Queer Nations: Marginal Sexualities in the Maghreb (review)

Abstract

Building on the work of such scholars as Frantz Fanon, Homi Bhabha and Edward Said, Jarrod Hayes provides a fascinating look at the interplay of sexual and national identity in francophone North African literature. His study covers a broad range of authors including Tahar Djaout, Mohammed Dib, Kateb Yacine, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Assia Djebar, Leïla Sebbar, and Albert Memmi. Hayes's work is primarily a study of the presence of "non-normative" sexualities in Maghrebian literature written in French and the use of these taboo identities to challenge the dominant sexual identities, heterosexual and male, in their claim to hegemony. He demonstrates that through their foregrounding of marginal sexualities, these writers successfully achieve twin goals. They are able to support the establishment of a positive national identity against the suppression of this identity by the former colonizing power and against Orientalist views of the Maghreb, especially confronting Western notions of "Oriental sex." Simultaneously, these images of the nation challenge the dominant form of nationalism, countering a monolithic and exclusive definition of the nation with a multifaceted inclusive one. Hayes demonstrates that the effect of this overt presentation of marginal sexualities not only undermines the dominance of Maghrebian male heterosexuality--thereby "queering" the nation, but also Orientalizes the West by reflecting Orientalist images imposed upon the Maghreb onto the sexual identities and practices of the West itself.