Dina Abousamra

Publication Date

12-2001

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

Michael Ann Williams, Mary Hufford, Erika Brady

Comments

Access granted to WKU students, faculty and staff only.

After an extensive unsuccessful search for the author, this thesis is considered an orphan work, which may be protected by copyright. The inclusion of this orphan work on TopScholar does not guarantee that that orphan work may be used for any purpose and any use of the orphan work may subject the user to a claim of copyright infringement. The reproduction of this work is made by WKU without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage and is made for purposes of preservation and research.

See also WKU Archives - Authorization for Use of Thesis, Special Project & Dissertation

Degree Program

Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology

Degree Type

Master of Arts

Abstract

This thesis is an exploration of the study of place in folklore and related fields of study. In particular, I explore the notion of a sense of place in the framework of Beirut, Lebanon. I draw from my fieldwork and interviews conducted in Beirut the summer of 1998. In examining Beirut, Lebanon, the seat of a fifteen year civil war and immense destruction, I pose the following question: What happens to people’s sense of place and community during and after a time of war?

Taking a folklorist’s perspective, I approach Beirut beyond what it seems: a forgotten city of ruins. Instead I explore how through narrative expressions, people are constantly involved in inscribing and producing place. Thus, in a radically changed and occupied landscape “remembering” constitutes an expressive and creative form that produces a sense of place and community. I touch upon some examples of structures, sites, borders and spaces that are gone or fragmented which are creatively enacted and re-mapped onto the landscape. Likewise, I explore how oral history provides a vehicle to understanding how people out of war and dislocation can create alternate spaces to establish a sense of place and community.

In the second portion of this thesis, I explore how the reconstruction of Beirut may be allegorically linked to second battle. That is, the reconstruction plan further imposes a new set of landscapes. I examine how the plan to reconstruct Beirut by a private corporation, Solidere, may be linked to tourist productions and heritage sites. I briefly explore within the larger plan Solidere’s representation and exhibition of its plan to transform the public space of the Beirut marketplace. I suggest that people’s narrative and memories about the marketplace may be expressive forms of resistance to these representations. In sharing their narratives and memories, people simultaneously produce their own versions of the marketplace.

Related to the first three chapters, my final chapter is an exploration of the study and implications embedded in the idea of a sense of place. This chapter pulls from scholarship and a number of works in folklore and related studies. I explore how these frame my own work, as well as open the ground for different understandings of the notion of “a sense of place.”

Disciplines

Anthropology | Arabic Studies | Arts and Humanities | Folklore | History | Islamic World and Near East History | Social and Behavioral Sciences | Social and Cultural Anthropology

Download

Share

COinS