Postcolonial Fiction and Sacred Scripture
Rewriting the Divine?

Sura Qadiri

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Legenda (General Series)

Legenda

1 July 2014  •  144pp

ISBN: 978-1-907975-81-3 (hardback)  •  RRP £80, $110, €95

ISBN: 978-1-351191-63-0 (Taylor & Francis ebook)

ContemporaryFrenchFictionTheology

Francophone writers from North Africa and the Middle East often choose to write within a sacred context, sometimes engaging directly with Islamist rhetoric. Novelists like Tahar Ben Jelloun (Morocco), Assia Djebar (Algeria) and Amin Maalouf (Lebanon) revisit scripture as a way to convey nuances which they believe have been stamped out by monolithic religious world-views. For them, fiction offers a way to break away from limited exegetical horizons, but to remain within the faith. Others, though, would go further, moving away from all religious practice, not just the excessively political or violent. Tunisian writers Abdelwahab Meddeb and Fethi Benslama propose that all literature is of its very nature outside of religion, and that its proliferation will ultimately lead to a secular society. Qadiri explores this wide spectrum of approaches, not only by drawing comparisons with metropolitan French thought, but also by assessing its potential impact at a time of radical change in the Islamic world.

Sura Qadiri is a research associate in the French Department, University of Cambridge.

Reviews:

  • ‘This is an important intervention into discussions of the relationship between literary discourses and sacred scripture. Focusing primarily on recent francophone North African novels, Sura Qadiri examines the positions that literary works take with respect to sacred texts, from latent and inadvertent engagements with the divine, to outright assertions of distinction, in which literary forms are construed as anti-doctrinal and subversive of religious orthodoxies.’ — Neil Doshi, French Studies 69.4, October 2015, 566-67

Bibliography entry:

Qadiri, Sura, Postcolonial Fiction and Sacred Scripture: Rewriting the Divine? (Legenda, 2014)

First footnote reference: 35 Sura Qadiri, Postcolonial Fiction and Sacred Scripture: Rewriting the Divine? (Legenda, 2014), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Qadiri, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

Qadiri, Sura. 2014. Postcolonial Fiction and Sacred Scripture: Rewriting the Divine? (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Qadiri 2014: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Qadiri 2014: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

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