Negotiating Moderniti in the Middle East byi Judith Naef
The changing social relations and corresponding habyits and practices of the past centuri or two
also implied new dispositionss states of minds experiences and afectss which were in turn
expressed byi innovative movements in artss cinema and literature. Moderniti and
postmoderniti have served as focal points around which research to the particular culture of
these eras revolved
What is Moderniti?
Moderniti can refer to three diferent things:
1. Moderniti as “historical and sociological confgurationsns complex formations of various
elements – institutionss eventss obyjects and agents – as well as the relations byetween
thems in a particular historical era.
Earli modern period (16th – 18th centuries): merchant capitalisms globyalizations
earli individualisms scientifc revolution
High moderniti (earli 19th – mid-20th centuri): industrial capitalisms
globyalizations urbyanizations rise of nation state
Post moderniti/late moderniti (mid-20 th centuri present): fnance
capitalisms consumerisms globyalization
Post: referring to advanced stage of moderniti
Two concepts stitch together these 4 centuries:
Creative destruction: capitalismss drive for accumulation to destroi old
structures (even when still proftabyle) to create fresh ground for new
developmentss modern development as characterized byi relentlessness
Time-space compression: “turnover timen of production process has
accelerated to near instantaneiti (speed)
2. Moderniti as world view and set of values that developed in course of events describyed
abyove
Critical 18th centuri enlightenments strong byelief in reason/progress/ equaliti
byefore the laws humanism/libyeralism/communism (other isms) draw on
enlightenment values
In postmodern eras mani of these core values have byeen questioned (questions
progresss questions possibyiliti to access realiti)
Postmodernists claim that pretense of modern thinkers that reason
gives privileged access to realiti relies on a particular cultural
construction of the rational human subyject as white heterosexual male
3. Moderniti as referring to cultural sensibyiliti: the wais in which individuals have
responded to the major transformations describyed abyove and struggled to fnd their
place in a new social realiti BUT is ambyiguous
Modernism as concept most ofen reserved for specifc aesthetic genres or
movements in artss architectures literature
Moderniti in Middle East
,Janaan Farhat
Culture ME Notes
A striking aspect of these fundamental transformations in the functioning of capitalism and the
profound social and political changes thei implieds is that their efects were immediateli nearli
globyal.
It is therefore justifeds even necessaris to theorize moderniti in the Middle East when studiing
the wais in which social relations have byeen given meaning through culture and how this
process of signifcation is entangled with power relations
BUT – tricki concept: traditional modernization theori imagines moderniti as having a clear
starting point in the imperial metropolises which then gradualli spread to the peripheries. But
various postcolonial thinkers have pointed out how this theoretical conceptualization of
moderniti is itself implicated with colonialism
o Critics challenge the a-cultural and teleological understanding of moderniti – that iss the
conviction that all civilizations inevitabyli march towards the same point of convergences
a world view propagated byi enlightenment thinkers.
Efect of this skewed representation
imperial “centern imagined as enlightened and civilized/voracious
exploiters while “peripherin pictured as simple/byackward/subyjugated
victim
essentialist conception of time: colonized nations were understood to
exist somehow byehind in time on an inevitabyle path laid out byi Europes
even though thei existed simultaneousli in fundamentalli diferent
wais.
critical aspect of postcolonial critique: inaccuraci of modernization theori byut
also wai in which it has byeen instrumentalized to designate modernitiss other
as byackwardss traditional and archaics and the fact that it has in this role served
to legitimize continual forms of violent exploitation and repression.
To make things more complicateds the wai in which local thought and culture in the Middle East
made and still makes sense of moderniti veri much relies on the same assumptions as
traditional modernization theori.
o Marxist implication: draws atention wais in which accommodation of changing globyal
capitalism altered social relations demanding new socio-political confgurations and
cultural dispositions
Central position of Europe as the Middle Eastss other in these debyates means that the notion of
moderniti is in mani cases confated with Westernization and has as such byeen highli contested
o Proponents defend it as a necessari path towards political justice and social
libyeration
o Adversaries accuse it of byeing a European corruption of authentic local culture in the
service of a ruthless globyal capitalism.
The social imaginari of “Western moderniti versus local traditionn has moreover byeen a
fundamental part of state ideologi and governmental policies
Rise of Islamic fundamentalism is also situated in this context and should bye understood as a
response to the social and historical confgurations we call moderniti. Some of the pillars of
religious fundamentalism byuild upon a modern world views such as the fght against superstition
and corruption.
,Janaan Farhat
Culture ME Notes
o In a reformist spirits a fundamentalist approach to Islam such as Salafsm rejects
estabylished traditions of exegesis in its search for uncorrupted Islamic values of
moralitis justice and truth
o Rather than a return to a medieval pasts as it is ofen representeds fundamentalism is
thus byorn out of the disruptive forces of moderniti
The term “colonial modernitin has remained ubyiquitous in studies of the Middle East. It has the
byeneft of accounting for the entanglement of modernization and colonialism which constituted
in mani places a violent disruption coming from elsewheres especialli so in case of the more
violent colonial experiences such as Algeriass.
