The Production of Resistance in Arab Societies and Beyond - MEITAL / 2007

Ben-GurionUniversity

The Department of Middle East Studies

The Production of Resistance in Arab Societies and Beyond

Dr. Yoram Meital*

Autumn 2008

Monday 14:15 – 17:45

Office Hrs: Tuesday 4:30-5:30 pm

Course Description

The course focuses on the theoretical, historical, political and cultural aspects of production of hegemony and resistance in various Middle Eastern societies. Specifically, we will explore how popular culture (music, cinema, literature) have been mobilized by both regimes and oppositional groups to advance their narratives and agenda. Throughout the course, emphasis will be on different approaches that integrate political history with cultural studies.

Course requirements

Since this course is conducted as a seminar, students are expected to actively participate in the class discussions. Students will be evaluated on the basis of class participation, reading of required materials (25%), one presentation (book review) before the class (25%), and a final essay (50%). The purpose of the critical essay (about 15 typed double-spaced pages) is to synthesize course readings, in-class discussions, and other sources. The essay must be submitted by …………. , 2008. Both presentation paper and critical essay must be typed double-spaced.

SHORT GUIDE TO WRITING AN ESSAY

Your goal is to develop an argument, which consists of the following components: a claim, reasoning to support that claim, evidence to support it, conclusion about the claim.

  • Try for a strong opening, the better to lure the reader.
  • Situate particular statements or points from the book/article within the author’s overall argument. This serves to contextualize your focus (i.e., avoid taking the arguments out of context).
  • Support your argument with some examples from the text (and other relevant materials) to illustrate what you mean to say.
  • Briefly identify the work(s) and author(s) under discussion within your text, so we’ll know what text you’re addressing (underline or italicize Book Titles, put quotations around "Article Titles").
  • Locate quotations (give page number; if unclear from context, give author and title).
  • As a rule, put punctuation inside quotations: "xxxxx." "xxxx," "xxxx?" "xxxxx" (p. x).
  • Do you make a point? Avoid leaving your readers in confusion, or in "so-what?" land.
  • Push your analysis and explore the implications of your argument (for anthropology, for everyday life, for issues of nature/culture, etc.).
  • Wrap up the end of your paper by tying it back to your starting point. This will confirm your thesis point, reminds the reader of what you aimed to address, and shows how far your argument has taken you.
  • Proofread your essay. Try having someone else read it aloud to you and listen for clarity, persuasiveness, awkward sentence structure, poor grammar, etc.

WEEK 1: CONCEPTS OF HEGEMONY

  1. Joseph Femia, Gramsci's political thought: Hegemony, consciousness, and the revolutionary process (Oxford, 1981), 23-60.

WEEK 2: FORMS OF RESISTANCE

  1. James Scott, Domination and the arts of resistance: Hidden transcripts (London, 1990), 70-107.
  2. Lisa Wedeen, Ambiguities of domination: Politics, rhetoric, and symbols in contemporary Syria (Chicago, 1999), 67-86.

WEEK 3: INTELLECTUALS

  1. Edward Said, Representations of the Intellectual (NY., 1994), 3-23.
  2. Kanan Makiya, Cruelty and Silence: War, tyranny, uprising, and the Arab world (NY., 1993), 233-252.

Book Review:

  • Fouad Ajami, The dream palace of the Arabs: A generation's odyssey (NY., 1998).

WEEK 4: DECOLONIZATION

  1. Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (NY., 1993), 239-261.
  2. Frantz Fanon, The wretched of the earth (NY., 1968), 35-94.
  3. Hannah Arendt, "On Violence," in: Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Philippe Bourgois[eds.], Violence in war and peace: An anthology (Oxford, 2004), 236-243.

Book Review:

  • The Suez War -TBA
  • FLNand Algeria struggle for independence - TBA

WEEK 5-6-7-8: POPULAR CULTURE AND RESISTANCE

a.Andrew Hammond, Popular culture in the Arab world: Arts, politics, and the media (NY., 2005), 1-51.

Book Review:

  • Virginia Danielson, The voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthum, Arabic Song, and Egyptian Society in the Twentieth Century (Chicago, 1997).
  • Watching parts of Umm Kulthum - A Voice Likes Egypt.

