Glocalism, disguised oppression and parochialism: a study of Karachi You’re Killing Me

Abstract

Underscoring concerns related to gender studies, postcolonialism, and glocalism, this paper presents a discussion about how local is being presented in chick lit by a Pakistani female author Imtiaz (2016) in her Anglophonic novel Karachi You’re Killing Me! Applying Dirlik’s (1997) theorization about global and local in The Postcolonial Aura: Third World Criticism in the Age of Global Capitalism, where he asserts how the local gives an illusion of empowering the local, but in reality, local is viewed and presented in a parochial manner and put in a reductive category. The focus on the local, therefore, is a new gimmick of colonizers and imperialists. With this theoretical perspective, in this paper, it is argued that the representation of the locals in the novel is eclipsed by the colonial narrative. By underscoring negative aspects of local the writer seems to be performing the role of a native informant and is a re-endorsing colonial narrative about the orient. It is also argued that this local female author has been empowered to write but the agency she is granted is loaded because it is, in fact, quite restricted.