A Comparative Exploration of the Depictions of Punjabi Women in Daniyal Mueenuddin’s In Other Rooms Other Wonders and Now We Are Monsters

Abstract

By critically analyzing three short stories (Saleema, Provide Provide and In Other Rooms Other Wonders) from Daniyal Mueenuddin’s collection In Other Rooms Other Wonders this essay aims to explore the parallels and differences between his work and my own collection of short stories that comprised my MFA thesis at the University of Washington. The essay aims to assess the themes and narratives revolving around women’s lives and experiences in Pakistan as depicted in Mueenuddin’s fiction, and how my own fiction builds on as well as resists them. By engaging with multiple research papers by Pakistani scholars such as Fatima Ali, Omama Tanvir and Anila Afzal, I assess Mueenuddin’s women characters and how they can inform my own fiction that unfolds in a similar sociopolitical context in rural Punjab. This is as much a comment on Mueenuddin’s work as it is an exercise in discovering and closely scrutinizing my own creative process and voice.