Description
Book SynopsisSince the mid-1970s, Lebanon has been at the center of the worldwide rise in sectarian extremism. Its cultural output has both mediated and resisted this rise. This book reviews the role of culture in supporting sectarianism, yet argues for the emergence of a distinctive aesthetic of resistance to it.
Trade Review"In this prolonged meditation on violence and its traces, Seigneiurie surveys Lebanese cultural production and provides brief biographical sketches of writers and filmmakers at work... Plot summaries of fiction and film not readily available in the US make this book an especially valuable contribution to the growing body of scholarship on modern Arab culture. High recommended." -Choice "An excellent study of the cultural production of Lebanese society resulting from the period of civil war." -- -Roger Allen University of Pennsylvania "Fascinating, eloquent, and tightly argued, Standing by the Ruins offers a distinctive perspective on relations between cultural productions and politics in times of extreme duress.Across a range of fascinating examples, Seigneiurie shows the ways in which novelists and filmmakers offer alternative visions in a collapsing world that can set the stage for new ways of imagining the future." -- -David Damrosch Harvard University
