Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Baghdad (Iraq) In literature'

The late 19th and early 20th century was a time of change for the Jewish people of Baghdad. Cultural influences from Europe and North America were making their presence felt and some Jewish Baghdadis actively sought to incorporate these into their personal and professional lives. To facilitate this process of acculturation, the Jewish community established schools that provided both a western education and a Jewish one. This essay studies these schools and considers the larger challenges that the community faced in seeking to be both western and Jewish while living in the Arab world. A brief history of the Jews of Baghdad and their standing in the city through the ages is also included.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008.
The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on September 2, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.

Intelligent systems (IS) are seen as a vital component in improving building performance. The research reported in this thesis explored the potential role of such systems in improving the performance of courtyard house types in Baghdad, Iraq. The Iraqi government's intention to refurbish those courtyard houses that possess significant historical architectural value was based on modifying the ambient social and environmental condition to protect the occupants. The benefits of IS are generally to: provide environmental control and system control, reduce running costs, improve operational effectiveness and energy efficiency, maintenance/building upkeep, reliability/dependability, and last but not least monitoring and observation. However, the majority of IS research and development has been on commercial and office buildings, and although there were applications in dwelling houses, their potential benefit for certain house types, for example courtyard houses, has not been well understood. Against the background of the possible refurbishment of the courtyard house, the aim of this research is to explore the potential role of intelligent systems in improving the performance of the courtyard house type in Baghdad, Iraq. The main objectives of this research were to: (1) investigate the characteristics and features of the traditional courtyard house in Iraq, (2) investigate the meaning, nature and application of intelligent systems in buildings, (3) investigate the lifestyle of current users of traditional courtyard houses and how these buildings support their needs, (4) examine the potential role of IS in improving the performance of courtyard houses, and (5) make recommendations on the possible applications of IS to courtyard houses. Various research methods and strategies were adopted to achieve the defined aim of this research. These methods include an extensive literature review in both the areas of the courtyard house and intelligent buildings, and a case study was collected the data from two main sources through: (1) semi-structured interviews with twenty five architects and twenty four occupants, and (2) physical survey and observation of the traditional courtyard house type in the Al-Kadhimiya historic area. The qualitative method was used to analysis the data collection. Abstract The findings from the study identified the following new themes which provide the basis for exploring the research question: (1) Architectural value - key feature through the passive system of the traditional courtyard house type in the Al-Kadhimiya, (2) Limitation of space use, some spaces were not used, and the residents felt as if they were paralyzed at these times and (3) Requirement for new systems in this house type. It is concluded that the key features of the traditional courtyard house type are passive systems which support the lifestyle by achieving thermal comfort. Adding simple IS as applications which are integrated and wireless, with an actuator, will certainly help the residents enhance the house performance in Al-Kadhimiya. This will be done by: developing the level of control over the environment, reducing the environmental challenges, decreasing the social struggles, and supporting the response to the environment. This study contributes to the role of ISs in enhancing the performance of the traditional courtyard house. For the current users, these roles are achieved through three major steps: (1) the nature of IS in traditional courtyard house, (2) The priority of systems; (3) Using the courtyard house as a container for intelligent systems. Future users are likely to have a different lifestyle and so the level of intelligence may change; thus, the potential need for ISs might change too due to the type of IS and its operation. A clean air recirculation module is one application to be used in the traditional courtyard house type in Al-Kadhimiya, which can be selected to enhance house performance.

The ultimate test of the success of a housing development is the level of satisfaction that it engenders for its residents. It has been found, in much research carried out in the developed countries that the lack of detailed knowledge about users' needs and the failure to predict user behaviour were mainly unsatisfactory housing environments. Housing the external open spaces around dwellings were shown to be crucial satisfaction to blame for in multi-family and between the overall user. This study based In Iraq investigates users' satisfaction with the environment of recently constructed multi-family housing. It aims to identify the elements of the external environment associated with the residents' overall satisfaction in relation to these new environments. This study uses a range of factors which have been identified in many studies elsewhere in the world as having a bearing on users' satisfaction with their housing environment to examine people's reaction to their housing environment. It considers how such factors influence users' satisfaction in Iraq, and also identifies the Iraqi housing designers' intentions in relation to the external environment and examines their success in meeting user requirements. Various were used to systematic obtain information-gathering the information needed techniques for the evaluation. These included structured interviews of 183 households in three new housing projects, general observations as well as unstructured interviews with the designers and planners. The results of this study has shown to a large extent that the application of Western research in Iraq is valid. It is suggested that if Iraq used the knowledge available 1n the Western studies, it could avoid repeating the mistakes made in Western Europe and the U.S.A., during its transition from a rural to a more urban society. In particular this study has highlighted some essential social and cultural differences which indicate that Iraq must develop its own special approach to housing. It is hoped that this study may be used both to influence the drawing up of future housing policies in Iraq and the planning of new housing estates. In addition to providing the basis for rearranging the external environment of existing housing estates to meet more closely the needs of the residents.

