Approaching Performativity and Culture in Modern Egypt

This course considers how culture is constituted as an object of analysis. By working to connect cultural commodities, artifacts, artisanal crafts, and other literal objects, with literary and historical representations of and by twentieth century Egyptian cultural icons, (Taha Hussein, Leila Mourad and others), and contemporary performance artists in Cairo, we will scavenge for methodologies, theoretical approaches, and sources that trouble the simple dichotomies of folk and haute culture and authentically local and cosmopolitan visions. We will consider how different scholars (mostly historians and literary theorists) have sketched out the meanings of culture and cultural agents as more than simply epiphenomenal. Because cultural changes or movements have often been described and studied as responses to shifting political and economic structures, it has been difficult to approach culture as a productive domain of struggle. The second dichotomy we will seek to undo is that between purely materialist and aesthetic understandings of culture.

Alongside our class discussions, students will be encouraged to present on cultural objects of their own choosing/making by bringing in crafts/films/songs/performance pieces they are working through as cultural critics or creative practitioners or simply things they like. We will also plan for a series of class trips to exhibits, shows, and artists’ studios. My hope is that we can plan a project, (a workshop, a performance, a small booklet of the material we’ve shared) or that students can work in smaller groups to plan projects, that seek to reimagine Egyptian cultural futurities. Ultimately my intention is for this course to give us a deeper sense of our responsibilities and functions as cultural consumers and cultural agents.