Journal of Postcolonial Writing最新文献

{"title":"Tormented visibility: Extremism, stigma, and staging resistance in Omar El-Khairy and Nadia Latif’s Homegrown","authors":"P. Morey","doi":"10.1080/17449855.2023.2216998","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2023.2216998","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines the circumstances surrounding the cancellation of Omar El-Khairy and Nadia Latif’s play Homegrown in 2015. Commissioned by the National Youth Theatre, it was unexpectedly cancelled days before it was due to open. This move can be attributed to heightened sensitivity towards so-called “extreme” opinions of the kind Homegrown features, as the British government tightened definitions of unacceptable speech and placed the onus on civil society bodies to police it. Yet, as this article argues, Homegrown’s treatment can also be understood in terms of the historical commissioning processes for minority – especially Muslim – theatre, which privilege certain topics and modes of address that result in marginal communities’ continued stigmatization. From the outset, Homegrown was alert to these constraints and sought to counter them through a radical refusal to conduct its debates in the manner approved by the framing conventions of security discourse and the governing etiquette of post-9/11 theatre.","PeriodicalId":44946,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Postcolonial Writing","volume":"59 1","pages":"331 - 346"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49136330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Introduction: Secularism and the literary marketplace","authors":"R. Ahmed, P. Morey","doi":"10.1080/17449855.2023.2215482","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2023.2215482","url":null,"abstract":"The last few years have witnessed a rising awareness across the media of the whiteness of Britain’s fiction publishing industry and an amplification of calls for racial diversity both within the workforce and within author lists. In 2015, shortly after the release of the allwhite authored list of books to be freely distributed across the UK for World Book Night 2016, The Guardian published a piece featuring a roster of British writers of colour critiquing the industry’s shameful record of race as well as class inclusivity (Shukla et al. 2015, n.p.; see also Flood 2015). Here, the words of trailblazing campaigner for Black, Asian, and People of Colour authors and Britain’s first female Black publisher, Margaret Busby, sit alongside those of relative newcomer Nikesh Shukla, whose own success as an anthologist and author has been accompanied by a tireless advocacy for a racially diverse literary marketplace (Shukla et al. 2015, n.p). In his contribution, Shukla alludes to his then forthcoming essay collection The Good Immigrant (Shukla 2016) whose publication in 2016 and commercial and critical success marked the beginning of a new shift – even a watershed moment – in the UK book industry. Together with Reni Eddo-Lodge’s (2017) chart-topping non-fiction book Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Bernardine Evaristo’s (2019) history-making Booker Prize win Girl, Woman, Other, and Candice Carty-Williams’s (2019) novel Queenie, which won the British Book of the Year award in 2020, among others, Shukla’s high-profile collection helped to pave the way for a boom in books by Black and Brown writers. This was underpinned by new initiatives such as Penguin’s Black Britain: Writing Back list, curated by Evaristo and launched in 2021, and its WriteNow mentoring scheme for writers from under-represented backgrounds, established in 2016, as well as the inauguration of the Jhalak Prize for “British/British resident BAME [Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic] writers” in 2017. This shift took place against the backdrop of the worldwide rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, following the racist murder of George Floyd in 2020. By then, book publishers evidently felt an imperative to speak out against racial violence: that race was their business, or, more cynically, that they could no longer afford to remain silent on matters of race. Penguin Random House, Hachette UK, Pan Macmillan, and HarperCollins all issued statements affirming their solidarity or allyship with racialized people and their commitment to inclusivity in the wake of Floyd’s murder (Saha and van Lente 2022, 1804–1805).","PeriodicalId":44946,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Postcolonial Writing","volume":"59 1","pages":"271 - 283"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41679862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Marketing secular anxieties: Mohsin Hamid’s planetary turn","authors":"P. Veyret","doi":"10.1080/17449855.2023.2214857","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2023.2214857","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article unpacks Mohsin Hamid’s position as a global novelist invested in translating the world view of Muslim characters for a secular, western audience. Its approach to Hamid’s secularism combines materialist with textualist frames of reference, seeing the circulation and reception of The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and Exit West (2017) as entangled with the novelist’s aesthetic strategies. The materialist approach, based on Graham Huggan’s and Sarah Brouillette’s work, questions how western audiences’ anxieties about religiously driven “Others” are marketed by the publishing industry, thus reinforcing the figure of the postcolonial author as a problematic interpreter of marginalized