BUNYAD I Vol.

6, 2015
 BUNYĀD ⎢ Vol.6, 2015

Muhammad Safeer A‘wān *

Poetics of Cross-cultural Assimilation: A Study of

Taufiq Rafat’s1 Reflections

One of the major characteristics of literary

postmodernism is the exploration of intertextual relations
among various cross-cultural and trans-historical texts. At the
heart of such explorations is the postmodernist view that there

79
is nothing new under the sun, that all texts are dependent on
each other, or that every thing is a ‘translation’ or a re-

Muhammad Safeer Awān

rendering and re-imagination of earlier texts. The notion of
‘intertextuality’ popularized by the French theorist Julia
Kristeva is, therefore, often invoked to study literary, historical
and cultural relations among texts belonging to different time
periods and written in altogether different languages. Kristeva
framed the concept while drawing upon the theories of Russian
formalist Mikhail Bakhtin, especially his notion of diaglossia,
or the dialogic nature of texts. Intertextuality is generally taken
to refer to the interdependence of literary texts based on the
theory that a literary text is not an isolated phenomenon but is
made up of a mosaic of quotations, and that any text is the
“absorption and transformation of another”.2 Since Bakhtin and
Kristeva, other theorists have also come up with similar ideas
about the fluid and intertexual nature of texts and their
relations. For example, Baudrillard, the foremost theorist of
postmodernism, has coined the terms ‘simulation’, adaptation
and appropriation of visual texts like films.3 It is interesting
that all of these concepts may also be linked to Plato’s notion
of ‘mimesis’ or the imitation of the real world. Therefore, the
question of representation of the ‘real’ as opposed to the ‘copy’
 BUNYĀD ⎢ Vol.6, 2015

is an old one. In literary postmodernism, the idea has regained

currency with reference to the ‘construction’ of texts as well. In
the 1960s, John Barth, in the ‘literature of exhaustion’, said
that “it is impossible to write an original work”.4 In Routledge
Companion to Postmodernism (2011), Sim states:
Postmodernism embraces an extreme notion of
intertextuality, in which the play of meaning is
infinite, in which anything goes.5
Thus the new text created is layered with meanings
founded by combining the historical and cultural elements
presented in the past and the present text.
Allusions serve as the major linking chains enabling the
transference of the original text to its contemporary
representations. The idea of literary allusions serving more
than a referential purpose came with the birth of Anglo-
80

American New Criticism, as enunciated by T. S. Eliot in his

Muhammad Safeer Awān

seminal essay “Tradition and Individual Talent” where he

writes:
No poet, no artist has a complete meaning alone. His
significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of
his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot
value him alone, you must set him from contrast and
comparison among the dead.6
Eliot is ultimately focusing on the point that poetry is a
living whole of all the poetry that has ever been
written.7
Keeping in view these brief remarks about the
intercultural relations between texts, the explorations of
intertextual allusions in literary texts often yield exciting
results. Taufiq Rafat’s long poem “Reflections”, included in his
anthology Arrival of the Monsoon, is analysed here for a
wealth of intertexual references and allusions.
Not only is “Reflections” one of Rafat’s longest, most
complex poems, with significant philosophical contours and
symbolism, it is also the most important in a very personal
sense. The poem was written at a crucial time in Rafat’s life.
He suffered from a paralyzing stroke that made him bed-ridden
 BUNYĀD ⎢ Vol.6, 2015

for three years. While he was recuperating from this physical

paralysis, his poetic consciousness remained active.
“Reflections” is the outcome of those three years’ solitary
contemplation. As such, it also marked his ‘recovery’ in the
poetic sense, returning to his writing after considerable delay.
The title itself is rather philosophical, signifying, on the
one hand, the musings and thoughts of the poet as he slowly
recovered at his farm and reread many of his favourite works
from Eastern and Western literatures; on the other hand, in
terms of intertextuality, ‘reflecting’ like a mirror, numerous
scholarly references to Eastern and Western literatures,
histories, mystical thought systems, etc. Some of the major
ones are as follows:
1) Yeat’s concept of the ‘gyres’ of history;

81
2) The Buddhist (traditional) cycle of the Gautama
Story;

