culture versus nature and women versus men. I draw upon Marti Kheel, Val Plumwood and Sherry B. Ortner’s studies to examine how the novel reinforces the problematic dualistic binary of culture versus nature and men versus women. Through qualitative analysis of textual references, this essay discovered that selected fiction by situating masculine characters in dominant position and by placing feminine characters in an oppressed state, establishes the dominance over culture over nature and men over women. In addition, this essay uncovered how the novel by using feminine metaphors associates nature with women and culture with men and reaffirms the subjugation of nature and women in the hands of culture and men. This essay helps in identifying the crucial role of literature in constructing and maintaining the structures of domination leading to inequality in society.

Pragma-Rhetoric Analysis of Political Discourse: A Case of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s Victory Speech

Summiya Azam — 2024-10-03

Political discourse (PD) plays a significant role in disseminating political ideologies. Previous studies mainly examined PD from a critical discourse perspective ignoring the significant contribution of the pragma-rhetorical approach that provides systematic tools for multi-level analysis of discursive contextualization of political power struggle and confrontation. The current study investigates the use of different speech acts and modes of rhetoric used by Pakistan’s PM Shahbaz Sharif in his victory speech, for effective persuasion, and to detect communicative and persuasive intentions. In the current study, qualitative data analysis is conducted through thematic analysis by utilizing Searle’s (1969) speech acts theory, Lucas’s (2009) persuasive appeals, McQuarrie’s and Mick’s (1996) rhetorical devices as theoretical frameworks. The findings reveal that the representatives were the most frequently used speech acts, in contrast, the least frequently used speech acts were expressive. Moreover, the frequency of persuasive intention was 59% which is higher than the communicative intentions that showed the speaker was inclined to persuade his audience by asserting facts and making promises.