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Item Human nature relationship in James Joyce’s Dubliner(UMT, Lahore, 2025) Adeeba MuqaddasThis research explores the relationship between humans and nature in James Joyce’s Dubliner through the lens of ecocriticism. By examining the portrayal of environmental and ecological conditions of 20th-century Dublin, this study reveals that urbanization, industrialization, and nature impact his characters' lives, identities, and consciousness. This study further focuses on the interaction of characters with their environment and what this interaction reveals about their psychological and emotional state. This research highlights the function of natural imagery and elements in the stories and the contrast of natural imagery with urban settings. Applying ecocritical theory to James Joyce's short stories from his collection Dubliners has provided an understanding that urbanization and environmental changes affect the characters and how these characters relate to their environment. The analysis focuses on some key stories, including “The Araby” and “Eveline,” highlighting the environmental degradation and human nature relationship, primarily focusing on the disillusionment, loss of innocence, and impact of the urban environment on the characters.Item The posthuman labyrinth(UMT, Lahore, 2025) Muhammad AliThis thesis aims to examine The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner through the lens of Posthumanism by Cary Wolfe and Michel Foucault's frameworks of Biopolitics and Discipline. The study aims to discover the control and surveillance of the Gladers by the biopolitical institution WICKED and the formation of the biopolitical subjects for authoritarian purposes in The Maze Runner trilogy. The research highlights human exceptionalism, posthuman subjectivity and identity by analyzing the texts using the Posthumanist ideas. The life of the individuals is directly controlled and managed by the totalitarian institution in the trilogy. The characters in The Maze Runner trilogy are treated as "docile bodies", a concept given by Michel Foucault that discusses the formation of self-managing and disciplined bodies. This study also critiques the violation of ethical boundaries by the WICKED and analyzes how WICKED1 is controlling and violating the rights of humans and morality. Posthumanism emphasizes the idea of ethical non-anthropocentrism, emphasizing the fact that the subjectivity and identity of human beings formed by their interaction with technology, animals and nature. The study explores how humans are used for bigger purposes as a system of control and power. This research uncovers the biopolitical systems in The Maze Runner trilogy and will also uncover the strategies of surveillance with the Posthumanist subjectivity formed by the Gladers.Item The colonial matrix of power, coloniality of being, and pluriversality(UMT, Lahore, 2025) AON ABBASPositioned within the evolving landscape of decolonial theoretical inquiry, the thesis examines the enduring impact of the colonial matrix of power on colonized peoples in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Afterlives. Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of decoloniality, it showcases the ways in which the colonial matrix of power maintains, transfers, and controls the ideological structures of colonialism—coloniality of being through control of institutions, militarization, land, labor, epistemologies, cosmologies, and gender and subjectivities. Decolonially speaking, pluriversality emerges as a decolonial thought, delinking from the idealized Eurocentric notion of universality, foregrounding multiple civilizations and ways of an array of world within a single world. Gurnah's characters, particularly Ilyas, Hamza, and Afiya, are entrapped in the labyrinth of the colonial that harms their lived experiences, disrupts their ways of being, knowing, and living, and causes identity crisis/disruption, displacement, and metaphysical violence. Hamza and Afiya become victims of coloniality of being influenced by the hegemonic matrix of power, as they suffer sexual harassment, bodily exploitation, and dehumanization. They acquiesce to the commodification and sexual manipulation, using it as their primary tool to resist against colonial control of gender, subjectivities, and body, delinking from the colonial matrix of power - (re)linking with the polycentric world within the colonial world. The thesis echoes the sentiment that Afterlives spotlights the shift from postcolonialism to (de)coloniality in its thematic structure, arguing that Gurnah emphasizes the recognition of hegemonic and monolithic systems - Eurocentric epistemologies are central to the un-Westernization and linking to the pluriversal world. The thesis aims to accentuate the dire effects of the colonial matrix of power in terms of control of authority and war, control of knowledge, and control