UC Berkeley

Ma’lūf – Tunisian music of Arab-Andalusian origin – has been emblematic of the emerging nation since 1930s, but today many Tunisians can hardly afford the cost of attending a performance. In the fallout of Tunisia’s second revolution (2011-), I ask: to whom does ma’lūf still sound “familiar?” Whereas previous music research in Tunisia has focused on modernization and nationalism, anxiety over loss of tradition, and expert musical masters, I theorize ma’lūf listening practices – and the acoustemologies (“acoustic epistemologies”) that frame them – as a contested site for State and social elite control (which I term “listening through”) and for acts of critique, reclamation, and inclusion (i.e., “listening against”).

Furthering initiatives of my Tunisian interlocutors, I re-situate ma’lūf as part of the “Andalusī way of life,” by studying listening (1) as historically-informed, learned socio-cultural practices, (2) as emplaced within built environments, (3) as richly inter- and multi-sensory embodied experiences, and (4) as enmeshed in dynamic political and ethical discourses. In these regards, my effort is a post-colonial and post-authoritarian (post-2011) intervention that recognizes Tunisians’ recent re-centering of sound knowledge and cultural reclamation and renewal, especially among younger generations, amateur music enthusiasts, and musicians who operate outside of institutional spheres or outside of the capital city. Amid complex power struggles in a locale defined for millennia as a crossroads of cultural contact, I investigate the mapping of “affective orientations” onto geographic places and identity categories. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that music listening plays a significant role in the structuring and disruption of social class and hegemonies of cultural normativity.