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Imagining Muslims: Representations of Muslims in Britain (Autumn 2015)
Tutor: Dr Claire Chambers
Contact: [email protected], D/J/107. Tel: 01904 32 4216
Office hours: TBC
This module encourages a new approach to British migrant writing, which is particularly relevant in
the post-War on Terror political climate of religious manichaeism and intolerance. Questions of faith
and religious identity have tended to be subsumed in discussions of diasporic writing under such
categories as ethnicity, nationality, hybridity and ‘race’. Yet some recent critics suggest that the
relative neglect that postcolonial theory has shown to religion may be due in part to its unwitting
valorization of ‘a secular, Euro-American stance’ (Amin, 2005: 17). This course invites students on
the various MA programmes at the University of York to redress the critical imbalance.
Using insights drawn from recent anthropological and theological research we will consider the
important and dynamic role of religion, specifically Islam, in contributing to cultural identity. By
taking an interdisciplinary approach, the module allows students to consider the historical contexts in
which Muslims from many different backgrounds first came to Britain and the texts that have
increasingly been produced within, by, and about these communities, while exploring, questioning,
and extending the varied ways in which social scientists and creative writers have represented these
groups. Students engage with an exciting and challenging range of texts, including novels, films, and
poetry in English, written by both practising and non-practising Muslims, and produced by artists
from diverse geographical and cultural backgrounds within the Indian subcontinent, the Arab world,
and Britain itself.
Seminars:
TBC
Film screenings: weeks 4, 7, and 10
Pre-course reading
You are encouraged to read the following texts before the start of the course:
Ansari, Humayan (2004) ‘The Infidel Within’: Muslims in Britain Since 1800. London: Hurst.
Morey, Peter and Amina Yaqin (2011) Framing Muslims: Stereotyping and Representation After 9/11.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Said, Edward W. (1997) Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the
World. London: Vintage.
You should purchase the following primary texts (any edition):
I’tesamuddin, Mirza Sheikh (2001) The Wonders of Vilayet: Being the Memoir, Originally in Persian, of a
Visit to France and Britain. Leeds Peepal Tree [1765].
Rushdie, Salman (1988) The Satanic Verses. London: Viking.
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Kureishi, Hanif (1995) The Black Album. London: Faber. (Optional buy: film (and short story): My Son
the Fanatic (1997))
Aboulela, Leila (2005) Minaret. London: Bloomsbury.
Aslam, Nadeem (2004) Maps for Lost Lovers. London: Faber and Faber.
Yassin-Kassab, Robin (2008) The Road from Damascus. London: Hamish Hamilton.
Dharker, Imtiaz (2009) Leaving Fingerprints. Tarset: Bloodaxe.
Siddique, John (2009) Recital: An Almanac. Cambridge: Salt.
Schedule of classes
WEEK 2
‘Muslim literature’ and the first representations of Muslims in Britain
Mirza Sheikh I’tesamuddin, The Wonders of Vilayet
Essays:
Robin Yassin-Kassab, ‘Muslim Writer’, http://qunfuz.blogspot.com/2009/05/muslim-writer.html
Amin Malak, ‘Introduction’, Muslim Narratives and the Discourse of English (2004)
Suggested additional reading:
Humayan Ansari, ‘The Infidel Within’
Roger Ballard, Desh Pardesh: The South Asian Presence in Britain
Nabil Matar, Islam in Britain, 1558–1685.
WEEK 3
Early Twentieth-Century Representations of Muslims: Modernism, Modernity and Religion
Excerpts from Sajjad Zaheer, A Night in London. Trans. from the Urdu by Bilal Hashmi (2011/1938)
Excerpts from Attia Hosain, Distant Traveller (unfinished novel).
Essays:
Mulk Raj Anand, ‘Manifesto of the Indian Progressive Writers Association, London’, in A Night in
London (2011/1938)
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, ‘Translating into English’, Nation, Language, and the Ethics of Translation.
Eds Sandra Bermann and Michael Wood (2005)
Walter Benjamin, ‘The Task of the Translator’, Illuminations (1970)
Suggested additional reading:
Iftikhar Dadi, Modernism and the Art of Muslim South Asia (2010)
Priyamvada Gopal, Literary Radicalism in India (2005)
Saadia Toor, The State of Islam: Culture and Cold War Politics in Pakistan (2011)
WEEK 4
The ‘Rushdie affair’
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (aim to have read at least the first half of the novel for this week)
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Essays:
Talal Asad, ‘Ethnography, Literature, and Politics: Some Readings and Uses of Salman Rushdie’s The
Satanic Verses’. Cultural Anthropology 5.3 (1990): 239–69.
Kenan Malik, From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Legacy, pp. 1–31.
Kamila Shamsie Offence: The Muslim Case, pp. 1–12.
