The University of Karachi (KU)’s Department of English recently held a seminar featuring talks by Prof Dr Waseem Anwar and Dr Nukhbah Taj Langah of the Forman Christian College University (FCCU), Lahore, and the US-based Pakistani author Nafisa Haji.
The programme opened with a speech by Dr Anwar – the Dean of Humanities, and Professor and Chairman of English.
As the co-guest editor of the 2010 South Asian Review, Anwar discussed the contents of the first-ever issue published on Pakistani creative writing in English. He began by shedding light on the significance of the recently held Karachi Literature Festival.
He also stressed that the festival would not have been organised if there was not a realisation of the connection that exists between local and global realities, and if there was not a desire in the Pakistani authors to search for their roots.
This brought him to the main issues on which the selections from the Pakistani English fiction, drama, essays and poetry in the Review were based: the questions of identity and the need to “trace the tradition” and “embrace the emerging”.
He went on to brief about the importance of the authors featured in the issue, talking about the recurring themes and the questions to be kept in mind when reading these works.
Anwar was very forthcoming in addressing various queries pertaining to the role of literary studies in the present times, and the challenges faced by the discipline in the universities in Pakistan and abroad.
He highlighted the significance of the study of literature and how it had the potential of broadening itself up to embrace other disciplines of social sciences and humanities.
He also pointed out the inextricable connections between the simultaneous study of literature and language, and suggested various topic areas for research to the students of MS present at the event.
Dr Langah discussed her work ‘Poetry as Resistance’, based on her doctoral research, with particular focus on Saraiki poetry.
She shared some valuable insights about undertaking research endeavours in countries like Pakistan.
Nafisa Haji spoke about the themes explored in Pakistani fiction, with particular focus on how child immigrants, like herself, possess a panoramic outlook of their native country.
She also read a passage from her latest novel ‘The Sweetness of Tears’ that, according to her, was an evocation of her childhood memories in Pakistan.
The talks were followed by a question-and-answer session, which primarily focused on the relevance of literature, the importance of politicising its study, and the significance of popular fiction.
Dilshat Bano, the in-charge of KU’s English Department, thanked the guests at the end of the programme, which was moderated by Faisal Nazir, the department’s senior lecturer.
