THE GROTESQUE AS CULTURAL STRATEGY: DECONSTRUCTING PASHTUN STEREOTYPES IN “THE PATHANS: A SKETCH” BY GHANI KHAN

Abstract

Literary narratives are often viewed as cultural spaces within which identities are formed, negotiated, and challenged. The Pathans: A Sketch (1947) by Abdul Ghani Khan is a complicated depiction of the Pashtun society with its exaggerated, paradoxical, and emotionally charged portrayals. This paper investigates the working of the grotesque as a cultural and narrative technique within the text to generate stereotypical and yet ambiguous images of the Pashtun identity. The major dilemma being discussed is whether Khan’s intimate and sympathetic portrayal unintentionally perpetuates the reductive stereotypes and generates the dilemma of the collective self-representation in the case of Pashtuns. Although earlier studies have paid much attention to Khan as a philosophical humanist or nationalist vision, little has been done to unmask the grotesque aspects of his cultural representation and what they say about his ideas. The proposed research will address that gap by bringing a critical, deconstructive approach to the text. Through a qualitative textual analysis, the study applies the Argumentation Model by Stephen Toulmin to discuss how the cultural assertions about Pashtun traditions, honor, violence, and romance have been created, supported, and qualified in the narrative. The analysis indicates that the representation of Khan is based on binary oppositions that are unstable (noble/savage and tradition/progress) and do not lend to meaning. The grotesque both humanizes and perverts the Pashtun identity to show it as fragmented and contingent, as opposed to essential. The research work adds value to literary and cultural studies by emphasizing the need to engage critically with culturally dominant texts that define ethnicity and group identity.