Popular Culture and the Performing Arts

Bibliography

This web site aims to bring to you a wide variety of resources on Arab Culture and Civilization, but much more is available. This bibliography includes a number of additional materials that you may wish to consult. Texts that have recently been annotated or added to this list are shown with a tan background. In addition, there are many other online resources that you can explore from our links list.

General

Mass mediations: new approaches to popular culture in the Middle East and beyond / edited by Walter Armbrust. Berkeley: University of California Press, ©2000

Statecraft in the Middle East: oil, historical memory, and popular culture / edited by Eric Davis, Nicolas Gavrielides; sponsored by the Joint Committee on the Near and Middle East, Social Science Research Council, New York City. Miami: Florida International University Press, ©1991

Armbrust, Walter. Mass culture and modernism in Egypt / Walter Armbrust. (Cambridge studies in social and cultural anthropology; 102) Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996

Eid, Mushira. The world of obituaries: gender across cultures and over time / Mushira Eid. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, ©2002

Notes: A sociolinguistic analysis of obituaries in Arabic, English and Persian over the course of 50 years. Assesses their value as a reflection of cultural norms in the 20th century.

Journées d'études arabes (1986: Maison des cultures du monde á Paris). Langues et cultures populaires dans l'aire arabo-musulmane / Journées d'études arabes. (Supplément á l'Arabisant, no. 24-25) [Paris]: Association française des arabisants, ©1987

Music

Rough Guide to World Music Volume One: Africa, Europe & The Middle East. London: Rough Guides, 2000.

Notes: Contains brief essays on music from the countries of the Middle East and North Africa.

Bulos, Afif Alvarez. Handbook of Arabic music, by Afif Alvarez Bulos. Beirut, Librairie du Liban, 1971

Cooper, David and Kevin Dawe. The Mediterranean in Music: Critical Perspectives, Common Concerns, Cultural Differences. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, inc., 2005.

Notes: Includes chapters on Middle Eastern and North African music.

Daniel, Francisco Salvador, ca. 1830-1871. The music and musical instruments of the Arab: with introduction on how to appreciate Arab music / by Francesco Salvador-Daniel; edited with notes, memoir, bibliography and thirty examples and illustrations by Henry George Farmer. Portland, Me.: Longwood Press, 1976

Davis, Ruth F.. Ma'luf: Reflections on the Arab Andalusian Music of Tunisia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2004.

Notes: This book is a fairly detailed overview of the Ma'luf tradition in Tunisia. The musical structure, lyrics and cultural context are analyzed in great detail.

Farmer, Henry George, 1882-. A history of Arabian music to the XIIIth century, by Henry George Farmer. London, Luzac & co., 1929

Manuel, Peter. Popular Musics of the Non-Western World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Notes: This book is a survey of work music by region. Chapter 5 deals with "The Arab Middle East" and is written by Virginia Danielson, Richard F. French Librarian of the Edna Kuhn Loeb Music Library at Harvard University. The essay is a brief survey and most of it focuses on Egypt.

Ribera, Julián, 1858-1934. Music in ancient Arabia and Spain; being La mùsica de las Cantigas, by Julian Ribera; translated and abridged by Eleanor Hague and Marion Leffingwell. London, H. Milford, Oxford university press, 1929

Schade-Poulsen, Marc. Men and Popular Music in Algeria: The Social Significance of Raï. Austin: Univerity of Texas Press, 1999.

Notes: An anthropologist examines the social role of Raï music in 1990s Algeria.

Shiloah, Amnon. The dimension of music in Islamic and Jewish culture / Amnon Shiloah. Aldershot, Hampshire, Great Britain; Brookfield, Vt.: Variorum, ©1993

-----. Music in the world of Islam: a socio-cultural study / Amnon Shiloah. Aldershot: Scolar Press, ©1995

Touma, Habib, 1934-. The music of the Arabs / Habib Hassan Touma; translated by Laurie Schwartz. New expanded ed. Portland, Or.: Amadeus Press, ©1996

Cinema

Companion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film. Oliver Leaman, ed. London" Routledge, 2001.

Notes: As the title suggests, this is an encyclopedia with entries arranged by country. Each entry inlcudes and overview essay, filmography and brief biographies of directors. Some countries also include actor biographies. There are also bibliographies for further reading.

Armes, Roy. Postcoloniabl Images: Studies in North African Cinema. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2005.

Notes: A book in two parts. The first includes a history arrange by decades, the second contains more detailed study of specific themes, films and filmmakers.

Darwish, Mustafa. Dream makers on the Nile: a portrait of Egyptian cinema / Mustafa Darwish. Cairo: The American University in Cairo, 1998

Notes: Consists of biographic sketches of influential directors, actors, and producers of Egyptian cinema. Concentrates on the period from the industry’s formative years until the 1960s, when it came under state control. Illustrated.

Dwyer, Kevin. Beyond Casablanca. M.A. Tazi and the Adventure of Moroccan Cinema. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004.

Notes: Focusing on one of Morocco's most successful filmmakers, this book explores the broader context of filmmaking in Morocco, the Arab world and other developing nations.

Hamzaoui, Hamid. Histoire du cinéma Égyptien / Hamid Hamzaoui. Marseille: Autres temps, ©1997

Jaïdi, Moulay Driss. Cinégraphiques: cinéma et société / Moulay Driss Jaïdi. Rabat: Al Majal, ©1995

Khatib, Lina. Filming the Modern Middle East: Politics in the Cinemas of Hollywood and the Arab World. London: I. B. Tauris, 2006.

Notes: Lina Khatib, Lecturer in World Cinema, Royal Holloway University of London, examines the cinematic depictions of major political issues, from the Arab-Israeli conflict to the Gulf War, to Islamic fundamentalism, looking at films made in the US, in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. She explores cinema's role as a tool of nationalism in the US and the Arab world, and the challenges the Arab cinemas present to Hollywood's dominant representations of Middle Eastern politics.

Nuri, Shakir. À la recherche du cinéma irakien: histoire, infrastructure, filmographie (1945-1985). Paris: Éditions L'Harmattan, ©1986

Zaccak, Hady. Le cinéma libanais: itinéraire d'un cinéma vers l'inconnu: 1929-1996 / Hady Zaccak. Beyrouth, Liban: Dar el-Machreq, ©1997