communities. The textualist approach argues that Hamid’s writing participates in the diffusion of global literature, and close reading will question how authors like him propose ways of reconsidering and rewriting hegemony through positioning themselves as “embedded with the world”, and by forging geocentred fictions which, paradoxically, trace lines of flight from the global marketplace.","PeriodicalId":44946,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Postcolonial Writing","volume":"59 1","pages":"347 - 361"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48076219","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Marketing stories: Writing with faith and reading in search of spirituality in Elif Shafak’s fiction","authors":"Rachel Gregory Fox","doi":"10.1080/17449855.2023.2215487","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2023.2215487","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article focuses on the reception of Elif Shafak’s fiction as it circulates within the global literary marketplace, examining the responses of secular and religious readerships in English and Turkish. Taking Shafak’s 2010 novel, The Forty Rules of Love, and her 2016 work, Three Daughters of Eve, as case studies, and referring to media and reader reviews of these books, and public commentary by the author, it evaluates the readerly relationships with spirituality and faith that Shafak constructs as they are emulated by both the readers in her novels and the readers of her novels. In doing so, it asks what reading methodologies Shafak forges in a marketplace that situates books as both stories and products. In the urgent defence of a cosmopolitan ideal, and amidst transcontinental markets and metropoles, this article argues that Shafak puts faith in the potential for conviviality to be fostered by the process of reading.","PeriodicalId":44946,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Postcolonial Writing","volume":"59 1","pages":"362 - 376"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49369168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A conversation with Leila Aboulela","authors":"R. Ahmed","doi":"10.1080/17449855.2023.2216491","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2023.2216491","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This conversation with Leila Aboulela is shaped primarily by an interest in her work’s position in the literary marketplace, especially in the UK. It explores Aboulela’s considerable success as a Muslim writer whose fictional worlds are infused with Islam, and asks what this might tell us about the place of faith within the marketplace. The discussion ranges from the author’s journey to publication through the roles played by editors and designers in the production of her fiction to the marketing and reception of her work, also exploring the question of whether and how to translate faith to a secular readership. Mindful of shifts in the reception of writers of colour, including Muslim-heritage writers, through Aboulela’s long career, it concludes with a consideration of a new generation of writers whose work does not shy away from Islamic perspectives, suggesting an openness to unfamiliar world views among readers and some publishers.","PeriodicalId":44946,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Postcolonial Writing","volume":"59 1","pages":"377 - 390"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44841412","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An agent’s view on diversity, secularism and religion: A conversation with Rukhsana Yasmin","authors":"P. Morey","doi":"10.1080/17449855.2023.2215972","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2023.2215972","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this interview, Rukhsana Yasmin describes her experiences as a literary agent from a Muslim cultural background. She recalls how, early in her career, she was somewhat limitingly regarded as a representative of “diversity” within the industry, but also notes the advantages of her insider’s ability to recognize potential areas of sensitivity and broker conversations between authors and publishers to ensure the writer’s experience is respected in the editing process and that unconscious biases resulting from a predominantly white, middle-class majority viewpoint are minimized. Although she still receives comparatively few novels addressing faith, Rukhsana is heartened by the success of recent essay anthologies by Muslim women. Along with the determination of younger writers to resist being pigeonholed by producing tonally and thematically varied work that better reflects their experiences, such publications push back against the trend for Muslim trauma narratives that have been a staple feature of minority publishing.","PeriodicalId":44946,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Postcolonial Writing","volume":"59 1","pages":"399 - 408"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46242746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Rethinking Muslim narratives: Stereotypes reinforced or contested in recent genre fiction?","authors":"C. Chambers, Sairish Hussain","doi":"10.1080/17449855.2023.2209907","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2023.2209907","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article discusses the challenges British Muslim writers and publishers face in a largely secular literary marketplace and a society marked by Islamophobia. It explores these authors’ publication experiences, analysing examples from industry diversity initiatives and from conducting interviews with authors. Arguing that distorted