The Naked Blogger of Cairo – Creative Insurgency in the Arab World - Hardcover

Kraidy, Marwan M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674737083 ISBN 13: 9780674737082

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2016

Synopsis

Uprisings spread like wildfire across the Arab world from 2010 to 2012, fueled by a desire for popular sovereignty. In Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria, protesters 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 texting and Twitter, Marwan M. Kraidy shows that the essential medium of expression was the human body. Brutal governments that coerced citizens through torture and rape found themselves confronted with the bodies of protesters, who 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. Technology publicizes defiance, but the body remains the 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.

About this title

Review

"In The Naked Blogger of Cairo, Marwan Kraidy offers a fascinating account of the workings of power and resistance in a digitally connected Middle East that will shake confidence in conventional narratives about the cultural dynamics of the Arab uprisings. It is an original contribution and essential reading for those who want to move beyond cliched frames and facile analyses." --Mohamed Zayani, Georgetown University

"Marwan Kraidy's The Naked Blogger of Cairo is a deep dive into the cultural politics of the Arab uprisings... Kraidy's sharp insights and rich description of a new Arab generation's irrepressible creative urges will amply reward the effort. Reading Kraidy's accounts of the politically charted cultural gambits of wired Arab youth rekindles some of the seemingly lost spirit of the early days of the Arab uprisings and offers hope for the future. --Mark Lynch, Washington Post

About the Author

Marwan M. Kraidy is Anthony Shadid Chair in Global Media, Politics and Culture at the University of Pennsylvania.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0674737083
• ISBN 13: 9780674737082
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304