Qurratulain Hyder and the River of Fire: The Meaning, Scope and Significance of Her Legacy [Hardcover] [Jan 01, 2011] Edited by Rakhshanda Jalil

by Rakhshanda Jalil

Born with an impeccable literary lineage—her father was Sajjad Hyder Yildirim and her mother was Nazr-e-Sajjad Hyder, both early and vigorous proponents of Urdu fiction; Qurratulain Hyder wrote her first story at the age of 11. Her first collection of short stories, Sitaron Se Aage, published in 1945, established two singular qualities about her: one, her steadfast refusal to write only on 'womanly' subjects; and two, her ability to consistently produce polished, lyrical prose at a time when poetry held sway.

She produced a formidable array of travelogues, translations, novels, plays, novelettes, and short story collections. This volume attempts to revisit her legacy and to place her work, critically and objectively, on the trajectory of post-Independence writing. It attempts, also, to offer 'the River of Fire' as a metaphor in which the writer must sink or swim from the moment he/she crafts a piece of writing to the time it is read and understood by the reader.

264 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2011

About the author

Rakhshanda Jalil is a writer, critic and literary historian. Her published work comprises edited anthologies, among them a selection of Pakistani women writers entitled, Neither Night Nor Day; and a collection of esssays on Delhi, Invisible City: she is co-author of Partners in Freedom: Jamia Millia Islamia and Journey to a Holy Land: A Pilgrim s Diary. She is also a well-known translator, with eight published translations of Premchand, Asghar Wajahat, Saadat Hasan Manto, Shahryar, Intezar Hussain and Phanishwarnath Renu.