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Ever since Ayatollah Khomeini declared the notorious fatwa against novelist Salman Rushdie in 1989, the fact that literature and fundamentalism have mutual resonances has become obvious. With recent events, from the 9/11 World Trade Centre mayhem to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, fundamentalism has become one of the most pressing concerns of our time. This volume explores its manifold reverberations in writing in English. The contributions approach the phenomenon of fundamentalism in its various guises, which are not restricted to Islamic fundamentalism. They explore fundamentalism's changing and ambiguous relationships with literature, showing literature as neither complicit nor simply subversive but as an open field where negotiations still appear possible.
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FUNDAMENTALISM
AND
LITERATURE
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FUNDAMENTALISM
AND
LITERATURE
Edited by
Catherine Pesso-Miquel and Klaus Stierstorfer
FUNDAMENTALISM AND LITERATURE
Copyright © Catherine Pesso-Miquel and Klaus Stierstorfer, 2007. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2007 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS. Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN-10: 1-4039-7491-8 ISBN-13: 978-1-4039-7491-4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Macmillan India Ltd. First edition: January 2007 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America.
CONTENTS
1
Introduction: Fundamentalism and Literature Catherine Pesso-Miquel and Klaus Stierstorfer
1
I
The Many Guises of Fundamentalism: Expanding Visions
5
2
“To the Shore of Tripoli”: Milton, Islam, and the Attacks on America and Spain Gordon Campbell
7
3
Jonathan Swift and the Idea of the Fundamental Church Anne Barbeau Gardiner
4
The “Aesthetics” of Fundamentalism in Recent Jewish Fiction in English Axel Stähler
43
II
Beyond the Binary: Literary Interventions in Polarization
79
5
Deconstructing Fundamentalisms in Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album Wendy O’Shea-Meddour
81
6
7
21
From Enlightenment to the Prison of Light: Reverting to Parsi Fundamentalism in Rohinton Mistry’s Family Matters Catherine Pesso-Miquel
101
Doubling of Parts: Arundhati Roy as Novelist and Political Critic Susanne Peters
123
III Fundamentalism in Post/Modernist Contexts
141
8
143
Tariq Ali and Recent Negotiations of Fundamentalism Klaus Stierstorfer
vi
9
Contents
Literature as the “Schismatic Other of the Sacred Text” or Itself Sacred? The Black Album by Hanif Kureishi Helga Ramsey-Kurz
161
10 Never Better than Late: The Left Behind Series and the Incongruities of Fundamentalist Idealisms Kevin L. Cope
181
Bibliography
205
List of Contributors
215
Index
219
CHAPTER
1
INTRODUCTION: FUNDAME