Doğu Dilleri Dergisi

Öz

This study discusses the dominance of the female identity of Azra, the main female character of the award-winning Urdu novel Udaas Naslain (1963), over the male characters in the novel and the dominant female mission that the author assigns to the character. Azra, who marries Naim, a poor villager and a veteran of the First World War, comes to the forefront as a strong woman who is sensitive to her environment, empowers the society and supports her circle with positive approach in the period from the First World War to the partition of India. In 1947, the Indian subcontinent was partitioned and became home to two large countries, India and Pakistan. Following this division, the national identities of people in the Indian Subcontinent were categorized as Pakistani and Indian. This political separation and the prominence of national differences had negative effects on the societies of both countries, such as division and migration. Abdullah Hussein is one of the most important first generation writers of Pakistan who wrote about these negative effects. The first novel of the author discussed in this article was published in Pakistan in 1963 in Urdu under the title Udaas Naslain. The novel was deemed worthy of the Adamjee Award in 1964 by many literary critics and critics, the most prestigious literary award in Pakistan. The English version of the novel was reintroduced to readers in 1999 under the title The Weary Generations by the author himself, and then translated into many languages around the world. In 2009, it was translated into Turkish under the title Yorgun Nesiller. Written in a realistic style, this novel reflects the traumatic events that took place before and after the partition and the lives of the people who witnessed them.