From Camelot to Damascus

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Latest Activity: Oct. 22, 2008

Outline of Wu Ming 4's lecture, October 2008

Title: From Camelot to Damascus
"How the Myths ought to be put together if the Making is to go right" - Literary influences and persistence of myth in the construction of Lawrence of Arabia icon.

In my lecture I would like to frame the figure of T.E. Lawrence as icon of modern hero, in which we can see the confluence of literary suggestions, ancient myths, and orientalist view (in the meaning stated by E.W. Said).
In particular I would like to fix my attention on the literary components of the icon, without forgeting that T.E. Lawrence is one of the great much-discussed personality of the XX century. Many books have been written about him and more than seventy years after his death historians and biographers still debate animatedly about him.
Recents political events in Middle East have brought again the historians's attention on T.E.Lawrence' historical figure and consequently on his role of british intelligence agent during the Arab Revolt in 1916-1918.
Imperial agent or friend of the arab liberation cause? Traitor or liberator? Double-crosser or triple-crosser?
If to the ambiguity of the character we add the image of fervid "orientalist" proposed by Edward W. Said, we can take Lawrence' figure as a paradigm of the asymmetric relationship between Europe - or in general Western World - and Near East.
However I wouldn't like to stress Lawrence' historical, political or military vicissitudes, but rather the literary image of "Lawrence of Arabia", that is his heroic icon.
I think his myth and epic adventure is an exellent example of the connection between literature (in particular epic literature) and history. As T.E.Lawrence, through his image and writings, has been also one of the main builders of his own myth, his figure can help us to understand how history and literature can influence one another (H => L => H => L).
My intent is to investigate Lawrence' icon and to trace the mythic and literary elements that formed it, marking a backwards path that can reach the most ancient poems of mediterranean and european culture. The matter is to see until where the shadow of the hero can lengthen, maybe to find out that from the labyrinth of the past centuries ancient poets - with the ambiguous language of poetry - had warned us against the hero's doubleness.
Finally, as I 'm persuaded we are in the presence of some western deep cultural "topoi", so far functional to the white western suprematism, it's consequently possible that deconstructing the hero's mask, tracing his thousand faces, we take a step forward in a walk of knowledge and liberation from the rethoric of clash of civilizations that rules the present.

Recomended books:

- Anonimous, Beowulf
- Anonimous, The Battle of Maldon
- Anonimous, The Epic of Gilgamesh
- J. Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1949
- J. Conrad, Heart of Darkness, 1899
- C.M. Doughty, Arabia Deserta (with an introduction by T.E.Lawrence, 1921)
- T.E. Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926
- J.E. Mack, A Prince Of Our Disorder, Harvard University Press, 1976
- T. Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur (with an introduction by Robert Graves, 1962)
- Suleiman Mousa, T.E. Lawrence: an Arab View, Oxford university Press,1966
- L. Thomas, With Lawrence in Arabia, 1924
- E.W. Said, Orientalism, Pantheon Books, 1978

Recomended movies:

- Lawrence of Arabia, by David Lean (1962)
- A Dangerous Man, by Christopher Menaul (1991)
- Lawrence of Arabia - The Battle for the Arab World, by James Hawes (2003)
- Beowulf, by Robert Zemeckis (2007)

Discussion Forum

A complement to T.E. Lawrence - Asmahan? Syrian, female, hero, idol, taboobreaker, artist, agent... ?

Started by san Oct. 11, 2008.

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Comment by Wu Ming 4 on October 22, 2008 at 9:14am: Dear Gabriella, who knows if Lawrence - deleted from Syrian history - will come in through the window, or through the "backdoor" of archeology. The fact the organizers of the exhibition dedicate a lot of space to him reveals a sort of (unconscious?) indirect message. This fact, in any case, doesn't eliminate the contradiction represented by the "foreign saviors", if, as you told me, each archeologist who dig in Syria between XIX e XX century looked for oil as well. The true is that it's impossible eliminate the historical contradiction at all (oh, listen to my fucked Marxist background coming up...). Could you send me some stuff about this exhibition by e-mail or tell me where can I find it? There is a catalogue I could buy? Thanks a lot.

Comment by M. Gabriella Micale on October 21, 2008 at 3:57pm: Lawrence’s ghost still around

A couple of months ago I couldn’t imagine that I was going to meet T.E. Lawrence so many times in a so short period. My feeling of “persecution” is emphasized by the almost absolute lack of evident traces of him in this Country before. Or, maybe, it is only that I have never paid attention on them. The lecture of WuMing4 on myths and the paths of their construction and development had gave me the input to think, more and more, on an alleged renaissance of Lawrence’s figure in a country where the only non-Arab person considered a redeemer is the Saladin. First, I had concluded that the a local TV serial on Lawrence could not necessarily mean a new attention on this figure. Then, I started thinking that such kind of product represent, in reality, an attempt to focuses the public attention on the risks of trusting in “foreign” promises of freedom and emancipation. But I have been quite sure that, in any case, common people would not get more interested in this figure than before or, at least, not more than they have always been in the history of their independence. Quite sure until yesterday, when I attended the opening gathering of the exhibition on the pioneers of archeology in Syria at the National Museum. I realized that the name of T.E. Lawrence had been listed (by the Syrian organizing committee) among the most important archaeologists of Syrian antiquities. ARE THEY JOKING? I thought, but they were not joking and, as soon as I opened the catalogue, I also realized that my Syrian colleagues had also reserved to him more than one page. Fortunately, the two articles (by two European scholars) on his work in the archaeological site of Carchemish (currently Turkey) are totally clear and consistent with his real contribution to Syrian archeology of that time…..
Are we maybe attending the rising of a (late) myth or it is just a vague? or it is only a recent way to stress some “old fashion” symbols of world system classification?
I only know that as soon as I read the words that WuMing4 makes Hoghart say to Tolkien “Who reconstructs forgotten worlds could be also able to imagine new ones” (the attempt of translation is mine of course…) a shiver took me, the same of yesterday…

