Rehana Ahmed
Biographic Data
| ID | 3602771 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rehana Ahmed |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rehana |
| FAMILY NAME | Ahmed |
| SIGNATURE | AHMED R |
| AFFILIATIONS | English department at the Open University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 17 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
A conversation with Leila Aboulela
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 designer…
We tick: Other' - race, religion, and literary solidarities in three essay anthologies and the neo-liberal marketplace
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 wr…
Introduction: Secularism and the literary marketplace
Libraries and Literatures of Islam
Archiving Islam in Nadeem Aslam’s Libraries
This article explores the representation of libraries and Islam in Nadeem Aslam's three most recent novels: The Wasted Vigil (2009), The Blind Man's Garden (2013), and The Golden Legend (2017). In these novels, the Golden Age of Islam – for which Baghdad's legendary House of Wisdom has come to serve as metonym – is repeatedly referenced as a time of learning, cultural production, and cultural syncretism. Meanwhile in contemporary south-east Afgha…
Towards an ethics of reading Muslims: Encountering difference in Kamila Shamsie's Home Fire
This article explores the ethics of reading across difference in a secular literary marketplace that is invested in representations of Muslims. Focusing on Kamila Shamsie's Home Fire (2017), it considers how this high-profile novel anticipates and negotiates the pressures of anthropological reading practices, including in its representation of the ‘veiled' Muslim woman, and highlights the novel's concern with the sensory everyday - especially the…
I’ll explain what I can”: A conversation with Avaes Mohammad
Since the 2001 race riots in Bradford, Burnley, and Oldham and the terror attacks of 11 September 2001, British Muslims have been subjected to increased levels of suspicion and hostility. In particular, the spotlight has shone on working-class South Asian Muslim communities in the north of England, which have been accused of “self-segregation” and constructed as alienated from and posing a threat to “Britishness”. Racial divisions and tensions ha…
South Asians Writing Resistance in Wartime London: Indian Writing (1940–1942)
Brick Lane: A Materialist Reading of the Novel and Its Reception
Monica Ali's 2003 novel Brick Lane was feted by the literary establishment but prompted protests on Brick Lane itself. In a now familiar pattern, such protests were generally regarded as reflecting a conflict between creative freedom and religious or cultural minority rights. In this article, the underlying assumptions of such an interpretation are challenged, suggesting that, in a context of racial and religious inequality, where access to the p…
Occluding Race in Selected Short Fiction by Hanif Kureishi
‘You expect to recognise ethnicity but no one says that a white character is white’ (Kureishi in Yousaf Buddha, 10). Critics commenting on Hanif Kureishi's earlier fiction have rightly focused on h
British Muslim masculinities and cultural resistance: Kenny Glenaan and Simon Beaufoy'sYasmin
This paper explores the extent to which the 2004 film Yasmin challenges normative constructions of British Muslim gender identities. It argues that the female protagonist moves beyond stereotype, finally remaining open to contradiction and hinting at a British Muslim feminist subjectivity. Conversely, however, an oppositional masculine Muslim subjectivity that evades the hegemonic binary of liberal secular freedom vs Muslim repression/aggression …
Towards an ethics of reading Muslims: Encountering difference in Kamila Shamsie's Home Fire
This article explores the ethics of reading across difference in a secular literary marketplace that is invested in representations of Muslims. Focusing on Kamila Shamsie's Home Fire (2017), it considers how this high-profile novel anticipates and negotiates the pressures of anthropological reading practices, including in its representation of the ‘veiled' Muslim woman, and highlights the novel's concern with the sensory everyday - especially the…
Brick Lane: A Materialist Reading of the Novel and Its Reception
Monica Ali's 2003 novel Brick Lane was feted by the literary establishment but prompted protests on Brick Lane itself. In a now familiar pattern, such protests were generally regarded as reflecting a conflict between creative freedom and religious or cultural minority rights. In this article, the underlying assumptions of such an interpretation are challenged, suggesting that, in a context of racial and religious inequality, where access to the p…