of sexuality and gender on the lives of Gurnah's vii protagonists, alternatively, exploring the themes of resistance, survivance, and re/dehumanization, providing a nuanced pluriversal-thematic exploration of the Afterlives.Item Fictionality of reality(UMT, Lahore, 2025) AQSA KOUSARThe Diary of Social Butterfly reflects postmodern society, as it embodies the core features of postmodernism including but not limited to its resistance towards metanarratives, a playful interrogation of language, and an embrace of multiplicity, and fragmentation. Moreover, the novel is a thoughtful exploration of the fractured nature of reality itself. The research examines postmodern fragmentation and negotiates with the fictionality of reality highlighting the multifaceted nature of reality. Through a close reading of the text, the study highlights the fragmented nature of the identity and reality of the protagonist Butterfly. Extending that, this research also highlights the ways Moni Mohsin employs self-reflexivity, language play and totality of reality to depict the multiplicity and subjectivity of experiences of a socialite navigating a capitalistic world. The study employs Jean-François Lyotard‟s „fragmented truths‟, Jacques Derrida‟s notion about the playfulness of language and Raymond Federman‟s „fictionality of reality‟ collectively to critique societal norms and develop an in-depth understanding of the underlying patterns of the objectivity of „truth‟. Hence, the research highlights how fragmentation in the novel mirrors the postmodern condition, a society characterized by the proliferation of information, rapid change and globalization and a thoughtful postmodern text that questions the very nature of reality, truth, and meaning itself.Item Historicity, politics of culture, and self-fashioning(UMT, Lahore, 2025) FAIZA PERVEZSituated in New Historicism, the thesis asserts that Shashi Tharoor's Riot: A Love Story engages with historical constrictions, memory, and myth to construct and deconstruct national belonging. Framed by theories of historicity and politics of culture that regard history as a constructed narrative within power structures and culture, along with self-fashioning as the deliberate shaping of identity, Riot serves to deconstruct the complexities involved in communal violence in India. Riot foregrounds long-standing legacies of religious polarization and communal violence that shape the cultural identity as well as the historical and political consciousness of the nation. Riot’s fragmented narrative resists linear historiography and reconstructs the events through multiple voices of conflicting truths, thereby exposing the strong manipulation exercised under the Indian cultural politics. The self-fashioning of identities within a contested cultural space in Riot is shaped by the enduring trauma of colonial rule and partition. Riot represents various issues regarding communal violence, identity formation, cultural memory, historical representation, and political ideology in postcolonial India. Integrating personal histories with cultural politics, Riot criticizes internal communal fissures of modern India and enables characters to construct and realize their identities through acts of self-fashioning. This thesis positions Riot as a literary intervention that disrupts dominant historical narratives, redefining the discourse of Indian secularism through a culturally situated and critically historicized lens while reflecting upon the intersections of power, identity, and historical memory in postcolonial India.Item Resistance poetry under Zia’s censorship(UMT, Lahore, 2025) Tooba TahirThis research paper intends to trace and explore the ways in which state censorship and control affect literature by focusing specifically on poetic works written during Zia’s regime. The purpose of this research is to identify how poetry serves to be an act of resistance and how it manages to voice the marginalized within sociopolitical contexts. A theoretical insight into this research is gained by using a hybrid approach incorporating Foucault’s concept of “Power/Knowledge” and Simon De Beauvoir’s “feminist perspective” discussed in her work, “The Second Sex”. This research delves into two major trajectories. First, it contextualizes the historical and political backdrop of Zia’s regime by aligning it with Foucault’s power discourse mechanism. Secondly, it studies poetry’s role as a tool of resistance against state oppression. This part of research also delves into gendered politics of poetry, contributing to feminist resistance politics. The primary works for this purpose include poems of five selected poets. This includes Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s “Hum Dekhenge,” Ahmed Faraz’s “Muhasara,” Habib Jalib’s “Kya Likhna,” Kishwar Naheed’s “We Sinful Women,” and Fahmida Riaz’s “Chadur Aur Char Diwari”.The study uses the english translation of these poetic works. This