Muslim/Christian Polarities in Pakistan: A Holistic Model Analysis of Preemptive Religious Conversion in Nadeem Aslam’s The Golden Legend

Abstract

This paper analyzes the pre-emptive religious conversion of the main character, Margaret into Nargis, as depicted in The Golden Legend (2017) by Nadeem Aslam according to the Holistic Model framework proposed by Charles E. Rambo. The study of religious change in the context of literary tradition reveals that a religious convert is like the mythical character of Narcissus who tries to get hold of the fake image of the “other” (in Lacanian term), and in this effort effaces his being. Moreover, female religious conversions might occur because of the two-pronged reasons of the patriarchal structure of the society they are living in as well as tyranny of the religious majority. In short, this study provides a platform to initiate the study of religious conversions from a literary perspective, develop literary theory and criticism in this field and add on to the already existing information available on this phenomenon.