October 26, 2020 | Bloomsbury
There are a lot of books on ancient Egypt and quite a few on contemporary/modern Egypt, too. I got an email from someone who mentioned Bloomsbury (and their imprint I. B. Tauris); so, out of curiosity, I checked out this publisher’s website. Of course, my eye was caught on Middle East / North African Studies, because Egypt is in North Africa. The first two titles on the page was Egyptian related:
Egyptian Cinema and the 2011 Revolution: Film Production and Representing Dissent (2020; Ahmed Ghazal)
According to the book’s summary, “Egypt’s film industry is the largest in the Middle East, with an output that spreads across the region and the world. In the run-up to and throughout the 2011 Revolution, a complex relationship formed between the industry and the people’s uprising. ...”
When my friend recommended the Bittersweet (2010) film to me, he did mention that the film was done before the revolution... Hm.
The Egyptian Coffeehouse: Culture, Politics and Urban Space (2020; Dalia Mostafa and Amina Elbendary)
According to the book’s summary, “... Despite the coffeehouse’s cultural centrality and socio-political importance in Egypt, academic research and publications on its significance remain sparse. This volume aims to fill this gap by presenting, for the first time in English, a full study analysing the importance of the coffeehouse as an urban phenomenon, with its cultural, historical, economic and political significance in contemporary Egyptian society.”
The summary also brings up the revolution in 2011.
My understanding, from friends, is that these coffeehouses (or ahwas) are predominantly male domains. There are ones that women go to, but, for the most part, it’s usually only men in them. I also heard that these persons can spend hours upon hours in these places. The younger men (or boys) would do their homework at these tables (or so they say).
I’d be curious to read this book.
The other upcoming publications on this first page were on Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and Ethiopia.
Out of further curiosity, I (searched and) found another Egypt-related book—an edited collection—in their catalogue: Ancient Egypt in the Modern Imagination: Art, Literature and Culture (2020; Eleanor Dobson and Nichola Tonks). The book’s summary is as follows:
Ancient Egypt has always been a source of fascination to writers, artists and architects in the West. This book is the first study to address representations of Ancient Egypt in the modern imagination, breaking down conventional disciplinary boundaries between fields such as History, Classics, Art History, Fashion, Film, Archaeology, Egyptology, and Literature to further a nuanced understanding of ancient Egypt in cultures stretching from the eighteenth century to the present day, emphasising how some of the various meanings of ancient Egypt to modern people have traversed time and media.
Divided into three themes, the chapters scrutinise different aspects of the use of ancient Egypt in a variety of media, looking in particular at the ways in which Egyptology as a discipline has influenced representations of Egypt, ancient Egypt's associations with death and mysticism, as well as connections between ancient Egypt and gendered power. The diversity of this study aims to emphasise both the multiplicity and the patterning of popular responses to ancient Egypt, as well as the longevity of this phenomenon and its relevance today.
And I am actually very interested to read it. I mean... this very blog is on this topic. Sort of? I am passively (and maybe sometimes actively) looking for (ancient) Egypt in things that I read and watch, which are pretty modern. Obviously, my “reviews” are not, if at all, critical. Nonetheless...
Also, I feel I ought to look (read) those books discussed in this collection, which include those written by William S. Burroughs and Christian Jacq (at least that’s all I can determine from the table of contents alone).
You can preview the interior on Google Books.
On another note, you can view the publisher’s books on Egyptology here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/academic/academic-subjects/classical-studies-and-archaeology/egyptology/.
They also have a couple of books on Egypt on their open access website here: https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/search?searchString=egypt.
There are SO many books on Egypt... I’ll never read them all. Breaks my heart, really. Doesn’t help that I want to read books from everywhere else, too.
Did you see any books worth remarking upon?
[Screenshot of a webpage from www.bloomsbury.com/]
