Tracing Literary Roots
Identity and Acculturation: The Invention of a Truly Egyptian Drama
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hala Ghoneim
The development of modern Egyptian drama has been shaped by confrontations with and attempted hybridization of the Self (traditional poetics) and the Other (Western poetics). Arabic poets have operated within well-established and often hegemonic traditions and have had giant ancestors to look up to or challenge. Arabic dramatists, on the other hand, had little or no indigenous traditions to ground themselves in, and most relied on Western traditions to introduce the genre into Arabic literary tradition. Unlike poets who struggled to escape from hegemonic literary traditions, playwrights had to develop, nourish, and promote every indigenous form they could find, like al-samir and al-muqallid. This paper shall investigate, compare, and critique three attempts by Tawfiq al-Hakim, Yusuf Idris, and Najib Surur to simultaneously revitalize indigenous dramatic forms and employ Western theories and devices in order to forge what they view as a truly Egyptian drama. My investigation shall be restricted to drama because there has not been any worthwhile theorization of this issue in Egyptian theater and because very little of the playwrights’ theorization about theater has been put into practice. However, performance will occasionally be discussed whenever it intersects meaningfully with the issue of the invention of a truly Egyptian theater, especially in the works of Idris, and Surur.
Other in a Mutual Gaze: China and Britain in Nineteenth-century Illustrated Newspapers
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gang Song
It is well known that the Sino-British relationships underwent drastic changes during the ninteenth century. Britain achieved remarkable ascendance as a leading Western power through colonial expansion, the industrial revolution, and political reform, while the declining Qing regime was no longer able to uphold the age-old Sinocenric world order in face of both external threats and internal rebellions. Ample research has been conducted on the significant encounter of the two empires in this transition period. However, as a popular form of journalism featuring rich pictures and texts, illustrated newspapers (or pictorials) have remained an underexplored category of literary and historical sources in recent scholarship. This paper selects a number of vivid examples from two popular works in the late-nineteenth century, "Illustrated London News" (1843) in English and "Dianshizhai Pictorial" (1884) in Chinese, to explore how late Qing Chinese and the Victorians engaged in intense mutual gazes at each other. By adopting a cross-cultural comparative approach, this paper offers in-depth analysis of contextual factors and textual/visual motifs. It will uncover an intriguing self-other interplay among Chinese and British peoples who, for various political, ideological, religious, and emotional reasons, took part in the dynamic exchange of ideas, representations, and imaginations of the other.
Humanomics: A Non-equilibrium Theory of Economic Processes
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Michael Green
This paper uses works of literature to develop a non-equilibrium model of the economy. Such a system then consists of two flows, one into the system and one out of the system. Entropy returns everything to a state of undifferentiated homogeneity. The flow into the system maintains heterogeneity and differentiation. There are several aspects to this system. First, a control parameter initiates and sustains the flow of resources into and out of the system. Secondly, an order parameter directs this flow in ways that create an internal identity for the system. Thirdly, this flow has a definite cyclical causal structure. "Gulliver's Travels" is used to argue that non-equilibrium wholes take priority over isolated individuals. "Candide" is used to argue that the control parameter is one that oscillates between optimism and pessimism. "The Cherry Orchard," "The Adventures of Franco," "The Gilded Age," "The Great Gatsby," and "Player Piano" are used to argue that the order parameter consists of a changing technological/financial configuration. There have been three of these: the cotton system, the railroad system, and the internal combustion engine cycle. We are in a period of transition to a robotics/biotech system. "Oedipus Rex" and "Birds" (Aristophanes) shed light on the stages in this process. The stages in this movement are: confidence, alarm, relief, panic, false hope, and despair, caution, false panic, boldness, false alarm, and confidence. It is then argued that, since 2009, our economy has been in a false hope rally. The worst of the decline is still ahead.
