Negotiating the Lebanese national imaginary on and beyond the screen

What is it about?

Most research on films as sites of nation-building centers on on-screen storylines, whereas intertextual references and off-screen representations of nationhood receive less attention. This article proposes a combined approach to further explore the nation-building potential of films, using as a case study the film adaptation Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. Through a close reading of the film in conjunction with its intertextual references and the filmmakers’ media interviews, the article explores the construction and negotiation of Lebanese nationhood and history under Ottoman rule. Special attention is paid to how the film’s production, funding, circulation and reception are related to nation-building.

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Why is it important?

This study argues that the film contributes to Lebanon’s nation-building processes by showcasing its cultural heritage to a global audience and constructing national narratives of its colonial history under Ottoman rule. The focus on intertextuality and the nation beyond the screen, namely the ways in which the production, distribution and reception of films are related to nation-building, helped to ground the film in its specific historical and contemporary moments and to view the nation as a conceptual entity constructed in and through discourse. The production and circulation of the film provide further evidence for the importance of film stars to the promulgation of banal nationalism, given the public’s interest in learning about their personal life and beliefs. Equally important, this case study provides a fine illustration of how the nation and the state are interconnected, in that the latter used its media institutions, ministries and immigrant stars to influence conceptions of the national. While local media institutions and personalities took on the vanguard of nation-building in the past, Lebanese immigrant stars have emerged as key players in shaping the Lebanese national imaginary at both the transnational and national levels.

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