Creative Radicalism in the Middle East: Culture and the Arab Left after the Uprisings

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In the face of vicious oppression and years of authoritarian and neoliberal ideology, how did the Arab Left assert itself during the Arab Uprisings? In this bold new account, Caroline Rooney outlines the importance of aesthetic strategies and creative expression in the left's critique of authoritarian and Islamic extremist discourse during the revolutions. Using a wide array of texts and sources, both Arab and non-Arab, the book engages affect theory to show how a poetics of disappointment, despair and distrust, to dignity, solidarity and reconfigured senses of the sacred, offered a way for the left to reclaim ethical and progressive 'radical' values co-opted by political leaders and extremists in the Middle East. In so doing, the book offers an original conceptual framework for differentiating 'radicalization' from the creative radicalism of the Arab avant-garde.

Caroline Rooney is Professor of African and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Kent. From 2009-2016, she held Global Uncertainties Fellowships (AHRC/ESRC) with research programmes that explore the differences between radicalism and extremism through the arts and popular culture. Her work engages with contemporary arts activism both critically and creatively, ranging from scholarly research to theatre production, filmmaking and the curating of exhibitions.

In Creative Radicalism in the Middle East, Caroline Rooney maps out a new generation of critical thinking and details the terms of the unfinished project of Arab Revolutions. She observed these revolutions closely, thought them through thoroughly, and then reflected upon their causes and consequences for a good period of critical meditation, and then just about the time when the world thought these revolutions were finished and done with she came out with this bold and brilliant opus. We all have to go back to the drawing board. -- Hamid Dabashi, HAGOP KEVORKIAN PROFESSOR OF IRANIAN STUDIES AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, USA 'At the core of the intellectual contribution of the volume is the thought of the revolutionary movement as itself a work of art, demanding an aesthetic approach beyond the tug and pull of valorised political and interpretative positions. A masterful example of what a genuinely engaged and committed humanist thought can achieve.' -- Ayman El-Desouky, Associate Professor of Modern Arabic and Comparative Literature, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Qatar