UDK 28:316.77
Author
Ahmed Isanović
Summary
Literature, as an ideologically very potent field, often serves as an instrument which validates the status quo, empowers existing relations of power, and shapes the sociopolitical awareness. On the other hand, literature is also a powerful platform for examining, understanding, and deconstructing the ideological mechanisms that offer a distorted picture of reality created by the centres of power. On such a premise, this paper attempts to denaturalize the ideologically constructed notion of Islam and Muslims which occurs in the form of a new grand narrative of the West. Analysing the following three novels: Saturday written by Ian McEwan, Submission by Michel Houellebecq, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, the paper deals with the thematization of Islamophobia within the literary discourse, where three literary approaches to the topic (Islamophobia) are evident: manifest, latent and problem approach.
Keywords
Islamophobia, ideology, literary-thematic approaches, Ian McEwan, Michel Houellebecq, Mohsin Hamid
URL: /en/the-discourse-of-islamophobia-in-literature-three-topical-approaches/