Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature

“Echoes of War”: In Conversation with Brian Turner

Jaspreet Kaur — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

This interview endeavours to gain first-hand insight into Brian Turner’s creative process and experiences as a war poet. The interviewer is pursuing her doctoral thesis on “Bearing Witness to Violence: A Socio-Cultural and Psychoanalytical Study of Select Modern World Poets.” Brian Turner is among the selected poets, along with Anna Akhmatova, Nelly Sachs, Mahmoud Darwish, and Agha Shahid Ali. In the interview, the discussion focusses on Turner’s two significant works: Here, Bullet (2005) and Phantom Noise (2010). The interview aims to understand Turner’s philosophy of poetic witnessing, especially in relation to trauma, silence, and memory. Turner reflects on the psychological aftermath of war and the search for meaning amidst devastation. He laid special emphasis on how literature functions as a medium for understanding, processing and representing trauma, both for himself and the readers. He also contemplates the dual role of a soldier — both as an agent of violence and a witness to the suffering and death around him.

The Maelstrom

Sohana Manzoor — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

An Apology for the Literature of the Disappeared

Md. Mahmudul Hasan — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

This essay argues that the stories of the disappeared and their loved ones have great potential to be an overarching literary genre. Given the worldwide practice of disappearing the vulnerable for political and other reasons, there is an abounding reservoir of trauma and suffering which can provide sufficient material for artistically representing the experiences of its direct and indirect victims. Since the powerful are involved in promoting and facilitating the crime of enforced disappearance, its victims remain in positions of multiple vulnerability and limited access to the justice system. Chronicling their ordeal in the form of a vibrant literary genre – the literature of the disappeared – will empower them to reclaim agency over their stories. Based on this observation, in this essay I shall argue for the artistic potential and growth of this truly global literary genre.

Samina Najmi, Sing Me a Circle: Love, Loss and a Home in Time

Wan Nur Madiha binti Ramlan — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Sukalyan Chanda, A Poet’s Ashram: Rabindranath Tagore’s Experimental Community in Colonial India

Somdatta Mandal — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Luka Lei Zhang (ed.), Asian Workers Stories

Angus Whitehead — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Duong Huong, No Man River

Evan Glatz — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Parna Ghose and Monalisa Jha (eds), Gendered Trajectories: Discourses of Difference, Resistance and Empowerment

Meenakshi Malhotra — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Dilip K. Das, Epidemic Narratives: The Cultural Construction of Infectious Disease Outbreaks in India

Arnab Kumar Sinha — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Anuradha Ghosh and Mahmoud Al-Zayed (eds), Mahasweta Devi in Defence of the Human: The Poetics of Translating Resistance

Nishi Pulugurtha — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Amitav Ghosh, Wild Fictions: Essays on Literature, Empire, and the Environment

Dhrubajyoti Banerjee — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Lopamudra Basu and Feroza Jussawalla (eds), Sing, Slivered Tongue: An Anthology of South Asian Women’s Poetry of Trauma in English

Debottama Ghosh — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Pulugurtha, Nishi (ed.), Literary Representations of Pandemics, Epidemics and Pestilence

Nabanita Sengupta — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Reliving Bangladesh July 2024 Revolution: A Collage

Razia Sultana Khan — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Bangladesh July 2024 Movement and After: A Memoir

Sarker Hasan Al Zayed — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

What Would Remain of Me?

Sadhiya Saleem — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Vibrant Connections: The Effectiveness of Humans and Nature in Taher Al-Zahrani’s Novel Nahwu Al-Janob

Mashhoor Abdu Al-Moghales — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

This article explores the interconnections between humans and nature in Taher Al-Zahrani’s Nahwu Al-Janub (Towards the South [2010]). The natural world of the southern part of Saudi Arabia plays a central role in many of Al-Zahrani’s novels, with Nahwu Al-Janub serving as a prime example. Anchored in an ecocritical approach, this study examines how this novel captures the dynamic relationship between humans and nature, positioning it as a narrative focal point highlighting the human-nonhuman condition, the power of nature, and the self-defence of humans in the environment. It addresses the construction of eco-awareness through the protagonist, Zahran, whose name is derived from the surrounding natural environment. The natural world informs Zahran’s identity, reflecting broader societal shifts in the understanding of nature, culture, and heritage in a rapidly changing Saudi Arabia. The ecocritical analysis engages with the village’s natural elements such as mountains, valleys, farms, farmhouses, traditional attire, rare animals like the rock hyrax (rock rabbit), and other such elements which reveal an intimate connection between the author’s narrative and the southern environment.

