Muslim Textualities

This provocative volume aims to articulate the Muslim female agency through clear and accessible analysis of the theory and concepts driving the interpretation of literature.

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, Muslim women writers located in Europe and American entered the cultural mainstream. Literary and visual productions negotiated static visual emblems of Islam, most prominently "the veil." They did so not by rejecting veiling practices, but by adapting Muslim resources, concepts and visual tradition to empowerment narratives in popular media. Mainstream reception of their works has often overlooked or misread these negotiations. Muslim Textualities argues for more flexible and capacious interpretation, with particular attention to visibility as a metaphor for political agency and to knowledge of cultural contexts. This provocative volume aims to articulate Muslim female agency through clear and accessible analysis of the theory and concepts driving the interpretation of these works. Scholars interested in the working representations of Muslim women, feminist subjectivities, and the complexities of gender roles, patriarchy, and feminism will find this volume of particular interest.

Autorentext

Jean M. Kane received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia, an M.A. in English from Stanford University, and a B.A. in Comparative Literature and Art History from Indiana University. She is currently Professor of English and Women's Studies at Vassar College.

Inhalt

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One

Sex and Other Cities: Abjected Age, Abandoned Flesh

Chapter Two

Female Masochism and Textual Masquerade in Monica Ali's Brick Lane and Untold Story

Chapter Three

Muslimah Seeing America: Mohja Kahf's The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

Chapter Four

Surface Violation: Parastou Forouhar's Domestic Sublime

Chapter Five

The Mother Mark and Other Tongues in Nylon Road

Conclusion

Bibliography