[Ghenwa Hayek]

Images and memory: representations of conflicts in Arab countries during the 2010s.

The questions of memory and representations of conflicts are deeply rooted in the cinematic and artistic practices of Arab countries: Lebanese cinema always questions its civil war, since it started in 1975, exploring until today its consequences in a troubled national and regional socio-political context; Egyptian cinema, despite censorship and the alignment of the industry on political regimes, reveals in different ways societal and geopolitical upset; Palestinian cinema tries to document a presence, a proof of the existence of a people, but also to identify a fleeing space-time context and identity…

During the last decade, and following the recent events in the Arab world and the political and social turmoil that followed, from Tunisia to Syria via Lebanon, Egypt, Libya or Palestinian territories, the works questioning those conflicts have gotten in a way under the limelight: filmmakers, documentarians, video artists or photographers are constantly solicited to be the witnesses of a period considered to be a turning point in the destiny of these countries. But the question that remains is the following: what profound and enduring upheavals those events caused in the cinematic and artistic practices of the countries in question?

By taking into consideration the cinemas and the visual practices of Lebanon and Arab countries, we will try to formulate our problematic based on certain questions: in modern and contemporary history, what representation(s) these artists offered of their native societies? And what place do Film, video and visual arts in general occupy in the cultural and social life of the aforementioned countries?

Also, through an overview of contemporary visual practices, of their production and national, regional and international exploitation, we will try to apprehend the limits, the potential and the challenges of these practices, and to surmise their capacity to account for the history and actuality of the Arab countries.

This call for papers has the objective to: suggest possible new research axes regarding contemporary artistic practices; to account for the links between the Film community, the different artistic communities and the political and civil milieu; to discuss the different means used by filmmakers and artists to represent past or current conflicts.

 

FIELDS

The main axes of research covered by this issue are the following (non-exhaustive list):

• Representations of conflicts in Arab cinemas (Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Tunisia, Palestinian territories…).
• The persistence of conflict fall-outs in the face of amnesia and deliberate occultation.
• The work of Female Filmmakers, and their predominant role in certain national cinemas, specifically Lebanon.
• The relation between filmmakers and national production structures on one hand and political regimes in place on the other (Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Syria…)
• The contradictory memories of wars.
• The ‘Arab springs’ seen from Europe: cinematic and media exchanges and relations between Arab countries and European countries.
• Exchanges between Arab cinemas and other artistic practices (Literature, music, graphic arts…)

 

CONTRIBUTIONS

The contributors must submit their text in one of the following languages: French, English or Arabic. They must send it to the following electronic address: regards@usj.edu.lb

Before September 30 2018

The mail must include :

• The title of the article
• The abstract (1000 signs maximum, with spaces).
• Keywords.
• A bio-bibliography (500-750 signs, with spaces).
• The article (35000 signs maximum, with spaces)

The articles will be examined by the editorial committee and submitted to a double blind evaluation. The authors will be informed of the reading committee’s decision by mid-November.

This topic was also posted in: CLCS Global South, TC Postcolonial Studies, LLC Arabic.

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