Queer Modernities and Diasporic Art of the Middle East

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorKal, Hong
dc.contributor.authorGayed, Andrew
dc.date.accessioned2020-08-11T12:41:37Z
dc.date.available2020-08-11T12:41:37Z
dc.date.copyright2020-03
dc.date.issued2020-08-11
dc.date.updated2020-08-11T12:41:37Z
dc.degree.disciplineArt History and Visual Culture
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis thesis investigates Middle Eastern diasporic artists in North America who are creating political art about queer identity. This doctoral project explores colonial contact zones to discuss queer identity in relation to politically motivated art being produced by the Middle Eastern diaspora and provides nuance and contributes to the growing scholarship on Middle Eastern contemporary art and cultural studies. I consider whether social scientists, cultural theorists, and historians can reach a narrative of Western and non-Western Modernity that works beyond sexual oppression (Middle East) versus sexual acceptance (North America), and instead examines a negotiation of diasporic sexuality. Arguing instead that diasporic subjects create an alternative coming-out narrative and identity script to inscribed Western models, the aim is to see the ways in which local instances of homosociality cite pre-Modern sexuality scripts within contemporary Middle Eastern art and its diaspora, and reject Western queer identity narratives that become exclusionary in non-Western contexts. By incorporating different sociological strategies in the analysis of contemporary art, this research strives to make self-identification categories less dichotomous and more expansive. This doctoral thesis examines how the artworks of Arab artists in the diaspora illustrate diasporic queer identities that are different from the global-to-local homocolonialism of Western gay identity, and provides examples of how local networks of identity are transmitted through visual language and how alternative sexuality scripts are written within transnational contexts. Examining the artworks of diasporic contemporary artists Jamil Hellu, Ebrin Bagheri, and 2fik (Toufique), I explore the concept of multiple Modernisms and their relationship to displacement, trauma, and Arab sexualities/masculinities within a postcolonial and anti-imperialist framework. Jamil Hellu uses photography, video, performance, and mixed-media art installations to create contrasting metaphors about the politics of cultural identities and the fluidity of sexuality. Ebrin Bagheris ink and paper drawings evoke histories of pre-modern, same-sex desires in Iranian culture. 2Fik uses his own diasporic identity as a subject in his work to explore the dichotomies of his Canadian-Moroccan culture and his lived experience as a queer Arab.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/37707
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectMiddle Eastern history
dc.subject.keywordsArab
dc.subject.keywordsMiddle East
dc.subject.keywordsNorth Africa
dc.subject.keywordsMiddle Eastern
dc.subject.keywordsIslam
dc.subject.keywordsIslamic
dc.subject.keywordsIslamicate
dc.subject.keywordsGender
dc.subject.keywordsSexuality
dc.subject.keywordsHomosexuality
dc.subject.keywordsQueer
dc.subject.keywordsGay Studies
dc.subject.keywordsGay
dc.subject.keywordsHomoerotic
dc.subject.keywordsGay Art
dc.subject.keywordsQueer Theory
dc.subject.keywordsDiaspora
dc.subject.keywordsMigration
dc.subject.keywordsImmigrant
dc.subject.keywordsImmigration
dc.subject.keywordsMigrant
dc.subject.keywordsSexualities
dc.subject.keywordsModernity
dc.subject.keywordsModernities
dc.subject.keywordsPostcolonial
dc.subject.keywordsColonial
dc.subject.keywordsAnticolonial
dc.subject.keywordsIdentity
dc.subject.keywordsContact zones
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical art
dc.subject.keywordsCultural studies
dc.subject.keywordsSexual acceptance
dc.subject.keywordsHuman rights
dc.subject.keywordsHomosocial
dc.subject.keywordsHomosociality
dc.subject.keywordsPre-modern
dc.subject.keywordsContemporary art
dc.subject.keywordsArt
dc.subject.keywordsPhotography
dc.subject.keywordsTrauma
dc.subject.keywordsVisual
dc.subject.keywordsVisual art
dc.subject.keywordsPerformance
dc.subject.keywordsMorocco
dc.subject.keywordsEgypt
dc.subject.keywordsIndia
dc.subject.keywordsIran
dc.subject.keywordsPersia
dc.subject.keywordsIranian
dc.subject.keywordsPersian
dc.subject.keywordsTunisia
dc.subject.keywordsMaghreb
dc.subject.keywordsIslamic Art
dc.subject.keywordsTransnational
dc.subject.keywordsTransnationalism
dc.subject.keywordsCritical race theory
dc.subject.keywordsRace
dc.subject.keywordsRacism
dc.subject.keywordsHomophobia
dc.subject.keywordsFoucault
dc.subject.keywordsHistory of Sexuality
dc.subject.keywordsGender Studies
dc.subject.keywordsVisual studies
dc.subject.keywordsVisual culture
dc.subject.keywordsMedia
dc.subject.keywordsPopular media
dc.subject.keywordsNews
dc.subject.keywordsWorld Art Studies
dc.subject.keywordsGlobal Art History
dc.subject.keywordsWorld Art
dc.subject.keywordsGlobal Art
dc.subject.keywordsGlobal art history
dc.subject.keywordsWorld art history
dc.subject.keywordsTransnational art history
dc.titleQueer Modernities and Diasporic Art of the Middle East
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Gayed_Andrew_2020_PhD.pdf
Size:
8.92 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.83 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
YorkU_ETDlicense.txt
Size:
3.36 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download

Collections

Art History and Visual Culture

All items in the YorkSpace institutional repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved except where explicitly noted.