title: Diasporic Muslim Fiction Does (Not) Exist
title: De/Constructing British and US-American Diasporic Muslim Narratives
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Wayah, Ismahan
Publisher: name: University of Muenster, Institutional Repository MIAMI
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: 820 English and Old English (Anglo-Saxon) literatures
subject: 297 Islam, Babism, Bahai Faith

description: Nach dem 11. September kam es zu zahlreichen Publikationen über den Islam und die Muslime, die versuchten, das (wieder neu entdeckte) muslimische Andere in Europa und den USA zu fassen. In ihren literarischen Werken zeigen diasporisch-muslimische Autor*innen die Komplexität muslimischen Lebens auf. In dieser Dissertation werden vier britisch-muslimische Narrative (Hanif Kureishis Black Album, Robin Yassin-Kassabs The Road from Damascus, Leila Aboulelas The Translator, und Diriye Osmans Fairytales for Lost Children) und vier amerikanisch-muslimische Narrative (Laila Lalamis The Moor's Account, Michael Muhammad Knights Taqwacores, Mohja Kahfs The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf und Sulayman X alias Nick Wilgus' Bilal's Bread) analysiert. Die ausgewählten Werke stellen nicht nur euro-amerikanische Normvorstellungen von Religion, Nation und Säkularismus infrage, sie zweifeln und widersetzen sich auch den vorherrschenden muslimischen Ansichten zu Geschlecht und Sexualität.
description: In the aftermath of September 11, numerous publications on Islam and Muslims emerged that sought to capture the (rediscovered) Muslim Other in Europe and the United States. In their literary works, diasporic Muslim authors present the complexity of Muslim life. This dissertation examines four British Muslim narratives (Hanif Kureishi's Black Album, Robin Yassin-Kassab's The Road from Damascus, Leila Aboulela's The Translator, and Diriye Osman's Fairytales for Lost Children) and four American-Muslim narratives (Laila Lalami's The Moor's Account, Michael Muhammad Knight's Taqwacores, Mohja Kahf's The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, and Sulayman X aka Nick Wilgus's Bilal's Bread). The selected works not only challenge Euro-American normative notions of religion, nation, and secularism, they also question and defy prevailing Muslim views on gender and sexuality.
description: 1. Introduction...........................................................................................................1
2. Muslim Diaspora: Narratives of Religion, Race, and Transnationalism..............37
3. Narrating an American Muslim Past and Present in The Moor’s Account and The
Taqwacores .............................................................................................................83
3.1 American Muslim Presence: Past and Present..............................................83
3.2. Narrating a Black Muslim Past in The Moor’s Account.................................88
3.3. Narrating a Subversive American Muslim Present in The Taqwacores......107
4. Questioning British Muslims Narratives in The Black Album and The Road from
Damascus ..............................................................................................................135
4.1 British Muslim Presence: Past and Present.................................................135
4.2 Identity Politics and Islamism in The Black Album ......................................139
4.3. Race, Religion and Post-secularism in The Road from Damascus..............165
5. Gendering Muslimness in The Translator and The Girl in The Tangerine Scarf ..... 185
5.1 Contextualizing Islamic Political Thought and Islamic Feminism ................185
5.2 Grief, Love, and Taqwa in The Translator....................................................201
5.3 Navigating Islam, Gender, Race in The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf .............216
6. Queering Muslimness in Bilal’s Bread and Fairytales for Lost Children ............237
6.1 Performing (In)commensurable Muslim Sexualities ...................................237
6.2 Muslim Queerness and Sexual Violence in Bilal’s Bread.............................249
6.3 Queer Islam, Desire, and Bodies in Fairytales for Lost Children..................267
7. Conclusion .........................................................................................................287
8. Bibliography.......................................................................................................301