paper also accentuates the challenges faced by poets by analysing the poems on thematic and contextual levels. The paper aims to offer a thorough understanding of how poetry evolves and responds in times of political instability.Item Binary oppositions, mytheme, and totemism(UMT, Lahore, 2025) MUBEEN SHABBIRSituated within the framework of structuralist anthropology, the thesis offers a nuanced reinterpretation of Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding as a modern myth imbued with symbolic meanings and ritual logics. Deploying the theoretical framework of Claude Lévi- Strauss's structuralism, the narrative is illuminated as a site of mythic logic, wherein various binary oppositions such as masculinity/femininity, passion/restraint, life/death, and nature/culture act as the scaffolds for meaning production. The forest, knives, blood, and the beggar woman become the crucial elements of mythemes — these symbolic figures disrupt social harmony and resuscitate ancestral codes of fate and ritual sacrifice. Through these elements, the narrative uncovers the underlying structures that shape cultural practices surrounding marriage, honor, and kinship. Nonhuman agencies, particularly the moon and the horse, act as totemic forces that challenge human authority, asserting themselves in an archaic cosmology wherein human action is bound to cyclical, transpersonal forces. The thesis aims to explore the ways in which the symbolic framework of the play reveals mythic patterns, totemic influences, and binary oppositions, while examining the ongoing impact of myth on modern literary manifestations. Lorca's play sets back against realism and reimagines modern theatre as a site for cultural reflection and mythic recurrences. Blood Wedding serves as a powerful literary intervention that broadens the critical landscape of modernist theatre, reaffirming the lasting significance of myth in today’s literature through its complex interplay of ritual symbolism, totemic imagery, and structural contrasts. Further, it aims to trace the structural logic of myth as a mediating force behind the collective anxieties about gender, death, and destiny, conceiving Blood Wedding as a cultural artifact that encodes the socio-anthropological tensions within its symbolic framework.Item New historicism in Ahmed Ali’s twilight in Delhi(UMT, Lahore, 2025) Sawera NawazWritten in 1940, Twilight in Delhi by Ahmed Ali examines the devastating effects of British colonialism on India’s political, social, and cultural fabric, with a focus on the Muslim elite and patriarchal systems. This thesis employs New Historicism—a critical theory pioneered by Stephen Greenblatt in the 1980s, which views literature as both shaped by and shaping its historical context—to analyze how the novel reflects and resists the realities of early 20th century British India. It explores themes of identity, memory, and resistance, critiquing the negative impacts of colonialism on Indian culture. The study also investigates the portrayal of gender roles, revealing how colonial dominance and modernity disrupt traditional patriarchal norms, particularly in terms of marriage, social status, and women’s agency. Through the decline of the Mir Nihal family, the novel depicts both a familial breakdown and the broader cultural decay of a once-vibrant civilization. Furthermore, this analysis highlights how women’s experiences are shaped by the intersecting forces of colonial rule and patriarchal structures.Item Monsters (the Menendez brothers)(UMT, Lahore, 2025) Shawal NaeemThis research examines the criminal case of the Menendez brothers through the lens of the Netflix series Monsters. It analyses how media portrayal, public opinion, and mental health literacy have evolved since the 1990s, especially because of the newly surfaced evidence, including a letter written by Erik Menendez in 1988 detailing the abuse, which has further complicated the narrative.This research employs trauma theory and media discourse analysis in assessing how society has redefined the construction of victimhood, abuse, and justice. This research also incorporates secondary resources, The Culture of Fear by Barry Glassner, which criticises how public opinion is manipulated by the media and how the media produces moral panic. Through a study of monsters and cinematic media representation, this research examines how changing psychological meaning patterns and societal norms re-stage public narratives. It also investigates how true crime television both radically transforms stories of justice and represents our culture.This paper also explores the increasing critical analysis of victim-perpetrator narratives, true crime reporting, and emerging conceptions of psychological trauma. It bridges a significant gap in previous research by reframing public opinion and moral judgment about earlier criminal proceedings through emerging media discourse and psychology. The primary