Pakistani Anglophone Young Adult Fiction and the Art of Commodification of Culture: An Insight to Sheba Karim’s The Skunk Girl and Rukhsana Khan’s Wanting Mor

This article aims to explore the art of commodification of culture deployed in the Pakistani Anglophone Young Adult (YA) fiction with special reference to Sheba Karim’s The Skunk Girl (2009) and Rukhsana Khan Wanting Mor (2010). It has been contextualized in the postulates of the commodification of culture highlighted by Nederveen Pieterse in his work Globalisation and Culture: The three Paradigms . The term commodification has gained immense popularity in the contemporary era of globalization partly because of free trade and the economy. Culture in principle is one of the essential standpoints of globalization owing to its subtlest but the most penetrating tentacle in general and its capability to commodify in particular. Having a base in the economy, culture has been systematically commodified as a heterogeneous, homogeneous, or hybrid form to be sold either physically in galleries, museums, and tourist spots. The literature by South Asian writers has been altered to present the cultural illustration as hybrid, heterogeneous, or homogenized. Which according to Pieterse is the form of commodification of culture. It is this aspect that the present article intends to explore to assert that the success of YA Fiction is undoubtedly owed to aesthetic and academic merits but mainly due to the successful deployment of the technique of commodification of culture.

have always been intentional. In other words, it has always been commodified. The term commodification derived from The Communist Manifesto (1848) elaborating the systematic procedure of the role of commodification. The bourgeoisie has undoubtedly torn the bond of feudal relation of a man to another man but has created a vicious bond of self-interest among the individual based on cash payment. Everything from religious doctrine, to daily practice and philistine sentiments, is now linked with money. The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage laborers. The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil and has reduced the family relation into a mere money relation (Fernbach, 2019, p. 64) The The contemporary culture theorist Jan Nederveen Pieterse (2004) has identified three paradigms of representation of culture through the ages. It has either been depicted as cultural differentials he has termed as the clash of civilization or "polarization" (p. 1389). By taking the notion from Samuel P. Huntington's Clash of Civilisations (1996)., Pieterse is of the view that the primary purpose of the depiction of culture differential is to reassert and re-establish the notion of othering of West over the Rest and to reassert the notion of binaries. The depiction of polarization in the culture is as per the demand of globalization and an effective way of projecting a culture. The polarization of culture through art and craft has given The Native American tribes the to earn their livelihood. In literature, it is the exotic culture that is celebrated and the non-native writers have been able to gain access to academia is through the portrayal of exotic other cultures as traced out by Graham Huggan (1994). He while focusing upon the postcolonial literature is of the view "postcolonial critics may, unconsciously,  (2002) is of the view that under the mask of the homogenization of global culture, it is an American or the Western Culture tradition that is replicated The last and the most contemporary representation of culture is the hybridization of culture or the rhizome of culture which can be termed as "the interpenetration of the global and the local resulting in unique outcomes in different geographic areas" (Ronald Robertson (2001). He is of the view that though hybridization is the progeny of racism yet it is the only practical form of culture as it entertains the notion of inclusiveness. By focusing upon the American popular culture, Pieterse is of the view is that the wider appeal of American culture is the intermixing of marginal and peripheral culture. C  is of the view "the richest cultural traditions emerged at the meeting point of markedly different cultures, such as Sudan, Athens, the Indus Valley, and Mexico" (Hamelink, 1983, p. 4). In cultural studies, Hybridisation is interlinked with Creolisation and glocalization. Appadurai (1990) is of the view that hybridity indulges in both differentiation and interconnection and the world should be celebrating this cultural diversity rather than urging for the monolithic culture.
The three paradigms assert that culture is not an abstract entity it is a thoroughly fiscal product and has been commodified successively over the years by selling it as a heterogeneous, homogenous, or hybrid product.

