Reading, Repeating, and Working Through: On Mahdi Amil's Theoretical Practice

Abstract

This thesis examines the writings of Lebanese Marxist theoretician Mahdi Amil in order to constitute the problematic of his theoretical practice. It seeks to address central challenges facing conventional intellectual historiography of Arab thought by proposing a different method of engagement. By attempting to reconstruct Amil’s concept formation through tracing his method and politics of reading across three different modes of engagement, I show that any study taking theoretical practice as its object of study must take theory seriously. This thesis bridges conceptual and historical analysis by engaging with various primary sources: Amil’s published books, journal articles, and transcribed debates and talks. It also makes use of testimonies by people close to Amil. I argue that Amil’s theoretical writings on contradiction and his theory of a colonial mode of production cannot be reduced to his critical engagement with French structuralism and historical epistemology on one hand, nor to Lebanese party politics and the Lebanese Civil War on the other.