Women Reading/Women Writing: Anxiety and Āzādī in Twentieth Century Urdu Pulp Fiction

Abstract

Anglophone pulp fiction has been identified by Paula Rabinowitz as an important site for the production of modernity. I argue that Urduphone novels written by and for women likewise grappled with contemporary social issues and provided an important forum for the discussion of changing gender dynamics. Women novelists wrote fiction that engaged with intergenerational anxieties about changing power relations within the household. Debates on women’s freedom were inscribed in what were called ‘social’ novels, even while the women-centric reading experience was propelled by the engines of print capitalism. In this study, I trace the trajectory of mid twentieth century gender debates by conducting a close reading of Urdu novels by A.R. Khatun and Razia Butt. I also argue that, ultimately, reading for pleasure was an important way for women to participate actively in larger social debates about gender, religion and nationhood itself.