Washington Irving and Islam

Critical Essays

Edited by Zubeda Jalalzai - Contributions by Michael Stevens; Jeffrey Einboden; Tracy Hoffman; Zubeda Jalalzai; Ray Lacina; Doyle Quiggle; and Jeffrey Scraba

Washington Irving and Islam contributes to understanding the relationship between the United States and the Islamic world, valuable not only for studies of Washington Irving, American Literature, or Islam, but also for thinking through the role Islam and the “Orient” have played in American literature and history, a critical field receiving ever-increasing attention. The global context of Irving’s work ties these essays together as does an understanding that his writings challenge easy classification of the Muslim other, and, indeed, challenge easy classification of Irving’s own responses to that other. Washington Irving bestrides opposing positions as well as distant worlds.

Lexington Books

Pages: 136 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9

978-1-4985-6966-8 • Hardback • May 2018 • $104.00 • (£80.00)

978-1-4985-6967-5 • eBook • May 2018 • $98.50 • (£76.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Religion, Literary Criticism / American / General, Literary Criticism / Modern / 19th Century

Washington Irving and Islam

Critical Essays

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Washington Irving and Islam contributes to understanding the relationship between the United States and the Islamic world, valuable not only for studies of Washington Irving, American Literature, or Islam, but also for thinking through the role Islam and the “Orient” have played in American literature and history, a critical field receiving ever-increasing attention. The global context of Irving’s work ties these essays together as does an understanding that his writings challenge easy classification of the Muslim other, and, indeed, challenge easy classification of Irving’s own responses to that other. Washington Irving bestrides opposing positions as well as distant worlds.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 136 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9

978-1-4985-6966-8 • Hardback • May 2018 • $104.00 • (£80.00)

978-1-4985-6967-5 • eBook • May 2018 • $98.50 • (£76.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Religion, Literary Criticism / American / General, Literary Criticism / Modern / 19th Century

Author

Zubeda Jalalzaiis professor of English at Rhode Island College.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Washington Irving and Islam
Zubeda Jalalzai
1. Spanish Orientalism: Washington Irving and the Romance of the Moors
Michael Stevens
1. What Pious Moslem Writers Tell Us: Irving’s Filtering of His Sources in Mahomet and His Successors
Ray Lacina
1. A Knickerbocker Prophet: Washington Irving’s Americanization of “Mahomet”
Doyle Quiggle
1. Think Local, Act Global: The Development of Islam in Washington Irving’s Mahomet and His Successors
Jeffrey Scraba
1. Irving's Cadijah and Women of Power in Salmagundi and Mahomet
Tracy Hoffman
Afterword: The Seal and Conclusion
Jeffrey Einboden

Reviews

This timely collection reclaims Washington Irving as a pivotal figure in American literature, casting light on some key works—Mahomet and his Successors, Tales of Alhambra, Conquest of Granada, Life of Mahomet—while putting Islam front and center as a formative presence. Compelling, eye-opening, and necessary.
— Wai Chee Dimock, Yale University

Washington Irving and Islam

Critical Essays

Edited by Zubeda Jalalzai - Contributions by Michael Stevens; Jeffrey Einboden; Tracy Hoffman; Zubeda Jalalzai; Ray Lacina; Doyle Quiggle; and Jeffrey Scraba

Washington Irving and Islam

Critical Essays

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