We Are Iraqis: Aesthetics and Politics in a Time of War

by Nadje Al-Ali, Deborah Al-Najjar

Overview

While the occupation of Iraq and its aftermath has received media and political attention, we know very little about the everyday lives of Iraqis. Iraqi men, women, and children are not merely passive victims of violence, vulnerable recipients of repressive regimes, or bystanders of their country's destruction. In the face of danger and trauma, Iraqis continue to cope, preparing food, sending their children to school, socializing, telling jokes, and dreaming of a better future. Within the realm of imagination and creative expression, the editors find that many Iraqi artists have not only survived but have also sought healing. In We Are Iraqis, Al-Ali and Al-Najjar showcase written and visual contributions by Iraqi artists, writers, poets, filmmakers, photographers, and activists. Contributors explore the way Iraqis retain, subvert, and produce art and activism as ways of coping with despair and resisting chaos and destruction. The first anthology of its kind, We Are Iraqis brings into focus the multitude of ethnicities, religions, and experiences that are all part of Iraq.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815633013
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	01/18/2013
Series:	Contemporary Issues in the Middle East
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Nadje Al-Ali is professor of gender studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Deborah Al-Najjar is Ph.D. candidate in the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xi

Contributors xiii

Introduction: Writing Trauma, Memory, and Materiality Nadje Al-Ali Deborah Al-Najjar xxv

1 What Every Driver Must Know Alise Alousi 1

2 Bifurcations of Iraq's Visual Culture Nada Shabout 5

3 A Barbarian in Rome: Excerpts from a Diary Sinan Antoon 24

4 Putting Contemporary Iraqi Art on the Map: A Conversation with Maysaloun Faraj Nadje Al-Ali 35

5 The Assassination of Iraqi Academic Life: A Personal Testimony Saad N. Jawad 48

6 My Own Private Munich Dahlia Petrus 60

7 Hassan Abdulrazzak: A Selection Hassan Abdulrazzak 79

8 Retraining Sunni and Shi'i Discussions Yara Badday 83

9 Invisible Mirror: Aggression and the Thumb-Generation Response Wafaa Bilal 93

10 Iraq: A Long Phantasmagorical Dream for Those Who Are Not Part of the New Capitalism or Retired Communism Ali Bader 103

11 Migratory Sacred Spaces: (Re)creating 'Ashura Dena Al-Adeeb 127

12 (Dis)connectioned Celia Shallal 144

13 Sophisticated Ways: Destruction of an Ancient City Nadje Al-Ali 151

14 My Trips to the Unknown Maki Al Nazzal 161

15 A Tale of Two Exiles Sama Alshaibi 171

16 1001 Nights Jananne Al-Ani 182

17 Arab-Jews, Diasporas, and Multicultural Feminism: A Conversation with Ella Habiba Shohat Evelyn Azeeza Alsultany 185

18 A Film-Training Project for Young Iraqis Maysoon Pachachi 205

19 Lyrical Resistance: The Example of Saadi Youssef Ferial J. Ghazoul 216

20 Larsa Dunya Mikhail 231

21 Ur's Echo: Cosmopolitans and Radical Loss Rashad Salim 235

22 Identity of the Numbers Irada Al-Jabbouri 250

Bibliography 257

Editorial Reviews

In a very touching account, We Are Iraqis strikes the right chord within Iraqi popular memory, hooking readers' attention towards the suffering of the Iraqi people in general and the middle class in particular. Highly recommended.

Choice

The book takes its readers on a journey, introducing them to different faces and facets of the country and showing them that no matter how embattled and dispersed cultural production in Iraq has become, it contains beauty even in the most desperate of situations.

Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication

Like art itself, this book combines the personal with the political, the material with the visionary, in order to address reality. Rooted in history, it presents new perspectives for the future. For Iraqis to reclaim their humanity has global implications.

Jordan Times

We Are Iraqis vividly describes and relives this ebb and flow of catastrophe and rebirth via a remarkably rich collection of essays, poems, interviews, and memoirs.

Review of Middle East Studies