Fictionalising the Utopian Impulse as Post-Secular Islam: An East-West Odyssey
This essay offers a counterview to the postulation that humanity’s utopian propensity is a secular undertaking bereft of divine inspiration. This dominant interpretation in utopian theory renders utopianism in the religious non-Western world inconceivable. Invoking Islam’s post-secular leanings, I a...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2011
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| In: |
Literature and theology
Year: 2011, Volume: 25, Issue: 3, Pages: 329-346 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | This essay offers a counterview to the postulation that humanity’s utopian propensity is a secular undertaking bereft of divine inspiration. This dominant interpretation in utopian theory renders utopianism in the religious non-Western world inconceivable. Invoking Islam’s post-secular leanings, I argue that the utopian desire is replete with theological underpinnings. Engaging first with pro-religious discourses on the utopian impulse by Ernst Bloch and Nurcholish Madjid, I will then theorise a literary mode of reading framed by Fredric Jameson’s ‘utopology’ and Bloch’s ‘concrete utopia’. I will demonstrate in faith-based fiction an interpretation of Islam that is ‘this-worldly’ and ‘rational’—qualities that uphold utopianism as a secular, European phenomenon. Finally, I posit that Islam’s post-secular condition must also be seen as a postcolonial one. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4623 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Literature and theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/litthe/frr016 |