ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the relationship between literary fiction and sacred scripture as it is presented in contemporary works of fiction and thought, chiefly but not exclusively by writers from North Africa and the Middle East. It describes two representations of the importance of language and human experience as vehicles for understanding the divine. The book demonstrates the effects and implications of a conscious extension of metropolitan philosophical approaches to sacred scripture to the Islamic tradition. It discusses political considerations, by investigating the implications of dislodging the analysis of the practical teachings of sacred scripture from its traditional context, and transposing it to literary space. The book considers the question of gender, and whether Assia Djebar seeks to appropriate religious historic narratives in ways that differ from Fethi Benslama and Abdelwahab Meddeb.
