WICHTIG:
From 10 Oct to 12 Dec 2023, the seminar will be held weekly (Tue 2-4 pm). The remaining sessions will be held in form of a workshop which includes invited speakers working on modern Syrian literature, prison narratives, music of protest/resistance and the literary field, on 24-25 Nov 2023 (Friday afternoon/Saturday).
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For a long time, Arabic Studies in the West has shown little interest in literature and arts from Syria, with the exception of a few major figures, such as Adunis (poetry), Zakariyya Tamir (short story) and Saʿdallah Wannus (theater). Syrian literature, especially the novel, was considered being stuck between (social) realism and political repression, lacking the experimental character of Lebanese (post-)war literature, for instance. The situation changed radically with the uprisings of the ‘Arab Spring’ when Syrian literary and cultural production – especially documentary formats and popular forms of dissent – caught the attention of researchers as well as Western and global media, and considerable numbers of authors and artists came to live and work in Europe. Critics have emphasized the blunt criticism that characterized large parts of this wave of post-2011 Syrian literature and arts, while in earlier decades, authors – especially those who stayed in Syria – had chosen more subversive forms of expressing social and political criticism. Rather than choosing silence, in the face of censorship and political repression, these writers and artists developed creative, more sophisticated ways of expression, such as irony, metaphors and magical realism.
In this seminar, we will explore the forms and strategies writers and artists of different generations and time periods chose to conceal or reveal critical perspectives on society. Which topics, time periods and social and political constellations are being addressed, what remains untold, and what is expressed between the lines? This is to show that the new wave of open protest did not emerge from a cultural and political vacuum but had its predecessors in earlier decades. While the focus will be on literary texts – novels, short stories, poetry and drama –, we will also look at other forms of cultural production and media, such as popular poetry and songs, film, street art and various digital forms.
The seminar is open for students of other literary and cultural studies programs (MA NTS, BAPS, Kulturpoetik and others). The texts we will discuss are either translated to or originally written in English, thus the knowledge of Arabic is not mandatory. In case all participants speak sufficiently German, the class may be held in German.
Introductory readings:
Mona Kahf: ”The Silences of Contemporary Syrian Literature” (World Literature Today 2001, 225–236); Arabic Literature – Postmodern Perspectives, eds. Angelika Neuwirth, Andreas Pflitsch & Barbara Winckler (2010); Edward Ziter: Political Performance in Syria: From the Six-day War to the Syrian Uprising (2015); Felix Lang: ”Transformations of the ‘Syrian’ Literary Field Since 2011” (2021).
- Lehrende/r: Barbara Winckler