Shackled Words Seeking Transcendence: A Postcolonial Existential Feminist Analysis of Faiqa Mansab’s Sufi Storyteller

Abstract

This study analyzes Faiqa Mansab’s The Sufi Storyteller through the theoretical lens of Postcolonial Existential Feminism. The Sufi Storyteller foregrounds feminine characters, vanquished by oppressive patriarchal society and post-colonial legacies. By doing a close textual analysis and adopting a qualitative method of research, Gaytri Chakravorty Spivak’s concept of double deprecation of subaltern women and Simon De Beauvoir’s idea of transcendence of women are incorporated to conduct this research. The findings unveil that while women in the novel faces layered of suppression, Sufi storytelling and autonomous means of emancipation becomes source of transcendence, breaking the inflicted restrictions. Role of trauma resulting in silencing and invisibility of women, and the ways to grapple with the traumatic episodes, consequently leading to transforming women’s identity could be the subject of future research.