Description
Edited by Lewis Reina; Edited by Nachabe Taan, Yasmine
:
In the first book to address the critical role of the (un)dressed body in the formation of the modern Middle East, these essays unveil contemporary struggles over nation, gender, modernity and post-modernity. Contributions from leading interdisciplinary scholars, exploring gender representation, photography, dress and visual culture, recount the role of the visible elite body in campaigns for gender and social emancipation, dress histories concerning early nationalist women and men, and legal frameworks used by those who seek to control the movement of gendered bodies. The result is a rich picture of a historical period and cultural landscape which brings dress and visual culture back into historical narratives of the modern Middle East.Recognising multiple modernities, multiple imperialisms and diverse regional experiences of post-colonialism, Fashioning the Modern Middle East contains a range of theoretical frameworks invaluable to students of fashion studies, Middle Eastern studies, anthropology, photography and gender. Bringing forward new primary material and re-investigating extant sources from new perspectives, this is the essential introduction to the role of the dressed and undressed body in the formation of the modern Middle East.
Table of contents:
List of FiguresNotes on ContributorsAcknowledgements1. Mapping Modern Bodies in the Middle East: IntroductionReina Lewis and Yasmine Nachabe Taan2. Fashion and the camera: Istanbul in the late Ottoman EmpireNancy Micklewright3. Training Slaves for the Camera: Race and Memory in Representations of Slaves, Cairo and Khartoum, 1882-1892Eve M. Troutt Powell4. Patronage, Taste, and Power: Slave, Manumitted, and Free Subjects in the Fashioning of Middle Eastern ModernityReina Lewis5. Constantin Guys and the Painters of Global ModernityMary Roberts6. Looking at/as Nudes: A Study of a Space of ImaginationKirsten Scheid7. Another Look: “The Body that Is,” Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Post-Ottoman EgyptWilson Chacko Jacob8. The Arab Garçonne: Being Simultaneously Modern and Arab in 1920s and 1930s Palestine, Lebanon, and EgyptYasmine Nachabe Taan9. The Photograph, the Dress, and the Conjugalization of the FamilyAfsaneh NajmabadiBibliographyIndex
Review quote:
These thoughtful essays on the historical meanings of dress, and what it might tell us about choices, compulsions, and self-representations, engage readers in the compelling work of interpretation. Narratives about power, these are also stories about visual archives: not only what they tell us, but how elusive they are. These scholars’ passion for the archives they’ve allowed us to view is evident. It’s a rich read.
Review quote:
Examining the ‘corporeal’ Middle East, this innovative and multi-disciplinary volume explores different forms of representation of image on film and canvas, how both individuals and the state sought to fashion themselves, and the ways in which sartorial choice could be used to challenge established norms.
Review quote:
This volume sheds new light on the Middle East. The underlying theme throughout the essays is in order to claim modernity people had to be prepared to absorb into their daily lives all that they perceived as that which constituted the western modernity. The book makes fascinating reading uncovering a life which few westerners could envisage.
Biographical note:
Reina Lewis is Centenary Professor of Cultural Studies at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK. She is author of Muslim Fashion (2015) and Rethinking Orientalism (2004), and editor of Modest Fashion (2013) and Gender, Modernity and Liberty (with Nancy Micklewright, 2006). Reina Lewis co-edits with Elizabeth Wilson the Dress Cultures Series at Bloomsbury Visual Arts
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