Revolutionary Anxieties - by Liina Mustonen (Hardcover)

About the Book

Revolutionary anxieties sheds light on an unexplored dimension of the 2011 Egyptian revolution: the anxieties experienced by Cairo-based liberal elite who opposed the rise of the Islamists. It illustrates how members of Egyptian liberal and cultural elites insisted on their privilege in a moment when the country's class hierarchies were challenged.

Book Synopsis

Revolutionary anxieties illuminates a largely overlooked dimension of the 2011 Egyptian revolution: the fears and uncertainties of Cairo's liberal elite, socialites and cultural actors who opposed the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood. The book offers fresh insight into the revolution's failure by examining the perspectives of those invested in preserving the status quo. Engaging with postcolonial theory and analysing elite Cairo through the lenses of gender and race, it draws on over two years of ethnographic research in spaces such as the Cairo Opera House, an Egyptian-European film festival and an exclusive sporting club. It shows how members of Egypt's liberal upper class asserted their privilege at a moment when class hierarchies were challenged, revealing the depth of counter-revolutionary sentiment among the city's affluent elite and offering a rarely told story of the Arab Spring.

From the Back Cover

Revolutionary anxieties studies the role of the liberal elite during the Egyptian transitional period (2011-2014), showing how the election of the Islamists caused anxiety among the liberal and cultural elites that constituted Cairo's exclusive society. The book examines these elites' relationship with other Egyptians: those who were not part of Cairo's exclusive society, including servants, the city's poor, and members of Islamist parties. It further illustrates how the narratives of 'others' relied on dichotomies such as 'ugly versus beautiful' and 'civilized versus uncivilized', familiar to scholars from the colonial era.

The volume also shows how, during the transitional period, Cairo's liberal elite attempted to assert their superiority in various fields. Performative practices related to gender, culture, and art; etiquette and manners; the use of foreign languages; and knowledge of Egyptian history all manifested the cultural capital of the liberal elite. Exploring the uses of the past in legitimizing and reinventing current cultural and socio-political asymmetries, the book demonstrates how access to narratives of Egypt's past - understood as 'liberal' and 'civilized' - functioned as a critical resource for the elite who opposed the new Islamist rulers. The insistence on Egypt's true 'civilized' character, which was seen as endangered by the Islamists, was closely tied to political calculations.

Shedding light on the role of the liberal elite and their counter-revolutionary sentiment during the 2011 Revolution, this book is a vital resource for those interested in Egypt and elite scholarship.

About the Author

Liina Mustonen is a researcher at the Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism (CEREN), University of Helsinki