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Contemporary Islam

Erschienen in:

01.12.2008

Boredom and despair in rural Egypt

verfasst von: Samuli Schielke

Erschienen in: Contemporary Islam | Ausgabe 3/2008

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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.

Vorheriger Artikel Heavy metal Muslims: the rise of a post-Islamist public sphere

Nächster Artikel Playing with spirituality: the adoption of mulid motifs in Egyptian dance music

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Titel: Boredom and despair in rural Egypt
verfasst von: Samuli Schielke
Publikationsdatum: 01.12.2008
Verlag: Springer Netherlands
Erschienen in: Contemporary Islam / Ausgabe 3/2008
Print ISSN: 1872-0218
Elektronische ISSN: 1872-0226
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-008-0065-8

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