International Studies

In the 1990s, Mohamed Choukri's controversial autobiography, Al-Khubz al-ḥāfī (For Bread Alone), was re-evaluated as a social criticism of poverty. This article argues that Al-Khubz should also be re-evaluated in the context of minority politics. Choukri, an Amazigh author, was committed to redressing the oppression and linguistic discrimination by Morocco's Arabs against its Amazigh minority. There were no Amazigh models for him to emulate, so he used literary devices to create an alternative identity mediated through the dominant language of literary Arabic and the tradition of Arabic autobiography. He modeled his autobiographical self after a group of pre-Islamic brigand poets, outsiders to society known as ṣaʿālīk. His choice provides the key to understanding Choukri's intersubjective negotiation of Amazigh identity.

In the 1990s, Mohamed Choukri’s controversial autobiography Al-Khubz al-ḥāfī (For Bread Alone) was reevaluated as a social criticism of poverty. This article argues that Al-Khubz should also be reevaluated in the context of minority politics. Choukri, an Amazigh author, was committed to redressing the oppression and linguistic discrimination by Morocco's Arabs against its Amazigh minority. There were no Amazigh models for him to emulate, so he used literary devices to create an alternative identity mediated through the dominant language of literary Arabic and the tradition of Arabic autobiography. He modeled his autobiographical self after a group of pre-Islamic brigand poets, outsiders to society known as ṣaʿālīk. His choice provides the key to understanding Choukri’s intersubjective negotiation of Amazigh identity.

Religious defiance that results in publicly leaving religion (apostasy) is an enormous taboo in Arab communities despite the recent surge in apostates’ numbers. Drawing from research on stigma, apostasy, authorship, and critical studies, I explore how a transnational Arab community, which emerges in the crossfire among democratizing politics of self-expression, regulation of public identity by digital technologies, and vast opposition networks, uses digital technologies and the politics of naming to destigmatize its identity. Extending the literatures of stigma and apostasy to ex-Muslims, I conclude that this case reveals religious and nonreligious Arabs’ common struggle against violence and the need for structural changes to protect digital technologies’ emancipatory potential.

“Pretty Liar is an original, accessible, and welcome contribution to the scant literature on Lebanese television. . . . It is an auspicious reminder that Arab media studies has moved into a new phase, away from general introductions to the field and towards an excavation of rich and specific genealogies.”
—Marwan M. Kraidy, author of The Naked Blogger of Cairo: Creative Insurgency in the Arab World

“This is a fine work and will be a substantive contribution to literature on Lebanon and on media in the region.”
—Andrea Stanton, associate professor of Islamic studies, University of Denver

“This is a well-written, impeccably researched, and groundbreaking study of television in Lebanon during the country’s civil war.”
—Christopher Stone, author of Popular Culture and Nationalism in Lebanon: the Fairouz and Rahbani Nation

How did a new, irresistible brand of television emerge from the Lebanese Civil War (1975–91) to conquer the Arab region in the satellite era? What role did seductive news anchors, cool language teachers, superheroes, and gossip magazines play in negotiating a modern relationship between television and audiences? How did the government lose its television monopoly to sectarian militias? Pretty Liar tells the untold story of the coevolution of Lebanese television and its audience, and the ways in which the Civil War of 1975–91 influenced that transformation. Based on empirical data, Khazaal explores the rise of language and gender politics in Lebanese television and the storm of controversy during which these issues became a referendum on television’s relevance. This groundbreaking book challenges the narrow focus on present-day satellite television and social media, offering the first account of how broadcast television transformed media legitimacy in the Arab world. With its analysis of news, entertainment, and educational shows from Télé Liban and LBC, novels, periodicals, and popular culture, Pretty Liar demonstrates how television became a site for politics and political resistance, feminism, and the cradle of the postwar Lebanese culture. The history of television in Lebanon is not merely a record of corporate technology but the saga of a people and their continuing demand for responsive media during times of civil unrest.

Natalie Khazaal is assistant professor of international studies and Arab culture at Texas A&M University. She studies the role of Arab media in representations of minorities, as well as the role of language and literature in generating media representations. She is coauthor of Ultimate Arabic.

This book argues for a substantial reassessment of Gadda’s legacy. Its exploration of a lesser-known aspect of his oeuvre---the role that figurative arts play in his works as they shape the inner visual gallery through which he exerts his ethical compass---sheds new light on old interpretive cruces that have historically affected Gadda’s reception both in Italy and in the US.

I query  the crossing of textual and art criticisms with theories of Realism. This book is a thematic critical study of the category of literary style vis-à-vis the real, in the interlacing works of three influential Italian intellectuals of 20th century: Gianfranco Contini (the literary critic), Roberto Longhi (the art historian) and Carlo Emilio Gadda (the novelist).
Reprint of Chapter 4 in The Edinburgh Journal of Gadda Studies Archives. Ed. Federica G. Pedriali (Nov. 2007): <http://www.gadda.ed.ac.uk/Pages/resources/archive/Gadda_e/pdf/marchesinicegcontini.pdf >.