Two Tales of a City: Lahore in the Literary Narratives of Bapsi Sidhwa and Mumtaz Shahnawaz

Abstract

This paper analyzes two novels of Pakistani female authors i.e. Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man (1988) and Mumtaz Shahnawaz’s The Heart Divided (1957). Both the authors present Lahore as a metropolitan that was the center of all the political happenings; a city space that provided women the opportunity to participate in the public sphere. The central theme of the selected novels is the Partition of the Indian Subcontinent. Sidhwa and Shahnawaz reconstruct the experience of Partition in their works. Both novels are set in the city of Lahore in which authors are engaged with the recent political and social history of the Subcontinent. Both authors chronicle Partition through their female narratives. Their fictional characters document the role of women in the Partition movement. Sidhwa’s novel provides the inclusive view of the diverse feminine role of women during Partition.