Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:56:25.665Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tunisian Theater Through the Lens of Revolution: Theatrical Expression as Resistance, Anxiety, Aspiration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

Rafika Zahrouni
Rafika Zahrouni*
Affiliation:
Washington University in St. Louis
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

By comparing pre- and post-2011 Tunisian theatrical scripts and performances, this report analyzes instances of resistance to political oppression. The Tunisian theater provides space for free expression against the way in which the Tunisian government has handled its power, especially with regard to Islamic terrorism, not only before but also after the revolution. The present report also suggests that the pre-revolution plays represent resistance to the Tunisian pre-revolution regime that stifled political, religious, and cultural free expression. Despite the new political plurality that sprang up in 2011 in reaction to the revolution, however, resistance to the post-revolution political system also forms the central focus in the later plays that highlight oppression.

Type
Special Section
Information
Review of Middle East Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , Winter 2013 , pp. 183 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © Middle East Studies Association of North America, Inc. 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Baccar, Jalila. 2007. Khamsūn (Fifty). Tunis: Dār al-Janūb.Google Scholar
AFP News. 2013. “Chokri Belaid, 1964-2013: Fierce opponent of Tunisia’s Islamists” Ahramonline, 6 February. http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/64204/World/Region/Chokri-Belaid,--Fierce-opponent-of-Tunisias-Islami.aspx. Viewed on 15 Dec. 2013.Google Scholar
Cleo, Jay. “A Moroccan Spring: theatre and the socio-political transition.” Academia, https://www.academia.edu/1507989/A_Moroccan_Spring_Theatre_and_the_Socio-political_transition.Viewed on 15 December 2013.Google Scholar
“Conférence de presse de fadhel jaibi- 15/07/2013.” 2013. Youtube, 15 July. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32kHPyUWQZY. Viewed on 15 December 2013 Jaïbi, Fadhel. 1997.Google Scholar
Jaïbi, Fadhel. 2002 (1997). Les Amoureux du Café Désert (The Deserted Lovers’ Café). Mahmoud, Mahmoud Ben, translator. Tunis: Sud.Google Scholar
Litvin, Margaret. 2012. “Doomed by ‘Dialogue,’Saved by Curiosity? Post-9/11 Arab Performances under American Eyes.” In Doomed by Hope: Essays on Arab Theatre, Houssami, Eyad, editor. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 158-77.Google Scholar
Monstranum’s (Ghaylan). 2013. Directed by Ezzeddine Gannoun. Performed by Al-Bahri Rahali, Rim Hamrouni, Sirin Gannoun. First performed in Carthage. 23 July. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaRXebRfdIE. Google Scholar
Tsunami. 2013. Directed by Fadhel Jaïbi. Performed by Jalila Baccar, Fatma Ben Saîdane, Ramzi Azaiez, Toumadhir Zrili, Mohamed Ali Kalaî. 16 July. Performed in Carthage.Google Scholar
Zahrouni, Rafika. 2013 “The Tunisian Revolution and the Dialectics of Theatre and Reality” Theatre Research International 38 (2): 48–57.Google Scholar