Shahid Beheshti University Critical Language and Literary Studies 20087330 14 18 2017 08 23 The performative Subjectivity of Muslim Women in the Diasporic Discourse of Leila Aboulela The performative Subjectivity of Muslim Women in the Diasporic Discourse of Leila Aboulela 59 85 99991 FA Ensiyeh Darzinejad PhD Student in Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch Leyla Baradaran Jamili Assistant Professor, Boroujerd Azad University Journal Article 2017 01 08 Leila Aboulala (1964 -) is a Sudanese-Egyptian Muslim novelist who lives in the Scottish diaspora. She is one of the emigrant Muslim women writers who try to initiate a new discourse in their literary works. In her diasporic discourse she challenges the depiction of the identity of Muslim women as innate, timeless, and static and represents the subjectivity of her female protagonists as performative. In this respect the subjectivity of Muslim woman is a "doing" rather than a "being" and each step she takes makes her approach the Islamic subjectivity or deviate from it. The theories of William Safran, James Clifford, and Homi K. Bhabha are consulted to delineate diaspora an its capacity for discourse formation. Judith Butler's performative theory is used to investigate the performativity of subjectivity of the Muslim women in Aboulela's novels. The performativity of language and cultural practices like sartorial practices, culinary preferences, and religious rituals are the pivotal points of this article. Leila Aboulala (1964 -) is a Sudanese-Egyptian Muslim novelist who lives in the Scottish diaspora. She is one of the emigrant Muslim women writers who try to initiate a new discourse in their literary works. In her diasporic discourse she challenges the depiction of the identity of Muslim women as innate, timeless, and static and represents the subjectivity of her female protagonists as performative. In this respect the subjectivity of Muslim woman is a "doing" rather than a "being" and each step she takes makes her approach the Islamic subjectivity or deviate from it. The theories of William Safran, James Clifford, and Homi K. Bhabha are consulted to delineate diaspora an its capacity for discourse formation. Judith Butler's performative theory is used to investigate the performativity of subjectivity of the Muslim women in Aboulela's novels. The performativity of language and cultural practices like sartorial practices, culinary preferences, and religious rituals are the pivotal points of this article. https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_99991_08716ddaffb99ec9477c7ac2408d55e9.pdf