Obiettivo di questo contributo è quello di analizzare il lavoro di realizzazione del sito del Virtual Museum of Iraq e il suo ruolo nelle vicende che hanno visto protagonista l’istituzione irachena depredata durante la seconda guerra del Golfo del 2003, approfondire le relazioni intercorse tra gli artefici e le personalità internazionali coinvolte, nonché quello di studiare il suo proposito di ampliare la fruizione e la conoscenza dei beni trafugati e non ancora recuperati alla data di messa online del museo virtuale. Si delineerà, a tal fine, una panoramica sulla nascita e sulla storia dell'Iraq Museum di Baghdad e delle sue collezioni dalla sua fondazione alle guerre del Golfo, per poi ricostruire tutte le tragiche tappe che hanno segnato i momenti salienti dei saccheggi dell'aprile del 2003, tenendo presente il coinvolgimento e le responsabilità delle forze armate americane durante l’occupazione per poi illustrare e analizzare criticamente il ruolo della relativa legislazione interna ma soprattutto internazionale. Una volta chiariti i fondamentali antefatti, il focus si sposterà brevemente, per una dovuta premessa, sul concetto di digitalizzazione e su come questa possa essere applicata in molteplici casi, incluse situazioni particolari come quella del caso in questione, analizzandone alcuni aspetti peculiari a fronte di un mondo digitale sempre in continua evoluzione. Successivamente si procederà con l’analisi sistematica del progetto fulcro del lavoro, considerando ogni fattore che ha contribuito alla sua ideazione e allo sviluppo del progetto, dalle relazioni degli enti coinvolti all’ intervento di specialisti, caratterizzato da un assetto multitasking e finalizzato in particolar modo all’approccio didattico e alla comunicazione visuale delle collezioni in mancanza di una controparte fisica. Seguirà una parte critica, una retrospettiva sui risultati raggiunti dalla chiusura del progetto nel 2010, sul pubblico coinvolto, sulla risonanza mediatica e soprattutto su quanto è stato fatto e su quanto ci potrebbe essere ancora da fare in relazione ai nuovi sviluppi, tra i quali la riapertura del museo nel 2009. E proprio sui nuovi sviluppi si concluderà l’indagine, citando inevitabilmente quelli che sono alcuni dei momenti salienti della storia attuale dell’Iraq, ovvero l’insorgenza della minaccia di Daesh, i nuovi problemi e le nuove sfide legate al patrimonio e alla sua tutela nei paesi del vicino oriente, considerando il sempre crescente coinvolgimento delle forze sovranazionali quali l’UNESCO e le Nazioni Unite.

The biographical details of the 7828 individuals listed in the biographical dictionary known as the Ta'rikh Baghdad were entered in a database and used to create a profile of the hadith community of Baghdad. The thesis explains how the database was constructed and shows how the data can be used. Evidence derived from the many references to colleagues and relatives in the biographies made it possible to date most of the undated biographies, and to construct a chronological framework within which information on the origins, occupations, tribes and other personal attributes of the Khatib's subjects could be analysed. Changes in the frequency of these attributes over time were related to conversion rates, immigration, and the popular appeal of hadith study. The thesis also demonstrates the usefulness of the fortuitously dated topographical references found in the biographies. These were used with maps to show changes in residence patterns over the 320 years covered by the Ta'rikh Baghdad.

The main aim of the research is to identify and evaluate the environmental and socio-cultural performance of traditional and modern houses in Iraq in order to establish optimal design strategies that enable occupant comfort in a context of reduced energy use and socio-cultural responsiveness. Through literature review and primary investigation this research has identified and evaluated important factors relating to traditional and modern houses in Baghdad. These are socio-cultural, economic, neighbourhood, architectural, services and environmental factors and the research has compared these characteristics in existing traditional and modern houses. The study has included a physical survey of fourteen case study houses in Baghdad, seven traditional and seven modern, to establish their current architectural characteristics, as well as occupant observation and a questionnaire survey of the occupants of these houses in order to establish their perspective on the socio-cultural and environmental responsiveness of their current houses. Further, occupants’ comfort diaries were analysed and thermal monitoring undertaken of two selected traditional houses and two selected modern houses during representative summer and winter periods. The thesis presents analysis of these findings together with analytical comparison of the thermal performance of the two traditional houses and of all four monitored houses for the summer and winter in order to establish the current occupant comfort, satisfaction and thermal performance of these houses. Finally, the research has sought to combine the findings of these investigations to inform a set of design considerations responding to the socio-cultural, economic, neighbourhood, architectural, services and environmental factors found to be relevant in the current context. These proposals respond to the negative performance found in both traditional and modern houses, as well as draw on positive performance identified in each, in order to propose future design strategies that are intended to inform a modern vernacular style for housing in Baghdad.

