IN ART and literature, realism means depicting things as they are, but a fiction writer is not a historian or sociologist and, therefore, realism does not mean that a writer has to write the “detailed reportage of physical minutiae of everyday life”, writes Roger Fowler. Realism means that instead of being unreal or escapist, fiction should be capable of “revealing the truth of contemporary life in society”, but at the same time it should not be “obsessed with physical detail and topographical accuracy for its own or history’s sake”, says Fowler.

Realism rejects a dreamy or idyllic view of the world and it believes in representing inner world of literary characters with mental and emotional analysis vis-à-vis external occurrences. But psychological realism (often spelt with a capital ‘P’ and a capital ‘R’), is more concerned with the internal happenings of characters in fiction that take place in their mental and emotional worlds. Psychological realism aims at exploring characters’ emotional, psychological and spiritual feelings with possible explanations, or justifications, of why they do what they do. It is, therefore, often said that psychological realism is a highly character-based style of fiction writing.

But such topics are rarely chosen for theses written for a degree in Urdu literature since psychological realism is comparatively a bit new concept and it requires a command over psychology as well as Urdu literature. So, one is naturally ecstatic when such a dissertation is published in book form. Lahore’s Sang-i-Meel Publications has just published the doctoral dissertation, titled Urdu Afsane Mein Nafsiyaati Haqeeqt Nigari, or Psychological Realism in Urdu Short Story. The work reassures us that at least a few of our new researchers have done some serious study and one can hope that in all likelihood these scholars will brighten horizon of Urdu research, albeit such individuals are becoming rarer by the day.

The dissertation, written by Dr Muhammad Nasrullah, is spread over six chapters, a conclusion and bibliography, in addition to an intro by the author. It analyses Urdu short story right from the beginning in the early 20th Century to year 2015, evaluating works by individual authors who have tried to “grip the internal world of human beings and tried to reach human reality”, as put by the author in his intro.

The first chapter explains what reality is and here the author rightly quotes J. A. Cuddon as saying that “fundamentally, in literature, realism is the portrayal of life with fidelity”, but we must not forget what Cuddon has to say about realism in beginning while defining the term (and which the author has skipped): “an exceptionally elastic critical term, often ambivalent and equivocal, which has acquired far too many qualifying (but seldom clarifying) adjectives, and is a term which many now feel we could do without”.

But the author has done well to discuss the notion that external or objective reality is not the whole truth and subjective reality may be needed to have the complete and true perception of reality. He has stressed the fact that psychological realism captures both tangible and intangible facts. Before tracing psychological realities in Urdu short stories, a brief survey explores psychological realism in mythology and global literatures. But he would have done a favour to the reader had he given a more explicit definition of psychological realism.

Interestingly, the second chapter, that presents depiction of psychological realities in Urdu’s early short stories, mentions two women in a short story by Sajjad Hyder Yildirim. And they are, as put by Shamsur Rahman Farooqi, lesbians, and each one is critical of her husband. The author has accepted Farooqi’s interpretation without any questioning. One feels a reinterpretation was needed. In the following chapter, psychological realism in short stories by progressive writers, especially Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmed Ali, Rajindr Singh Bedi, Manto, Ismat Chughtai, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, Hayatullah Ansari and some others has been reviewed. But what strikes the reader most about this chapter is that most of the psychological realism that the author pinpoints in Urdu short stories concerns sensual and erotic behaviour.

In the next chapters, psychological realism is traced in modern Urdu short stories, post-modern Urdu short stories, and, what the author has labeled as ‘non-aligned’ short stories, a term rarely, if ever, used in critical discussions. Some other short story writers that have come under discussion during these chapters include some big names of modern day Urdu short story.

Despite a few lapses, an incomplete bibliography, for instance, the dissertation shows that Nasrullah has widely read both Urdu literature and psychology. One may differ from some of his views but has to admit that he deserves kudos. Nasrullah teaches Urdu at Sialkot’s GC Women University and has published some critical articles and a book Urdu Mein Haieti Tanqeed Ka Dabistaan, which weigh up Urdu’s Formalist School of criticism.

drraufparekh@yahoo.com

Published in Dawn, October 21th, 2024