Intersections, Interventions, & the Homoerotics of Orientalism
a lecture by Joseph Boone
THIS LECTURE HAS BEEN CANCELED. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.
Joseph Boone, English, Gender Studies and Comparative Literature, USC Dornsife
One of the largely untold stories of Orientalism is the degree to which the Middle East has been associated with ‘deviant’ male homosexuality by scores of Western travelers, historians, writers, and artists for well over four hundred years. And this story, when put into contrapuntal interplay with representations emanating from Middle East, stands to reshape our preconceptions of Orientalism. Drawing on his recently published book, The Homoerotics of Orientalism, Boone addresses the theoretical, methodological, and ethical stakes involved in attempts to open a dialogue between Western perceptions and fantasies of homoeroticism in the Middle East, queer theory as it has evolved over the past decade, and the burgeoning field of sexuality studies in the Islamicate world.
Co-sponsored by the NYU Department of English, Program in Gender & Sexuality Studies, Department of Social & Cultural Analysis, and the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality.
