Languages are mobile, continents stay where they are. This makes the notion of ‘European’ languages questionable, given the global spread of English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. The former ‘core’ nations have reduced influence. We are living in a post-European world.

From a literary point of view, the situation is complex and exciting. Writing in European languages, especially in the global south, continues to grow. Intra-European dynamics (and crises) have in turn injected new vitality into the literatures of the continent, where publishing and reception infrastructures remain robust and to some extent internationally dominant. Migrant writing, ‘Afropean’ writing, Eastern European literatures, small literatures––all of these are currently multiplying the many facets of European-language literatures.

With this in mind, ICLA’s Committee on the Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages invites papers that address aspects of this evolving, global literary landscape.

Questions to be discussed include:

• What theoretical models are needed to account for the post-European condition?

• How can we rethink literary history in the light of this development and, conversely, what can history teach us about our present situation?

• What different (and even contradictory) cultural policies are at play in this plural field?

• Can the global and local dimensions be considered together, or are they incommensurable perspectives?

• Has linguistic difference as a literary quality been superseded by the hyper centralism of English and social media, or has it been revived?

Muhyidhin Mala and the Imagination of ummah (community) in early 17th century Kerala.

Abstract: This paper attempts to read the 17th century text, Muhyidhin Mala and explores how identities were imagined through a hagiography. The collective imagination of ‘people’ brought forth through this text, at the centre of which faith organises the Islamic moral order, sheds light on Islam in South India in the context of a multicultural society. The language of faith, as narrated through the miracles (Karamat) of Abdul Qadir Jilani (1077-1166) may be situated within the historical context of Bhakthi in 17th century Kerala. But it also gives valuable hints about the ummah-the Islamic followers from the region, the kind of self-fashioning and disciplining aspired to be a follower of the religion. The reimagining and retelling of the saint’s life, distanced from the locus of its origin in Persia, also freeze temporalities, making the text important both as a site of memory and also as a contemporary experience in the socio-religious landscape. Qazi Muhammad, the author, inserts himself in the text urging the followers to listen and follow. However, the reception of the text also reveals the interconnected nature of the material in the text, since the Abdul Qadir Jilani had many textual representations in multiple performative practices of Muslim communities in South India. Muslims all over Kerala and other regions in the South continuously practised performances that praised the life of this sufi saint and the founder of the Qadiriyya order through Maulids and Ratheebs. Reading this text through aspirations that shaped the community, I argue that linguistic identity is pushed to the background as a negotiable medium, whereas the politics of faith/ piety functions as the intermediary to bring people together.

The twelve short stories in Chimamanda Adichie’s, The Thing Around Your Neck (2009) each is a tour de force. This great Nigerian writer who lived in Enugu and was partly educated in America draws from her life in both countries and writes in English. She tackles various themes in this collection such as challenges of migration to America, racism, sexism, and the brutality of colonialism to name but a few. This study will compare two pairs of her story “The Thing Around Your Neck” to Osama Allam’s Tareek Motassea leshakhes Waheed (2023) [ A Boulevard for a Lonely Person]. Allam who is an Egyptian writer focuses on the experience of patriots in the USA and other countries too. However, the researcher will analyze the stories with America as a setting for various stories. Alienation and loneliness loom large in both collections. This presentation will focus on all the previous issues from a postcolonial perspective. Such a perspective will rely on numerous critics such as Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, Robert Young, J.G. Ballard, Elaine Showalter, Gayatri Spivak, and Julia Kristeva among others.

Keywords: Adichie, Allam, Postcolonial, short stories, East and West