This study offers an exploration of masculinity in both Iraqi and Iranian fiction which holds the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) as its major theme. Representations of masculinities in Iran-Iraq War fiction present a deep, and at times, confounding paradox. Whilst this corpus of war fiction at times deeply challenges hegemony and completely reformulates its own definitions of normative codes of manliness, at other times it strictly conforms to chauvinistic and often profoundly oppressive patterns of male behaviour. By relating these works of fiction to their wider social and political context, the aim of this study is to recognise and nuance the relationship between representations of masculinities, and literary depictions of the nation at war. Theoretically grounded in reformulations of the concept of hegemonic masculinity, the study also reflects the work of Joseph Massad, as it attempts to contextualise a body of fiction which employs representations of masculinities as part of wider socio-political allegories. As such this study treats masculinity as a complex phenomenon fraught with ambivalence, operating within particular historical and political contexts, whose subjects are often empowered and oppressed in equal measure. By relating these representations to wider social and political contexts, this study seeks to recognise and nuance the relationship between representations of masculinities and the role which the nation plays in literature, in particularly, when war is the over-arching theme. It is within the context of war, when masculinity is often proposed to be at its most simple, that it is proven to be at its most complex as age, class and political affiliations become defining factors in the pursuit of hegemony and therefore what constitutes hegemonic masculinity. By comparing two national literatures participating in the same conflict, this study reveals the close socio-political dynamic which exists between gender, literature and the so-called constructed “reality” of nation which they purport to represent. Accordingly this study showcases a corpus of work which speaks to a larger literary canon systematically ignored in studies of Persian and Arabic literature. Through in-depth readings of eight works of fiction, published between 1982 and 2003, this study investigates representations of masculinity in both an Iranian and Iraqi context. This thesis is a riposte to common assumptions that literary canon which constitutes Iran-Iraq War is purely associated with state-sponsored narratives, and instead sheds light on a subtle body of fiction which offers a complex account of war and its effect on society.

This thesis charts the stakeholder communities, physical environment and daily life of two little studied Qādiriyya Sufi shrines associated with Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (1077 – 1165 AD), a 12th century Ḥanbalī Muslim theologian and the posthumous founder of one of the oldest Sufi orders in Islam. The first shrine is based in Baghdad and houses his burial chamber; and the second shrine, on the outskirts of the city of ‘Aqra in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, is that of his son Shaikh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (died 1206 AD). The latter was also known for lecturing in Ḥanbalī theology in the region, and venerated for this as well as his association with Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir. Driven by the research question “What shapes the identity orientations of these two Qādiriyya Sufi shrines in modern times?” the findings presented here are the result of field research carried out between November 2009 and February 2014. This field research revealed a complex context in which the two shrines existed and interacted, influenced by both Sufi and non-Sufi stakeholders who identified with and accessed these shrines to satisfy a variety of spiritual and practical needs, which in turn influenced the way each considered and viewed the two shrines from a number of orientations. These overlapping orientations include the Qādirī Sufi entity and the resting place of its patron saint; the orthodox Sunnī mosque with its muftī-imams, who are employed by the Iraqi government; the local Shīʿa community’s neighbourhood saint’s shrine and its destination for spiritual and practical aid; and the local provider of welfare to the poor of the city (soup kitchen, funeral parlour and electricity-generation amongst other services). The research findings also revealed a continuously changing and adapting Qādirī Sufi scene not immune from the national and regional socio-religio-political environments in which the two shrines exist: a non-Sufi national political class vying to influence and manipulate these shrines for their own purposes; and powerful national sectarian factions jostling to do the same. The mixture of stakeholders using and associating with the two shrines were found to be influential shapers of these entities, both physically and spiritually. Through encountering and interacting with each other, most stakeholders contributed to maintaining and rejuvenating the two shrines, but some also sought to adapt and change them driven by their particular orientation’s perspective.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2009.
Title from title screen (viewed June 16, 2009) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Dept. of Classics and Ancient History, Faculty of Arts. Includes appendices. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

