The Theatre of Sa'dallah Wannous: A Critical Study of the Syrian Playwright and Public Intellectual

Description

The Theatre of Sa'dallah Wannous is the first book in English to provide a clear sense of the significance and complexity of Wannous' life and work. It is unique in bringing cross-disciplinary scholarship on Wannous together and aligning it with cultural practice and memory by including contributions from leading academics as well as renowned cultural figures from the Arab world. This volume should be of interest to literary and theatre studies scholars, cultural historians, theatre practitioners and anyone who cares about contemporary theatre, Syria and the Arab world. Collectively, the contributions demonstrate the role of cultural production - especially dramatic literature - in providing a portrait of and shaping a culture in the throes of profound transformation.

Sonja Mejcher-Atassi is an Associate Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature in the Department of English at the American University of Beirut. Her research centers on modern Arabic literature, writers' biographies and libraries, book culture, archival and museum studies, cultural history and memory, and aesthetics and politics. Her publications include Rafa Nasiri: Artist Books (2016; ed. with May Muzaffar), Reading across Modern Arabic Literature and Art (2012), Archives, Museums, and Collecting Practices in the Modern Arab World (2012; ed. with John Pedro Schwartz), and Writing a 'Tool for Change': 'Abd al-Rahman Munif Remembered (2007; ed.). Robert Myers is Professor of English and Director of the Alwaleed Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR) at the American University of Beirut. He is the author of over fifteen plays, including Atwater: Fixin' to Die, Mesopotamia and Unmanned (adapted as Drone Pilots for BBC's Radio 4), which have been produced at major theatres in New York, Chicago, Washington, and Los Angeles. He is the co-editor/co-translator with Nada Saab of Modern and Contemporary Political Theater from the Levant (2018) and Sentence to Hope: A Sa'dallah Wannous Reader (2019). He has received grants from the MacArthur Foundation and the Mellon Foundation and two Fulbright awards.

'... a very welcome addition to the library of scholars of the Arab world, academics and dramatists interested in the life and work of a leading figure of Arab and world drama, and for anyone interested in the cultural politics of Syria in the last decades of the twentieth century ... this volume is both timely and valuable.' Jonathan H. Shannon, Critical Stages/Scenes critiques