Spatial Maneuverings in Post-Uprising Syrian Performances: Scarring Space and Language

• Main Author: Merhi, Mona
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2023
• Subjects: Art Criticism; Middle Eastern Studies; Theater
• ISBN: 9798381409291

The aftermath of the Syrian uprising in 2011 and the civil war that ensued resulted in the exodus of a considerate number of Syrian artists, theatre, and performance makers on one hand, and, on the other, it caused a drastic change in the lives of their colleagues who refused to leave home. While many of the thespians decided to stay inside Syria and where many others were scattered across the globe, Syrian art was endowed with a unique, yet temporary international exposure despite the disproportionate insight between productions taking place inside Syria and abroad. Ten years following the momentum of the revolution, artists left a rich Syrian canon of productions with nuances that are worth examining, including the diverse maneuverings of space in the post-uprising stages.My dissertation offers a close reading of performances both in exile and inside Syria between 2011 and 2021, where the concepts of space, and utterance to a lesser degree, are problematized. An examination of various works produced in Damascus, Beirut, Paris, Berlin,Stockholm, and other cities pinpoint different levels of spatial uncanniness where the sense of a space/place is often fraught.Situating my research in conversation with Una Chaudhuri’s Geopathology as a theoretical framework within broader spectrums of spatial studies, trauma, and memory studies, I analyze the significance of space, place, and geographies–both studied as aesthetics on the stage and in the artwork, and as an affect of being experienced by Syrian artists. As I offer close readings of the works of artists Noura Murad, Tanya El khoury, Mudar Alhaggi, Wael Ali, Wael Kadour, Oussama Ghanam, Waseem Alsharqi, Sari Mustafa, and others; the present research extrapolates the sense of spatial uncanniness into a node of intersectionality with trauma, displacement and war, and historical (in)justice/s.Such sense manifests in different ways: it may bluntly allude to the loss of feeling the concept of “Home,” or “the Center,” through the diegetic or mimetic space. The destabilizing value of Home is only the first layer of spatial uncanniness. Another layer unfolds when the surrounding space is interiorized into the bodies of the subjects. The sense of place thus becomes as haptic as to occupy the space of skin. The third layer of spatial uncanniness can be witnessed through performances staged in total or partial darkness, and these second and third layers achieve what I like to call "a level of ocular fluidity retainment. The fourth layer of spatial uncanniness can be tracked through the modes of meta-theatricality that question the medium of Theatre itself, as that which possesses the power of narrative-telling. The sense of uncanniness in many occurrences relates to a failure or refusal of both presentation and representation.The present research contributes to the available limited scholarship about the post- uprising Syrian performances. While the existing studies addressed the act of redeeming the public sphere following the first years of the revolution, my dissertation offers a close reading of the significance of space as a withdrawal inside and outside Syria. My inquiry thus introduces another lens of looking and equally fills a gap in the field of spatial studies. While resituating space as a problem within the realm of the contemporary refugee crisis and exile patterns in the Middle East, my thesis expands on Una Chaudhuri’s concept of Geopathology while offering a transnational examination of post-uprising Syrian theatre.Through my dissertation, I argue that amid the landscapes of internal war, displacement, and immigration, space not only unravels as a problem that lands as a state of exception on human bodies, but also signifies a withdrawal, spreading in its utmost vulnerability, indicating failure of representation, sometimes cultivating un-utterance and aphasia, and hence leading to the concept of Scar without Skin.