ANEELA SALEEM , SONIA SALEEM , RAFIA ZUBAIR
DOI: https://doi.org/The study examines the construction and representation of identity in Urdu literature within the broader framework of South Asian storytelling in Pakistan. The study investigates how Urdu fiction articulates individual and collective identities shaped by historical experience, cultural inheritance, and socio-political realities. Employing close textual analysis and interpretive literary criticism, the qualitative research explores selected works of Urdu short stories and novels to understand how narrative forms and thematic concerns engage with questions of nationhood, religion, gender, class, ethnicity, and linguistic belonging. Situated within the shared literary traditions of South Asia, the study traces the ways Pakistani Urdu writers draw upon indigenous narrative modes while simultaneously responding to the rupture of colonialism, the Partition of 1947, and the ongoing processes of modernization and globalization. Particular attention is given to the narrative strategies through which writers negotiate memory, displacement, marginalization, and resistance, revealing literature as a vital space for identity formation and contestation. The analysis highlights how storytelling in Urdu serves both as a reflection of social realities and as a means of reimagining alternative identities and futures. The findings suggest that Urdu literature in Pakistan operates as a dynamic cultural discourse that mediates between continuity and change, tradition and innovation, and local and transnational influences. By foregrounding identity as a central analytical lens, this study contributes to qualitative literary scholarship by deepening the understanding of South Asian fiction in Pakistan and reaffirming the significance of Urdu storytelling in shaping cultural consciousness and literary expression.
