Hanif Kureishi: Fundamentalism and Multiculturalism from Part IV - 1975–Present

Perfect, M (2024) Hanif Kureishi: Fundamentalism and Multiculturalism from Part IV - 1975–Present. In: Potter, R and Taunton, M, (eds.) The British Novel of Ideas: George Eliot to Zadie Smith. Cambridge University Press, p. 378. ISBN 9781316514320

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Abstract

This chapter explores the work of Hanif Kureishi and, in particular, his 1995 novel The Black Album. Set in London in 1989, the novel engages with the fall of the Berlin Wall, with terrorism, and, most prominently, with the Rushdie Affair. It stages debates around religion, free speech, and cultural identity. Kureishi conceives of multiculturalism as premised on a vibrant exchange of ideas, and in The Black Album he portrays Islamism – and, by extension, fundamentalism of any kind – as a pseudo-idea which can only constitute a threat to, and never a part of, an effective multiculturalism. However, this chapter identifies a key paradox in The Black Album: it implores readers to treat ideas seriously, and yet there is very little serious treatment of particular ideas in the novel itself. As such, Kureishi’s novel is far more invested in the idea of ideas than in any particular body of them.

Item Type:	Book Section
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
Divisions:	Humanities and Social Science
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Date of acceptance:	5 December 2024
Date of first compliant Open Access:	5 June 2025
Date Deposited:	03 Feb 2025 17:44
Last Modified:	05 Jun 2025 00:50
DOI or ID number:	10.1017/9781009086745.023
Editors:	Potter, R and Taunton, M
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/25490

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