Sociohistoire d’al-Yawm al-sābi‘ : une revue panarabe en exil (1984-1991)

Abstract

Founded in 1984, the Paris-based weekly magazine al-Yawm al-sābi‘ [The Seventh Day] distributed 348 issues across Arab capitals in the space of six and a half years (from May 1984 to January 1991). The publication represented a key moment in contemporary Arab intellectual life, as it was one of its supports in the context of the ideological regression of the 1980s. As a space for reconstituting Beirut’s network of left-wing intellectual militancy, the magazine drew its success from several sources, including the strong symbolic capital of its regular contributors, such as the poet Mahmoud Darwish, the devotion of large sections to the Palestinian question, and the initiation of high-level political and intellectual debates. As a privileged place for the circulation of Arabist and progressive ideas, the weekly was also a rallying point for Arabic-speaking intellectuals from the Maghreb and the Mashreq, as well as a point of passage between French culture and the Arab world.

Keywords

• Arabism
• Arabic press
• intellectuals
• Arab lefts
• Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)