Bina Shah’s Slum Child derives much of its power from the refusal to treat poverty as either an abstraction or a spectacle. Its world is Karachi, but the city that emerges from the narrative is sharply divided between spaces of privilege and spaces of deprivation, between those for whom security is assumed and those for whom even the ordinary necessities of life must be negotiated. At the centre of this divided world stands Laila, a young Christian girl whose childhood is shaped by poverty, labour, illness, religious marginalisation and the constant uncertainty of survival. Yet Shah does not reduce Laila to the familiar literary figure of the helpless poor child awaiting rescue. Laila sees, remembers, questions and interprets. Her consciousness becomes the means through which the structures surrounding her are gradually exposed. Poverty in Slum Child is therefore more than a shortage of money: it becomes an organising condition of existence, shaping the way people understand time, wo...
Introduction George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) occupies a significant position in modern English drama. Although he was born in Dublin and therefore belonged culturally to the Irish literary tradition, his major literary career developed in London, where he worked as a novelist, critic, political writer, and dramatist. He is particularly important for his transformation of the English stage into a medium for social criticism, intellectual debate, satire, and the examination of contemporary problems . It is to understood, Shaw should not be studied merely as the author of Pygmalion or as a dramatist associated with socialism. His literary importance emerges from the relationship between his life, intellectual development, political thought, theatrical criticism, and dramatic practice . His interest in socialism influenced his treatment of social inequality; his study of Henrik Ibsen influenced his conception of modern drama; and his experience as a critic helped him develop a drama in ...