The Quʾran as (Inter)text: Embodiment, Praxis, Critique

Abstract

The introduction outlines the history of the Maghreb as it pertains to the ideological and methodological biases of Maghrebi Studies, particularly around the bifurcation of Francophone and Arabophone literatures. Arguing for the multilingual accenting of Maghrebi literature both within and across languages, it connects the lack of critical attention to Qurʾanic intertextuality to the privileging of Francophone literatures. The introduction further parses out the ways in which the term secular is often deeply inflected with its own orthodoxies, as well as how the secularization narrative has impacted the study of literary practices and forms—particularly the genre of the novel. It proposes that the classical Arab-Islamic concept of adab provides a valuable corrective, by offering a more expansive model of literature. Bringing in scholarship on the anthropology of Islam, Islamic philosophy, and Qurʾanic studies, the chapter interrogates the ethical, literary, and hermeneutical dimensions of Qurʾanic and Sufi aesthetics. Theorizing the Qurʾan as a literary object, process, and model, introduces ethical ways of approaching questions of writing, reading, and literary hermeneutics. Finally, the introduction explicates the book’s organizational logic of placing canonical Francophone novels into conversation with lesser-known Arabophone ones.