More than 2.6 million troops have deployed in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, surveys reveal that more than half feel “disconnected” from their civilian counterparts, and this feeling persists despite ongoing efforts, in the academy and elsewhere, to help returning veterans overcome physical and mental wounds, seek an education, and find meaningful ways to contribute to society after taking off the uniform. This dissertation argues that Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans struggle with reassimilation because they lack healthy, complete models of veteran identity to draw upon in their postwar lives, a problem they’re working through collectively in literature and artwork. The war veteran—returning home transformed by the harsh realities of military training and service, having seen humanity at its extremes, and interacting with a society apathetic toward his or her experiences—should engage in the act of storytelling. This act of sharing experiences and crafting-self subverts stereotypes. Storytelling, whether in a book read by millions, or in a single conversation with a close family member, should instruct civilians on the topic of human resiliency; it should instruct veterans on the topic of homecoming. But typically, veterans do not tell stories. Civilians create barriers to storytelling in the form of hollow platitudes—“thank you for your service” or “I can never understand what you’ve been through”—disconnected from the meaning of wartime service itself. The dissonance between veteran and civilian only becomes more complicated when one considers the implicit demands and expectations attached to patriotism. These often well-intentioned gestures and government programs fail to convey a message of appreciation because they refuse to convey a message of acceptance; the exceptional treatment of veterans by larger society implies also that they are insufficient, broken, or incomplete. So, many veterans chose conformity and silence, adopting one of two identities available to them: the forever pitied “Wounded Warrior” or the superficially praised “Hero.” These identities are not complete. They’re not even identities as much as they are collections of rumors, misrepresentations, and expectations of conformity. Once an individual veteran begins unconsciously performing the “Wounded Warrior” or “Hero” character, the number of potential outcomes available in that individual’s life is severely diminished. Society reinforces a feeling among veterans that they are “different.” This shared experience has resulted in commiseration, camaraderie, and also the proliferation of veterans’ creative communities. As storytellers, the members of these communities are restoring meaning to veteran-civilian discourse by privileging the nuanced experiences of the individual over stereotypes and emotionless rhetoric. They are instructing on the topics of war and homecoming, producing fictional and nonfictional representations of the veteran capable of competing with stereotypes, capable of reassimilation. The Introduction establishes the existence of veteran culture, deconstructs notions of there being a single or binary set of veteran identities, and critiques the social and cultural rhetoric used to maintain symbolic boundaries between veterans and civilians. It begins by establishing an approach rooted in interdisciplinary literary theory, taking veteran identity as its topic of consideration and the American unconscious as the text it seeks to examine, asking readers to suspend belief in patriotic rhetoric long enough to critically examine veteran identity as an apparatus used to sell war to each generation of new recruits. Patriotism, beyond the well-meaning gestures and entitlements afforded to veterans, also results in feelings of “difference,” in the veteran feeling apart from larger society. The inescapability of veteran “difference” is a trait which sets it apart from other cultures, and it is one bolstered by inaccurate and, at times, offensive portrayals of veterans in mass media and Hollywood films such as The Manchurian Candidate (1962), First Blood (1982), or Taxi Driver (1976). To understand this inescapability the chapter engages with theories of race, discussing the Korean War veteran in Home (2012) and other works by Toni Morrison to directly and indirectly explore descriptions of “difference” by African Americans and “others” not in positions of power. From there, the chapter traces veteran identity back to the Italian renaissance, arguing that modern notions of veteran identity are founded upon fears of returning veterans causing chaos and disorder. At the same time, writers such as Sebastian Junger, who are intimately familiar with veteran culture, repeatedly emphasize the camaraderie and “tribal” bonds found among members of the military, and instead of creating symbolic categories in which veterans might exist exceptionally as “Heroes,” or pitied as “Wounded Warriors,” the chapter argues that the altruistic nature which leads recruits to war, their capabilities as leaders and educators, and the need of larger society for examples of human resiliency are more appropriate starting points for establishing veteran identity. The Introduction is followed by an independent “Example” section, a brief examination of a student veteran named “Bingo,” one who demonstrates an ability to challenge, even employ veteran stereotypes to maintain his right to self-definition. Bingo’s story, as told in a “spotlight” article meant to attract student veterans to a college campus, portrays the veteran as a “Wounded Warrior” who overcomes mental illness and the scars of war through education, emerging as an exceptional example—a “Hero”—that other student veterans can model by enrolling at the school. Bingo’s story sets the stage for close examinations of the “Hero” and the “Wounded Warrior” in the first and second chapters. Chapter One deconstructs notions of heroism, primarily the belief that all veterans are “Heroes.” The chapter examines military training and indoctrination, Medal of Honor award citations, and film examples such as All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Heroes for Sale (1933), Sergeant York (1941), and Top Gun (1986) to distinguish between actual feats of heroism and “Heroes” as they are presented in patriotic rhetoric. The chapter provides the Medal of Honor citations attached to awards presented to Donald Cook, Dakota Meyer, and Kyle Carpenter, examining the postwar lives of Meyer and Carpenter, identifying attempts by media and government officials to appropriate heroism—to steal the right to self-definition possessed by these men. Among these Medal of Honor recipients one finds two types of heroism: Sacrificing Heroes give something of themselves to protect others; Attacking Heroes make a difference during battle offensively. Enduring Heroes, the third type of heroism discussed in the chapter, are a new construct. Colloquially, and for all intents and purposes, an Enduring Hero is simply a veteran who enjoys praise and few questions. Importantly, veterans enjoy the “Hero Treatment” in exchange for silence and conforming to larger narratives which obfuscate past wars and pave the way for new ones. This chapter engages with theorists of gender—such as Jack Judith Halberstam, whose Female Masculinities (1998) anticipates the agency increasingly available to women through military service; like Leo Braudy, whose From Chivalry to Terrorism (2003) traces the historical relationship between war and gender before commenting on the evolution of military masculinity—to discuss the relationship between heroism and agency, begging a question: What do veterans have to lose from the perpetuation of stereotypes? This question frames a detailed examination of William A. Wellman’s film, Heroes for Sale (1933), in the chapter’s final section. This story of stolen valor and the Great Depression depicts the homecoming of a WWI veteran separated from his heroism. The example, when combined with a deeper understanding of the intersection between veteran identity and gender, illustrates not only the impact of stolen valor in the life of a legitimate hero, but it also comments on the destructive nature of appropriation, revealing the ways in which a veteran stereotypes rob service men and women of the right to draw upon memories of military service which complete with those stereotypes. The military “Hero” occupies a moral high ground, but most conceptions of military “Heroes” are socially constructed advertisements for war. Real heroes are much rarer. And, as the Medal of Honor recipients discussed in the chapter reveal, they, too, struggle with lifelong disabilities as well as constant attempts by society to appropriate their narratives. Chapter Two traces the evolution of the modern “Wounded Warrior” from depictions of cowardice in Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage (1895), to the denigration of World War I veterans afflicted with Shell Shock, to Kevin Powers’s Iraq War novel, The Yellow Birds (2012). As with “Heroes,” “Wounded Warriors” perform a stereotype in place of an authentic, individualized identity, and the chapter uses Walt Kowalski, the protagonist of Clint Eastwood’s film, Gran Torino (2008), as its major example. The chapter discusses “therapeutic culture,” Judith Butler’s work on identity-formation, and Eva Illouz’s examination of a culture obsessed with trauma to comment on veteran performances of victimhood. Butler’s attempts to conceive of new identities absent the influence of systems of definition rooted in the state, in particular, reveal power in the opposite of silence, begging another question: What do civilians have to gain from the perpetuation of veteran stereotypes? Largely, the chapter finds, the “Wounded Warrior” persists in the minds of civilians who fear the veteran’s capacity for violence. A broken, damaged veteran is less of a threat. The story of the “Wounded Warrior” is not one of sacrifice. The “Wounded Warrior” exists after sacrifice, beyond any measure of “honor” achieved in uniform. “Wounded Warriors” are not expected to find a cure because the wound itself is an apparatus of the state that is commodified and injected into the currency of emotional capitalism. This chapter argues that military service and a damaged psyche need not always occur together. Following the second chapter, a close examination of “The Bear That Stands,” a short story by Suzanne S. Rancourt which confronts the author’s sexual assault while serving in the Marines, offers an alternative to both the “Hero” and the “Wounded Warrior” stereotypes. Rancourt, a veteran “Storyteller,” gives testimony of that crime, intervening in social conceptions of veteran identity to include a female perspective. As with the example of Bingo, the author demonstrates an innate ability to recognize and challenge the stereotypes discussed in the first and second chapters. This “Example” sets the stage for a more detailed examination of “Veteran Storytellers” and their communities in the final chapter. Chapter Three looks for examples of veteran “difference,” patriotism, the “Wounded Warrior,” and the “Hero” in nonfiction, fiction, and artwork emerging from the creative arts community, Military Experience and the Arts, an organization which provides workshops, writing consultation, and publishing venues to veterans and their families. The chapter examines veteran “difference” in a short story by Bradley Johnson, “My Life as a Soldier in the ‘War on Terror.’” In “Cold Day in Bridgewater,” a work of short fiction by Jerad W. Alexander, a veteran must confront the inescapability of that difference as well as expectations of conformity from his bigoted, civilian bartender. The final section analyzes artwork by Tif Holmes and Giuseppe Pellicano, which deal with the problems of military sexual assault and the effects of war on the family, respectively. Together, Johnson, Alexander, Holmes, and Pellicano demonstrate skills in recognizing stereotypes, crafting postwar identities, and producing alternative representations of veteran identity which other veterans can then draw upon in their own homecomings. Presently, no unified theory of veteran identity exists. This dissertation begins that discussion, treating individual performances of veteran identity, existing historical, sociological, and psychological scholarship about veterans, and cultural representations of the wars they fight as equal parts of a single text. Further, it invites future considerations of veteran identity which build upon, challenge, or refute its claims. Conversations about veteran identity are the opposite of silence; they force awareness of war’s uncomfortable truths and homecoming’s eventual triumphs. Complicating veteran identity subverts conformity; it provides a steady stream of traits, qualities, and motivations that veterans use to craft postwar selves. The serious considerations of war and homecoming presented in this text will be useful for Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans attempting to piece together postwar identities; they will be useful to scholars hoping to facilitate homecoming for future generations of war veterans. Finally, the Afterword to the dissertation proposes a program for reassimilation capable of harnessing the veteran’s symbolic and moral authority in such a way that self-definition and homecoming might become two parts of a single act.

