scholarly journals Representations of Death in Rawi Hage’s Beirut Hellfire Society

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 47-59
Author(s):  
Ashraf Abu Fares ◽  
Indrani Borgohain
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Church And State ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Sense Of Humor ◽  
Blood Meridian ◽  
Lebanese Civil War ◽  
Four Seasons ◽  
Religious Sect ◽  
The City ◽  
Bomb Explosion

The aim of this paper is to explore the representations of death in Beirut Hellfire Society, a novel written by the Lebanese author, Rawi Hage, and published in 2018. The novel indulges in immoral and varied casts like the de-romanticizing subjects in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian which help illustrate the realities of life during wartime. All the characters portrayed in Beirut Hellfire Society are colorful and complicated vignettes. They span the four seasons following the death of Pavlov’s father, who is killed in a bomb explosion when he is in the middle of digging a grave. In this novel, Hage portrays the dilemma that people faced during the Lebanese civil war and the meaninglessness of death. He deliberately presents a striking description of death that overflows in the city of Beirut throughout the civil war and links it to a myriad of aspects associated to it; mourning, burials, funeral dancing, lunacy, a sense of humor and jokes regarding death, and above all, cremation, to personify the abundant death and destruction that pervaded Beirut on that period of Lebanon’s history with its utmost horrible and devastating face. Pavlov, a twenty years old undertaker, and his father are extraordinary characters and members of the “Hellfire Society,” a secretive organization of infidels, hedonists, idolaters, in which the members cremate people at their own request. Hellfire Society is a mysterious, rebellious and anti-religious sect that arranges secret burial for those who have been denied it because the deceased was a homosexual, an atheist, and an outcast or abandoned by their family, church and state. With death front and centre, Rawi Hage’s Beirut Hellfire Society is a treatise on living with war. In short, it is a novel that practically defines iconoclasm and registers the horrible, prevalent, and immeasurable shocking death that ensues as a real consequence of war and its atrocities.

scholarly journals ANALISIS PERBANDINGAN NOVEL “MUTIARA DI KOTA MELBOURNE ” DAN “FOUR SEASONS IN BELGIUM” DENGAN PENDEKATAN MIMETIK

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Susi Seles
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Literature ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Descriptive Research ◽  
Four Seasons ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The City

Comparative literature is interesting to observe. The use of a mimetic approach may indicate an art of presentation or imitation, implying something static; mimetic involves something dynamic, a process, an active relationship with the reality of life. The purpose of this study to find out how the comparison of the novel "Pearl in the city of melbourne" and "Four seasons in belgium" through the mimetic approach. This research was conducted using descriptive research,  that presented the results found in the comparison of two novels with mimetic approach. From these analyzes using the mimetic approach found that there are similarities between the two works of literary novel is the similarity of the title that takes place setting abroad and describes stories that pamper the mind with the beauty of abroad. In addition these two novels illustrate how the life stories of people who fight for love but do not reciprocate because his lover more priority to career than love

scholarly journals How People Reclaimed Public Spaces in Beirut during the 2019 Lebanese Uprising

2020 ◽  
pp. 193-218
Author(s):  
Wael Sinno
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Structural Damage ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
The Public ◽  
Lebanese Civil War ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Green Zone ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The City

Over the past years, popular uprisings across the Middle East continue to grow. Throughout these movements, public spaces have played a crucial role in allowing citizens to express their demands. Public spaces have brought people together, providing the space for citizens to assert their rights to freedom of speech and demanding basic rights. Since 17 October 2019, Lebanon has been experiencing a similar civic movement. Expressions and manifestations of this movement have used underutilized public spaces across the country. For instance, in Beirut, the retrieve of public spaces has taken place on three levels: - Multi-purpose public spaces: where the protestors are reshaping the wide formal streets of Beirut Central District to active and lively urban spaces. - Open public spaces: such as Samir Kassir garden, which was once a meditative space, is now a vibrant social place. - Public urban facilities: such as the abandoned Egg [1] and the deteriorated Grand Theatre are being brought to life by becoming respectively a community centre and an observatory. To date, the act of placemaking and the reclamation of public spaces has been observed throughout the 2019 Lebanese Uprising. It has reconfigured public spaces into ones of unity, thereby reuniting citizens of all ages, religions, gender and walks of life. Some see the uprising as a genuine end to the 1975 Civil War – a war that gave birth to religious, political, and social boundaries – by organically bringing together the country as one, demonstrating under one flag, the Lebanese flag. [1] The Egg, an unfinished cinema built in the 1960s, is a landmark urban facility that was closed to the public for a long time. The Egg is located in the heart of the city near the former Civil War green zone line. Designed by Architect Joseph Philippe Karam, work on this unfinished structure started in the 1960s, interrupted by the Lebanese Civil War during which the building was abandoned and suffered major structural damage.

