Imagined Masculinities: Male Identity and Culture in the Modern Middle East

(Paperback)

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Attempts to challenge the virtual exclusion of the male prespective from Middle Eastern studies of gender. The text investigates the ways in which men are acting, reacting and adapting to the structural upheaval of the "traditional" family and to new images of virility and responsibility. Avoiding orientalist approaches, and without claiming exclusive insider knowledge, the essays seek to introduce the diversity of masculine identities in the Middle East by exploring some of the key sites where notions of maleness are constructed, reproduced and/or contested. From the symbolic dimensions of the moustache, through an investigation of transsexuality and Islamic sexual politics, through concerns with male aggression and attitudes to weaponry, to changing notions of masculinity in the Arab novel, the contributors reflect on various aspects of public, as well as private, life. The text also offers insights from the realms of the literary, the bedchambers of the brothel and the institution of family life.

Reviews

'Takes the reader into new territory ... rich and stimulating.' Susannah Tarbush, al-Hayat 'It is a welcome change to find a volume devoted to aspects of being and becoming a man.' Denys Johnson-Davies, Al-Ahram 'Interesting and valuable ... Ghoussoub and Sinclair-Webb should be congratulated.' Issa Boullata, al-Jadid Magazine

Author Bio

Mai Ghoussoub is the author of Leaving Beirut: Women and the Wars Within as well as numerous articles on culture, aesthetics and Middle Eastern issues for international journals.