Memories of Violence: The Hama Massacre (1982) in Syrian Literature
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EUME Berliner Seminar
»Memories of Violence: The Hama Massacre (1982) in Syrian Literature«
https://tinyurl.com/yc2m8d8c
Speakers: Anna Christina Scheiter (Albert-Ludwigs-U Freiburg)
Chair: Rashof Salih (MECAM / FTS)
This event will take place at the Forum Transregionale Studien (Wallotstraße 14, 14193 Berlin).
Please register in advance via [email protected]
_____________________________________________
This talk examines the Hama massacre of 1982, which is widely regarded as one of the most momentous acts of violence committed by the Assad regime and was systematically excluded from public discourse and official historiography for decades. Based on the hypothesis that the massacre remained rooted in collective memory despite the enforced silence, and that this memory became a central instrument of the regime’s hold on power, I analyze literary representations of the massacre. Through a contextualizing analysis, I highlight different interpretations of the violent events and show how far-reaching the massacre’s impact on Syrian society was and how closely its memory is tied to the negotiation of power structures under the Assad regime. I focus on three central interpretive patterns: the competing narratives of the Assad regime and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood; the memory culture emerging in the city of Hama under conditions of public silence and suppressed commemoration; and the reinterpretation of ‘Hama’ as a collective Syrian experience in the context of the 2011 uprising. In this way, I show how the memory of Hama remained present in Syrian society and how literary texts can open up alternative spaces for memories that are rendered invisible in public discourse.
• Anna Christina Scheiter is a researcher and lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Oriental Seminar of the University of Freiburg. She studied Oriental Studies and Arabic Literature and Culture at the University of Marburg, where she completed her PhD in 2024. Her doctoral thesis, published as ‘Hama’ als Erinnerungsfigur. Tabu, Schweigen und der Kampf um Deutungshoheit in der syrischen Literatur (Reichert Verlag, 2025; English: “’Hama’ as a Figure of Memory. Taboo, Silence, and the Struggle for Interpretive Authority in Syrian Literature”) examines literary representations of the 1982 Hama massacre in Syria. For this work she received dissertation awards from the German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO) and the University of Marburg.
• Rashof Salih is the Science Communication Coordinator at the Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM), at the Forum Transregionale Studien in Berlin. She holds an MA in Social and Cultural Anthropology, with a specialization in psychological anthropology, and a BA in Political Science and Anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin. Her academic work focuses on memory, the politics of violence, and processes of social and political transformation in Syria.
»Memories of Violence: The Hama Massacre (1982) in Syrian Literature«
https://tinyurl.com/yc2m8d8c
Speakers: Anna Christina Scheiter (Albert-Ludwigs-U Freiburg)
Chair: Rashof Salih (MECAM / FTS)
This event will take place at the Forum Transregionale Studien (Wallotstraße 14, 14193 Berlin).
Please register in advance via [email protected]
_____________________________________________
This talk examines the Hama massacre of 1982, which is widely regarded as one of the most momentous acts of violence committed by the Assad regime and was systematically excluded from public discourse and official historiography for decades. Based on the hypothesis that the massacre remained rooted in collective memory despite the enforced silence, and that this memory became a central instrument of the regime’s hold on power, I analyze literary representations of the massacre. Through a contextualizing analysis, I highlight different interpretations of the violent events and show how far-reaching the massacre’s impact on Syrian society was and how closely its memory is tied to the negotiation of power structures under the Assad regime. I focus on three central interpretive patterns: the competing narratives of the Assad regime and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood; the memory culture emerging in the city of Hama under conditions of public silence and suppressed commemoration; and the reinterpretation of ‘Hama’ as a collective Syrian experience in the context of the 2011 uprising. In this way, I show how the memory of Hama remained present in Syrian society and how literary texts can open up alternative spaces for memories that are rendered invisible in public discourse.
• Anna Christina Scheiter is a researcher and lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Oriental Seminar of the University of Freiburg. She studied Oriental Studies and Arabic Literature and Culture at the University of Marburg, where she completed her PhD in 2024. Her doctoral thesis, published as ‘Hama’ als Erinnerungsfigur. Tabu, Schweigen und der Kampf um Deutungshoheit in der syrischen Literatur (Reichert Verlag, 2025; English: “’Hama’ as a Figure of Memory. Taboo, Silence, and the Struggle for Interpretive Authority in Syrian Literature”) examines literary representations of the 1982 Hama massacre in Syria. For this work she received dissertation awards from the German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO) and the University of Marburg.
• Rashof Salih is the Science Communication Coordinator at the Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM), at the Forum Transregionale Studien in Berlin. She holds an MA in Social and Cultural Anthropology, with a specialization in psychological anthropology, and a BA in Political Science and Anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin. Her academic work focuses on memory, the politics of violence, and processes of social and political transformation in Syria.
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Where is it happening?
c/o Forum Transregionale Studien, Wallotstr. 14, 14193 Berlin, Germany, Wallotstraße 14, 14193 Berlin, Deutschland, Berlin, Germany
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