Overcoming sexuality. Ideology & Masculinity in Iraqi Fiction before and after 2003

Abstract

Televised images of tortured and violated bodies during and after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 altered the conceptualization of the body in Iraqi public space and, more visibly, in contemporary fiction. Iraqi modern fiction prior to the invasion used a recurrent representation to depict the body as an ideological exposition hall for masculine agents, where they expressed political concerns in sexual anxieties. Contemporary Iraqi fiction offers new employment of masculinity. In this article1 I provide a brief analysis of two extracts from The Corpse Washer (2010) by Sinan Antoon and Al-Rajʿ Al-Baīd “The Long Way Back” (1980) by Fou’ād Al-Tikerly, where I argue that contemporary Iraqi fiction establishes revolutionary and creative links between ideology and masculinity2.