CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Atta, Mennatullah Reda Mohamed Mahmoud |
|---|---|
| Title | "There is no such thing as revolutionary purity. Or is there?": Exploring the Meaning of Revolutionary Purity to the January 25th Revolution and its Revolutionaries in Egypt |
| Summary | In January 2011, a concentration of events and affects in Egypt and the Arab world led to the call for demonstrations on the 25th of January, demanding “bread, freedom, and social justice”. The response to the call for the demonstration was overwhelming and launched an 18-day sit-in within Tahrir Square in Cairo, as well as other sit-ins and demonstrations throughout Egypt and solidarity demonstrations in front of Egyptian embassies abroad, ultimately leading to deposing the former president Muhammad Husni Mubarak in February 2011. Between February 2011 and August 2013, a lifetime’s worth of violent and polarizing clashes and confrontations took place. The end result of these clashes and confrontations is the reinstatement of a military-led authoritarian regime that is cracking down on individual and collective liberties, enforcing harsh austerity measures under the guise of neo-liberal reform, and an increased sense of embitterment concerning living in Egypt. Within the experience of the Revolution, I investigate ‘revolutionary purity’ as a simultaneously powerful and ambiguous force, born out of an Arabic tradition of linking ‘Revolution’ and ‘Purity’ that influenced the trajectory of the Revolution in Egypt. By bringing together the life stories of active participants in the Revolution and my autoethnography as a witness of the Revolution from a distance, I argue that revolutionary purity came into being between the personal and the political; the revolutionaries’ personal aspirations and frustrations, and their unfolding modes of politicization throughout the lifetime of the Revolution. I also claim that revolutionary purity didn’t exist solely within the realm of the Revolution and its time. Its inception can be traced back to the everyday lives of people before the Revolution, as well as today through the experiences of revolutionaries living through the despair of the defeat of the Revolution. |
| Supervisor | Rajaram, Prem Kumar; Naumescu, Vlad |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/atta_mennatullah.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University