Humor in Middle Eastern Cinema / edited by Gayatri Devi and Najat Rahman.

Print version record.

While Middle Eastern culture does not tend to be associated with laughter and levity in the global imagination, humor-often satirical-has long been a staple of mainstream Arabic film. In "Humor in Middle Eastern Cinema, " editors Gayatri Devi and Najat Rahman shed light on this tradition, as well as humor and laughter motivated by other intent-including parody, irony, the absurd, burlesque, and dark comedy. Contributors trace the proliferation of humor in contemporary Middle Eastern cinema in the works of individual directors and from the perspectives of genre, national cinemas, and diasporic cinema."Humor in Middle Eastern Cinema " explores what humor theorists have identified as an "emancipatory," "liberatory," even "revolutionary" function to humor. Among the questions contributors ask are: How does Middle Eastern cinema and media highlight the stakes and place of humor in art and in life? What is its relation to the political? Can humor in cinematic art be emancipatory? What are its limits for its intervention or transformation? Contributors examine the region's masterful auteurs, such as Abbas Kiarostami, Youssef Chahine, and Elia Suleiman and cover a range of cinematic settings, including Egypt, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey. They also trace diasporic issues in the distinctive cinema of India and Pakistan. This insightful collection will introduce readers to a variety of contemporary Middle Eastern cinema that has attracted little critical notice. Scholars of cinema and media studies as well as Middle Eastern cultural history will appreciate this introduction to a complex and fascinating cinema.

Introduction / Gayatri Devi and Najat Rahman -- Humor, loss, and the possibility for politics in recent Palestinian cinema / Najat Rahman -- Strategies of subversion in Ben Ali's Tunisia : allegory and satire in Moncef Dhouib's The TV is coming / Robert Lang -- Satiric traversals in the comedy of Mehrān Modiri : space, irony, and national allegory on Iranian television / Cyrus Ali Zargar -- Ethnic humor, stereotypes, and cultural power in Israeli cinema / Elise Burton -- The laughter of Youssef Chahine / Najat Rahman -- Comedic mediations : war and genre in The outcasts / Somy Kim -- Humor and the cinematic sublime in Kiarostami's The wind will carry us / Gayatri Devi -- America the oppressively funny : humor and anti-Americanisms in modern Turkish cinema / Perin Gurel -- Laughter across borders : the case of the Bollywood film Tere Bin Laden / Mara Matta.

Includes filmography (pages 257-258).

Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-255) and index.

English.

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