Through a reading of the Syrian Marxist Yasin al-Hafiz's (1930–1978) autobiographical preface, th... more Through a reading of the Syrian Marxist Yasin al-Hafiz's (1930–1978) autobiographical preface, the essay investigates the changing coordinates of political critique in the Arab world in the aftermath of the defeat of 1967. The autobiography, as the essay argues, draws the contours of the figure of an 'internal exile', an exile from history into time, which characterizes the experience of a generation of disillusioned radicals. After presenting the interplay of history and time in al-Hafiz's text, the essay reflects on the historiographical sensibility needed for a revisiting of this past, a revisiting called for by the present disillusionment from the Arab revolutions. A tragic posture provides a different take on this past, the essay concludes, one that requires coming to terms with the notion of inheritance. Quand nous gouˆtons l'ivresse,amère, de renverser, nospremièresthèses, c'est peut-eˆtre alors que, nous restons le plus captif de leurs principes. (Lefort, 1979: 358)
This essay deals with the intellectual transformation of the late Syrian intellectual Yasin al-Ha... more This essay deals with the intellectual transformation of the late Syrian intellectual Yasin al-Hafiz, and more precisely with his historicist blurring of the distinction between liberalism and socialism in the aftermath of the defeat of 1967. Even though this ideology was not a textbook liberalism, al-Hafiz's later rehabilitation of it is one of the many components of a genealogy of Arab liberalism, one that is marked by the end of the hopes of the postcolonial state. Through this reading of al-Hafiz's intellectual project, the essay addresses the broader question of travelling theories, and, more precisely, the question of how to study the modernist traditions in the non-Western world. In doing so, the goal is to set the basis for a rethinking of contemporary intellectual history in the Arab postcolonial era and to uncover its reflexive streak. on the defeat of 1967 and yasin al-hafiz
The paper will draw the contours of the intellectual project of Mahdi Amil (1936–87), a prominent... more The paper will draw the contours of the intellectual project of Mahdi Amil (1936–87), a prominent Lebanese Marxist. It will start by relocating Amil's work in the general problématique of the adaptation and adoption of theories in the periphery, looking at the process of translation he deploys in his construction of an " Arab Marxism. " After presenting his project, the paper will focus on its diachronic dimension, by presenting two developments that threatened Amil's overarching project, namely, the Lebanese civil war in the 1970s and the rise of a new register of critique in the 1980s, epitomized by the work of Edward Said. The paper will conclude with a discussion of the contemporary relevance of Amil's work to the historiography of modern Arab political thought.
This article investigates the fate of two trends in development studies—post-development and the ... more This article investigates the fate of two trends in development studies—post-development and the 'developmental state'—in order to question the critical purchase of the genealogical mode of critique in this discipline. These two trends enact a critique of the orthodox discourse of development that problematises its understanding of history, self-perception and practical implications and is akin to a genealogical form of critique. Yet the success of these trends in the discipline of development has been relatively minimal, compared to the insights it has generated in other academic disciplines. This outcome raises questions as to the problem-space of development and the structure of the arguments in this discipline. More specifically, the article argues that the prescriptive bent of this discipline imposes specific requirements on critical discourse, requirements that make it less amenable to this form of genealogical critique. The article concludes on the potential insights of this form of critique when filtered through the prescriptive bias of this field.
This paper is concerned with the reception of the postcolonial
critique in the periphery, as a wa... more This paper is concerned with the reception of the postcolonial critique in the periphery, as a way to probe the more general problem of knowledge in and on the periphery. The paper will look at the broken conversation between postcolonialism and some trends of intellectuals in the Arab world. The two moments of the story are the evaluation of anti-colonial intellectuals by Postcolonialism, and the reception of Edward Said’s Orientalism by intellectuals in the Arab world. Regarding the first moment, the notion of ‘problem-space’ will be deployed to warn against the universalizing tendencies of postcolonialism. As to the second moment, the work of Mahdi ‘Amil and Sadek Jalal al-Azm is presented as illustrating the primacy of the political in their reading and reception of Said’s thesis. The conclusion argues for an excavation of the political from underneath the epistemological critique as a way to renew the broken conversation between the metropole and the periphery.
