Brand Aslam: Contesting Nadeem Aslam as Pakistani Anglophonic Voice
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21015/vtess.v10i2.959Abstract
This article explores how the literary texts have been influenced by the writer’s promotion as an author with the knowledge and authority to represent Pakistan. We discuss how “Brand Aslam” draws on and amplifies elements of “Brand Pakistan” to secure the authority of Aslam’s representations of the nation he left as a teenager. We are particularly interested in how the branding of Aslam in terms of his national identity (here, Pakistan), especially due to his active involvement in creation of his image, influences commodity value of his work(s) in the global literary market. We conclude that the “real-life” stories of him as a literary celebrity become the objects of special fascination and determine the reception of his works as a postcolonial author from margins.
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