Re-Narrating the Past, Producing the Present and Unlocking the Future: Haris al-Quds, a TV-Dramatization of ‘Post-war’ Syria

Abstract

Regaining control of Aleppo was an important symbolic victory for the Syrian state army, which has opened the way for state-sanctioned narrations of ‘post-war’ Syria. To elucidate the workings of this narration, I explore the TV drama Haris al-Quds (2020) as a fascinating window into Syrian state ideology in Bashar al-Assad’s ‘post-war’ Syria. I argue that the Syrian state holds on to future visions of the past while re-narrating history to fine-tune its ideological heritage in a state-endorsed and state-endorsing TV drama. The serial’s interweaving of selected historical times allows for the experience of alternative narrative times, constructing what I refer to as resistance time, Manichaean time, and restoration time. In this play with temporality, each time serves in different ways as a promotion of a particular ideological understanding of Syria.