Egyptian Facebook satire: a post-Spring carnivalesque

Q2 Social Sciences European Journal of Humour Research Pub Date : 2021-11-01 DOI:10.7592/ejhr2021.9.3.531
Yomna Elsayed
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

The Arab Spring offered Egyptians a brief opportunity for political freedom of expression; it also offered many creative youths a chance to experiment with their newfound digital talents. However, this was soon followed by a state crackdown on public forms of dissent; subsequently, creative expression had to find other platforms and modalities to continue its practices of playful dissent. Through Mikhail Bakhtin’s (1984) theory of Carnivalesque, this paper examines how Egyptian youths managed to create alternate spaces, other than the highly scrutinised political square, to challenge officialdom and generate their own folk culture through laughter and creative digital arts. This research is based on interviews conducted with administrators and fans of Facebook pages that offer satirical content in the form of memes and remix videos. Fans of these pages mostly belong to the 1980s and 1990s generations, but they also include younger adults whose formative years were those of the Arab Spring. This study argues that, like Bakhtin’s carnival, laughter and everyday comedy was a means by which creative artists could continue to express their opinions and indirect dissent amid intensifying state surveillance. These spaces, therefore, constituted third spaces away from polarised politics, where fans could playfully discuss the comedy away from the heat of events. They were spaces where youths could exercise control over the objects of laughter and challenge established institutions. Like the carnival, youths exercised Carnival practices of both reversal and renewal to craft a new folk culture of their own that did not have to abide by the rules of patronising politics.
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埃及Facebook讽刺:后春季狂欢
阿拉伯之春为埃及人提供了短暂的政治言论自由的机会;它还为许多富有创造力的年轻人提供了一个试验他们新发现的数字才能的机会。然而,不久之后,国家就开始镇压公开形式的异议;随后,创造性表达必须寻找其他平台和方式来继续其有趣的异议实践。本文透过巴赫金(Mikhail Bakhtin, 1984)的嘉年华式理论,检视埃及青年如何设法创造出除了受到高度审视的政治广场之外的替代空间,以挑战官场,并透过笑声与创意数码艺术,产生他们自己的民间文化。这项研究是基于对Facebook页面的管理员和粉丝的采访,这些页面以表情包和混合视频的形式提供讽刺内容。这些页面的粉丝大多是80后和90后,但也包括那些经历了阿拉伯之春的年轻人。这项研究认为,就像巴赫金的狂欢一样,笑声和日常喜剧是有创造力的艺术家在加强国家监督的情况下继续表达意见和间接异议的一种手段。因此,这些空间构成了远离两极分化政治的第三空间,粉丝们可以在这里开玩笑地讨论喜剧,远离事件的热度。他们是年轻人可以控制笑声对象和挑战既定制度的空间。就像狂欢节一样,年轻人运用狂欢节的逆转和复兴的实践来创造一种他们自己的新的民俗文化,这种文化不必遵守高高在上的政治规则。
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来源期刊
European Journal of Humour Research
European Journal of Humour Research Social Sciences-Cultural Studies
CiteScore
1.10
自引率
0.00%
发文量
34
审稿时长
6 weeks
期刊介绍: The European Journal of Humour Research (EJHR) is a peer-reviewed quarterly journal with an international multidisciplinary editorial board. Although geographically-oriented towards the ˋold continentˊ, the European perspective aims at an international readership and contributors. EJHR covers the full range of work being done on all aspects of humour phenomenon. EJHR is designed to respond to the important changes that have affected the study of humour but particular predominance is given to the past events and current developments in Europe.
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