WESTERN FEMINISM AND PAKISTANI WOMEN’S NARRATIVES: A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE HEART DIVIDED

Abstract

The present study is a stylistics analysis of The Heart Divided, written by Mumtaz Shahnawaz. The data is the novel that covers the story of a Muslim family before partition, when Hindus and Muslims lived happily in the same state. The researcher has used feminist stylistics as a research framework to analyze how women are presented. This research focuses on how the position of women as actors is presented in the text. The research is qualitative, and the selected text, The Heart Divided, has been analyzed using a feminist framework. The text has been analyzed particularly regarding the three levels Sara Mills introduced: words, phrases/sentences and discourse indicate gender. This research argues that the image of females in society is passive, distorted, submissive, and dependent and women’s actions are reactions to men’s actions on them. Further, the research shows that men exploit women. This research is significant because it may enhance the knowledge of the readers and researchers about Pakistani literature and will be addition to the knowledge about applying a feminist stylistic framework.