Liberalism without Democracy , livre ebook

215

pages

English

Ebooks

2006

Écrit par
Maghraoui Abdeslam M. Maghraoui

Publié par
Duke University Press

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215

pages

English

Ebooks

2006

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

Duke University Press

Date de parution

04 décembre 2006

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780822388388

Langue

English

The history of Western intervention in the Middle East stretches from the late eighteenth century to the present day. All too often, the Western rationale for invading and occupying a country to liberate its people has produced new forms of domination that have hindered rather than encouraged the emergence of democratic politics. Abdeslam M. Maghraoui advances the understanding of this problematic dynamic through an analysis of efforts to achieve liberal reform in Egypt following its independence from Great Britain in 1922.In the 1920s and 1930s, Egypt's reformers equated liberal notions of nationhood and citizenship with European civilization and culture. As Maghraoui demonstrates, in their efforts to achieve liberalization, they sought to align Egypt with the West and to dissociate it from the Arab and Islamic worlds. Egypt's professionals and leading cultural figures attempted to replace the fez with European-style hats; they discouraged literary critics from studying Arabic poetry, claiming it was alien to Egyptian culture. Why did they feel compelled to degrade local cultures in order to accommodate liberal principles?Drawing on the thought of Lacan, Fanon, Said, and Bhabha, as well as contemporary political theory, Maghraoui points to liberalism's inherent contradiction: its simultaneous commitments to individual liberty and colonial conquest. He argues that when Egypt's reformers embraced the language of liberalism as their own, they adopted social prejudices built into that language. Efforts to achieve liberalization played out-and failed-within the realm of culture, not just within the political arena. Opinions voiced through literary works, cartoons, newspaper articles on controversial social issues, and other forms of cultural expression were ultimately more important to the fate of liberalism in Egypt than were questions of formal political participation and representation. Liberalism without Democracy demonstrates the powerful-and under appreciated-role of language and culture in defining citizenship and political community.

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Publié par

Duke University Press

Date de parution

04 décembre 2006

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780822388388

Langue

English

Liberalism without Democracy

p o l i t i c s , h i s t o r y , a n d c u l t u r e A series from the International Institute at the University of Michigan

s e r i e s e d i t o r s: George Steinmetz and Julia Adams

s e r i e s e d i t o r i a l a d v i s o r y b o a r d: Fernando Coronil Nancy Rose Hunt Julie Skurski Mamadou Diouf Andreas Kalyvas Margaret Somers Michael Dutton Webb Keane Ann Laura Stoler Geo√ Eley David Laitin Katherine Verdery Fatma Müge Göcek Lydia Liu Elizabeth Wingrove

Sponsored by the International Institute at the University of Michigan and published by Duke University Press, this series is centered around cultural and historical studies of power, politics, and the state—a ﬁeld that cuts across the disciplines of history, sociology, anthropology, political science, and cultural studies. The focus on the relationship between state and culture refers both to a methodological approach— the study of politics and the state using culturalist methods—and to a substantive one that treats signifying practices as an essential dimen-sion of politics. The dialectic of politics, culture, and history ﬁgures prominently in all the books selected for the series.

Liberalism without Democracy

Nationhood and Citizenship in Egypt, 1922–1936

Abdeslam M. Maghraoui

Duke University Press Durham & London 2006

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Designed by Jennifer Hill Typeset in Quadraat by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

Duke University Press gratefully acknowledges the support of Hicham Ben Abdellah, founder of the Transregional Institute for the Study of North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia at Princeton University, who provided funds toward the production of this book.

To my twin daughters Sarah and Lena

Who taught me the meaning of signs in establishing authority, ownership, and di√erence

xix

118

141

149

171

181

preface

acknowledgments

introduction

one

two

Colonialism as a Literary and Historical Phenomenon

The Colonial Encounter in Egypt

threeDeﬁning the Boundaries of the Political Community

four

ﬁve

The Cultural Preconditions of Citizenship

Egypt’s Liberal Experiment in Comparative Perspective

conclusion

notes

selected bibliography

index

preface

bdelfattah Kilito, a Moroccan ﬁction writer and classical Arabic litera-A∞ ture specialist, tells the story of a Bedouin who strayed at night and got lost in the desert. To ﬁnd his way, the Bedouin began to imitate a dog barking, hoping to induce scavenger dogs around nearby camps to bark back so that he could follow their echoes to human habitation. The night-time itinerant is caught in a dire situation: he must mimic a dog to become human again, but mimicry can have a steep price. Imagine if you will, ponders Kilito, that ourmustanbih—‘‘he who provokes the barking of dogs by imitating them’’—returns to civilization and begins to bark in earnest because he has lost his human language. How would his tribe react if he barked in response to their questions? What should his tribe do if he actually adopted canine habits and started chasing cats and gnawing bones? What if his kinfolk accept him, as strange as he might be, but then he begins yapping and groaning during community meetings where serious matters are discussed, or during sacred ceremonies where dogs’ barking is most improper? Kilito presented this parable at a conference on bilingualism in Morocco in 1981 as an allegory for the alleged alienation of North African intellectuals who write in French. The central question at hand, then, was whether writ-ing in the language of the colonial other disﬁgures one’s identity and the perception of one’s own culture and society. Contrary to what one might expect from a writer who draws insight for his tale from al-Jahidh, an almighty literary ﬁgure in ninth-century Baghdad, Kilito does not advocate cultural or linguistic uniformity in the name of an authentic language or literary tradition. He is thoroughly bilingual and bicultural and embraces his dual position completely. Yet Kilito takes us into a playful and engrossing

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