Multicultural and Multimedia Remediation of the Self in Gautam Malkani’s Londonstani

Today’s cultural production thus relies on recreated and filtered products in order to propose something new in a reality that has been heavily impacted by the past. As a result, there has been a remarkable increase in literary texts which are now available and completed through videos, blogs, websites or social networks. Gautam Malkani’s Londonstani, which is a hypertextual novel that includes literature, slang, photography, music, fashion and the internet (Malkani posts videos about his novel in myspace) is an example of such cultural remediation. His use of literature as the basis was deliberate, as he states on his official website: “I was hoping the book might attract people who don’t typically care for books. I also wanted to leave them with a slap in the face just for the sake of showing that the printed word actually can slap you in the face - sometimes in ways that films and video games just can’t do”. In Londonstani “Jas” wishes to “remake” himself to blend in with a group of second generation southern Asian schoolmates: he therefore becomes a willing vessel for the absorption of the “desi lifestyle” and later of the “bling bling economy” introduced to him by a successful Indian businessman. In order to do so however, he must fashion a new identity for himself by repudiating the values (including scholastic achievement and interest in mainstream culture), language and prejudices he held dear when he was “a coconut”. This cultural transition to macho consumerism is represented by his change in the media and cultural status symbols (clothes, cars, clubs, etc.) he uses to express himself and see others. Jas wants to be appreciated for the person he has become and not who he was, who he could have been, or who he was supposed to be. In the end however, he finds himself incapable of remaining in this liminal remediated position between his former anonymity and the social power he pursues, Eastern and Western cultures, and tradition and youth culture. He is influenced by culture but does not have the power to change it in turn precisely because his self-remediation has lead him to lose his true identity in favour of a self-fashioned and artificial one controlled by the media. In Malkani’s words “identities are used like tools to be more of a man” and “Jas”’s recovery, recycling and reproduction of his own self is attempted through the tools provided by cultural images, themes and traditions in a highly innovative and hybrid way.