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Image Politics and the Art of Resistance in Syria
Abstract
In what has quickly become one of the bloodiest and most protracted of the uprisings across the Arab world, Syria's revolution has attracted a breadth of coverage and academic research into the now ailing Ba'ath party and its historical stranglehold on power. This article will explore the use of the image and spectacle as methods of control and discipline under the rule of Hafiz and Bashar Al-Assad, and how they have been subverted through new media to create a counter-hegemonic cultural discourse. The complex relationship between image and subversion in Syria will be teased out using the works of Jacques Rancière, Michel Foucault, and Guy Debord.
Content
Author and article information
Notes
“25-03-2011 | Daraa Demonstrations 22”, on YouTube.
Many of the observations in the first half of the article are first hand, made during a six-month stay in Damascus, from September 2010 to March 2011.
See Lina Khatib and Lisa Wedeen.
See Martin E. Marty's definition of cult in Marty, “Sects and Cults”, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 332 (November 1996): 125.
“Syrian pro-Assad protestors march against Arab League”, on YouTube.
This is corroborated by David Lesch (2005: 233). His account, however, is much more sympathetic towards Bashar Al-Assad and one that at times borders on the obsequious.
Tanfees in Arabic (Wedeen 1999: 88).
Khatib cites the examples of Bashar Al-Assad being compared to a giraffe and a duck by activists (2013: 203).
A Dutch artistic collective “Foundland” discuss the importance of visual online presence for both the regime – citing the Syrian Electronic Army's activities – and the opposition in their essay “Propaganda Fantasies and Stand-in Heroes” (2012).
Middle East Voices (9 November 2012).
“Witness: Little Dictator” on Al Jazeera English.
“Puppet Masters”, an interview with Masasti Mati by Aram Tahhan, Malu Halasa and Leen Ziyad, Culture in Defiance exhibition publication.
“About Top Goon”, on MasasitMati.org.
Writing under a pseudonym.
“Jameel's Statement”, in A. Gad, “Culture in Defiance: Continuing Traditions of Satire, Art and the Struggle for Freedom in Syria” (2012).
“The Top Goon Characters”, on MasasitMati.org.
17 All episodes are spoken in colloquial Syrian dialect and subtitled in impeccable English.
“The Top Goon Characters”, on MasasitMati.org.
Top Goon: Diaries of A Little Dictator Episode 8, Season 1 “Beeshu's Birthday”.
Ibid., 2.36 mins.
Top Goon: Diaries of A Little Dictator Episode 11, Season 1 “Beeshu's Defection”.
thesyrianinterpreter, “Captain Qais Ziyab defects”, on YouTube.
“Beeshu's Defection”, 2.20 mins.
Top Goon: Diaries of A Little Dictator Episode 4, Season 1 “Dracula”.
Top Goon: Diaries of A Little Dictator Episode 4, Season 2 “Beeshu on The Couch”.
Top Goon: Diaries of A Little Dictator Episode 10, Season 1 “The Devil”.
“Puppet Masters”, an interview with Masasti Mati in Culture in Defiance exhibition catalogue (Halasa et al. 2012).
Gad, “Culture in Defiance”.
Top Goon: Diaries of A Little Dictator Episode 13, Season 1 “Last Days in Hell”.
Ibid., 2.40–3.30 mins.
“Jameel's Statement”, in Gad, “Culture in Defiance”.
“The Goal of Top Goon”, on MasasitMati.org.
Top Goon: Diaries of A Little Dictator Episode 3, Season 1 “Prostitute Media”.
“Jameel's Statement”, in Gad, “Culture in Defiance”.
“Prostitute Media”, 3.34 mins.
“Puppet Masters” interview.
“Jameel's Statement”, in Gad, “Culture in Defiance”.