FAIL TO CHOOSE A WATER TAP: EXPLORING STANCE PROJECTION IN “I SHALL NOT RETURN THE BORROWED DUST…”

Abstract

Literary works have become the unique mediums to express human expressions through the language which is used to construct the identities. Identity crises occupy a place of great importance as a response to their lost homes. When people find themselves dislocated from their previous past, their mental disturbance haunts them constantly, and they endeavor to re-locate themselves by recalling their nostalgic past. The aim of this study is to explore the “I shall not return the borrowed dust…” from the Formalism and Defamiliarization perspective to uncover the impact of the factors on the text helping to fore ground the identity crises of the immigrants who, after got Pakistan in 1947 but fail to get identity. Using a qualitative research method, the study shows that how familiar images and symbols are becoming helpful to make the apparently familiar things strange/ defamiliar to exhibit the identity crises.