Writing History Under Erasure: Radical Historiographical Practices in Lebanese Postwar Art
type: CreativeWork
description: This dissertation examines the artistic practices of Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Rabih Mroué, Walid Raad and Akram Zaatari, Lebanese artists of the so-called jil al-harb, or the war generation, whose work is characterised by a conspicuous engagement with questions of history writing, mostly, although not exclusively, in relation to the events and the continuing legacy of the Lebanese civil wars (1975-1990). In this dissertation I consider how the works produced by this group of artists attempt to critically problematise and deconstruct the structures and conventions of dominant forms of historiography, and how the foregrounding of such epistemological concerns in their works, rather than signalling an escape into postmodern relativism, is crucially connected to a politics of truth. The dismantling of historicist and positivistic models of history writing by such artists, as I argue, does not seek to destroy the truth-claims of history or the possibility of historical knowledge as such, but to reconfigure the task of historical inquiry as a process of critical reconstruction and interpretative disclosure. Accordingly, this dissertation considers how the above artists’ “radical historiographical practices” attempt to articulate a dynamic understanding of history and the archive as an incomplete and open-ended project, wherein our understanding of the past is always made and re-made from the standpoint and urgencies of a specific historical present. A primary point of focus is the way in which such practices interrogate and reassess conceptions of the referential and testimonial power of the document, especially the photographic image, analysing the technological forms and media through which the past is recorded and accessed. The introduction provides a critical survey of the major debates on artists coming out of post-civil war Beirut, addressing issues around the politics of memory in a society characterised by “state-sponsored amnesia” and sectarian fragm…
abstract: This dissertation examines the artistic practices of Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Rabih Mroué, Walid Raad and Akram Zaatari, Lebanese artists of the so-called jil al-harb, or the war generation, whose work is characterised by a conspicuous engagement with questions of history writing, mostly, although not exclusively, in relation to the events and the continuing legacy of the Lebanese civil wars (1975-1990). In this dissertation I consider how the works produced by this group of artists attempt to critically problematise and deconstruct the structures and conventions of dominant forms of historiography, and how the foregrounding of such epistemological concerns in their works, rather than signalling an escape into postmodern relativism, is crucially connected to a politics of truth. The dismantling of historicist and positivistic models of history writing by such artists, as I argue, does not seek to destroy the truth-claims of history or the possibility of historical knowledge as such, but to reconfigure the task of historical inquiry as a process of critical reconstruction and interpretative disclosure. Accordingly, this dissertation considers how the above artists’ “radical historiographical practices” attempt to articulate a dynamic understanding of history and the archive as an incomplete and open-ended project, wherein our understanding of the past is always made and re-made from the standpoint and urgencies of a specific historical present. A primary point of focus is the way in which such practices interrogate and reassess conceptions of the referential and testimonial power of the document, especially the photographic image, analysing the technological forms and media through which the past is recorded and accessed. The introduction provides a critical survey of the major debates on artists coming out of post-civil war Beirut, addressing issues around the politics of memory in a society characterised by “state-sponsored amnesia” and sectarian fragm…
author: Adami, Elisa
language: en
keywords: Fine Art
identifier: Adami, Elisa <https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/view/creators/Adami=3AElisa=3A=3A.html> (2019) Writing History Under Erasure: Radical Historiographical Practices in Lebanese Postwar Art. PhD thesis, Royal College of Art.
date published: 2019-01
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:00:50Z
provider: University of the Arts London
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of the Arts London