(De) Coloniality in Research

A Case Study of English Literary Humanities in Pakistan

Abstract

Complacency with its present state and obliviousness of its
genealogy can be two signs of a neocolonial discipline in a post-colonial
country. English literary humanities in Pakistan can be studied as one
such case. One cannot find a single historicization of the discipline
produced in the country, while discourse about its worth has yet to gain
steam. In this context, the present study aims at analyzing the research
which has been produced within the discipline since 1966 to highlight its
embedded coloniality and track changes that might reveal tell-tale signs
of emerging decoloniality. For the purpose, two journals that have been
published by the Department of English Language and Literature (DELL),
University of the Punjab, have been surveyed and selections analyzed. The
study reveals that no efforts were made on part of the researchers to
include their own socio-political or cultural context in writing and hence
the inclusion of their identity remained suspended until the end of the
twentieth century. Furthermore, in these three decades, comparative
studies of literary texts and studies in the translation are almost completely
absent. However, in the twentieth century’s last decade a few researchers
can be seen shifting their academic gazes onto Pakistani Englishlanguage writers. The paper then traces some of the ways in which
disciplinary research in English literature has moved closer to the
national context, due primarily to the emergence of Pakistani Englishlanguage writers after 2000; and discusses how even these developments
may not be termed as decolonial. Finally, the paper discusses some of the
ways which can be utilized to pave the way for decolonial research in the
discipline.