Cross-cultural Muslim fiction

9/9/09

By: Liz Stunz

Mentor=Daniel Orozco

Background

            As a self-diagnosed Francophile, my scholarly endeavors inevitably led me abroad. In Intermédiaire 1, I encountered a medley of nationalities—Angolan, South Korean, Chinese, Japanese and German. I noticed how much more they could say about my history than I could about any of theirs. This past year I have been easing myself into international studies through History courses and multi-ethnic literature. This fall, I was given the option to take a Greek literature class or Islam and the West to complete my French B.A. I chose the latter, (motivated by ignorance of Middle Eastern history) which happened to coincide with the Senior Seminar during the first month of the semester. Daniel Orozco suggested that I allow the Islam course to influence my capstone project, (to ideally placate both professors) and now I must begin to pare down my topic.

So far I’ve found an abundance of twenty-first century Muslim fiction, I just need to get my hands on the texts themselves. I plan to acquire a varied taste by focusing on short story narratives from Muslim writers. I don’t plan to focus on one gender. I am gearing towards juxtaposing literature from two or three countries. Turkey, with its secular government and hopes to integrate into the U.N., initially attracted me. Algeria’s fairly recent French colonization and Iran’s revolutionary state are equally intriguing. I am positive that I want to narrow my research to twenty-first century fiction.

Current Project

            Now, I need to familiarize myself with the basic content of the Qur’an. Also, I must work out technical details of interlibrary loans and explore the archives of the U of I and WSU libraries to secure as many Muslim fiction anthologies as I can get my hands on.

Plan for the Next Two Months

Over the course of this semester I want to explore what routes Islamic literature is taking. I am curious to find where (if at all) modernist Muslim writers congregate. First, I must absorb the basic philosophies of the Qur’an to be able to cite them within the narratives. Then, I must absorb a plethora of short stories.

Ideas About How to Present this Work

I plan to stick to the traditional mode of the twenty-page essay. Presentation wise, I am considering my options. I’ve contemplated the Power Point method to introduce my fellow classmates to the authors and excerpts from their stories, but I might stick to the overheard projector. As my project evolves, I plan to further explore presentation alternatives.  

Tentative Bibliography

An Arabian Mosaic: short stories by Arab women writers. Trans. Dalya Cohen-Mor. Potomac, MD: Sheba Press, 1993.

Cook, Michael. The Koran: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2000.  

Johnson-Davies, Denys, ed. In a Fertile Desert: Modern Writing from the United Arab Emirates. Cairo; New York: American University in Cairo Press, 2009.

Johnson-Davies, Denys, ed. The Anchor Book of Modern Arabic fiction. New York: Anchor Books, 2006.