Author Description

Ever since Ayatollah Khomeini declared the notorious fatwa against novelist Salman Rushdie in 1989, the fact that literature and fundamentalism have mutual resonances has become obvious. With recent events, from the 9/11 World Trade Centre mayhem to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, fundamentalism has become one of the most pressing concerns of our time. This volume explores its manifold reverberations in writing in English. The contributions approach the phenomenon of fundamentalism in its various guises, which are not restricted to Islamic fundamentalism. They explore fundamentalism?s changing and ambiguous relationships with literature, showing literature as neither complicit nor simply subversive but as an open field where negotiations still appear possible.