Muslim writers must negotiate a literary market for the Muslim
Evidence
Nonetheless, we will see that both The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Minaret face similar challenges in terms of negotiating their place in what we might call a literary “market for the Muslim.” This global market is both a commercial one, in the case of Hamid’s text, and, for Aboulela’s novel, a critical market for interpreting the Muslim writer that maps onto prevailing orthodoxies about how secular modernity is the defining feature of a West that has evolved beyond the irrational consolations of religion. We need to think about how these categories operate, how they are circulated in a world eager for answers to “the Muslim problem,” and—most crucially—what they leave out. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 440
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines the ‘market for the Muslim’ — the commercial and critical demand shaping how Muslim writers get published and read.
- QUESTION: ‘What they leave out’ — a promising lever for asking which reading of Hamid/Naqvi is purchased by the market versus earned by the text.
- XREF: connects to: A global literary market for Muslim writers shapes what can be written — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 440; A global literary market for Muslim writing constrains how novels contest Islamophobia.; Writerly background does not exempt Muslim authors from the constraints of the market frame (+8 more)
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: A global literary market for Muslim writers shapes what can be written — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 440; A global literary market for Muslim writing constrains how novels contest Islamophobia.; Writerly background does not exempt Muslim authors from the constraints of the market frame (+8 more)