i Construction of Fluctuated Identities: A Close Reading of The Blind Man’s Garden by Nadeem Aslam and Redbirds by Mohammad Hanif

Abstract

This study closely reads Nadeem Aslam’s The Blind Man’s Garden (2013) and Mohammad Hanif’s Red Birds (2018) to focus on how representation of identity fluctuation happens due to the 9/11 war on terror. The main goal of the research is to explore how Aslam and Hanif have presented the identity issues in their writings and connect the representations with the portrayal of similar issues in the broad domain of Pakistani Anglophone fiction. The current research explores the portrayal of fluctuated identities in post-9/11 literary writings, with close interpretation of The Blind Man’s Garden and Red Birds. It examines the socio-political turmoil that changes the identities of people reflects in Pakistani narratives. The current study examines the selected writings, author's use of language, and the historical backdrop to construct fluctuated identities of characters in the novels by using Close Reading Textual Analysis by Catherine Belsey. This research employs the theoretical framework of postcolonial studies and the perspective of identity by Homi. K Bhabha (1994). It focuses on how identity plays vital role in the lives of people and how their identity changes over the specific time, due to different situations. This study explores the deeper structure of the selected texts by close reading technique and brings out the major thematic concerns of the selected writings. It mainly focuses on the overall Pakistani narratives about identity fluctuation, to connect it with novels chosen in order to make a new contribution to research. This study contributes to understanding the influence of global happenings on native identities and highlights the significance of literature in proposing dynamic standpoints on socio-political disturbances in Pakistan and its literature