Description: Examines the use of Islamic referents and themes in literary writings by European authors.
Brief description: Carool Kersten is Research Professor in Islamic studies at the University of Leuven in Belgium and Emeritus Reader at King's College London. He is also a senior research associate of the Institute for Philosophical and Religious Studies at the Science and Research Centre Koper in Slovenia. Carool Kersten is the author or editor of thirteen books, including Islam and Contemporary European Literature (EUP 2025), Contemporary Thought in the Muslim World: Trends Themes, and Issues (Routledge 2019), and multi-volume anthologies on Islamic statehood and law. His research interests include the intellectual and political history of the modern Muslim world, the history of Islam in Southeast Asia, contemporary literature and travel writing.
Review Quotes: Islam and Contemporary European Literature is timely and needed. I think that this is an excellent book. There is no other monograph which traces the interaction of Muslim and non-Muslim literary voices, in several languages over particular forms of imagination, through a focus on individual praxis of religion and the civilisational aspects of Islam. It is extraordinary to see how Dr. Kersten has constructed a macro-analytical project which denies easy generalisations and looks with nuance at specific texts and affective entanglements.--Dilyana Mincheva, McMaster University