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Politics and Popular Culture in Egypt: Contested Narratives of the 25 January Revolution and its Aftermath

埃及的政治和流行文化：1 月 25 日革命及其后果的争议性叙述

基本信息

批准号：
AH/N004353/1
负责人：
Nicola Pratt
金额：
$ 43.97万
依托单位：
University of Warwick
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2016
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2016 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FN004353%2F1
关键词：
Politics Popular Culture Egypt Contested

项目摘要

Though still ubiquitous in English-language scholarship and media, the term 'Arab Spring' is heavily contested in the Middle East. The breadth and depth of these contestations is no more apparent than in the explosion of popular cultural products and social media commentary in the largest and most populous Arab country, Egypt. From pop music to grafitti, these sources have played a vital role in articulating political meaning 'from below' in a vastly expanded public sphere. Yet there has been surprisingly little sustained analysis of how Egyptians have narrated their own history/ies of the 25 January Revolution. This project will put 'the people' back at the centre of scholarly understanding of Egypt's tumultuous transition amidst official attempts to script a history-still-in-the-making and erase alternative narratives of events unfolding since 2011. It will reveal how struggles over the definition of Egyptian national identity have been central to this process and dependent upon malleable constructions of 'self' and 'other'. More broadly, it will investigate how moments of domestic political crisis represent opportunities to recreate notions of 'East' and 'West' with wider implications for how we understand the geopolitical. Our investigation will consist of two strands:1) We will examine a diversity of popular cultural texts to uncover popular narratives of the 25 January revolution and analyse how these have evolved since 2011. Particular attention will be paid to how 'the Egyptian people' are represented over time and what this tells us about how Egyptians see 'the West', delineating the role these identities have played in narrating and contesting political dynamics. 2) In parallel, we will examine official narratives of the 2011 uprising and how various stakeholders at the helm of the state have sought to justify their claim to power and discredit opposition, including through attempts at censorship and cultural policing. Exploring areas of divergence and convergence with popular narratives, we will also analyse how popular culture has subverted, resignified, reinforced or reconstituted hegemonic discourses of the nation, national identity and domestic or foreign 'others.'. Both popular and official strands will focus on four seminal moments: i) the removal of former President Mubarak in February 2011, ii) the electoral victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2012, iii) the overthrow of former President Morsi in 2013, iv) the presidential victory of Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in 2014. This project will be ambitious in the scope of Egyptian popular cultural texts examined and the use of social media to gather new digital sources and provide substantial innovation in the relatively underexamined field of Middle East cultural studies. Collaboration between the universities of Warwick, Reading and Manchester will merge expertise in international relations, history and cultural studies to develop an interdisciplinary methodology for the study of popular perspectives on predominantly top-down debates concerning Arab democratisation and authoritarianism. Through a postcolonial reading of sources, we will advance post-Orientalism scholarship that has struggled to de-center the West as the subject of analysis, bringing to the fore Egyptian voices that have been marginalized and increasingly subject to suppression by the state. The project will provide real policy benefits, revealing the complex cultural battleground that has framed politics in Egypt since 2011 and illuminating how Egyptian representations of the 'West' have been implicated in the post-25 January transition. Engaging this audience from the outset will strengthen inter-cultural dialogue and understanding at a time when UK policy-makers are struggling to respond to ongoing upheavals in the Middle East.

虽然“阿拉伯之春”一词在英语学术界和媒体中仍然无处不在，但在中东地区却备受争议。在埃及这个最大、人口最多的阿拉伯国家，流行文化产品和社交媒体评论的爆炸式增长，并没有比这更明显的广度和深度。从流行音乐到涂鸦，这些来源在广泛扩大的公共领域中“自下而上”地表达政治含义方面发挥了至关重要的作用。然而，令人惊讶的是，关于埃及人如何讲述他们自己的1月25日革命历史的持续分析很少。这个项目将把“人民”重新置于学术理解埃及动荡过渡的中心，官方试图描绘一个仍在形成中的历史，并抹去自2011年以来展开的事件的替代叙述。它将揭示埃及民族身份定义的斗争是如何成为这一过程的核心，并依赖于“自我”和“他者”的可塑性结构。更广泛地说，它将研究国内政治危机的时刻如何代表重新创造“东方”和“西方”概念的机会，并对我们如何理解地缘政治产生更广泛的影响。我们的调查将包括两个方面：1）我们将研究流行文化文本的多样性，以揭示1月25日革命的流行叙事，并分析自2011年以来这些叙事的演变。将特别注意如何“埃及人民”代表随着时间的推移，这告诉我们埃及人如何看待“西方”，描绘这些身份在叙述和竞争的政治动态中发挥的作用。2)与此同时，我们将研究2011年起义的官方叙述，以及国家掌舵人的各种利益相关者如何寻求证明他们对权力的要求是合理的，并诋毁反对派，包括通过审查和文化警察的尝试。探索与流行叙事的分歧和趋同领域，我们还将分析流行文化如何颠覆，重新标志，加强或重建国家，民族身份和国内或国外的“他人”的霸权话语。'.民众和官方都将关注四个重要时刻：i）2011年2月前总统穆巴拉克的下台，ii）2012年穆斯林兄弟会的选举胜利，iii）2013年推翻前总统穆尔西，iv）2014年阿卜杜勒·法塔赫·塞西的总统胜利。该项目在研究埃及流行文化文本的范围以及利用社交媒体收集新的数字来源并在相对研究不足的中东文化研究领域提供实质性创新方面将是雄心勃勃的。沃里克，阅读和曼彻斯特大学之间的合作将合并在国际关系，历史和文化研究的专业知识，以开发一个跨学科的方法，对有关阿拉伯民主化和威权主义的主要自上而下的辩论流行的观点的研究。通过对资料的后殖民阅读，我们将推进后东方主义学术，这种学术一直在努力使西方作为分析的主体去中心化，使埃及的声音脱颖而出，这些声音已经被边缘化，越来越受到国家的压制。该项目将提供真实的政策利益，揭示自2011年以来埃及政治的复杂文化战场，并阐明埃及对“西方”的代表如何参与1月25日后的过渡。从一开始就吸引这些观众将加强文化间的对话和理解，而此时英国的政策制定者正在努力应对中东持续的动荡。