Majnun Strikes Back: Possession, Incarceration, Drag Lecture at Ashkal Alwan

As part of the Home Works 6 Platform, Ashkal Alwan is hosting a lecture by Tarek El-Ariss called “Majnun Strikes Back: Possession, Incarceration, Drag”.

Focusing on the figure of Majnun from the Udhri tradition onward, this talk examines madness in Arabic culture as a state of possession by an all-consuming desire. Madness manifests itself through the consecutive appearances and disappearances of reason, desire, and the body. Investigating the interplay of madness (junun), disappearance (ikhtifa’), and disguise (takhaffi), El-Ariss analyses Majnun’s return as a queer character in contemporary literature and culture.

An impassioned lover and mad rebel, Majnun challenges social and political normativity and resists models of incarceration and policing both in the Arab world and in the diaspora. Drawing on the Arab-Islamic literary and philosophical heritage and critically engaging Michel Foucault’s theses on madness and sexuality, this talk confronts the violent political appropriation of current debates about sexuality in the Arab world and constructs instead a map of desire centered on the emaciated body of the obsessive lover, seeking fulfillment across locales and cultural and historical contexts.