Corporeality in Contemporary Iraqi Fiction

Abstract

The aesthetics of corporeality in post-2003 Iraqi fiction shows a development in perceiving the body both artistically and as a cultural sign. Corporeality is envisioned here on two levels: the first entails corporeality of the text as a dialectic space for the embodiment of corporeal experience. The second, involves the representation of the body as a technique to redefine and question corporeal and sexual identities. This article suggests that this new perception of corporeality indicates a new gaze towards the body in contemporary Iraqi fiction, manifested in: first, the dialectic relation between fragmented narration and fragmented corporeality as an embodiment of annihilation in a post-invasion and war context; second, the aesthetics of illness and disability as a mechanism to question normative bodies and to voice subaltern corporeality; finally, corporeal gender politics which build a novel perception of sexuality.

Keywords

• Iraq
• fiction
• body
• perception
• writing
• comparative literature