Published Paper Details:

Malala Yousafzai has been one of the most celebrated figures in the global context, known for her life, activism, and recognition, which have sparked considerable curiosity, especially among Western readers. Two of Malala's co-authored memoirs bearing the main title I am Malala, published in 2013 and 2014 respectively, both exploring her life in Pakistan through her journey of recovering from a deadly attack by the Taliban, have been read and discussed by scholars and critics as a lens to look at the socio-cultural and political realities of South Asia. Both the memoirs written in collaboration with native English-speaking authors and being published by an American publishing company, tell more than a mere life story. The idea of "Paratext", introduced by Gerard Genette, provides a framework to analyse these elements that accompany the main text as the factors which help transform a text into a book. Paratexts do not exist in isolation from the time period or culture in which the text was written, suggesting their broader influence on the development, publication, reception, and circulation of a book. This paper examines the paratextual elements alongside the main text of memoirs to understand the implications of paratext in shaping an understanding of the identity of South Asian women in a global setting, with a focus on how these memoirs negotiate the complex relationship between identity, culture and power through the two selected memoirs by Malala Yousafzai.