Sexuality and Cultural Repression in the Contemporary Urdu Novel: The Semantic Construction of a Silent Narrative

Abstract

This study examines the representation of sexuality within the framework of cultural repression in contemporary Urdu fiction, arguing that sexuality in South Asian societies is less a purely biological phenomenon and more a culturally constructed and regulated discourse. In the context of Urdu novels, cultural norms, religious values, and social conventions play a decisive role in shaping not only the expression of desire but also the limits imposed upon it. Consequently, sexuality often appears in indirect, symbolic, and muted forms, giving rise to what may be termed a “silent narrative.”Drawing on theoretical insights from Michel Foucault, Silvia Federici, and Annamarie Jagose, the paper explores how power structures, economic conditions, and shifting notions of identity intersect with cultural constraints to produce layered meanings in literary texts. Contemporary Urdu novelists transform cultural silence into a creative strategy, where repression itself becomes a site of meaning-making. Characters navigate tensions between personal desire and collective norms, and their silences often signify both constraint and subtle resistance.The study concludes that the “silence” surrounding sexuality in Urdu fiction is not merely an absence of expression but a complex narrative mode that encodes cultural conflict, identity formation, and the negotiation of power within a restrictive social milieu.