Muslims Writing Britain and Beyond: Faith, Class and Multicultural Politics

穆斯林书写英国及其他地区：信仰、阶级和多元文化政治

• 批准号: AH/I000577/1
• 负责人: Rehana Ahmed
• 金额: $ 6.12万
• 依托单位: Teesside University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2011 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FI000577%2F1
• 关键词: Muslims; Writing; Britain; Beyond; Faith

The proposed research will explore and interrogate contemporary literary representations of Muslim culture and identities. It will focus in particular on British writers of South Asian Muslim heritage, engaging substantially with debates and controversies concerning the place of Muslims in contemporary multicultural Britain, as well as with the historical presence and practices of Muslims in Britain from the early years of the twentieth century.Since the controversy sparked by Salman Rushdie's 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, British Muslims have been placed increasingly at the centre of tensions and urgent debate concerning multiculturalism by a series of events. These include the 1991 Gulf war; the July 2001 'race riots' in Bradford, Burnley and Oldham; the 9/11 attacks and 'war on terror' waged by Britain in Afghanistan and Iraq; and the 2005 bombings on London transport by British Muslim men. The research will demonstrate the dominance in political debate and national broadcast and broadsheet media of liberal constructions of this minority which represent 'culture' (encompassing religion) as the main factor in identity formation and the primary source of the perceived ills of the 'community', erasing or at best marginalising the social and cultural exclusion experienced by a significant proportion of British Muslims. In such constructions, Britain's male Muslim youth becomes hyper-masculinized through a discourse that identifies it with disaffection, criminality, violence and terror, and leaves little space for alternative subjectivities. In debate about forced marriage, 'honour killings' and the wearing of the hijab, Muslim women are frequently represented either as submissive to patriarchal religious culture or, conversely, as 'liberated' from it. Islam and Muslims have come to figure increasingly as secular modernity's fundamentalist 'other'.South Asian Muslim Britons have engaged with these events, controversies and discourses - not just in the media and the political sphere but also in the arts and fiction. The project will offer close readings of a selection of novels, short stories and autobiographical accounts by a number of authors including Tariq Mehmood, Salman Rushdie, Hanif Kureishi, Monica Ali, Nadeem Aslam, Sarfraz Manzoor, Ed Hussain, Yasmin Hai and Shelina Zahra Janmohamed. It will explore the ways in which the texts reproduce, debate or destabilize normative ideological constructions of British Muslim culture, and how they might inform current debates about contemporary multicultural Britain. These concern, for example, the place of religious faith within a largely secular public sphere; the intersection of class, gender and generation with religion in the formation of identities, affiliations and practices; and protests by Muslims against creative work and the questions they raise about the politics of representation. By focusing on the silences and contradictions of the primary texts, the study will shed light on social contradictions that are normatively obscured by ideology and demonstrate the centrality of the role of class in shaping Muslim minority identities and practices. It will thereby challenge liberal binaries of secularism, modernity and individual freedom versus religiosity, tradition and communal constraint, and advocate an understanding of multiculturalism and anti-racism which valorises subaltern formations and minority rights.While its primary focus is on the last 25 years, the project will also incorporate an exploration of the South Asian Muslim presence in Britain for the past 100 years in order to historicise their contemporary presence, practices and reception. Further, while its key concern is with Britain, the research will necessarily take in a wider, global context, incorporating discussion of how the writers have responded to events and debates relating to 'terror' and the 'war on terror' which have impacted profoundly on British Muslims.

