SOLASTALGIA AND THE DISRUPTION OF FAMILIAR PLACE IN PAKISTANI ENGLISH POETRY: A COMPARATIVE CLOSE READING OF RAFAT, GHOSE AND FARUQI

Abstract

This study examines in what ways, and to what extent, selected Pakistani English poems represent the disruption of familiar place as an experience interpretable through Glenn Albrecht’s concept of solastalgia, defined as distress produced by unwanted environmental change while a person remains at, or directly connected to, home. Using a qualitative interpretive design, it offers a comparative close reading of one poem each by Taufiq Rafat (“Kitchens”), Zulfikar Ghose (“Disturbed Nights”) and Moeen Faruqi (“Rubbish Dump Incarnated”). Each poem is read for four components: a familiar place, attachment to it, unwanted and lasting change to it, and distress in a speaker who remains connected to it. The analysis shows that the poems separate components which solastalgia joins. Rafat’s poem approaches the full conjunction, contrasting a place that gave solace with a transformed one that does not, but leaves open whether the speaker remained in the changed place, so it supports both solastalgic and nostalgic readings. Ghose’s poem represents the estrangement of a home environment through recurrent intrusion, not environmental change. Faruqi’s poem represents environmental degradation in detail but withholds an attached speaker, a before-and-after structure and expressed distress. The study does not claim that poems can be diagnosed or that three poems represent Pakistani English poetry.