Literary fiction’s world-making power makes it vital for combating Islamophobia

Evidence

Owing to its very elusive quality of figuring forth a world like our own but subtly different and open to the play of desire and imagination, literature allows for the projection of different ways of being in the world, offers a portrayal of cultural traditions beyond those of the West (yet affected by them), and potentially yields new dreams for the future. The framing act of literature may be formed by multiple and sometimes conflicting frames, but its power to take us beyond existing relationships to imagine new ones is surely something worth considering amid all the sound and fury of debates about civilizational difference and the so-called death of multiculturalism. For the same reason, I would argue, literary fiction and its study within the humanities—when in an informed engagement with other disciplines and approaches—form a vital strand in understanding and therefore combating Islamophobia as a cultural phenomenon. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 51

Categorization

• XREF: Multiple conflicting frames maps directly onto Home Boy’s layered narration and identity negotiations.
• SEED: ‘A world like our own but subtly different’ is the hinge claim justifying treating fiction as evidence rather than mere illustration in the reader’s own argument.