The Gothic in Yiyun Li’s The Vagrants and Its Implications in the Post-Truth Age

Mengni Kang — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Set in Muddy River, a fictional, generic town in China in the late 1970s, Yiyun Li’s novel The Vagrants opens with the denunciation ceremony of a young dissenter, Gu Shan, and provides a panorama of the townspeople’s perception of and reaction to this event. This article reads Li’s work through the lens of the Gothic, first examining how the tropes of graphic violence and ghosts reveal undercurrents of Muddy River that elude the official discourse. It further argues that the narrative’s Gothicism lies in its multiple perspectives. In this regard, the focus on social outsiders and their localised, personal experiences highlights the tension between centre and margin, totality and alterity. Using The Vagrants as an illustration, the study also explores the relevance of literature in the current age of post-truth. It contends that literature’s capacity to cultivate critical faculties, which are important in combating post-truth, is realised through Li’s particular Gothic approach. While emotional appeal and perspectivism are utilised by post-truth rhetors to disseminate biases, in Li’s hands, they function positively to promote reflection and slow reading. The novel demonstrates the importance of literary reading in an era of dishonesty and misinformation.

Shifting Homes in Bangladeshi Diasporic Writer Iffat Nawaz’s Shurjo’s Clan

Hafiza Nilofar Khan — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Bangladeshi American writer Iffat Nawaz’s novel Shurjo’s Clan problematises the concept of ‘home’ for native as well as diasporic Bangladeshis. It raises questions of generational rootedness and un-belonging, forced or willing migrations, and assimilation or abnegation to help understand the various nuances of home for a 21st century Bangladeshi family that hails from undivided India, has witnessed Partition, lost sons in the 1971 war for independence, and also holds American Green Cards. It tries to find out what the definition of home is in today’s globalised world. Is total assimilation possible, or even desirable? How many migrations are required to find home? How many generations does it take to be able to claim a piece of land as home? This paper traces three generations of Bangladeshi women as they make and break homes dictated by various existential, socio-political, religious or economic requirements. It argues that while for the first generation of these women home is a betrayer, a source of nostalgia, a demander of sacrifices, or even an indirect killer, for the second and third generation of women, it is an affective place, not a nostalgic limbo, or historic burden. These women are able to reconfigure it in the light of self-discovery, adaptation, diasporic distance and hybrid existence. This paper delves into theories of postcolonial diaspora, migration, hybridity, transnationalism, and acculturation to decode how these women question insularity of homes, overcome its challenges of transformations, and create a unique cultural synthesis at the heart of it.

Revolution in Space: A Lefebvrian Analysis of Spatial Production in Meena Kandasamy’s The Gypsy Goddess

Geetha S. Subramaniam — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

In literary studies, space is increasingly recognized as a crucial dimension in the construction and contestation of power, identity, and ideology. No longer a passive backdrop, space emerges as an active site of social production, memory, and resistance. This paper examines the spatial politics in Meena Kandasamy’s The Gypsy Goddess (2014) through Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the spatial triad – perceived, conceived, and lived space. Kandasamy’s fictional retelling of the 1968 massacre in Kilvenmani (a place in Tanjore district of Tamil Nadu, India) functions as a cartographic critique of caste violence and rural oppression in Tamil Nadu, India, illustrating how space is both shaped by and instrumental in maintaining structural injustice. Drawing on Lefebvre’s assertion that views social space as a socially produced construct, the study explores how physical environments – fields, huts, and state institutions – are saturated with ideological power, historical trauma, and subaltern resistance. The novel engages in a process of spatial reclamation, transforming Kilvenmani into what Edward Soja defines as ‘Thirdspace’ – a lived, imagined, and contested geography. This paper contends that the text is not merely a narrative of protest, but a radical spatial intervention that reimagines rural geographies as contested terrains of structural violence, political memory, and revolutionary potential.

Subaltern Resistance and Aporia in Shaheen Akhtar’s The Search

Moumita Haque Shenjutee — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

This paper aims to examine the grassroot level resistance of the war heroines of Bangladesh, who endured ineffable atrocities during the Liberation War in 1971 as well as in post-conflict Bangladesh, as depicted in Shaheen Akhtar’s The Search. The war heroines, often (mis)represented through passivity and victimisation by earlier scholars, writers, and activists, exhibited defiance in the face of continuous hurdles not only during the war but also in the post-war period, which remains notably unacknowledged and veiled. Hence, apart from examining their resistance, this paper attempts to shed light on the impetuses delineated in the novel, which despite the war heroines’ disaffection and resistance, push them towards the realm of subalternity, evoking a sense of aporia. However, this paper contends that this sense of aporia is undercut at the end of the novel through the war heroines’ rejection of the previous hegemonic social structure and venture to re-ground their life-world. To this end, the paper will incorporate recent accretions in the theoretical field of gendered subalternity, which focus on the narrative shift from subalternity to resistance, albeit the possible aporia followed by the struggle of subalterns.

Resistance and Resilience: Naga Women’s Voices in Temsüla Ao’s These Hills Called Home

Jasdeep Brar, Parveen Kaur Khanna — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Tribal women of North East India have long endured the compounded burdens of colonial intrusion, postcolonial state violence, and patriarchal traditions. Yet their voices and lived experiences often remain marginalised in both historical narratives and literary discourse. Temsüla Ao’s These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone (2006) intervenes in this silence by foregrounding the stories of Naga women caught between insurgency and militarisation. This paper argues that Ao portrays Naga women as doubly colonised—subjugated by both patriarchal customs and militarised repression—while simultaneously reclaiming their agency through resilience, memory, and acts of defiance. Drawing upon postcolonial feminism and trauma studies, the paper analyses selected stories to show how Ao resists the reduction of women to silent victims and instead recasts them as witnesses, survivors, and cultural agents. Through close readings of narratives such as “The Last Song,” “The Jungle Major,” “The Night,” and “The Curfew Man,” the paper demonstrates how Ao’s fiction unsettles stereotypes and contributes to a feminist re-imagining of North East Indian literature.

