Stories with Oil Stains: The World of Women Digest Writers in Pakistan

by Ahmed, Kiran Nazir

• ISBN13: 9780199408986
• ISBN10: 019940898X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2020-12-29
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Author Biography

Kiran Nazir Ahmed, Assistant Professor Centre of Excellence in Gender Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad

Kiran Ahmed is Assistant Professor, Centre of Excellence in Gender Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad. She has also been a Research Associate (Gender) at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI). Ahmed holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, and Masters' degrees in International Relations, Anthropology, and Philosophy from Pakistan, USA, and Canada respectively.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Attachment
Articulation
Agency
Ethnographic Positioning
Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: In Quest of Anonymity: Bonds of Friendship in the Digest Community
The Digest Community as One of Sound
Emotional Resonance
Bonds in a World of Invisible Ethnic and Political Identities
Trust
Interaction with Familial Bonds
Emotional Leaning in a Dyad
Conversations as Connections?
Chapter 2: In Quest of Stories: Writers, Readers, and Fiction
Shadows of Imagination': A Digest Story
Bonds between Women
Same-sex Desire
To Be a Woman?
Writers' Articulations of Imagined Possibilities and Lived Experiences
Shelter on Nameless Paths': A Digest Story
Digest Fiction As a Site of Fluid Lived Realities
Self-Reflexive Engagement as a Reader
Testing Boundaries of Known Worlds
Chapter 3: In Quest of Meaning: Four Women and their Stories
Interior' Sindh
Digests in a Family of Saintly Storytellers
Madare Shah: Agency as a Declaration of Independence
Kulsoom: Agency as Social Work
New Identities
Simran: Agency as Authenticity
Contextualising Agency
Beyond the Bounds of Rationality
Fettered Spaces and Unfettered Time
Sumaira: Agency as Disengagement
Chapter 4: In Quest of Respect: Engagement with the Electronic Media
Contextualising Authenticity in New Arenas
Digest Writers in the Visual Arena of Television
Humsafar: Popularly Accepted but Not Respected
Overturning the Ethnographic Gaze
Hands that Chop Garlic Can Never Write a Worthwhile Sentence'? Digest Writers Respond Simran: Blurring lines between Halal and Haram
Shehnaz: 'Interview Chaudhary Sahib Too: You Know How Men Are'
Conclusion
The Story of This Book
The Next Step
Bibliography
Index