The Lebanese Post-Civil War Novel Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict

Series Editors, Ihab Saloul, Rob van de Laarse, and Britt Baillie

This book series explores the relationship between cultural heritage and conflict. The key themes of the series are the heritage and memory of war and conflict, contested heritage, and competing memories. The series editors seek books that analyze the dynamics of the past from the perspective of tangible and intangible remnants, spaces, and traces as well as heritage appropriations and restitutions, significations, musealiza- tions and mediatizations in the present. Books in the series should address topics such as the politics of heritage and conflict, identity and trauma, mourning and reconcili- ation, nationalism and ethnicity, diaspora and intergenerational memories, painful heritage and terrorscapes, as well as the mediated re-enactments of conflicted pasts. Dr. Ihab Saloul is assistant professor of cultural studies, and academic coordinator of Heritage and Memory Studies at University of Amsterdam. Saloul’s interests include cultural memory and identity politics, narrative theory and visual analysis, conflict and trauma, Diaspora and migration as well as contemporary cultural thought in the Middle East. Professor Rob van der Laarse is research director of the Amsterdam School for Heritage and Memory Studies (ASHMS) and Westerbork Professor of Heritage of Conflict and War at VU University Amsterdam. Van der Laarse’s research focuses on (early) modern European elite and intellectual cultures, cultural landscape, heritage and identity politics, and the cultural roots and postwar memory of the Holocaust and other forms of mass violence. Dr. Britt Baillie is a founding member of the Centre for Urban Conflict Studies at the University of Cambridge, and a research fellow at the University of Pretoria. Baillie’s interests include the politicization of cultural heritage, heritage and the city, memory and identity, religion and conflict, theories of destruction, heritage as com- mons, contested heritage, and urban resistance.

Also in the series:

Social Memory and War Narratives: Transmitted Trauma Among Children of Vietnam War Veterans Christina D. Weber Narrating War in Peace: The Spanish Civil War in the Transition and Today Katherine O. Stafford The Lebanese Post-Civil War Novel: Memory, Trauma, and Capital Felix Lang The Lebanese Post-Civil War Novel Memory, Trauma, and Capital

Felix Lang THE LEBANESE POST-CIVIL WAR NOVEL Copyright © Felix Lang 2016 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-55988-3 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission. In accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 2016 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN The author has asserted their right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of Nature America, Inc., One New York Plaza, Suite 4500, New York, NY 10004-1562. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. ISBN 978-1-349-57622-7 E-PDF ISBN: 978–1–137–55517–5 DOI: 10.1057/9781137555175 Distribution in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world is by Palgrave Macmillan®, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lang, Felix, 1985– The Lebanese post-civil war novel : memory, trauma, and capital / Felix Lang. pages cm.—(Palgrave studies in cultural heritage and confl ict (pschc)) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Arabic fi ction—Lebanon—History and criticism. 2. War in literature. 3. Collective memory in literature. 4. Psychic trauma in literature. 5. Lebanese fi ction (French)—History and criticism. 6. Lebanon—History—Civil War, 1975–1990—Literature and the war. I. Title. PJ8082.L36 2015 892.79370995692—dc23 2015020273 A catalogue record for the book is available from the British Library. CONTENTS

Acknowledgments vii Note on Transcription and Translation ix List of Acronyms xi

Introduction 1

Part I The Lebanese Literary Field 1 Newspapers, Prizes, and Politics: The Field’s Institutions and the Global and Regional Context 15 2 The Values of the Field: What Makes a Good Novel in Lebanon? 33

Part II “We’re All in the Dark”—The First Generation of (Post)War Authors 3 The Civil War Novel and the Break with Tradition 53 4 Revolutionaries Turned Writers: A Secular Left-Wing Habitus 73 5 Destruction and Deconstruction: Forms of Literary Remembering 93

Part III Ghosts in the Archive—The Second Generation of Postwar Authors 6 The Civil War Novel as Gateway to the Literary Field 127 7 Humanist Commitment: A New Habitus 141 vi Contents

8 Archive, Trauma, and Reconstruction: New Forms of Literary Remembering 169 Conclusion: Whose Truth, Whose Power? 203

Appendix A: List of Authors 215 Appendix B : List of Novels 217 Notes 219 Bibliography 239 Index 253 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks are due: To my supervisor, Friederike Pannewick, for her support and open- mindedness and for putting up with Bourdieu. To Sonja Mejcher-Atassi and Richard Jacquemond for their extensive feedback on earlier drafts of this book. To all my friends and colleagues for their comments and advice, for conversations and discussions, and especially to Yvonne Albers, Eloise Dicker, Ned Hercock, Radwa Imam, Abby Jamet, Maike Neufend, Tora Olsson, Manfred Sing, Leslie Tramontini, and Sarah Waidler who read and proofread parts of this book. To Hannah El-Hitami for her help with formatting the manuscript and to the people at Palgrave Macmillan for getting it published. To all the authors who were so generous with their time and their knowledge, especially Iman Humaydan, Hala Kawtharani, Hyam Yared, and Ramy Zein. To the researchers and staff at the Orient Institut Beirut (OIB), and to Ali Wehbe in particular for taking volumes of old newspapers up from the cellar. To my family for their support, in all different kind of ways. And to the FAZIT-STIFTUNG Gemeinn ü tzige Verlagsgesellschaft mbH and the OIB for funding my research and fieldwork. They all, and many more people, have a share in this book. All errors, however, are mine alone. NOTE ON TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSLATION

The transcription from Arabic generally follows the guidelines of the International Journal for Middle East Studies (IJMES). However, all Arabic names and short quotes appear in full transcription, including diacritical marks and the letters ω and ˯ , rendered with ʿ and ʾ respectively. Arabic script is used for longer quotes. The names of authors whose work has been translated into English will appear as in the translations. Otherwise, the authors’ preferred spell- ing has been used. In appendix A, all names appear in these simplified versions as well as in full transcription. Place names are transcribed from Arabic, unless they are derived from French or English (like “Monot” or “Downtown”); the names of individuals other than the authors are transcribed from Arabic where applicable. All quotes from literary texts and Arabic sources appear in the original language as well as in English translation. Quotes from secondary litera- ture and interviews appear in English translation only. Unless otherwise specified, all translations are my own. ACRONYMS

AIBF Arabic International Book Fair Amal Afw ā j al-Muq āwama al-Lubn ā niyya (Legions of the Lebanese Resistance) AUB American University Beirut LAU Lebanese American University PSP Progressive Socialist Party, al-Ḥ izb al-Taqaddum ī al-Ishtirā k ī PTSD Posttraumatic Stress Disorder SDL Salon du Livre Francophone USJ Universit é Saint Joseph