Queer World Making: Contemporary Middle Eastern Diasporic Art

Queer World Making explores how contemporary Arab and Middle Eastern diasporic artists remember and reinvent historical homoerotic worlds disrupted by colonialism. By focusing on the visual works of artists who create political art about queer identity, the book articulates a Western and non-Western modernity that works beyond the dichotomy of sexual oppression and acceptance. It reframes Arab homosexualities in terms of desire and alternative gender norms, providing alternatives to Western models that do not adequately understand the sexuality of queer Arabs living in the West.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 324 pages
Publication date: 26 March 2024
Publisher: University of Washington Press

Premodern archives from the Middle East reveal rich and diverse homoerotic worlds that were disrupted by the colonial imposition of Western models of sexuality. Andrew Gayed explores how contemporary Arab and Middle Eastern diasporic artists have remembered and reinvented these historical ways of being in their work to imagine a different present. Building on global art histories and transnational queer theory, Queer World Making illuminates contemporary understandings of queer sexuality in the Middle Eastern diaspora. The author focuses on the visual works of artists who create political art about queer identity, including Jamil Hellu, Ebrin Bagheri, 2Fik, Laurence Rasti, Nilbar Güres, and Alireza Shojaian.

Through engaging with these artists, Gayed seeks to articulate a Western and non-Western modernity that works beyond the dichotomy of sexual oppression, stereotypically associated with the Middle East, versus sexual acceptance, attributed to North American norms. Instead, Gayed traces how diasporic subjects create coming-out narratives and identities that provide alternatives to inscribed Western models. Queer World Making reframes Arab homosexualities in terms of desire and alternative gender norms rather than through Western notions of visibility and coming out, narratives that are not conducive to understanding how queer Arabs living in the West experience their sexuality.

Weight: 740g
Dimension: 184 x 229 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780295752297