Analysing the Intersection of Marxist and Postcolonial Paradigms in Selected Pakistani English Fiction

Abstract

This paper analyses the intersection of Marxism and postcolonial paradigms in selected Pakistani English fiction. Invoking debates on classical Marxism and post- Marxism, especially Louis Althusser and Fredrick Jameson, this paper discusses areas of class, class consciousness, and ideological class structures in the selected fiction of Daniyal Mueenuddin’s In Other Rooms Other Wonders, Raza Rabbani’s Invisible People, H. M. Naqvi’s Home Boy, and Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers. The study also invokes Jameson’s thoughts on imperialism to analyse the first world/third world dichotomy, and the growth of third world voices within imperial metropolises. This selection of fiction is warranted for the reason that Pakistani fiction does not generally approximate major facets of class and the changing dynamics of capitalism in today’s globalised world. In doing so, this paper explicates social realism in Pakistani fiction from a broad range of Marxist and post-Marxist theoretical perspectives, thereby highlighting class variations in Pakistani fiction. It also signifies how Pakistani fiction in English is coping with the changing dynamics of global capitalism while foregrounding how Pakistan, as a postcolonial state, is grappling with the feudalcapitalist system, class stratification, wide rural-urban divide and uneven economic development. Keywords: Marxism; post-Marxism; class consciousness; Pakistani anglophone Fiction