An Exploration of Discourse and Power in Shah’s A Season for Martyrs: A Foucauldian Perspective

Abstract

This paper examines and evaluates the interplay between discourse and power in the pre and post Partition socio-political landscape of Pakistan in general and the Sindh province in particular in Bina Shah’s novel, A Season for Martyrs (2014) by employing Michel Foucault’s theorization of power and discourse. It is contended that the colonialism’s practice of generating the so-called imperialistic discourse in a bid to legitimize the colonization process and to establish supremacy in the pre-Partition subcontinent is put into practice, though in morphed form, in modern day Pakistani socio-political space as well. The Colonizer’s place has been taken over by Pakistani elites in contemporary society. This article also makes the point that the colonial legacy remains alive in Pakistan with the United States at the helm of affairs and a potent intervention in Pakistan’s internal affairs validating neocolonialist paradigms in the contemporary world. The dichotomy between the elite and non-elite is pervasively prevalent phenomenon bedeviling Pakistan. By analyzing the characters in the novel, the current study postulates that the influential politicians, spiritual leaders (Peers), military cum bureaucratic elites and feudal lords exploit, control, suppress and violate the rights of common people. It is also argued that the suppressed ones resist the multifaceted oppression. However, the resistance never succeeds in reining in the exploitation thereby creating the vicious cycle of power and resistance. The research becomes incremental in understanding the role of literature in power discourse in Pakistan and beyond.