From morality play to celebrity: Women, gender, and performing modernity in Egypt: c. 1850--1939 [electronic resource]
說明
472 p
附註
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-04, Section: A, page: 1505
Adviser: Julia Clancy-Smith
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Virginia, 2008
Rose al-Youssef, a Syrian immigrant to Egypt born without wealth or elite connections, traversed the limits of gender, class, and nationality to take advantage of two emerging political--cultural institutions in Egypt: the theater (al-masrah) and the press--and become one of Egypt's first celebrities. This dissertation investigates the origins of celebrityhood to yield a double biography---the life story of Rose al-Youssef and a biography of the masrah itself, as a nodal point in a web of social relationships and processes that sent out runners far and wide. Using al-Youssef's life as a metaphor to understand the larger trends and processes that were happening in Egypt from 1850--1939, this study traces the emergence and evolution of modern performance and mass entertainment to chart the social and cultural transformations that occurred in Cairo and Alexandria during the period covered in this dissertation. The shifting fortunes of the theater in terms of tastes, aesthetics, and notions of entertainment as morally useful stimulated the creation of new physical spaces that did not exist previously. These innovative physical spaces, such as the masrah and sala (music hall), offered new possibilities for organizing and communicating ideas
An examination of al-Youssef's acting career and the masrah's evolution provides insight into a number of intertwined institutions, issues, and developments that played key roles during this politically turbulent time, including the emergence of celebrity, creation of new public spaces, both real and imagined, the development of new physical spaces in the urban environment, the movement of ideas, the status of women, the proliferation of images for mass consumption, national identity, and the popular press. It also demonstrates the limitations of elite influence on public entertainment during this period and the growing influence of other actors. Despite elite efforts to define and interpret nationalist identity as an upper and middle--class concern, competing forms of identification and nationalism arose with the emergence of female celebrities, shattering the old elite constructivist paradigm of modernity and nationalism. The fashioning of celebrities transformed old power structures and boundaries in Egypt and resulted in the forging of new, national symbols of modernity
