The best of hard times : Palestinian refugee masculinities in Lebanon
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The best of hard times : Palestinian refugee masculinities in Lebanon
（Gender, culture and politics in the Middle East）
Syracuse University Press, 2022
1st ed
- : hardcover
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-309) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The Best of Hard Times explores the gendered identities of two generations of men in the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut. Gustavo Barbosa compares the fida'iyyin, the men who served as freedom fighters to reconquer Palestine in the 1970s, to the shabab, their sons who lead seemingly mundane lives with limited access to power. While the fida'iyyinn displayed their masculinity through active resistance and fighting to return to their homeland, the shabab have a more nuanced relationship to Palestine and articulate their gender belonging in alternative ways.
Through vivid ethnographic stories, Barbosa critically engages with certain trends in feminism, calling attention to their limits and considering nimble views on gender. Instead of presenting the shabab as emasculated or experiencing a crisis of masculinity, the book shows the pliability of masculinity in time and space and argues that ""gender"" has limited purchase to capture the experiences of today's youth from Shatila. Based on two years of fieldwork, The Best of Hard Times answers the burgeoning demand for anthropological literature on Arab masculinities and portrays refugees as inventive actors rather than agentless victims of circumstances beyond their control. The Best of Hard Times is a tour de force combining highbrow theory with gripping ethnography, challenging many of the stereotypes on gender, power, statehood, and the role of Islam in the Middle East.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations, Tables, and Charts xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Acronyms xix
Timeline: History of the Palestinian Diaspora in Lebanon xxi
Introduction: Thinking through Water 1
1. Submerging: Under Siege 43
2. Drowning by Numbers and Legislation: Statistics
and (Non)State Making in Shatila 73
3. Swirling and Twirling: The Fida'iyyin's Heroism
and the Shabab's Burden 122
4. Pororoca, Thinking through Music: Fida'iyyin and Shabab Talk
(Sometimes) Past Each Other 181
5. Reemerging: Noncockfights 236
6. Resurfacing: The Antilove of Empire 251
Glossary of Levantine Arabic Terms 273
References 285
Index 311
by "Nielsen BookData"
