Desiring Machine: Structuring Feelings in Pakistani Anglophone Literature

Abstract

This research explores French theorists Deleuze and Guattari’s (1987) theoretical concepts of the desiring machine and affects to examine the formation of the subject or selfhood in Red Birds (2018), written by Muhammad Hanif, and Thinner Than Skin (2012), written by Uzma Aslam Khan. These theorists argue that literature is a machine of expression. It shatters thought into affects and percepts. Character is the effect of investments in affects. These Pakistani Anglophone writers make succinct use of their writing skills and create ‘affects’ of loneliness, intrusion, and insecurity in their novels. This study seeks to explore three questions: firstly, what factors contribute to the assemblage of South Asian women’s identity? Secondly, what is the role of literature in creating ‘Affects’ and ‘Percepts’? Finally, how does the style lend uniqueness to individuals? The study seeks to provide a fecund ground for future researchers to undertake innovative insights into the discourse of identity and the creation of affects.  

Keywords:  Style; affects; assemblage; percepts; women