Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature

Mugdho’s Uttara: An Account of a Battlefield of Conscience

H. M. Nazmul Alam — 2026-06-25

Narrative Authority, Paratext, and Identity in R. F. Kuang’s Yellowface

Nadira Puškar Mustafic — 2026-06-25

In this paper, I use a narratological approach to analyse the use of metafiction, untrustworthy first-person narration, and paratext in R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface (2023). The novel’s self-referential highlighting of authorship as a constructed act of performance places it in the context of metafiction, as defined by Patricia Waugh and Linda Hutcheon. Wayne C. Booth, James Phelan, and Greta Olson help explain the degrees and effects of unreliable narration in the novel. June Hayward, its central character, transforms from a first-person unreliable narrator into an untrustworthy one. According to Gérard Genette, paratext, or material surrounding stories, influences how they are received and may destabilise their narrative authority. Yellowface exposes how the publishing industry and digital discourse shape the circulation of racialised narratives in the novel. Together, these perspectives show that Yellowface presents narrative authority as a product of form, institutional mediation, and reader response.

Subversion of Islamophobia in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalistand Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire

Malik Haroon Afzal — 2026-06-25

This paper aims at examining the changes in the Western narrative of Islamophobia from the end of Cold War era to the present times and its representation in contemporary Pakistani Anglophone fiction. It reads two selected Pakistani Anglophone novels, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) by Mohsin Hamid and Home Fire (2017) by Kamila Shamise, against the backdrop of Stephen Greenblatt’s critique of subversion and containment. Both novels have been examined in the context of the politics of ‘war on terror’ and ‘populism’ respectively. However, the examination of the selected novels (Texts) alongside the actual political narratives (co-texts) reveals the role of anti-Muslim narratives in the development and construction of Islamophobia and, at the same time, highlights literature’s ability to offer a sight of subversion. The study also finds that the novels record the implications of Islamophobia in various forms such as racial violence, expression of religious values, discursive and physical marginalisation of Muslims living in the West as well as the immigration and citizenship issues.

Ethics, Representation, and a “Filipino Ecocriticism” of Yolanda in Daryll Delgado’s Remains

Mylene C. Milan — 2026-06-25

Even over a decade since super typhoon Haiyan (known as Yolanda in the Philippines) struck central Visayan regions of the archipelago, survivors continue recalling their mortifying experiences at the mention of the storm. However, literature continuously flourished to keep the memory not only of the destruction but also of the survival and resilience that surrounded its aftermath. Jeffrey Santa Ana regards this literary intelligence as a “Filipino ecocriticism,” which discloses how historical violence aggravated weather events across the Philippines and the Southeast Asian region. Using this lens in the close reading of Daryll Delgado’s novel Remains (2019), this article intersects issues of ethics and fictionality on the representation of real-life experiences in the wake of the most devastating land-falling storm in modern Philippine meteorology. It draws insights on postcolonialism, positionality, and ethical witnessing from the works of Sarita See, Walter Benjamin, Jocelyn S. Martin, and an online interview with the author herself. Towards the end, this article ultimately discloses “literarising truths” as a non-neutral approach on the sociopolitical realities that lies at the core of representing climate disasters.

Theatre Against Oppression: Anti-Colonial Discourse in Late Soviet Uzbek Comedy

Mavlon Bobokhonov — 2026-06-25

This article examines late Soviet Uzbek comedy as a culturally grounded form of indirect critique, focusing on Said Ahmad’s “The Rebellion of the Brides” (1976) and Sharof Boshbekov’s “The Iron Woman” (1989). Rather than viewing comedy as merely entertaining, the study considers how satire, farce, and grotesque exaggeration created space for expressing tension within a system shaped by ideological control and censorship. Particular attention is given to how domestic life and gender relations become meaningful sites for reflecting broader structures of authority. In The Rebellion of the Brides, the struggle for autonomy within the household points to tensions between centralised control and individual agency. In The Iron Woman, the figure of a mechanical wife highlights the pressures placed on women within the Soviet labour system, especially in the context of rural life and cotton production. In the Uzbek context, such themes are rarely articulated directly. Instead, they emerge through familiar situations and everyday interactions. This suggests that comedic theatre functioned not only as entertainment, but also as a subtle and culturally resonant form of expressing social contradictions.

Verses on Vehicles: Religion, Romance, and Ritual in Truck Art of Nepal

Sheikh Saifullah Ahmed — 2026-06-25

This study examines the cultural significance of verses and paintings on long-haul trucks in Nepal. It analyses their articulation of religion, romance, ritual, and their emotional and social resonance for drivers and communities, while situating them within South Asian and global discourses on mobility, material religion, and vernacular culture. Using a mixed-methods approach, fieldwork was conducted at Dhankhola, Dang district of Nepal, with purposive sampling of 135 trucks. Data collection included 90 hours of observation, over 500 photographs, and interviews with 30 drivers, five painters, and two cultural experts. Qualitative data were analysed through content analysis, thematic coding, and visual semiotics, while quantitative analysis quantified the prevalence of different motifs. Findings show religious motifs (58.5%) act as protective talismans, transforming trucks into mobile shrines on dangerous routes. Romantic inscriptions (31.1%) serve as emotional anchors, easing isolation but often reinforcing patriarchal norms. Ritual blessings (27.4%) sustain family ties, satirical commentary (11.1%) channels dissent, and national imagery (16.3%) fosters collective identity. These motifs, grounded in mobilities, material religion, and vernacular frameworks, position trucks as dynamic cultural infrastructure. This research contributes unique insights into South Asian cultural studies by documenting the understudied vehicular art of Nepal and urges to preserve it against the threat of modernisation.

