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Contagion and Crisis: Narrating Egypt’s 1947 Epidemic in Literature and Film

In 1947, cholera struck Egypt causing around 10,277 deaths from a total of 20,804 cases within a few months. What does the cholera outbreak reveal about Egyptian society at the time? How did different writers and filmmakers respond to it? Although several studies have tackled epidemics and the emerg...

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Main Author: Ibrahim, Nada Maurice
Format: Thesis
Published: AUC Knowledge Fountain 2021
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access_status_str Open Access
author Ibrahim, Nada Maurice
author_browse Ibrahim, Nada Maurice
author_facet Ibrahim, Nada Maurice
author_sort Ibrahim, Nada Maurice
collection Thesis
description In 1947, cholera struck Egypt causing around 10,277 deaths from a total of 20,804 cases within a few months. What does the cholera outbreak reveal about Egyptian society at the time? How did different writers and filmmakers respond to it? Although several studies have tackled epidemics and the emergence of medical and public health practice in Egypt from an historical perspective, virtually none to date have seriously examined Egypt’s 1947 cholera epidemic from a literary standpoint. This thesis, by analysing the epidemic through works produced about or during the time of the epidemic, offers a deeper insight into the event itself as well as the social and political circumstances that served as its backdrop. The main works examined are Andrée Chedid’s novel The Sixth Day, Nazik al-Mala’ika’s poem “Cholera”, and Taha Hussein’s short story “Al-Mu‘tazala” (“The Isolated One”). The thesis also refers to the Egyptian film Sira‘ al-Abtal (The Heroes’ Struggle) and a variety of other literary and non-literary sources.
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institution American University in Cairo (Egypt)
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress
publishDate 2021
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spelling oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-2574 Contagion and Crisis: Narrating Egypt’s 1947 Epidemic in Literature and Film Ibrahim, Nada Maurice In 1947, cholera struck Egypt causing around 10,277 deaths from a total of 20,804 cases within a few months. What does the cholera outbreak reveal about Egyptian society at the time? How did different writers and filmmakers respond to it? Although several studies have tackled epidemics and the emergence of medical and public health practice in Egypt from an historical perspective, virtually none to date have seriously examined Egypt’s 1947 cholera epidemic from a literary standpoint. This thesis, by analysing the epidemic through works produced about or during the time of the epidemic, offers a deeper insight into the event itself as well as the social and political circumstances that served as its backdrop. The main works examined are Andrée Chedid’s novel The Sixth Day, Nazik al-Mala’ika’s poem “Cholera”, and Taha Hussein’s short story “Al-Mu‘tazala” (“The Isolated One”). The thesis also refers to the Egyptian film Sira‘ al-Abtal (The Heroes’ Struggle) and a variety of other literary and non-literary sources. 2021-06-15T07:00:00Z thesis application/pdf https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1577 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/2574/viewcontent/Nada_Maurice_Ibrahim_thesis.pdf Theses and Dissertations AUC Knowledge Fountain epidemic cholera Egypt 1947 literature Comparative Literature
spellingShingle epidemic
cholera
Egypt
1947
literature
Comparative Literature
Ibrahim, Nada Maurice
Contagion and Crisis: Narrating Egypt’s 1947 Epidemic in Literature and Film
title Contagion and Crisis: Narrating Egypt’s 1947 Epidemic in Literature and Film
title_full Contagion and Crisis: Narrating Egypt’s 1947 Epidemic in Literature and Film
title_fullStr Contagion and Crisis: Narrating Egypt’s 1947 Epidemic in Literature and Film
title_full_unstemmed Contagion and Crisis: Narrating Egypt’s 1947 Epidemic in Literature and Film
title_short Contagion and Crisis: Narrating Egypt’s 1947 Epidemic in Literature and Film
title_sort contagion and crisis narrating egypt s 1947 epidemic in literature and film
topic epidemic
cholera
Egypt
1947
literature
Comparative Literature
url https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1577
https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/2574/viewcontent/Nada_Maurice_Ibrahim_thesis.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT ibrahimnadamaurice contagionandcrisisnarratingegypts1947epidemicinliteratureandfilm