Tribal Modern: "Branding New Nations in the Arab Gulf"

Speaker: miriam cooke (Duke University)
Date: November 28, 2012 Wednesday
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Place: Santral Campus, E1-304

The talk is organized by İstanbul Bilgi University Department of Comparative Literature.

"During the past 15 years, the idea of the tribe has become salient in several Middle Eastern countries. In this talk that focuses on the Arab Gulf states, I explore the interweaving of the tribal and the modern into a national brand. Structural, performative and cognitive, the brand is being built into heritage and fantasy architecture; it is performed in neo-tribal sports, dress codes and language, especially neo-Bedouin poetry contests. The tribal signals a new aristocratic identity in the flattening anonymity of 21st century globalization."