Muslim Women, Transnational Feminism and the Ethics of Pedagogy: Contested Imaginaries in Post-9/11 Cultural Practice (Routledge Research in Gender and Society)

"Following a long historical legacy, Muslim women's lives continue to be represented and circulate widely as a vehicle of intercultural understanding within a context of the "war on terror." Following Edward Said's thesis that these cultural forms reflect and participate in the power plays of empire, this volume examines the popular and widespread production and reception of Muslim women's lives and narratives in literature, poetry, cinema, television and popular culture within the politics of a post-9/11 world. This edited collection provides a timely exploration into the pedagogical and ethical possibilities opened up by transnational, feminist, and anti-colonial readings that can work against sensationalized and stereotypical representations of Muslim women. It addresses the gap in contemporary theoretical discourse amongst educators teaching literary and cultural texts by and about Muslim Women, and brings scholars from the fields of education, literary and cultural studies, and Muslim women's studies to examine the politics and ethics of transnational anti-colonial reading practices and pedagogy. The book features interviews with Muslim women artists and cultural producers who provide engaging reflections on the transformative role of the arts as a form of critical public pedagogy."-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Title 6 Copyright 7 Contents 8 List of Figures 12 Acknowledgments 14 Introduction: The Contested Imaginaries of Reading Muslim Women and Muslim Women Reading Back 16 PART I Transnational Anticolonial Feminist Reading Practices 38 1 SUR/VEIL: The Veil as Blank(et) Signifier 40 2 Khamosh Pani: Reading Partition Muslim Masculinities and Femininities in an Age of Terror 74 3 Breaking the Stigma? The Antiheroine in Fatih Akin's Head On 97 4 Pedagogies of Solidarity in Suheir Hammad's "First Writing Since" 125 PART II The Politics of Production and Reception 146 5 "A Too-Quick Enthusiasm for the Other": North American Women's Book Clubs and the Politics of Reading 148 6 Of Activist Fandoms, Auteur Pedagogy, and Imperial Feminism: From Buffy the Vampire Slayer to I Am Du'a Khalil 167 PART III Transformative Pedagogies 188 7 Cartographies of Difference and Pedagogies of Peril: Muslim Girls and Women in Western Young Adult Fiction Novels 190 8 "Shaking Up" Vision: The Video Diary as Personal and Pedagogical Intervention in Mona Hatoum's Measures of Distance 213 9 From Empathy to Estrangement, from Enlightenment to Implication: A Pedagogical Framework for (Re)Reading Literary Desire against the "Slow Acculturation of Imperialism" 233 PART IV Reflections on Cultural Production 260 10 Interview with Mohja Kahf 262 11 Interview with Zarqa Nawaz 267 12 Interview with Rasha Salti 271 13 Interview with Tayyibah Taylor 284 14 Interview with Sofia Baig 289 15 Interview with Sahar Ullah 297 16 Interview with Jamelie Hassan 306 Contributors 310 Index 314