Islam in the Eastern African Novel - (Literatures and Cultures of the Islamic World) by E Mirmotahari (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Islam in the Eastern African Novel engages the novels of three important eastern African novelists--Nuruddin Farah, Abdulrazak Gurnah, and M. G. Vassanji--by centering Islam as an interpretive lens and critical framework. Mirmotahari argues that recognizing the centrality of Islam in the fictional works of these three novelists has important consequences for the theoretical and conceptual conversations that characterize the study of African literature. The overdue and sustained attention to Islam in these works complicates the narrative of coloniality, the nature of the nation and the nation-state, the experience of diaspora and exile, the meaning of indigenaity, and even the form and history of the novel itself"--

Book Synopsis

This study of the sub-Saharan African novel interprets representations of Islam as a central organising presence that generates new conceptual questions and demands new critical frameworks with which to approach categories like nationhood, race, diaspora, immigration, and Africa's multiple colonial pasts.

Review Quotes

"This book will reward anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of Islam in East African literatures. Proponents of close readings and thematic studies will find this book extremely useful as the analysis is a remarkable effort in rescuing Islam from the margins of cultural theory, allowing the voice of African Muslims from the eastern African coast to be emphatically heard. But most of all, Mirmotahari's sensitive study of Islam is a timely rejoinder to critics of African literatures who have repeatedly engaged in poorly informed interpretations and readings of Islam in African literary fiction, stemming mostly from a lack of proper knowledge and sensitivity to the religion and its practitioners." - Contemporary Islam

"The most comprehensive study of Islam in Eastern African fiction to date, Mirmotahari's book is a welcome addition to the region's re-visioning of its multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious history. Well researched and well-argued, this book provides new perspectives on the work of Nuruddin Farah and will hopefully encourage teachers to introduce lesser-taught authors such as Abdulrazak Gurnah and M.G. Vassanji in the classroom." - Gaurav Desai, Tulane University

"Islam in the Eastern African Novel is a superb study that extends and deepens our understanding of the African novel, while at the same time illuminating a panorama of African history that strikingly reveals the inadequacy of the Atlantic paradigm for comprehending the broader expanse of the black world." - Robert Elliot Fox, Southern Illinois University

About the Author

EMAD MIRMOTAHARI Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of English at Tulane University, USA.