eBook

Emporialism

Kamal, Amr

2024

Overview

This book examines what Amr Kamal calls the phenomenon of emporialism , or the convergence between the spaces and imaginaries of empires and emporia in the context of a modern Mediterranean divided among the British, French, and Ottoman empires. By \"emporia,\" Kamal refers to the commercial network of nineteenth-century department stores, which gained prominence after the Suez Canal project. Taking as a focal point French and Egyptian department stores, the author examines emporialism as a set of phenomenological experiences, discursive and social praxes, and mechanisms of control and resistance, born from the intersection of modernity, colonialism, and mass consumption. Drawing on archival evidence, Kamal reads iconographic and literary representations of emporia in English, French, Arabic, and Hebrew, from the nineteenth century to the present, addressing works by Émile Zola, Huda Shaarawi, Jacqueline Kahanoff, and others. Emporialism, Kamal argues, served to rewrite the history of the Mediterranean, to reinvent national belonging, and to interrogate issues of modernity and social justice.

• Publisher: SUNY Press,State University of New York Press
• Subject: Arabic Literature / Area Studies : French Studies / Area Studies : Middle East Studies / British Empire / Colonial Modernity / Consumer Culture / Consumption (Economics) in literature / Cultural Memory / Cultural Studies : Cultural Studies / Cultural Studies : Postcolonial Studies / Department stores / Department stores in literature / Egypt / Egypt (see also Ancient / Egyptian literature / Egyptian literature-History and criticism / Europe / European / European Studies / France / Francophone Literature / French / French Empire / French literature / Gender and Sexuality : Gender Studies / Hebrew Literature / HISTORY / HISTORY / Europe / General / History : History / History and criticism / Imperialism and Commerce / Imperialism in literature / Jewish Studies : Jewish Studies Books / Language & Literature / LITERARY CRITICISM / LITERARY CRITICISM / Comparative Literature / LITERARY CRITICISM / European / French / LITERARY CRITICISM / Middle Eastern / Literary history & criticism / Literature : Arab Literature / Literature : Comparative Literature / Literature : Literary Criticism / Literature and society / Mass Consumption / Mediterranean / Mediterranean Region / Middle East / Middle East Studies / Middle Eastern / Modern Middle East / National characteristics, Egyptian in literature / National characteristics, French in literature / Ottoman Empire / Politics and Law : Political Economy / Suez Canal / Urban Modernity
• ISBN: 1438499485, 9781438499482, 9781438499468, 1438499469, 1438499477, 9781438499475