Al-Taghriba: A Mediated Past of a Displaced Nation

Abstract

This thesis explores the possibility of Al-Taghriba, a Syrian produced televised docudrama that addresses Palestine before, during and after the 1948 Nakba, in providing a way for contemporary Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to remember their nation amidst the absence of historical teaching about Palestine at schools in the country. I explore the meaning third generation Palestinian refugees make from watching and engaging with this serial through individual interviews with people who had already watched Al-Taghriba before, in addition to focus group discussions with participants who watched select episodes of the serial for the purpose of this research project. Analysis of both the interviews and focus group discussions demonstrated that the serial registered a unique aspect for the informants as it provided insights about the everyday life in Palestine besides the events of the Nakba and the suffering that the Palestinian people went through. I extend my analysis to examine not only the context of events of the serial itself, but also the context of viewing that my informants had while watching the serial, which informed their process of making meaning out of the serial. I also suggest Al-Taghriba as an interactive tool that holds possibilities of prosthetic memory and pedagogy, which has the capacity to impact their identity and affect their present and future.