Depraved Borderlands ― Encounters With Muslims in Dutch Literature and the Public Debate

Nowhere has Western public distrust towards Islam been as strong as in the Netherlands. This book provides a thorough discussion of Dutch multicultural society seen through the lens of literature. The literary work of four important contemporary writers – Kader Abdolah, Robert Anker, Abdelkader Benali and Hafid Bouazza – is analysed alongside the public debate about the encounter between Islam and the West. The author sketches the cultural matrix from which these texts stem and in which they intervene in a specifically literary way. This study makes available a host of data on Dutch literature and public debate and will be indispensable for scholars of contemporary Dutch culture. It is the first time that several of these authors, some of international fame, are discussed extensively in an English language book. Moreover, the author offers a new approach to the study of so-called transcultural, or multicultural, literature that will be of interest to scholars of comparative literature.

Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar taught comparative literature and philosophy of art at the Arts, Culture and Media department of the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). He is currently a member of the Groningen Institute for Integration and Social Efficacy (ISW) and teaches narratology in the Journalism Department at the Windesheim University of Applied Sciences (The Netherlands).