Literature Review
Anglophone fiction has been of greater significance not only because of its literary aesthetics but more of its cultural representation making it a profitable and money-making commodity as asserted by King Kok   capitalized on today's marketplace" (p. 195). The Anglophonic literature serves as one of the best marginal cultural products and is readily cashed in the globalized market. The Anglophonic writers have paved their way in the contemporary globalized market by projecting their own culture which has been foregrounded as either different, similar, or hybrid as per the demand of the global audience and the marketing giants. For that purpose, the works of these writers are produced and sold abundantly. Cultural trajectories projected by these writers have completely been accepted in the globalized arena, claiming to be projecting a different and exotic culture but subscribing to one of the above-mentioned trajectories. (Werbner, 2004   is of the view that South Asian literature is governed by the "grids of accumulation, interpretation and relocation which are governed from the metropolitan countries" (p. 44). They hunt and groom all those writers and authors who not only have emerged from the prescribed cosmopolitan fields but who are more market accepted.
To appease the publishing pundits of these multinational firms, their art is compromised considerably. The writers tend to focus more upon the culture of South Asian countries. as India, Bangladesh, etc. by inculcating the ideology of the supremacy of the West. As Kamila Shamsie (2009) has pointed out that "'international' or 'global' writing remains another term for 'minority' writing, with a need to appeal to the majority audience to receive widespread attention or even to make its way into bookstores" (p. 110). This is reflected from the fact that trend. Key transnational firms are cutting costs by shipping things like book design and editing to South Asian companies or, more often, to other transnational firms that are headquartered in the West but have mostly South Asian offices and personnel. In this way, the whole book production system is being globalized (p. 34) The above-mentioned quote elaborate the strategies adopted by the publishers in commoditizing South Asian literature, beginning from the establishment of the marketing zones to the printing and disseminating of the exotic yet cheap books to appeal to the taste of the public is but a systematic stratagem to commoditize South Asian fiction The authors of world literature are bound to subscribe to the notions of migration, ethnicity, race, culture as core themes of their works but craftily ensure the notion of Othering.
The irony is that the representation of the orient is constantly done by those who are non- termed these writers as exotic because they deliberately authenticate the cultural differences for the market gain as it is the only sought-after product of the market of academia. He postulates "postcolonial critics may, unconsciously, contribute to a "global commodification of cultural difference", and become part and parcel, unwittingly, of course of a "booming alterity industry" (p. 344). While taking into task Booker's award and particularly the one Booker of the Bookers awarded to Rushdie's The Midnight's Children, he is of the view that "The novel reveals to its Western readers their hunger to consume: it feeds their desire for entertainment; satiates their keen exoticism appetites, but it never fails to mock them for their complicities enjoyment (p. 84). Amit Ray (2008)  The list can go on but the primary purpose of choosing these texts is that these fictions have been aesthetically acclaimed but they are at the same time the master of the proclamation of the clichés in the contemporary era. These and many In a nutshell, South Asian fiction can be termed as fetish commodities sold in the market by transforming their culture as the most sought-after products to be sold in the market. The South Asian YA on one hand prescribes a different shade of culture as prescribed by their mature writers but interestingly assert the otherness as rightly pointed out b Rosagam and Pillai (2016) that these YA show "not just as an individual who is at the cusp of adulthood but also as the "other" in a white society" (p. 44). The primary theme in most of these novels has been a quest journey in which the protagonist goes through an expedition of gaining knowledge and enlightenment in the form of his identity among the white peer. In a traditional quest journey, the religious myths have been a guardian angel but in YA the quest journey is supported by the cultural myth that plays a pivotal role. According to Rosagam and Pillai: Reading texts written by writers from one's own culture and being exposed to the cultural aspects of one's ancestral home allows readers to become aware of the interpolation of language, dialect, landscape, and other aspects that reveal the intermingling and overlapping of the two cultures and the third space they inhabit" (p. 42).
Despite its emerging fame, YA fiction with a South Asian theme has not been completely explored. These fictions have been vastly published, marketed, and distributed they need to be explored at stretch. These fictions have compromised themselves as per market trends. Interestingly they have mostly negotiated upon the portrayal of the culture which is as per the demand of the cultural pundits. Being an Anglophonic piece of writing and proclaiming to be the projector of the authentic culture, it is the culture that has been compromised a lot. as The Skunk Girl (2010)   about a painting depicting two Mexican women holding flowers, by stating that it is "It is haram to depict human figures," (p. 82). He was absolutely right as per Islamic doctrine it is so but her family instantly removed him from the said post but decided to retain the picture. Karim candidly states that Nina continued reading Holy Quran "under the watchful eyes of the Mexican women" (p. 83). Karim has asserted the notion of a homogenized religion to assert that non-native immigrants are not extremists as per se as has been always been depicted in the electronic and print media.
She has not only stopped on that but has continued presenting her protagonist as a girl who loves an Italian boy Asher Richelli, she has even attended a dance party where she tasted beer for the sake of experience and even stole a kiss of her boyfriend but feels satisfied because these minor incidents do not put her or her religion at a stake. Karim has in fact tried to assert Pieterse's notion that the only way for the protagonist and her religion to remain intact is by observing a hybrid culture.
The novel does not stop at this point only. When Nina is confused and is feeling f guilty about adopting this hybrid culture, she seeks help from her sister who besides a nerd is also her mentor. Karim notion of a hybrid religion is advocated through the protagonist's sister who declares: Whose definition are you applying to that? In every religion, people pick and choose what they want to follow. Look at Ma and Dad's own friends-a few of the aunties cover their hair, and a few of the aunties drink, some fast during Ramadan, some don't. You can't spend your life worrying about what other people will think. If you live decently and help others, is Allah going to condemn you simply because you had a beer? I don't think so, but others might. In the end, you have to do what you believe is right (pp. 208-

