Muslimness in Contemporary Literary Imaginations: Twenty-first Century Muslim Women’s Writing in the Diaspora

Focusing on imagination and self-representation as a key sociocultural force, this book examines the diverse ways Muslim writers articulate complex and multifaceted conceptualizations of Muslimness at the critical conjuncture of culture, faith, gender, sexuality and diasporic experience. It highlights how contemporary fiction offers valuable insights into discussions on Muslims. This book situates Muslim writing in relation to “Muslimness” as an inherently contradictory field of meaning and the Muslim diaspora, which is re-conceptualized as “Muslim diaspora space.” Muslim diaspora space can be used as an analytical framework that can highlight an emerging literary site that Muslim writers create within the current politics of representation. The texts selected for close analysis in this book demonstrate that diasporic experience is not limited to displacement and its challenges; the process of diasporization also signifies the creative potential arising from navigating the tensions between mobility and rootedness, sameness and difference and loss and renewal.