Arab Nationalism

This book presents nationalism as an experiencable set of identity markers, in stories, visual culture, narratives of memory and struggles with ideology, sometimes in culturally sophisticated forms, sometimes in utterly vulgar forms of expression. Case studies focus on individual countries or on overarching topics in a trans-local Arab space, such as investigations on Arab al-Andalus as a realm of memory, or on nationalist funerals in Syria, as well as looking at the culture of Arab militarism and the intricate nexus between Arab nationalism and fascist ideology. Thus, the book transcends a conventional history that reduces nationalism in the Arab lands to a sequence of political rise and decline. It offers a glimpse at ways in which Arabs have constructed an identifiable shared national culture, and it critically dissects conceptions about Arab nationalism as an easily graspable secular and authoritarian ideology modelled on Western ideas and visions of modernity.