Sufism in Western Literature, Art and Thought From Modernism to Postmodernism

Sufism in Western Literature, Art and Thought explores the many dialogues and intersections between the language and ideas of Sufism and the key figures of 20th- and 21st-century art, literature and philosophy. Focussing on the many exchanges and the rich relationships that these intersections have created from the modernist to the postmodernist period, the book covers such writers, thinkers and artists as Jacques Derrida, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Salman Rushdie, Doris Lessing and Philip K. Dick. Through seven chapters operating as snapshots focused on literature, deconstruction, art, politics and publishing, the book maps the contours of the central place occupied by Sufism in modern Western intellectual history.

Ziad Elmarsafy is Reader in the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York, UK. He is the author of The Enlightenment Qur'an: The Politics of Translation and the Construction of Islam (2009) and Sufism in the Contemporary Arabic Novel (2012).

1. Introduction: The Dervish and the Writer
2. Massignon and Huysmans
3. Two Letters to Japanese Friends: Heidegger, Derrida and Izutsu
4. The Politics of Theophany: Suhrawardi from Corbin to Hallward
5. Sufism, Fantasy and Science Fiction: Dick, Rushdie, Lessing, Irwin
6. What No Eye Has Seen: Rothko, Viola, Oulab, Khan
7. Conclusions
Bibliography
Index