Full Description
From 1970 until his death in 2000, Hafiz Asad ruled Syria with an iron fist. His regime controlled every aspect of daily life. Seeking to preempt popular unrest, Asad sometimes facilitated the expression of anti-government sentiment by appropriating the work of artists and writers, turning works of protest into official agitprop. Syrian dissidents were forced to negotiate between the desire to genuinely criticize the authoritarian regime, the risk to their own safety and security that such criticism would invite, and the fear that their work would be co-opted as government propaganda, as what miriam cooke calls "commissioned criticism." In this intimate account of dissidence in Asad's Syria, cooke describes how intellectuals attempted to navigate between charges of complicity with the state and treason against it.A renowned scholar of Arab cultures, cooke spent six months in Syria during the mid-1990s familiarizing herself with the country's literary scene, particularly its women writers. While she was in Damascus, dissidents told her that to really understand life under Hafiz Asad, she had to speak with playwrights, filmmakers, and, above all, the authors of "prison literature." She shares what she learned in Dissident Syria. She describes touring a sculptor's studio, looking at the artist's subversive work as well as at pieces commissioned by the government. She relates a playwright's view that theater is unique in its ability to stage protest through innuendo and gesture. Turning to film, she shares filmmakers' experiences of making movies that are praised abroad but rarely if ever screened at home. Filled with the voices of writers and artists, Dissident Syria reveals a community of conscience within Syria to those beyond its borders.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 3
1. "Culture is Humanity's Highest Need" 19
As If... 20
Slogans, Slogans Everywhere 26
Freedom and Democracy 30
2. Our Literature Does Not Leave the Country 36
Nadia al-Ghazzi 39
Colette al-Khuri 42
3. No Such Thing as Women's Literature 48
Ulfat Idilbi 49
Salons and Mallahat al-Khani 53
Nadia Khust and the Nadwa 57
4. Commissioned Criticism 65
Culture after the Fall of the Wall 68
Commissioned Criticism 72
The Fantasy of Choice 77
5. Dissident Performances 81
Performing Dissidence 84
The Ghoul 87
Historical Miniatures 92
6. Filming Dreams 100
The Extras 102
Dreaming Features 106
Documenting Dreams 116
7. Lighten Your Step 121
Ibrahim Samu'il 124
Waiting 127
Ghassan al-Jaba'i 130
Lessons from a Rogue State 142
8. Leaving Damascus 145
Postscript 160
Notes 167
Bibliography 177
Index 187
