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The Vicissitudes of Self: Storytelling, Queerness, and Muslim Identity

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My essay will be framed by a focus on select stories within Alf Layla wa-Layla (One Thousand and One Arabian Nights) and their influence on my series of textile works, Behind Closed Doors. It will locate the parallel between Scheherazade's storytelling to subvert violence and how art practices can employ storytelling to similarly life-saving ends. I will dig into my efforts to unravel and understand my personal identity— the duality of pride and tension I find there, because of the dichotomous presentation of Queer and SWANA culture— and how it has manifested in my artwork. I will investigate how coming out has influenced the move from abstraction to figuration in my practice, and how each of these approaches functions in making work as a Queer SWANA Muslim. Ultimately, this essay highlights the value of storytelling in art to save, soften, and combat the binary that denies identities such as mine.

Keywords: Abstraction ; Arab ; Arabian Nights ; Art ; Egyptian ; Identity ; Lesbian ; LGBT ; Muslim ; Queer ; Storytelling ; SWANA ; Textile ; textiles

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The Vicissitudes of Self: Storytelling, Queerness, and Muslim Identity
Intellect , 99 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1386/9781835950265_8
/content/books/9781835950265.c06
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References

  1. Amer, Sahar. Crossing Borders: Love Between Women in Medieval French and Arabic Literature. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.
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  2. Amer, Sahar. “Medieval Arab Lesbians and Lesbian-Like Women.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 18.2 (2009): 215–36.
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  3. Burton, Richard F. A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Vol. I. N.p.: Burton Club For Private Subscribers Only, 1885.
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  4. Burton, Richard F. A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Vol. III. N.p.: Burton Club For Private Subscribers Only, 1885.
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  5. Burton, Richard F. A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Vol. VII. N.p.: Burton Club For Private Subscribers Only, 1885.
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  6. Burton, Richard F. A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Vol. VIII. N.p.: Burton Club For Private Subscribers Only, 1885.
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  7. Ghanim, David. The Sexual World of the Arabian Nights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
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References

  1. Amer, Sahar. Crossing Borders: Love Between Women in Medieval French and Arabic Literature. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Amer, Sahar. “Medieval Arab Lesbians and Lesbian-Like Women.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 18.2 (2009): 215–36.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Burton, Richard F. A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Vol. I. N.p.: Burton Club For Private Subscribers Only, 1885.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Burton, Richard F. A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Vol. III. N.p.: Burton Club For Private Subscribers Only, 1885.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Burton, Richard F. A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Vol. VII. N.p.: Burton Club For Private Subscribers Only, 1885.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Burton, Richard F. A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Vol. VIII. N.p.: Burton Club For Private Subscribers Only, 1885.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Ghanim, David. The Sexual World of the Arabian Nights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
     [Google Scholar]

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