objective of this research is to examine how new media, particularly streaming documentaries such as Monsters, blend empathy, social awareness, and psychological insights to reframe commonly accepted historical narratives.Item Hybridity, colonial gaze, and gendered identity in Oroonoko(UMT, Lahore, 2025) Sobia RanaThe research aims to explore the complex themes of race, gender, hybrid identity, and colonial gaze with the application of Homi K. Bhabha‟s hybridity on Oroonoko. The dissertation aims to uncover the racial oppression and gender objectification through the analysis of the characters Oroonoko and Imoinda. This research is grounded in Homi K. Bhabha‟s postcolonial theory of hybridity, which interrogates the fluid, in-between spaces of identity formed under colonial influence. By applying Bhabha‟s concepts such as mimicry, ambivalence, and cultural hybridity, the study analyzes how colonial power disrupts stable identities and contributes to psychological and social fragmentation. The gender discrimination violated the rights of women, and women were silenced under the patriarchal society and colonial regime in 17th-century Europe and Africa. The textual analysis of Oroonoko examines the influence of colonialism on the narrator and the characters. The thesis also intends to discover the role of hybrid identity in making Oroonoko elevate his social status or the cause of his decline and eventual death. Oroonoko informs the readers about the immoral and unethical slave trade of the 17th century, which destroyed the lives of thousands of Blacks and resulted in racial othering and gendered voicelessness.Item Subverting the heteronormativity in 21st century queer gothic fiction(UMT, Lahore, 2025) FAHAM ZEESHANThis research negotiates the queer and gothic elements in 21st century gothic fiction through a comparative study of Claire Hamilton Russell’s “Let Down” and Eliza Temple’s “Heart Eater” in ways these stories subvert heteronormativity. Supplying framework to this study, Kosofsky Sedgwick’s Epistemology of the Closet helps in examining queer gothic fiction making a transgression from monstrosity, violence and suspense to the emergence of queer non-normative spaces where resistance to heteronormative identities shapes gender and sexuality. This research discusses the forms of queer gothic imagery including atmosphere, grotesque spaces, destabilised gender roles, non-normative characters and highlights the ways the selected stories subvert the existing gender binaries in their own ways. The main argument of this study is that queer gothic fiction reimagines gothic not as an epoch of despair but as a sanctuary of queer reclamation transforming monstrosity into intimacy, suspense into survival and darkness into a space for collective change and growth. The major objective of this research is to develop a critique of contemporary queer gothic fiction in ways it challenges traditional epistemologies involved in the construction and perception of gender and sexuality within queer gothic narratives. The scope of this research lies beyond the thematic and textual understanding of queer gothic fiction to encompass the underlying patterns of narrative structure and gothic imagery that nourish and celebrate queer bodies in contemporary gothic fiction in distinct ways.Item Archetypal shift and cultural evolution(UMT, Lahore, 2025) Kinza KhalidThis research explores the evolving female archetypes of Snow White and the Evil Queen in response to the cultural shifts by comparing the Brothers Grimm's classic Tale of Snow White (1812) with the live-action adaptation of Snow White (2025). The comparative analysis of the archetypes is drawn through the employment of Carol S. Pearson, “Modern Archetypal Theory” and Alex Mesoudis's “The Cultural Evolution Theory”. It aims to explore how female archetypes of Snow White and the Evil Queen have transitioned in response to the shifting cultural values in Western society and what key elements have contributed to the spread and survival of fairy tales, specifically the Tale of Snow White. By the intersection of these two theoretical models, the research scrutinizes the evolution of female archetypes simultaneously with the cultural context to understand their functioning and evaluates the narrative transformation in Snow White through Mesoudi’s Cultural model to understand the biased transformation and cultural selection. By integrating psychological symbolism with cultural evolution, this study offers a multidimensional analysis of how the archetypes are not fixed but evolving and mutate in response to the needs of society and ideological trends. Thus, the paper provides the archetypal understanding in modern times and highlights the interplay between archetypes and cultural narrative elements.Item Exploring maternal psychological control and intergenerational transmission of eating disorders(UMT, Lahore, 2025) Emaan HafeezThe purpose of this research