Whereas writers such as Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, and company arguably take on board the clash-of-civilizations model and write from within its assumptions—explaining or lamenting seemingly irrecoverable difference and taking a stand for so-called Western values—Nadeem Aslam and Kamila Shamsie might more truly be termed world or global writers. Their stories cover different geographical locations, contain an international cast of characters, and critically trace the courses and consequences of economic, political, and military globalization. They contest the notion of a clash of civilizations and oppose overt Islamophobia with a more nuanced sense of the multiple possibilities for Muslim identities in the modern world. … Yet the work of these cosmopolitan writers, moving between East and West yet never entirely at home in either, conveys a sense of estrangement and a sharpened awareness of the scope and continuities of imperial and postimperial power politics. This transnational quality moves us beyond habitual ways of recognizing and containing literature within nationalist compartments—an approach perennially favored by university departments and bookstores.

DEFINE: Distinguishes 'world or global writers' (Aslam, Shamsie) from Western-identified novelists who write within clash-of-civilizations assumptions.

Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, loc. 384