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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2022
In this essay, we examine how MERIP has navigated the frictions between the political economic critique of extraction and domination in the region, and more semiotic models which center “culture,” variously understood, in their analyses of power and inequality. Broadly speaking, MERIP authors have addressed four dimensions of culture writ large: aesthetic expressions and artistic performances; everyday practices and ordinary life in their various multisensorial, affective experiences; identity performance along intersectional terrains of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and race; and discursive formations in which the very categories of the “political” and the “economic” are produced and reproduced within shifting fields of power. In all its dimensions, culture is embedded and entangled in material conflicts over production, distribution, and consumption, and thus necessarily political, but not merely so. How to approach cultural politics and political culture without reducing them to a play of hegemony and resistance has been a persistent challenge in cultural analysis. By exploring how MERIP authors have negotiated this fraught terrain—by outlining MERIP's effective culture concept with a focus on its aesthetic dimensions—we offer a window into a central tension within the broader field of Middle East studies.
1 Beinin, Joel, “Categories of Power,” Middle East Report 196 (September-October 1995): 28Google Scholar.
2 Mitchell, Timothy, “Culture Across Borders,” MER 159 (July-August 1989): 6Google Scholar.
3 Joel Beinin, “Marxism and Postmodernism,” MER 187/188 (March-June 1994): 54.
4 See Abedi, Mehdi and Fischer, Michael M.J., “Revolutionary Posters and Cultural Signs,” MER 159 (July-August 1989)Google Scholar; Stokes, Martin, “Music, Fate and State: Turkey's Arabesk Debate,” MER 160 (September-October 1989)Google Scholar; and Abu-Lughod, Lila, “Islam and Popular Culture: The Politics of Egyptian Television Series,” MER 180 (January-February 1993)Google Scholar. Later contributions by Hisham Aidi, Lara Deeb and Mona Harb, Natalie Peutz, and Rebecca Stein would similarly preview their critical takes on youth culture, heritage politics, and digital militarism later to be developed in book form.
5 See, for instance, Lori Allen, “Paradise Now's Understated Power,” MER Online (January 15, 2006); and Ursula Lindsey, “Shooting Film and Crying,” MER Online (March 15, 2009).
6 Alcalay, Ammiel, “Who's Afraid of Mahmoud Darwish?” MER 154 (September-October 1988)Google Scholar.
7 Naim, Mona, “An Interview with Mahmoud Darwish,” MER 194 (July-August 1995)Google Scholar.
8 Osama Esber and Lisa Wedeen, “Three Poems by Osama Esber,” MER Online (March 9, 2021).
9 Khudair, Dia’, “When I Found Myself,” MER 148 (September-October 1987)Google Scholar.
10 Antoon, Sinan, “Of Graves and Grievances,” MER 227 (Summer 2003)Google Scholar.
11 Kanfani, Numan, “Homecoming,” MER 194 (July-August 199)Google Scholar; Moruzzi, Norma, “Tied Up in Tehran,” MER 250 (Spring 2009)Google Scholar.
12 Kamel Boullata, “Palestinian Expression Inside a Cultural Ghetto,” MER 159 (July-August 1989).
13 Fawwaz Traboulsi, “Beirut-Guernica: A City, A Painting,” MER 154 (September-October 1988); Ahmed Beydoun, “War in the City,” MER 162 (January-February 1990); Juan Goytisolo, “Constructing Europe's New Wall,” MER 178 (September-October 1992); Susan Ossman, “Boombox in Ouarzazate,” MER 196 (September-October 1995).
14 Joan Mandell, “Naji Al-‘Ali Remembered,” MER 149 (November-December 1987).
15 Susan Slyomovics, “Cartoon Commentary: Algerian and Moroccan Caricatures from the Gulf War,” MER 180 (January-February 1993).
16 Katy Kalemkerian and Khalid Medani, “The Responsibilities of the Cartoonist,” MER 274 (Spring 2015).
17 Khudair, op cit.
18 Lisa Frank, “Photos and Art from Palestine,” MER 175 (March-April 1992): 45.
19 Miriam Rosen, “Review of Stranger at Home” MER 146 (May-June 1987): 45.
20 “A Tribute to Palestinian Artist Kamal Boullata,” MER Online (November 11, 2019).
21 Kirsten Scheid, “On the Arabs and the Art Awakening: Warnings from a Narcoleptic Population,” Jadaliyya (August 31, 2012).
