Mass Culture and Modernism in Egypt

This study of Egyptian popular culture provides insights into the search for identity of modern Egypt. Dr. Armbrust examines Egyptian television, recorded music, the press and the cinema. These media have broken radically with cultural icons of Egypt's past, while offering ordinary people a way of coming to terms with the clashing values of nationalism, modernity, and Arab classicism. However, since the 1970s, popular culture has also become a subject of controversy. The balance between conservative nationalist imagery and a modernist ethic has been increasingly put in question by producers and consumers of the media, reflecting a sense that the representations of modernity do not reflect the experience of Egyptians.