Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
In the Lebanese 17 October Revolution in 2019, protestors occupied The Egg, a ruinous landmark of Lebanon’s modern past. The Egg hosted many events like grassroots movements, dance raves, and...Show moreIn the Lebanese 17 October Revolution in 2019, protestors occupied The Egg, a ruinous landmark of Lebanon’s modern past. The Egg hosted many events like grassroots movements, dance raves, and cultural gatherings within months of protests against Lebanon’s degrading economic and political circumstances. The thesis argues that localized, sensorial notions of the past are disregarded in general historicist and anthropological accounts of the Global North. Framing the history of the Egg as a minor literature, as proposed by Deleuze and Guattari (1983), the thesis aims to highlight the agency of Lebanese people in co-constructing experiential narratives as powerful alternatives to hegemonic historical narratives in postcolonial context. Borrowing Naeff’s (2018) argument, which posits that time is necessarily related to space(s), I examines people’s experiences of time-space (i.e., chronotopes) with regard to the Egg. I draws on three interventions that I did with local artists to illustrate the potential of chronotopes: (1) a spacelicitation, or walking interview in and around the Egg together with a local photographer; (2) a performance inside the Egg with an opera singer; (3) a sound interpretation of the Egg with a music producer. This thesis is one of the first to combine a collaborative and multimodal ethnographic approach to study chronotopes. In line with Blommaert’s (2015) definition of polyphony, I argue that the study of multiple chronotopes of the Egg can provide a polyphonic historical account that is an alternative to traditional historicist narratives, because it gives way to the multiple sensibilities and voices that history contains of.Show less
