The Literary Qur'an: Narrative Ethics in the Maghreb

Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-230) and index.

Acknowledgments -- Preface: The Ethics of Reading -- Introduction: The Qurʼan as (Inter)text: Embodiment, Praxis, Critique -- Part I. Poetics of Piety: 1. Existential Poiesis in Maḥmūd al-Masʻadī's Mawlid al-nisyān -- 2. Carnivals of Heterodoxy in Abdelwahab Meddeb's Talismano -- Part II. Ethics of Embodiment: 3. Apocalyptic Aftershocks in al-Ṭāhir Waṭṭār's Al-zilzāl -- 4. The Polyphonic Hermeneutics of Assia Djebar's L'amour, la fantasia -- Part III. Genealogies of Transmission: 5. Tense Eruptions in Driss Chraïbi's Le passé simple -- 6. Threads of Transmission in Muḥammad Barrāda's Luʻbat al-nisyān -- Epilogue: Poetics, Politics, Piety -- Glossary -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

"The novel, the literary adage has it, reflects a world abandoned by God. Yet the possibilities of novelistic form and literary exegesis exceed the secularizing tendencies of contemporary criticism. Showing how the Qurʾan invites critical reading, this account of Arabophone and Francophone Maghrebi literature develops a Qurʾanic model of narratology"-- Provided by publisher.