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Decoding Syrian TV series

By Sally Bland - Apr 22,2014 - Last updated at Apr 22,2014

The Politics of Love: Sexuality, Gender, and Marriage in Syrian Television Drama

Rebecca Joubin

UK: Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2013, 486 pp

 

It is refreshing to find a book on Syria, especially at this crucial time, which deals with culture and entertainment rather than violence and suffering. Still, author Rebecca Joubin is not indulging in escapism for she rounds off her review of half a century of Syrian TV series by evaluating the effects of the current civil war on their production and subject matter. If one was ever tempted to shrug off Syrian “musalsalat” as soap operas, “The Politics of Love” proves that they are much more. Scripts exhibit a high quality of writing since most of the writers are poets, novelists and journalists. Moreover, in contrast to many telenovelas, Turkish or otherwise, Syrian TV drama seeks not only to entertain, but to find remedies for society’s problems. In Joubin’s opinion, they are a diversified gage of changing social mores, an exposure of corruption, poverty and injustice, and often a coded critique of the government.

Having viewed over 250 Syrian miniseries from those produced in the 1960s until 2013, Joubin summarises the plots of dozens of them, and analyses their significance from multiple angles, particularly how they address gender norms, and socio-economic and political issues. According to her, a close viewing of TV dramas reveals that though many of those involved in their creation were considered close to the government, they contain serious critique, though it may be coded. “Miniseries such as Bab Al Hara, Kawm Al Hajar, Al Hut and Hasiba all served as political allegories transferring the viewers to the French colonial period,” but actually targeting contemporary realities. (p. 220) While some reflect traditional gender norms, others condemn both dictatorship and patriarchy. 

Critique, however, is not reserved for the government. Many Syrian television dramas deconstruct traditional concepts of masculinity and femininity, and highlight individual responsibility for continuing repressive social norms, particularly the duality of honour and shame, which lays the basis for dictatorship. Many explicitly reject Western models as guides for change. Joubin suggests that “in order to achieve these goals of prompting critique and change, Syrian television dramas have used the lens of love, sexuality and marriage as a major trope.” (p. 12) The power dynamics in marital relationships, for example, may serve as a metaphor for the citizen’s relationship to the state. “The family becomes the symbol of society where the patriarch wields unlimited power and breaks the spirit of family members; there is an allegorical symbolism between the absolute-patriarch and the autocratic leader. By unmasking the psychology of tyranny, miniseries find ways to counter its cyclical violence” and suggest more democratic modes of social interaction. (p. 18)

The book addresses many questions that affect the subject matter and production conditions of TV miniseries from the effects of Gulf funding to state censorship and attempts to co-opt scriptwriters, producers and actors. Most interesting, but unresolved, is the question of “tanfis” — whether the government allows a degree of critique to be aired in order that people may vent or let off steam, and to show itself as being open-minded. Joubin contends that “despite the perils of attempted government co-optation, transgressive political, social and economic critiques of the Baath socialist project and failed Arab nationalist aspirations have imbued early political parodies from the establishment of television in Syria in 1960”. (p. 9) It is a strong point of the book that while the author states her own opinions clearly, she also reports differing views, thus giving voice to the diversity of Syrian cultural producers and a glimpse into their debates and dilemmas, which have become more acute with the onset of the current war. 

 Joubin, who chairs the Arab Studies Department at Davidson College, North Carolina, lived in Syria for a number of years where she immersed herself in the cultural scene while researching this book. Her obvious passion for the “musalsalat” and concern for the cultural creators she writes about, make her book quite engaging. However, to be honest, the book would have benefitted from stricter editing to make the plot summaries and analysis more cogent. Nonetheless, Joubin’s research is totally unique, and “The Politics of Love” will be fascinating for all those interested in the topic. In the introduction, she expresses her hope that “the reader will come away with a sense of the beautiful humanity present in Syria—of a remarkably cultivated, vibrant and diverse intellectual capital, which is unfortunately lost in current media depictions of war and bloodshed.” (p. 21) In this, she certainly succeeds.

 

Sally Bland

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