October 17 and BeyondCrisis Reportage and the Birth of Literary and Experimental Journalism in Lebanon

Abstract

Lebanon’s fate has historically been tied to its unfortunate geopolitical conditions of existence that have caused persistent sectarian and confederate divisions. The civil unrest that has recently transpired has been described by many as the first genuine citizen revolution against a corrupt ruling class that has presided over the country’s resources for decades. This chapter demonstrates the impact of that unrest on the development of Lebanese narrative/literary journalism as seen in contemporary publications by the newspaper al-Akhbār and the magazine Reḥla. A close study of samples from the two periodicals shows that, when reporting specifically on the October 17 uprising and the explosion in the port of Beirut, a proclivity to forego journalistic formalities and assertiveness prevails. This chapter identifies some of the narrative devices that the journalists at al-Akhbār and Reḥla employ, and argues that these devices sustain an equilibrium between two realities: the recognition of the limitation of language in face of unbearable suffering, and an overzealous desire to “de-mythify” the social fabric of the country. Inferred in these analyzed samples is the idea that the emergence of a distinctive kind of shortform literary journalism in Lebanon may have opened the doors for boundary-breaking and experimentation in a country that has sacralized tradition for as long as it has existed.