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The Sublime in Contemporary Art and Politics: The Post 9/11 Art of Middle Eastern Diaspora in North America

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dc.contributor.advisorCanefe, Nergis
dc.creatorArda Guney, Talat Balca
dc.date.accessioned2016-09-20T18:54:50Z
dc.date.available2016-09-20T18:54:50Z
dc.date.copyright2016-04-18
dc.date.issued2016-09-20
dc.date.updated2016-09-20T18:54:49Z
dc.degree.disciplinePolitical Science
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation takes ethnographic approach to researching art with an emphasis on the artistic practices of Middle Eastern diasporic artists in Canada and the USA. This dissertation moves from an account of aesthetic theory to the revival of public interest in art related to the Middle East and the artistic challenges faced by diasporic artists from the Middle East in presenting depictions of their own subjectivity. The Arab Spring, revolutions, bloody protests and riots, as well as the attacks of radical Islamist groups have crowded mainstream news coverage with images of terror and the paradigm of radical destruction. Such reflections of horrific scenery emulate the aesthetics of the sublime in the imagination of contemporary politics. The increasing body of art emphasizing the region of the Middle East has also regenerated this mainstream media focus on the Middle East, Arab lands, and the Muslim landscape" with the same connotation of sublimity. I argue that these artistic reflections presume a particular Middle Eastern diasporic subjectivity that comes into visibility simultaneously as the translator and the witness, as well as the victim or perpetrator of this catastrophic imagery of the Middle East. I explore the artistic practices of the Middle Eastern diaspora in order to understand how they reflect their own self-image in the contemporary art scene to challenge this stereotype of the disaster carrier. I also investigate the novel ways in which the new social movements in the Middle East, such as the Green Movement in Iran or the various Arab Springs, are represented by the art works of critical diasporic artists living in North America and how such representations settle within the landscape of contemporary art. In this study, I consider two major subject matters that are present within diasporic artworks related to Middle East: the artistic representations of home countries and the current socio-political landscape; and the self-design art practices enacted through memories of immigration, performances of body and religiosity in the North American art scene. Rather than an analysis of hegemony, this dissertation analyzes how these art trends claim to be artistically valuable and aim to reach a wide audience, as well as what kinds of artistic desires they evoke. Drawing on critical studies of democratic process and social equity, this book contributes to aesthetic theory on contemporary art and puts forward questions concerning whether or not the oppositional capacity of contemporary art has withered away in neoliberal democracies.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/32326
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectPolitical Science
dc.subject.keywordsDiaspora
dc.subject.keywordsCulture
dc.subject.keywordsArt
dc.subject.keywordsAesthetics
dc.subject.keywordsContemporary art
dc.subject.keywordsMiddle Eastern
dc.subject.keywordsMiddle East
dc.subject.keywordsNorth America
dc.subject.keywords9/11
dc.subject.keywordsTerror
dc.subject.keywordsSublime
dc.subject.keywordsMuslim
dc.subject.keywordsRancière
dc.subject.keywordsKant
dc.subject.keywordsLyotard
dc.subject.keywordsAgamben
dc.subject.keywordsBare life
dc.subject.keywordsBurke
dc.subject.keywordsTerrorism
dc.subject.keywordsImmigration
dc.subject.keywordsRefugee
dc.subject.keywordsDiasporic
dc.subject.keywordsConsensus
dc.subject.keywordsDissensus
dc.subject.keywordsVisual studies
dc.subject.keywordsImagery
dc.subject.keywordsMulticulturalism
dc.subject.keywordsSelf-loss
dc.subject.keywordsHyper-realism
dc.subject.keywordsPostmodernism
dc.subject.keywordsTragedy
dc.subject.keywordsSelfie
dc.subject.keywordsSelf-image making
dc.subject.keywordsSelf design
dc.subject.keywordsArtist
dc.subject.keywordsMemory
dc.subject.keywordsEthnicity
dc.subject.keywordsReligion
dc.subject.keywordsReligiosity
dc.subject.keywordsCultural difference
dc.subject.keywordsRacism
dc.subject.keywordsBody
dc.subject.keywordsSecurity
dc.subject.keywordsCommunication
dc.subject.keywordsRepresentation
dc.subject.keywordsVictim
dc.subject.keywordsHero
dc.subject.keywordsVictimization
dc.subject.keywordsAffect
dc.subject.keywordsWitness
dc.subject.keywordsOther
dc.subject.keywordsOtherization
dc.subject.keywordsCanada
dc.subject.keywordsUS
dc.subject.keywordsUSA
dc.subject.keywordsAmerica
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian
dc.subject.keywordsCitizen
dc.subject.keywordsCitizenship
dc.subject.keywordsMigration
dc.subject.keywordsXenophobia
dc.subject.keywordsCosmopolitanism
dc.subject.keywordsLiberalism
dc.subject.keywordsWar on terror
dc.subject.keywordsDiscourse
dc.subject.keywordsResistance
dc.subject.keywordsOpposition
dc.subject.keywordsHegemony
dc.subject.keywordsCritical art
dc.subject.keywordsPartition of sensible
dc.subject.keywordsVisual
dc.subject.keywordsImagination
dc.subject.keywordsPost-Enlightenment
dc.subject.keywordsUniversalism
dc.titleThe Sublime in Contemporary Art and Politics: The Post 9/11 Art of Middle Eastern Diaspora in North America
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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