Dissident Syria: Making Oppositional Arts Official

From 1970 until his death in 2000, Hafiz Asad ruled Syria with an iron fist. His regime controlled every aspect of daily life. Seeking to preempt popular unrest, Asad sometimes facilitated the expression of anti-government sentiment by appropriating the work of artists and writers, turning works of protest into official agitprop. Syrian dissidents were forced to negotiate between the desire to genuinely criticize the authoritarian regime, the risk to their own safety and security that such criticism would invite, and the fear that their work would be co-opted as government propaganda, as what miriam cooke calls andldquo;commissioned criticism.andrdquo; In this intimate account of dissidence in Asadandrsquo;s Syria, cooke describes how intellectuals attempted to navigate between charges of complicity with the state and treason against it.

A renowned scholar of Arab cultures, cooke spent six months in Syria during the mid-1990s familiarizing herself with the countryandrsquo;s literary scene, particularly its women writers. While she was in Damascus, dissidents told her that to really understand life under Hafiz Asad, she had to speak with playwrights, filmmakers, and, above all, the authors of andldquo;prison literature.andrdquo; She shares what she learned in Dissident Syria. She describes touring a sculptorandrsquo;s studio, looking at the artistandrsquo;s subversive work as well as at pieces commissioned by the government. She relates a playwrightandrsquo;s view that theater is unique in its ability to stage protest through innuendo and gesture. Turning to film, she shares filmmakersandrsquo; experiences of making movies that are praised abroad but rarely if ever screened at home. Filled with the voices of writers and artists, Dissident Syria reveals a community of conscience within Syria to those beyond its borders.

andldquo;Dissident Syria is an important and urgent book. In her fascinating account of Syrian cultural productions during the 1990s, miriam cooke documents the abyss between Syrian lived experiences and the rhetoric of the state. She extols the creative minds whose works exemplify the power of art.andrdquo;andmdash;Susan Slyomovics, author of The Performance of Human Rights in Morocco

andldquo;With respectful seriousness, a fascinating narrative, and a lucid style, miriam cooke, a very distinguished writer and Arabist, offers in Dissident Syria a probing examination and illuminating account of Syriaandrsquo;s sloganeering cultureandmdash;where literature and the arts are manipulated and the unconscious becomes the hero. cookeandrsquo;s book is powerful, stimulating, and remarkable for its empirical analysis and daring.andrdquo;andmdash;Abdul Sattar Jawad, former secretary general of the Iraqi Writers Union

andldquo;Dissident Syria is a powerful, insightful, and incisively analyzed book that deserves to be read by students, academics, and policymakers alike. miriam cooke has succeeded most admirably in her goal to bring Syria's cultural harvest outside the country.andrdquo;

andldquo;[cooke] candidly writes about her initial failures to grasp nuances of Syria's culture, including giving a public lecture on women's literature in Syria with Assad's pronouncement on culture as its title. . . . Yet Ms. cooke's persistence paid off with startling revelations about the middle ground in Syrian art between collaboration and incarceration.andrdquo;

andldquo;In Dissident Syria, scholar of contemporary Arabic literature miriam cooke sheds light on the heretofore neglected world of Syrian oppositional culture. . . . This important work will attract specialists in a range of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Dissident Syria will appeal to those interested in Syrian, Arab, and Middle Eastern expressive culture. It adds an important dimension to the literature on the relationship between politics and the arts. It also forms a significant contribution to a growing body of work on prison literature. cookeandrsquo;s accessible, engaging style makes Dissident Syria an ideal choice for undergraduate courses in the same range of topics.andrdquo;

"With respectful seriousness, a fascinating narrative, and a lucid style, miriam cooke, a very distinguished writer and Arabist, offers in "Dissident Syria" a probing examination and illuminating account of Syria's sloganeering culture--where literature and the arts are manipulated and the unconscious becomes the hero. cooke's book is powerful, stimulating, and remarkable for its empirical analysis and daring."--Abdul Sattar Jawad, former secretary general of the Iraqi Writers Union

""Dissident Syria" is an important and urgent book. In her fascinating account of Syrian cultural productions during the 1990s, miriam cooke documents the abyss between Syrian lived experiences and the rhetoric of the state. She extols the creative minds whose works exemplify the power of art."--Susan Slyomovics, author of "The Performance of Human Rights in Morocco"

A study of the state-encouraged production of "dissident art" in Syria under the thirty-year authoritarian rule of Hafiz Asad, and the filmmakers, fiction writers, playwrights, and artists that contested their own appropriation.

An account of dissidence in Hafiz Asad s Syria, describing how intellectuals tried to navigate between charges of complicity with the state and treason against it.

“Dissident Syria is an important and urgent book. In her fascinating account of Syrian cultural productions during the 1990s, miriam cooke documents the abyss between Syrian lived experiences and the rhetoric of the state. She extols the creative minds whose works exemplify the power of art.”—Susan Slyomovics, author of The Performance of Human Rights in Morocco“With respectful seriousness, a fascinating narrative, and a lucid style, miriam cooke, a very distinguished writer and Arabist, offers in Dissident Syria a probing examination and illuminating account of Syria’s sloganeering culture—where literature and the arts are manipulated and the unconscious becomes the hero. cooke’s book is powerful, stimulating, and remarkable for its empirical analysis and daring.”—Abdul Sattar Jawad, former secretary general of the Iraqi Writers Union

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 3

1. andldquo;Culture is Humanityandrsquo;s Highest Needandrdquo; 19

As If... 20

Slogans, Slogans Everywhere 26

Freedom and Democracy 30

2. Our Literature Does Not Leave the Country 36

Nadia al-Ghazzi 39

Colette al-Khuri 42

3. No Such Thing as Womenandrsquo;s Literature 48

Ulfat Idilbi 49

Salons and Mallahat al-Khani 53

Nadia Khust and the Nadwa 57

4. Commissioned Criticism 65

Culture after the Fall of the Wall 68

Commissioned Criticism 72

The Fantasy of Choice 77

5. Dissident Performances 81

Performing Dissidence 84

The Ghoul 87

Historical Miniatures 92

6. Filming Dreams 100

The Extras 102

Dreaming Features 106

Documenting Dreams 116

7. Lighten Your Step 121

Ibrahim Samuandrsquo;il 124

Waiting 127

Ghassan al-Jabaandrsquo;i 130

Lessons from a Rogue State 142

8. Leaving Damascus 145

Postscript 160

Notes 167

Bibliography 177

Index 187