پریم چند کے ”کفن“ کی تعبیرات، کثرتِ معانی کی وجوہ اور تعبیراتی بنیادوں کا محاکمه

Interpretations of Premchand’s Kafan: Semantic Plurality and a Critical Evaluation of Hermeneutic Foundations

Abstract

Premchand’s short story Kafan is among the few creative texts in Urdu fiction that have continuously attracted the attention of critics and readers since their publication. The story’s semantic complexity, ambiguity, psychological depth of characterization, narrative intervention, and multilayered structure have generated a wide range of interpretive possibilities. This article offers a critical examination of some major interpretations of Kafan and evaluates the theoretical assumptions, interpretive principles, and methods of meaning production on which these readings are based. In this regard, the views of Sagheer Afraheem, Abul Kalam Qasmi, Gopi Chand Narang, Hamidi Kashmiri, Nasir Abbas Nayyar, Muhammad Hanif Khan, and Muhammad Abid are critically analyzed. The study demonstrates that the diversity of interpretations of Kafan is not merely the result of textual ambiguity; rather, it arises from the story’s multidimensional semantic structure as well as from the differing theoretical orientations, critical frameworks, and hermeneutic approaches adopted by its interpreters.