La poésie des prisons est composée dans des circonstances exceptionnelles et pendant des moments pénibles de la vie des poètes : derrière les murs de la prison où la plume est enfermée. Écrire au fond de la cellule permet au poète d’exercer une forme de liberté, liberté d’assembler les mots, de maîtriser le rythme de sa propre vie, cadencée par des horaires et des contraintes qui n’ont pas été choisies. Notre étude est consacrée à cette création poétique carcérale particulière chez quelques poètes français et arabes contemporains. Nous présentons le contexte historique et littéraire dans lequel se situe cette création. Notre travail montre que cette poésie reflète le désir du poète prisonnier d’affirmer son humanité tout en refusant le lent processus de déshumanisation qui accompagne l’incarcération. La création poétique pendant l’incarcération forme la mémoire de l’homme en prison. Les poèmes composés en prison prennent une dimension éthique plus qu’analytique et s’attachent à des expériences vécues plus qu’à des systèmes de pensée où l’engagement des poètes vient au-devant de la scène. Dans une perspective comparatiste, notre travail examine la relation entre la poésie et la politique, représentée dans la poésie des prisons. Les interrogations sociales et humaines qui occupent les poètes prisonniers sont aussi au centre de notre étude tout comme la poétique et les structures du poème-emprisonné. La thèse étudie également les procédés intertextuels qui nourrissent la poésie des prisons : religieuse, mythique et historique. L’intertextualité constitue une caractéristique fondamentale de cette poésie et occupe une place importante dans notre recherche. En bref, la poésie des prisons prouve que les poètes sont vraiment « les maîtres des mots », ceux qui ignorent le « taisez-vous », adressé aux prisonniers, grâce à la hauteur de leur langage poétique qui exprime leurs différents messages. La création poétique pendant l’emprisonnement montre que les poètes prisonniers sont capables de « dire la prison », chacun dans sa singularité, tout en s’engageant dans la Cité où ils vivent
Prison poetry is composed in the midst of exceptional circumstances and during painful moments of the life of poets; behind the prison walls where the pen is imprisoned. Writing at the bottom of the cell allows the poet to exercise a form of freedom, a freedom to put together words, to master the rhythm of his own life, timed by schedules and constraints that are not chosen. The present study is devoted to this particular creation written in prison by a number of contemporary French and Arab poets. It previews the historical and literary context in which this creation is located. It shows that this type of poetry reflects the prisoner poet's desire to assert his humanity while rejecting the slow process of dehumanization that accompanies incarceration. Poetic creation during incarceration shapes the memory of the man in prison. Poems composed in prison adopt an ethical dimension more than analytical and focus on lived experiences more than systems of thought where the commitment of poets comes to the fore. From a comparative perspective, the study addresses the relationship between poetry and politics, represented in prison poetry. The social and human questions that occupy the imprisoned poets are also at the center of the study as the poetics and the structure of the imprisoned-poem. The thesis copes with the intertextual processes that nourish the poetry of prisons in many forms: religious, mythical and historical. Hence, Intertextuality is a fundamental feature of this poetry and will be considered in our research. In short, prison poetry proves that poets are really "the masters of words", those who ignore the "shut up", addressed to prisoners, thanks to the height of their poetic language that expresses their different messages. The poetic creation during imprisonment shows that jailed poets are able to "say prison", each in its own uniqueness, and to get involved in the City to which they belong

