Lebanese Civil War
All topics-
Book review: Hilal Chouman′s ″Limbo Beirut″
Hybrid lives
″Limbo Beirut″ is Hilal Chouman′s third novel, but his first to cross over into English. Beautifully translated by Anna Ziajka Stanton, this illustrated novel is a five-part portrait of interconnected lives, written in markedly different styles. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the book
-
Civil rights in Lebanon
″Reclaiming Beirut′s public space″
In June this year, Beirut′s largest green space, Horsh Beirut, re-opened to the public after an extended period of closure. Thanks to a strong campaign led by the NGO Nahnoo, citizens are once more able to enjoy strolling under the pines. By Changiz M. Varzi
-
Solving the conflicts in the Middle East
Tracing the fault lines
Simmering for decades beneath the surface of autocratic repression, conflicts such as the Sunni uprisings in Syria and Iraq, Shia unrest in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, not to mention the rancour of the Kurds and Palestinians, are ongoing. The West is partly to blame. By Ishac Diwan
-
Western involvement in the Middle East
A rotten legacy
Whatever else they were guilty of, the two authors of the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, George Bush and Tony Blair, displayed an astonishing ignorance of history. By Roger Hardy
-
Novelist and critic Elias Khoury
The nightmare of reality
The Lebanese novelist and critic, Elias Khoury, examines the nature of writing in a world rent repeatedly by violence and vicious conflict – and finds hope
-
Lebanon′s architectural heritage
A race against time
Old Beirut is slowly dying. Remnants of the Lebanese capital′s architectural heritage have survived two world wars, fifteen years of civil war, the 2006 Summer War, as well as hundreds of car bombings, suicide attacks and assassinations. Yet now, writes Changiz Varzi, there′s a new, inexorable threat: real estate development
-
Lebanon: from amnesty to amnesia
Lacking a culture of remembrance
"In Lebanon, repression has become a permanent state of mind," says the journalist and Orientalist Monika Borgmann. With the archive "UMAM Documentation & Research", founded in 2004, she attempts to fill the gaps in the country's collective memory. Interview by Juliane Pfordte
-
Book review ″Beirut Noir″
Chronicling life in the corrupt city
The smoke of abandonment permeates ″Beirut Noir″. In this collection of short stories, we find the remains of the crippled, the lonely, the lost, and the dead. They move – or fail to move – through a landscape violently reshaped by fifteen years of civil war. Many of the characters are stuck in an afterlife of one sort or another. Or, if they′re still alive, time has stopped. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the book
-
Book review: ″The Broken Mirrors: Sinalcol″ by Elias Khoury
A dizzying sense of displacement
Originally published in Arabic in 2012, ″The Broken Mirrors: Sinalcol″ was only translated into English this year. It contains many of the tropes that Elias Khoury readers will find familiar: shifting perspectives, an unreliable narrator, obscured memories, uncertain truths, and reflections upon narration. Nahrain al-Mousawi has read the book
-
Najwa Barakat on Arabic literature
Combating the desertification of Arab culture
Lebanese writer Najwa Barakat has written six novels since 1986. Over the past ten years, her work has been garnering increased critical acclaim. However, instead of resting on her laurels and focusing solely on her own work, Barakat is reaching out to young writers across the region, acting as a guide and organising workshops for emerging writers. Marcia Lynx-Qualey spoke to her about her work
-
Book review: Etel Adnan's "Conversations with My Soul"
Illuminating the obscure
In 1980, the Lebanese artist and writer Etel Adnan published the book-length poem "The Arab Apocalypse", which to this day is still regarded as one of the most important works on the civil war in Lebanon. A selection of some of Adnan's works has been translated into German and published under the title "Gespräche mit meiner Seele" (Conversations with My Soul). A review by Claudia Kramatschek
-
Lebanese comic artist Zeina Abirached
Seeing war through the eyes of a child
The Lebanese artist Zeina Abirached grew up during the country’s 15-year civil war. In her comic books, she describes how her family experienced the horror of this brutal conflict. Juliane Metzker talked to her