Democratic Criticism and the Importance of the Islamic Hermeneutics of Reading in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Relying on major debates in reception and reader response theory, this essay attempts to explore the possibilities of reading metropolitan texts about Islam and Islamic culture with an understanding of the Islamic modes of meaning-making and interpretation. Geared toward scholars and students of literature and culture, the essay hopes to foster a more nuanced and complex approach to reading texts that appropriate Islamic raw materials in order to represent a mostly Western poetics and politics.