Islam and New Directions in World Literature

Since its advent, Islam has been cross-pollinating world literatures in Africa, Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean and the Americas, constantly enriching and enriched by various humanistic traditions in multiple languages, spanning the lives of individuals and societies throughout history. Yet, scholarship on Islam as World Literature has been sparse despite its significant contribution. Islam and New Directions in World Literature understands Islamic literary and cultural heritages as dynamic forces, constantly enriching and enriched by various humanistic traditions in multiple languages. Exploring Islam's presence in world literatures in two strands on the one hand examining the orientalist versions and usages of Islam; on the other hand analysing the presence of Islam as a discursive and creative tradition this book advances a consideration of Islam as an agent in the history of World Literature. In so doing, it delinks World Literature from its default 'Global North' originary moments and geographies, and posits the Islamicate as an alternative modality of literary worldliness. It avoids antagonising one literature against the other, and instead creates hospitable sites of fresh interpretations across hemispheres in a collection of chapters that engage a plurality of scholarly fields, and cover a variety of periods, literary traditions and languages.