POLITICS OF REPRESENTATION: PAKISTAN VIS-À-VIS VIOLENT HUMAN HISTORY IN THE NOVEL THE GOLDEN LEGEND (2017) BY NADEEM ASLAM

Abstract

This paper argues that Aslam’s novel The Golden Legend (2017) is a notable step in taking hold of the politics of Pakistan’s representation mostly dominated by the Western Academia. This text illustrates that violence is not only a phenomenon prevalent in contemporary Pakistan but it has always been present in all eras, societies, and geographical locations. This study discovers major historical connections and intersections, vis-à-vis Pakistan, in the formation of human history of violence as depicted in this narrative. A hermeneutic textual analysis of the novel will be conducted from a New-Historicist theoretical perspective in order to unravel multiple transnational layers of cruelty embedded in this work of fiction. The descriptive analysis of the historical instances, characters, literary interconnections and World Heritage Sites demonstrate that no countries, cultures, generations or ages are isolated from one another, since the history of human violence in all eras and geographical regions is interconnected.