Citation

Hawley JC. J. Postcolonial Writ. 2010; 46(3-4): 394-404.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/17449855.2010.482429

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Two recent novels by Algerians (Tahar Djaout's The Last Summer of Reason, and Slimane Benaissa's The Last Night of a Damned Soul) offer critiques of Islamic totalitarianism in two settings: local Arab states like the one fictionalized by Djaout, and the cosmopolitan community of diasporic Muslims recruited to the ranks of suicide bombers in the name of self- and social purification. Djaout, assassinated by fundamentalists outside his home in Algeria for writing against them, and Benaissa, charting the psychological path towards violence taken by one westernized Muslim in the United States, instantiate the ongoing debate within Islam. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.

Language: en

Keywords

jihad; masculinities; conversion; fundamentalism; Slimane Benaissa; Tahar Djaout