Suggested additional reading:
Shabbir Akhtar, Be Careful with Muhammad!: The Salman Rushdie Affair
Anshuman A. Mondal, ‘Multiculturalism and Islam: Some Thoughts on a Difficult Relationship’,
Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writings 8.1 (2008): 77–94.
Timothy Brennan, Salman Rushdie and the Third World (1989)
Joel Kuortti, ‘The Satanic Verses: “To be Born Again, First you Have to Die”’. In Abdulrazak Gurnah
(ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Salman Rushdie (2007)
Stephen Morton, Salman Rushdie: Fictions of Postcolonial Modernity (2008)
Salman Rushdie, Joseph Anton (2012)
Film screening: My Son the Fanatic (dir. Udayan Prasad, 1997)
WEEK 5
The Satanic Verses qua Novel
Same reading as last week, but you need to have finished the novel, please.
WEEK 6:
Reading Week
Procedural essay of approx. 2000 words due 5pm on the Friday of Week 6. This relates to the
programme you are registered for (the task is set by your course convenor), not any particular
module.
WEEK 7
Sex and Secularity
Hanif Kureishi, The Black Album (1995)
Film (and short story): My Son the Fanatic (1997)
Essays:
Hanif Kureishi, all/any essays in The Word and the Bomb (2005).
Philip Lewis, ‘Introduction’, Islamic Britain: Religion, Politics and Identity Among British Muslims (1994)
Anshuman A. Mondal, ‘Introduction’, Young British Muslim Voices (2008)
Suggested additional reading:
Bart Moore-Gilbert, Hanif Kureishi: Contemporary World Writers (2001)
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Runnymede Trust, Islamophobia: A Challenge for us All (1997)
Sukhdev Sandhu, London Calling: How Black and Asian Writers Imagined a City (2003)
Susie Thomas (ed.), Hanif Kureishi: Readers’ Guides to Essential Criticism (2005)
Robert Young, Colonial Desire (1995)
WEEK 8
Educating Rina
Monica Ali, Brick Lane (2003)
Essays:
Claire Chambers, ‘Introduction.’ Britain Through Muslim Eyes: Literary Representations, 1780–1988.
Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2015, 1–16.
Mukherjee, Sumita, ‘Introduction: The England-Returned.’ Nationalism, Education and Migrant Identities:
The England-returned. Abingdon: Routledge, 2011, pp. 1−12.
Noemí Pereira-Ares, ‘The Politics of Hijab in Monica Ali’s Brick Lane.’ Journal of Commonwealth
Literature 48.2 (2013): 201–20.
Sukhdev Sandhu, ‘Come Hungry, Leave Edgy.’ London Review of Books 25.19 (9 October 2003), pp.
10–13.
Suggested additional reading:
Rachel Bower, ‘Crafts of World Literature: Field, Material and Translation.’ Journal of Commonwealth
Literature 49.3 (2014): 273–278.
Jane Hiddleston, ‘Shapes and Shadows: (Un)veiling the Immigrant in Monica Ali’s Brick Lane.’ Journal
of Commonwealth Literature. 40.1 (2005): 57–72.
Michael Perfect, ‘The Multicultural Bildungsroman: Stereotypes in Monica Ali’s Brick Lane.’ Journal of
Commonwealth Literature 43.3 (2008): 109–120.
Esra Santesso, Disorientation (2012)
WEEK 9
Remapping Muslim Britain
Leila Aboulela, Minaret (2005)
Essays:
Claire Chambers, ‘An Interview with Leila Aboulela.’ Contemporary Women’s Writing. 3.1 (2009): 86–
102.
Rachael Gilmour, ‘Living between languages: the politics of translation in Leila Aboulela’s Minaret
and Xiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers’, Journal of Commonwealth
Literature, 47.2 (June 2012): 207–27.
Emma Tarlo, ‘Hijab in London: Metamorphosis, Resonance and Effects’, Journal of Material Culture
12.2 (2007): 131–56.
Suggested additional reading:
Mohamed Charfi, Islam and Liberty: The Historical Misunderstanding (1998)
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Stuart Hall ‘Cultural Identity and Diaspora.’ Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory: A Reader. Eds.
Williams, Patrick and Laura Chrisman (1994)
Geoffrey Nash, ‘Re-siting Religion and Creating Feminised Space in the Fiction of Ahdaf Soueif and
Leila Aboulela.’ Wasafiri 35 (2002), pp. 28–31.
