Unveiling Power, Identity, and Patriarchy: A Deconstructive Reading of Tehmina Durrani’s My Feudal Lord

Abstract

This paper is a deconstructive examination of Tehmina Durrani and her autobiographical novel My Feudal Lord and how it criticizes the society of patriarchy, power dynamics, and rifts and contradictions inherent in feudal culture. Using the principles of deconstruction as developed by Derrida, the study examines how the story subverts certain wholesome meanings of gender, power, and victimization. The story by Durrani reveals the oppressive constructs of the feudal society and shows the hypocrisy of love, loyalty, violence and freedom of choice within the abusive relationship. In the study, it is noted that the text weakens the conventional signs of masculinity and authority as the fragmented identity of the narrator, who is subjected to emotional, social, and political limitations is preempted. The analysis, through its analysis of binary oppositions, including power/submission and public/private, shows how the autobiography proves the dominant discourses and provides space to allow other readings of the female agency. This contribution is one of the main points that this work brings to the feminist and poststructuralist studies of literature.

Keywords; Deconstruction, Patriarchy and Power, Autobiographical Narrative, Female Agency, Tehmina Durrani’s My Feudal Lord