Muhammad Safeer Awān

3) J. L. Lowes’ The Road to Xanadu: A Study in
the Ways of the Imagination;
4) Ideas from T.S. Eliot’s prose work The Sacred
Wood and C.M. Kearns’ ideas on Eastern
influences on Eliot’s work in T.S. Eliot and
Indic Traditions;
5) Many ideas/concepts from the works of three
great Punjabi mystic poets i.e. Baba Farid,
Bulleh Shah and Sultan Bahu;
6) Various other references from Eastern Folklore,
mysticism and concepts of ‘Being’ (the Punjabi
Hondh);
7) Allusions to works/ideas of Persian mystics
Attar, Jami and Hafiz;
8) References to Edward Fitzgerald’s version of
the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam;
9) References from Robert Bridge’s The White
Goddess;
10) References from the Hindu mythological epic
the Ramayana;
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11) Ideas from G. Santayana’s Interpretations of

Poetry and Religion (1972);
12) Allusions from Li Tai Po and Lao Tse, the
classical Chinese poets;
13) Meera Bai, the Hindu mystic-poetess images;
14) T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land;
15) Ezra Pound’s Cantos;
Apart from this impressive array, there are many
images of a cultural nature, relating to the rural life, to Lahore
and its surroundings, to objects and symbols of typical Punjabi
ethos, to the Indo-Pakistan partition, etc. In totality, the poem
would be too complex and lengthy to be criticized or analyzed
in detail within these pages. A separate, book-length study
would be required to do justice to a work of such magnitude
82

and philosophical profundity. However, the main points can be

highlighted briefly.
Muhammad Safeer Awān

The basic themes of “Reflections” are three, summed up

thus:
(i) The concepts of Birth, Death and Rebirth,
linked to the natural order as well as the lives of
individuals within the larger cosmic panorama;
(ii) The relationship between life and art, as
expressed by the human desire to preserve and
explain nature, the meaning of existence and
other related mysteries, in order to find
directions for self improvement and perfection;
(iii) The mystic apprehension of the artistic, poetic
experience, as lived and felt within the bounds
of various human traditions and rituals of all
descriptions.
These themes may be dealt with on two levels, at least –
(a) the Meditations of the poet himself in the cosmic plan,
based on different intellectual and philosophical traditions from
both East and West; and (b) a technique of mirroring images
 BUNYĀD ⎢ Vol.6, 2015

and symbols from nature and the poet’s own Punjabi heritage
and surroundings to reflect deeper truths by analogy.
Taking the meditation level first, it must be kept in
mind that, Rafat was quite influenced by the writings of Ezra
Pound, T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden and, to a lesser extent, W.B.
Yeats. While he did not necessarily agree with some ideas of
Eliot’s, he admired the author of The Waste Land, most of all
his depiction of the modern wasteland that the Western
civilization turned into in the wake of two world wars. It seems
that Rafat had the modern wasteland in his mind when writing
“Reflections”. However, it is not an affirmation of T.S. Eliot’s
ideas in The Waste Land but an Eastern reply, a rejoinder or
even refutation of the same. Rafat’s essential philosophy was
coloured by his native identity. Since religious belief, in

83
diverse forms of course, is still intact in most Eastern societies
in comparison to the Western societies where it has been

Muhammad Safeer Awān

constantly waning, Rafat therefore justifies the tradition of
Eastern continuity as compared to Eliot, who sought to revive
what had been lost in his civilization. While Rafat may
complain or criticize the trends towards Westernization in
Pakistan but he is assured of his own roots and believes that the
the ‘Eastern’ cultural ethos will survive and continue in its
essential character long after the Western ‘fads’ are gone.
Rafat is a skillful story-teller, as is evident from his
narrative poems like “Mr. Nachiketa”, “Wedding in the Flood”,
“Gangrene”, and most of all “Reflections”. It is apparent from
these poems that he is not a sentimentalist; rather he is the
master of understatement who rather conveys his tragic vision
of existence with the economy of expression. Referring to his
long illness and vegetable existence on bed, and later recovery
of health and creativity, he writes:
The long dry spell is over,
Waiting is ended. The paddy fields
receive last monsoon showers
with a fierce gladness.8
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Therefore, “Reflections” can be considered Rafat’s

