GENDERED AND LIMINAL SPACES: MAPPING FEMALE HETEROTOPIAS IN AWAIS KHAN’S NO HONOUR

Abstract

This study examines the presence of female heterotopias in No Honour (2021) by Awais Khan. By using Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia (1967), this study demonstrates both real and imaginary spaces, analyzing how these socio- and physical spaces are constructed to retain women, but at the same time, they are imaginary platforms for resistance. Emerging writers, including Awais Khan, have contributed to the examination of these issues, including honour killings and violence against women in Pakistani society. South Asian literature extensively explores themes such as identity and belonging, gender and feminism, and caste and class. The present study employs Catherine Belsey's textual analysis as the analytical framework, which facilitates a detailed examination of the novel's textual representations of gender and space. This study, using Foucault’s concept of heterotopia (1967) in conjunction with Belsey’s textual analysis, presents an insightful analysis of how No Honour (2021) portrays female heterotopias in patriarchal societies and to what extent the system of honour, power and shame influences the fate of female characters of the novel.