Press Memorials as a Source for Modern Coptic History: Reading through Mundane Death and the Politics of Respect
This paper explores press memorials for the dead as a unique source of modern Coptic history. Drawing from memorials written in the Coptic press from the 1920s to the 1960s, I consider how the emotional impact of mundane death operated as a platform for writers to lay claim to which communal ideals...
Αποθηκεύτηκε σε:
| Τόπος έκδοσης: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/esma, |
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| Κύριος συγγραφέας: | |
| Μορφή: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Γλώσσα: | Anglais |
| Έκδοση: |
Égypte Soudan mondes arabes
2023
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| Θέματα: | |
| Διαθέσιμο Online: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Περίληψη: | This paper explores press memorials for the dead as a unique source of modern Coptic history. Drawing from memorials written in the Coptic press from the 1920s to the 1960s, I consider how the emotional impact of mundane death operated as a platform for writers to lay claim to which communal ideals held value in their time. I argue that the prose of memorials was framed by a “politics of respect” which dictated that writers navigate between their own political values, readers’ understandings of respectable things to say about the dead, and the delicate treatment of the disappointing aspects of the deceased. On the one hand, the politics of respect offered authors of memorials an opportunity to promote certain communal values by positioning them as respectful ways to commemorate the dead, as well as to add gravity to those values by linking them to the preservation of the legacy of the deceased. On the other hand, the respectability afforded to death placed distinct limits on what was said, or unsaid, about the dead. Reading the narratives of memorials through the critical lens of respect, I contend, offers a unique historical archive for observing continuity and change in communal values over time, as well as for challenging historiographical conventions. |
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