Copyright by Tarik Ahmed Elseewi 2010 The Dissertation Committee for Tarik Ahmed Elseewi Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Egypt is Mother of the World: Transnational Television and National Identity Committee: Shanti Kumar, Supervisor Michael Kackman Marwan Kraidy Joseph Straubhaar Karin Wilkins Egypt is Mother of the World: Transnational Television and National Identity by Tarik Ahmed Elseewi, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August, 2010 Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Sue and Ahmed (or simply mom/ma and dad/baba) whose emotional (and financial) support went above and beyond the call of duty and who believed in me so much for so long I actually started believing in myself. Acknowledgements Thanks go to my professors at the University of Texas at Austin who have generously given of their time to help guide an unguidable me. Particular thanks to Shanti Kumar, Karin Wilkins, Michael Kackman and Joe Straubhaar for taking a special interest in my projects and encouraging my academic growth. Thanks to my colleagues at the Radio, Television and Film department including and especially Ali Sengul, Lisa Schmidt and Kristen Warner for our shared suffering. Thanks are due to helpers in Cairo, both friends and family including Muhammed Yahia and Paul Schemm for all the help with logistics of who to talk to, where to stay, eat and drink and have fun in that fair city. Thanks to Epoch café for their 24 hour schedule which suited mine quite nicely and where most of this dissertation was written. And finally thanks to Austin for being the best city in the world. v EGYPT IS MOTHER OF THE WORLD: TRANSNATIONAL TELEVISION AND NATIONAL IDENTITY Publication No._____________ By Tarik Ahmed Elseewi, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2010 Supervisor: Shanti Kumar This dissertation is about the production of national identity in the transnational age. Focusing on the specific example of Egyptian television, this dissertation argues that new production imperatives, mainly in satellite television and internet, have changed the way that television is produced in the Arabic speaking Middle East, most significantly away from direct state control. The changes in production accompany changes in distribution and consumption of electronic media and are significantly rewriting the ways that shared cultural identities in the Middle East, including nationalism, religious, and other significant identities, are produced, consumed and replicated. This dissertation approaches these topics by relating two specific televisual texts, the Ramadan serials Malek Farouq and Gamal Abdel Nasser, to larger changes in Arab and Egyptian television production. vi Table of Contents Chapter 1: “Egyptian” Television in the Transnational Age: Reading the Dramatic serials Malek Farouq and Gamal Abdel Nasser........................................... 1 Objectives and Methodology .................................................................... 11 Objectives........................................................................................ 11 Research Approach .......................................................................... 12 Conceptualization ............................................................................ 15 Research Limitations........................................................................ 17 Theoretical Approach ............................................................................... 18 Why Television?....................................................................................... 20 Why Egyptian Television?........................................................................ 22 Why Dramatic Serials?............................................................................. 24 Narrative, History and Genre and the Personalized Nation........................ 26 Alternative Histories................................................................................. 31 Apprehending the Nation.......................................................................... 36 Chapter Outline ........................................................................................ 38 Chapter 2: Modern Media and Egyptian National Identity ................................. 41 Section 1: Egyptian Radio and Television, a Historical View.................... 42 Radio ............................................................................................... 46 Television ........................................................................................ 53 1970’s and 80’s – Tumultuous Times For National Broadcasting..... 57 Section Two ............................................................................................. 59 Modernity and the Nation......................................................................... 59 20th Century Islam/Islamism and the Egyptian Nation............................... 66 The 20th Century Nation and the Imagination............................................ 74 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 77 vii Chapter 3: Contemporary Egyptian and Arab Media in Context......................... 79 Television and Satellite Broadcasting ....................................................... 80 Historical Development of Arabic-oriented Satellite Broadcasting............ 86 Arabsat ............................................................................................ 86 Contemporary Infrastructural Issues................................................. 91 Infrastructure Ownership.................................................................. 92 Programming Issues ................................................................................. 95 Ownership........................................................................................ 95 Consolidation and differentiation ..................................................... 98 Privatization....................................................................................100 News Broadcasting and the Political Public Sphere..................................103 Discussion: Egyptian and Arab Broadcasting and the Public Sphere........105 Chapter 4: Farouq and Nasser and the production of National Identity..............123 Contemporary Arabic-language Serial Television Production ..................123 Arabic Serials and the Production of Nationality......................................129 Arabic Television and Modern Subjectivity.............................................131 Malek Farouq ..........................................................................................139 The specifics of Farouq...................................................................143 Gamal Abdel Nasser................................................................................178 Public Discourse and the Production of Meaning of Arabic Serials..........210 Chapter 5: Reading Television in a Transnational Context................................227 Imagination and the Trans-/post-nation....................................................229 Reading Cultural Production....................................................................239 Appendix..........................................................................................................265 IRB Approval...................................................................................................265 Works Cited .....................................................................................................269 Vita …………………………………………………………………………….280 viii Chapter 1: “Egyptian” Television in the Transnational Age: Reading the Dramatic serials Malek Farouq and Gamal Abdel Nasser In its production, distribution and consumption within a wider global context and in its own regional economic sphere, Arabic-language television production is undergoing significant change from state-centered to transnational television. No longer originating solely from national television production centers and justified upon purely national political or social necessities, fictionalized and fact-oriented Arabic programs now must compete for regional Arab audiences (c.f. L. Abu-Lughod, 2005; Kraidy, 2002; Sakr, 2006). Arabic serials, for example, can be produced in Cairo or Damascus with Saudi or Gulf Arab money, Egyptian writers, Syrian actors, and Lebanese cinematographers and ultimately delivered through satellite, terrestrial television, DVDs, and the internet (Guaaybess, 2002). Sports programming is internationally purchased and regionally redistributed at great profit (Ramadan, 2008). Turkish, Mexican, or Argentinian soap operas are dubbed into widely understood Arabic dialects and then distributed on pay satellite channels (Buccianti, 2010). Freed of having to overtly fulfill the vague requirements of ‘the national interest,’ and free (largely) of the censor’s scissors transnational productions are produced and distributed with the goal of creating profits (Dick, 2005). While all of this profound change does not prevent nationally oriented discussions from appearing in transnational television productions, the goal of maximizing audiences across national borders, each with their particular mix of 1 expectations, changes the terms of cultural production in the