Gurnah’s Men: Rethinking Muslim Masculinities in the Indian Ocean World
Felicity Hand: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/Abstract
This article explores how Abdulrazak Gurnah illustrates the varieties of Muslim masculinity in the Indian Ocean world through an analysis of two of his youthful characters, Hassan Omar, from his debut novel Memory of Departure and Salim Yahya, from his more recent Gravel Heart. Both young men find themselves pitted against a more traditional male role which stifles them while, at the same time, encourages them to envisage a more fluid understanding of what it means to be a man in a predominantly Muslim society like Zanzibar. The fissures in the relationship that Hassan and Salim have with their fathers and uncles point to a questioning of an established hegemonic masculinity and its socially rigid facade in Muslim East Africa. Social constraints such as honor and shame drive both young men to seek a better future overseas. I claim that through his novels, Gurnah offers a new script for Muslim men to follow in the twenty-first century.
Keywords
Abdulrazak Gurnah, hegemonic masculinity, Indian Ocean, Muslim masculinities, Muslim values, transgression, ZanzibarPlease login first to access subscription form of article
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