Representing Marginalized Female Desire Through Narrative Strategies

Abstract

The study aims to investigate  how female sexuality and desire are socially constructed as “evil” and how women navigate patriarchal constraints to express their instincts in Urdu short story Lihaf by Ismat Chughtai. It examines the societal expectations placed on women and the consequences of deviating from these norms. This article applies Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to Lihaf by Ismat Chughtai, a work that explores the suppressed sexual desire of women and its expression within a male-dominated society. The research emphasizes the strategic use of figurative language and narrative techniques to both reveal and obscure female desire. Using Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework—textual, discursive practice, and social practice—the study analyses how linguistic choices and narrative strategies construct gendered power relations in the pre-partition South Asian context. The findings reveal that Lihaf foregrounds the exploitation and marginalization of women, offering critical insights into the relationship between language, power, and gender ideology. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of how literary discourse negotiates female desire within patriarchal societies.