Contemporary Engagements with Decoloniality: Tracing Epistemic Disobedience and Decolonial Aesthesis in Pakistani Anglophone Literature

Abstract

This paper seeks to discover epistemic reconstruction and reconstitution in Pakistani Anglophone literature to identify epistemic disobedience that confronts the rigidity of Western canons. In a so-called postcolonial age, the integration of indigenousness with decoloniality weaves an indigenous knowledge tapestry that may challenge hegemonic intellectual imperialism. In the last few decades, there has been a surge of interest in decolonizing epistemology. The native epistemological quest offers alternative knowledge claims that can replace hegemonic epistemology in the colonial matrix of power. It may be used to challenge the lionized image of various Western epistemologies ingrained in indigenous thinkers' minds over history. The central thesis of this paper is to examine the role of Pakistani indigeneity in providing a locus of enunciation, a context, or situatedness for Pakistani Anglophone literature to question Western canonization to decolonize indigenous epistemology. To accentuate epistemic disobedience that occurs in the wake of epistemic decolonization, this study explores Straggling through Fire by Gulam Murtaza Aatir by placing it in the theoretical framework of decoloniality by Walter Mignolo. Walter Mignolo's discernments on epistemic disobedience, locus of enunciation, and decolonial aesthesis provide a central theoretical framework for this paper to analyze Straggling through Fire by Gulam Murtaza Aatir. It paves the way for Pakistani researchers in the future to insert the versatility and novelty of our indigenous Anglophone writers in the mainstream of English literature to confront Western canonization.