ABSTRACT
Since the onset of the ‘war on terror’ in 2001, the literary fiction market has seen an intensification of interest in authors with a background outside of the West, and particularly from nations affected by Islamist extremism. On one level, this has been productive, lending a platform to a wide and diverse range of global authors who might otherwise have struggled to be heard, and who collectively play an active role in challenging the Islamophobia and racism that sometimes lends shape to the language of counterterrorism. On another, it has also, at times, been re ductive, as this platform is conditional. A publishing industry that shows temporary fascination with novels about Islam, in the context of debates about terrorism, can have the unintended effect of reinforcing the media-driven, stereotypical association between the two, even if the content of the novels themselves attempts to challenge this discourse. Taking the latter perspective, critics such as Catherine Morely have expressed caution about a trend, in transnationally oriented post-9/11 literary studies, to ‘[suggest] that fiction is no more than a political tool, through which writers can understand (and educate readers about) the United States’ place in the world’ (2011: 720).