22 Mitchell, “Culture Across Borders,” 6, 4.
23 Lila Abu-Lughod, “Bedouins, Cassettes and Technologies of Public Culture,” MER 159 (July-August 1989): 7.
24 Hannah Davis, “American Magic in a Moroccan Town,” MER 159 (July-August 1989): 13.
25 Ammiel Alcalay, “Israel and the Levant: ‘Wounded Kinship's Last Resort’,” MER 159 (July-August 1989): 23.
26 Hedi Abdel-Jouad, “Sacreligious Discourse,” MER 163 (March-April 1990): 36.
27 David McMurray and Ted Swedenburg, “Raï Tide Rising,” MER 169 (March-April 1991); Joan Gross, David McMurray and Ted Swedenburg, “Raï, Rap and Ramadan Nights,” MER 178 (September-October1992).
28 Hamid Naficy, “From Broadcasting to Narrowcasting,” MER 180 (January-February 1993).
29 Lisa Wynn, “The Romance of Tahliyya Street,” MER 204 (Fall 1997): 31.
30 Michael M.J. Fischer, “Orientalizing America: Beginnings and Middle Passages” MER 178 (September-October 1992): 32.
31 Stokes, “Music, Fate and State,” 29–30.
32 Abu-Lughod, “Islam and Public Culture,” 26, 28.
33 Walter Armbrust, “Transgressing Patriarchy: Sex and Marriage in Egyptian Film,” MER 206 (Spring 1998): 31.
34 Rebecca Stein, “Spatial Fantasies: Israeli Popular Culture After Oslo,” MER 216 (Fall 2000): 38.
35 Ted Swedenburg, “Arab ‘World Music’ in the US,” MER 219 (Summer 2001): 40.
36 Samia Mehrez, “Take Them Out of the Ballgame: Egypt's Cultural Players in Crisis,” MER 219 (Summer 2001): 12–13.
37 Sonali Pahwa and Jessica Winegar, “Culture, State and Revolution,” MER 263 (Summer 2012).
38 John Schaefer, “Protest Song Marocaine,” MER 263 (Summer 2012); Shayna Silverstein, “Syria's Radical Dabka,” MER 263 (Summer 2012).
39 Aomar Boum, “Festivalizing Dissent in Morocco,” MER 263 (Summer 2012).
40 Nada Shabout, “In Between, Fragmented and Disoriented: Art Making in Iraq,” MER 263 (Summer 2012).
41 Nada Shabout, “A Makeover: Baghdad, the 2013 Arab Capital of Culture,” MER 266 (Spring 2013): 33.
42 See Sinan Antoon, “Bending History,” MER 257 (Winter 2010); Susan Slyomovics, “The Moroccan Prison in Literature and Architecture,” MER 275 (Summer 2015); Patricia Blessing and Ali Yaycıoğlu, “Church, Mosque or Museum: Reflections on Monuments in Turkey and Spain,” MER Online (March 2, 2021); Nidhi Mahajan, “Remembering Slavery in the Ben Jelmood House in Qatar,” MER 299 (Summer 2021).
43 See Pierre Bourdieu, Manet: A Symbolic Revolution (Cambridge: Polity, 2017).
44 Elliott Colla and Robert Blecher, “A New World Order, a New Marcel Khalife,” MER 199 (Summer 1996); Elliott Colla, “Le lute de Bagdad,” MER 215 (Summer 2000).
45 Rosen, “Review of Stranger at Home,” 46.
46 Elliot Colla, “The People Want,” MER 263 (Summer 2012): 13.
47 See Mary Hegland, “Religious Ritual and Political Struggle in an Iranian Village,” MER 102 (January-February 1982); Michael Gilsenan, “Akkar Before the War,” MER 162 (January-February 1990); Lois Beck, “Qashqa'i Nomads and the Islamic Republic,” MER 177 (July-August 1992); and Elizabeth Warnock Fernea, “Daghara Dispatch,” MER 215 (Summer 2000).
48 Jessica Winegar, “Taking Out the Trash,” MER 259 (Summer 2011).
49 Abu-Lughod, “Bedouins”; Abu-Lughod, “Islam and Public Culture”; Beydoun, “War in the City”; Davis, “American Magic.”
50 See Mark Garfield, “Beirut Diary,” MER 108 (September-October 1982); Ann Lesch, “Khartoum Diary,” MER 139 (November–December 1989); Karen Pfeiffer, “Letter from Jordan,” MER 167 (November-December 1990); Paul Lalor, “Report from Baghdad,” MER 169 (March-April 1991); Marilyn Johnson, “Letter from a Curfew Zone,” MER 170 (May-June 1991); Marisa Escribano, “Guarding Europe's Gates: Letter from Spain,” MER 178 (September-October 1992); K.S., “Beirut Dispatch,” MER 209 (Winter 1998); Reem Kelani, “Burj al-Barajna Dispatch,” MER 210 (Spring 1999); Anthony Shadid, “Daring Theater Offers Respite from Baghdad's Misery,” MER 211 (Summer 1999); Maad Abu-Ghazalah, “Bethlehem Dispatch,” MER 214 (Spring 2000); Fred Halliday, “Letter from Kuwait,” MER 220 (Summer 2000); Rasha Salti, “Beirut Diary: April 2005,” MER 236 (Fall 2005).
