Acculturation in Contact Zone: A Transcultural Reading of Aslam’s Autoethnographic Maps for Lost Lovers

Abstract

This paper explores the dynamics of the transcultural contact zone of the British-Pakistani diaspora through Nadeem Aslam’s autoethnographic text, Maps for Lost Lovers. Pakistani immigrants in multicultural British society live in political, linguistic, and socio-cultural contact zones that problematise their identities, raising double consciousness toward home and the host culture. As a minority ethnic group, they exhibit two responses to the host culture: one strain upholds tradition and maintains the culture and values of its previous home to avoid cultural contamination, whereas the other supports acculturation to secure a respectable place in mainstream society. Aslam portrays the losses and gains of both moves by British-Pakistani characters. At the same time, he displays their discrete ethnic traits, reflecting their unique cultural positions. Aslam, a diaspora author, demonstrates how the Pakistani community translates its traditions into the world through its present habitus, shaped by a palimpsestic cultural position. His autoethnographic text reveals the dynamics of language, writing style, and issues of representation of the Pakistani diaspora in the contact zone. Aslam’s characters, standing at a cultural crossroads, negotiate their identity markers with those of the host society. They are palimpsests in their multicultural habitus and eager to establish their position in the new society. Still, the nostalgia for home and sense of alienation do not allow them to shed traces of their previous culture. Mary Louise Pratt’s notion of ‘autoethnography’ at the contact zone has been employed in the textual analysis of the selected novel.

JEL Classification Codes: J15, F22, Z1