Lexington Books
Pages: 206
•
Trim: 6⅜ x 9¼
978-1-4985-5824-2 • Hardback • December 2018 • $117.00 • (£90.00)
978-1-4985-5825-9 • eBook • December 2018 • $111.00 • (£85.00)
Lopamudra Basu is professor of English at University of Wisconsin-Stout.
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Social and Political Context of 9/11
Chapter 1: The War Within: Masculinity and the Making of Muslim Radicals
Chapter 2: The Racialization of Religion in Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced and the Play in the American Public Sphere
Chapter 3: Unaccommodated Woman: Muslim Women, Spirituality, and the Public Sphere in American Dervish and The Who and the What
Chapter 4: Dangerous Liaisons: The Nexus of High Finance and Terrorism in The Invisible Hand and Junk
Chapter 5: An Interview with Ayad Akhtar
Conclusion: Theater and the Rebirth of Community
References
Index
About the Author
Not only is the book well-researched and essential to our contemporary understanding of rising nationalism and the othering of minorities, but this monograph is also well-written and easily accessible to both scholars of South Asian American literature and anyone interested in cultural productions on identity formation. . . . A comprehensive examination of Pulitzer Prize winning author Ayad Akhtar’s works was long overdue. With her monograph on Akhtar’s literary productions in post-9/11 America, Basu more than adequately fills this gap. . . Well-structured and analyzed in detail, Basu provides a rigorous exploration of Akhtar’s work. It is both educating and enjoyable to read this book. — Postcolonial Text
Basu’s prose and arguments are accessible to a wide audience, which will allow excerpts of the book to be assigned alongside Akhtar’s works in undergraduate and graduate courses on drama, postcolonial literature, and American literature. Ayad Akhtar, the American Nation, and Its Others after 9/11: Homeland Insecurity convincingly demonstrates the literary achievements of Ayad Akhtar and underscores his stature as a major American writer.
— South Asian Review
A trenchant, much-needed rejoinder to the claim that Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Ayad Akhtar cynically fans the flames of Islamophobia, Lopamudra Basu’s study persuasively recasts his work as a critical response to neoliberal capitalism and American imperialism and as a savvy redeployment of genre conventions that date back to Shakespeare.— Timothy Aubry, Baruch College
Ayad Akthar is rightly situated in the constellation of leading playwrights in the 21st century. Through rigorous theorizing, contextualization, and analysis, Basu yields striking new insights into Akthar's meditation on contemporary issues and themes pertinent to South Asian diasporic life and representations of Muslim American realities specifically.— Jocelyn L. Buckner, Chapman University
Basu deftly explores Ayad Akhtar’s literary and creative work to study and complicate the conflation of national security with national interest as well as the befouling of institutional politics, which insidiously bled into the dominant political discourse in the United States and was used to promulgate Islamophobia.— Nyla Ali Khan, Rose State College
This first book on Akhtar’s work contextualizes it well within an impressive range of scholarly debates and frameworks. Though I would wish for a tougher critical stance, especially regarding his play Disgraced, I appreciate the care Basu takes to situate his writing and establish its stakes in the aftermath of 9/11.— Ambreen Hai, Smith College
I read Basu’s keenly insightful book while a Fulbright Scholar in Palestine. It illuminated the tensions within Islam globally and the construction of the Muslim as other. I will use Basu’s superb book with my Religious Studies and Creative Arts students to “trouble the waters” of Islamophobia and the homeland security state.— Victoria Rue, San Jose State University
[O]ne only has to peruse the topics covered in this text to see how the applications of literary study are self-evident. The social issues that Ayad Akhtar deals with are some of the most pressing problems in America today, and Dr. Basu is a fantastic scholar to guide us through these questions.(Excerpted from the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram)— Kevin Drzakowski, University of Wisconsin-Stout