Shikhat, Nashat and (Un)serious Theory

Abstract

Abstract In nashat-loaded circles, the shikha, claiming the center of her pedestal, asks the question: ‘al-hlawa fin kayna?’ (sweetness, where is it?). She pauses tantalizingly and looks around, but no one offers an answer. She inquires again with a smile. As she proceeds, what seems like mere initiation into eroticism and sensuality becomes a deeply philosophical pursuit of the rather far-flung meanings of the female and her body. While the shikha is no academician, she constructs through dance and lyrics a body of thought that navigates across a constellation of dialectics: female prevailing/alternative realities, gaming/thinking, play/seriousness and representation/agency. This article discusses female performers not as the embodiment of the carnivalesque, parodism, playfulness, profanity and voyeurism but as potential theorists in the domain of nashat where speculations on the existence of sweetness can easily become about its absence, deficiency and lack. It also addresses shikhat as potential theory-makers and proto-philosophers oscillating between epistemic margins and centers while leading the popular musical and performative scenes with primordial advice, guidance, teaching and wisdom.