Overview

This book by Joseph Alagha examines social practice manifestations of performance activism among contemporary Islamic movements in the MENA and beyond. Performance Activism in the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa, and Beyond links jurisprudential concepts of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies to Social Theory and International Relations theories, most notably Joseph Nye’s hard, soft, smart, and sharp power. Alagha highlights the social practices of contemporary Islamic movements, as soft power, by discussing changes in religious discourses on art and entertainment, the reception and consumption of pious art productions by different audiences, and the metamorphosis of Islamic ethics into aesthetic forms. This book explores Sunni and Shi‘i discourses on humor, music, political satire, and the performing arts, especially singing, dance, dark comedy, and revolutionary theater; Jihad through music among Islamic movements; the Salafi and Wahhabi conceptions of Anashid (“religious and ideological songs”); the “taranas” of the Taliban, and the opinions of the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah on performance activism or “Resistance Art.”

Full Product Details

9781666975383

Table of Contents

Reviews

“Dr. Joseph Alagha’s Performance Activism in the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa, and Beyond is understandably a pioneering project covering the artistic expression expression of artistic art of contemporary Islamic movements as an advanced and modernist paradigm fusing performing arts with political mobilization to generate “‘resistance’” art as a complementary and broadening version of Islamism’s “‘resistance’” and jihad. This is a first and must- read study.” * Robert Rabil, Florida Atlantic University, USA * “Essential reading for anyone interested in modern cultural politics in the Middle East.” * Oliver Leaman, University of Kentucky, USA *

Author Information

Joseph Alagha is Professor of Political Science, Sociology, and Intercultural Studies at Haigazian University, Beirut, Lebanon. He is the author of Hizbullah's Identity Construction (2011).

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