The Prison Narratives of Assad's Syria: Voices, Texts, Publics

Project Information

SYRASP

Grant agreement ID: 851393

DOI

10.3030/851393

Project closed

EC signature date 26 March 2020

Start date 1 April 2020

End date 30 September 2026

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 175 239,00

EU contribution

€ 1 175 239,00

Coordinated by

FORUM TRANSREGIONALE STUDIEN EV
Germany

CORDIS provides links to public deliverables and publications of HORIZON projects.

Links to deliverables and publications from FP7 projects, as well as links to some specific result types such as dataset and software, are dynamically retrieved from OpenAIRE .

Publications

Other (9)

Becoming Assemblies in Contemporary Syria

Author(s): McManus, Anne-Marie
Published in: Books and Ideas, 2021
Publisher: Collège de France / Pierre Rosanvallon

Special Issue: Comparative Approaches to Prison Literatures in the MENA and its Diasporas

Author(s): Ed. Anne-Marie McManus and Brahim El Guabli
Published in: CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, Issue 25:1, 2023
Publisher: Purdue University Press

Towards Syrian-led Transitional Justice

Author(s): Anne-Marie McManus
Published in: TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, Issue 19 December 2024, 2024, ISSN 2199-2134
Publisher: Forum Transregionale Studien
DOI: 10.58079/12you

The Assads’ Houses of Death (Interview with Anne-Marie McManus)

Author(s): Yezid Sayigh
Published in: Diwan, Issue 13 January 2025, 2025
Publisher: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

“The struggle has always been one” – On the Third Samira al-Khalil Award Ceremony

Author(s): Anne-Marie McManus
Published in: TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, Issue 19 December 2025, 2025, ISSN 2199-2134
Publisher: Forum Transregionale Studien
DOI: 10.58079/15e7f

Staying With Uncertainty: Syrian Intellectual Life in Germany

Author(s): Anne-Marie McManus
Published in: TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, Issue 5 February 2026, 2026
Publisher: Forum Transregionale Studien
DOI: 10.58079/15msi

The Dust Does Not Simply Settle: Temporalities of Violence, Kinetic Knowledge & Theatre Production as Archive

Author(s): Yasmine Kherfi
Published in: archive stories, 2025
Publisher: London School of Economics and Political Science

Ex-Syrian Prisoners Reunite With Music as Their Balm

Author(s): Hannah El-Hitami
Published in: TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, Issue 24 August 2023, 2023, ISSN 2199-2134
Publisher: Forum Transregionale Studien
DOI: 10.58079/ut7n

Book Review: Readings in Syrian Prison Literature: The Poetics of Human Rights. R. Shareah Taleghani (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2021).

Author(s): Anne-Marie McManus NB this book review does not report on SYRASP findings and is thus excluded from the open access requirement. We will, however, endeavor to make it open access within the grant's duration.
Published in: International Journal of Middle East Studies, Issue 53:4, 2021, Page(s) 705-707
Publisher: Cambridge
DOI: 10.1017/s0020743821000957

Conference proceedings (2)

Trauma and the 1980s in Arabic Literary Studies

Author(s): Anne-Marie McManus
Published in: TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, Issue 9 June 2022, 2022, ISSN 2199-2134
Publisher: Forum Transregionale Studien

Death is Hard Work: Insolvent Violence and the Persistence of Literature (Response by Anne-Marie McManus, Principle Investigator, ERC Project SYRASP)

Author(s): McManus, Anne-Marie
Published in: 2021
Publisher: ReadRespond

Peer reviewed articles (18)

Prison as a Living Being: ‘Assad’s Syria’ as a model for the Imprisonment State

Author(s): Jaber Baker
Published in: CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, Issue 25, 2026, Page(s) 1-9, ISSN 1481-4374
Publisher: Purdue University Press
DOI: 10.7771/1481-4374.4883

Palestinian Prisoners: Smuggling Freedom, Writing from Captivity

Author(s): Basil Farraj
Published in: CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, Issue 25, 2026, Page(s) 1-12, ISSN 1481-4374
Publisher: Purdue University Press
DOI: 10.7771/1481-4374.4877

