Reading the Silence of Women in Saadat Hassan Manto's Selected Short Stories

Abstract

This research paper offers an analysis of a selection of Saadat Hasan Manto's works through a feminist perspective. It explores the feminine content with reference to the suffering and violation of women as a major preoccupation of the selected short stories. As his works indicate, Manto portrayed experiences of women during the time of political upheaval in the subcontinent. He presents the silence of the marginalized women as a source for a deep insight into the patriarchal structures of society. The exposure to violence holds a fundamentally important place in Manto's "Colder than Ice", "Mozail", and "The Return", as they are the means to question gender and sexuality along with the dogmas of race culture and ethnicity. The paper aims to put forth the violence and victimization that women had to endure during the partition of the subcontinent. In light of the feminist theory, the present study analyses the gendered boundaries and objectification of women in the pursuit of male sexual pleasure, unravelling that once the silence speaks, women can make their own place in the world.