51 Nicola Pratt and Nadje Al-‘Ali, “Women in Iraq: Beyond the Rhetoric,” MER 239 (Summer 2006).
52 See Rosemary Sayigh, “Recording ‘Real Life’ in Wadi Zayna,” MER 173 (November-December 1991); and Ossman, “Boom Box in Ouarzazate.”
53 See Vincent Crapanzano, Tuhami: Portrait of a Moroccan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980); Kevin Dwyer, Moroccan Dialogues: Anthropology in Question (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982); Michael M.J. Fischer and Mehdi Abedi, Debating Muslims: Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990); Paul Rabinow, Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977); Stefania Pandolfo, Impasse of the Angels: Scenes from a Moroccan Space of Memory (Chicago: University of Chicago Pres, 1997).
54 See Judith Tucker's essay in this volume.
55 See also Mounira Charrad, “State and Gender in the Maghrib,” MER 163 (March-April 1990), which anticipated her later important book on the subject.
56 Joe Stork, “Gender and Civil Society: An Interview with Suad Joseph,” MER 183 (July-August 1993): 26, 23.
57 Martin van Bruinessen, “The Kurds in Turkey,” MER 121 (January-February 1984); Martin van Bruinessen, “The Kurds Between Iran and Iraq,” MER 141 (July-August 1986).
58 Jane Goodman, “Berber Associations and Cultural Change in Algeria,” MER 200 (Fall 1996); Paul Silverstein, “Realizing Myth: Berbers in France and Algeria,” MER 200 (Fall 1996); David Crawford, “How ‘Berber’ Matters in the Middle of Nowhere,” MER 219 (Summer 2001); Paul Silverstein and David Crawford, “Amazigh Activism and the Moroccan State,” MER 233 (Winter 2004).
59 Lisa Hajjar, “Israel's Intervention Among the Druze,” MER 200 (Fall 1996).
60 Martin van Bruinessen, “Kurds, Turks and the Alevi Revival in Turkey,” MER 200 (Fall 1996); Kerem Öktem, “Being Muslim at the Margins: Alevis and the AKP,” MER 246 (Spring 2008); Nazlı Özkan, “The Emergence of Alevi Televisual Activism,” MER 281 (Winter 2016).
61 Karim El-Gawhary, “Copts in the ‘Egyptian Fabric’,” MER 200 (Fall 1996). See also the 2013 special issue on “Christians.”
62 Ussama Makdisi, “The Modernity of Sectarianism in Lebanon,” MER 200 (Fall1996); Vickie Langohr, “Experiments in Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Religious Democracy,” MER 237 (Winter 2005).
63 Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, “Black Hebrews in the Promised Land,” MER 160 (September-October1989).
64 Salah Hassan, “Arabs, Race and the Post-September 11 National Security State,” MER 224 (Fall 2002); Hisham Aidi, “Jihadis in the Hood: Race, Urban Islam, and the War on Terror,” MER 224 (Fall 2002); Hisham Aidi, “Slavery, Genocide and the Politics of Outrage,” MER 234 (Spring 2005); Moustafa Bayoumi, “The Race is On: Muslims, Arabs and the American Imagination,” MER Online (March 10, 2010); Andy Clarno, “The Thorns that Exist and Resist: Black-Palestine Solidarity in the Twenty-First Century,” MER 282 (Spring 2017); and S.A. Smythe, “The Black Mediterranean and the Politics of the Imagination,” MER 286 (Spring 2018).
65 See Naficy, “From Broadcasting to Narrowcasting.”
66 Louise Cainkar, “No Longer Invisible: Arab and Muslim Exclusion After September 11,” MER 224 (Fall 2002); Louise Cainkar, “Becoming Arab American,” MER 278 (Spring 2016). See also the 2002 special issue on “Arabs, Muslims and Race in America.”
67 Timothy Mitchell, “America's Egypt: Discourse on the Development Industry,” MER 169 (March-April 1991): 19, 28.
68 Beinin, “Categories of Power,” 29.