Department of English

This seminar will explore the ways in which literary and visual
 representations of sexual difference and gender roles disrupt the cultural
 imagination of everyday life in North Africa and its Diasporas.  Special
 attention will be given to representations of Arab women and queer
 subjectivities as sites of resistance against dominant masculinity.  We will
 analyze the ways in which representations of gender have allowed for a
 redeployment of power, a reconfiguration of politics of resistance, and the
 redrawing of longstanding images of Islam in France.  Finally, we will
 question how creations that straddle competing cultural traditions, memories
 and material conditions can queer citizenship.  Course taught in English.