The Egyptian Military in Popular Culture: Context and Critique

by Dalia Said Mostafa

Overview

This book examines a key question through the lens of popular culture: Why did the Egyptian people opt to elect in June 2014 a new president (Abdel Fattah al-Sisi), who hails from the military establishment, after toppling a previous military dictator (Hosni Mubarak) with the breakout of the 25 January 2011 Revolution? In order to dissect this question, the author considers the complexity of the relationship between the Egyptian people and their national army, and how popular cultural products play a pivotal role in reinforcing or subverting this relationship. The author takes the reader on a ‘journey’ through crucial historical and political events in Egypt whilst focusing on multi-layered representations of the ‘military figure’ (the military leader, the heroic soldier, the freedom fighter, the conscript, the martyred soldier, and the Intelligence officer) in a wide range of popular works in literature, film, song, TV drama series, and graffiti art. Mostafa argues that the realm of popular culture in Egypt serves as the ‘blood veins’ which feed the nation’s perception of its Armed Forces. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137593726
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	11/23/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	471 KB

About the Author

Dalia Said Mostafa is Lecturer in Arabic and Comparative Literature in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Manchester, UK. She has published extensively in both Arabic and English on the contemporary Arabic novel, Arab cinema, and popular culture in Egypt. She is the editor of a special issue entitled ‘Women, Culture, and the January 2011 Egyptian Revolution’, in the Journal for Cultural Research (vol. 19.2, 2015). 

Table of Contents

Introduction: Multi-Layered Images of the Egyptian Military in Popular Culture.- 1.Popular Images of Army Officers and Freedom Fighters as National Heroes in the 1950s and 1960s.- 2.Various Representations of the Martyred Soldier in the 1967 June War and the Victorious Hero in the 1973 October War.- 3.Transformation of the Popular War Hero’s Image under Mubarak and the Breakout of the 2011 January Revolution.- Conclusion.The Undoing of the Revolutionary Discourse and the ‘Legitimisation’ of the Counter-Revolution with Sisi’s Presidency