Boredom and despair in rural Egypt |
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| Authors: | Samuli Schielke |
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| Institution: | (1) University of Joensuu, Joensuu, Finland;(2) ISIM, Leiden, the Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | Boredom is a key experience in the lives of many young people in contemporary rural Egypt. With its calm, predictable rhythm
of life offering little excitement and surprises, village life is intrinsically monotonic. But monotony as such does not necessarily
bore people. It is turned into intense boredom and despair by the presence of strong but unfulfilled aspirations for a better
and more exciting life. Boredom and attempts to escape it form an experience and a discourse of life that stand in a strong
albeit often unstated contrast to the ideology of Islamic revival. With the stated purposeless and pointlessness of the discourse
on boredom, not only the forms of entertainment, but also the very position of entertainment towards the grand projects of
religious revival and nationalist progress appears in a different light that fits in neither the secularist tradition of arts
and entertainment nor their revivalist contestation and reinterpretation.
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| Keywords: | Boredom Despair Rural Egypt Entertainment |
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