پتھریلے شہر
میں شام کی اداس پگڈنڈی پر دن بھر کے تھکے سورج کی مانند بیٹھا تھا
’’کیوں ‘‘۔۔۔۔۔ ’’کس لیے‘‘
میں اپنے وجود کی نفی کے بارے میں سوچ رہا تھا
منتشر خیالات کا سیلِ رواں رگوں میں محو ِ گردش تھا
ذہن تاریک جھونپڑے کی مانند آزاردہ تھا
شوریدہ سری میری بینائی نگل چکی تھی
میں تصورات کے پتھروںسے ٹھوکریں کھاتا ہوا
اس جھونپڑے میں جا پہنچا جہاں کبھی زندگی ہار دی تھی
اچانک ایک ٹھوکر سے بینائی بحال ہو گئی
Taking an ‘analogical’ approach to the issue, this study reads the saga of Atiya Fyzee’s relationship with Shibli Nomani and Allama Iqbal as a plausible allegory of the transforming cultural relationship of the Muslims of the subcontinent with English (in what this term comes to mean as a language, as a discipline of studies, and as a synecdoche of Western culture). The history of this cultural interaction since the British colonization I have divided into three broad phases: the initial, the middle, and the present. The initial phase I earlier dealt with by exploiting Sheikh Muhammad Ikram’s analogy, later employed by Nasir Abbas Nayyar, that Shibli’s attitude towards English was the same as his attitude towards his step-mother at home. English, in other words, was a stepmother for Shibli, and for the generations represented through his figure in this early phase of cultural interaction of the Muslims of the subcontinent with the language. The present paper focuses on how one can analogically read in the personal histories of the representative figures of this culture the stories of how in the subcontinent the larger cultural reception of English gradually changed from being treated as a ‘step-mother’(and hence forging with her a relationship of cultural exchange) to being treated as a ‘social butterfly’ or a ‘social sweetheart’, as a symbol of liberal humanist high culture, and how such terms of cultural engagement with English were unacceptable to both Shibli and Iqbal. The paper closes on how even this image of English as high culture gradually dissolved with the cultural disintegration wrought by an ever-increasing and relentless consumerist culture in the postcolonial times.
Title: Subscription or Subversion: Gender Representation in Pakistani TV Commercials. The current interdisciplinary research falls into the domains of semiotics, linguistics and cultural studies. Television commercials, having the power to (re)frame the ideology of larger audience through its visual/linguistic content and agency to pave the way to social change have become one of the most viable social institutions of disseminating information to a wider audience. In any of its forms, media construct the image of men and women differently associating with them specific traits regarding their activities, roles and position. The commercials are considered persuasive and efficient modes of representation, having strong impact on the social perception of the viewers. The current study aims to investigate the representation of gender-binary relations in the Pakistani television commercials. The study also imbues the broader socio-cultural factors which help to identify the representational and positional value of men and women. The study analyzes whether gender representation in the Pakistani television commercials subscribes to or subverts the traditional gender narratives. The researcher finds a gap in the area of research, as most of the studies have been produced on gender equality and representation in the Euro-American sphere and a few in Pakistani context, but there is a wide scope of research on gender representation with semiotic perspective. The current study draws its theoretical foundation on the theory of semiotics propounded by Dyer (1982) in her book Advertising as Communication. Semiotics is conceived as an appropriate tool for the critical inquiry of the television commercials because of its widely ranging acceptability and reliability in the meaning making process as suggested by Williamson (1978), Dyer (1982) and Jhally (1990). The data for the current study comprises television commercials broadcast on famous Pakistani television channels. The sampling technique is based on non-probability purposive sampling with the rationale of choosing this technique to include only those commercials which largely reflect gender representation. The study finds that the commercials present layers of meanings via semiotic modes at symbolic level where men and women are displayed in stereotypical manner, subscribing to patriarchal structures. The study recommends the change in the content of the televised material and also highlights the unexplored avenues which can be brought under considerations by the future researchers.