Hamid and Aboulela oppose Islamophobia through divergent narrative strategies

Evidence

In this last chapter, I wish to bring together the two senses in which I have been exploring Islamophobia in this study: the formal and the thematic. My aim is to use two widely praised recent literary texts—Minaret (2005) by Leila Aboulela and The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) by Mohsin Hamid—to explore starkly divergent literary responses to the Othering of Muslims. The Reluctant Fundamentalist explores the conditions for alienation and active Islamophobic discrimination after 9/11, linking it to global economic inequality and exploitation; Minaret offers a partial critique of that normative materialist and secularist individualism against which religious faith—in particular proactive Islamic faith—is viewed as aberrant and incomprehensible. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 440

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s project comparing Hamid’s and Naqvi’s approaches — establishes the contest-vs-reinforce axis within Hamid. — connects to: Anti-Islamophobia frameworks can reproduce the very homogenization they oppose — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 397; Narrating Islamophobia in fiction itself preserves the Muslim presence it describes — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 266; Contesting novels deconstruct the frames, not just the content, of the Islamophobia debate — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 518 (+9 more)
• QUESTION: Which mode — head-on Islamic subjectivity (Aboulela) or oblique play with readerly expectations (Hamid) — more effectively destabilizes prejudice? The chapter presumably answers this.
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Anti-Islamophobia frameworks can reproduce the very homogenization they oppose — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 397; Narrating Islamophobia in fiction itself preserves the Muslim presence it describes — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 266; Contesting novels deconstruct the frames, not just the content, of the Islamophobia debate — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 518 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Contesting Islamophobia in the novels can inadvertently endorse neoliberal individualism over communal identity #complicates (0.78)
• A novel can criticize explicit Islamophobia while endorsing its underlying assumptions #complicates (0.76) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 178
• Evenhanded novelistic treatment can falsely equate anti-Islamophobia activists with Islamophobes #complicates (0.74)
• Refusing to narrate Muslim experience can itself constitute latent Islamophobia #complicates (0.73) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 379
• Liberal novels often center non-Muslim protagonists in Islamophobia stories #complicates (0.72) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 355