CORRIDORS - An Exploration of Muslim Female Identity and Representation Through Rap And Visual Album

X, Haleemah

Abstract

In contemporary British media and culture, the representation of Muslim women is still narrow, stereotypical, one-dimensional, and crucially lacking in visibility. This thesis sits as the counterpart to the practice as research rap-visual album Corridors, exploring and investigating Muslim female identity and representation and its cultural and sociopolitical significance through the practices of rap and filmmaking to create a visual album. With the research conducted primarily through practice, this thesis places the practice in discussion with relevant theoretical frameworks and weaves through an extensive theoretical discourse, inclusive of but not limited to the following; postcolonial theory, intersectionality, multiple heritage, representation in sonic and visual spaces, Islamic female-centric ideas, and the practical and representational implications of the debated conceptualisation of the awrah, whilst employing rap and visual album as communicative instruments to navigate, activate, demonstrate and articulate findings. The motivations of this research reside in the desire to cultivate and contribute an interdisciplinary and intersectional auto-ethnographic insight into the expression of Muslim female identity, portrayal, and narrative to practice as research. Between rap, visual album and a critical discourse, this research unfastens and facilitates a conversation on the contemporary experience of British mixed/multiple heritage, gender, faith, and the Islamic and secular controversial notion of Muslim female rappers. With a distinctive methodology drawing on and conducted through an auto-ethnographic creation of rap and film, this research reveals a unique positioning of Muslim female expression, arguing for new languages, terms, and considerations around the way in which British Muslim women are considered, presented, and conceptualised within the discourse of practice and theory. Corridors navigates this contemporary discourse into a postcolonial playground where intersectionality and interdisciplinarity are showcased and explored in conversation with one another through practice, discovering that terms such as agency, representation, and identity when met with practice, shift into a discussion of characterisation, personae, shapelessness, shapeshifting, transformation, roleplay, visibility, metamorphosis, and mythology.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Aug 26, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 27, 2024
• Keywords: Practice as Research, Muslim female identity, representation, rap, shapelessness, mixed heritage, Black Muslim women in Britain, hip-hop, Muslim female rappers, visual albums
• Award Date: Sep 26, 2024