Violence and Gender in the "New" Europe: Islam in German Culture

by B. Weber

Overview

Weber contributes to the ongoing scholarly discussion about Islam in the West, demonstrating how current thinking about gender violence prohibits the intellectual inquiry necessary to act against such violence, and analyzes ways in which Muslim women participate in the public sphere by thematizing violence in literature, art, and media.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137007087
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	01/30/2013
Series:	Studies in European Culture and History
Edition description:	2013
Pages:	241
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Beverly M. Weber is an assistant professor of German in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Undoing the Connections between Muslim Violence, "Culture," and Secularism 1

1 A Regime of Gender Violence: Honor Killings, Familial Violence, and Muslim Women's Subjectivities 39

2 Contentious Headscarves: Cleaning Woman, Forbidden Schoolteacher, Hijab Martyr 77

3 Troubling Headscarves: Covering, Artistic Reconfigurations of Public Space, and the Muslim Woman's Body 113

4 Freedom to Imagine the World: Violence and the Writing of Self 137

5 Violent Authenticities: The Work of Emine Sevgi Özdamar and Feridun Zaimoglu 173

Conclusion 199

Notes 207

Works Cited 213

Index 235

Editorial Reviews

"Weber's insightful engagement with literary theorists is outstanding. In the context of German-language and English-language research about Muslims, feminists, popular culture, politics, and criticism in post-Cold War Germany, this is a major contribution." - Claudia Koonz, Peabody Family Professor Emeritus of History, Duke University, USA

"Ranging from dominant discourses on honor killings and headscarves to self-representations and artistic interventions in literature as well as performance, Weber's study undertakes a much-needed comprehensive investigation of the contemporary 'regime of gender violence,' that is, the key role violence has played in defining the position of Muslims in the German public sphere (in the larger European context). Through nuanced theorizing as well as careful historical contextualization, Weber develops an intersectional framework for analyzing gendered violence in a way that does not reinforce racialized discourses of cultural and/or religious difference. In demonstrating how the contemporary German public sphere is constituted through differential regimes of visibility - which, for example, invisibilize racism in foregrounding headscarves - Weber's analysis paves the way for imagining Muslim women as active participants, rather than victims, in the democratic process." - Claudia Breger, Associate Professor of Germanic Studies and Adjunct Associate Professor of Communication and Culture and Gender Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA

"This is without doubt one of the most thorough and original analyses of the charged European debate around gender, violence, and Muslim minorities. Importantly, Weber does not only carefully unpack the problematic racing of gender and religion in German liberal multiculturalism, using a variety of familiar and unfamiliar sources, but she also points to the agency of Muslim women so frequently denied by those claiming to 'save' them. A must read for anyone interested in understanding contemporary Europe." -

Fatima El-Tayeb, Associate Professor of Literature and Ethnic Studies, UC San Diego, USA and author of European Others

"Beverly Weber does not shy away from making thorough and politically engaged arguments about a range of complicated topics - the connections between sexuality, race, and religion. Gender and Violence in the 'New' Europe offers the perfect model for how German Studies research can remain relevant in today's globalized world." - Maria Stehle, Assistant Professor of German, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA

From the Publisher