The Construct of Egypt's National-Self in James Sanua's Early Satire & Caricature

Eliane Ursula Ettmüller

Studien zum Modernen Orient 22

Klaus Schwarz Verlag
Sprache: Englisch
1. Auflage (2012)
Paperback, numerous Illustr., 328 Seiten
ISBN 9783879974115

Yaʿqub Sannuʿ / James Sanua (1839–1912) was a pioneer in theater, sati­rical jour­na­lism and cari­ca­ture. With the aim to foster natio­na­lism in Egypt in the last third of the 19th century, he expe­ri­mented with various literary genres. Deprived by the Khedive Ismaʿil of his career as a play­w­right, he started a sati­rical news­paper called »Abu Nazzara Zarqa« (the man with the blue glasses) in 1878 which was forbidden after its 15th issue and its editor forced into exile.
Based in Paris, Sanua conti­nued to publish his maga­zine which was – accor­ding to his personal acco­unts – smug­gled massi­vely under adven­tu­rous circum­stances into his home country where on 9 September 1881 Ahmad ʿUrabi and his fellow offi­cers ʿAbd al-ʿAl Hilmi and ʿAli Fahmi made their march of protest to the ʿAbidin palace. This popu­larly supported revolt was later recog­nized as the star­ting point of the first Egyp­tian natio­na­list revo­lu­tion.
This volume aims to disen­t­angle the dicho­to­mous construct which Sanua used in his sati­rical texts for the imagi­ning of anEgyp­tian national iden­tity. Until 9 September 1881 Sanua had published eight news­paper series and a total of 87 issues. His language and call for union, for resi­s­tance against oppres­sion and for the fight against foreign inva­sion became increa­singly more violent and reli­giously tinted. At the same time, his genres slowly trans­formed from his origi­nally dramatic style proper for a play­w­right into a special kind of jour­na­listic way of expres­sion suitable for sati­rical maga­zines.