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Exploring the intersections of visual culture, design and politics in 1960s Beirut, this compelling and original study examines a critical period in Lebanon's history, now celebrated as the 'golden age'. It draws from uncharted archives of visual and print culture, filling a major gap in the literature on the history of the postcolonial Arab East.
List of contents
Introduction. Beirut in the global Sixties: design, politics and translocal visuality; 1. Dislocating the nation: Mediterraneanscapes in Lebanon's tourist promotion; 2. The hot Third World in the cultural Cold War: modernism, Arabic literary journals and US counterinsurgency; 3. The visual economy of 'precious books': publishing, modern art and the design of Arabic books; 4. Ornament is no crime: decolonising the Arabic page from Cairo to Beirut; 5. Art is in the 'Arab street': the Palestinian revolution and printscapes of solidarity; 6. Draw me a gun: radical children's books in the trenches of 'Arab Hanoi'; Conclusion.
About the author
Zeina Maasri is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton and a former faculty member at the American University of Beirut. Her work is concerned with the histories and politics of visual culture and design in the modern Middle East. She is the author of Off the Wall: Political Posters of the Lebanese Civil War (2009) and the curator of related exhibitions and online archival resources. She is also the co-editor of Mapping Sitting: On Portraiture and Photography (2002).
Summary
Exploring the intersections of visual culture, design and politics in 1960s Beirut, this compelling and original study examines a critical period in Lebanon's history, now celebrated as the 'golden age'. It draws from uncharted archives of visual and print culture, filling a major gap in the literature on the history of the postcolonial Arab East.