is to identify how a mother’s schema of ideal eating behavior reflects in the relationship with her daughter through dictation and how maternally imposed restrictions are generationally transmitted and evolved. The primary text for this paper is Jennette McCurdy’s biography I’m Glad my Mom Died where the celebrity explores her scarred relationship with her mother and her struggle with Anorexia and eventually Bulimia Nervosa. The framework to correlate maternal coercion with Eating Disorders in daughters would be Brain K Barber’s Parental Psychological Control Theory. It studies autonomy and control from parents on separate scales and explores how psychological control is blatant manipulation that parents weaponize using emotional manipulation leading to depressive and self harming repercussions in children. This paper initially explores how McCurdy’s eating disorder is a reaction to her mother’s psychologically controlling parenting style and proves her concept of restrictive eating to be a direct influence of her guardian. Through a closed-reading of the novel, significant themes and events are highlighted to identify dominant socio-cultural paradigms built around food consumption. Finally, the study moves towards a discursive argument in order to comprehend the contemporary situation of Eating Disorders as a cyclical transmission of bodily ideals from 90’s mothers to daughters. This is achieved by identifying current eating trends of ‘Clean Eating’, ‘Rigorous Exercising’ and ‘Drug-Use’ to sustain thinness in Millennials and Gen Z’s.Item Language as a digital cage(UMT, Lahore, 2025) KHADIJA QURBANIn the 21st century, colonialism has taken new forms in the age of technology and advancement where humanities as a discipline seeks new deliberations in theoretical and thematic spaces of digital world and culture. This research examines two short stories: Alphonse Daudet’s “The Last Lesson” (1870) and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” (1961), in the light of Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejias’s ‘Data Colonialism’(2019) and offers a critique to highlight the ways data colonialism revamps the role of language and identity in contemporary digital society with reference to the selected stories. Extending that, the major argument of this research foregrounds a deeper understanding of the political, social, and digital spaces in regulating data for colonial advantage and language as a tool of oppression and identity erasure. It negotiates the methods digital technology employs to accentuate the colonial legacies through the use of language, enhancement of digital visibility, and promotion of diverse linguistic identities. Both stories centralise the treatment of languages, identity, and surveillance during the reign of the colonizers. This research outlines the repercussion of Data Colonialism focusing on language and power dynamics with reference to the selected stories. The significance of this research lies in the scholarship on the study of indigenous languages were suppressed previously and is presently under the influence of technology while negotiating the politics of global language and digital world.Item Performing what’s learned(UMT, Lahore, 2025) Ayesha Abdul WadoodThis qualitative content study examines the developmental arc of toxic masculinity, including its social construction, psychological internalization, and embodied performativity in youth through a close textual and analytical reading of the 2025 Netflix limited series Adolescence. The study investigates the illustration of youth radicalization through its central character, Jamie Miller, as he adopts and performs traits of hegemonic masculine behaviours such as aggression, domination, and emotional suppression under the influence of both familial modeling and toxic ideologies promoted within the digital male-dominated spaces. Employing a dual theoretical lens of Albert Bandura’s Social Learning as found in his profound work, Social Learning Theory (1977), and Judith Butler’s Gender Performative Theory, presented in her influential work, Gender Trouble (1990), this research aims to explore how Jamie’s masculine identity is not innate, but rather a product of social conditioning which is reinforced and ultimately enacted through repeated performances. Furthermore, the study explores how the digital environment operates as a pedagogical space for absorbing toxic masculine traits, where toxic norms are cyclically enacted and reinforced through positive rewards and peer validation. In this way, the constant passive exposure to digital spaces shapes Jamie’s distorted perception of male identity as he absorbs and internalizes a curriculum of hypermasculine values that promote male aggression, control, and emotional detachment. This study, thus, emphasizes the perilous intersection of hegemonic gender norms, digital radicalization, and rigid performance of masculinity by providing