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Arab Women–Gay Men: The Construction of Sexual Minorities in the Mashriq
Abstract
The writings of Arab women have been attracting greater interest in the last few decades; most of those women writers are considered to be feminists deploying literature as a political instrument. Through their writings, one can trace the substantial development of the literary feminist movement in the Mashriq; moving from the general calls for gender equality and the recognition of women’s rights of education and work to the sexual revolution and finally arriving at the most recent calls for women’s liberation in relation to national liberation. Moreover, some of these women writers moved beyond the usual representation of women as subverted and segregated by examining sexual and ethnic minorities in the Arab world through a feminist lens. Therefore, the representation of feminist issues through other subverted minorities, whether ethnic or sexual, forms a new literary dimension that is worthy of analysis and investigation. Huda Barakat (b. 1952), a contemporary Arab women novelist, utilises the figure of gay men to convey her feminist and humanist principles while shedding light on the struggle of other ethnic and sexual minorities. This is prevalent in her The Stone of Laughter (1994) and The Tiller of Waters (2001). Barakat’s unusual literary tendency, of exploring the construction of gay identity (as a sexual minority) in Lebanon during the civil war, is further reinforced with the skilful interweaving of her feminist calls “in disguise” and the life of ethnic minorities such as the Kurds and Druze in Lebanon. Barakat masterfully explores the repression of both women and sexual and ethnic groups in Lebanon through her gay men protagonists. This paper focuses on the literary representation of gay men in Barakat’s The Stone of Laughter and The Tiller of Waters, in order to test feminist critique and the manipulation of such figures to illustrate feminist calls in disguise. It will explore the literary techniques invested by the writer in her portrayal of the construction of sexual minorities against the backdrop of the civil war in Lebanon. It will also investigate the intertwining representation of both women and gay men as minorities against the unravelling Lebanese social and national structure. Accordingly, this presentation suggests that during times of war and national crisis, subverted minorities of women and gay men in Lebanon can be equally and simultaneously represented from a feminist and humanist standpoint.
Discipline
Literature
Geographic Area
Lebanon
Mashreq
Sub Area
None