*** ******

  1. Kamal Abdel-Malek, A study of the vernacular poetry of Ahmad Fu'ad Nigm (Leidan, 1990), 30-54.
  2. Malu Halas, "Songs for civil war: Algerian Rai, Rap and Berber Folksong," in: Els van der Plas and others [eds.], Creating spaces of freedom (London, 2002), 45-57.

Book Review:

  • Kamal Abdel-Malek, A study of the vernacular poetry of Ahmad Fu'ad Nigm (Leiden, 1990).

*** ******

  1. Samia Mehrez, Egyptian writers between history and fiction: Essays on Naguib Mahfouz, Sonallah Ibrahim, and Gamal al-Ghitani (Cairo, 1994), 1-57.

Book Review:

  • Sonallah Ibrahim, Zaat (Cairo, 2004).
  • Gannit Ankori, Palestinian art (London, 2006).

*** ******

  1. Massad, Joseph, “The weapon of culture: cinema in the Palestinian liberation struggle,” in: Hamid Dabashi (ed.), Dreams of Nation: On Palestinian cinema(NY., 2006), pp. 32-44.
  • Watching parts of Since You Left.

WEEK 9: PUBLIC SPACE

  1. Michel de Cerrteau, The practice of everyday life (Berkeley, 1984), 91-110.
  2. Henri Lefebre, The production of space (Oxford, 1991), 26-53.
  1. Yoram Meital,“Central Cairo: Street Naming and the Struggle over Historical Representation,” Middle Eastern Studies, Vol, 43, No. 6 (2007), 857-878.

Book Review:

  • Esra Ozyurek, The politics of public memory in Turkey (NY., 2007).
  • Yael Zrubavel, Recovered Roots: Collective memory and the making of Israeli national tradition (Chicago, 1995).
  • Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski, Commemorating the nation: Collective memory, public commemoration, and national identity in 20th century Egypt (Chicago, 2004).

WEEK 10: RELIGION, POLITICS AND UTOPIA

  1. Sami Zubaida, Islam, the People and the State: Political Ideas and Movements in the Middle East (London, 1993), Chapter II.
  2. Mahmood Mamdani, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the roots of terror (NY., 2004), 17-62.

Book Review:

  • Fawaz Gerges, The far enemy: Why Jihad went global (NY., 2005).
  • Marsha Pripstein Posusney & Michele Penner Angrist, Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Regimes and resistance (Boulder, 2005).

WEEK 11: BODY & GENDER

  1. Elaime Scarry,Body in Pain: The making and unmaking the world (Oxford, 1985), 27-59.
  2. Magda M. Al-Nowaihi, "Resisting Silence in Arab Women's Autobiographies," International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 33, No. 4. (Nov., 2001), pp. 477-502.

Book Review:

  • Nawal el-Saadawi, Memoirs from the women's prison (Berkeley, 1994).

WEEK 12: DISCIPLINE & PUNISH

  1. Michel Foucault, "The gentle way in punishment," in: Discipline and Punishment: The birth of the prison (NY., 1995), 104-131.
  2. Mailyn Booth, "Women's prison memoirs in Egypt and elsewhere: Prison, Gender, Praxis," MERIP, 149 (December 1987), 35-41.

Book Review:

  • Behind closed doors: Torture and detention in Egypt (Human Rights Watch, 1992).
  • Zainab al-Ghazali, Return of the Pharaoh: Memoir in Nasser's prison (Leicester, 1994).

WEEK 13: NEW MEDIA DISCOURSES

  1. Hugh Miles, Al-Jazeera: The inside story of the Arab news channel that is challenging the West (NY., 2005), 13-67.
  2. Ahmed al-Mukarram, "Sudaness culture in exile," in: Els van der Plas and others [eds.], Creating spaces of freedom (London, 2002), 59-72.

Book Review:

  • Hugh Miles, Al-Jazeera: The inside story of the Arab news channel that is challenging the West (NY., 2005).
  • Allen Douglas and Fedwa Multi-Douglas, Arab Comic Strip: Politics of an Emerging Mass Culture (Bloomington, 1994).

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