representations strip Muslims of their complex humanity, while more nuanced portrayals can humanize them without resorting to stereotypes, we analyse the thrillers East of Hounslow (2017) by Khurrum Rahman and Take it Back (2019) by Kia Abdullah. The article provides unique insights into the publication tactics of Muslim-heritage writers while also demonstrating genre fiction’s potential as a powerful tool for promoting inclusive narratives and challenging stereotypes. It concludes that genre fiction’s popularity and accessibility can help expand readership beyond literary circles and provide a wider audience for diverse storytelling that might otherwise go unheard in mainstream publishing, thus contributing over time to a more inclusive literary landscape.","PeriodicalId":44946,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Postcolonial Writing","volume":"59 1","pages":"284 - 299"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47948712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exclusion, empathy, and Islam: The Runaways in the literary marketplace","authors":"Sauleha Kamal","doi":"10.1080/17449855.2023.2209906","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2023.2209906","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT With the location of the global literary marketplace in western centres, post-9/11 interest in anglophone Pakistani literature comes with the fetishization of minoritized identities. Fatima Bhutto’s The Runaways combats Islamophobic arguments about the Islamic origins of radicalization, showing that it emerges out of exclusion stemming from material facts of race, class, and gender. However, the novel's place in the literary marketplace complicates Bhutto's efforts to elicit empathy from readers. This article argues that although The Runaways is ideologically opposed to Eurocentric cosmopolitan liberalism, it occasionally falters in its representation of Pakistan and Islamic practices. The novel’s empathy is invested in universalism, suggesting a blind spot which is attributable to the global literary marketplace’s anticipation of a secular cosmopolitan “elite” readership. Through analysis of Bhutto’s novel, this article explores the possibility of productive empathy, and interrogates the ethics of reading and writing the other.","PeriodicalId":44946,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Postcolonial Writing","volume":"59 1","pages":"300 - 314"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47903220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"“We tick: Other” – race, religion, and literary solidarities in three essay anthologies and the neo-liberal marketplace","authors":"R. Ahmed","doi":"10.1080/17449855.2023.2216039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2023.2216039","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article considers Nikesh Shukla’s The Good Immigrant (2016) alongside two anthologies of essays by British Muslim women: Mariam Khan’s It’s Not About the Burqa (2019) and Sabeena Akhtar’s Cut from the Same Cloth? (2021). Situating them within the publishing industry’s racializing practices, which valorize writing by authors of colour as authentically representative of their cultures while devaluing it as less “literary” than white British writing, the article asks how the foregrounding of religiosity rather than race in Akhtar’s and Khan’s anthologies works to confirm or challenge these dominant terms of reception. The article is interested in how these anthologies might trouble the boundary between “culture” as the values and practices subscribed to by a racially minoritized community, and “culture” as the self-reflexive expression of individual creativity. Ultimately, it suggests the essay anthology might point to a form of literary solidarity that reaches beyond the confines of the neo-liberal marketplace even while remaining partly constrained by them.","PeriodicalId":44946,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Postcolonial Writing","volume":"59 1","pages":"315 - 330"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46642387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A publisher’s perspective on diversity: A conversation with Hermione Thompson","authors":"P. Morey","doi":"10.1080/17449855.2023.2216037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2023.2216037","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this conversation, Hamish Hamilton’s editorial director Hermione Thompson discusses the stages by which a book reaches the buying public. The role of agents and the different expectations of literary and genre-focused publishers are considered. The Black Lives Matter movement has been instrumental in the upsurge of interest in black writing and, while welcoming this development, Thompson acknowledges the importance of not pigeonholing writers according to their identity. That matters of religious difference seldom occur in editorial discussions may be a result of the kinds of submissions received, but Thompson acknowledges that it may also indicate a secular norm, of a piece with the white middle-class norms still governing the industry. The interview ends with a consideration of new developments, such as social media and podcasting, and the tendency in some literary festivals to rely on big-name authors to pull in a crowd, thereby further entrenching ethnic and cultural norms.","PeriodicalId":44946,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Postcolonial Writing","volume":"59 1","pages":"391 - 398"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46911418","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}