scholarly journals Anima de Wajdi Mouawad: El trauma y la violencia de la guerra en la construcción identitaria del exiliado

2021 ◽  
pp. 599-617
Author(s):  
Marta Contreras Pérez
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Lebanese Civil War ◽  
Guerre Civile

The main objective of this article is the critical study of the novel Anima by the Lebanese born and naturalised Canadian writer Wajdi Mouawad (1968-). This self-fictional work, characterized by a polyphony of animal storytellers, seduces and discomforts the reader as he or she witnesses atrocious and savage acts: rape, murder, torture and war. Each chapter brings us closer to the consequences of a linguistic, ideological, cultural and geographical exile derived from the Lebanese civil war that the author himself suffered during his childhood. Mouawad, considered a committed writer, reflects on the identity of the exile: an individual who has been a victim of loss, loneliness, violence and trauma. The main objective of this article is the critical study of the novel Anima by the Lebanese born and naturalised Canadian writer Wajdi Mouawad (1968-). This self-fictional work, characterized by a polyphony of animal storytellers, seduces and discomforts the reader as he or she witnesses atrocious and savage acts: rape, murder, torture and war. Each chapter brings us closer to the consequences of a linguistic, ideological, cultural and geographical exile derived from the Lebanese civil war that the author himself suffered during his childhood. Mouawad, considered a committed writer, reflects on the identity of the exile: an individual who has been a victim of loss, loneliness, violence and trauma. L’objectif principal de cet article est l’étude critique du roman Anima par l’écrivain né au Liban et naturalisé canadien Wajdi Mouawad (1968-). Cet ouvrage d’autofiction, caractérisé par une polyphonie de narrateurs animaliers, séduit et incommode le lecteur qui devient témoin d’actes atroces et sauvages : viols, meurtres, tortures et guerre. Chaque chapitre nous rapproche des conséquences d’un exil linguistique, idéologique, culturel et géographique dérivé de la guerre civile libanaise que l’auteur lui-même a subi pendant son enfance. Mouawad, considéré comme un écrivain engagé, réfléchit à l’identité de l’exilé : un individu qui a été victime de la perte, de la solitude, de la violence et du traumatisme.

scholarly journals “Zahra’s Uncle, or Where Are Men in Women’s War Stories?”

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 83-107
Author(s):  
Michelle Hartman
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
English Language ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Arab Women ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Lebanese Civil War ◽  
Arabic Fiction ◽  
And Function

Abstract Scholarship in modern Arabic literary studies has treated the literature of the Lebanese Civil War, particularly novels written by women, in some depth. One of the most important texts used in both scholarship and teaching about this war is Ḥanān al-Shaykh’s Ḥikāyat Zahrah, translated as The Story of Zahra. This article focuses specifically on the one chapter in the novel narrated from the point of view of the protagonist’s uncle in order to explore how the English translation dramatically changes a number of elements in the original text. It uses insights from translation studies to show how significant changes to the novel in translation produce a text that serves particular ideological functions in English, consistent with a horizon of expectations that constructs Arab women as oppressed and passive victims of war. The article analyzes specific translation choices—most notably the extensive editing out of words, sentences, and passages—to demonstrate how the character of Zahrah’s uncle is changed in English and depicted as an unsavory and abusive man with little background, context, or history that would help the reader to better understand the character’s actions and motivations. It also shows how cutting out elements of the uncle’s story serves to depoliticize the text in English, divesting it of its local political context and changing its meaning and function as a novel about the Lebanese Civil War. The article is grounded in postcolonial, feminist translation studies, especially those dealing with Arabic fiction, to argue that the English-language novel The Story of Zahra functions within an ideological field that recycles stereotypes and tropes about Arab women. It will propose that the translation changes here depict Arab men against Arab women, rather than in relation to them, and subordinate the analysis of politics and communal relations to a more individual and individualized story of one exceptional woman.

A Vital Void: Reconstructions of Downtown Beirut

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hashim Sarkis
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Robinson Crusoe ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Greek Orthodox ◽  
International Scope ◽  
South Lebanon ◽  
History Of ◽  
Reconstruction Project ◽  
The City

A few lines before the end of The Tiller of Waters, the protagonist, Nicholas Mitri, wakes up after his death in a void. Once he orients himself, he realizes that this void is actually the center of Beirut that he has inhabited alone during the 1975–1990 civil war and that he has been desperately trying to narrate and preserve throughout the novel. Mitri, a Greek Orthodox man from the predominantly Muslim West Beirut, had been forced out of his house by Shiite Muslim refugees from South Lebanon who had, in turn, been displaced by an Israeli invasion. Homeless, he drifts to his father’s textile shop in downtown Beirut, the contested battle zone between Christian East and Muslim West Beirut. There, he lives alone like Robinson Crusoe in the wilderness of the city center and recounts his family’s story and the history of the different peoples and religious groups that inhabited his life and the prewar city. The house where he lived with his Greek Alexandrian parents and with the Kurdish maid he loved, the shop owned by a Sunni Muslim next to his father’s in the bazaar of downtown Beirut, and the parlor where his mother was trained by an Armenian piano teacher are all eventually wiped out—not by the war but by the reconstruction project. The void, at the end of the story, represents the futility of his efforts to preserve the places. The buildings and streets, it turns out, are more fragile than the memories that inhabit them. The civil war that entrapped Mitri was triggered in 1975 by disagreements between Lebanon’s Christians and Muslims over the presence and power of the Palestinian militias in Lebanon. The war would briefly stop in 1977, with the intervention of Arab forces led by Syria, only to be resumed again, this time with the participation of the Syrians on the side of the Palestinians and Muslims. When the Israelis invaded Lebanon in 1982 to support the Christians and expel the Palestinians, the war took on an international scope with a failed American and European military intervention.

scholarly journals Nikolai Mikhailovich Aristov (Nik. Arens) and His Siberian Pinkerton

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-268
Author(s):  
Yu. P. Zarodova
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Soviet Literature ◽  
The City

Based on the study of inaccessible archival sources, the article reconstructs the biographical details of the life of the forgotten poet and prose writer Nikolai Mikhailovich Aristov (Nik. Arens). An overview of the “сinematic novel” by N. Arens “The Adventures of Evgeny Stal”, which was published in Omsk in 1924, is unfamiliar to modern researchers. The adven- ture novel about the adventures of a red scout in the White Guard rear is set in 1919 in Sibe- ria, which was engulfed in the Civil War. A separate issue reliably tells about the events that took place in the city of Omsk, at that time the capital of “white” Russia. The novel was written as an example of new Soviet literature, which met the ideological order for a mass book formulated in 1923 by N. I. Bukharin in an article on Red Pinkerton.

scholarly journals Terracotta oil lamps from the excavation at the Bey 004 site (Beirut, Lebanon)

2019 ◽  
pp. 423-459
Author(s):  
Maha El-Masri
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Urban Center ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Lebanese Civil War ◽  
Local Site ◽  
New City ◽  
Salvage Archaeology ◽  
The City

The excavation of site Bey 004 in the urban center of Beirut was done as part of a major salvage-archaeology operation in the 1990s, in reparation for the redevelopment of the city after the Lebanese Civil War. War destruction had given archaeologists the opportunity to investigate the topography, history and everyday life of Beirut over the millennia since its establishment and before a new city would be built on top of the ruins in the 21st century. Terracotta oil lamps, like tableware, are a sensitive guide to the passage of time and cultures, spanning the ages the 5th century BC through the 9th century AD, from Persia to Islam. The article reviews the assemblage from the Bey 004 site, broken down by a local site typology that reflects major periods of occupation, and relates it to existing typologies of ancient Near Eastern lamps from the Canaanite to the Islamic.

Göçmen edebiyatında din ve kimlik yansımaları -Fakir Baykurt’un Yarım Ekmek Romanında Din ve Gelenek-

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-145
Author(s):  
İsmail Güllü
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Cultural Shock ◽  
Turkish Literature ◽  
Socialist Realist ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Societal Structure ◽  
Immigrant Religion ◽  
Turks In Germany ◽  
The City

Yarım aşırı aşan bir geçmişe sahip Almanya’ya göç olgusu beraberinde önemli bir edebi birikimi (Migrantenliteratur) de getirmiştir. Farklı adlandırmalar ile anılan bu edebi birikim, kendi içinde de farklı renkleri de barındıran bir özelliğe sahiptir. Edebi yazını besleyen en önemli kaynaklardan biri toplumdur. Yazarın içinde yaşadığı toplumsal yapı ve problemler üstü kapalı veya açık bir şekilde onun yazılarına yansımaktadır. Bu bağlamda araştırma, 50’li yaşlarında Almanya’ya giden ve ömrünün sonuna kadar orada yaşayan, birçok edebi ve düşünsel çalışması ile Türk edebiyatında önemli bir isim olan Fakir Baykurt’un “Koca Ren” ve Yüksek Fırınlar” adlı romanları ile birlikte Duisburg Üçlemesi’nin son kitabı olan “Yarım Ekmek” romanında ele aldığı konu ve roman kahramanları üzerinden din ve gelenek olgusu sosyolojik bir yaklaşımla ele alınmaktadır. Toplumcu-gerçekçi çizgide yer alan yazarın, uzun yıllar yaşadığı Türkiye’deki siyasi ve ideolojik geçmişi bu romanda kullandığı dil ve kurguladığı kahramanlarda kendini göstermektedir. Romanda Almanya’nın Duisburg şehrinde yaşayan Türklerin yeni kültürel ortamda yaşadıkları çatışma, kültürel şok, arada kalmışlık, iki kültürlülük temaları ön plandadır. Yazar romanda sadece Almanya’daki Türkleri ele almamakta, aynı zamanda Türkiye ile hatta başka ülkeler ile de ilişkilendirmeler yaparak bireysel ve toplumsal konuları ele almaktadır. Araştırmada, romanda yer alan dini ve geleneksel unsurlar sosyolojik olarak analiz edilmiştir. Genel anlamda bir göç romanı olma özelliği yanında Yarım Ekmek romanında dini, siyasi ve ideolojik birçok yorum ve tartışma söz konusudur. Romandaki bu veriler, inanç, ritüel, siyaset ve toplumsal boyutlarda kategorize edilerek ele alınmıştır.  ENGLISH ABSTRACTReligion and identity reflections in literature of immigrant: Religion and Tradition in Fakir Baykurt’s novel Yarım EkmekThe immigration fact which has nearly half century in Germany have brought a significant literal accumulation (Migrantenliteratur) in its wake. This literal accumulation, which is named as several denominations, has a feature including different colours in itself. One of the most important source snourishing literature is society. Societal structure and problems that the writer lives inside, directly or indirectly reflect on his/her compositions. In this context, the matter of religion and tradition by way of the issue and fictious characters in the novel of Fakir Baykurt who went to Germany in her 50’s and lived in there till his death and who is a considerable name in Turkish literature with his several literal and intellectual workings; “Yarım Ekmek” which is the third novel of Duisburg Trilogy with “Koca Ren” and “Yüksek Fırınlar” are discussed sociologically in the study. The political and ideological past of the socialist realist lined writer in Turkey where he spent his life for a long time, manifest itself on the speech and fictious characters of novel. In the novel, themes of new Turks’ conflict, cultural shock, being in the middle, bi culturalism in their new cultural nature in Duisburg which is the city they live in. The writer not only deals with Turks in Germany but also personal and social subjects via comparing them to Turkey and even other countries. In the study, religious and traditional elements analyzed sociologically. Besides the speciality of being a migration novel in general, there are a lot of religious, political and ideological interpretations and discussions in the novel. These datum in the novel are examinated in the context of belief, ritual, politics and social categorisation. 

KONSEP DIRI “ I “ DAN “ME” TOKOH HIROKO DALAM NOVEL NAMAKU HIROKO KARYA NH.DINI

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Besin Gaspar
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Fictional Character ◽  
Social Customs ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Village ◽  
The City

This research deals with the development of  self concept of Hiroko as the main character in Namaku Hiroko by Nh. Dini and tries to identify how Hiroko is portrayed in the story, how she interacts with other characters and whether she is portrayed as a character dominated by ”I” element or  ”Me”  element seen  from sociological and cultural point of view. As a qualitative research in nature, the source of data in this research is the novel Namaku Hiroko (1967) and the data ara analyzed and presented deductively. The result of this analysis shows that in the novel, Hiroko as a fictional character is  portrayed as a girl whose personality  develops and changes drastically from ”Me”  to ”I”. When she was still in the village  l iving with her parents, she was portrayed as a obedient girl who was loyal to the parents, polite and acted in accordance with the social customs. In short, her personality was dominated by ”Me”  self concept. On the other hand, when she moved to the city (Kyoto), she was portrayed as a wild girl  no longer controlled by the social customs. She was  firm and determined totake decisions of  her won  for her future without considering what other people would say about her. She did not want to be treated as object. To put it in another way, her personality is more dominated by the ”I” self concept.

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