Fiction by writers of Muslim background forms one of the most
diverse, vibrant and high-profile corpora of work being produced
today - from the trail-blazing writing of Salman Rushdie and Hanif
Kureishi, which challenged political and racial orthodoxies in the
1980s, to that of a new generation including Mohsin Hamid, Nadeem
Aslam and Kamila Shamsie. This collection reflects the variety of
those fictions. Experts in English, South Asian, and postcolonial
literatures address the nature of Muslim identity: its response to
political realignments since the 1980s, its tensions between
religious and secular models of citizenship, and its manifestation
of these tensions as conflict between generations. In considering
the perceptions of Muslims, contributors also explore the roles of
immigration, class, gender, and national identity, as well as the
impact of 9/11.
This volume includes essays on contemporary fiction by writers
of Muslim origin and non-Muslims writing about Muslims. It aims to
push beyond the habitual populist 'framing' of Muslims as strangers
or interlopers whose ways and beliefs are at odds with those of
modernity, exposing the hide-bound, conservative assumptions that
underpin such perspectives. While returning to themes that are of
particular significance to diasporic Muslim cultures, such as
secularism, modernity, multiculturalism and citizenship, the essays
reveal that 'Muslim writing' grapples with the same big questions
as serve to exercise all writers and intellectuals at the present
time: How does one reconcile the impulses of the individual with
the requirements of community? How can one 'belong' in the modern
world? What is the role of art in making sense of chaotic
contemporary experience?
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