Occluding Race in Selected Short Fiction by Hanif Kureishi
‘You expect to recognise ethnicity but no one says that a white character is white’ (Kureishi in Yousaf Buddha, 10). Critics commenting on Hanif Kureishi's earlier fiction have rightly focused on h
British Muslim masculinities and cultural resistance: Kenny Glenaan and Simon Beaufoy'sYasmin
This paper explores the extent to which the 2004 film Yasmin challenges normative constructions of British Muslim gender identities. It argues that the female protagonist moves beyond stereotype, finally remaining open to contradiction and hinting at a British Muslim feminist subjectivity. Conversely, however, an oppositional masculine Muslim subjectivity that evades the hegemonic binary of liberal secular freedom vs Muslim repression/aggression …
We tick: Other' - race, religion, and literary solidarities in three essay anthologies and the neo-liberal marketplace
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 wr…
Occluding Race in Selected Short Fiction by Hanif Kureishi
‘You expect to recognise ethnicity but no one says that a white character is white’ (Kureishi in Yousaf Buddha, 10). Critics commenting on Hanif Kureishi's earlier fiction have rightly focused on h
British Muslim masculinities and cultural resistance: Kenny Glenaan and Simon Beaufoy'sYasmin
This paper explores the extent to which the 2004 film Yasmin challenges normative constructions of British Muslim gender identities. It argues that the female protagonist moves beyond stereotype, finally remaining open to contradiction and hinting at a British Muslim feminist subjectivity. Conversely, however, an oppositional masculine Muslim subjectivity that evades the hegemonic binary of liberal secular freedom vs Muslim repression/aggression …
Brick Lane: A Materialist Reading of the Novel and Its Reception
Monica Ali's 2003 novel Brick Lane was feted by the literary establishment but prompted protests on Brick Lane itself. In a now familiar pattern, such protests were generally regarded as reflecting a conflict between creative freedom and religious or cultural minority rights. In this article, the underlying assumptions of such an interpretation are challenged, suggesting that, in a context of racial and religious inequality, where access to the p…
South Asians Writing Resistance in Wartime London: Indian Writing (1940–1942)
I’ll explain what I can”: A conversation with Avaes Mohammad
Since the 2001 race riots in Bradford, Burnley, and Oldham and the terror attacks of 11 September 2001, British Muslims have been subjected to increased levels of suspicion and hostility. In particular, the spotlight has shone on working-class South Asian Muslim communities in the north of England, which have been accused of “self-segregation” and constructed as alienated from and posing a threat to “Britishness”. Racial divisions and tensions ha…
Libraries and Literatures of Islam
Archiving Islam in Nadeem Aslam’s Libraries
This article explores the representation of libraries and Islam in Nadeem Aslam's three most recent novels: The Wasted Vigil (2009), The Blind Man's Garden (2013), and The Golden Legend (2017). In these novels, the Golden Age of Islam – for which Baghdad's legendary House of Wisdom has come to serve as metonym – is repeatedly referenced as a time of learning, cultural production, and cultural syncretism. Meanwhile in contemporary south-east Afgha…
Towards an ethics of reading Muslims: Encountering difference in Kamila Shamsie's Home Fire
This article explores the ethics of reading across difference in a secular literary marketplace that is invested in representations of Muslims. Focusing on Kamila Shamsie's Home Fire (2017), it considers how this high-profile novel anticipates and negotiates the pressures of anthropological reading practices, including in its representation of the ‘veiled' Muslim woman, and highlights the novel's concern with the sensory everyday - especially the…
A conversation with Leila Aboulela
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 designer…
We tick: Other' - race, religion, and literary solidarities in three essay anthologies and the neo-liberal marketplace
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 wr…
Introduction: Secularism and the literary marketplace
Sociology (9 works) · History (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies (7 works) · Art (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Aesthetics (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · History (5 works)