The Play of Reasons

Youssef Yacoubi is Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Ohio State University teaching courses in postcolonial and Arab-American studies, modern Arabic literature, and critical theory. He was Assistant Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at Bard College and at Hofstra University in New York. He was the Lisa Proctor Fellow in Comparative Literature and a lecturer at Princeton University in Near Eastern Studies. He was also Visiting Lecturer at Rutgers University. He earned his PhD from the University of Nottingham in critical theory.

«Youssef Yacoubi does justice to Salman Rushdie's complex prose by astutely teasing out the interplay of Islamic traditions with Greek and Hindu influences in his postmodern magical realism. In the process, Yacoubi also offers a nuanced, postcolonial reading of Islam, one that identifies a reflexivity in its literary and theological traditions.» (Gyan Prakash, Department of History, Princeton University)
«Youssef Yacoubi's book offers new and fascinating perspectives on one of the most notorious cultural and religious controversies of recent times. It is also an original and important contribution to Salman Rushdie scholarship, postcolonial criticism, and Islamic theological debates and studies.» (Isabel Santaolalla, Department of Media, Culture and Language, University of Roehampton, London)
«One of the strongest tropes of the play of reason, in any culture, is the requirement for more light than heat in engagement with criticism whether textual or contextual. Youssef Yacoubi's tireless commitment to patient enlightenment is achieved by the avoidance of the rhetoric of over-heated debates on Salman Rushdie and related matters. The attentive reader of this book will be inspired to do no less.» (Bernard McGuirk, Professor of Romance Literatures and Literary Theory, Director of International Consortium for the Study of Post-Conflict Cultures, University of Nottingham)