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The Intellectual and the People in Egyptian Literature and Culture uses the notion of am?ra - the Egyptian concept of collective and connective agency - to explore the relationship between the Egyptian intellectual and ´the people´ in contemporary Egyptian literature and culture.

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Preface Acknowledgements Introduction: Intellectuals, Representation, Connective Agency PART I: THE INTELLECTUAL AND THE QUEST FOR AM?RA 1. Am?ra: Concept, Cultural Practice and Aesthetic 2. Signature or Cartouche? Dilemmas of the Egyptian Intellectual PART II: THE PEOPLE AND THE AM?RA OF CONNECTIVE AGENCY 3. The People Already Know: Positionality of the Intellectual, Connective Agency and Cultural Memory 4. The Am?ra on the Square: Some Reflections Post 25 January 2011 Postscript: I?n? al-ma?riyy?n and al-sha?b: The Untranslatabilities of Conceptual Languages Bibliography Index ?

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"The Intellectual and the People is a rich and successful effort at thinking about the aesthetics of radical politics in Egyptian literature and culture. ... It is also a call for and a most welcome example of how to engage in an interdisciplinary discussion with comparative literature and political theory." (Adélie Chevée, Contemporary Levant, Vol 2 (2), October, 2017)

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Ayman A. El-Desouky is Senior Lecturer in Modern Arabic and Comparative Literature and Founding Chair of the Centre for Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies (CCLPS, 2009-2012) at SOAS, University of London, UK. He has lectured at the University of Texas at Austin (1993-1995), the Johns Hopkins University (1995-1996) and at Harvard University (1996-2002) before he moved to London. He is currently preparing a book-length study on Figuring the Sacred in the Modern Arabic Novel.

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