“Rebirth” or “Second pilgrimage” as he himself writes in the
poem. Hope is revived after struggling with illness, uncertainty
and creative inaction – “The large dry spell is over”, he says;
“there is a new briskness in the air”; “the definitions that made
us uneasy/were put aside”; though seemingly the poet’s work
“flows into the substance / like water into sand” each word is,
in fact, “irreplaceable”; and the potential to achieve deeper
understanding, or levels of consciousness, is always present
even in the worst of places at the worst of times. What is
required is basically love – which is already present and does
not need to be ‘developed’ like Eliot’s formula of “da, da, da”
– and this love has its own seasons, and all we require is to be
like the “laburnum” tree, to become “conscripted to love”. The
84

examples of such devotion or commitment abound in Eastern

poetry and lore and in the very imagery derived from trees,
Muhammad Safeer Awān

soil, water and sky. The poem is intuitive and proceeds, in a

Dionysian fashion, on its “intense, illogical way” and by virtue
of this process, is able to reach the truth denied to more
intellectual, rational schemes of order such as followed by Eliot
and other Western scholars and thinkers. These intuitive poems
and myths rooted to a culture “native to the place/ as a banyan
tree” are also developing and evolving, and never static, “…
we, their latest heirs, / must find the myths for our age” and
ensure that the “drone of the homing jet / pollinates all cultures
between Hong Kong and San Francisco”. “The Drone” of the
jet becomes the bee “drone”, moving from flower to flower,
pollinating. “This, then”, he concludes, is the ultimate task of
the poet – “the renewal of man / through the revalidation of
words”. This is also the “miracle”, or power of “one word” (the
Shabdh of Punjabi mystics, the Logos of the biblical tradition)
that is potentized – “one yes can rekindle love / or start a war.”9
The range and depth of his knowledge of other cultures
and literatures is quite visible in this poem. His interest in
Hindu mythology and Buddhist tradition is revealed by
numerous references to Ramayan, Arjun, Ganesh and Gautam.
 BUNYĀD ⎢ Vol.6, 2015

The poem even opens with a historical Buddhist reference, as

the epigraph.
Then the Blessed One said to the monks:
Behold now, mendicants, I say to you, everything is
subject to decay; press forward untiringly to
perfection.
This was his last word. (Gautam at Kusinara).10
For Rafat, the job of the artist is to restore human values,
irrespective of religion and ritual, as he says: “This, then, the
renewal of man/Through the revalidation of words/Is the poet’s
task/Poets and words are rooted in time”.11 Carrying this line of
thought further, one feels that the nature of the creative
process, in poetry especially, is one of the major concerns of
Rafat in this poem. For him action means words:
Articulate again, I find

85
white phrases tumbling in the air.

Muhammad Safeer Awān

To my outstretched hands they come
in a tightening gyre, willingly,
to be cooped in a poem’s space.12
It is obvious that, unlike Eliot, he puts faith in the
Dionysian creative process, that is, in the poetry of
spontaneous overflow of emotions recollected in tranquility or
the mystic apprehension of existence, as against the Apollonian
process of creativity as an intellectual exercise. Perhaps that is
why there is no fixed movement in “Reflections”, but it moves
“in tightening gyre”, an image invoked from the Irish poet
laureate, W.B. Yeats, or like “the winking eel”.13 He gives his
poetic and creative motto thus in the poem:
Must a man waste half a lifetime
and a million words

before he can say things

the way he wants to say them?

For words are our element,

a responsible air
 BUNYĀD ⎢ Vol.6, 2015

without mercy, or luck or only

for those who hone technique

till the craft flows into the substance

like water into sand;14
Creative process is the major theme of the poem; words
are more real than emotions, the artist’s vision, the nature of
permanence and the relevance of myths. There are brilliant
images of the red-arsed bulbuls (nightingales) injecting a dumb
tree with the songs and rhythms of life, the flashing of a
kingfisher’s wings against a brooding tree and the stillness of
herons in a pool. These images “trigger a new chain of
thought” which leads to composition till “A poem is a
monument/ Sculptured in words.”15
But his poetic vision is not mere outburst either. He
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exercises his craft “till each word is irreplaceable/but slips into

Muhammad Safeer Awān

the landscape of a poem”.16 The poem has a logical structure. It

is Rafat’s take on many philosophical problems and
metaphysical issues: “To consider permanence/is to study the
casual”.17 We are told that the poets create myths, but they
must be destroyers (of myths) too. “Reflections”, and later on
“Glimpses of Paradise”, remind one of Wallace Steven’s
preoccupations with the nature of existence. Like a
consummate artist, Rafat has carved his poem by drawing on
many intertextual references and allusions from a variety of
cultures and literary traditions.
In terms of resolution, one may offer the following
interpretation:
(a) Life, or existence, the entire universal order, is
viewed as content as well as context; and the
one cannot be without the other;

(b) And that the ‘meeting point’ where content and

context come together is the ‘Reality’, the
‘Truth’ as finally perceived by Rafat, just as it
was perceived by earlier poets and many
mystics of the Subcontinent. Baba Farīd and
 BUNYĀD ⎢ Vol.6, 2015

Bulleh Shah’s Hondh (Being / Real Living) is

thus available to us as always in a way that the
post-Eliot Western ‘wastelanders’ cannot
imagine.

