The Better Story: Queer Affects from the Middle East

The Better Story looks at how stories respond to racial trauma connected with the Middle East. Dina Georgis turns to aesthetic works, including novels, films, memoirs and visual art, which tell stories about or from the region. She reads them for their emotional and queer dimensions, which official histories tend to leave out.

The book argues that narrative is an emotional resource for learning, and for imagining more just political futures. It questions the habit of framing political life only through resistance and emancipation, and attends instead to lives that do not fit an oppositional pattern. It draws on queer theory, affect studies, postcolonial critique and cultural analysis.

Its 2014 finalist status came from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, GLBT category. Published by State University of New York Press, hardcover. ISBN-13: 9781438445847.