Melancholy Acts: Defeat and Cultural Critique in the Arab World

In the face of precarity and injustice, oppressed societies' literatures and cultures survive and thrive. Melancholy Acts explores how the symptom of oppression can become a vehicle for critique, engaging with Arab thought, literature, and film in the aftermath of the 1948 dispossession and 1967 military defeat. The book offers a psychoaffective theory of cultural production that traces the melancholy disposition of Arabic literary and filmic productions and discerns their critical intervention in a culture strained to its breaking point. It covers contentious topics such as secular modernity, Arab nationalism, literary and artistic iltizām, Islamism, and martyrdom, and tracks the melancholy politics that inform the literary and cultural projects of Arab novelists, poets, playwrights, filmmakers, and intellectuals. The book combines a high sensitivity to local idioms with nuanced knowledge of theory and psychoanalysis, offering a fresh and bold approach to Arabic and comparative literature.

Format: Hardback
Length: 332 pages
Publication date: 01 August 2023
Publisher: Fordham University Press

In the face of overwhelming precarity and injustice, how do the literatures and cultures of oppressed societies survive and thrive? Can the very symptom of oppression become a catalyst for its critique? Melancholy Acts provides profound insights into these questions through a diverse range of engagements with Arab thought, literature, and film in the aftermath of the 1948 dispossession of Palestinians and the 1967 military defeat of Arab armies.

Melancholy Acts presents a psychoaffective theory of cultural production that emerges from the disjunction between political impoverishment and cultural resistance to colonial and neoliberal oppression. This theory enables the author to trace the melancholic disposition of Arabic literary and filmic productions and discern the precarious rhetorical modes of their critical intervention in a culture that is perpetually pushed to its breaking point. Spanning six chapters, Melancholy Acts delves into contentious topics of Arab contemporaneity, including secular modernity, manhood, Arab nationalism, leftism, literary and artistic iltizām, commitment, Islamism, and martyrdom. The book meticulously tracks the melancholic politics that inform the literary and cultural projects of numerous Arab novelists, poets, playwrights, filmmakers, and intellectuals, both within the Arab world and from non-Arab perspectives.

Among the notable figures featured in Melancholy Acts are Ghassan Kanafani and Naguib Mahfouz, renowned novelists who have left an indelible mark on Arab literature. Mahmoud Darwish, Nizar Qabbani, and Saadallah Wannous, celebrated poets and playwrights, also contribute their unique perspectives to the discussion. Filmmakers such as Nouri Bouzid, Moufida Tlatli, Youssef Chahine, and Hany Abu Assad have made significant contributions to Arab cinema, while intellectuals such as Hussein Muruwwa, Malek Bennabi, Karima Lazali, George Tarabishi, and Fethi Benslama offer valuable insights from within the Arab world. Additionally, the book engages with the work of non-Arab thinkers such as Freud, Lacan, Adorno, Fanon, and Spi, whose theories and ideas have had a profound impact on the study of culture and oppression.

Through its rich and nuanced analysis, Melancholy Acts offers a profound exploration of the ways in which the literatures and cultures of oppressed societies persist and flourish amidst challenging circumstances. It challenges the notion that oppression is solely detrimental to cultural expression and demonstrates how the melancholic disposition can be a source of strength and resistance. By tracing the connections between political impoverishment, cultural resistance, and the melancholic mode of production, the book provides a valuable contribution to the field of cultural studies and offers a fresh perspective on the complexities of Arab contemporaneity.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781531503499