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French

ID: <

10670/1.bd9p85

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Architecture and sociopolitical evolution : Toward a multiple reading of Downtown Cairo (1869-1973)

Abstract

Architecture and socio-political evolutionToward a multiple reading of downtown Cairo (1869–1973)It is difficult to set apart the architecture of the city, as an Urban Artifact, from the socio-political context that gave rise to it. Conducted studies about downtown Cairo demonstrate the significance of the relationship between the “modern city” built during the 19th century, the changes in its political systems and the ongoing social evolution. This interrelationship is also manifested in some fictional representations of the city, considered as cultural products of the society, such as literary works and cinema films.This research set out to interrogate the evolution of architecture and cityscape of downtown Cairo as manifested in the Egyptian literary works and cinema films beginning from the construction of the modern city (the downtown) in 1869, during the period of rule of Khedive Ismail (1863–1879) until the Yom Kippur War in 1973 during the era of President Sadat (1970–1981). This research represents an effort to provide a critical look at the role of the socio-political dimensions in the architectural and urban evolution of downtown Cairo by analyzing its literary and cinematographic representations, already influenced by the socio-political context.Relying on the hypothesis that fictional, literary and cinematographic representations of the city could allow us a better understanding of Cairo’s city center. We discovered such juxtaposition between “fictional” literary, cinematographic representations of downtown Cairo and its “real” Urban Artifacts. It’s supposed that such a confrontation between the fictional city and the real one could lead the way to construct a brand-new image of Cairo city center: its architecture, its urban spaces and its uses.In this context, a methodological approach was implemented: the multiple reading proposed by Roland Barthes in “L’aventure sémiologique” (the semiotic challenge). This approach sets to provide a wider understanding of the city through crossing various types of documents, starting from literary texts, to documents like administrative reports, maps, photographs and ending with historical documents related to the socio-political evolution of Cairo.This cross-referencing-data shows that literary representations could be considered as essential documents, useful to understand downtown Cairo architecture. At the same time, they underline the extent to which Cairo society has adapted to the political transformations that have led to radical changes in their capital and its city center during a century.The research has allowed us to build seven facets of downtown Cairo, each of those is giving a new understanding of the architectural and urban evolution of this important district in its political and societal dimensions, showing at the same time the role of city representations in this construction evolved over time.Keywords: downtown Cairo, architecture, cityscape, sociopolitical evolution, Egyptian literature

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