Kuwaiti theatrical drama serves as an important medium for the analysis of the Kuwaiti ‘national’ narrative since it reveals how the government, in a given historical period, promoted specific, State driven, accounts to its general public. Aware of the social and political influence that theatre could have on its vast audience, the newly found Ministry of Information, known then as Al-Irshad Wa Al-Anbaa, invited a large group of Arab theatrical experts including Egyptian Zaki Thulaimat to put together many performances aimed to advance nationalistic, but also a Pan Arabist perspective. The State took on the role of the educator and under this rubric produced plays with the themes of tawwiyya (discipline), spreading social and ethical instructions on how one must live in a modernizing environment. In this process, the State portrayed images of the ideal modern Kuwaiti home, it’s nuclear family and the role of the model wife, husband, and child, each with his established gendered, normative, and prescribed role. The paper will trace the evolution of this theatrical narrative produced in and about Kuwait, its neighborhoods, and family life from 1940-1960. In so doing, the paper explores ‘national storylines’ promoted by State sponsored productions and the ways in which their enactments changed over the course of twenty formative years.

Architecture uses space and form as an instrument to express sociopolitical and cultural ideologies even in the simplest means of production. This paper will examine the nature of the “traditional” practices of architecture and its outcomes that contribute to the formation of Kuwait’s “National Identity.” The first part of the study will explore some State and Public buildings produced in post-independent Kuwait, specifically after the late 1970’s to the present. This will include Kuwait Towers, Kuwait National Assembly Building, Kuwait National Museum, and Kuwait Scientific Center. This part of the talk will demonstrate the design concepts and themes produced by foreign architects, commissioned by the State ruling elites, to construct an ideal visual image for the nation. These “idealized” images were “Arab,” “Bedouin,” and “Islamic” representations that inaugurate the ruler’s superiority. These collections of “traditional” forms became the sole representatives of the “National Identity.” The second part of the essay will explore Kuwait’s Pavilion in Milano Expo were Kuwait’s visual National identity was taken to Europe to be displayed in the international pavilion. A nostalgic image of Kuwait’s past- the utopian “imagined desert” - was designed and exhibited by the renowned Italian architect Italo Rota who used “traditional” and “cultural” objects mixed with modern elements to emphasize Kuwait’s national and regional uniqueness in a time of global and international exchange. This Pavilion won the award for construction art in October of 2015. Kuwait pavilion in Expo Milano 2015 is an extension of the State and its public buildings, however on an international level. It is important to note that all these projects- both in part one and two- were State sponsored projects designed by foreign architects in a top-down fashion where selected “traditions” were privileged and legitimized by the State and its ruling élites. The paper will unfold the political and social factors that legitimize selected “traditional” forms and objects that act as agents that secure and maintain the élites power over the ruled majority, especially in a time of both internal and external national threats. The paper will also answer questions related to how architecture is utilized by the state to disseminate political and social legitimation, and why its practices are “legitimate” for the Nation-state?

In Bahrain, impressive and intricately designed matams (hussainiyas) dot the landscape of the economically impoverished villages surrounding Manama. Free of post-2011 uprising graffiti and vandalism, matams and related charity organizations have long been a gathering point for religious, political and social dialogue among Bahrain’s indigenous Baharna population. Culminating annually with the month of Muharaam, and the commemoration of Ashura, these spaces represent one of the greatest visual challenges to the national narrative promoted by the Bahraini government. This paper explores the idea and development of a counter national narrative in Bahrain which emphasizes the idea of a Baharna, rather than a national Bahraini, identity. Particular focus will be given to changes in the post 2002 period, wherein a number of allegations of demographic engineering have plagued the state, and further fostered political instability.