Pre-9/11 politics of Islamophobia and Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album (1995)

The rising tide of Islamophobia and the consequent acts of violence pertaining to it over the past couple of years, is inflicting misery on Muslims living across the globe. This situation calls for a clear understanding of the phenomenon of Islamophobia. Using the New Historicist approach, thi...

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Main Authors: Malik Haroon Afzal, Mohamad Rashidi Mohd Pakri, Nurul Farhana Low Abdullah
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2021
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17256/1/43459-156856-1-PB.pdf
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author Malik Haroon Afzal,
Mohamad Rashidi Mohd Pakri,
Nurul Farhana Low Abdullah,
author_facet Malik Haroon Afzal,
Mohamad Rashidi Mohd Pakri,
Nurul Farhana Low Abdullah,
author_sort Malik Haroon Afzal,
collection UKM
description The rising tide of Islamophobia and the consequent acts of violence pertaining to it over the past couple of years, is inflicting misery on Muslims living across the globe. This situation calls for a clear understanding of the phenomenon of Islamophobia. Using the New Historicist approach, this paper embarks on reading Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album (1995) in the backdrop of the politics of Islamophobia in the pre-9/11 context. It thus attempts to highlight the working of the West-driven anti-Muslim political and literary discourse prevalent during the pre-9/11, or post-Cold-War era. The application of Stephen Greenblatt’s thesis of power, subversion and containment enables us to examine the selected novel by situating it within the actual political discourse prevalent during the time of its production to examine its treatment of the Western political narrative of Islamophobia. The study finds that since the 1990s, the West has been relying heavily on the political discourse that intensifies the narrative of Islamophobia in order to contain the subversion it encountered in the form of rising Muslim influence and immigration crises in the West. In the case of literary discourse however, we suggest that while The Black Album (1995) may seem to comply to the Western narrative of Islamophobia, it also offers sights of subversion to the anti-Muslim narrative by exposing Western bias and racist tendencies; and, in return, it ultimately demands negotiation and change.
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spelling ukm.eprints-172562021-08-03T06:01:04Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17256/ Pre-9/11 politics of Islamophobia and Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album (1995) Malik Haroon Afzal, Mohamad Rashidi Mohd Pakri, Nurul Farhana Low Abdullah, The rising tide of Islamophobia and the consequent acts of violence pertaining to it over the past couple of years, is inflicting misery on Muslims living across the globe. This situation calls for a clear understanding of the phenomenon of Islamophobia. Using the New Historicist approach, this paper embarks on reading Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album (1995) in the backdrop of the politics of Islamophobia in the pre-9/11 context. It thus attempts to highlight the working of the West-driven anti-Muslim political and literary discourse prevalent during the pre-9/11, or post-Cold-War era. The application of Stephen Greenblatt’s thesis of power, subversion and containment enables us to examine the selected novel by situating it within the actual political discourse prevalent during the time of its production to examine its treatment of the Western political narrative of Islamophobia. The study finds that since the 1990s, the West has been relying heavily on the political discourse that intensifies the narrative of Islamophobia in order to contain the subversion it encountered in the form of rising Muslim influence and immigration crises in the West. In the case of literary discourse however, we suggest that while The Black Album (1995) may seem to comply to the Western narrative of Islamophobia, it also offers sights of subversion to the anti-Muslim narrative by exposing Western bias and racist tendencies; and, in return, it ultimately demands negotiation and change. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2021-05 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17256/1/43459-156856-1-PB.pdf Malik Haroon Afzal, and Mohamad Rashidi Mohd Pakri, and Nurul Farhana Low Abdullah, (2021) Pre-9/11 politics of Islamophobia and Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album (1995). GEMA ; Online Journal of Language Studies, 21 (2). pp. 72-85. ISSN 1675-8021 https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1397
spellingShingle Malik Haroon Afzal,
Mohamad Rashidi Mohd Pakri,
Nurul Farhana Low Abdullah,
Pre-9/11 politics of Islamophobia and Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album (1995)
title Pre-9/11 politics of Islamophobia and Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album (1995)
title_full Pre-9/11 politics of Islamophobia and Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album (1995)
title_fullStr Pre-9/11 politics of Islamophobia and Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album (1995)
title_full_unstemmed Pre-9/11 politics of Islamophobia and Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album (1995)
title_short Pre-9/11 politics of Islamophobia and Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album (1995)
title_sort pre 9 11 politics of islamophobia and hanif kureishi s the black album 1995
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17256/1/43459-156856-1-PB.pdf
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