Journal of Contemporary Poetics

Initial Pages

2026-06-28T15:27:50+05:00

MEMOIRS OF A REBEL PRINCESS: A DIFFERENT SELFHOOD

2026-05-08T09:52:30+05:00

This study is an attempt to investigate the unique position of Memoirs of Abida Sultaan in the light of two theories, that of Georges Gusdorf theory of self, and Susan Friedman’s theory of female autobiography. By using the technique of textual analysis, it finds the singular position that the Memoirs occupy in the genre of autobiography, defying rigid categories of male/ female. By eluding this binary opposition, where one is active and the other passive, the Memoirs sustain its distinctiveness and its appeal. The Memoirs possesses the characteristics of both male and female autobiographies. It is found that Abida Sultaan is never either apologetic or seeking her identity through relations. Instead, her autobiography is self-assertive and confident, much in the line of male autobiographies. She also gave importance to political history following the tradition of male autobiographies. The critical moment of the creation of Pakistan is given ample example. On the other hand, the Memoirs also abounds in such incidents which are befitting for female autobiographies. For example, her obsession for her son Shehryar, and the numerous sacrifices she made for her family. Thus Memoirs neatly incorporates characteristics of both male and female autobiographies, occupying a middle ground and securing a unique position.

Narrating the Silenced: The 1953 Coup and Post Colonial Storytelling in Marjan Kamali's The Stationary Shop

2026-04-19T19:29:17+05:00

This paper examines Marjan Kamali’s The Stationery Shop as a postcolonial narrative that recovers the silenced voices surrounding the 1953 Iranian coup and its long-term emotional, historical, and political reverberations. By centering Iranian subjectivities and the intimate consequences of political rupture on ordinary lives, the novel challenges Orientalist frameworks that have shaped Western interpretations of Iran and its history. Through an analysis of narrative silences, fragmented communication, and the symbolism of destroyed spaces—such as the stationery shop—this study argues that Kamali reconstructs erased histories and foregrounds the experiences of those rendered subaltern by geopolitical power structures. The paper further explores how diaspora, reflective nostalgia, and intergenerational trauma shape Roya’s identity formation and narrative agency. Employing a qualitative textual analysis grounded in postcolonial, trauma, and memory studies, this research demonstrates how The Stationery Shop functions as a literary site of resistance, reclaiming suppressed memories and foregrounding the emotional truths embedded within displaced lives.

The Ordinary Odyssey: Female Embodiment and the Politics of Walking in Claudia Piñeiro’s Elena Knows

2026-04-26T00:45:45+05:00

Abstract

In Claudia Piñeiro’s Elena Knows, the simple act of walking is transformed into a complex corporeal language of dissent. This paper argues that the novel portrays the female body in motion as a direct site of resistance against the political, social and medical forces that seek to discipline and immobilize it. Through a close examination of three critical journeys; Elena’s Parkinson’s afflicted pilgrimage across the city, Rita’s fatal walk to the church belfry and Isabel’s intercepted path to the abortion clinic, this work uncovers a spectrum of defiance articulated through movement. Framed by the theoretical lenses of Michel de Certeau’s everyday tactics, Simone de Beauvoir’s situated body and Michel Foucault’s biopolitics, it reveals how Elena’s stunted steps reclaim agency, how Rita’s final walk refuses a future of exhaustive care and how Isabel’s interrupted travel underscores the violent denial of bodily autonomy. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates that Elena Knows locates the most potent politics of resistance not in grand gestures, but in the mundane, ordinary and deeply embodied determination to move through the world on one’s own terms.

Keywords: Embodied Resistance, Walking, Everyday Tactics, Biopolitics, Situated Body, Mundane Acts, Female Movement

Patroclus And Circe: The Subverted Notions Of Femininity And Heroism In Madeline Miller’s Novels

2026-05-08T09:31:51+05:00

Historically, the idea of nourishment is associated with women as they are considered to be the nurturers of humanity alongside nature. The French female writer and critic Helene Cixous believes that our language is responsible for forming a phallocentric image of the male that grants them attributes such as courage, valour, and a position of power, therefore, asserting the female as the weaker sex. American novelist Madeline Miller subverts such standardised conceptions of the gallant male hero versus the naive and passive female through her characterisations of Patroclus and Circe in her novels The Song of Achilles and Circe respectively. She, like eco-critical theorist Ursula Le Guin, foregrounds the power of femininity and its role in the growth of humanity. We aim to connect Cixous and Le Guin’s study to highlight how Miller has overturned these conceptions of femininity by portraying a man as a nurturing, feminine war hero in The Song of Achilles and presents the gatherer woman, the one with the ‘carrier bag,’ the nurturer of humanity and nature, and also as the heroic protagonist of her novel Circe. We assess how she successfully dismantles the persistent ideals of a ‘killer story’ through her placement of Patroclus as an empathetic male hero and her characterisation of Circe as an active female hero instead of a submissive woman.

Translating the Nation: Coke Studio Pakistan’s Journey to Transnationality on YouTube

2026-05-08T09:57:51+05:00

This essay studies Coke Studio Pakistan’s migration from domestic television broadcasts to YouTube, and its subsequent global popularity, as a case study to highlight the commercial and technological affordances of the digital platforms like YouTube. Focusing on Coke Studio Pakistan’s official YouTube channels, I argue that the show’s transnational reach and popularity depend on a palimpsestic engagement with regional, devotional, and popular repertoires, an explicitly impure fusion aesthetic, a small‑screen‑oriented visual design, and a pronounced responsiveness to participatory metrics on YouTube. Through close analysis of key songs and seasons, the essay demonstrates how Coke Studio Pakistan simultaneously professionalizes vernacular talent and reconfigures cultural memory by foregrounding remakes of popular songs that algorithmically overshadow their hypotexts. By situating Coke Studio Pakistan alongside global music channels such as T-Series, the essay argues that YouTube’s “spreadable” logics enable new, multidirectional flows in which niche, corporate, and oppositional impulses remain in productive tension.

BEYOND FIXING: THE INTERPLAY OF DYSMORPHIC IDENTITY, RESISTANCE OF ABLEIST NARRATIVERS, AND ALLYSHIP IN AUGGIE & ME

2026-05-08T09:36:29+05:00

Children’s Literature, a genre, originally emerged for both educational and entertainment motives, has steadily grown to include a greater range of viewpoints. In recent years, a critical imperative has evolved within the genre to enhance the inclusivity towards characters with disabilities. By highlighting the social construction of disability and challenging long-standing standards of normality and physical ability, this change is consistent with criticisms of ableist paradigms. Through the theoretical framework of Robert McRuer’s (2006) Crip Theory, this research offers a critical examination of R.J. Palacio’s Auggie & Me (2014). The key objectives of this research are to investigate the modalities of emotional complexity involved in parenting of a child having facial disfigurement. It extends its scope to explore the coalitional relations and agency of people with deformities in promoting social justice and solidarity. It examines the transgressive tactics these people employ to oppose ableist systems. This research draws conclusions that shows the strong family ties and complex emotional dynamics are essential for empowering characters to go beyond social norms and reject ableism. Furthermore, a paradigm change in public view is sparked by the agency of crippled individuals, which is expressed through the acceptance of fluid identities. The study also reveals how character alliances strengthen people by promoting group opposition to prevailing discourses about ability and disability. Thus, by highlighting the need for critical representations of disability that actively advance social justice, solidarity, and inclusion, this study makes a substantial contribution to the area of Children’s Literature.