‘My heart is in the subcontinent in many ways, though I am British and Irish’- a scholar’s journey set in a multicultural milieu.

Abstract

Born and brought up in a multicultural milieu Prof Chambers’ stay in Pakistan for a year shaped her research interest. Although she took up Amitav Ghosh for her PhD, her further research interest was triggered by her keenness towards Islam and Muslims. Three incidents viz the Rushdie affair the 9/11 and the 7/7 shaped her course of a literary career. Though she leaves a ‘Rushdie-shaped hole’ in her work, the issue lingers as an absent presence throughout. At a tender age, she encountered Muslims from close quarters, studying individual lives and struggles. An author of two monographs on Muslim writing she has to her credit the experiences gathered from a variety of engagement, social and intellectual. Her recent book, ‘Dastarkhwan’ published amidst the ongoing pandemic is an innovative take on food writing. This book delves deeper into the realms of culinary pursuits making it more than just gustatory appeasers. Besides, her authorship on Muslim fiction in three parts has garnered immense acclaim globally. First, in the trilogy, British Muslim Fictions (2011) is a book of interviews of authors Muslim by birth and living in Britain. It was followed by the monograph Britain through Muslim Eyes: Literary representations, 1780-1989 and its sequel Making Sense of Contemporary British Muslim Novels (2017). Her research has been supported by British Academy, AHRC, ESRC and Leverhulme Trust. At present, she is associated with the University of York as a Professor of Global Literature. Prior to this, she worked as a Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University. She has also edited the Journal of Commonwealth Literature for more than a decade.
This interview was conducted as a part of my PhD thesis on the 15th of July 2021. In this interview, Prof Chambers juggles with utmost ease between her roles as an author, literary critic and researcher touching upon the issues of identity and problems of representation with regards to Muslims over the years. For the sake of my convenience, I have tried to limit my range of authors as previously decided for my thesis.