Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature

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Overview

There is a wealth of homoerotic allusion found in classical Arabic literature from pre-Islamic poems to the Thousand and One Nights. Images and narratives often glorify the male body as beautiful, youthful, or erotic. While such masculine allusion and homoerotic imagery have been recognized as significant elements of classical Arabic literature, they have either been misunderstood or lacked sustained analysis. Exploring the underlying meanings of these motifs, Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature does not...
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Overview

There is a wealth of homoerotic allusion found in classical Arabic literature from pre-Islamic poems to the Thousand and One Nights. Images and narratives often glorify the male body as beautiful, youthful, or erotic. While such masculine allusion and homoerotic imagery have been recognized as significant elements of classical Arabic literature, they have either been misunderstood or lacked sustained analysis. Exploring the underlying meanings of these motifs, Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature does not so much delineate or identify homosexuality in Arabic literature as offer new, cogent readings of how homoeroticism can be identified by viewing classic Arabic literature through various analytical lenses. A collection of essays by the most influential scholars in the field, this book brings to bear a variety of critical perspectives, ranging from traditional philology to Lacanian analysis, on a literary corpus that includes classical lyric poetry, anecdotal collections, mystical narratives, manuals for dream interpretation, vernacular songs, and shadow plays. These studies investigate both the complexity of attitudes underlying homoerotic allusion and the surprisingly variegated and subtle meanings it can convey.
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Editorial Reviews

Booknews
Without speculating on the sexual orientation of authors or discussing the treatment of sexual minorities, eight essays analyze homoerotic images and themes in early 'Abbasid poetry, courtly letters, political satire, shadow plays, and dreambooks from the eighth to the 14th centuries and from Persia to Andalusia. They use a number of critical approaches to delve into the sublime meaning of the texts and explore their connections to political conventions, social mores, and subversive theology. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780231105064
  • Publisher: Columbia University Press
  • Publication date: 2/1/1997
  • Edition description: New Edition
  • Pages: 262

Table of Contents

Contributors
Preface
Acknowledgments
Ch. 1 Masculine Allusion and the Structure of Satire in Early 'Abbasid Poetry 1
Ch. 2 Male and Female: Described and Compared 24
Ch. 3 Hierarchies of Gender, Ideology, and Power in Medieval Greek and Arabic Dream Literature 55
Ch. 4 The Striptease That Was Blamed on Abu Bakr's Naughty Son: Was Father Being Shamed, or Was the Poet Having Fun? (Ibn Quzman's Zajal No. 133) 94
Ch. 5 Al-Sharif al-Taliq, Jacques Lacan, and the Poetics of Abbreviation 140
Ch. 6 Two Homoerotic Narratives from Mamluk Literature: al-Safadi's Law' at al-shaki and Ibn Daniyal's al-Mutayyam 158
Ch. 7 Le beau garcon san merci: The Homoerotic Tale in Arabic and Persian 192
Ch. 8 Intoxication and Immortality: Wine and Associated Imagery in al-Ma'arri's Garden 210
Index 233
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