Transformations of the Liminal Self: Deconstructing Muslim Identity in Tariq Ali’s The Stone Woman

Abstract

This article examines how Tariq Ali's novel The Stone Woman (2000) attempts to deconstruct identity by blurring the self/other distinctions and sets the groundwork for hybridity wherein ‘otherness' emerges as a signifying process open to interpretation. The critical parameters of the study emerge from an investigation of the post-colonial context, suggesting in its process a displacement of the fixity of Manichean thought. Drawing upon Homi Bhabha's theorization on “third space” and “hybridity” and Edward Said’s “other”, the article demonstrates how the novel configures identities as woven through the rich cultural textualities that people live in and provides alternative spaces to deconstruct Eurocentric identity discourses. This article argues that the novel proposes a paradigm of idealized Muslim identity that deviates from reductive Eurocentric representations of Muslims as the “other” and exposes such reductive perspectives as traditional to Orientalist discourses.

Keywords:

• Orientalism
• deconstruction
• identity
• Muslim
• Tariq Ali
• postcolonial literature

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Maniza Naqvi, “Interview: Tariq Ali on Writing Novels”, (2010) https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2010/02/interview-tariq-ali-on-writing-novels.html (accessed 6 February 2022).

2 Cara Cilano, “Highlighting the sceptical strain: An interview with Tariq Ali”, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Vol. 52, No. 2, 2016, pp. 189–194, 191.

3 Tariq Ali, The Stone Woman, London: Verso, 2000, p. 1.

4 Philip Darby and Albert Paolini, “Bridging International Relations and Postcolonialism” Alternatives, Vol. 19, No. 3, 1994, pp.371–397, 375.

5 Bell Hooks, “Marginality as a Site of Resistance”, in Out There : Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures, eds. Russell Ferguson, Gever Martha and Trinh Min-ha, New York: MIT Press, 1990, pp. 341–246. 341.

6 John Rajchman, The Identity in Question, New York and London: Routledge, 1995, p. 115.

7 Stuart Hall, “Ethnicity: Identity and Difference”, Radical America, Vol. 23, No. 4, 1989, pp. 9–20, 10.

8 Rajchman, The Identity in Question, op. cit., p. 119.

9 Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures, London: Routledge, 1989, p. 10.

10 Hall, Ethnicity: Identity and Difference, op. cit., p. 10.

11 Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism, London: Vintage Books, 1994, p. 433.

12 Said, Culture and Imperialism, op. cit., p. 433.

13 Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture, New York: Routledge, 1994, p. 37.

14 Ibid., p. 37.

15 Ibid., p. 37.

16 Jan Pieterse, “Europe and its Others”, in A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, eds. David Goldberg and John Solomos, London: Blackwell, 2002, pp. 17–24, 17.

17 Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back, op. cit., p. 8.

18 Stuart Hall, “Cultural identity and Diaspora”, in Theorizing Diaspora: A Reader, eds. Jana Braziel and Anita Mannur, Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2003, pp. 233–246, 234.

19 Ali, The Stone Woman, op. cit., p. 79.

20 Ibid., p. 82.

21 Parvin Paidar, Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 18.

22 Edward Said, Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World, London: Vintage, 1997, p. xxvii.

23 Edward Said, The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination, 1969-1994, New York: Vintage Books, 1994, p. 98.

24 Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back, op. cit., p. 7.

25 Ali, The Stone Woman, op. cit., p. 21.

26 Bhabha, The Location of Culture, op. cit., p. 140.

27 Avtar Brah, Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities, New York: Routledge, 1996, p. 197.

28 Victoria Cook, “Exploring Transnational Identities in Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost”, Comparative Literature and Culture, Vol. 6, No. 3, 2004, pp. 2–8, 3.

29 Stuart Hall, “The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power”, in The Formations of Modernity, eds. Stuart Hall and Bram Gieben, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 1992, pp. 275–319, 299.

30 Hooks, Marginality as a Site of Resistance, op. cit., p. 341.

31 Bhabha, The Location of Culture, op. cit., p. 5.

32 Ali, The Stone Woman, op. cit., p. 156.

33 Ibid., p. 109.

34 Ibid., p. 43.

35 Pramod Nayar, Postcolonial Literature: An Introduction, New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2008, p. 17.

36 Ali, The Stone Woman, op. cit., p. 117.

37 Ibid., p. 118.

38 Bill Ashcroft and Pal Ahluwalia, Edward Said, London: Routledge, 1999, p. 1122.

39 Nikki Keddi, “Women in the Limelight: Some Recent Books on Middle Eastern Women’s History”, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 34, No. 1, 2002, pp. 553–573, 555.

40 Deniz Kandiyoti, Gendering the Middle East: Emerging Perspectives, London: I. B. Tauris, 1995, p. 9.

41 Judy Mabro, Veiled Half-Truths: Western Travellers’ Perceptions of Middle Eastern Women, London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1991, p. 12.

42 Mahmudul Hasan, “The Orientalization of Gender”, American Journal of Islam and Society, Vol. 22, No,4, pp. 28–56, 27.

43 Talpade Mohanty, “Dangerous Liaisons: Gender, Nation, and Postcolonial Perspectives”, in Dangerous Liaisons: Gender, Nation, and Postcolonial Perspectives, eds. Anne McClintock, Aamir Mufti Shohat Ella, University of Minnesota Press, 1997, pp. 255–277, 259.

44 Archer Louise, “Muslim Adolescents in Europe”, in Growing up in Europe Today: Developing Identities among Adolescents, eds. Marta Fulop and Alistair Ross, Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books, 2005, pp. 55–70, 60.

45 Katherine Bullock, “Hijab and contemporary Muslim”, The Message International, 2004.

46 Christina Ho, “Muslim women’s new defenders: Women’s rights, nationalism and Islamophobia in contemporary Australia”, Women’s Studies International Forum, Vol. 30, No. 4, 2007, pp. 290–298, 290.

47 Runnymede Trust, “Islamophobia a Challenge For Us All”, Runnymede Trust, 1997, p. 5, https://www.runnymedetrust.org/companies/17/74/Islamophobia-A-Challenge-for-Us-All.html (accessed 27 September 2021).

48 Ali, The Stone Woman, op. cit., p. 155-156.

49 Jasmine Zine, “Creating a Critical Faith-Centered Space for Antiracist Feminism: Reflections of a Muslim Scholar-Activist”, Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Vol. 20, No. 2, 2004, pp. 167–187, 176.

50 Samuel Zwemer and Amy Wilkis, “Moslem Women”, West Medford: Cambridge: Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions, 1926, p. 5.

51 Ali, The Stone Woman, op. cit., p. 43.

52 Ibid., 168.

53 Edward Said, Orientalism, London and New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1978, p. 6.

54 Ali, The Stone Woman, op. cit., p. 179.

55 Ho, Muslim women’s new defenders, op. cit., p. 290.

56 Frantz Fanon, Black Skins, White Masks. London: Pluto Press, 1986, 109.

57 Katherine Bullock, The Politics of the Veil. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Toronto, Canada, 1999, p. 98.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zakir Hussain

Zakir Hussain is a research scholar in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India ORCID: 0000-0001-9631-9961. Email: [email protected]

Binod Mishra

Binod Mishra is a professor of English in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India.