Standing by the Ruins: Elegiac Humanism in Wartime and Postwar Lebanon

264 Pages·2011·0.62 MB·English

by  Ken Seigneurie

Standing by the Ruins

Standing by the Ruins
elegiac humanism in wartime
and postwar lebanon
Ken Seigneurie

fordham university press New York 2011
this book is made possible by a collaborative grant
from the andrew w. mellon foundation.
Copyright © 2011 Fordham University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic,
mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—
except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without
the prior permission of the publisher.
Fordham University Press has no responsibility for the
persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-
party Internet websites referred to in this publication
and does not guarantee that any content on such
websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Fordham University Press also publishes its books
in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that
appears in print may not be available in electronic
books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Seigneurie, Ken.
Standing by the ruins : elegiac humanism in wartime
and postwar Lebanon / Ken Seigneurie.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8232-3482-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8232-3483-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Arabic literature—Lebanon—History and
criticism. 2. Literature and society—Lebanon.
3. Popular culture—Lebanon. 4. Lebanon—
Intellectual life—20th century. I. Title.
PJ8078.S45 2011
892.7'0995692—dc22
2011016161
Printed in the United States of America
13 12 11 5 4 3 2 1
First edition
In memory of George Robert Seigneurie (1988–2010)
This page intentionally left blank
contents
List of Figures and Plates ix
Acknowledgments xi
Note on Transliterations xv
Introduction: Shoring These Ruins against My Fragments 1
A Pioneer of the Present 2
Cultural Knock-on 5
Mythic Utopian Futures 8
Elegiac Pasts 11
Elegiac Humanism 20
A Culture in Ruins 27
1. Absence at the Heart of Yearning:
Civil War and Postwar Novels 35
Ruins and Elegy in The House of Mathilde (Binayat Mathilde) 40
Decay of Elegy in The Stone of Laughter (Hajar al-Dahik) 51
Ruins Redeemed in Dear Mr Kawabata
(ʿAzizi al-Sayyid Kawabata) 61
Anti-Ruin in Ya Salam (Good Heavens) 71
Limits of Elegy in Berytus: Madina taht al-Ard
(Berytus: City Underground) 80
Conclusion: Learning to Yearn 95
2. “Speak, Ruins!”: The Work of Nostalgia in Feature Film 96
Ruins of Conviviality in Beirut: The Meeting
(Bayrut, al-Liqaʾ) 101
Ruin and De-education in Beyond Life (Hors la vie) 109
Living among the Ruins in The Pink House (al-Bayt al-Zahr) 117
viii Contents
Recycling Ruin in In the Shadows of the City (Tayf al-Madina) 125
If These Ruins Could Speak in When Maryam Spoke
(Lamma H.ikyit Maryam) 131
Conclusion: Elegiac Self-Consciousness 141
3. Elegiac Humanism and Popular Politics:
The Independence Uprising of 2005 144
A Grammar of Grieving 147
Recoding Mourning, Popular Culture, and Politics 151
Oratorical and Democratic Discourses 165
Sectarian to National Consciousness 172
Conclusion: Ruins of a Humanistic Resistance 175
Conclusion: “We’re All Hezbollah Now” 177
Appendix: A Selected Bibliography of
Lebanese War Novels 185
Notes 189
Works Cited 223
Index 239
figures and plates

figures
Frontispiece: Burj al-Murr Building, Beirut
1. The war-damaged statue at Martyrs’ Square 67
2. City Palace Cinema ruin, 2010 82
3. Haydar contemplating ruins from his balcony
window in Beirut: The Meeting 102
4. Holiday Inn ruin, 2010 104
5. Driving through the ruins in Beyond Life 108
6. Standing in the ruin of the Pink House 124
7. Siham and Rami facing off in the recycled ruin 130
8. Ziad beholding the ruin-trace of Maryam in
When Maryam Spoke 133
9. Part of a photo-information exhibit in downtown
Beirut devoted to learning the truth about those
who disappeared during the civil war 152
10. Mock graveyard 181
plates
Following page 95
1. Lebanese Leftist civil war poster: “Against
Imperialism and Zionism.”
2. Sunni Muslim militia commemorative poster
3. Nasserist party commemorative poster evoking
Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People over ruins