Masculine identity in the fiction of the Arab East since 1967 / Samira Aghacy ; with a foreword by Evelyne Accad.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Aghacy, Samira.

Series:

Gender, culture, and politics in the Middle East.

Gender, culture, and politics in the Middle East

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Arabic fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

Arabic fiction.

Masculinity in literature.

War in literature.

Patriarchy in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (242 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Syracuse, N.Y. : Syracuse University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book offers an exploration of masculinity in the literature of the Arab East (Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, and Iraq) in the context of a specific set of anxieties about gender roles and sexuality in Arab societies. While gender studies in the area have focused primarily on the situation of women, the treatment of Arab men as gendered subjects has fallen behind. Samira Aghacy's rich analysis presents gender relations not within a fixed biological mold but rather as a complex phenomenon fraught with ambivalence and operating within particular historical and geopolitical settings. Through a series of close readings of twenty contemporary Arabic novels, Aghacy presents a mosaic of masculinities that challenges the generally held view of an essentialized archetypal Arab man and that mirrors a contested vision of manliness where men figure in diverse sociocultural environments. This groundbreaking work reveals the volatile nature of masculinity and its inextricability from femininity.

Contents:

Oedipus king : tortured masculinity

The politics of masculinity : goal-(dis)oriented masculinity

Dictator as patriarch : the state and the (dys)functional male

Oedipus deposed : the man's sex(uality).

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780815650898

0815650892

OCLC:

785782978