Hold Fast the Rope of God: Space, Authority, and Speech in Muslim Prison Narratives

Author(s): Basit Kareem Iqbal, Walaa Quisay
Published in: CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, Issue 25, 2026, Page(s) 1-10, ISSN 1481-4374
Publisher: Purdue University Press
DOI: 10.7771/1481-4374.4885

Presenting Absence

Author(s): Khaled Barakeh, Brigitte Herremans, Anne-Marie McManus, Guevara Namer
Published in: Third Text, Issue 38, 2025, Page(s) 692-708, ISSN 0952-8822
Publisher: Kala Press
DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2025.2526914

On the Ruins of What’s to Come, I Stand: Time and Devastation in Syrian Cultural Production since 2011

Author(s): Anne-Marie McManus
Published in: Critical Inquiry, Issue 48, 2023, Page(s) 45-67, ISSN 0093-1896
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
DOI: 10.1086/715985

Al-nuzuh: Displacement as Keyword

Author(s): Anne-Marie McManus
Published in: Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, Issue 15, 2022, Page(s) 455-466, ISSN 1873-9857
Publisher: Brill
DOI: 10.1163/18739865-01504013

From Prison to the World: A Comparative Reading of Naji’s <em>Hirz Mikamkim</em> (Rotten Evidence, 2020) and Abd el-Fattah’s <em>You Have Not Yet Been Defeated</em> (2021)

Author(s): Teresa Pepe
Published in: CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, Issue 25, 2026, Page(s) 1-12, ISSN 1481-4374
Publisher: Purdue University Press
DOI: 10.7771/1481-4374.4882

Sijniyya: New Prison Songs in Sednaya

Author(s): Eylaf BADER EDDIN
Published in: Regards, Issue 32, 2026, Page(s) 105-174, ISSN 2523-9732
Publisher: Saint Joseph University of Beirut
DOI: 10.70898/regards.v0i32.1209

The Networks of Prison Narrative: Imagining Sociality and Making Narrative in Assad’s Syria

Author(s): Anne-Marie McManus
Published in: CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, Issue 25, 2026, Page(s) 1-15, ISSN 1481-4374
Publisher: Purdue University Press
DOI: 10.7771/1481-4374.4884

Terrorists, Spies, and Diplomatic Crises: The Birth of Morocco’s Multimedia Prison Literature

Author(s): Brahim El Guabli
Published in: CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, Issue 25, 2026, Page(s) 1-17, ISSN 1481-4374
Publisher: Purdue University Press
DOI: 10.7771/1481-4374.4880

The Absurdity of Liberation in Moroccan Prison Narratives

Author(s): Hakima Choukri
Published in: CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, Issue 25, 2026, Page(s) 1-9, ISSN 1481-4374
Publisher: Purdue University Press
DOI: 10.7771/1481-4374.4879

Khairy Shalaby’s Novel <em>The City of the Enslaved</em>: Egyptian Prison Literature with a Russian Twist

Author(s): Sarali Gintsburg
Published in: CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, Issue 25, 2026, Page(s) 1-11, ISSN 1481-4374
Publisher: Purdue University Press
DOI: 10.7771/1481-4374.4881

New Approaches to MENA Prison Literatures After 2011

Author(s): Anne-Marie McManus
Published in: CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, Issue 25, 2026, Page(s) 1-8, ISSN 1481-4374
Publisher: Purdue University Press
DOI: 10.7771/1481-4374.4876

Race, Time, and the Petrified Subject in Algeria

Author(s): Anne-Marie McManus
Published in: Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Issue 44, 2024, Page(s) 287-302, ISSN 1089-201X
Publisher: Duke University Press
DOI: 10.1215/1089201x-11233080

Captivity, Resistance and Political Consciousness in Walid Daqqa’s Prison Literature

Author(s): Ashjan Ajour
Published in: CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, Issue 25, 2026, Page(s) 1-6, ISSN 1481-4374
Publisher: Purdue University Press
DOI: 10.7771/1481-4374.4878

