Feudal Exploitation in Southern Punjab: Stylistic Analysis of the Short Story in Other Rooms, Other Wonders (2009) by Daniyal Mueenuddin
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This research carries a stylistic analysis of the title short story in In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (Mueenuddin, 2009) through Leech and Short's (2007) model. Stylistics is a critical practice that analyses literary texts by using the methods and findings of the science of linguistics. The collection of eight stories by Daniyal Mueenuddin is widely acclaimed for depicting feudal traditions in southern Punjab. The interconnected stories portray exploitation, corruption of landlords and caving for money of the working class in feudalism. Vivid description of feudalism reflects a wide breach between the two classes. K. K. Harouni, an old retired civil servant and feudal lord, is an embodiment of an entitled man manipulating working-class women. This narrative reflects moral corruption and crooked methods of the working class to woo the landlord to gain financial benefits. This stylistic model is divided into four categories: lexical, grammatical, figures of speech, and context and cohesion. This study applied three categories: lexical, figures of speech, and cohesion and context to evaluate interconnected yet overlapping themes of feudalism and domestic exploitation. The data analysis shows that specific language tools have been applied in the text to transmit gender exploitation by the feudal landlord and corruption of the servant class. A valuable amount of hard data e.g. abundant presentation of feudal system related vocabulary, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and other language tools minutely reveals the latent aspects of feudalism. Despite the feudal lord’s manipulation of the working class, the death of Harouni also shows their economic and financial insecurity. This study significantly will help to broaden the horizon of literary stylistics in recapitulating feudal system-related themes backed with hard data.
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References
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