TY - JOUR
T1 - Beyond the ‘“recruitable” narrative’?
T2 - The fictive portrayal of Pakistani Christians in Nadeem Aslam’s The Golden Legend
AU - Clements, Madeline
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2022/9/9
Y1 - 2022/9/9
N2 - In seeming response to rising global interest in the condition of non-Muslims in parts of the Muslim world, recent fictions by anglophone Pakistani writers have explored how Pakistani Christians are positioned as lesser subjects. Such literature speaks to legitimate concerns about the welfare of religious minorities in Muslim-majority contexts, but also risks reproducing “‘recruitable’ narratives” which situate Christians and Muslims on either side of a religio-cultural divide. This article investigates how Nadeem Aslam’s The Golden Legend (2017) depicts Christian experiences of religious discrimination and coexistence within the Islamic Republic. It argues that Aslam’s fiction revisits savages–victims–saviour trichotomies and demystifies religious offence, bringing to light alternative configurations of Muslim–Christian relationships and ways of understanding points of contention. Acknowledging the limitations of Aslam’s liberal humanist vision, it hopes to identify how his novel extends available representations at a time when critical perspectives on interfaith cohabitation require careful articulation.
AB - In seeming response to rising global interest in the condition of non-Muslims in parts of the Muslim world, recent fictions by anglophone Pakistani writers have explored how Pakistani Christians are positioned as lesser subjects. Such literature speaks to legitimate concerns about the welfare of religious minorities in Muslim-majority contexts, but also risks reproducing “‘recruitable’ narratives” which situate Christians and Muslims on either side of a religio-cultural divide. This article investigates how Nadeem Aslam’s The Golden Legend (2017) depicts Christian experiences of religious discrimination and coexistence within the Islamic Republic. It argues that Aslam’s fiction revisits savages–victims–saviour trichotomies and demystifies religious offence, bringing to light alternative configurations of Muslim–Christian relationships and ways of understanding points of contention. Acknowledging the limitations of Aslam’s liberal humanist vision, it hopes to identify how his novel extends available representations at a time when critical perspectives on interfaith cohabitation require careful articulation.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85138248135&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/a4e1ab87-388c-33d6-9909-1ad157ee53de/
U2 - 10.1080/17449855.2022.2117564
DO - 10.1080/17449855.2022.2117564
M3 - Article
SN - 1744-9863
VL - 58
JO - Journal of Postcolonial Writing
JF - Journal of Postcolonial Writing
IS - 6
ER -