This study investigates the production and perception of apology responses (ARs) of English-using Pakistanis (L2), British English speakers (Native speakers of the target language), and Pakistani Urdu speaker (L1) under the influence of social distance variables. For data collection, two instruments are used; a discourse completion test (DCT in English and Urdu) and a scale response questionnaire (SRQ in English and Urdu). Findings signal that three groups tend to use more Acceptance strategies with the interlocutors of social distance than the close and neutral level respondents, moreover, close and distant level participants tend to favor the use of Acknowledgement ARs than neutral social distance participants, besides, the Evasion category demonstrates that BritE speakers of close social distance prefer the use of Evasion (EV) ARs more often than EuP and PakU. Further,

The research article is based on new historicist technique and presents a comparison of the ‘national narratives of Pakistan and Bangladesh’ about 1971 war embodying the theme of secession. Therefore, for current research work, the ‘literary and non-literary texts[1]’ of both Pakistani and Bangladeshi writers have been selected. These representative texts about the discourse of separation and liberation, and 1971 war present dissimilar and opposing ‘national narratives’ about the whole event and 1971 war. This contrastive comparative textual analysis has helped the researcher to note and record disparities that how issues are taken and interpreted, even manipulated, at different levels, within a single society or nation for upholding and protecting vested (personal) interests. Keywords: Plurality, history, national discursive narrative, 1971 war.

South Asian English fiction, in recent decades, has significantly manifested its deepest concern for history and its relevance in the contemporary global scenario. The last couple of years have noticed the publication of many English novels by Indian and Pakistani authors that in fact belong to the very genre of postmodern historiographic metafiction. In fact, postmodern fiction writers usually deviate from the traditional representation of past events. The current study examines the way history writing is reconfigured in the selected postmodern novel. In these novels, the writers retell the traditional history through innovative narrative techniques and multiplicity of the views that de-centralize the conventional history. The present research attempts to explore Amitav Gosh’s The Glass Palace and Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows as historiographic metafiction, that is a sub-genre of postmodern fiction. The study focuses on the selected texts to explore how these novels transform the traditional history through the incorporation of magic realism, intertextuality and self-reflexivity. This research is qualitative and descriptive, while the textual analysis has been used as a research method. The theoretical concept of Linda Hutcheon is incorporated in this current study that ends with findings and recommendations for future research.

This study is an attempt to explore the traumatic voices of women as half-mothers and half widows in the selected Kashmiri Anglophone fiction. Since the partition of the Indian Sub-continent, Kashmiris have been subjugated to violence and brutality under occupation. The lives of Kashmiri women have been worse, particularly during the 1990s, when the militancy increased because of hostile policies of the Indian government, which resulted in violence and brutality. Owing to their strength and resilience, the Kashmiri women have withstood the oppressive conditions. Compared to men, they have been at a loss while losing husbands and sons in a blind war of aggression and power. Using textual analysis and qualitative research paradigm, the study is based on Bashir's The HalfMother (2014) through the lens of La Capra's Acting out versus Working through and Caruth's Theory of Double Trauma. The study reveals that women are not only victims but also fighters.