Softcore Arabs

In this multilingual publication, English-Thai-Arabic, Ahmad Makia and Rosalia Namsai Engchuan offer variant geographic and psychological analysis of the Arab-Sheikh figurehead in popular media. Expanding from critiques of possessing and desiring Arab figures, namely indigenous chieftains and tribal leaders, the essays critique broader institutionalizations of race, identity and pop visual culture. Makia’s essay, Seeing Like a Sheikh, offers a Marxist and intra-subjective critique of the role of the Western vision of the Arab Lover. Meanwhile Engchuan explores the popularization and contradictions of the Arab-Sheikh figure in Thai romance-soft erotica pulp publishing.