Re-reading History through Feminist Lens: A Critical Study of Qurratulain Hyder’s The River of Fire
Abstract:
The present paper intends a critical study of The River of Fire (1998), the cause célčbre of Qurratulain Hyder. While the narrative, in line with the tradition of typical historical novels, has a storyline parallel with the timeline of Indian history, the present paper intends to read the novel as subversion to this stereotypical presentation of history, as it produces a critique of the phallogocentric notion of history as Hyder restrained herself from delving into macrocosmic detailing of wars and invasions that history tends to detail. The paper will further analyze how in The River of Fire, she attempted to re-write history by including the microcosmic experiences of human beings, to be more precise, from the point of view of women and exposing the ‘patriarchal politics of constriction, exclusion, and dispossession’ (Kumar 92) that tend to marginalize women down the ages.
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