Critical Arts articles from July 2007

Critical Arts archives from July 2007

Introduction: speaking in a Third Voice.(Editorial)
July 1, 2007... When asked to put together a theme issue on cultural studies in the 'Middle East', I found myself thinking about this name. For someone from this region it is almost impossible not to think of it as simultaneously a geographic human landscape...

Memory, agency, counter-narrative: testimonies from Jenin refugee camp.(Report)
July 1, 2007... Abstract In this paper I examine memories and testimonies in Jenin refugee camp. I explore the local narration of the Israeli invasion of April 2002 and the resistance to the assault on the camp. The literature on nationalism suggests that...

Narrating Baghdad: representing the truth of war in popular non-fiction.(Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq)(Thieves of Baghdad)(Critical essay)
July 1, 2007... Abstract As a comparative study of Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq, by Riverbend, and Thieves of Baghdad, by Matthew Bogdanos, this paper is an exploration of the ways in which each text is marketed to a U.S. audience. Because both...

Memory as allegory: the spectre of incest and the (re)naming of the father in Moufida Tlatli's The Silences of the Palace (1994).(Critical essay)
July 1, 2007... Abstract In this paper I argue that Tlatli's Silences of the Palace is a political allegory that resists both Eurocentric feminism and the discourse of Tunisian nationalism. Through the metaphor of incest, points of scream, and the...

Violence and masculinity in Maroun Baghdadi's Lebanese war films.(Report)
July 1, 2007... Abstract In this article I discuss three of Lebanese filmmaker Maroun Baghdadi's films that were made during the Lebanese Civil War: Little Wars, Land of Honey of Incense and Outside Life. The article shows how the three films use male...

An economy of legitimating discourses: the invention of the Bedouin and Petra as national signifiers in Jordan.(Report)
July 1, 2007... Abstract In this paper I examine the historical and political contingencies which have produced the city of Petra and the Bedouin as national signifiers in Jordan. The invention of a collective national memory and a utilitarian national...

Is there an Islamic communication? The persistence of 'tradition' and the lure of modernity.
July 1, 2007... Abstract Since 'culture' has become an essential category in trying to explain the post-1989 world, a new wave of essentialist thinking has emerged in the social sciences, including media studies. One such reaction is the so-called Islamic...

'Can't forget, can't remember': reflections on the cultural afterlife of the TRC (1).(Truth and Reconciliation Commission)(Report)
July 1, 2007... Abstract This paper focuses on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission as an ongoing process of collective memory and public culture. Rather than concentrating on the actual TRC hearings themselves, it focuses on artistic and...

Comparative analysis of the reportage of the Guguletu 7 events in the South African press in 1986 and 1997.
July 1, 2007... Abstract On 3 March 1986, a fatal confrontation occurred between the police and the inhabitants of Guguletu, a residential area near Cape Town. Seven inhabitants were killed. The incident was not without controversy, and received wide...

How critical is music theory?
July 1, 2007... Abstract In this article I address the problem of locating 'music theory' within contemporary critical theories in the social sciences and humanities. I show how two kinds of music theory can be distinguished: music theory as an...

Making visible constructions of dis/ advantage through genealogical investigation--South African schooled literacies.(Report)
July 1, 2007... Abstract Towards the close of the twentieth century in South Africa, powerful discourses were disrupted and political, economic and cultural transformation hailed. Yet, attitudes, subjectivities and patterns of behaviour are not simply...

Participatory photography as theory, method and praxis: analyzing an entertainment-education project in India (1).(Report)
July 1, 2007... Abstract In this article I analyse the role of photographs, generated in a participatory manner, in entertainment-education practice and research. The main tenets of participatory communication as well as certain notable experiences in...