Identity and Islamophobia in twenty-first century British Muslim novels

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Ridgway, L, 2024. Identity and Islamophobia in twenty-first century British Muslim novels. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the ways in which contemporary British Muslim novelists are exploring Muslim identity and depicting Islam in a context of heightened Islamophobia. The authors have been chosen for the ways in which they are complicating and re-shaping established literary forms and genre expectations, including the bildungsroman and ‘family marriage plot’, and reworking established issues and themes, including racism in Britain, family and friendship. The works have been selected for their engagement with British Muslim identity as represented and dramatised in the media and popular culture, and for how they intervene in contemporary debates about state multiculturalism and secular liberalism, not least how the role of religion is shaped differently in different diasporic contexts and how anti-Asian racism is fuelled by Islamophobia. In order of discussion, the primary texts are: Nadeem Aslam’s novel Maps for Lost Lovers (2004); Leila Aboulela’s The Kindness of Enemies (2015) and Robin Yassin-Kassab’s The Road from Damascus (2008); Samir Rahim’s Asghar and Zahra (2019) and Monica Ali’s Love Marriage (2022); Tariq Mehmood’s Song of Gulzarina (2016) and Nadim Safdar’s Akram’s War (2016); and The Study Circle by Haroun Khan (2018). My readings encompass how Muslim novelists are positioned in Britain by publishers and reviewers, the ‘burden of representation’ British writers who are Muslim are expected to carry, and the pervasive (neo- )orientalist discourse that continues to shape how Muslim characters are read, or risk being read. I consider how contemporary ‘framings’ of Muslims in Britain are filtered through government programmes like the Prevent strategy, and how the novelists I have foregrounded are mounting a critique to address as well as explore the deleterious effects of surveillance on Muslim communities, as well as delimiting representation and characterisation. The thesis explores how these contemporary British novelists are building complexity into representation of Britons who are often maligned.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	Ridgway, L.
Contributors:	Name Role NTU ID ORCID Yousaf, N. Thesis supervisor EMS3YOUSAN https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2806-8624 Monteith, S. Thesis supervisor AAH3MONTES https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9535-9099
Date:	July 2024
Rights:	The copyright in this work is held by the author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed to the author.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Arts and Humanities
Record created by:	Jeremy Silvester
Date Added:	25 Apr 2025 15:37
Last Modified:	25 Apr 2025 15:37
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53462