Skip to main content

Sartorial Borders and Border Crossing in Contemporary Multi-ethnic Short Stories

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Borders and Border Crossings in the Contemporary British Short Story
  • 450 Accesses

Abstract

Departing from recent theorisations on liminality in the short story genre and drawing on diaspora theory as well as socio-cultural approaches to dress, this chapter provides a sartorial reading of Qaisra Shahraz’s twenty-first-century version of her story “A Pair of Jeans” (2017). As the chapter contends, Shahraz’s story signals a point of inception in contemporary debates on the dressed body of ethnic minorities in Britain, fuelling insightful reflections on the intersections of gender and ethnicity in the diaspora space and revealing the existence of invisible borders that code dressing seeks to preserve or trespass.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Works Cited

  • Abidi, Shuby. 2011. “The Memsahib Complex: Collision and Collusion of Identity in Qaisra Shahraz’s ‘A Pair of Jeans’.” In The Holy and the Unholy: Critical Essays on Qaisra Shahraz’s Fiction, edited by Abdur Raheem Kidwai and Mohammad Asim Siddiqui, 290–297. New Delhi: Sarup Book Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Achilles, Jochen. 2015. “Modes of Liminality in American Short Fiction: Condensations of Multiple Identities.” In Liminality and the Short Story: Boundary Crossings in American, Canadian, and British Writing, edited by Jochen Achilles and Ina Bergmann, 35–49. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Achilles, Jochen, and Ina Bergmann, eds. 2015. Liminality and the Short Story: Boundary Crossings in American, Canadian, and British Writing. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahmade, Hussain. 2007. “In Conversation with Qaisra Shahraz.” Accessed February 17, 2019. https://ahmedehussain.blogspot.com/2007/04/in-conversation-with-qaisra-shahraz.html.

