Magical Realism and Mythmaking in Pakistani English Children Fiction: A Linguistic Critique of A Firefly in the Dark

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The present study analyzes the linguistic choices and quality through a co-textual study of the magical and mythical stories inscribed in Shazaf Fatima Haider’s A Firefly in the Dark (2018). This research emphasizes the ways the author retrieves an intersection of Pakistani history through its magical and cultural threads weaved convivially in the textual and contextual parameters of temporal and geographical spaces of the selected text. The researchers examine the selected text linguistically to see how it negotiates the magical quality of stories of ghosts and gods, daydreaming, horror and myth, imagery and identity, and the amalgamation of rational and irrational worldviews. The writer has proven to be the flag bearer of contemporary literature of magical realism in Pakistan. The textual study grasps the historical context, aspects of magical realism and mythmaking linguistic choices inherent in A Firefly in the Dark. . The researchers have carried out the study by developing an analytical framework from the existing theories of magical realism by Faris (2004) and Campbell’s theory of hero, mythmaking, and monomyth (Campbell, 1988). By connecting traditional mythmaking with cutting-edge storytelling techniques, the novel encompasses the fundamental values of magical realism. The researchers examine the ways the text negotiates the myth-making tradition and gains a fresh perspective on cultural narratives.