Anshu Malhotra is Associate Professor of History at the University of Delhi and the author of
Siobhan Lambert-Hurley is Reader in International History at the University of Sheffield and author of
Anshu Malhotra is Associate Professor of History at the University of Delhi and the author of
Siobhan Lambert-Hurley is Reader in International History at the University of Sheffield and author of
A Passion for Reading: The Role of Early Twentieth-Century Urdu Novels in the Construction of an Individual Female Identity in 1930s Hyderabad
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Published:October 2015
Sylvia Vatuk, 2015. "A Passion for Reading: The Role of Early Twentieth-Century Urdu Novels in the Construction of an Individual Female Identity in 1930s Hyderabad", Speaking of the Self: Gender, Performance, and Autobiography in South Asia, Anshu Malhotra, Siobhan Lambert-Hurley
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This chapter contributes to scholarly discussions of the role of popular fiction in the development of a female selfhood. It explores how reading Urdu-language fiction contributed to the development of a young Muslim girl’s sense of self, as she was growing up in the 1920s in a scholarly, religious family of illustrious ancestry but relatively modest means. In an unpublished memoir the author tells of her childhood passion for reading popular Urdu novels. She identified with female characters who retained the traditional feminine virtues while also acquiring modern educations and pursuing professional careers. These novels helped her to construct a sense of the kind of person she wanted to be and what she wanted to do with her life, as well as to come to terms with ongoing distressing issues in her own family for which she could find no solution in the real world.
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