“It was perhaps in 1995 or 1996 that I got issued the book titled Postmodern American poets from the library of Islamabad’s American consulate,” writes Amjad Tufail in one of the articles included in his just-published book Adab ka aalmi dareecha’ (Literature’s global perspective).

In this article, titled Mabaad jadeediyet: daraaz khaali hai (Postmodernism: the drawer is empty), he goes on to add that the book Postmodern American poets includes poems by the American poets considered postmodernists. “My friend Anwer Fitrat and I began reading these poems and raked our brains but could not get what the American poets were trying to communicate in those poems. One of the poems titled There is nothing in the drawer was very interesting. It consisted of 13 lines and each line was just a repetition of the title. We laughed for quite a while and kept ‘swaying in ecstasy and delight’. Later, the words ‘the drawer is empty’ became a kind of specialised slang between the two of us”.

As we all know, it is difficult to define postmodernism. In fact, postmodernism defies all definitions since it is not a philosophy but an approach that views different ideologies and philosophies in untraditional ways. Postmodernists think that there is no such thing as absolute truth and even apparent reality is subject to change. As a result, postmodernists emphasise pluralism, relativism and scepticism. They dismiss traditional system of referring to ideas and classifications such as male and female, white and black or homosexual and heterosexual. There is no doubt that postmodernism has influenced literary criticism, linguistics, arts and music but the question that Amjad Tufail has put through is: to what extent Urdu literature has been influenced by the postmodernist ideas, if at all, notwithstanding his apparent scorn for the postmodern American poets.

Going through the postmodernist literary arguments with special reference to Gopi Chand Narang and Qamar Jameel, Amjad Tufail thrashes the essence of postmodernist literary theories and after chalking out some basic principles he sees if our critics have tried to apply these theories in our literary environment.

His primary concern in the article is to see how postmodern discourse is shaping itself in the contemporary Urdu literature and how our critics see it. But after examining some critical writings he seems dismayed.

He thinks that some of our critics amass literary terminology but fail to tell us where these terminologies are leading us to. Tufail goes so far as to say that we must be aware that in some cases our postmodern creative writings are turning out to be an extension of modernism instead of its opposite.

He has particularly come down hard on some Urdu critics who have a tendency to declare every literary piece a sample of postmodernist writing. After examining some samples of both creative and critical writings, Tufail declares that “I have reached the same conclusion as expressed by the American poet who declared that there was nothing in the drawer. So far as postmodernism is concerned, I feel Urdu literature’s drawer is empty. Kindly inform me if you are able to recover anything from it”.

Other articles included in the first section of the book present a clearly defined and unambiguous view. This section discusses theories and ongoing debates on the literary and philosophic issues.

Tufail is critical of the West for its role in certain global phenomenon: colonialism, cultural colonialism, so-called new world order, theories regarding the clash of the civilisations. In one of his articles, he has shown his doubts about the genuineness of Samuel Huntington’s theory of the clash of the civilisations. To prove his point, he has produced some statistics as well.

Other sections contain pieces that deal with western writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Milan Kundera and Paulo Coelho. The third part discusses the literary theories of Edward Said and Terry Eagleton. The last section includes book reviews and discusses some very important works such as Sophie’s World, Violetta and her sisters, God of small things, Slowness, Moth smoke, Colours of a new day, Veronika decides to die and many others.

Amjad Tufail sometimes makes me wonder. He teaches psychology at a Lahore college, writes literary columns in Urdu newspapers, devours books on criticism and philosophy, relishes western novels, engages in heated debates at literary circles (and stuns many) and writes critical and philosophic essays. Just as talking to this well-read fellow can be a delightful, enlightening, entertaining and — at times — stunning experience, his critical writings have the same impact. While reading this book I felt I was talking to Amjad Tufail; there was same intelligent argument, reflection of vast reading and an occasional naughtiness that cannot keep quite at seeing some oddity.

As they say the man is the style, Amjad Tufail‘s style is not dry, drab or dreary. On the contrary, at times he can be quite witty especially when sarcastically commenting on some Urdu critics.

Published by Narratives, Islamabad, the book makes you think: is there nothing in the drawer?

drraufparekh@yahoo.com