Edgar O’Ballance, Sudan, Civil War and Terrorism, 1956–99 (2000)
Tariq Ramadan, Western Muslims and the Future of Islam (2004)
Film screening: East is East, dir. Damien O’Donnell (1999)
WEEK 10
Developing a ‘Trembling, Contingent Faith’
Robin Yassin-Kassab, The Road from Damascus (2008)
‘Planet of the Arabs’ (2005) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi1ZNEjEarw
Essays:
Claire Chambers, ‘Sexy Identity-Assertion: Choosing Between Sacred and Secular Identities in Robin
Yassin-Kassab’s The Road from Damascus’. In Rehana Ahmed, Peter Morey, and Amina Yaqin (eds)
Culture, Diaspora, and Modernity in Muslim Writing (2012)
Suggested additional reading:
Amin Maalouf, In the Name of Identity (1996)
Joseph Massad, Desiring Arabs (2007)
Mahmood Mamdani, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim (2004)
Gabriele Marranci, Understanding Muslim Identity (2009)
Nawal El Saadawi, ‘Why Keep Asking Me About My Identity?’, The Nawal El Saadawi Reader (1997)
Patrick Seale, Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East (1992)
Film screening: Four Lions (dir. Chris Morris, 2010)
Suggested additional viewing:
My Beautiful Laundrette and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (dir. Stephen Frears, 1985; 1987)
Brothers in Trouble (dir. Udayan Prasad, 1995)
Ae Fond Kiss (dir. Ken Loach, 2004)
Yasmin (dir. Kenneth Glenaan, 2004)
Love + Hate (dir. Dominic Savage, 2005)
Halal Harry (dir. Russell Razzaque, 2006)
Brick Lane (dir. Sarah Gavron, 2007)
The Infidel (dir. Josh Appignanesi, 2010)
Assessed essay of appox. 4500 words: this should be submitted formally by 4pm on the Monday
of week 2 in the Spring Term.
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Selected secondary reading
Ahmed, Rehana and Sumita Mukherjee (eds) (2011) South Asian Resistances in Britain, 1858–1947.
London: Continuum.
Ansari, Humayan (2004) ‘The Infidel Within’: Muslims in Britain Since 1800. London: Hurst.
Ballard, Roger (ed.) (1994) Desh Pardesh: The South Asian Presence in Britain. London: Hurst.
Berendse, Gerrit-Jan and Williams, Mark (eds) (2002) ‘Introduction.’ In Terror and Text: Representing
Political Violence in Literature and the Visual Arts. Bielefeld: Aisthesis Verlag, pp. 9 – 33.
Brah, Avtar (1996) Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities. London: Routledge.
Chambers, Claire (2011) British Muslim Fictions: Interviews with Contemporary Writers. Basingstoke:
Palgrave.
Erickson, John (1998) Islam and Postcolonial Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grace, Daphne (2004) The Woman in the Muslin Mask: Veiling and Identity in Postcolonial Literature.
London: Pluto Press.
Heath, Jennifer (2008) The Veil: Women Writers on its History, Lore, and Politics. Berkeley, CA: University
of California Press.
Inayatullah, Sohail and Boxwell, Gail (eds) Islam, Postmodernism and Other Futures: A Ziauddin Sardar
Reader. London: Pluto.
Innes, C.L. (2008) A History of Black and Asian Writing in Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Kabir, Nahid Afrose (2012) Young British Muslims. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Kureishi, Hanif (2005) The Word and the Bomb. London: Faber.
Lewis, Philip (1994) Islamic Britain: Religion, Politics and Identity Among British Muslims. London: I.B.
Tauris.
McAuliffe, Jane Dammen (2006) The Cambridge Companion to the Qur’an. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Malak, Amin (2005) Muslim Narratives and the Discourse of English. Albany: State University of New
York Press.
Matar, Nabil (1998) Islam in Britain, 1558–1685. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mernissi, Fatima (1991) Women and Islam: An Historical and Theological Enquiry. Oxford: Blackwell.
--------. (2003) Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society. London: Saqi, 2003.
Mondal, Anshuman A. (2008) Young British Muslim Voices. Abingdon: Greenwood World.
Nash, Geoffrey (2012) Writing Muslim Identity. London: Continuum.
Poole, Elizabeth (2002) Reporting Islam: Media Representations of British Muslims. London: I.B. Tauris.
Procter, James (2003) Dwelling Places: Postwar Black British Writing. Manchester: Manchester University
Press.
Ramadan, Tariq (2004) Western Muslims and the Future of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Runnymede Trust (1997) Islamophobia: A Challenge for us all, Report of the Runnymede
Ranasinha, Ruvani (2007) South Asian Writers in Twentieth-Century Britain: Culture in Translation. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Said, Edward W. (2003; 1978) Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London: Penguin.
--------. (1997) Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World.
London: Vintage.
Scott, Joan Wallach (2007) The Politics of the Veil. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press
Shamsie, Kamila (2009) Offence: The Muslim Case. London: Seagull.
Tarlo, Emma (2010) Visibly Muslim: Fashion, Politics, Faith. Oxford: Berg.
Waines, David (2003) An Introduction to Islam. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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