Text and Trauma

An essay in literary criticism which explores the arena of textual offence in as objective a fashion as possible, and using selected novels by Najib Mahfuz, Nikos Kazantzakis and Salman Rushdie as case studies.
This work aims to be an essay in literary criticism with a difference. It explores the arena of textual offence in as objective a fashion as possible using selected novels by Najib Mahfuz, Nikos Kazantzakis and Salman Rushdie as case studies. Employing a structure inspired by Fernand Braudel, and utilizing the intertextual insight of Julia Kristeva and others, Ian Netton tries to establish an intertext between his three case studies and, in the process, highlights the contemporary debates about the nature of blasphemy. Students of both comparative religion and comparative literature should enjoy this work.