Genre and mimesis condition how literary truth-claims are received

Evidence

In their inclusions and omissions and in the way they shape character and plot, Muslim misery memoirs ostensibly participate transparently in promoting those values of freedom and individual choice claimed to be at the heart of “our” side in the war on terror. As such, they can be seen to reinforce a hegemonic message in which potentially all societies run on Islamic lines are seen as inherently flawed and in need of intervention. … Although I think this may be one effect of these books, it could be argued that their very qualities of rawness and at times crude propagandism actually distract from their endeavor to create fully convincing fictive simulations from which relevant lessons can be drawn for our “real world.” This distraction has to do with the matter of mimesis, the way the books make their truth claims, how they manage their reality effects. Exploring this issue also requires that we consider questions of genre because it, too, conditions how we receive and interpret literary texts. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 212

Categorization

• QUESTION: Morey concedes raw propagandism may undercut the misery memoir’s reality effects — how does he later distinguish this from novels that contest Islamophobia more successfully?
• XREF: Reality effects’ moves toward how the reader should weigh Hamid and Naqvi’s first-person narration as evidence. — connects to: Misery memoirs ground truth claims in mimesis, genre rules, and author’s regional authenticity; Tolerating poetic truth in a separate realm protects the status quo — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 676; Authorial regimes of truth vary across cultures and eras — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 87 (+2 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Misery memoirs ground truth claims in mimesis, genre rules, and author’s regional authenticity; Tolerating poetic truth in a separate realm protects the status quo — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 676; Authorial regimes of truth vary across cultures and eras — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 87 (+2 more)