We note how deeply his creative process is embedded

in his own Punjabi cultural roots and his deep interest in
Eastern cultures, religions, literatures, philosophies etc. These
find a basic place in his poetic imagination. Thus, even when
he is intertextualizing Western allusions or references, he
always remains an Easterner, a Pakistani and a Punjabi. We
never consider him as ‘divided’ between two or more cultures,
as we feel on reading the works of some other Pakistani writers
who write in English in particular. In the major bulk of his
poetry, the essential ‘Easterness’ comes out. As Pakistanis, we

87
recognize and identify with many of the symbols and images

Muhammad Safeer Awān

that he invokes and we are often amazed how accurately he
captures our culture. Indeed, of all the Pakistani poets writing
in English, he is still the one who has most closely captured
large and small aspects of our identities.18
Apart from this, he is one of the few Pakistani writers in
English who have also facility in writing in Urdu and/or a
regional language – in his case, some fine writings in Punjabi.
And, above all, with 3-4 exceptions, he is the one to undertake
the translation into English of some major regional/classical
texts i.e. the works of Baba Bulleh Shah and Qādiryār’s Pūran
Bhagat. Dr. Christopher Shackle, one of the eminent scholars
of Punjabi and the translator of the Dīvān of Khwaja Ghulām
Farīd, paid a rich tribute to Rafat by saying that he was “a
Modern Punjabi bābā”; who, in fact, was using English to
convey the wisdom of the great Punjabi Sūfīs to the world.19
Gauri Vishwanathan made the important distinction,
given below, that writings in English from ex-colonies may
take any one of the three forms:
 BUNYĀD ⎢ Vol.6, 2015

(i) Writings by natives of these countries, who are

living in them, and writing works relevant to
their situations;

(ii) Writings by people living in these countries but

“divorced” from their situations, creating “very
personal” literature or “escapist” literature;

(iii) Writings by ex-inhabitants in exile in other

countries, especially immigrants to Western
societies, who focus either on their “lost”
homelands with nostalgia or on their situations
in their new, adopted countries.20

Taufiq Rafat is one of the few, genuine Pakistani

88

writers to fall into the first category or group. Again, with very
Muhammad Safeer Awān

few exceptions, most Pakistanis writing in English fall into the

other two categories. Interestingly, the continuity of the
tradition of the first category in the writers who are producing
poetry today is also largely dependent on those who have been
directly or indirectly influenced by Rafat. Of his protégés,
Athar Tahir, Kaleem Omar and Omer Tarin are the most
noteworthy. Ejaz Rahim has also found inspiration from both
Taufiq Rafat and Daud Kamal. Indeed, we can say that the
pure, indigenous Pakistani-English poetry is even now very
much that, which established in Rafat’s “tradition”. Thus, this
tradition has proven its value and power as most vital in
Pakistani-English writings.
The writer in Rafat’s own generation who approaches
him most nearly in contributing to such developments is Daud
Kamal. In Rafat’s verse, we can find broad Eastern symbolism
like this:
he could see
the towers of Kapilvastu
where abandoned wife and child
still waited;
the tree in whose shade
 BUNYĀD ⎢ Vol.6, 2015

he had received intimations

of his destiny;
and the deer-park in Benares,
the place of his first acclaim.
“Return to Rajagriha”21
These lines refer to Buddha’s life and “Kapilvastu”,
“the [banyan] tree” and the “deer-park in Benares” are familiar
to all as Buddhist symbols. In Daud Kamal’s verse, we have a
very close parallel,
Vasanta had only been rendered insensible
by the outrage in the garden.
A sadhu watches his toe-nails grow
in his Himalyan cave.
“An Ancient Indian Coin”22
Here, the symbols are from the ancient Indian

89
mythology, such as “Vasanta”, “outrage in the garden”,
“Sadhu”, “Himalayan”. The poets’ spirit is very similar in both

