Comics in Contemporary Arab Culture: Politics, Language and Resistance

Description

Comic books for adults have become one of the most novel and colourful forms of cultural expression in the Arab world today. During the last ten years, young Arabs have crafted stories explaining issues such as authoritarianism, resistance, war, sex, gender relations and youth culture. These are distributed through informal channels as well as independent bookstores and websites. Events like the annual Cairocomix festival in Egypt and the Mahmoud Kahil Award in Lebanon evidence the importance of this cultural phenomenon. Comics in Contemporary Arab Culture focuses on the production of these comics in Egypt and Lebanon, countries at the forefront of the development of the genre for adults. Jacob Hoigilt guides the reader through the emergence of independent comics, explores their social and political critique, and analyses their visual and verbal rhetoric. Analysing more than 50 illustrations, included here, he shows that Arab comics are revealing of the changing attitudes towards politics, social relations and even language. While political analysts often paint a bleak picture of the Arab world after 2011, this book suggests that art and storytelling continue to nourish a spirit of liberty and freedom despite political setbacks. Comics in Contemporary Arab Culture provides a fresh and original insight into the politics of the Middle East and cultural expression in the Arab World. Cover Author biography Title Copyright Contents List of Figures and Plates Acknowledgements A Note on Transliteration 1 Introduction Scope and themes The analysis of comics Structure of the book 2 Mapping the scene 3 Resistance against authoritarianism and war: Adult comics before 2011 A tradition of political critique: War comics in Lebanon Critique of authoritarianism in Samandal magazine 4 Comics in revolutionary and post-revolutionary Egypt Drawing a revolution Revolutionary criticism and humour in Egyptian comics 5 Gender relations Gender relations: A core issue Slapstick humour and exaggerations Visual symbolism The rhetoric of the panels In favour of the sensitive man 6 Youthfulness and the vernacular The marginalization of youth in the Arab world Asserting youthfulness Individuality and alienation Youthfulness and the vernacular 7 Comics and sociolinguistics: Informal literacy, voice and language ideology Inhabiting a third space Voice Diglossia and written Arabic Language ideology and the illusion of zero-sum games Informal literacy and the ideology of diglossia 8 Conclusion: Ideology, resistance and voice Notes Bibliography Index