Barra and Zaman: Reading Egyptian Modernity in Shadi Abdel Salam’s The Mummy Barra and Zaman: Reading Egyptian Modernity in Shadi Abdel Salam’s The Mummy
Palgrave Studies in Arab Cinema

Barra and Zaman: Reading Egyptian Modernity in Shadi Abdel Salam’s The Mummy

    • 54,99 €
    • 54,99 €

Publisher Description

“An electrifying, cubist portrait of a classic film’s place in the world. Youssef Rakha says that Shadi Abdel Salam’s The Mummy embodies 'a twilight zone of Egyptian modernity.' By writing about patriotism, grief, visual beauty, political entropy, colonialism, and sexuality, he brilliantly takes us into that modernity, that zone. Few people write about cinema with such zigzagging bravura or impertinent seriousness; not often do we get such a three-dimensional context for a film. This book will be as valuable to creative writers as it is to devotees of cinema or Egypt.” (Mark Cousins, film critic and director of The Story of Film: An Odyssey)

“Youssef Rakha magnificently takes us on an intellectually stimulating and highly entertaining cultural journey through the frustrations and joys of modern Egypt using Shadi Abdel Salam’s masterpiece The Mummy as a tombstone touchstone. As acerbic, exciting, and politically astute as listening to The Last Poets with Godard-esque jump cuts, this stylish text makes traditional critical analysis feel like tales from the crypt.” (Kaleem Aftab, author of Spike Lee: That’s My Story and I’m Sticking To It)

“An anecdotal and ultimately engaging meander through the imagined pasts and disjointed legacies of Egyptian history, setting out from and repeatedly returning to Shadi Abdel Salam's masterpiece.” (Tim Power, archaeologist and historian, author of The Red Sea from Byzantium to the Caliphate)

“Egyptian novelist Youssef Rakha captures the personal relationship with art that lies beneath all scholarly endeavor, but which too often gets lost in academic analysis.” (Kevin Blankinship, Brigham Young University, USA)

“Brilliantly introduced by Nezar Andary, this book is a work of creative nonfiction that approaches writing on film in a fresh and provocative way. It draws on academic, literary, and personal materialto start a dialogue with the Egyptian filmmaker Shadi Abdel Salam’s The Mummy (1969), tracing the many meanings of Egypt’s postcolonial modernity and touching on Arab, Muslim, and ancient Egyptian identities through watching the film.” (Youssef Rakha is a novelist, poet, and essayist who writes in both Arabic and English. His work is widely anthologized and translated into many languages)

GENRE
Non-Fiction
RELEASED
2020
16 December
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
122
Pages
PUBLISHER
Springer International Publishing
SIZE
19.7
MB

More Books by Youssef Rakha

Le Livre des cercles Le Livre des cercles
2017
Diwan 90: Articles on Arabic Literature Diwan 90: Articles on Arabic Literature
2014
The Crocodiles The Crocodiles
2014
Rakhastagram Rakhastagram
2013

Other Books in This Series

Farida Benlyazid and Moroccan Cinema Farida Benlyazid and Moroccan Cinema
2024
Knights of Cinema Knights of Cinema
2023
From Outlaw to Rebel From Outlaw to Rebel
2023
Films of Arab Loutfi and Heiny Srour Films of Arab Loutfi and Heiny Srour
2021
Cinema and the Algerian War of Independence Cinema and the Algerian War of Independence
2020
Love and Resistance in the Films of Mai Masri Love and Resistance in the Films of Mai Masri
2020