Muhammad Safeer Awān

examples, with the difference that Rafat’s style is simpler while
Kamal tends towards a more complex one.
Both these poets also have a more specific, regional
symbolism, that is, in Rafat’s case Punjabi, and in Kamal’s,
Pushtun or Pakhtun. In Rafat’s poem, “Village Girl”, the girl is
compared to the sugarcane stalk; and again, in “Partridge
Calling” how the bird’s voice comes to symbolize a landscape,
or regional attitude. Both the girl-as-sugarcane (sweet, tall,
pleasing) and the partridge-Punjabi landscape – hunting
(agrarian, beautiful yet cruel) symbolic chains make distinct
impressions on the mind. We automatically bring up
associations of Punjab and its various cultural aspects. If we
take an example from Daud Kamal, we can similarly conjure a
very ‘Frontier’ image –
Alexander on horseback
Leapt over the Indus here,
Or so the story tellers say
“The Leap”23
The Indus, or Abasin, is venerated by Pushtuns. To leap
the Indus is symbolic of decisiveness, of boldness and manly
 BUNYĀD ⎢ Vol.6, 2015

courage, typical Pushtun traits. Alexander, or “Sikandar-i-

Azam” still bears a legendary reputation in the Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa and many boys are named after him even today.
The “storytellers” remind us of the Qissa-Khwani Bazar in
Peshawar, the traditional ‘Market of the Storytellers’, where
legends and myths live on in rugged, proud surroundings, over
cups of qahva. In three lines, Kamal also creates a magic of his
own. Again, we see that Rafat’s allusions are more direct, more
proverbially Punjabi; while Kamal is more obscure, creating
his own images rather than referring to Pushtun allusions.
Alamgir Hashmi is another poet who balances between
two cultures. However, he does not attempt to pretend to be
otherwise. His poetry about Pakistani themes clearly reflects an
urbanized attitude viewing rural society, or restricts itself to
90

urban topics. In other cases, he simply refers to western culture

and society, using allusions and symbolism appropriate to
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these. For example, in “Encounter with the Sirens”,

Ulysses stopped his ears
With wax and had himself bound
To the mast of the ship,
Though it was known to the world
That such things were of no help24
A witty comment, with a purely Western classical
allusion. It may be said that while Hashmi is one of those poets
who view Pakistani society through a windowpane. Rafat is the
typical desi companion and friend who shares jokes and tears
with us, sitting by our fireside. He is able to pick up all our
ways, mannerisms, customs and habits; to understand us and
appreciate us with all our strengths and weaknesses. He is a
part of this environment – a Punjabi, a Pakistani, an Asian. To
him, the voluptuous sounds of blonde sirens trying to seduce
Ulysses are not so important as the rhythmic, beautiful walk of
a tall village girl like a sugarcane stalk. His heart beats for
Waris Shah’s Heer, not some imported ideal of beauty or
grace.
 BUNYĀD ⎢ Vol.6, 2015

Acknowledgement
Back in 1999-2000, I was introduced to Rafat and his
poetry by Omer Tarin, himself a poet of note and a great
protégé of Rafat. For many fine points in this article, I am
indebted to Prof. Tarin’s insightful discussions and
explanations that he did for my benefit, then.

NOTES
* Assistant Professor, Department of English, International Islamic
University, Islamabad.

91
1
Taufiq Rafat, was born into a respectable, well-to-do family of Sialkot

Muhammad Safeer Awān

in 1927. His father was connected with business and trade while his
mother’s family belonged to the middle class of landowners. In his
poem, “The Kite Fliers”, he enshrines the memory of his maternal
uncle, Shakir Ali, who indulged in the traditional pursuits of Punjabi
Zamindars. This uncle was one of the early influences in determining
the directions of Taufiq Rafat’s later poetry and imagination. In
addition, the rural environment of villages in the Sialkot area, with the
ancient historical background of myths and mysticism, influenced him
from the very beginning. It is not surprising that he was coloured by
this influence and, in later life, he translated some classical Punjabi
literature into English including the epical Qissa Pūran Bhagat by the
poet Qādiryār. This poem is historically based in the Sialkot region, as
part of the larger Raja Risalu ‘series’ of tales and poems. We may
understand the depth of his understanding and involvement in his
native culture by this example, which Rafat was to refine into his own,
original poetry too.
After early education at the prestigious school of Dehra Dun in the
Indian Himalayas, where he was first introduced to the joys of English
literature, becoming his other lifelong passion in addition to his native
culture, he went on to study at Aligarh and then Lahore. Rafat was not
only a person with creative and literary tastes and inclinations but also
a practical-minded student, who opted to go into the world of business
and commerce for a successful livelihood. Unlike most poets of the
Subcontinent, he proved to be a success as a company executive in a
number of jobs, securing early financial security. Apart from his
 BUNYĀD ⎢ Vol.6, 2015

