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The Power of Words: Gender, the Nahda Vocabulary and the Syrian Revolution
Abstract
The power of words and their impact on the social construction of reality (S. Resta, 1998, Words and Social Change) provide the conceptual framework for this presentation. Within this perspective, the presentation adopts a long-term view concerning the evolution and connotation of vocabulary which is emblematic of socio-politio-cultural transformation within a given geographical region. In this regard, the focus here is on gender-specific words which intersect nineteenth-century nahda expression in the Ottoman Arab provinces and that of the Syrian revolution (2011-). In the latter case, examples are taken from The Creative Memory of The Syrian Revolution website which, from 2011, at the beginning of the conflict in Syria, to the present day, receives and archives poems, short stories, blogs, video clips, movies, filmed interviews, memoirs, street art, pictures of posters and banners used in political demonstrations, etc., as well as oral narratives whose recordings are sent to the website managers. Even though the twentieth century and along with it, different types of political structures separate these two points in time, i.e., the nineteenth-century nahda and the Syrian revolution which burst into public consciousness in 2011 (in reality, both phenomena have earlier antecedents which will be briefly touched upon in this presentation), gender and the politics of words are central to both movements. That is not to imply, of course, that there was an unbroken linear transfer of words and a homogeneity of ideas conveyed by those words from the period of the nahda up to current-day Syrian vocabulary as related to gender and the on-going revolution. Nonetheless, within these two contexts, some words which are instrumental to nahda concepts regarding gender and those expressed by individuals (sometimes anonymously) who published on the above Syrian Revolution website reveal vocabulary which is crucial to both phenomena. Although perhaps not specifically conveying the same connotation in either situation, due to the specificity of the circumstances of both movements, use is nevertheless made of the following words in both nineteenth-century nahda and current expressions of the Syrian revolution: regeneration, renewal, reform, progress, rights, obligations, innovation, all of which are associated with the role of gender. It is the objective of this presentation to identify the context in which this vocabulary is used within the situation of the Syrian revolution, as available on the above website, taking into account the fact that these same words conveyed key concepts during the nahda.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Mediterranean Countries
Syria
Sub Area
19th-21st Centuries