This volume, edited by Leyla Dakhli and Klaus Wieland, is an overview
of the cultural memory of the Lebanese Civil War, as it has
emerged and evolved over the last 30 years. These narratives represent
a counter-memory to the non-existent national memory,
undesired by Lebanon’s political class.
In 1991, the Amnesty Law G84/91 was enacted, granting state power
impunity for all war crimes, including crimes against humanity.
The general amnesty entailed partial amnesia; the war was to be
“officially” forgotten. And yet, since the 1990s, nongovernmental
organizations, archives, activists, publicists, visual artists, filmmakers,
and writers have produced an impressive alternative culture of
remembrance of the Lebanese Civil War, which is revisited and analyzed
in this book. Contributors represent a multi-disciplinary mix,
with perspectives from area studies, history, social science, literary
studies, trauma and memory, and peace and conflict studies.
LEYLA DAKHLI, Ph.D. (2003), is a senior-researcher at the cnrs,
Centre d’Histoire sociale des mondes contemporains and associated
with the Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin. Her work deals with the
study of Arab intellectuals and social history of the Mediterranean
region. She is the Principal Investigator of the erc-funded program
dream (Drafting and Enacting the revolutions in the Arab
Mediterranean).
KLAUS WIELAND, Ph.D. (1995) and Habilitation (2020) in German
studies, is maître de conférences at the Université de Strasbourg
and daad lecturer at the American University of Beirut. His research
interests include gender studies, memory and literature, modern
poetry, and intercultural literature.
