Preface
Acknowledgments
1 Theatrical Genres and the Carnivalesque:
Art of the Theatre
Socio-Cultural Sources and Functions
Ritual, Festival, Carnival, Play, Satire and Theatre: Common
Elements among Universal Phenomena
The First Genres: Tragedy and Comedy
Nietzsche’s Apollonian and Dionysian Art: The Bakhtinian Source?
Bakhtin’s Historical Poetics and Theory of Genres
The Grotesque and “Grotesque Realism”
Carnivalesque Satire
2 Theatre in the Arab World: The Historical
Background
Semi-Theatrical and Semi-Carnivalesque Phenomena: From the
Hellenistic Period until the Beginning of the 20th Century
Shadow Theatre, the Karagoz (Kara Gyooz), and the Texts of
Ibn Daniyal (1248–1311?)
Marun al-Naqqash (1817–1855): Father of the Modern Arabic
Theatre
The Musical Theatre of Ahmad Abu Khalil al-Qabbani (1835–1902):
The Father of Syrian Theatre
Al-Shawk: Arabic Political Theatre in Syria after 1967
3 The Early Comedies of Durayd Lahham and Nihad Qal‘i: Birth
Pangs of Late Satire
Maqalib Ghawwar and Sah al-Num
4 When a Gay Rogue Grows to be a Tragic
Fool: The Carnivalesque Satires
The Medium of the People: The Collective Spirit as Heroine
The Eccentric “Soldiers” of the Satiric Attack: The Naïve
Fool, the Lunatic, the Drunk, and the Dead Man
Familiarity as a Satirical Tool: Misalliance of Types and
Unity of Opposites
Mundus Inversus (World Upside-down): Mock Crowning and De-crowning
The Carnivalesque Chronotope in the Plays of Lahham and al-Maghout
Appendix I: The Films of Lahham and
al-Maghout: Al-Hudud and Al-Taqrir
Appendix II: Dialogic Strategies in
“Al-Tasyees”: The Theatre of Sa‘dallah Wannus
(1941–1997)
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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“Drawing on the historical poetics
of Nietzsche and particularly his Apollonian/Dionysian formulations
and Bakhtin’s dialogic carnivalesque element, the book makes
an important contribution to the field of Performance Studies not
only in the Arab World but elsewhere. If the religion of Islam is
claimed to be diametrically opposed to conflict, representation,
and mimesis, does it mean that the Arabo-Islamic civilization was
devoid of performance phenomena, particularly festive theatricality?
Indeed, Hamdan provides ample evidence that despite the circulation
of ideas that oppose theatrical representation in an Islamic context,
many theatrical aspects remained eclipsed in the spheres of Arabo-Islamic
popular forms of entertainment and festivities. However, dramatic
literature was left as one of the least developed forms of literary
expressions in the Arabo-Islamic heritage.” Digest of Middle
East Studies
“This is an excellent contribution
to the study of the dynamics of the Arab cultural system in modern
times, especially
against the
background of the current limited research in the field. Arab and
Western scholars have generally ignored the non-canonized texts and
activities in Arab society although it has been proven that the study
of such texts and activities and their relationships and interactions
with the canonical cultural circles are essential if we want to arrive
at an adequate understanding of the historical development of Arab
culture and to truly perceive the general literary taste of the present
period and the horizons of native readers.
By adopting a socio-historical approach this study is the
first major attempt to highlight the unappreciated merit of
the non-canonized protest plays jointly written by the Syrian
artists Durayd Lahham and Muhammad al-Maghout. As illustrated
by the complicated and multi-layered personality of Ghawwar
– the famous and popular character created by Lahham
– Hamdan's study combines art with politics, the heritage
of the past with the innovations of the present, East with
West and lower class-consciousness with Pan-Arab nationalism.”
Professor Reuven Snir, Dept. of Arabic Language &
Literature, University of Haifa
“An important addition to the current debate on
Arabo-Islamic theatre.” Digest of Middle East Studies |