An Exotic View of Contemporary Pakistan: Re-Orientalism in Nadeem Aslam’s The Golden Legend

Bilal Asmat Cheema, H.M. Zahid Iqbal — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

This study situates Nadeem Aslam’s novel The Golden Legend (2017) in the broader context of re-Orientalism and postcolonial theories to unravel the complex issues concerning the identity of the Christian community living in contemporary postcolonial Pakistan. The study aims at critically examining its portrayal of Christian community and narrative structure as well as the socioeconomic context in which the novel is set. It is investigated how Aslam employs exoticisms to show poverty and marginality of the Christian community in a country faced with religious extremism, intolerance, and discrimination against religious minorities in an over-simplifying and dramatising manner. The juxtaposition of re-Orientalism and staged marginality enables a deeper comprehension of the interplay between social injustice, collective struggle, and the agency of individuals resulting in partially imaging the communities in question.

Transnational Filial Eldercare and Gender Negotiation in Fan Wu’s Beautiful as Yesterday: A Novel

Ling Jiang, Grace V. S. Chin — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

This paper examines Fan Wu’s Beautiful as Yesterday?A Novel (2009) through Lynn Jamieson’s concept of intimacy practices and Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity. It focuses on Mary, a Mainland China-born, US-based “eldest-daughter-as-son” who undertakes transnational eldercare for her mother, Fenglan. The study explores how filial piety is reshaped when Chinese Confucian ethics meets American individualism. It argues that eldercare is a dynamic, culturally shaped performance that reconstructs gender identity. Mary’s evolution from a duty-bound provider to an emotionally invested agent shows how intimacy practices disrupt patriarchal norms, creating a daughterhood that meets son-coded obligations while nurturing expressive care. Meanwhile, Fenglan’s self-disclosure challenges the self-effacing Chinese mother archetype, fostering a more intimate intergenerational bond. The paper demonstrates how intimacy practices act as micro-sites where global cultural flows reshape family ethics, offering a framework for understanding contemporary Chinese American women’s literature.

The Metamorphosis of Malay Women in Popular Malay Television Dramas

Shazna Abu Bakar, Jariah Mohd Jan, Emily Lau — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Despite the popularity of Malay television dramas, little attention has been given to how these narratives construct and convey the idealised notion of Malay womanhood. This study investigates five popular Malay television dramas and focuses on the metamorphosis of the main female characters within these narratives. The paper explores how gender, religion, and socio-cultural expectations intersect to shape the portrayal of the ideal Malay woman through the lens of Crenshaw’s intersectionality theory using a multimodal discourse analytical approach. Findings reveal that there is a recurring pattern across all five of the female characters as each narrative progresses despite their differing contexts. The female characters are portrayed negatively at the beginning of their narratives as they exhibit defiance while their eventual transition towards the end portrays them in a positive light as they are positioned into more subordinate or subservient roles. This highlights how Malay popular culture reflects and reinforces gender expectations that are shaped by the interplay of gender, religion, and culture.

Imagined Communities in Bollywood: A Contrapuntal Reading of The Kashmir Files and Mulk

Sarath S Kumar, Sreejith Kadiyakkol, Remya R — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Under the Modi regime, Hindu nationalist ideologies have gained prominence, resulting in a growing utilisation of cinema as a political tool in India. This article explores Bollywood’s role as a mass cultural medium in shaping communal identities through a contrapuntal analysis of two ideologically opposed films: Mulk (2018) and The Kashmir Files (2022). Utilising Benedict Anderson’s concept of imagined communities and Edward Said’s contrapuntal reading technique, the research examines the role of these films in shaping narratives of majoritarian Hindus and minority Muslims. The Kashmir Files promotes a one-dimensional communal narrative that portrays Muslims as the aggressors and Hindus as the victims, thus bolstering Hindutva ideologies. Conversely, Mulk challenges this narrative by depicting the Muslim community as unjustly demonised and seeking justice in a pluralistic context. This article outlines Bollywood’s involvement in the broader political discourse surrounding religious identity in India through a comparative analysis of themes like terrorism, visual stereotyping, and the representation of jihad. The findings are intended to contribute to the critical discussion surrounding nationalism, media representation, and communal politics in present-day South Asia.

A Popular Man of Letters: A Critical Appreciation of Syed Manzoorul Islam (1951-2025)

Kaiser Haq — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

In Memoriam: Syed Manzoorul Islam (17 January 1951 – 10 October 2025)

Fakrul Alam — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Vale SMI: A Literary Luminary Who Hitched His Wagon to a Star

Mohammad A. Quayum — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

SMI Sir: A Man for All Seasons

Zerin Alam — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800

He Went Gentle into That Good Night

Md Rezaul Haque — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0800