Description
Book SynopsisThis book focuses on the ways in which North American Muslim women artists talk back to dominant discourses about Muslim identity and work to counter mainstream stereotypes and representations. It examines the possibilities of constructing discourses of resistance to domination.
Against a backdrop of dominant media representations of oppressed and passive Muslim women, the media interventions of the exceptional women artists whose voices are showcased in this book, demonstrate that Muslim women are diverse and autonomous agents who have, historically, and continue contemporarily, to fight against all forms of injustice including those that seek to circumscribe their realities and experiences. To explore expressions and articulations of alternative discourses, this book analyzes the media texts of exceptional women artists: the stand-up comedy of Palestinian-American Maysoon Zayid, the cinematic interventions of Iranian-American Shirin Neshat, and the television comedy
Trade Review
"Kenza Oumlil’s book is a compelling interdisciplinary analysis of gender and cultural representations of Muslim diasporic communities in North America. The text orchestrates an intellectual dialogue between U.S. black feminists and Muslim diasporic artists, providing a prescient intersectional framework with which to discuss issues of identity and self-representation. Oumlil makes a perceptive intervention that exposes the hegemonic cultural apparatus while also highlighting alternative aesthetic practices that challenge and subvert it."
Ella Shohat, author of Taboo Memories, Diasporic Voices
"Can Muslim women represent themselves? Kenza Oumlil’s North American Muslim Women Artists Talk Back: Assertions of Unintelligibility is the sustained record of her critical reflections on this vital question. The result is a pathbreaking momentum in rearticulatig the possibilities of constructing discourses of resistance to domination—a focussed and deeply satisfying read."
Hamid Dabashi, author of Contemporary Art, World Cinema, and Visual Culture: Essays by Hamid Dabashi
"North American Muslim Women Artists Talk Back describes an infiltration. Artists creep up on the mainstream, ambush and unsettle what they can, when they can. Oumlil shows us that the mainstream is no easy place for Muslim women artists to navigate. Riding with them through the currents of patriarchy and white supremacy will fill us with wonder. We will gasp and laugh and shake our heads in dismay and it will all be worth it."
Sherene H. Razack, author of Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims from Western Law and Politics and Nothing Has to make Sense, Anti-Muslim Racism, White Supremacy and Law.
Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1: Talking Back to Power; 2: Assertions of Unintelligibility: Shirin Neshat’s Visual Innovations; 3: Using Humour to Talk Back: The Stand-Up Comedy of Maysoon Zayid; 4: Transitioning to the Mainstream in Television: Zarqa Nawaz’s Film and Television Productions; 5: Conclusions; Appendix A: Resource Guide
