Asymmetries of power in transnational literary celebrity: the case of Elif Shafak’s bilingual website

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article aims to study the implications of bilingualism on literary celebrity with respect to having two sets of audiences that fall into two distinct categories in terms of linguistic hegemony: a nation/region-specific language and a global language. Using representation as a conceptual framework for both translation and celebrity, it aims to address such cross-cultural issues as pertaining to asymmetrical power relations. It offers as case study the bilingual official website of Elif Shafak, a novelist from Turkey with an international renown. The analysis reveals that addressing a dual audience can lead to the adoption of a double persona and, incidentally, a double standard that furthers unequal power relations on the global scale. Unlike the celebrity persona, which is the promoted face of the literary author and is structured for consumption, these personae are likely to be discernible only through critical analysis and to be operative in reproducing unequal power relations. Both the celebrity persona and the double persona would ultimately function to secure renown in accordance with global measures.