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The Arab Nahda as Popular Entertainment
Mass Culture and Modernity in the Middle East
The Arab Nahda as Popular Entertainment
Mass Culture and Modernity in the Middle East
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Description
What was popular entertainment like for everyday Arab societies in Middle Eastern cities during the long nineteenth century? In what ways did café culture, theatre, illustrated periodicals, cinema, cabarets, and festivals serve as key forms of popular entertainment for Arabic-speaking audiences, many of whom were uneducated and striving to contend with modernity's anxiety-inducing realities? Studies on the 19th to mid-20th century's transformative cultural movement known as the Arab nahda (renaissance), have largely focussed on concerns with nationalism, secularism, and language, often told from the perspective of privileged groups. Highlighting overlooked aspects of this movement, this book shifts the focus away from elite circles to quotidian audiences. Its ten contributions range in scope, from music and visual media to theatre and popular fiction. Paying special attention to networks of movement and exchange across Arab societies in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Morocco, this book heeds the call for 'translocal/transnational' cultural histories, while contributing to timely global studies on gender, sexuality, and morality. Focusing on the often-marginalized frequenters of cafés, artist studios, cinemas, nightclubs, and the streets, it expands the remit of who participated in the nahda and how they did.
Table of Contents
Part I: Leisure and Morality
1. Proper Fun? Struggles over Popular Entertainment in Ottoman Damascus (1875-1914), Till Grallert (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany)
2. Immoral Enlightenment: Media and Moral Anxiety in Late Nahda, Walid El Khachab (York University, Canada)
3. Nocturnal Baghdad: Nightclubs and Popular Entertainment, Pelle Valentin Olsen (University of Chicago, USA)
Part II: Performance and Spectacle
4. Female Performers in Beirut (1900-1930s): Agents and Metaphors of Social Change, Diana Abbani (EUME-CNMS Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany)
5. Andalusi Music as Cultural Renaissance in 20th-Century North Africa, Elizabeth Matsushita (Claremont McKenna College, USA )
6. On the Road: Sulayman al-Qardahi and the Travelling Theatrical Troupes of the Nahda, Raphael Cormack (Durham University, UK)
Part III: Media and The Imaginary
7. Incredible Prints: The Intersection of Knowledge and Entertainment in Journal Illustrations, Hala Auji (Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, USA)
8. Egyptomaniac Egyptians? Ancient Egypt in the Popular Literary Imaginary in Twentieth Century Egypt, Alaaeldin Mahmoud (American University of the Middle East, Kuwait)
9. The Early Egyptian Film Industry and the Formation of Nationality: Studying Muhammad Karim's Zaynab as a Vision of Modern Standards, Thana al-Shakhs (American University of the Middle East, Kuwait)
Product details
| Published | Jun 26 2025 |
|---|---|
| Format | Paperback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 256 |
| ISBN | 9780755647446 |
| Imprint | I.B. Tauris |
| Illustrations | 25 bw illus |
| Dimensions | 9 x 6 inches |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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