Writing and Muslim Identity: Representations of Islam in German and English Transcultural Literature, 1990-2006

Writing and Muslim Identity is a comparative study of Islam in contemporary German- and English-language literature. At a time when the non-Islamic world seems to be defining itself increasingly in contrast with the Islamic world, this literary exploration of Islam-related issues sheds new and valuable light on the cultural interaction between the Muslim world and 'the West'. Writing and Muslim Identity engages with literary representaions of different versions of Islam and asks how travel and migration, the transcultural experiences of migrant and post-migrant Muslims, may have shaped the Islams encountered in today’s Germany and Britain. With its comparative approach to 'cultural translations' as creative and challenging interactions between cultures that are constantly in flux, the study develops methods of engaging with notions of home and movement, gender and language, all of which may shape a (post-)migrant’s transcultural experience. The book also offers a complex understanding of transcultural writing in relation to 'traditional' (Anglophone) as well as 'marginal' (German) postcoloniality.