Punish Yet Cannot Discipline: Two Iraqi Prison Novels

Author(s): Hanan Jasim Khammas
Published in: CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, Issue 25, 2026, Page(s) 1-11, ISSN 1481-4374
Publisher: Purdue University Press
DOI: 10.7771/1481-4374.4886

Al-Abad: On the Ongoing

Author(s): Eylaf Bader Eddin
Published in: Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, Issue 15:4, 2022, Page(s) 367-376, ISSN 1873-9857
Publisher: Brill
DOI: 10.1163/18739865-01504004

Prison Sentences: Spaces of Liberation in Arab Prison Writing

Author(s): Joseph Farag
Published in: CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, Issue 25, 2026, Page(s) 1-17, ISSN 1481-4374
Publisher: Purdue University Press
DOI: 10.7771/1481-4374.4887

Book chapters (9)

Vocal. On the MUTE installation

Author(s): Khaled Barakeh and Anne-Marie McManus
Published in: Syrische Staatsfolter vor Gericht. Syrian State Torture on Trial, Issue Vol. 10952, 2023, Page(s) 122-135, ISBN 978-3-7425-0952-9
Publisher: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung

You are Free: Siege and Resistance. A Conversation with Hani Munif and Salma Azmeh, Activists from Bidoun for Renewable Energy

Author(s): McManus, Anne Marie and Salma Jreige
Published in: Design of Necessity: Arts of Resistance and Resilience Under Siege, 2026, Page(s) 72-91
Publisher: coculture

Memory in an Era of Global Siege

Author(s): McManus, Anne-Marie
Published in: Design of Necessity: Arts of Resistance and Resilience Under Siege, 2026
Publisher: coculture

"Sarkha. Ihtijaj fanni ""samt"""

Author(s): Khaled Barakeh and Anne-Marie McManus
Published in: Muhakama jaladi al-dawla al-suriya, Issue Vol. 10952, 2023, Page(s) 96-109, ISBN 978-3-7425-0952-9
Publisher: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung

Performing Pain: Documentary Film, Advocacy, and the Families of Syria’s Disappeared

Author(s): Anne-Marie McManus
Published in: Rebellion, Revolt, Resistance, and Political Imaginations in the Middle East and North Africa (1950s-2020s): Rising as Women, 2026
Publisher: Brill
DOI: 10.1163/9789004764293

The Doll

Author(s): Baker, Jaber; based on Nada Rimawy's story; Kassabi, Nour (translator)
Published in: Design of Necessity: Arts of Resistance and Resilience Under Siege, 2026
Publisher: coculture

السجنية السورية: موسيقا ما بعد السجن

Author(s): Eylaf Bader Eddin
Published in: عقد ٌ من الفنون أوراق ٌ بحثيّة عن اإلنتاج الفني السوري, 2024, Page(s) 17-124
Publisher: 2024

Vocal || Lautstark. Über die Mute-Installation

Author(s): Khaled Barakeh and Anne-Marie McManus
Published in: Syrische Staatsfolter vor Gericht. Syrian State Torture on Trial, Issue Vol. 10952, 2023, Page(s) 134-149, ISBN 978-3-7425-0952-9
Publisher: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung

Siege in the Present Continuous Tense

Author(s): McManus, Anne Marie, through conversations with Khaled Barakeh
Published in: Design of Necessity: Arts of Resistance and Resilience Under Siege, 2026, Page(s) 114-143
Publisher: coculture

Monographic books (3)

Design of Necessity: Arts of Resistance and Resilience Under Siege

Author(s): Ed. Anne-Marie McManus
Published in: 2026
Publisher: coculture

Telling Violence. Syrian Prison Narratives, Publics and Responsibility in the 21st Century

Author(s): McManus, Anne-Marie
Published in: 2027
Publisher: transcript
DOI: 10.14361/9783839482667

Translating the Language of the Syrian Revolution (2011/12)

Author(s): Eylaf Bader Eddin
Published in: 2024
Publisher: De Gruyter
DOI: 10.1515/9783110767698