Iraq is one of the world’s major oil suppliers, and over ninety percent of its government revenues come from oil exports. Developing an oil management strategy that politicians from all sects and ethnic groups can agree on is therefore paramount to the future political and economic health of the Iraqi state. Yet the new Iraqi government cannot agree on a comprehensive hydrocarbons framework that would allocate oil ownership rights and share revenues eight years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. One major political battle preventing Iraq from developing its hydrocarbons industry is over the nature of federalism among all of the sects battling for oil wealth in Iraq. This paper focuses primarily on the issue between Kurds and Arabs, because the Kurds have actively promoted oil exploration. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is now a constitutionally-protected region, and has signed 37 production sharing agreement contracts with international oil companies. The federal government in Baghdad deems these contracts illegal. The KRG and Baghdad also cannot agree on the borders for the region, as both sides claim oil-rich Kirkuk. This paper analyses major developments in the KRG and Baghdad oil industries since 2003 and examines possible future scenarios for the country’s oil sector. Drawing on international lessons learned from other oil-rich divided societies such as Nigeria, Sudan, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates, the paper suggest that oil ownership and revenue allocation should be decentralized to reduce secessionist pressure. The paper concludes with recommendations that the government needs to not only take care of obvious issues such as resolving ambiguities in the constitution and passing comprehensive hydrocarbons legislation, but it also needs to address export agreements and institute measures to ensure transparency. The KRG needs to develop its own oil industry, complete with access to export pipelines, and should be allowed to keep a higher percentage of KRG oil revenue over its current 17%. Iraq needs international mediation to resolve issues on Kirkuk and should also make innovative changes to the structure of its national oil company. These changes will facilitate the proper investing of oil wealth for future generations of Iraqis.
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This thesis focuses on historiography, which is the study of history and methodology of the discipline of history. The problems of historical theory and the role of critical theory in historical understanding are the main objectives of this study. The thesis explores the urban history of Baghdad in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to posit alternative historiographical methods that involve non-conventional textual representations as historical evidence. These textual representations include poetry, travelogues and narratives around non-monumental everyday urban places, all of which are often ignored in conventional history writing. Conventional approaches to historiography are normally single-layered and limited, and contain gaps or ‘absences’ of distinctive local historical themes and spaces that are smoothed over by grand narratives. The alternative method in historiography suggested in this thesis emphasises the need for closer ties between history and literary criticism. It interprets literature in relation to knowledge, and it discloses their philosophical connections to the ‘overlooked’ meanings in urban history. Although the alternative method comprises strong links to literary analysis, the thesis seeks a combination of both scientific and speculative philosophies, and an addition of extra concepts, towards the generation of specific historiographical concepts and themes. Baghdad provides an excellent vehicle to investigate the general problem of historiography, with its complex history of conquest and colonisation, its long history of creative writings and the vague representation of its urban spaces in current historiographical studies. Although this thesis explored the entire history of Baghdad, the period of interest is the Mamluk period between mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. In addition to the transformation and change that shaped Baghdad’s urban history, this period significantly produced rich poetry and historical narratives that embraced plentiful themes of the urban development of the city, which have been overlooked in conventional historiography. These themes include the measures of beauty of Baghdad, the attractive and interlocking qualities of the Tigris River, Karkh region and markets, the multiple meanings of gardens and learning centres, and the social and leisure significance of houses. The thesis focuses on the poetry of the prominent scholar and poet Sheikh Kadhem Al-Uzari, the historian and religious scholar Sheikh Abdul-Rahman Al-Suwaidi, and the poet and chief of the writing bureau in Baghdad Sheikh Saleh Al-Tamimi, in addition to a number of texts by other scholars in that period. The thesis also focuses on the travelogues of mainly four travelers who wrote significant observations of Baghdad during this period, namely; the surveyor Carsten Niebuhr, the entomologist Guillaume Antoine Olivier, the British resident Claudius Rich and the traveler and writer James Silk Buckingham.The thesis also refers to the writings of philosophers such as Edward Said, Hans Georg Gadamer and Michel Foucault for philosophical frameworks to outline the alternative method of interpretation of these texts. The analysis of poetry and narratives composed by Baghdadis in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and of travelogues of the same period, is ‘another’ method in historiography that is intended to support and complement the existing understanding of the city’s history, and to attain a more dialogical interface with the past. In this way, historiography becomes a more critical influential discipline in historical studies.