Starting from the controversies surrounding Bourdieu's political involvement, this article invest... more Starting from the controversies surrounding Bourdieu's political involvement, this article investigates the form of ethico-political involvement consistent with Bourdieu's notion of reflexivity. The argument begins by drawing the ethico-political dimensions of Bourdieu's methodology, especially his notions of socio-analysis and reflexivity. These latter emerge as the counterparts of Bourdieu's politics of the field, grounding the 'conversion of the gaze' required for political action and presenting possibilities for social agents to comprehend, accept and even recreate their selves. Applying a 'dispositional reading' to some of Bourdieu's texts, the article proposes a new interpretation of the tense relation between Bourdieu's biography and writings, consistent with the ethico-political reading of socio-analysis and reflexivity. Bourdieu's texts can be read as an example of a socio-analysis, a rhetorical strategy devised to enlist individuals into the painful exercise of rewriting their social biographies. Voué à la mort, cette fin qui ne peut être prise pour fin, l'homme est un être sans raison d'être. C'est la société, et elle seule, qui dispense, à des degrés différents, les justifications et les raisons d'exister; c'est elle qui, en produisant les affaires ou les positions que l'on dit «importantes», produit les actes et les agents que l'on juge «importants», pour eux-mêmes et pour les autres, personnages objectivement et subjectivement assurés de leur valeur et ainsi arrachés à l'indifférence et à l'insignifiance. (Bourdieu, 1982: 51–2) Bourdieu's late political involvement generated considerable debates and controversies regarding his public interventions, the relationships between his academic work and political positions, and more generally, the nature of the relationships between the postures of the academic and the public intellectual (Mongin and
Through a reading of the Syrian Marxist Yasin al-Hafiz's (1930–1978) autobiographical preface, th... more Through a reading of the Syrian Marxist Yasin al-Hafiz's (1930–1978) autobiographical preface, the essay investigates the changing coordinates of political critique in the Arab world in the aftermath of the defeat of 1967. The autobiography, as the essay argues, draws the contours of the figure of an 'internal exile', an exile from history into time, which characterizes the experience of a generation of disillusioned radicals. After presenting the interplay of history and time in al-Hafiz's text, the essay reflects on the historiographical sensibility needed for a revisiting of this past, a revisiting called for by the present disillusionment from the Arab revolutions. A tragic posture provides a different take on this past, the essay concludes, one that requires coming to terms with the notion of inheritance. Quand nous gouˆtons l'ivresse,amère, de renverser, nospremièresthèses, c'est peut-eˆtre alors que, nous restons le plus captif de leurs principes. (Lefort, 1979: 358)
This essay deals with the intellectual transformation of the late Syrian intellectual Yasin al-Ha... more This essay deals with the intellectual transformation of the late Syrian intellectual Yasin al-Hafiz, and more precisely with his historicist blurring of the distinction between liberalism and socialism in the aftermath of the defeat of 1967. Even though this ideology was not a textbook liberalism, al-Hafiz's later rehabilitation of it is one of the many components of a genealogy of Arab liberalism, one that is marked by the end of the hopes of the postcolonial state. Through this reading of al-Hafiz's intellectual project, the essay addresses the broader question of travelling theories, and, more precisely, the question of how to study the modernist traditions in the non-Western world. In doing so, the goal is to set the basis for a rethinking of contemporary intellectual history in the Arab postcolonial era and to uncover its reflexive streak. on the defeat of 1967 and yasin al-hafiz
The paper will draw the contours of the intellectual project of Mahdi Amil (1936–87), a prominent... more The paper will draw the contours of the intellectual project of Mahdi Amil (1936–87), a prominent Lebanese Marxist. It will start by relocating Amil's work in the general problématique of the adaptation and adoption of theories in the periphery, looking at the process of translation he deploys in his construction of an " Arab Marxism. " After presenting his project, the paper will focus on its diachronic dimension, by presenting two developments that threatened Amil's overarching project, namely, the Lebanese civil war in the 1970s and the rise of a new register of critique in the 1980s, epitomized by the work of Edward Said. The paper will conclude with a discussion of the contemporary relevance of Amil's work to the historiography of modern Arab political thought.
This article investigates the fate of two trends in development studies—post-development and the ... more This article investigates the fate of two trends in development studies—post-development and the 'developmental state'—in order to question the critical purchase of the genealogical mode of critique in this discipline. These two trends enact a critique of the orthodox discourse of development that problematises its understanding of history, self-perception and practical implications and is akin to a genealogical form of critique. Yet the success of these trends in the discipline of development has been relatively minimal, compared to the insights it has generated in other academic disciplines. This outcome raises questions as to the problem-space of development and the structure of the arguments in this discipline. More specifically, the article argues that the prescriptive bent of this discipline imposes specific requirements on critical discourse, requirements that make it less amenable to this form of genealogical critique. The article concludes on the potential insights of this form of critique when filtered through the prescriptive bias of this field.
