Postcolonial Epistemology and the Role of Silence in Formulating Postcolonial Aesthetics in Hanif Kureshi’s Short Stories “Touched” and “Hullabaloo in the Tree”

Abstract

This literary study aims to analyze two short stories, "Touched" and "Hullabaloo in the Tree," by British-Pakistani writer Hanif Kureshi. The stories were published in his collection of short fiction, The Body (2002). The study evaluates the stories to explore the postcolonial aesthetic elements in the narratives. Postcolonial aesthetics is comparatively a less explored area in literary research. Out of a few postcolonial theorists, Bill Ashcroft is the one who drew the attention of scholars to evaluate postcolonial literature on aesthetic grounds. In this pursuit, he works on the epistemology of postcolonial conditions and contends that postcolonial knowledge lies beyond the boundaries of written language. His claim rests on the assumption that written language is restricted due to its reliance on inscribed words. Therefore, the power of unsaid "mystifies the aesthetic object" (text). In this theoretical backdrop, the analysis of the two selected short stories focuses on those ’silent moments’ in the stories that can generate meaning beyond the boundaries of language and thus help to figure out the postcolonial aesthetics of the short fiction. Here, the phrase ’silent moments’ refers to the instances in the narratives where the author does not convey the message explicitly. The research contends that the’ unsaid’ can be interpreted through the power of literary language and the imaginative power of the writer and the reader. This qualitative research employs an interpretive method to anchor the analysis.