World poetics : prospects for the application of dramatism to studies of the international relations of the Middle East -

Abstract

In the field of international relations many attempts have been made to define the criteria that best suits students and scholars in understanding events past, present, and future. Dramatism continues to attract students and scholars, albeit somewhat outside the lines of conventional studies. In this project I suggest applications for Dramatism to studies of the international relations of the Middle East. Throughout, I spotlight state-of-the-art scholarship in studies of rhetoric, poetry, grammar, and history conducted by scholars from the American University of Beirut. Their compositions make this endeavor far less burdensome than might otherwise be the case, while indicating the way forward for this research agenda now and in the future. I begin by accepting the common contention that the explanatory powers of language can be overstated. Yet, I argue, if the explanatory powers of language can be overstated they can also be underestimated. I therefore situate my search for analytical clues to studying the international relations of the Middle East in the Arabic language. In the second section, I proceed further by examining the grammar of the Arabic language. In the third section, I proceed beyond language and grammar to the topic of Arab poetry, the poetic tradition, and the often-overlooked importance of eloquence. In the fourth section, I examine the “root system” and its implications for translation and mistranslation. And I conclude with a consideration of the explanatory dimension of theory building in the social sciences.