Politics of Representation in Raza Rabbani’s Invisible People

Abstract

This study focuses on the problematics of representation of the downtrodden in the Invisible People by Raza Rabbani. This research presents a case study of how when the rich and the powerful decide to represent the poor and the powerless, the endeavour may result not only in an artistic failure but may also amount to an ethical failure. Such a study is warranted as Rabbani belongs to the political elite of Pakistan but chooses to represent the oppressed in his collection of stories. This cross-class representative endeavor cannot be taken normatively and has to be investigated and evaluated in the context of relevant discourses. The theories of Re-Orientalism (Lau, Introducing ReOrientalism, 2014) and Huggan’s The Postcolonial Exotic have been utilized to build a theoretical framework to undertake this study. Nivedita Majumdar’s work “The Question of Exoticism in Indian Anglophone Literature” has also been utilized for deeper scrutiny of the text. The importance of the politics of representation cannot be overestimated, as the so-called representative institutions continue to operate on a non-representative basis.