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THEORIZING FROM THE PERIPHERY: THE INTELLECTUAL PROJECT OF MAHDI ʿAMIL

Abstract The paper will draw the contours of the intellectual project of Mahdi ʿAmil (1936–87), a prominent Lebanese Marxist. It will start by relocating ʿAmil's work in the general problématique of the adaptation and adoption of theories in the periphery, looking at the process of translation he deploys in his construction of an “Arab Marxism.” After presenting his project, the paper will focus on its diachronic dimension, by presenting two developments that threatened ʿAmil's overarching project, namely, the Lebanese civil war in the 1970s and the rise of a new register of critique in the 1980s, epitomized by the work of Edward Said. The paper will conclude with a discussion of the contemporary relevance of ʿAmil's work to the historiography of modern Arab political thought.