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ABSTRACT
This article examines the role that creative writing, specifically life writing or creative nonfiction, can play in subverting dominant discourse in a post-conflict environment such as post-postwar (post-2006) Lebanon. To engage the views of Lebanese youth on home matters that shape their lives, I examine 62 personal narratives written by creative writing students at the University of Balamand in Beirut, Lebanon, over a three-year period (2013–2016). Produced against the backdrop of a fractious political climate worsened by the Syrian refugee crisis and military tensions disturbing the Middle East, the texts, I argue, focus on two subject groupings. The first is ‘Coming of Age in an Unstable Home Culture’, and the second is ‘Rewriting Home’. These I separate into six sub-themes: the sectarian and patriarchal gridlock, dim prospects, non-conformist choices, the plight of domestic workers, alternative communities and activism, and green texts. The memoirs reveal how coming of age amid risk and turmoil compelled students to develop contact zones and counter-spaces where non-sectarian initiatives can both circumvent and resist the political and patriarchal sanctions that prescribe life choices and reproduce mainstream followings.
Acknowledgement
This study was made possible in part by the collaboration of colleagues in the English Department at the University of Balamand who authorised access to the data I have analysed.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Sleiman El Hajj studied creative writing at Exeter College, the University of Oxford, and at the University of Gloucestershire in the UK. His PhD specialism combines fiction, life writing, and 21st-century world literature. His research interests are interdisciplinary, and he holds degrees in creative writing, English literature, American studies, and biology. He is currently working on two book projects: a monograph and a novel. Recent publications explore different iterations of gender, sexuality and movement – they span creative and critical research and have appeared in peer-reviewed journals, such as Excursions, and short story collections and anthologies such as Compass, Reflections, Crooked Holster and Prole: Poetry and Prose. He can be reached at [email protected]. His LinkedIn handle is Dr. Sleiman El-Hajj.
Notes
1 The term postwar refers in general to the period after the Lebanese Civil War ended in 1990. With yet another war happening on Lebanese ground, the Israel-Hezbollah War in 2006, I use the term post-postwar to describe the social and political setting after this war.
2 The University of Balamand runs several campuses: its Beirut campus houses the Faculty of Health Sciences, which operates the English Programme offering the creative writing electives the respondents in this study were enrolled on. See Appendix for more details.
3 Shiite-Sunnite fighting broke out in Lebanon in May 2008 after a protracted political crisis culminated with government decisions clashing with Hezbollah interests. The conflict concluded with the Doha Agreement on 21 May 2008. See Makhzoumi Citation2010.
4 Khalaf's studies discuss narratives written by students at the American University of Beirut, an expensive private university that has had a significant tuition hike over the past decade. For a creative writing analysis of youth conspicuous consumption, including hedonism and plastic surgery, see Khalaf Citation2014.
5 The Cedar Revolution, featuring a surge in youth activism demanding the withdrawal of Syrian troops, was ignited by the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. See Gahre Citation2011.
6 Leisure spaces in Lebanon are not exempt from political divisions. For a discussion of how recreational outlets, such as athletics, are governed by politics and sect, see Reiche Citation2011.