This ground-breaking work presents original research on cultural politics and battles in Egypt at the turn of the twenty first century. It deconstructs the boundaries between a ~higha (TM) and a ~lowa (TM) culture drawing on conceptual tools in cultural studies, translation studies and gender studies to analyze debates in the fields of literature, cinema, mass media and the plastic arts.

Anchored in the Egyptian historical and social contexts and inspired by the influential work of Pierre Bourdieu, it rigorously places these debates and battles within the larger framework of a set of questions about the relationship between the cultural and political fields in Egypt.

This unique interdisciplinary collective project is the culmination of research and translation work conducted by AUC students of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds who continue to witness Egypt's ongoing revolution. This historic event has produced an unprecedented proliferation of political and cultural documents and materials, whether written, oral, or visual. Given their range, different linguistic registers, and referential worlds, these documents present a great challenge to any translator. The contributors to this volume have selectively translated chants, banners, jokes, poems, and interviews, as well as presidential speeches and military communiqu s. Their practical translation work is informed by the cultural turn in translation studies and the nuanced role of the translator as negotiator between texts and cultures. The chapters focus on the relationship between translation and semiotics, issues of fidelity and equivalence, creative transformation and rewriting, and the issue of target readership. This mature collective project is in many ways a reenactment of the new infectious revolutionary spirit in Egypt today. "Samia Mehrez and her young colleagues offer a magnificent testimony to the revolution in imagination, signalling the dawn of a new era. A must-read for anyone wanting to grapple with the multiple meanings of Egypt's unfolding politics." --Michael Burawoy, UC Berkeley

Unlike The Literary Atlas of Cairo, which focuses on the literary geopolitics of the cityscape, this companion volume immerses the reader in the complex network of socioeconomic and cultural lives in the city. The seven chapters first introduce the reader to representations of some of Cairo's prominent profiles, both political and cultural, and their impact on the city's literary geography, before presenting a spectrum of readings of the city by its multiethnic, multinational, and multilingual writers across class, gender, and generation. Daunting images of colonial school experiences and startling contrasts of postcolonial educational realities are revealed, while Cairo's moments of political participation and oppression are illustrated, as well as the space accorded to women within the city across history and class. Together, The Literary Atlas of Cairo and The Literary Life of Cairo produce a literary geography of Cairo that goes beyond the representation of space in literature to reconstruct the complex network of human relationships in that space.

A writer, a university professor, a woman: this is the insightful and humorous description of one hesitant revolutionary's experiences through the eighteen days of the Egyptian uprising that led to the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in January/February 2011.
Juggling humor and horror, hope and fear, certitude and anxiety, Prince immerses us in each day's unexpected and inconclusive details, as she meets other writers and intellectuals involved in the demonstrations. Mixing the political and the personal, the public and the private, she exposes both her family's conservative politics and her own classist prejudices against other sectors of Egyptian society, all of whom teach her lasting transformative lessons.
There are moving descriptions of the brutal violence of the security forces against demonstrators, the daily battles of resistance, and the author's own abduction and beating at the hands of the police, but she also paints scenes of exceptional solidarity, perseverance, and humanity, while weaving in conversations with fellow demonstrators, new-found friends, and street children, as well as police conscripts and officers. She describes her fears for her sister, who disappears on the day of the infamous Battle of the Camel, their decision to join the sit-in, cooking for the protesters, singing and dancing in the cold to sustain energy during the long nights, and sleeping by the army tanks to stop them from moving in.
Revolution Is My Name is a testimony not only of women's participation in the Egyptian uprising and their courage in confronting constrictive gender divides at home and on the street but equally of the important contribution of women writers as chroniclers of the momentous events of January and February 2011.

This ground-breaking work presents original research on cultural politics and battles in Egypt at the turn of the twenty first century. It deconstructs the boundaries between high and low culture drawing on conceptual tools in cultural studies, translation studies and gender studies to analyze debates in the fields of literature, cinema, mass media and the plastic arts.

Anchored in the Egyptian historical and social contexts and inspired by the influential work of Pierre Bourdieu, it rigorously places these debates and battles within the larger framework of a set of questions about the relationship between the cultural and political fields in Egypt.

Bringing together writings by Egyptians, Arabs, men and women, Muslims, Copts, and Jews, this rich selection maps out many of the changes in Cairo's geopolitics and its urban fabric, while tracing spatial and social forms of polarization and new patterns of inclusion and exclusion within the expanding megacity. Through its thematic organization, The Literary Atlas of Cairo traces the developments that have taken place over a century in modes of literary production, and presents a unique historical cross-section of the actors within the Cairene literary field, to provide an unprecedented, original, and indispensable educational and research tool for scholars and students as well as a much wider readership interested in Egypt and Cairo in particular as one of the globe's largest historic, multi-cultural urban centers.