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SoSe 22: Gender Relations in the National Projects and National Imaginations of the Modern Middle East

Jovo Milandovich

Kommentar

The nationalization of society was a constantly changing process of inclusion and exclusion, a constant social struggle to determine how and when to differentiate with the help of which categories. Intellectual circles and nationalizing governing elites of the modern Middle East societies (19th and 20th centuries) often linked national belonging to other forms of ascription (i.e., confessional, social, political, and territorial distinctions). Accordingly, the construction of gender is a highly nationally laden process that led to the construction of an imagined nation externally and the creation of internal differences between the genders. Such narratives connected gender characters to national stereotypes and projects that became one of their central aspects. From the latter, social hierarchies and political domination arise. By considering gender as a category of relations and a difference, the elites believed that gender always appears as one side of the other. Relying on an interdisciplinary approach, the aim of the course is a) to understand how the very meanings of the categories “man” and “woman” varied according to time, context, and place, b) who the bearers of these discursive constructions were, and c) discuss the interconnectedness of different national projects. Featuring certain cases from different Middle East states and societies, we will interrogate and historicize gender relations to understand various (competitive) nationalist and state-building projects, contradictions, and mutual (transnational and colonial) empowerments, transcending the imposed national divides. Schließen