Item Details
Skip Navigation Links
   ActiveUsers:2697Hits:21008738Skip Navigation Links
Show My Basket
Contact Us
IDSA Web Site
Ask Us
Today's News
HelpExpand Help
Advanced search

In Basket
  Journal Article   Journal Article
 

ID190222
Title ProperKurds Have Not Made Love Their Aim
Other Title InformationLove, Sexuality, Gender, and Drag in Ehmedê Xanî's Mem û Zîn
LanguageENG
AuthorLeezenberg, Michiel ;  Michiel Leezenberg
Summary / Abstract (Note)This paper explores the concepts and norms of gender and sexuality in Ehmedê Xanî's 17th-century mathnawi poem Mem û Zîn, nowadays regarded as the Kurdish national epic. A reading of this poem with the aid of the conceptual tools of gender studies and the history of sexuality reveals how different its norms and concepts are not only from modern Kurdish ones, but also from those of classical Persian literature. Although the poem does not hint at any taboo concerning male love for beardless boys, it does display a remarkable asymmetry between male and female same-sex desire; it also displays distinct views of legitimate and transgressive sexuality. Thus, this poem encourages a more historicizing view of the gendered and sexual dimensions of modern (Kurdish and other) nationalism, and a greater attention for the distinct characteristics of vernacular literatures within the premodern ‘Persianate cosmopolitan.’
`In' analytical NoteInternational Journal of Middle East Studies Vol. 54, No.4; Nov 2022: p. 705 - 724
Journal SourceInternational Journal of Middle East Studies 2022-12 54, 4
Key WordsGender ;  Sexuality ;  Kurdish Literature ;  Mysticism