This 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 of Pakistani-Canadian Zarqa Nawaz. Using a methodology consisting of a textual analysis grounded in the theoretical framework of postcolonial theory and informed by gender studies and alternative media research, the analysis is supplemented with semi-structured interviews with the artists.
This book is suitable for scholars and students in Gender Studies, Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Sociology, and Politics.
Author(s): Kenza Oumlil
Series: Routledge Research in Gender, Sexuality, and Media
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 163
City: London
Cover
Endorsement
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Methodologies: Revealing Counter-Hegemonic Terms
Case Studies
A Note On Terminology: Assertions of Unintelligibility
Organization of the Book
Notes
References
1 Talking Back to Power
The Context – Structures of Domination and Alternative Discourses
Dominant Representations
Linking Hegemony/Counter-Hegemony to Alternative Discourses
Alternative Media Interventions
Gendering Resistance
Emergence in Popular Culture
Alternative Media and Collective Action
Conclusion
References
2 Assertions of Unintelligibility: Shirin Neshat’s Visual Innovations
Representations of Muslim and Iranian Women
Assertions of Unintelligibility
Silent Speech
Speech Constructed as Insane
Punishable Speech
Conditions of Emergence of Alternative Discourses
Visual Appeal
Artistic Debut
Magic Realism
Concluding Remarks
Notes
References
3 Using Humor to Talk Back: The Stand-Up Comedy of Maysoon Zayid
Muslim American Comedy
Performance of Identity Through Stand-Up Comedy
Resignifying Disability
Resignifying Muslim Women
Conditions of Emergence of Alternative Discourses
Mainstreaming Difference
“Symbolic Violence”
Concluding Remarks
Notes
References
4 Transitioning to the Mainstream in Television: Zarqa Nawaz’s Film and Television Productions
9/11 Genre
Cultural Renaissance and Comedy
Background On Little Mosque On the Prairie
“Normalizing” Muslims
Resignifying Muslim Women
Resignifying Islam
Conditions of Emergence
Performativity of Identity
Positive Images
Use of Humor
Concluding Remarks
Notes
References
Conclusions
Talking Back
Conditions of Emergence of Alternative Discourses
Future Directions
References
Appendix: Resource Guide
A
B
E
F
H
K
L
M
N
S
Y
Z
Index
