Nostalgias in Modern Tunisia Dissertation
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Images of the Past: Nostalgias in Modern Tunisia Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By David M. Bond, M.A. Graduate Program in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures The Ohio State University 2017 Dissertation Committee: Sabra J. Webber, Advisor Johanna Sellman Philip Armstrong Copyrighted by David Bond 2017 Abstract The construction of stories about identity, origins, history and community is central in the process of national identity formation: to mould a national identity – a sense of unity with others belonging to the same nation – it is necessary to have an understanding of oneself as located in a temporally extended narrative which can be remembered and recalled. Amid the “memory boom” of recent decades, “memory” is used to cover a variety of social practices, sometimes at the expense of the nuance and texture of history and politics. The result can be an elision of the ways in which memories are constructed through acts of manipulation and the play of power. This dissertation examines practices and practitioners of nostalgia in a particular context, that of Tunisia and the Mediterranean region during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Using a variety of historical and ethnographical sources I show how multifaceted nostalgia was a feature of the colonial situation in Tunisia notably in the period after the First World War. In the postcolonial period I explore continuities with the colonial period and the uses of nostalgia as a means of contestation when other possibilities are limited. An ethnographic engagement with nostalgia requires that we acknowledge and seek to account for multiple strands of remembrance, seeing how they coexist, ii combine, and/or conflict. Nostalgia is shaped by specific cultural concerns and struggles; and as with other forms of memory practice, it can only be understood in particular historical and spatial contexts. iii Dedication تونس تؤ نس من جاءها و تدركه حسرة حيث سار لو حل عنها ﻷرض العراق لحن إليها حنين الحوار حنين إليها لحن Σιπες “θα παγω σ’αλλη γη, θα παγω σ’αλλη θαλασσα. Μια πόλις άλλη θα σρεθει καλλιτερη απο αυτη…. Καινούριους τοπους δεν θα σρεις, δεν θα σρεις αλλες θαλασσες ή πολις θα σε ακολούθει iv Acknowledgements Under the guidance of my adviser Dr. Sabra Webber, together with Dr Johanna Sellman and Dr Philip Armstrong, questions and avenues of research emerged from my Tunisian experiences. I thank them for their comments. The staff of the Graduate School of The Ohio State University helped me navigate preparation and submission procedures, and I received help too from Dr Justin Acome, Academic Program Coordinator of the Near Eastern and Languages and Cultures Department. Dr Daniela Melfa of the University of Catania contributed heartening encouragement and helpful criticism. Mr. Julian Halliday was a source of encouragement here in Columbus. Dr. Justin McGuinness of the American University of Paris shared generously his knowledge of Tunis and other North African cities. v Vita 1985 B.A. in Oriental Studies (Wadham College, Oxford) 1993 Licence in Theology (Institut catholique, Toulouse) 2001 Maîtrise in Arabic Language and Civilization (Tunis) 2012 M.A. Near Eastern Languages and Cultures civilization, The Ohio State University 2010 to present Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, The Ohio State University Publications 2016 “Tunisia: constructing the mosaic” in Minorities and the Modern Arab World: New Perspectives, Laura Robson, ed. (Syracuse University Press) 2015 “Tunis between maps and memory, ” in Minoranze, pluralismo, stato nell’Africa mediterraneae nel Sahel, Federico Cresti, ed. (Rome: Aracne, 2015). 2013 “Knowledge is treasure”: reflections on the first editorial of the Revue de l’Institut des belles-lettres arabes, Polo Sud 2 (2013): http://www.editpress.it/cms/book/polo-sud-2 2010 “Sur les traces de Prosper Ricard : expériences culturelles dans la médina de e e Tunis 1927-1950,ˮ in Traces, désir de savoir et volonté d’être. XIX -XXI siècles, Fanny Colonna et Loïc Le Pape, eds. (Arles : Actes Sud, 2010). 2010 “All things to all men: postcolonial history’s many guises,” revue de l’Institut des belles-lettres arabes 206 (2010): 213-233. 2009 “About this man called Ali: the purple life of an Arab artist,” revue de l’Institut des belles-lettres arabes 204 (2009): 293‒296. vi 2009 “British travellers in Tunisia, 1800-1930, a history of representations and encountersˮ revue de l’Institut des belles-lettres arabes 203(2009): 161‒165. 2007 “Indigènesˮ revue de l’Institut des belles-lettres arabes 199 (2007): 88‒93. 2006 “ L’image révélée : de l’orientalisme à l’art contemporain. Exposition au musée de la ville de Tunis, palais Kheir ed-Din, 20 septembre – 4 novembreˮ revue de l’Institut des belles-lettres arabes 199 (2006): 83‒87. 2004 “ Cinéma tunisien 2003: le printemps de Nouri Bou Zid,” revue de l’Institut des belles-lettres arabes 193 (2004): 85‒91. 2000 “Qui guide les guides?,” revue de l’Institut des belles-lettres arabes 186 (2000) : 243‒249. Fields of Study Major Field: Near Eastern Languages and Cultures vii Table of Contents Abstract .........................................................................................................................ii Dedication .................................................................................................................... iv Vita ............................................................................................................................... vi Publications ................................................................................................................. vi Fields of Study ............................................................................................................vii Table of Contents ..................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2 Nostalgia(s): An Overview ...................................................................... 11 al-hanīn: Land and Longing ............................................................................................. 14 Mourning lost cities : Algiers ........................................................................................... 18 Contemporary commemorations : Algiers ....................................................................... 28 Contemporary commemorations : Tunis ......................................................................... 40 Chapter 3: Exile and home: past and present in interwar Tunisia ....................... 46 Context :Tunisia 1920 ...................................................................................................... 50 Tha‛ālbi’s response in La Tunisie martyre ...................................................................... 54 La Tunisie après la guerre ............................................................................................... 63 viii Tebourba :reading the context .......................................................................................... 69 The olives of Tebourba ..................................................................................................... 73 Chapter 4: IBLA: From nostalgia to realism .......................................................... 78 The White Fathers and IBLA ........................................................................................... 83 IBLA in its Tunis setting .................................................................................................. 85 Tunisia 1937 ...................................................................................................................... 91 Gone with the Wind ........................................................................................................ 117 Chapter 5: “Maps” of Tunisian history ................................................................. 123 Translating Translations ................................................................................................. 124 From Thaʽālbi to Ben Ali : “the story of ancient days” ................................................. 129 Mediterranean mosaics : Ben Ali and others ................................................................. 139 Framing the present ........................................................................................................ 145 Nostalgias compared ....................................................................................................... 150 Ici on parle français ! ...................................................................................................... 154 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 158 Chapter 6: Picturing Tunis ..................................................................................... 160 Chapter 7: Conclusion ............................................................................................. 188 ix References ................................................................................................................. 196 x Chapter 1: Introduction It’s a familiar scene from early in Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1966 film The Battle of Algiers: a French police inspector is dictating a report on a series