Criticism of Urdu Short Story and the Critical Paradigms of Dr. Nasir Abbas Nayyar

Abstract

"Dr. Nasir Abbas Nayyar is a prominent 21st_century theorist, critic, and a distinguished figure inUrdu short story criticism. Moving away from traditional impressionistic rhetoric, superficial thematic summaries, and biographical recaps of the past, he established Urdu short story criticism on modern theoretical paradigms of Structuralism, Post-structuralism, and Post-colonialism. He liberated the short story from the dominance of poetic poetics, anchoring it instead in the scientific principles of an 'Autonomous Poetics of  Prose' and 'Narrative Discourse.' By applying the theoretical distinction between 'Story and Discourse,' highlighting the subtle workings of ideology within texts, recovering locality, and offering post-structuralist and deconstructive readings of contemporary works (particularly Premchand’s short story “Kafan” and the fiction of Nayyar Masood), Nasir Abbas Nayyar gave a fresh dimension to Urdu short story criticism. In doing so, he elevated the interpretation of Urdu fiction to an enduring and autonomous academic status on the global and theoretical horizons."