Place and Postcolonial Ecofeminism: Pakistani Women’s Literary and Cinematic Fictions

244 Pages·2019·5.219 MB·English

by  Shazia Rahman

Place and Postcolonial Ecofeminism
Expanding Frontiers:
Interdisciplinary Approaches
to Studies of Women,
Gender, and Sexuality
SerieS editorS:
Karen J. Leong
Andrea Smith
Place and Postcolonial Ecofeminism
Pakistani Women’s Literary and Cinematic Fictions
Shazia rahman
University of Nebraska Press / Lincoln
© 2019 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska
An earlier version of chapter 1 was published as “Land, Water,
and Food: Eco- cosmopolitan Feminist Praxis in Sabiha
Sumar’s Khamosh Pani” in Environmental Communication:
A Journal of Nature and Culture 5, no. 2 (June 2011): 187– 201.
Used with permission.
An earlier version of chapter 4 was published as “Karachi,
Turtles, and the Materiality of Place: Pakistani Eco-
cosmopolitanism in Uzma Aslam Khan’s Trespassing” in isle:
Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 18,
no. 2 (Spring 2011): 261– 82. Used with permission of Oxford
University Press.
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Rahman, Shazia, author.
Title: Place and postcolonial ecofeminism: Pakistani
women’s literary and cinematic fictions / Shazia Rahman.
Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019.
| Series: Expanding frontiers | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2018042177
iSbn 9781496213419 (cloth: alk. paper)
iSbn 9781496215123 (pbk.: alk. paper)
iSbn 9781496216113 (epub)
iSbn 9781496216120 (mobi)
iSbn 9781496216137 (pdf)
Subjects: lcSh: Pakistani fiction (English)— Women
authors— History and criticism. | Pakistani fiction— Women
authors— History and criticism. | Pakistan— In literature.
| Women in literature. | Environmentalism in literature.
| Motion pictures— Pakistan— History and criticism. |
Pakistan— In motion pictures. | Women in motion pictures.
| Environmentalism in motion pictures.
Classification: lcc pr9540.4 r34 2019 |
ddc 823/.92099287095491— dc23
lc record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2018042177
Set in Merope by Mikala R. Kolander.
To all my sisters, especially the women in Pakistan,
for their strength and determination.
To Ammi and Abbu,
for letting me be me.
To Shiraz,
for understanding the power of story.

maiñ miṭṭī merā janam miṭṭī
maiñ miṭṭī ko kaise chhoṚūñ?
How can I, born of the soil,
Renounce it?
Fahmida riaz
I think we learn to be worldly from grappling with, rather
than generalizing from, the ordinary. I am a creature of the
mud, not the sky.
donna haraway

Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction: The Place That Is Pakistan 1
1. Punjab: Eco- cosmopolitan Feminism 23
2. Thar: Bioregionalism 53
3. Bengal: Vernacular Landscape 81
4. Karachi: Pakistani Eco- cosmopolitanism 113
5. Displacement: Animalization 141
Conclusion: Justice for All 167
Notes 175
References 193
Index 211