As the first critical work on emergent Pakistani anglophone speculative fiction it explores the ways in which contemporary Pakistani authors seek a democratization of the speculative genre by incorporating djinn mythology, Quranic eschatology, "Desi" traditions, local folklore, and Islamic feminisms in their narratives.

Introduction

Shazia Sadaf and Aroosa Kanwal

1. Islam in Pakistani Fantasy Fiction

Shazia Sadaf

2. Technology, Superheroes, and the Muslim Youth

Aroosa Kanwal

3. Speculative Human Rights

Shazia Sadaf

4. Unreading Patriarchy through Pakistani Fantastika

Aroosa Kanwal

5. Speculations in Space and Subjectivity

Shazia Sadaf

Index

Shazia Sadaf teaches Human Rights and Social Justice in the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. She holds a PhD in English Language and Literature from the University of London, UK, and a second doctoral degree in Postcolonial Studies from Western University, Canada, with a primary interest in the field of human rights literature. Her research focus lies in the intersectional areas of War on Terror Studies, human rights discourse, and post-9/11 anglophone literature. She has authored chapters in Narratives of the War on Terror: Global Perspectives (2020), Violence in South Asia: Contemporary Perspectives (2019), The Routledge Companion to Pakistani Anglophone Writing (2018), and Mapping South Asian Masculinities: Men and Political Crises (2015). She has had several articles published in the Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, South Asian History and Culture, ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, and the European Journal of English Studies.

Aroosa Kanwal is Assistant Professor in English Literature and Chairperson, Department of English at the International Islamic University, Pakistan. She held a postdoctoral fellowship at Lancaster University, UK (2018-2020). She is the author of The Routledge Companion to Pakistani Anglophone Writing (2019) and Rethinking Identities in Contemporary Pakistani Fiction: Beyond 9/11 (2015). Her monograph Rethinking Identities received the KLF-Coca-Cola award for the best non-fiction book of the year 2015. She is the editor of the Journal of Contemporary Poetics, housed in the Department of English, International Islamic University (IIUI). She has published chapters and articles in Imagining Muslims in South Asia and the Diaspora (2014), edited by Claire Chambers and Caroline Herbert; Consciousness, Theatre, Literature and the Arts (2012), edited by Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe; Journal of Gender Studies, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Journal of Commonwealth Literature, and Journal of International Women's Studies.