Nostalgia or Silent Rebellion: Exploring Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Political Poetry through the Analysis of Public and Hidden Transcripts: A James Scott Neo- Marxist Approach
Keywords:
Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Political Poetry, James Scott Neo Marxist Approach, Public and Hidden transcripts.Abstract
The present paper seeks to investigate the use of public and hidden transcripts in the political poetry of a renowned post- colonial South Asian poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz. It draws upon the theoretical framework of James Scott who is a contemporary neo Marxist. James Scott calls ―Public and Hidden transcripts" as mediums of expression with which writers or poets reflect resistance against hegemony. Therefore, this paper examines the utilization of public and hidden transcripts in the political poetry of Faiz and infers that Faiz has every now and again utilized hidden transcripts, hence censuring the state, the administration and the ills of society. The utilization of hidden transcripts in Faiz‘s political poetry is adequate as compared to the public transcripts on account of the suppressive culture of his time. This paper fills a twofold purpose; firstly, it expects to feature the scholarly works of a progressive poet Faiz with a new investigation through James Scott's concept of "public and hidden transcripts". Secondly, the paper looks to recognize and investigate the role of culture in the life of the poets upon their utilization of either public or hidden transcripts. The paper infers that Faiz lived in an era of dictatorship when common masses were not allowed to speak of their rights. However, though Faiz was very sensitive towards oppressive societies and therefore he expressed his nostalgia and silent rebellion against injustice in hidden words and phrases, thus making adequate use of hidden transcripts as form of resistance.
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