The Unyielding Earth: Ecological Subjugation and Resistance in Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace

Parushi Ruhil Angra — 2026-06-25

This paper examines the ecological dynamics in Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace (2000), focusing on the subjugation of nature under imperial control and the subsequent resistance by nature. Michael Foucault’s concepts of “conduct” and “counter-conduct,” and Giorgio Agamben’s concept of “bare life” has been used to explore how colonial powers systematically transformed natural landscapes, such as forests and rivers, into industrialised zones and monoculture plantations. This led to subjugation of the environment to serve the imperial economic interests. It also unveils the ways in which nature, though colonised and conducted, strikes back using ecological disruption, disease, decay, and environmental instability, which led to undermining the governing systems that attempted to subjugate and dominate it.

The Distribution of Grievability in Whitney Terrell’s The Good Lieutenant

M Ikbal M Alosman — 2026-06-25

This essay analyses the intrinsic worth of life and the allocation of potential suffering in Whitney Terrell’s novel The Good Lieutenant (2017). Its argument expands upon Judith Butler’s assertion that the allocation of grievability varies depending on individuals’ affinities and political circumstances. In this study, we examine two paradigms: “American Lives,” which delves into the worth and grievability of American characters, and “Local Lives,” which studies the same aspects for local Iraqi personalities. While Terrell does include some Iraqi characters and discusses particular elements of the Iraqi environment, the main focus of the novel is on the Americans and their experiences, making them the primary targets of grievance. The persistent and daring search for the missing body of Sergeant Beale highlights the increased threshold of grievability attributed to Americans, therefore strengthening the belief that their lives are intrinsically more precious than those of the local Iraqi community.

University Campus Bullying on Digital Platforms in Bangladesh: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis

Abdullah Al Mahmud — 2026-06-25

This paper investigates how university-based digital platforms in Bangladesh have transformed bullying into complex and insidious forms. Using a multimodal discourse analysis framework, the study examines the linguistic and non-linguistic markers that bullies employ on these platforms. It collected qualitative data on digital bullying through 43 interviews with victims and from their social media conversations to identify specific patterns of language and digital discourses. The findings reveal that the rising types of bullying comprise identity-based practices, interactional aggression, and technologically mediated manipulation. Additionally, bullies strategically use language such as sarcasm, humour, insults, and backhanded compliments with multi-modal features (memes, GIFs, emojis, and captions) to disguise hostility. The study provides useful examples with critical reflections and insights for university digital platform administrators, cybercrime investigators, and policymakers at institutional and governmental levels.

Navigating Thirdspace: Between the Real and the Imagined in Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines

Josephine Christina Pasangha — 2026-06-25

This paper interrogates the real and imagined spaces that redefine and alter the lives of individuals and communities in Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines (1988) using Edward Soja’s spatial theory of Thirdspace. By utilising Thirdspace not just as a critical concept but as a methodology, the study examines the alternate spatial discourse engaged in the novel that encourages a trialectical perception of space by simultaneously taking into consideration the historical, social, and spatial. Set against the backdrop of political unrest caused by the division of spaces in the aftermath of the Partition of India, The Shadow Lines depicts the arbitrary borders and imagined geographies that expose the fragility of identity and nationalism. The study examines the novel’s recurring phrase—to imagine with precision and to invent the world in one’s imagination—which is an invitation towards an alternate way of thinking about space that shatters the illusion of cartographic fixity. The social constructionist perspective provides a framework for comprehending how constructed spaces and arbitrary divisions can be deconstructed and reconstructed through memory and imagination. The study further investigates how the novel advocates for a reimagined approach to spatiality by embracing simultaneities, moving towards a Thirdspace consciousness. The findings of the study reveal how spatiality as a critical lens in postcolonial narratives encompasses the lived, imagined, and remembered experiences that shape the socio-political realities of the South Asian subcontinent.

Muneeza Shamsie. Hybrid Tapestries: The Development of Pakistani Literature in English

Kaiser Haq — 2026-06-25

Subhadeep Ray (ed.). River Fiction of India: Intersectional Flows of Narratives, Geographies, and Histories

Himadri Lahiri — 2026-06-25

Arundhati Roy. Mother Mary Comes To Me

Saurav Dasthakur — 2026-06-25

Amitav Ghosh. Ghost-Eye: A Novel

Gargi Dutta — 2026-06-25

Tashie Bhuiyan. Right as Rain

Mst. Tanna Khatun — 2026-06-25

Anuradha Roy. Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalaya

Debottama Ghosh — 2026-06-25

Technically Speaking

Zhaohui Su — 2026-06-25

The Love That He Sent

Sulasih Nurhayati — 2026-06-25

The Publish or Perish Doctrine and Declining Commitment to Writing

Md. Mahmudul Hasan — 2026-06-25

Writers usually write in response to an intrinsic calling to express themselves, instruct the public, or enlighten the reader. Their urge for documenting their ideas and experiences comes from within, as they take the writing career as an expression of the self and as a vehicle of thought and human progress. Given the development of the modern education system, academics of tertiary institutions are found to write even if they do not possess such a bent of mind or innate artistic talent. As a result, there has been a sharp increase in the number of writers and writings. However, when academics write without passion or inspiration, they exhibit certain authorship traits and publication behaviours which are not helpful for editors. Based on my editorial experience, I shall comment on certain authors’ lack of passion for scholarship or for their work, making a case for active authorial involvement from the conception of a manuscript to its publication.