Comic Book Histories of the Middle East

An image from Diaspora Letters, Baghoolizadeh’s multimedia art project

Illustration: Beeta Baghoolizadeh.

An image from Diaspora Letters, Baghoolizadeh’s multimedia art project.

What Class?

Comic Book Histories
of the Middle East

Who Teaches It?

Professor Beeta Baghoolizadeh, History and Critical Black Studies

Sometimes when we read history books, we are inclined to think they present “The Truth” with a capital T. We don’t realize that most history books are written by normal people with their own perspectives and intentions guiding the narrative. With a graphic novel, it is easier to see how a person’s perspective guides how a particular moment in history is remembered and retold.

Because graphic novels incorporate a visual aspect, they lend themselves to sharing information that text-based books don’t include — such as patterns of traditional textiles, facial expressions and emotions, landscapes and more — all of which contribute to an enriched understanding of the history and peoples. Some of those we study are The Apartment in Bab el Louk, Baddawi, A Game for Swallows and Lissa.

“It is much easier to learn about new histories when we have a relationship with a character rather than a laundry list of dates and terms.”

By exploring history this way, I hope students come to see that the Middle East isn’t a homogenous region with a clearly defined trajectory — there’s diversity of religion, ethnicity, race, political ideologies, class and more, all of which contribute to how Middle Eastern stories or histories are told.

The class is taught in reverse chronological order. It begins with the period that should seem the most familiar to students — Lebanon’s October 2019 Revolution — and goes backward into the mid-20th century. This approach helps them see that even though the characters and contexts change, the humanity remains a constant. It is much easier to learn about new histories when we have a relationship with a character rather than a laundry list of dates and terms. History is a process that students can participate in because all histories, ultimately, are by and about people.

I want students to understand that history isn’t just a timeline of things that happened but that everything we discuss had an enormous impact on entire populations of real people. And I want to show them that histories can be drafted, documented and shared in a variety of ways — including graphic novels.
— Beeta Baghoolizadeh

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