Muslim fiction can appeal to shared mythological structures beyond any Western-Islamic divide.

Evidence

The postsecularists are on more solid ground in acknowledging that “the religious and the secular are co-constitutive, indelibly intertwined, each structuring and suffusing the sphere of the other.” In the case of Abbas and Mahmood, however, this insight comes to be less important than enumerating the inadequacies of secularism in its dealings with religion. Were we to explore this insight further and apply it to a literary text such as Minaret, we would see that a number of the book’s motifs and assumptions make a broad appeal to deep structures of feeling that go beyond a supposed Western/Islamic divide. … Of particular interest is the notion of a “mythological universe,” which Frye calls “a vision of reality in terms of human concerns, hopes and anxieties.” Such a vision is fed and takes its shape from the narrative body of religious and historical revelation through which a society comes to understand itself. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 501

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Home Boy for archetypal or mythic appeals rather than cultural difference — the reader’s hinge project. — connects to: Christian and Islamic narratives share mythic structures that span traditions — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 502; Muslims across political divides share a belief they are culturally distinct from the West — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 576; Appealing to readers’ craving for authentic Muslim ‘Otherness’ erases cross-cultural narrative commonalities. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 504 (+1 more)
• DEFINE: Introduces Frye’s ‘mythological universe’ as a critical tool for reading Islamic fiction through shared deep structures.
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Christian and Islamic narratives share mythic structures that span traditions — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 502; Muslims across political divides share a belief they are culturally distinct from the West — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 576; Appealing to readers’ craving for authentic Muslim ‘Otherness’ erases cross-cultural narrative commonalities. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 504 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Christian, Islamic, and secular narrative paradigms share mythological deep structures #expands (0.92)
• Appealing to readers’ craving for authentic Muslim ‘Otherness’ erases cross-cultural narrative commonalities. #complicates (0.85) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 504
• Muslims across political divides share a belief they are culturally distinct from the West #complicates (0.78) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 576