  • Ahmed, Akbar. 2011. “Foreword.” In The Holy and the Unholy: Critical Essays on Qaisra Shahraz’s Fiction, edited by Abdur Raheem Kidwai and Mohammad Asim Siddiqui, xi–xiv. New Delhi: Sarup Book Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aindow, Rosie. 2010. Dress and Identity in British Literary Culture, 1870–1914. Farnham: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anthias, Floya. 1992. Ethnicity, Class, Gender and Migration: Greek Cypriots in Britain. Aldershot: Avebury.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1998. “Evaluating ‘Diaspora’: Beyond Ethnicity?” Sociology 32 (3): 557–580.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anthias, Floya, and Nira Yuval-Davis. 1982. “Contextualising Feminism: Gender, Ethnic and Class Divisions.” Feminist Review 15: 62–75.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arafath, Yasser. 2014. “When Patriarchy Strikes: Exclusive Interview with Qaisra Shahraz.” Writers in Conversation 1 (1): 1–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Zygmunt. 2000. “The Making and Unmaking of Strangers.” In Debating Cultural Hybridity: Multi-cultural Identities and the Politics of Anti-racism, edited by Pnina Werbner and Tariq Modood, 46–57. London: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, Vikki. 1999. Perfomativity and Belonging. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brah, Avtar. 1996. Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cavallaro, Dani, and Alexandra Warwick. 1998. Fashioning the Frame: Boundaries, Dress and the Body. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chatterjee, Partha. 1993. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, Fred. 1992. Fashion, Culture and Identity. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Lauretis, Teresa. 1990. “Eccentric Subjects: Feminist Theory and Historical Consciousness.” Feminist Studies 16 (1): 115–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Donnell, Alison. 1999. “Dressing with a Difference.” Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 1 (4): 489–499.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eco, Umberto. 2007. “Lumbar Thought.” In Fashion Theory: A Reader, edited by Malcolm Barnard, 315–317. London: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • El Guindi, Fadwa. 1999. Veil: Modesty, Privacy and Resistance. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Entwistle, Joanne. 2005. The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ezroura, Mohammed. 2011. “Battling Orthodox Eugenics: Reading ‘A Pair of Jeans’ in Rabat, Morocco.” In The Holy and the Unholy: Critical Essays on Qaisra Shahraz’s Fiction, edited by Abdur Raheem Kidwai and Mohammad Asim Siddiqui, 106–120. New Delhi: Sarup Book Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gavin, Jamila. 1997. “Forbidden Clothes.” In Mixed Feelings: Stories of Mothers and Daughters, edited by Maryam Hodgson, 89–97. London: Methuen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geczy, Adam. 2013. Fashion and Orientalism: Dress, Textiles and Culture from the 17th to the 21st Century. London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilroy, Paul. 2002. There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, Amanthi. 2003. “Red Sari.” In Kin: New Fiction by Black and Asian Women, edited by Karen McCarthy, 104–111. London: Serpent’s Tale.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hasan, Mahmudul. 2016. “Distinguishing Islam from Cultural Practices: Conversations with Qaisra Shahraz.” Asiatic 10 (1): 171–183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirsch, Marianne. 1989. The Mother/Daughter Plot. Narrative, Psychoanalysis, Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Head, Dominic. 1989. The Modernist Short Story: A Study in Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hermes, Liesel. 2011. “Reading Qaisra Shahraz’s ‘A Pair of Jeans’ with German Students.” In The Holy and the Unholy: Critical Essays on Qaisra Shahraz’s Fiction, edited by Abdur Raheem Kidwai and Mohammad Asim Siddiqui, 121–145. New Delhi: Sarup Book Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hofmann, Bettina, and Monika Mueller, eds. 2016. Performing Ethnicity, Performing Gender: Transcultural Perspectives. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hollander, Anne. 1993. Seeing Through Clothes. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, Clair. 2006. Dressed in Fiction. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hussain, Yasmin. 2005. Writing Diaspora: South Asian Women, Culture and Ethnicity. Surrey: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kabir, Nahid Afrose. 2010. Young British Muslims: Identity, Culture, Politics and the Media. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kalra, Virinder, Raminder Kaur, and John Hutnyk. 2005. Diaspora and Hybridity. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kandiyoti, Deniz. 1994. “Identity and Its Discontents: Women and the Nation.” In Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory: A Reader, edited by Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman, 376–391. Essex: Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khan, Naseem. 1992. “Asian Women’s Dress: From Burqah to Bloggs. Changing Clothes for Changing Times.” In Chic Thrills: A Fashion Reader, edited by Juliet Ash and Elizabeth Wilson, 61–74. London: Pandora Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, Cynthia, and Cindy L. Carlson, eds. 2007. Styling Texts: Dress and Fashion in Literature. Youngston: Cambria Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kureishi, Hanif. 2002a. “The Rainbow Sign.” In Dreaming and Scheming: Reflections on Writing and Politics, 25–56. London: Faber.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2002b. “Bradford.” In Dreaming and Scheming: Reflections on Writing and Politics, 57–80. London: Faber.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mernissi, Fatima. 2003. Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Muslim Society. London: Saqui Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ming, Ava. 2001. “The Hijab.” In Whispers in the Walls: New Black and Asian Voices from Birmingham, edited by Leone Ross and Yvonne Brissett, 187–197. Birmingham: Tindal Street Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mishra, Vijai. 2008. The Literature of the Indian Diaspora: Theorizing the Diasporic Imaginary. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 1988. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourse.” Feminist Review 30: 65–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morey, Peter, and Amina Yaqin. 2011. Framing Muslims: Stereotyping and Representation After 9/11. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nair, Preethi. 2004. “Jubilee Dreams.” In Walking a Tightrope: New Writing from Asian Britain, edited by Rehana Ahmed, 7–30. Basingstoke: Young Picador.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nasta, Susheila. 2002. Home Truths: Fictions of the South Asian Diaspora in Britain. Hampshire: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Papastergiadis, Nikos. 2000. The Turbulence of Migration: Globalization, Deterritorialization, and Hybridity. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pereira-Ares, Noemí. 2018. Fashion, Dress and Identity in South Asian Diaspora Narratives: From the Eighteenth Century to Monica Ali. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pratt, Mary Louise. 1992. Imperial Eyes: Travelling Writing and Transculturation. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rafiq, Sami. 2011. “Interview with Qaisra Shahraz.” In The Holy and the Unholy: Critical Essays on Qaisra Shahraz’s Fiction, edited by Abdur Raheem Kidwai and Mohammad Asim Siddiqui, xxiii–xxxviii. New Delhi: Sarup Book Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rahman, Yasmin. 2017. “Fortune Favours the Bold.” In A Change Is Gonna Come, edited by Ruth Bennett, 2086–2257. London: Stripes. Ebook.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ranasinha, Ruvani. 2007. South Asian Writers in Twentieth-Century Britain: Culture in Translation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reichl, Susanne. 2000. “Of Lappas and Levis: (Dress-)Code-Switching and the Construction of Cultural Identities in the British Novel of Immigration.” New Literatures Review: (Un)Fabricating Empire 36: 63–75.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rushdie, Salman. 1992. Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981–91. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sacido-Romero, Jorge, and Laura Lojo-Rodríguez. 2018. Gender and Short Fiction: Women’s Tales in Contemporary Britain. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schäbler, Daniel. 2008. “Teenage Transformations in Multi-ethnic Britain: Rehana Ahmed’s Walking a Tightrope.” In Multi-ethnic Britain 2000+: New Perspectives in Literature, Film and the Arts, edited by Lars Eckstein, Barbara Korte, Eva Ulrike Pirker and Christoph Reinfandt, 139–152. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoene, Berthold. 1998. “Herald of Hybridity: The Emancipation of Difference in Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 1 (1): 109–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shahraz, Qaisra. 1988. “A Pair of Jeans.” In Holding Out: Short Stories by Women, 43–54. Manchester: Crocus.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1991. “A Pair of Jeans.” In Writing Women. Twentieth-Century Short Stories, edited by Liesel Hermes, 60–70. Berlin: Cornelsen Hirschgraben.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2005. “A Pair of Jeans.” In One Language, Many Voices. An Anthology of Short Stories About the Legacies of Empire, edited by Helga Korff and Angela Ringel-Eichinger, 174–194. Berlin: Cornelsen Hirschgraben.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2013. “A Pair of Jeans.” In A Pair of Jeans and Other Stories, 660–935. London: HoperRoad. Ebook.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2014. “A Story Behind My Story ‘A Pair of Jeans’.” Accessed February 17, 2019. http://qaisrashahraz.com/a-pair-of-jeans-other-stories/.

