Occidentalism in Egypt: Engagements with Europe and Europeans in Images, Literature, and Film, 1937-1973

A nuanced study of the struggle for modern identity in Egypt through artTher is no shortage of depictions of Arabs from the Western world.But what about Europeans? How are they perceived and understood in the Arab world?Focusing on visual culture, Occidentalism in Egypt sets out to establish a typology of Europeans and Europe as they are perceived and represented by Egyptians, through an interdisciplinary study that takes into account painting, cinema, literature, popular culture, and the satirical press. Eschewing the binary of alienating Westernization and authentic Egyptianness, Brenda Segone shows how the quest for identity in modern Egyptian artistic expression unfolded during a period of profound upheaval, decolonization, and the assertion of national independence.She argues that the Egyptian gaze deconstructed the “European center” both politically and aesthetically.Thus, what became authentically Egyptian was an effective weapon of decolonization that was built collectively by