Fictionalising the utopian impulse as post-secular Islam : an East-West odyssey

This essay offers a counterview to the postulation that humanity's utopian propensity is a secular undertaking bereft of divine inspiration. This dominant interpretation in utopian theory renders utopianism in the religious non-Western world inconceivable. Invoking Islam's post-secular leanings, I argue that the utopian desire is replete with theological underpinnings. Engaging first with pro-religious discourses on the utopian impulse by Ernst Bloch and Nurcholish Madjid, I will then theorise a literary mode of reading framed by Fredric Jameson's 'utopology' and Bloch's 'concrete utopia'. I will demonstrate in faith-based fiction an interpretation of Islam that is 'this-worldly' and 'rational'-qualities that uphold utopianism as a secular, European phenomenon. Finally, I posit that Islam's post-secular condition must also be seen as a postcolonial one