{"title":"National cultural history and transnational political concerns in Rasha Fadhil’s Ishtar in Baghdad (2003)","authors":"M. Midhin, David Clare","doi":"10.1080/14682761.2021.2017138","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In Rasha Fadhil’s 2003 play Ishtar in Baghdad, she has Ishtar and Tammuz, mythological figures from Iraq’s ancient past, appear in Baghdad during the Iraq War, and has them experience many of the horrors associated with the American occupation, including being tortured at Abu Ghraib prison. This article demonstrates that, in writing the play, Fadhil attempted to engage audiences both in Iraq and across the wider world. Fadhil’s attempt to appeal to Iraqi audiences was related to her employment of a common technique in Iraqi drama: discussing the political present by invoking characters from history or Iraqi mythology. But Fadhil broke new ground by ‘mix[ing …] legend and reality,’ rather than keeping the action safely confined to the past or a mythical realm. Her play was also revolutionary in its focus on women within a story that, within Iraqi drama and media, would normally focus primarily or exclusively on men. Ultimately, the risks that Fadhil took have limited the play’s appeal to Iraqi theatremakers and readers. Fadhil’s play also aspired to touch and influence people across the wider world. Specifically, she wanted to use the play to expose and condemn the corruption and hypocrisy at the heart of American neo-imperialism.","PeriodicalId":42067,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Theatre and Performance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2021-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Studies in Theatre and Performance","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14682761.2021.2017138","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"THEATER","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT In Rasha Fadhil’s 2003 play Ishtar in Baghdad, she has Ishtar and Tammuz, mythological figures from Iraq’s ancient past, appear in Baghdad during the Iraq War, and has them experience many of the horrors associated with the American occupation, including being tortured at Abu Ghraib prison. This article demonstrates that, in writing the play, Fadhil attempted to engage audiences both in Iraq and across the wider world. Fadhil’s attempt to appeal to Iraqi audiences was related to her employment of a common technique in Iraqi drama: discussing the political present by invoking characters from history or Iraqi mythology. But Fadhil broke new ground by ‘mix[ing …] legend and reality,’ rather than keeping the action safely confined to the past or a mythical realm. Her play was also revolutionary in its focus on women within a story that, within Iraqi drama and media, would normally focus primarily or exclusively on men. Ultimately, the risks that Fadhil took have limited the play’s appeal to Iraqi theatremakers and readers. Fadhil’s play also aspired to touch and influence people across the wider world. Specifically, she wanted to use the play to expose and condemn the corruption and hypocrisy at the heart of American neo-imperialism.
在Rasha Fadhil 2003年的戏剧《伊师塔在巴格达》(Ishtar In Baghdad)中,她让伊师塔和塔木兹——伊拉克古代的神话人物——在伊拉克战争期间出现在巴格达,并让他们经历了许多与美国占领有关的恐怖事件,包括在阿布格莱布监狱遭受酷刑。这篇文章表明,在写剧本时,法蒂勒试图吸引伊拉克和世界各地的观众。法蒂勒试图吸引伊拉克观众,这与她在伊拉克戏剧中使用的一种常见技巧有关:通过援引历史或伊拉克神话中的人物来讨论政治现状。但法蒂勒通过“混合传说和现实”开创了新天地,而不是把剧情牢牢地局限在过去或神话世界里。在伊拉克戏剧和媒体通常主要或只关注男性的故事中,她的戏剧对女性的关注也是革命性的。最终,法迪勒所冒的风险限制了该剧对伊拉克剧作家和读者的吸引力。法蒂勒的戏剧也渴望感动和影响世界各地的人们。具体来说,她想用这部剧来揭露和谴责美国新帝国主义核心的腐败和虚伪。