This paper is concerned with the reception of the postcolonial
critique in the periphery, as a wa... more This paper is concerned with the reception of the postcolonial critique in the periphery, as a way to probe the more general problem of knowledge in and on the periphery. The paper will look at the broken conversation between postcolonialism and some trends of intellectuals in the Arab world. The two moments of the story are the evaluation of anti-colonial intellectuals by Postcolonialism, and the reception of Edward Said’s Orientalism by intellectuals in the Arab world. Regarding the first moment, the notion of ‘problem-space’ will be deployed to warn against the universalizing tendencies of postcolonialism. As to the second moment, the work of Mahdi ‘Amil and Sadek Jalal al-Azm is presented as illustrating the primacy of the political in their reading and reception of Said’s thesis. The conclusion argues for an excavation of the political from underneath the epistemological critique as a way to renew the broken conversation between the metropole and the periphery.
Starting from the controversies surrounding Bourdieu's political involvement, this article invest... more Starting from the controversies surrounding Bourdieu's political involvement, this article investigates the form of ethico-political involvement consistent with Bourdieu's notion of reflexivity. The argument begins by drawing the ethico-political dimensions of Bourdieu's methodology, especially his notions of socio-analysis and reflexivity. These latter emerge as the counterparts of Bourdieu's politics of the field, grounding the 'conversion of the gaze' required for political action and presenting possibilities for social agents to comprehend, accept and even recreate their selves. Applying a 'dispositional reading' to some of Bourdieu's texts, the article proposes a new interpretation of the tense relation between Bourdieu's biography and writings, consistent with the ethico-political reading of socio-analysis and reflexivity. Bourdieu's texts can be read as an example of a socio-analysis, a rhetorical strategy devised to enlist individuals into the painful exercise of rewriting their social biographies. Voué à la mort, cette fin qui ne peut être prise pour fin, l'homme est un être sans raison d'être. C'est la société, et elle seule, qui dispense, à des degrés différents, les justifications et les raisons d'exister; c'est elle qui, en produisant les affaires ou les positions que l'on dit «importantes», produit les actes et les agents que l'on juge «importants», pour eux-mêmes et pour les autres, personnages objectivement et subjectivement assurés de leur valeur et ainsi arrachés à l'indifférence et à l'insignifiance. (Bourdieu, 1982: 51–2) Bourdieu's late political involvement generated considerable debates and controversies regarding his public interventions, the relationships between his academic work and political positions, and more generally, the nature of the relationships between the postures of the academic and the public intellectual (Mongin and
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Papers by Samer Frangie
critique in the periphery, as a way to probe the more general
problem of knowledge in and on the periphery. The paper will
look at the broken conversation between postcolonialism and
some trends of intellectuals in the Arab world. The two
moments of the story are the evaluation of anti-colonial
intellectuals by Postcolonialism, and the reception of Edward
Said’s Orientalism by intellectuals in the Arab world. Regarding
the first moment, the notion of ‘problem-space’ will be
deployed to warn against the universalizing tendencies of
postcolonialism. As to the second moment, the work of Mahdi
‘Amil and Sadek Jalal al-Azm is presented as illustrating the
primacy of the political in their reading and reception of Said’s
thesis. The conclusion argues for an excavation of the political
from underneath the epistemological critique as a way to renew
the broken conversation between the metropole and the
periphery.
critique in the periphery, as a way to probe the more general
problem of knowledge in and on the periphery. The paper will
look at the broken conversation between postcolonialism and
some trends of intellectuals in the Arab world. The two
moments of the story are the evaluation of anti-colonial
intellectuals by Postcolonialism, and the reception of Edward
Said’s Orientalism by intellectuals in the Arab world. Regarding
the first moment, the notion of ‘problem-space’ will be
deployed to warn against the universalizing tendencies of
postcolonialism. As to the second moment, the work of Mahdi
‘Amil and Sadek Jalal al-Azm is presented as illustrating the
primacy of the political in their reading and reception of Said’s
thesis. The conclusion argues for an excavation of the political
from underneath the epistemological critique as a way to renew
the broken conversation between the metropole and the
periphery.