a cultural critique of modern masculinity through the narrative of Jamie’s downfall.Item Hybridity and Mimicry in Alex Haley’s Roots(UMT, Lahore, 2025) Fizzah KafeelThis research study aims to explore the concept of hybridity and mimicry in the characters, which is the result of colonialism in Alex Haley’s Roots. It highlights how different characters throughout the novel face the horrors of slavery and colonialism and how that horror haunts them throughout their lives. It also hunts down the ways through which the slaves save themselves from the brutalities of the colonizers. The theoretical framework applied while conducting this research is Homi K. Bhabha’s Post Colonial theory of Hybridity and Mimicry. Homi K. Bhabha’s work is influenced by the ideas of Frantz Fanon and Jacquez Derrida, which talks about colonial psychology and identity. Through their ideas Homi K. Bhabha developed the idea of hybridity and mimicry. The method used in conducting this research is qualitative research method and the data has been collected by in-depth reading of the text and by analyzing different related articles. This research is going to unfold the cruel and dark history of slaves in America through the characters of Kunta Kinte, Kizzy, Chicken George, Tom Lea, and their ultimate struggle to find freedom. It shows that how African people were uprooted from their homeland, and how it affects their whole generation. This research study is also going to uncover the ways through which the slaves showed their resistance against slaveryItem Dismantling Colonial Narratives(UMT, Lahore, 2025-03-11) AMNAThis thesis offers insights on Representation, Silence, and Storytelling as means of resistance against colonial and patriarchal structures by analyzing J.M. Coetzee’s Foe through the theoretical lens of Trinh T. Minh-ha’s critique of Essentialism. Essentialism establishes rigid traits for individuals which supports established power systems. In her work, Woman, Native, Other, Trinh T. Minh-ha challenges Representational systems within Postcolonial Feminism because they create more control than empowerment for marginalized voices. She confronts mainstream narratives that pretend to grant voice while taking control of individual experiences. Minh-ha advocates for “speaking nearby” as resistance against imposed meanings while defining Silence as a choice for subversion rather than empty space. The examination of Foe as a Postcolonial adaptation of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe builds upon these concepts. The study applies Trinh T. Minh-ha’s critique of Essentialism and Representation to analyze how Foe constructs narratives through three main elements including Friday’s Silent resistance and Susan Barton’s narrative dominance and the novel’s structural fragmentation which opposes fixed identities. Using Minh-ha’s “speaking nearby” concept, this research analyzes how Foe resists identity reduction while questioning the ethical implications of speaking on behalf of marginalized groups. The research investigates how Friday’s deliberate Silence combats the application of representative narratives and consequently dismantles colonial Storytelling. Through Trinh T. Minh-ha’s Essentialist critique, the study investigates how Barton’s narrative control attempts create ethical problems in speaking on behalf of others in relation to Friday’s story. The study aims to demonstrate how Foe questions the authority of language and Representation, raising the question of whether marginalized voices can ever be fully captured in narratives without perpetuating power structures. By dismantling colonial structures and rethinking the processes of power, words, and identity, the study seeks to understand how characterization in Foe challenges Essentialist beliefs. It uses comprehensive textual analysis of the work of literature, anchored in Minh-ha’s ideas, to highlight how the text challenges conventional Representation and promotes moral interaction with marginalized voices. While addressing ethical issues in Representation politics and Storytelling, the study deepens the knowledge of oppressed communities that oppose Essentialist methods of creating transformational frameworksItem Revisiting Saint Joan(UMT, 2025-03-06) MUHAMMAD ZAIN TAHIRThis thesis employs Frantz Fanon’s post-colonial theoretical framework to analyze the neo- colonial dynamics that arise from the interplay of national consciousness, decolonization, and neo-colonization in Saint Joan. National consciousness is viewed as an instrument of unification of the oppressed with one another against the colonial domination, and decolonization is a crucial process of destroying and transforming the cultural, social, and psychological aspects of imperial power. Neo-colonialism is the representation of the lasting control of colonial power through political, economic, and cultural means to restrict states from exercising real sovereignty. In