Sexuality and secrecy in the medieval Arabic romance of Majnun Layla

This dissertation demonstrates how secrecy is intricately linked with sexuality in the medieval Arabic romance of Majnun Layla, and other \u27Udhri love stories as recorded in the tenth-century Kitab al-Aghani. It argues that in the \u27Udhri romances, specifically the romance of Majnun Layla, we see how medieval Arabic literature valued and assigned importance to what may be termed a dialectic of secrecy and revelation in the organization of sexuality. Although critics have discussed the theme of \u27love\u27s revelation\u27 in Majnun Layla, it is uniquely the contribution of this dissertation to have elucidated the multiple paradoxes associated with this theme, especially as they pertain to depictions of chastity, courtship, and marriage in the stories. Among the most important paradoxes linked with this theme of love\u27s revelation is that love or desire, in these medieval romances, is defined as both suppression and expression. This paradox, the conception of desire as both concealment and disclosure, has significant implications for understanding conflicts in models of chastity, courtship, and marriage as represented in these romances. This dissertation examines the rendering of these conflicts, and suggests that they may be better understood in terms of tensions between literary portrayals of old and new models of courtship and marriage