sense, to the blossoming of freedom and spirit. The unpublished text Padshir (‘*’) firstly evokes the well-known image of the Spin Ghar mountains in the east of Afghanistan, portraying the mountains as an idyllic landscape – in one part of the text Pazhwak even uses the term paradise for the scenery. In another part of the narrative the story is suddenly interrupted by a description of utter misery. Hence, we read, "In this place human life has just emerged from a distant past and there is no sign, not even a trace, of contemporary human beings. The people of Padshir sow corn between the rocks."[20] Again Pazhwak makes use of contrast as a literary device. After doing his utmost to evoke in readers’ minds the image of a pleasant and magical landscape, his readers suddenly find themselves awoken to a different reality as if splashed with cold water. The realization of this literary maneuver takes place over several sections of the text. The text gains its sharpness only when the pleasant imagery is contrasted with a stark description of misery. Another favorite strategy of Pazhwak's is the merciless dissection of crisis situations through which he evokes specific characteristics of conditions in Afghanistan. Here, the author adopts the perspective of a cold, emotionless eyewitness unaffectedly reporting and describing a horrific situation complete with gory details. Using this device alone, the author manages to invoke in readers a feeling of repugnance against the conditions that have triggered the situation described. Again, Pazhwak himself does not need to openly appear as a critic. Similarly, in his social critical novelette Dhamir (‘*’), Pazhwak demonstrates through a ruthless portrayal of the story's protagonist that decadence and a lack of a sense of justice on the part of members of the Afghan feudal system are both immoral and un-Islamic. He does not specifically point the finger of accusation at the perpetrator or depict a caricature or inhuman picture of the protagonist. Instead, the protagonist comes across as a nice and ordinary person. But the protagonist's scandalous treatment of those socially vulnerable, which manifests itself with increasingly clarity, comes across as evidently immoral and religiously beyond justification. The initial possibility of readers’ identification with the protagonist is reduced in the course of the narrative and ultimately disappears through gradual but relentless unmasking of the protagonist by the protagonist itself. A particularly conspicuous character trait of Afghans is