Saint Joan, these concerns become palpable through Joan’s leadership: she provides a means of breaking patriotic fissures among French identity, standing against English rule, and heralding the development of national consciousness. The persecution and execution correspond to Fanon’s argument that decolonization also entails a violent struggle with entrenched colonial and domestic power structures. Saint Joan also looks ahead to neo- colonialism because Joan’s legacy is ultimately taken over by her oppressors in a way that reflects the post-independence co-option of revolutionary actors by hegemonic forces. This thesis is a rethinking of Joan’s resistance to imperialism in Saint Joan by G.B. Shaw as an allegory for anti-colonial struggle and as a means to the formation of national consciousness and an unveiling of the paradoxes of neo-colonial power. This paper aims to deploy Frantz Fanon’s postcolonial lens to reconfigure the Saint Joan as a critical text meditating on colonial resistance, national consciousness, and neo-colonialism. This thesis examines Joan as a metaphor of anti-colonial movements and discusses her conflict with both external and internal colonial powers. It also galvanizes an analysis of the neo-colonial processes by which the organization of dominant power structures into dismembered parts takes place to assimilate and condition revolutionary figuresItem The Virtual and the Interrupted: Affective Capture in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man(UMT, 2025-03-11) TAHREEM FATIMAThis research examines James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) from the perspective of Affect Theory, propounded by Brian Massumi in “The Autonomy of Affect” (1995). It investigates how pre-conscious intensities play a huge role in the self-formation of the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus. The research, drawn from Massumi’s essay, stresses the primacy of affect as a pre-conscious, autonomous, and embodied force. This force precedes human action and thought, ultimately shaping them. Stephen’s transformation is brought under the spotlight while the affective Interruptions constantly foreground the tentative process of liberation from familial, religious, and societal constraints toward artistic independence. Employing Massumi’s theoretical concepts, i.e., “Affective Capture,” “Interruption,” and “Virtuality,” this research examines Stephen’s subjective experiences of encountering religious, familial, and personal troubles. These affective intensities operate beyond traditional emotional paradigms to reveal the refined interplay between the internal and external forces that ultimately shape Stephen’s identity. The analysis further explains the shared aspects of Massumi’s definition of affect as an embodied intensity and Joyce’s depiction of sensorial and emotional events in Stephen’s life. The study links these events to larger thematic concerns, such as the collision between individual autonomy and collective identity. Meanwhile, it demonstrates Joyce’s narrative style, which symbolizes the affective potentialities and transforms such episodes into moments of artistic epiphany. This research offers affective literary criticism by demonstrating that A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man develops the relationship between affect, identity, and artistic progression.Item A Post-colonial examination of The Beauty of Your Face(UMT, 2025-01-26) Neha AzharThis research paper aims to perform a post-colonial reading of the novel The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah using Edward Said’s Orientalism as a theoretical framework. Besides, it is intended in the study how the novel seeks to construct an understanding of Palestinian-American identity, exposes the figure of the orientalized other and subverts dominant mechanisms that seek to negate the voices and existence of the oppressed, thus illustrating the very power of resistance artistry. Particularly, it will consider how Mustafah’s text, as represented in different genres, seeks to address debates of cultural belonging, identity, and otherness. Islam and the Middle East have been promoted by the novel in cognitive dissonance with the overwhelming Western stereotypes. The analysis seeks to explore the oppressed colonised identity through the perspective of Palestinian American cosmopolitan stories, while also seeking to examine the Edward Said Oriental and the hegemonies. This research is a qualitative, descriptive analysis of the novel. The explorations of the study are directed towards helping us to be mindful of how minor voices survive, challenge or embrace oppressive discourses. Through this research, future scholars may expand our knowledge of the intricate relations of power in literature and in society as a whole and promote a more refined and intricate approach to social justice, pedagogical practice, or critical discourse analysis.