Writing Memories of the Present: Alternative Narratives about the 2006 Israeli War on Lebanon

This essay focuses on a selection of blog and online journal entries that document "The Summer 2006 Siege of Lebanon" from a Lebanese perspective, showing how they establish "a living archive" of the war by creating dynamic and varied narratives that underscore the immediacy of the war experience. Examples of the cyberblog-as-testimony written by the likes of Rahsa Salti and Mazen Kerbaj change the topography of war, both at home and abroad, thus broadening its impact and the way it affects its subjects, whether directly or indirectly. Even more pertinent is the ways in which these online testimonials as alternative war narratives possess the potential for connecting the writer and reader across international borders, thus promising a significant transformation of the fabric of cultural spaces by breaking through what is (mis)conceived as clearly defined personal and public, as well as national and cultural parameters.