Muslim Narratives and the Discourse of English Paperback – by Amin Malak (Author)

Examines novels and short stories by Muslim authors who write in English.

This is the first book to explore the works of Muslim authors who write in English yet take their inspiration from Islam. Through close readings of novels and short stories by Salman Rushdie, Ahmed Ali, Attia Hosain, Nuruddin Farah, and others, Amin Malak reveals their aesthetic and discursive merits as well as their idiomatic and metaphorical enrichment of the English language. He explores the many implications of writing about one culture (and language) from within another, including the ambivalent attitudes many of these writers have toward English, a language associated with a colonial past yet adopted as a medium of artistic expression and a critical tool for demystifying and dealienating Muslims and their culture. Malak’s analysis shows how Islam, as a critical identity signifier in the contemporary world, informs these texts’ discursive foundations and thus becomes crucial for understanding Islam.

“Malak makes an important and timely contribution in enriching understanding of the cultural context against which Muslim identities are produced in English-language literary works. Most importantly … [he] challenges orientalist representations of Muslims that have come to circulate widely in the West.” — Studies in the Novel

“Malak engages the reader in a discussion that seeks to unveil the diversity of thought present in the Muslim experience.” — Middle East Journal

"Rather than fruitlessly opposing 'authentic' feeling to mere convention, Malak argues that we would do better to acknowledge how difficult it is to separate them: plurality of voices is the hallmark of his analysis. This is genuinely helpful to those of us who are still trying to show that our story is worth telling. This book may indeed prove a revealing cultural phenomenon." — Mustapha Marrouchi, author of Edward Said at the Limits