The Tradition of Protest in Arab Uprisings

FAIN: FA-57672-14

Marwan M. Kraidy
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA 19104-6205)

I seek an NEH Fellowship to complete a book demonstrating that the human body is the indispensable medium of creative insurrection, a nexus of discourse and action, a linchpin of media, politics and revolution in the Arab uprisings. Based on a wealth of primary Arabic-language materials collected during 13 months of field research, and informed by theories of cultural transgression and political humor, the proposed book uses a broadly comparative, transnational, and trans-historical approach to explore how creative insurgents, in life-threatening situations, create rebellious media, promote new social solidarities, and open alternative political imaginaries. I explain how acutely precarious conditions of cultural production shape political, aesthetic and rhetorical dimensions of revolutionary media, offering glimpses of nascent struggles and identities.

Associated Products

THE NAKED BLOGGER OF CAIRO: CREATIVE INSURGENCY IN THE ARAB WORLD (Book)
Title: THE NAKED BLOGGER OF CAIRO: CREATIVE INSURGENCY IN THE ARAB WORLD
Author: Marwan M. Kraidy
Abstract: Uprisings spread like wildfire across the Arab world from 2010 to 2012, fueled by a desire for popular sovereignty. In Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria, protestors flooded the streets and the media, voicing dissent through slogans, graffiti, puppetry, videos, and satire that called for the overthrow of dictatorial regimes. Investigating what drives people to risk everything to express themselves in rebellious art, The Naked Blogger of Cairo uncovers the creative insurgency at the heart of the Arab uprisings. While commentators have stressed the role of social media, Marwan M. Kraidy shows that the essential medium of expression was not texting or Twitter but the human body. Brutal governments that coerced citizens through torture and rape found themselves confronted with the bodies of protestors. Activists challenged authority in brazen acts of self-immolation, nude activism, and hunger strikes. The bodies of dictators became a focus of ridicule. Syria’s Bashar al-Assad was rendered as a pathetic finger puppet, while Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak became a regurgitating cow. As Kraidy argues, technology publicizes defiance, but the body remains the vital nexus of physical struggle and digital communication, destabilizing distinctions between “the real world” and virtual reality, spurring revolutionary debates about the role of art, and anchoring Islamic State’s attempted hijacking of creative insurgency.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674737082
Primary URL Description: Harvard University Press official book link
Access Model: hardcover and ebook
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: ISBN 978067473
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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