Freud is Finished: A Schizoanalysis of Sana Ullah in Sifr Se Aik Tak by Mirza Athar Baig

Abstract

This paper focuses on the analysis of Sana Ullah, one of the major characters in the novel SIFR SE AIK Tak ‘from zero to one’ by Mirza Athar Baig. The analysis has been conducted through the schizoanalysis framework by Deleuze and Guattari (D&G) (1993). Such analysis of Pakistani fictional characters has never been undertaken earlier. Contrary to Freud’s psychoanalysis where desire is a lack and its fixation at any stage of a child’s development leads him to Oedipalization, in schizoanalysis the desire is Anti-Oedipal; a multiple and rhizomatic process. Freud’s structural approach attaches the complexity of a child’s mind to a conflict between biological drive and social expectations which he calls the psychosexual theory of development. But for the postmodern thinkers like D&G, such sexual and social/familial repressions don’t lead to any retardation; they rather take the form of production. The repression becomes a desire which is Anti-Oedipal, multiple and dynamic. Sana Ullah, in the novel Sifr Se Aik Tak is hindered by libidinal and capital restraints, but he does not become lethargic and complex; rather he grows and develops in multiple ways and carries on assuming newer identities like a rhizome. The analysis of Sana Ullah shows how his neurosis leads him to multiple and productive directions indicating the end of the power play of Freudian grand narrative and the rise of new narrative in the form of schizoanalysis