UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Cairo-Paris:The Urban Imaginary of the Self Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7px0v981 Author El-Sherif, Mona A.Selim Publication Date 2010 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Cairo-Paris: The Urban Imaginary of the Self by Mona A. Selim El Sherif A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Studies And the Designated Emphasis in Film Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Margaret Larkin, Chair Professor Kristen Whissel Professor James Monroe Professor Xin Liu Spring 2010 Abstract Cairo-Paris: The Urban Imaginary of the Self by Mona A. Selim El Sherif Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Studies And the Designated Emphasis in Film Studies Professor Margaret Larkin, Chair My dissertation Cairo- Paris: the urban imaginary of the Self, examines expressions of Egyptian modernity through the use of the urban experience as a paradigm for it. The dissertation uses the three different genres of the essay, the novel, and film, in order to examine expressions of Egyptian modernity in its urban context. The dissertation is divided into two distinctive parts; part one examines representations of nineteenth century urban culture by focusing on the city imaginary in the works of two major Egyptian intellectuals, while part two examines expressions of urban culture in two recent film productions that focus on Cairo and Paris as terrains for the experience of modernity. Part one traces the emergence of the theme of al- tamaddun; urbanity, in the canon of Arabic literature and explains how it bound modern literary writing to modern citizenship. In analyzing the legacy of the nineteenth century literary expressions of al- tamaddun I aim to explain to the reader a multi- layered, multi-vocal reading of the nineteenth century texts focusing on the intricate relationship between these literary texts and the urban space which inspired them. Both Cairo and Paris appear as real and imaginary terrains around which new cultural aesthetics for modernity were weaved. To analyze expressions of urban culture of the nineteenth century I focus on the two genres of the essay and the novel I explain how urban factors such as circulation of commodities and texts, encounters, and the new culture of time and space which resulted from industrial modernity found expression in the literary works of nineteenth- century Egyptian authors. Whereas the canon of urban literature has been focused on familiar figures such as the flâneur, the gambler, and the blasé, such urban types are too Eurocentric in their connotations and occlude essential qualities of the global nature of nineteenth century Paris which became the Mecca of modernity for modernizers from different parts of the world. In the context of Arabic literature the figure of the sheikh emerges as a central narrator of the global space of nineteenth- century Paris. By making use of Benjamin’s methodological use of the figures of urban culture, I use the figure of the sheikh to elucidate the most salient cultural themes that resulted from 1 Muhammad Ali’s modernization program, which contributed to the Arab cultural renaissance known as al- nahd a. Part one concludes by showing how the urban narratives of the modernizing sheikh raised a number of themes that bound discourses of Egyptian modernity to the rhetoric of citizenship in a new urban landscape that is predicated on a new sense of time and space that resulted from the use of technology. The use of technology in media productions has led to significant cultural changes. Whereas in the nineteenth century essays, and novels appeared to be revolutionary media through which modernizers have explicated the experience of modernity, by the end of the nineteenth century film was introduced to Egypt only to become the most popular artistic form of expression. It was film that came to play a central role in articulating the aesthetics of the experience of modernity as it was conceived by the Egyptian modernizers. In part two, I examine the role of Egyptian cinema in performing the intellectual flânerie that began in the nineteenth century and how the recent depictions of Cairo and Paris act as commentaries on the nahd a discourse of al-tamaddun. 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgments..................................................................................................................... ii Introduction................................................................................................................................1 1-Toward a Rhetorical Analysis of al-tamaddun ...........................................................1 2-The Modern City… ....................................................................................................3 3-Global Urban Culture of Encounters..........................................................................8 Chapter 1: Rifa‘a al-Taht āwī’s Description of Paris................................................................16 1-Sheikh T aht āwī from Imam to Intellectual flâneur .................................................. 16 2-Taht āwī’s Representation of Modern Space.............................................................21 3-Paris: The Bride of Regions and the Greatest of Frankish Cities.............................24 4-The Capitalist City, the Individual and Social Relations .........................................25 5-The City of Science, Knowledge, and Rationality ...................................................31 6-The Scope of the Urban Imaginary of Modernity ....................................................36 7-Urban Culture of Knowledge, Vision, Movement and Change ...............................39 Chapter 2: ‘Al ī Mubar āk’s ‘Alam al-Dīn................................................................................. 43 1-‘Alam al-Dīn and the rhetoric of al-tamaddun .........................................................43 2-‘Alam al-Dīn and the Geography of Modernity .......................................................48 3-‘Alam al-Dīn and the Dialectic of Modernization and Westernization....................51 4-The Lure of Urban Modernity ..................................................................................54 5-The Sheikh and the Orientalist ................................................................................58 6- Motherless at Sea.....................................................................................................68 Chapter 3: From Sheikh to Effendi..........................................................................................77 Cahpter 4: Flânerie in Egyptian Cinema and the Crisis of Citizenship ..................................87 1-Egyptian Cinema’s relation to al-Nahd a .................................................................88 2-Paris-Cairo in recent Egyptian Cinema ....................................................................92 Conclusion: Al-Tamaddun, the urban experience and al-Nahd a............................................. 98 Bibliography ..........................................................................................................................101 i Acknowledgements A very long learning journey culminates with this dissertation; definitely it is no good excuse for not being there for my family members, particularly my two aunts and grandmother whose terminal illnesses were unknown to me and whose death in summer 2006 shocked me violently. It took me a great deal of resolve to finish this project as I struggled with my own sadness and the universal challenges of the Ph.D. journey known to each seeker of knowledge! I never recovered from my ordeal alone, and I could have never done it, had it not been for the help of many people and institutions to this end I would like to thank Professor Margaret Larkin for being a patient adviser, a very keen and meticulous editor whose eyes caught many of my careless mistakes especially with transliteration.Professor Larkin’s support whenever I needed recommendations, or whenever I faced an administrative crisis was extremely helpful. Professor Kristen Whissel, for her seminars on Film Historiography and Film Theory that have inspired me to conceive of the idea of the city in literature and film, and for her wonderful presence during my preparation for job interviews, for coming to school on the weekends to listen to my job talk, and to help me with my powerpoint presentation.. I am very grateful that I had the chance to work with someone as creative, and sincerely interested in studies of modernity, and as kind and empathetic as she is.Professor Xin Liu, for his very inspiring seminars on cultural theories, and for the few but meaningful conversations we had together.The Department of Near eastern studies for the many teaching appointments, in Arabic language, and for giving me the chance to teach my own literature class.Chair, Carol Redmount for stepping in to help me resolve one last administrative crisis at the very end of my Ph.D.Dr.John Hayes, for the many lunches that he treated me to, for his kindness and friendliness and for the funny jokes.Professor James T. Monroe, for his scholarly commitment, his kindness and his inspiring example, and the many lunches that he treated me. Midge Fox and Shorena Kurtsikidze for their administrative