Transing the Maghreb: permeable performances of queerness in Abdellah Taïa, Nina Bouraoui, and beyond

Abstract

This essay explores how a trans theoretical lens can inform interpretations and performances of queer Maghrebi sexualities in various forms of cultural productions like the works of Moroccan author Abdellah Taïa, Algerian author Nina Bouraoui, as well as podcasts and music by Maghrebi artists. It draws from trans theorists to emphasize how a productive performativity resides in the intermediality, the in between of a transition (e.g. transnational) and thus queer transnational sexualities like those depicted in the works of Taïa and Bouraoui can be better understood as always existing at the intersection of the local and global, colonial and indigenous. As a result, by transing queer Maghrebi sexualities, we open new realities of Maghrebi performativity that are not solely conceived of through western ideologies of an itinerary towards a better existence, demonstrating how queerness and Arabness are inherently trans. The construction of queer Maghrebi sexuality within a “trans-”national critical lens offers multiple axes upon which its performance can exist, and its legacy exchanged. To execute this analysis, this essay first defines its trans theoretical approach and then applies it to selected works from Maghrebi authors Abdellah Taïa and Nina Bouraoui. It then expands its analysis away from literature to other forms of cultural productions to showcase the broad impact of a trans approach to queer Maghrebi sexuality.