Sense of Disorientation and Longing for Belonging: A Stylistic Analysis of Qaisra Shahraz’s Short Story “The Escape”

Abstract

Every writer has a distinct style of his/her own. Even though the writer’s dealing changes from subject to subject, there are still some peculiarities or idiosyncrasies which can be found across all their works. Stylistics is a domain that analysis these peculiarities or idiosyncrasies in any piece of writing. Aim of this study is to analyse Qaisra Sharaz’s language choice and patterns in her short story Escape (2013). This short story deals with the theme of sense of loss of belonging, alienation, foreignness experienced by migrants in the land of their birth as well as the land they have migrated to. To carry out a comprehensive view of language use the paper adopts critical model of stylistics analysis proposed by Geoffrey N. Leech and Michael H. Short. From the four suggested categories i.e. Lexical Categories, Grammatical Categories, Figures of Speech, and, Cohesion and Context the study uses/prefers first three categories to analyse the target text. Paper finds through a detailed analysis that the author has carried out a delicate subject of belonging and disposition in simple yet appealing, sensitive yet impersonal way through her smart linguistic choices. The stylistics techniques used by the author effectively emerge the themes of disorientation and belonging through creating visuals in readers’ mind by the use of figurative language, choice of words, writing presentation and sentence structure. They depict the inner feelings of the protagonist regarding his longing for belonging and homeliness, more artistically and effectively.

Keywords: Stylistics Analysis, Qaisra Shahraz, Short Story, Escape, Belonging.