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BECOMING THE BRAND: AN ANALYSIS OF CONSUMER CULTURE IN INDO-AMERICAN CHICK LIT

Authors: M. Vishnu Varathan & Dr. M. Shajahan Sait;

BECOMING THE BRAND: AN ANALYSIS OF CONSUMER CULTURE IN INDO-AMERICAN CHICK LIT

Abstract

This paper examines the construction of consumer identity in Indo-American chick lit, arguing that the genre foregrounds the transformation of the self into a marketable brand within the frameworks of globalization and diaspora. While early Western chick lit texts such as Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding and The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger center on urban consumerism and romantic aspiration, Indo-American narratives extend these concerns into questions of migration, cultural hybridity, and neoliberal self-fashioning. Through readings of texts such as The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri and Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, the study explores how consumption—of fashion, space, career, and romance—operates as a strategy of belonging within the diasporic condition. The paper argues that Indo-American chick lit simultaneously celebrates and critiques the logic of consumer capitalism. Commodities become symbolic markers of assimilation and cosmopolitanism, yet they also expose the pressures of gendered labor, cultural performance, and ethnic commodification. The protagonists’ journeys from consumers to self-brands illuminate the tensions between empowerment and market conformity in neoliberal multicultural societies. Ultimately, the paper positions Indo-American chick lit as a significant cultural site for understanding how identity, gender, and diaspora intersect with global consumer culture.

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