Joseph Allen Boone

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The homoerotics of orientalism
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 stands to shatter our preconceptions of Orientalism. To illuminate why and how the Islamicate world became the locus for such fantasies and desires, Boone deploys a supple mode of analysis that reveals how the cultural exchanges between Middle East and West have always been reciprocal and often mutual, amatory as well as bellicose.
Whether examining European accounts of Istanbul and Egypt as hotbeds of forbidden desire, juxtaposing Ottoman homoerotic genres and their European imitators, or unlocking the homoerotic encoding in Persian miniatures and Orientalist paintings, this remarkable study models an ethics of crosscultural reading that exposes, with nuance and economy, the crucial role played by the homoerotics of Orientalism in shaping the world as we know it today.
A contribution to studies in visual culture as well as literary and social history, The Homoerotics of Orientalism draws on primary sources ranging from untranslated Middle Eastern manuscripts and European belles-lettres to miniature paintings and photographic erotica that are presented here for the first time.

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Joseph Allen Boone

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REVIEWS/ENDORSEMENTS

“Orientalism will never be the same after Boone’s extraordinary book, which . . . with its staggering erudition and critical finesse courageously recasts the stark divide of Occident and Orient . . . and it does so in the form of a critical gift―a book of utmost generosity, judiciousness, and political imagination― that carries its own charge of love.”

 

– Jennifer Wicke, University of Virginia

 

“A masterpiece and rare achievement . . . the entire concept of Orientalism will have to be totally rethought following Boone’s book.”

 

— Moshe Shluhovsky, The Hebrew University

 

“Once every decade or so, a book appears that revolutionizes the field of GLBT studies . . . [this book] will permeate the wider GLBT intellectual landscape. Every reader will benefit.”

 

—Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide

 

“A veritable tour de force. Groundbreaking.”

 

—Sahar Amer, University of Sydney

 

Awards Won By the Book

.Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award, USC, (2015) for The Homoerotics of Orientalism.
.American Library Association Over the Rainbow Project: “Top Non-FictionBooks
of the Year ”(2015) for The Homoerotics of Orientalism.

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