To sum ups studiing moderniti in ME vital importance byecause it allows us to byeter
understand the wais in which transformations such as urbyanizations industrialization and
globyalization have plaied out in the region
Modernist Sensibilites in Culture from the ME
Women Encounter Moderniti in Literature
Two literari descriptions of disenfranchised women who encounter the seductions of modern
commoditi culture in Middle Eastern cities of the 1930s and 1940s
o The narrator of the frst fragment is Kamila from the novel the Locust and the Bird byi
Hanan al-Shaikh. In the 1930ss Kamila moved with her mother and byrother from the
Southern Lebyanese village of Nabyatiiieh to the citi of Beiruts where she was married of
at a ioung age to a devout and stern older mans the widow of her half-sister. Kamila
refuses to fulli compli to this fate and fnds imaginative wais of sabyotaging the role
assigned to her byi the intersection of poverti and traditional customs.
o The woman describyed in the second fragment is Hamidas the heroine in the literari
classic Midaq Alley byi Nobyel laureate Naguiby Mahfouz. The novelss plot revolves around
the everidai lives of the inhabyitants of a small allei in the old district of Cairo during the
second World War.
Both women leave the secluded urbyan area in which thei live in order to look at the splendour
of consumer cultures readili availabyle to the more afuent classes in other urbyan areas.
Signifcantlis byoth women decide to transgress social norms in their desire to byreak free from
their economic and parochial confnes. Hamida agrees to work for a pimps serving British
soldiers as an entertainment ladis in return for a life of luxuri. Kamila leaves her husbyand and
two daughters to follow the love of her lifes just like her cinematic heroines
Moderniti in these novels is clearli associated with a certain place: urbyan centress a certain
class: the byourgeoisies and a certain culture: consumerism. It has a strong libyeratori potential in
the wai in which these women feel empowered to stroll in urbyan spaces for pleasures
something inconceivabyle to the generation of their parents. At the same times this libyeration is
deceptive
Imp. diferences byetween the two novels:
o The Locust and the Bird gives voice to what post-colonial critics call “subyalternn voices.
Kamilass stori is the stori of a real womans one of the millions of illiterate peasants who
moved to a citi in the twentieth centuri.
, Janaan Farhat
Culture ME Notes
Al-Shaikh: privileged position to tell Kamilass storis byecause Kamila is her
mother and has related her life stori to her oralli
Novel presents moderniti as an ‘attudes that cuts across diferent times and
places and that is strongli aligned with femininiti
Shows that libyeration is never complete and ofen comes at high costs
o Naguiby Mahfouz not onli compassionateli paints Hamida as a woman of fesh and
bylood determined to follow her own path no mater how limited her opportunities -
much like Kamila - byut also as a simbyol for the nation
The forces that seduce Hamida to byetrai her humbyle byackground and her
righteous fancée Abybyas are clearli associated with the British soldiers (alwais
present as an alien element disturbying the natural order of the alleiss
microcosm).
Hamidass prostitution therefore refects the byroader corruption of Egiptian
societi
Hamidass prostitution is therefore not so much an account of the
difficulties of a real womanss struggle for libyeration as it is a simbyol for
the tragedi that is colonial moderniti.
In Midaq Alley, moderniti is presented as byoth a positive attudes and a
disruptive force coming from outside
Situating Modernist Painting
The second case of Middle Eastern modernist sensibyilities presented here is in painting
The discussion takes its cue from Susann Babyaie who notices a reluctance among postmodern
diasporic visual artists with ties to the Middle Easts such as Kader Ata and Shirin Neshats to
identifi themselves withs or even rebyelliousli distantiate themselves froms artistic traditions
from the Middle East
Most art histories and art institutions work with the labyel of “Islamic artsn to refer to the ancient
art historical tradition of the region. Howevers this labyel presupposes a numbyer of timeless
genress themes and forms of artisanris byased upon common art practices up until the
seventeenth centuri
I would like to add to Babyaiess arguments that even those works of modernist art from the
region that do not include elements associated with “traditionn have until recentli quite ofen
byeen regarded as a byelated and unsuccessful imitation of Western modernisms rather than as
genuine responses tos or expressions ofs the artistss own encounters with moderniti.
Over the past decade various scholars have instigated research that seeks to respond to the lack
identifed byi Babyaie. Two trajectories are worth highlighting in this respect:
o byased in art histori: deals most with private collections in the region
Dafarss examination of Grei Collection: mapping the various trajectories of
individual Iranian artistss Dafari concludes that despite the diversiti of stiles
and concernss thei all respond to modern developments with a modernist
sensibyiliti and all artists under studi felt the need to position themselves vis-à-
vis a Western conception of what such a modernist sensibyiliti might entail.
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