Iraq is a country of great cultural significance as it is where civilization first began. As a result of its lengthy occupation, it is virtually one large archaeological site. In spite of numerous warnings to the governments of both the United States and the United Kingdom, no efforts were made to protect the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad when the American-led coalition unlawfully invaded Iraq. Indeed, orders were given not to interfere with the looting. During the occupation that followed, the United States failed to take steps to protect Iraqi cultural property. In terms of international law, it was obliged to protect Iraq’s cultural property. The United States also chose to exacerbate its unlawful conduct by occupying archaeological sites and damaging them further by illegal construction. As a result many significant sites have been irreparably damaged or destroyed. Their conduct was the result of complete indifference to the Iraqi cultural heritage. Although their actions render them iin breach of international law, it is unlikely that the United States will ever be prosecuted for its actions.
Old Testament & Ancient Near Eastern Studies
M.A. (Ancient Near Eastern Studies)

Der Spiegel, the weekly German news magazine, offered extensive coverage of the beginnings of the Iraq War. The magazine blended historical fact and cinematic and historical comparisons to present its decidedly negative view of the conflict. The twofold purpose of this thesis is to illuminate the German attitudes towards the war and the American culture from which it sprang and to explore some of the comparisons and metaphors and the visuals used to communicate this viewpoint. The intent is to examine the gap between the abstract position the magazine expresses and the wider scope of meaning created by the metaphors and visuals. Chapter I concentrates on the magazine's presentation of a perceived history of failures on the part of the American CIA and the manner in which this is combined with allusions to the Rambo image. Through the use of the Rambo figure and other references to film characters (James Bond), the magazine suggests that both U.S. leaders such as George W. Bush and the population at large are victims of their own cinematic myths and vastly overestimate their own capacity to determine the world's fate. Sharply contrasting portraits of two CIA agents who were casualties of the war, Alabama born Michael Spann and German born Helge Philipp Boes, cast the American as an inept blunderer and the German as an idealistic and sensitive defender of Western freedoms. Chapter II concerns the way in which historical comparisons are used to illuminate the conflict. The magazine suggests that the U.S. is an empire in decline. The very heterogeneous selection of examples offered in defense of this argument (e.g. the Roman, British, and Soviet empires) all spring from material that would be familiar to German readers. They offer cursory and arguably superficial analogies to explain today's complex situation. Part II of the chapter explores the use of images from 20th century history, particularly World War II, to explain events. Very often the comparisons seem overblown and particularly inappropriate (e.g. Stalingrad and the Battle of Baghdad; the bombing of Dresden and the bombing of Baghdad). Rhetorically the magazine sometimes distances itself from these questionable analogies by attributing them to others (anonymous "observers"). Such comparisons speak to a specifically German historical sensibility and the deep emotions these events evoke in German readers rather than to the explanatory power of the examples.

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Anyone who tries to tell a conventional story about an unconventional war is a damned liar. Shrapnel is an experimental novel structurally designed to reflect the distance, despair, and rage felt by a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The author of this work, Andrew M. Swanson, is a veteran of Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and has served in the prestigious 173rd and 82nd Airborne as an infantry paratrooper between 2000 and 2006.

In this dissertation I analyse the dynamics of history, memory, and identity as represented in the published English-language memoirs of Mizrahim (also known as ‘Middle Eastern Jews’ or ‘Arabic Jews’) who were displaced during the mid- to later-twentieth century from Iraq, Iran, and Egypt. I take a thematic approach, analysing the memoirs through a focus on metaphor, sensescapes, dreams, urban landscapes and sacred sites, as well as the different perspectives of key stakeholders. I demonstrate that the culture wars model is inadequate for the study of the experiences of displacement and dispersal. Rather, I argue that the framework of multidirectional memory (Michael Rothberg), in combination with the notion of screen memory, provides a far more accurate reflection of the memory dynamics represented across this body of texts. I also draw on the concepts of postmemory (Marianne Hirsch) and the ‘off-modern’ (Svetlana Boym) as productive ways of understanding the intergenerational transmission of histories and memories, and the construction of diverse identities in post-displacement life. Furthermore, I show that memory dynamics are multidimensional and are shaped by the senses, emotions, and spirituality. They are multilayered, encompassing diverse experiences of temporality, place, and ontology. They are also highly entangled and interweave different perspectives, power relations, locations, histories, and peoples. Through examining the dynamics of memories, histories, and identities in published English-language Mizrahi life writing, I seek to contribute to a more accurate understanding of the diversity of Jewish experiences and the complexity of Jewish life and history in a Middle Eastern and North African context. I aim to develop a nuanced understanding of situations of displacement, dispersal, and resettlement. I demonstrate that memoir writing is a crucial genre for recording migratory experiences and transnational histories. This medium provides a vital and powerful tool that can aid in the recovery of psychological wellbeing and emotional resilience among women and men who have been displaced. An improved understanding of memory dynamics as well as the construction of identities and histories is all the more important in this present moment where dangerously simplistic divisions are often made at the expense of equity, diversity, and true human complexity.