209)
Karim's notion of a hybrid religion is what has been substantiated by Peter Beyer (1994) 'globalization allows for religions previously isolated from one another to now have regular and unavoidable contact. As a result, globalization brings to the light the fact that since religions have similar values, not one of them is "correct" and, therefore, can be changed" . Karim through her protagonist has propagated this idea that in a hybrid religion it is not to practice the doctrine of one religion but to follow what is considered as right or wrong and by the intermingling of two religions as per the demand of the time. It is not only the hybrid religion that has been projected by Karim, but she has also focused upon the hybridization of t culture too. The family insists to be deeply inclined to the Pakistani culture in policy but turns out to be a liberal family in practice. Nina's family wears the ethnic costumes in and advocate the ethnic cuisine in their Pakistani social gatherings but when alone, the family loves to dine out and try the almost all-new restaurant. Nina wears Western attire at her school and among her friends. This adaptation of a hybrid culture has made her life easy and is never tormented by her friends. This has been possible due to her adoption of a hybrid culture. She has never faced the identity issue which is faced by the nonnative in the European country. her friends acknowledge the limitation of her cultural restrictions but have never mocked her. Karim's novel openly professes that adaption of a hybrid culture is the best way of living. Hybridity is the offspring of globalization and the safest way of living in this globalized world.
To conclude from these instances, one can easily conclude the market acceptance of picturesque -Orientalizing in this caseis to certify that the people encapsulated by it, defined by its presence, are irredeemably different from, more backward than, and culturally inferior to those who construct" (p. 51). The ultimate purpose is the same as has been highlighted by Pieterse the commodification of a heterogeneous culture.
Besides the daily and religious practices, the cultural representation is done through the language, as elaborated by Ashcroft &Griffiths (2002) the non-native writers either deploy the abrogation or the appropriation of language especially English Language Wanting Mor has deployed abrogation in its communication. Thus we can see words like b Agha, purani, chadri, charpae dusterkhaan, corbacha, ghusl, and the list goes on, which are occur recurrently in the text even though there exists an English substitute The use of estranged language is apparently to authenticate the cultural norms but deliberately project the Asian culture as different from the westernized culture. This is done to assert the orient culture as essentially dissimilar and inferior other. According to Lisa Lau: (R)e-Oriental writers set themselves up as 'translators', translating one culture to/for the other, have the dual role of opening the channels of communication, but also of holding the two sides separate because it is this very separation that lends heightened significance to their role. (p. 585).
As Pieterse has rightly pointed out that for the West, the culture of the East is different as it lacks the refinement and aesthetic which the Western culture has. It is messed up and disorganized, an ideology passed on through the legacy created by the colonial writers and particularly by E.M Foster in A Passage to India (1924). The culture depicted in these works is deliberately portrayed as a contrast to the refined and sophisticated culture of the East.

Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is evident that culture can never be taken as an abstract entity, as a token of identity, or as an empirical representation of society. Earlier, it was assumed that only the apparent element of the culture as food, clothing, and music do transform.
The cultural values, norms, and practices are always taken as permanent and integral. In the contemporary era of cultural commodification, even this notion has been altered. the massive three forms of cultural commodification to present their culture as either exotic or as clichés as per market demand. The tendency pioneered by the established writers as Salman Rushdie, Mohsin Hamid, Arundhati Roy, etc. has been carried forward by the emerging writers of popular fiction too as evident from the above selected Young Adult fiction. Undoubtedly, these and many other popular fictions writers have established their academic and aesthetic merit, but a deliberate attempt has been made on the part of these writers to portray the cultural traits and practices. For the market accessibility and international fame, these cultural traits and values have been craftily commodified by presenting them as either stereotypes or exotic.