neoliberal orientalism (& the discourse of resistance) 

In this talk, I theorize a trend in the representation of politics and culture of the Arab world as a manifestation of what I call neoliberal orientalism. Neoliberal orientalism is a discursive framework that casts an ideological spectrum of political possibility for some kinds of Arab cultural production, especially that performed and consumed by certain profiles of Arab youth. It can be found in international art circles, academe, mainstream journalism, among humanitarian players, and in the cultural programming of government agencies. It is particularly prominent around the expectation that a form of music, performance, or art express or enact a particular kind of creative, non-violent resistance. This celebratory expectation of resistance strips emergent politics out from creative political expression or experience and substitutes instead liberal and neoliberal narratives of political change.  

Neoliberal orientalism and the discourse of resistance wash out the complexities of local culture and intersecting political negotiations. This leads to facile understandings of political and cultural negotiations. In this talk, however, I am attuned to how neoliberal orientalist representations and analysis of Arab cultural production in media and art curation work ideologically, not to reveal a somehow 'more' authentic cultural resistance that is lying yet undiscovered, obscured by neoliberal orientalism. My analysis  is encouraged by performance scholar Eng-Beng Lim’s recent critiques of  a “Western gaze that cannot help trolling the world for the signs” of alternative culture “while expressing incredulity at what similarities can be found.” [1] This attention is central to my own arguments about how certain representations have been mobilized as a lens through which to access Arab subjects. Lim’s work on how liberal economic policy - but also art criticism, academic study, and activism - may re-inscribe “stereotypes even where they don’t apply in order for the critique to make sense to a western audience” encourages critical attention to the representations that make Arab Others “readable” to specific audiences.[2] This requires consideration even if the intention behind those representations is offered in a spirit of enthusiasm or solidarity.

Neoliberal orientalism is important in that it specifically mobilizes overtly political discourse (especially in the expectation that the work expresses or performs resistance) to confine a wide range of political experimentation and deep context into reductive variations of just a few possible models for Arab subjectivity.  This presentation looks at how it does so and why we should care.

Notes.

[1] Eng-Beng Lim, Brown Boys and Rice Queens: Spellbinding Performance in the Asias (New York: New York UP, 2014), 121.

[2] Ibid., 184.

time and date

November 1, 2017 - Panel: "Media and the Afterlife of the Arab Uprisings," George Mason University, Washington, D.C.

December 6, 2017, 5:30-7:00pm  - Middle East Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.