BIOPOWER VIA FEUDAL STRUCTURES: A FOUCAULDIAN ANALYSIS OF JAMAL ABRO'S PIRANI & OTHER SHORT STORIES (2017)

Abstract

This study examines the significance and exercise of feudal structures in Pirani & Other Short Stories (2017), a collection of short stories by Jamal Abro and how they signify and exercise biopower. The main aim of this research is to break down the mechanisms of the operation of biopower in the socio-cultural and administrative framework of rural Sindh, and how landed authority, institutional collusion and religious hierarchy intersect each other to manage, regulate and abandon human life. This study adopts a qualitative interpretive approach to research based on the theories of biopower, sovereign power and power/knowledge nexus developed by French theorist Michel Foucault, which goes beyond the traditional thematic approach that sees feudalism as a system of class exploitation. The study uses a systematic four-stage textual analysis which involves close reading, thematic coding, identification of discursive elements and comprehensive synthesis to analyze the representation of the systematic subjugation of marginalized populations in the text. The results reveal that the feudal power in rural Sindh is a localized form of sovereign power which systematically exposes weaker bodies to death and deprivation by inverting the classical right to let live or make die. This research offers a much needed critical perspective on the circulation, normalization and institutionalization of power in the socio-political field of Sindh, and demonstrates that literary representation and political administration of life are always in a close relationship