Raqs in the City

Raqs in the City
Author: Heather D. Ward
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2024-07-26
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1476653488

Download Raqs in the City Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

In the city of Cairo, certain spaces bear strong historical associations with belly dance, belly dancers, and professional entertainment in general. Azbakiyah, Imad al-Din Street, and Muhammad Ali Street were all staging grounds for innovations in Egyptian belly dance, as well as in Egyptian music, song, and theater, at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and in the Egyptian popular imagination, these places continue to be linked to entertainment and entertainers. However, research reveals that the ties binding these spaces to entertainment extend much deeper: in some cases, this relationship can be traced back to the Fatimid era. The longstanding associations between belly dance and certain Cairene spaces demand a more in-depth investigation into the nature of this historical interconnection. In this work, the author examines the relationship between belly dance space and belly dancer in the Cairo landscape over the course of the city's history, relying on a theoretical framework informed by Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice, Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopia, and Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of the carnivalesque. This analysis reveals the mutually constituting relationship between dance, dancers, and the Cairene landscape and explains why and how certain Cairo spaces have retained their centuries-long historical associations with belly dance and its professional practitioners.

Terrains of Consciousness

Terrains of Consciousness
Author: Zeno Ackermann
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2021-10-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 395826168X

Download Terrains of Consciousness Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

TERRAINS OF CONSCIOUSNESS emerges from an Indian-German-Swiss research collaboration. The book makes a case for a phenomenology of globalization that pays attention to locally situated socioeconomic terrains, everyday practices, and cultures of knowledge. This is exemplified in relation to three topics: - the tension between 'terrain' and 'territory' in Defoe's 'Robinson Crusoe' as a pioneering work of the globalist mentality (chapter 1) - the relationship between established conceptions of feminism and the concrete struggles of women in India since the 19th century (chapter 2) - the exploration of urban space and urban life in writings on India's capital - from Ahmed Ali to Arundhati Roy (chapter 3).

Egyptian Belly Dance in Transition

Egyptian Belly Dance in Transition
Author: Heather D. Ward
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2018-01-13
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1476629633

Download Egyptian Belly Dance in Transition Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Raqs sharqi, the Egyptian dance form also known as belly dance, has for generations captured imaginations around the globe. Yet its origins have been obscured by misinformation and conjecture, rooted in Orientalist attitudes about the Middle East--a widely accepted narrative suggests the dance was created in response to Western influences and desires. Drawing on an array of primary sources, the author traces the early development of raqs sharqi in the context of contemporary trends in Egyptian arts and entertainment. The dance is revealed to be a hybrid cultural expression, emerging with the formation of Egyptian national identity at the end of the 19th century, when Egypt was occupied by the British.

Bandung, Global History, and International Law

Bandung, Global History, and International Law
Author: Luis Eslava
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 735
Release: 2017-11-30
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1107123992

Download Bandung, Global History, and International Law Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

"In 1955 a conference was held in Bandung, Indonesia that was attended by representatives from twenty-nine developing nations. Against the backdrop of crumbling European colonies, Asian and African leaders forged a new alliance and established anti-imperial principles for a new world order. The conference captured the popular imagination across the Global South. Bandung's larger significance as counterpoint to the dominant world order was both an act of collective imagination and a practical political project for decolonization that inspired a range of social movements, diplomatic efforts, institutional experiments and heterodox visions of the history and future of the world. This book explores what the spirit of Bandung has meant to people across the world over the past decades and what it means today. Experts from a wide range of fields show how, despite the complicated legacy of the conference, international law was never the same after Bandung"--

The Moving City

The Moving City
Author: Rashmi Sadana
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2021-12-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520383966

Download The Moving City Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The Moving City is a rich and intimate account of urban transformation told through the story of Delhi's Metro, a massive infrastructure project that is reshaping the city's social and urban landscapes. Ethnographic vignettes introduce the feel and form of the Metro and let readers experience the city, scene by scene, stop by stop, as if they, too, have come along for the ride. Laying bare the radical possibilities and concretized inequalities of the Metro, and how people live with and through its built environment, this is a story of women and men on the move, the nature of Indian aspiration, and what it takes morally and materially to sustain urban life. Through exquisite prose, Rashmi Sadana transports the reader to a city shaped by both its Metro and those who depend on it, revealing a perspective on Delhi unlike any other.

Dance in the City

Dance in the City
Author: Helen Thomas
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 268
Release: 1997-07-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0230379214

Download Dance in the City Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This exciting new and original collection locates dance within the spectrum of urban life in late modernity, through a range of theoretical perspectives. It highlights a diversity of dance forms and styles that can be witnessed in and around contemporary urban spaces: from dance halls to raves and the club striptease; from set dancing to ballroom dancing, to hip hop and swing, and to ice dance shows; from the ballet class, to fitness aerobics; and 'art' dance which situates itself in a dynamic relation to the city.

Cities’ Vocabularies: The Influences and Formations

Cities’ Vocabularies: The Influences and Formations
Author: Nabil Mohareb
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2021-01-23
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030519619

Download Cities’ Vocabularies: The Influences and Formations Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This book discusses several topics regarding different vocabularies, such as sacred architecture, heritage buildings, open spaces, landmarks, and street escapes, all of which have a direct influence on the city form. The city form is also affected by the indirect impact of the citizens themselves, for example their culture, which in turn depends on the arts, as can be seen and embodied in morals, paintings, media, digital art, and sculpture. The book also examines the fundamental elements that are responsible for the identity of the city. Presenting case studies that demonstrate the how implementing the concept of the responsibility of architecture and arts affects the development of our cities, the book offers a new approach that is based on the available features of a city and explores how planners and decision-makers can use these features to address the myriad problems that our cities are facing.

Global and Local Art Histories

Global and Local Art Histories
Author: Celina Jeffery
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2009-03-26
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1443807303

Download Global and Local Art Histories Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

There are now many books on postcolonial theory, yet relatively few of them gather together sustained, dynamic and insightful analyses of visuality, art and art history outside of hegemonic Euro-American themes and concerns. Global and Local Art Histories explores what it means to have a global and local experience of art. The 15 essays published here suggest ways of interpreting works of art from a broad range of cultural perspectives, many of them transcultural. Here are voices contesting concepts of history and culture, evaluating and exploring global and local identities in a changing world. Because of the variety of different approaches and cultural perspectives that Global and Local Art Histories brings together, the book presents a unique opportunity to question what we mean by that dangerously globalising category: “the work of art” and “art history” exploring “g-local” approaches that challenge such falsely universalising rubrics.

Gendering Urban Space in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa

Gendering Urban Space in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa
Author: M. Rieker
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2008-05-26
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0230612474

Download Gendering Urban Space in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The essays in this book critically examine the ways in which gendered subjects negotiate their life-worlds in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African urban landscapes. They raise issues surrounding the city as a representative site of personal autonomy and political possibilities for women and/or men.