Moreover, confronted with the risk of becoming a “token Arab homosexual,” Taïa has been forced to navigate through a minefield of stereotypes-whether stereotypical conceptions of “authentic Arab sexuality,” stereotypical readings of autobiographical literature as ethnographic material, or stereotypical conceptions of French as a language of civilizational and sexual emancipation. But on the other, it has tended to elevate him to the position of being “exceptional,” thus neglecting to account for how his coming-out interview relates to the public debate and LGBT activism in Morocco, or how his creative writing relates to a larger postcolonial tradition of committed writing. This status has, on the one hand, opened up a space for him to write about “marginal sexualities” and push for the recognition of LGBT rights. Since Taïa came out publicly in 2006, he has achieved almost iconic status as the “first” Moroccan with the courage to defy the anti-homosexuality laws and lay claim to his homosexuality in public. This PhD thesis is preoccupied with an investigation of Moroccan author and cineaste Abdellah Taïa’s creative writing and public performances as expressions of both political commitment and aesthetic innovation.
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