No abstract

Partitioning of the subcontinent into Pakistan and India is a mega event in the history of South Asia that haunts the minds of the inhabitants because of the untold destruction and the atrocities inflicted on the migrants. The later generations come to know of the havocs carved on women's bodies mostly through stories of the victims or who witnessed molestation of women. In this connection, this article aims to critically analyze the novel Ice-Candy Man by Sidhwa which delineates the defilement of women at the periphery. The views of different feminist critics constitute the theoretical framework while Fairclough’s social discourse model serves as a methodological framework. For analysis, the technique of Content Analysis has been employed. The findings reveal that Sidhwa has caricatured the predicament of the women whose bodies became sites for male aggression as icons of the ethnic groups during the communal strives. They undergo physical and sexual furiousness of men before, during, and after the partition. Men dehumanized them to disgrace the opponents/the other. The novel may, further, be studied from psychoanalytical, cultural, and Marxist perspectives.

The focus of this study is to highlight the syntax of the negation marker in Urdu serial verbs. There are two types of serial verb constructions (SVCs) in Urdu. In SVC 1, negation marker either precedes both verbs or it comes in between SVC, whereas in SVC 2 single negation marker either comes in between SVC or double negation precedes both verbs in sequence. The insertion of single negation marker in SVC does not affect the agreement phenomenon in Urdu and it merely adds supplementary negation reading in the sentence. However, the double negation affects the agreement i.e. the basic construction of SVC-1 where the first verb remains frozen and the last verb shows agreement in terms of number, person, and gender but when double negation comes in SVC- 1 it converts the construction into SVC-2 where both verbs show agreement, and negation marker shows agreement in terms of aspect on first verb. Under the Minimalist Program, both negation markers originate under TP which is similar to Chomsky’s representation of negation in clause. First negation marker in double negation constituent takes the frozen verb as its compliment and becomes cause of its inflection, whereas the second negation marker is the specifier of the second verb which is similar to Bukhari’s analysis

This study intends to find out the position of women living in Pakistan during the process of their self-discovery and search for identity to become strong enough for an honourable survival. The study has been conducted through a textual analysis of Sidhwa’s novel The Bride while focusing on language, different customs and events represented by the author to highlight the patriarchal structures. The study also examines that women have been treated as commodities and objects without caring for their desires. Their disrespect of patriarchal notions may deprive them of existence as human beings. It pinpoints that women are oppressed, subjugated and marginalized through patriarchal structures rampant in the society like marriage, family and the concept of hounour. Any struggle to get liberation from oppression results in sexist violence.