Spatial Constructs in Alamgir Hashmi's Poetry

Constructing imaginative space in poetry works towards comprehending society and self. It challenges scientific empirical dialectics which interpret ‘space' as divorced from human existence. This book explores the dynamics of spatial construction by Alamgir Hashmi, a Pakistani poet writing in English. He employs three major spatial constructs: frames, ekphrasis and the palimpsest. Structural frames such as windows, doors and photographs re-present public and private spaces. Mythical, literary and religious frames of reference effect an intrusion into existing narrative spaces, and reframe, contest and appropriate them. Ekphrasis is used to give voice to silent works of art. Hashmi also attempts a palimpsest reading of seasonal and catastrophic erasure, writing and rewriting on landscape and the ecriture of conquest on the Indo Pak Subcontinent. He reads bicultural layers of memory inscribed by western experience to show the impact of cross cultural trends on the oriental consciousness. This analysis would help professionals in the areas of critical theory, literature and history who acknowledge the paradox that reality is best apprehended through illusion.