  • ———. 2017. “A Pair of Jeans.” In The Concubine and the Slave-Catcher, 41–62. London: HopeRoad.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simich, Laura, Sarah Maiter, and Joanna Ochocka. 2009. “From Social Liminality to Cultural Negotiation: Transformative Processes in Immigrant Mental Wellbeing.” Anthropology and Medicine 16 (3): 253–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 1996. “Diasporas Old and New: Women in a Transnational World.” Textual Practice 10 (2): 245–269.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Syal, Meera. 2000. “Finding My Voice.” In Writing Black Britain 1948–1998: An Interdisciplinary Anthology, edited by James Procter, 252–255. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tarlo, Emma. 2010. Visibly Muslim: Fashion, Politics, Faith. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tarlo, Emma, and Annelies Moors, eds. 2013. Islamic Fashion and Anti-fashion: New Perspectives from Europe and North America. London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, Victor. 1969. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Upstone, Sara. 2010. British Asian Fiction: Twenty-First-Century Voices. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, Elizabeth. 2010. Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity. London: Virago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woolf, Virginia. 1973. “The New Dress.” In Mrs Dalloway’s Party: A Short Story Sequence, edited by Stella McNichol, 56–65. London: Hogart.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Noemí Pereira-Ares .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Pereira-Ares, N. (2019). Sartorial Borders and Border Crossing in Contemporary Multi-ethnic Short Stories. In: Korte, B., Lojo-Rodríguez, L. (eds) Borders and Border Crossings in the Contemporary British Short Story. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30359-4_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics