Zakariyya Tamir and the politics of the Syrian short story : modernity, authority and gender

## Contents Introduction 1 From commitment to exile: Zakariyya Tamir, the forefather of the modern Syrian short story 2 Changing masculinity: Ḥadātha, nationalism and authoritarianism in the 1960s and 1970s 3 The modern female: Female sexuality in the stories of the 'ḥadāthī' period until the 1970s 4 From object to subject: Multiplicity, transgression and the sexualization of the female 5 The fall of the strong man: Virility, homosexuality and the qabaday Conclusion Appendix Notes Bibliography Index vi Zakariyya Tamir and the Syrian Short Story denounces authoritarian violence and oppression have not been addressed from the point of view of gender studies. This book addresses the multiple configurations that the male and female protagonists of Tamir's stories have assumed throughout his career to reveal their conformity or subversion to a patriarchal conceptualization of gender roles. This study seeks to explain the advantages and limitations of a style that makes extensive use of bodily and sexual connotations, simultaneously transforming and reinforcing normative conceptualizations of gender identities, exposing unconcealed sexual desire, breaking certain taboos, and emphasizing others. In particular, the focus is on representations that tackle or reinforce masculinity and femininity as performing two strict, separate and polarized subjectivities. This work looks at the short stories of Tamir as works of art whose multiple dimensions, collective and political, individual and atypical, male and female, reflect the specificity of Syria's experiences of modernization, nationalism, authoritarian rule, defeat, occupation and ideological fragmentation in the latter half of the twentieth century. Employing a theoretical approach to the study of fiction and its social dimension that can be loosely defined as Marxist, but in its multiple and diverse configurations, 5 this book examines the relationship between the formal transformations that Tamir's short stories have undergone and the ways in which representations of masculinity and femininity have evolved in relation to historical events. In this vein, this study explains these transformations in style and content as signalling a slowly but steadily changing worldview and a declining nationalist ideology, not as a separate superstructure detached from consciousness and relationships but rather as social experience that is interrelated with 'structures of feelings' concerning the lived experience of men and women. This study looks at the form and content of Tamir's works throughout his career as intimately interconnected, giving consideration to the way the form of Tamir's stories, their structure and style have been historically determined by the content they have embodied. The analysis connects the linguistic and strictly literary features of Tamir's short stories with changing representations of gender roles and their implications in relation to nationalism, patriarchy and authoritarianism. In his analysis of the relationship between the major political transformations and cultural production in the Arab Middle East since the 1970s, the Syrian literary critic Kamal Abu Deeb brings together the decline of emancipatory "Zakariyya Tamir is Syria's foremost writer of short stories, and his works are widely read across the Arab world. In this, the first English language monograph on Tamir's entire oeuvre, Alessandro Columbu examines Tamir's literary development in the context of changing political contexts, from his beginnings as a short story writer on local magazines in the late 1950s until the Syrian revolution of 2011. Thus, the movements from independence and Western-inspired modernisation to the rise of nationalism and socialism; war, defeat, occupation in the 1960s; the emergence of authoritarianism and the cult of personality of Hafiz al-Assad in the 1970s are charted in the context of Tamir's works. Therein, the significance of masculinity and patriarchy and its changing nature in relation to nationalism and authoritarianism are revealed as Tamir's foremost vehicles for social and political critique. The role of female sexuality and its disrupting/empowering nature vis-áa-vis patriarchal institutions is also explored, as is the question of literary commitment and the relationship between authors and the authoritarian regime of Syria; homosexuality and representations of unconventional sexualities in general."-- Provided by publisher Zakariyya Tamir is Syria’s foremost writer of short stories, and his works are widely read across the Arab world. In this, the first English language monograph on Tamir’s entire oeuvre, Alessandro Columbu examines Tamir’s literary development in the context of changing political contexts, from his beginnings as a short story writer on local magazines in the late 1950s until the Syrian revolution of 2011. Thus, the movements from independence and Western-inspired modernisation to the rise of nationalism and socialism; war, defeat, occupation in the 1960s; the emergence of authoritarianism and the cult of personality of Hafiz al-Assad in the 1970s are charted in the context of Tamir’s works. Therein, the significance of masculinity and patriarchy and its changing nature in relation to nationalism and authoritarianism are revealed as Tamir’s foremost vehicles for social and political critique. The role of female sexuality and its disrupting/empowering nature vis-à-vis patriarchal institutions is also explored, as is the question of literary commitment and the relationship between authors and the authoritarian regime of Syria; homosexuality and representations of unconventional sexualities in general. Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents Introduction Chapter 1: From commitment to exile: Zakariyya Tamir, the forefather of the modern Syrian short story Chapter 2: Changing masculinity: Ḥadātha, nationalism and authoritarianism in the 1960s and 1970s Chapter 3: The modern female: Female sexuality in the stories of the ‘ḥadāthī’ period until the 1970s Chapter 4: From object to subject: Multiplicity, transgression and the sexualization of the female Chapter 5: The fall of the strong man: Virility, homosexuality and the qabaday Conclusion Appendix Notes Bibliography Index