Read more
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.
List of contents
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
About the author
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.
Summary
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.
