Media Ethnography
Nasrallah and the compromise and rehabilitation of Hizbullah’s reputation
A pitched battle on the streets of Beirut backed Hizbullah’s opponents into a corner last May. But it was media savvy and the powerful rhetoric of Hassan Nasrallah that turned a tactical victory into a strategic success, argues David Wilmsen. Features video and full translations of three speeches.
Book Review: Masters and Masterpieces of Iranian Cinema
Hamid Dabashi gives “blood and bone” to the lives and predicaments of Iran’s filmmakers. Yet his conceptions of “realism” seem to be surrogates for aesthetic judgments, argues Farouk Mitha.
Book Review: Desiring Arabs by Joseph Massad. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2007.
Massad’s work on Arab sexuality in literature and media in reference to Said’s Orientalism will no doubt promote fruitful discussions, says Stephanie Tara Schwartz.
Sampling Folklore: The re-popularization of Sufi inshad in Egyptian dance music
Jennifer Peterson tracks how traditional Sufi poetry is mixed and remixed into contemporary dance music heard widely on the streets of Cairo. Features video and audio examples.
Television and the Ethnographic Endeavor: The Case of Syrian Drama
In contemporary Syria, the TV industry’s centrality renders it a particularly revealing site of ethnographic endeavor. It provides a valuable point of access to a complex and rapidly changing society, argues Christa Salamandra.
