The Sufi, the idol, and the icon: Meddeb's visions

The article proposes a reading of the image in Abdelwahab Meddeb’s works through the prisms of the icon, the idol, and mysticism. As the central aspect of the Sufi experience, vision structures an argument that reads the many genres of Meddeb’s œuvre (fiction, autobiography, poetry, essay) as so many interventions aimed at liberating the visual from the grasp of writing. Meddeb’s work on the visual operates as a point of departure for an important political process: liberating the gaze becomes a necessary step towards resisting oppression and extremism.