Thesis (M.A.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Arts - Department of English

Nomadology, the right to the city, the public sphere, and the multitude are different theories that relate to different sociopolitical and cultural contexts, and backgrounds. They represent conflicting ideologies {u2013} the leftist trend that overthrows state power and urges individuals to act upon their rights, and the conservative trend that believes in the system and seeks its protection and reformation. These two contradictory trends are found in the case of the Muslim Brotherhood's Rabaa Al-Adawiya sit-in, an extremely controversial event whose details, aftermath, and political effects direly call for its serious study. The present thesis tackles the event through the afore mentioned theories, measuring their dynamics and outcome to reveal the problematic aspects of the sit-in. It provides an understanding of the physical space of the sit-in, generally throughout its history and specifically during the event of the sit-in to show how it was appropriated in the process of its confrontation with the state. Further, it discusses the ideological aspects of the sit-in as a form of public sphere claiming representation of the will of the people. The multitude of the sit-in, its real asset and backbone, and the community created in the space are given attention, showing how the concept of the multitude played out in the event. The contradictory theories that govern the paradigm of the sit-in give away the event as problematic from the start, highly radical in some respects and highly conservative in others. Further complexity is revealed with the detailed analysis showing how the event conformed and diverged from the theories. In the end, the sit-in, a very important case in the revolutionary Egyptian cultural milieu, appears as a site of resistance resting on conformity.

Issued also as CD