拟议的研究将探索和询问穆斯林文化和身份的当代文学表现。它将特别关注南亚穆斯林遗产的英国作家，大量参与有关穆斯林在当代多元文化英国中的地位的辩论和争议，以及20世纪初穆斯林在英国的历史存在和实践。自从萨尔曼·拉什迪（Salman Rushdie） 1988年的小说《撒旦诗篇》（the Satanic Verses）引发争议以来，由于一系列事件，英国穆斯林越来越多地处于有关多元文化主义的紧张局势和紧迫辩论的中心。其中包括1991年的海湾战争；2001年7月发生在布拉德福德、伯恩利和奥尔德姆的“种族骚乱”；9/11袭击和英国在阿富汗和伊拉克发动的“反恐战争”；以及2005年英国穆斯林男子在伦敦交通上制造的爆炸案。该研究将证明，在政治辩论、国家广播和报纸媒体中，这一少数民族的自由主义建构占据主导地位，这些建构代表了“文化”（包括宗教），作为身份形成的主要因素和“社区”感知疾病的主要来源，消除或最多边缘化了相当一部分英国穆斯林所经历的社会和文化排斥。在这样的结构中，英国的男性穆斯林青年通过一种将其与不满、犯罪、暴力和恐怖联系起来的话语而变得高度男性化，几乎没有给其他主体性留下空间。在关于强迫婚姻、“荣誉谋杀”和戴头巾的辩论中，穆斯林妇女经常被描述为对父权宗教文化的顺从，或者相反，从父权宗教文化中“解放”出来。伊斯兰教和穆斯林逐渐成为世俗现代性的原教旨主义“他者”。南亚穆斯林英国人参与了这些事件、争议和话语——不仅在媒体和政治领域，而且在艺术和小说领域。该项目将提供精选小说、短篇故事和自传的近距离阅读，作者包括塔里克·马哈茂德、萨尔曼·拉什迪、哈尼夫·库雷希、莫妮卡·阿里、纳迪姆·阿斯拉姆、萨弗雷兹·曼佐尔、埃德·侯赛因、亚斯明·海和谢琳娜·扎赫拉·扬穆罕默德。它将探索文本复制、辩论或破坏英国穆斯林文化规范意识形态结构的方式，以及它们如何为当前关于当代多元文化英国的辩论提供信息。例如，这些问题涉及宗教信仰在很大程度上是世俗的公共领域中的地位；阶级、性别和世代与宗教在身份、隶属关系和实践形成中的交集；穆斯林对创造性工作的抗议，以及他们提出的关于代表性政治的问题。通过关注原始文本的沉默和矛盾，该研究将揭示被意识形态规范掩盖的社会矛盾，并展示阶级在塑造穆斯林少数民族身份和实践中的中心作用。因此，它将挑战世俗主义、现代性和个人自由与宗教性、传统和公共约束的自由主义二元对立，并倡导对多元文化主义和反种族主义的理解，这种理解重视次等形态和少数人的权利。虽然它的主要焦点是过去25年，但该项目也将探索过去100年来南亚穆斯林在英国的存在，以使他们的当代存在、实践和接受历史化。此外，虽然主要关注的是英国，但这项研究必然会纳入更广泛的全球背景，包括讨论作者如何回应与“恐怖”和“反恐战争”有关的事件和辩论，这些事件和辩论对英国穆斯林产生了深远的影响。

项目成果

"I'll explain what I can": A conversation with Avaes Mohammad

“我会解释我能做什么”：与艾瓦斯·穆罕默德的对话

• DOI: 10.1177/0021989416684184
• 发表时间: 2017
• 期刊: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature
• 作者: Ahmed R

British Culture after 9/11 (special issue of The Journal of Commonwealth Literature)

9/11之后的英国文化（《英联邦文学杂志》特刊）

• 作者: Ahmed R

Writing British Muslims: Religion, Class and Multiculturalism

写作英国穆斯林：宗教、阶级和多元文化主义

• 发表时间: 2015
• 作者: Ahmed, RS

Culture, Diaspora and Modernity in Muslim Writing

穆斯林写作中的文化、侨民和现代性

• 发表时间: 2012
• 作者: Ahmed, R.

Introduction

介绍

• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-45763-1_1
• 发表时间: 2020-05-28
• 期刊: Jefferson’s Revolutionary Theory and the Reconstruction of Educational Purpose
• 作者: Burch KT