A study of the state-encouraged production of "dissident art" in Syria under the thirty-year authoritarian rule of Hafiz Asad, and the filmmakers, fiction writers, playwrights, and artists that contested their own appropriation.

miriam cooke is a professor of Arabic literature and culture at Duke University. Her books include Women Claim Islam: Creating Islamic Feminism through Literature and Women and the War Story as well as the coedited collections Muslim Networks from Hajj to Hip Hop; Opening the Gates: An Anthology of Arab Feminist Writing; and Blood into Ink: South Asian and Middle Eastern Women Write War.

Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 3
1. “Culture is Humanity’s Highest Need” 19
As If... 20
Slogans, Slogans Everywhere 26
Freedom and Democracy 30
2. Our Literature Does Not Leave the Country 36
Nadia al-Ghazzi 39
Colette al-Khuri 42
3. No Such Thing as Women’s Literature 48
Ulfat Idilbi 49
Salons and Mallahat al-Khani 53
Nadia Khust and the Nadwa 57
4. Commissioned Criticism 65
Culture after the Fall of the Wall 68
Commissioned Criticism 72
The Fantasy of Choice 77
5. Dissident Performances 81
Performing Dissidence 84
The Ghoul 87
Historical Miniatures 92
6. Filming Dreams 100
The Extras 102
Dreaming Features 106
Documenting Dreams 116
7. Lighten Your Step 121
Ibrahim Samu’il 124
Waiting 127
Ghassan al-Jaba’i 130
Lessons from a Rogue State 142
8. Leaving Damascus 145
Postscript 160
Notes 167
Bibliography 177
Index 187