Comment by san on October 5, 2008 at 6:04pm: i would like to add to the recommened books:
Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies (Taschenbuch)
von Ian Buruma (Autor), Avishai Margalit (Autor)
- a complement to Orientalism

by amazon.com

Four characterizations of the West contribute to the anti-Western stance Buruma and Margalit call Occidentalism and are used to justify attacking individual Westerners as less-than-human beings. The West prefers the sinful city to the virtuous countryside; the West destroys heroism and replaces it with trading; the West thinks only of matter and not of spirit; the West worships evil. Buruma and Margalit argue that the first two of those conceptions, typical of secular Occidentalism, are themselves Western, products of European romanticism that early-twentieth-century Japan and Germany exploited to their own ruin. The third idea informs Russia's long struggle with the West but stems from German romanticism, in particular, with its sense of the wounded national soul. The fourth, peculiar to religious Occidentalism, animates radical Islamism but derives from the good-evil polarities of Persian Manichaeism that the young Augustine embraced. Buruma and Margalit conclude that these ideas' lives are "a tale of cross-contamination" that cannot be ended by answering anti-Western intolerance with more intolerance. A timely tract, brilliantly though broadly argued. Ray Olson

Comment by Wu Ming 4 on October 1, 2008 at 5:37pm: Thank you very much. It's sounds very interesting. I hope the DVD will be available...

Comment by M. Gabriella Micale on September 27, 2008 at 2:07pm: Finally….I got some information about the serial. Sorry, maybe late, but I don’t have TV and I had to use my “informers”. First, technical details: the production is Syrian, STAR TV FILM, with the participation of the Jordan producer Tareq Zaeter; the screenplay is by the Syrian writer Hozan Akko; the director is also Syrian, Thaer Mosa; photography is French and make-up Iranian. Of course the main actors are Syrian too. The story starts in the 1914, when Lawrence was working in Northern Syrian in the archaeological excavations at Karkemish with Leonard Woolley. It goes on by telling about the participation of L. in the project of archaeological/military mapping of Sinai and his total involvement in the Arab revolt. Indeed, the serial focuses on the antagonism between France and UK in the division of Arabian territories and the role played by L. in those crucial events. In particular, the episode of the conquest of Damascus shows, on one hand, the betrayal of the UK (they didn’t do what they had promised), on the other, the personal isolation of L. (both Arabs and Britons had something to blame to him). The serial describes also the complexity of the local society of that time (between city and countryside) and the variety of languages and dialects then spoken (some dialogues are in English and Turkish).
The source of the information is the website of the newspaper al Hayat, which is an Arab paper, but published in UK. This could be important to know mainly if one compares the very “quite” description of the serial by this paper against the one by the Syrian newspaper Iktashef Syria (Discovery Syria): according to its words, this serial is very different from the Hollywood interpretation of L.’s activity (he has been depicted by Hollywood as a person who always managed to control, affect and maybe also manipulate Arabs) actually depicting L. as a spy at the service of the UK.
I don’t know which is the more correct interpretation of the movie. I have not seen it and neither my “informers” .
Someone told me that maybe it will be possible to find the DVD of the entire series soon.
I hope to find more soon!

Comment by Wu Ming 4 on September 14, 2008 at 11:51pm: Comment Dear Gabriella, I'll be very thankful if you - or someone else - can tell me something more about this serial. Is there some Syrian friend who can give you more infos? It's an arab production, you said, but from which country? Syria? I'm going to do some research in Internet. Thank you.

Comment by M. Gabriella Micale on September 14, 2008 at 8:44pm: yes, I know! But I have to change my cloaths in any case before coming!

Comment by KAYA on September 13, 2008 at 6:54pm: gabriella...the lecture will be in october, so 4 more weeks to come!!!!

Comment by M. Gabriella Micale on September 13, 2008 at 5:05pm: The lecture on the 17th is a great news: at least I will have time to change my cloaths and come! Anyway, I found out that in this period of Ramadan a local broadcast passes a serial on Lawerence of Arabia. It is a new serial and it seems to be very appreciated by the Arab audience. Unfortunately my arabic is not good enough to understand the dialogues, but it is very interteresting anyway. Federico, I don°t know if you are already here in Syria: in case try to watch it together with a Syrian person. It could be interesting for a good translation and, at the same time, it could be a chance to get the "Arab" reaction to it.

Comment by Wu Ming 4 on September 10, 2008 at 9:53am: Dear Gabriella, as far as I'm concerned, don't worry for your "personal use" of this space. I'll be very happy if you can participate to the lecture.