professional commitments, he kept on writing poetry in English as well

as Punjabi, privately in the beginning but then publishing some of his
work in papers and magazines, from time to time. He also involved
himself in English literary activities and voluntary teaching. Especially
as a visiting fellow in Government College, Lahore, where the famous
Ravi magazine printed his earliest poems and in which many literary
debates of the day were carried out by many of the top scholars, writers
and intellectuals of the Subcontinent. In this milieu, Taufiq Rafat
flourished considerably.
Between 1982-83, Rafat made excellent translations of Punjabi poetry,
including notably the works of Baba Bulleh Shah and Qadiryar’s Puran
Bhagat. In 1985, his personal collection of poetry Arrival of the
Monsoon: The Collected Poems 1947-1978 was published to great
acclaim. During this period, unfortunately, Rafat suffered serious health
problems, especially with two strokes in 1977-78. Although he
recovered gradually from these setbacks, he lost a great deal of his
92

energy and decided to retire, by and large, to a small farm he had

purchased near Bedian, Lahore. Here, with his usual zest for life, he
Muhammad Safeer Awān

continued to write and meet literary people although he retired more

and more into a self-imposed isolation as he suffered later relapses of
illness, ending in a series of strokes which left him partially paralyzed
and unable to speak. However, he struggled on bravely, and with
humour, until his demise in 1998. The Oxford University Press
(Pakistan) later published some of his newer poems posthumously.
2
J. A. Cuddon, The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary
Theory (Penguin Books, 2000).
3
Andrew Bennet & Nicholas Royale, Introduction to Literature,
Criticism and Theory (India: Pearson Education, 2004), p.252–4.
4
Tim Woods, Beginning Postmodernism (USA: Manchester University
Press, 2007), p.52.
5
Stuart Sim (Ed.), The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism (UK:
Roultledge, 2011), p.256.
6
T. S. Eliot, Selected Prose of T. S. Eliot, Edited and introduction by
Frank Kermode (Mariner Books, 1975), p. 781.
7
Ibid., p. 762.
8
Taufiq Rafat, Arrival of the Monsoon; Collected Poems (Vanguard:
Lahore, 1985), p. 78.
9
Ibid.
10
Ibid., p. 78.
11
Ibid., p. 89.
12
Ibid., p. 78–79.
13
Ibid., p. 79.
 BUNYĀD ⎢ Vol.6, 2015

14
Ibid., p. 79–80.
15
Ibid., p. 82.
16
Ibid., p. 80.
17
Ibid., p. 84.
18
For a more detailed study of this aspect of his poetry, please see my
article ‘Eastern Symbolism and the Recovery of Selfhood’, published
in the Kashmir Journal of Language Research, vol.14, No.2, 2011.
19
Apparently, this remark was made by Dr. Shackle, at the First
International Writers’ Conference, Islamabad, 1995. Taufiq Rafat was
also present as one of Pakistan’s delegates to this landmark conference.
20
G. Vishwanathan, “An Introduction: Uncommon Genealogies” in Ariel.
31.1&2 (2000). pp.13-31.
21
Taufiq Rafat, p. 58.
22
Muneeza Shamsie (Ed), A Dragonfly in the Sun: An Anthology of
Pakistani Writings in English (Karachi: OUP, 1997).
23
Ibid.

93
24
Alamgir Hashmi, “Encounter with the Sirens” in My Second in
Kentucky (Lahore: Vision Press, 1981), p.17.

Muhammad Safeer Awān

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Eliot, T.S. Selected Prose of T. S. Eliot. Edited and introduction by Frank
Kermode. Mariner Books (1975)
Hashmi, Alamgir. “Encounter with the Sirens” in My Second in Kentucky.
Lahore: Vision Press, 1981.
Rahman, Tariq. A History of Pakistani Literature in English. Lahore:
Vanguard, 1991.
Shamsie, Muneeza (Ed.). Dragonfly in the Sun: An Anthology of Pakistani
Writing in English. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Sim, Stuart. (ed.) The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism, 3rd edition.
UK: Roultledge, 2011.
Vishwanathan, G. “An Introduction: Uncommon Genealogies” in Ariel.
31.1&2 (2000). pp.13-31.
Woods, Tim. Beginning Postmodernism. USA: Manchester University
Press, 2007.