The Library
Staging Egypt on the global stage : (de)constructing narratives of post-9/11 Egyptian performance realities
Tools
Azmy, Hazem M. (2012) Staging Egypt on the global stage : (de)constructing narratives of post-9/11 Egyptian performance realities. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
Research output not available from this repository.
Request-a-Copy directly from author or use local Library Get it For Me service.
Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2582784~S1
Abstract
Operating from the premise that society is always already in a constant
"struggle over meaning", I seek in this theatre studies research project to
engage with the fluid yet conflictual landscape that became Egypt since the
aftermath of the 9/11 events and up to the existing "Post-Revolutionary"
order at the time of this writing.
To this end, I apply a historically-informed and bi-focal
deconstructive mode of reading to a number of theatre-based case studies.
Considered in terms of their interrelation, these case studies should offer a
more holistic picture in which diverse dramatic, theatrical, and/or cultural
practices had set out to negotiate the ur-narrative of contemporary Egypt,
that which grew out of a long-brewing state of affairs, but which gradually
built to breaking point due to post-9/11 domestic and global changes and
the challenges they inevitably posed to the botched post-colonial national
project and its concomitant social contract. According to this narrative, the
modern Egyptian Nation has "long" been diverted from its "right" course
and, as a result, is anxiously anticipating an overdue yet perilous "dramatic"
change (which, as some argue further, should help restore the nation to a
certain, rather nebulous past glory).
While this narrative of "impending change" is hardly unique to Egypt
(but rather a regular feature of almost every national trajectory, particularly
during similar times of unrest and upheaval), much of the import of the
Egyptian situation at hand resides in the uniquely complicated ways in
which each contestant group re-imagines the "nation" according to its
specific interests. This said, it is not my aim in this thesis is to present an
exhaustive view of the existing Egyptian theatrical practice or to do justice to
all its voices and narratives at play. Instead, this study focuses on how the
conflictual realities in question collide with one another on stage, at the
audience area, and in the larger "outside" world. Engagement with this
process allows us to gain fresh insights into both theatre and its surrounding
moment and confirms how the two are forever in conversation with each
other even if—or, more typically, when—the theatre/cultural producers
involved cannot consciously process all aspects of the cultural crossfire at
which their works operate.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Theater -- Egypt -- History and criticism, Theater -- Political aspects -- Egypt | ||||
Official Date: | February 2012 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Reinelt, Janelle G. | ||||
Sponsors: | University of Warwick ; Overseas Research Students Awards Scheme (ORSAS) | ||||
Extent: | xix, 378, [38] leaves : ill. | ||||
Language: | eng |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |