Soniah Kamal is an awarding Pakistani-American writer. Kamal has published novels and essays, and she regularly speaks publicly about her work to academic and non-academic audiences.

Her 2019 novel, Unmarriageable, is a postcolonial retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice set in Pakistan, in which she consciously writes back to the imperial narratives, material histories, and literary deployments within the Empire–including the cultural deployments of Austen and her stories.

In Kamal’s work, she deliberately addresses the legacy of Thomas Macaulay’s imperial doctrines and investigates the legacy of Macaulay’s attempt to establish “a class [of people] who may be interpreters between [the British] and the millions whom [they] govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.”

 

In the videos below, Kamal confronts Macaulay’s enduring imperialist legacy, Austen’s striking treatments of class, and the various ways in which Austen’s novels have been used–and continue to be used–within South Asian cultures.

You can also access Soniah Kamal’s YouTube playlist directly.

Soniah Kamal Discusses Her First Engagement With The Novels and World of Jane Austen

Soniah Kamal Reflects On Why She Keeps Coming Back to the Stories and Ideas of Jane Austen

Soniah Kamal Reflects on Jane Austen’s Ability to Explore Characters’ Psychological Depths

Soniah Kamal Talks About The Connections Between East and West, And Across Classes in Unmarriageable

Soniah Kamal Considers Mrs. Norris from Mansfield Park To Discuss Class and Calculation in Austen

Soniah Kamal Explains How Thomas Macaulay Sought to Create Confused People Through Language Politics

Soniah Kamal Considers Jane Austen as a Pakistani Author And Explores Her Own Literary Training

Soniah Kamal Discusses How Love Informs Impending Social Change in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

Soniah Kamal Considers How To Position the Novels of Jane Austen Alongside Imperialism and Slavery

Soniah Kamal Suggests That Popular Films Have Transformed Jane Austen Into A Writer of Love Stories

Soniah Kamal Discusses The Immense Cultural Reach of Characters in Jane Austen and Unmarriageable