Rewriting Culture and Womanhood: A Postcolonial Feminist Study of Ice Candy Man and Burnt Shadows

Abstract

The objective of this study is to make a comparative postcolonial feminist reading of Ice-Candy-Man (1988) by Bapsi Sidhwa and Burnt Shadows (2009) by Kamila Shamsie with respect to the manner in which Pakistani culture is represented. The research is defined within themes of gender, trauma, and cultural displacement within the understanding of postcolonialism. Sidhwa and Shamsie present the socio-political breaks of Partition, migration, and war through what is central to the female experience. Their writings challenge and re-define conservative gender roles and identity in postcolonial context. Close reading approach was chosen to critically review the selected passages in the two novels. The textual meaning was informed with the postcolonial feminist theory. The results show that both writers portray women as strong individuals struggling with hybrid identities molded out of colonial history. Sidhwa gives pride of place to indigenous culture whereas Shamsie renders transnational trauma and perseverance.