When the Silent Past Gets a Troubling Voice

Abstract

This article traces the contemporary (re)interpretations of a 14 minutes of American newsreel footage depicting 1928 Cairo as it circulated through popular Facebook communities dedicated to the nostalgic discourse of Egypt’s ‘good old days’ or ‘al-zaman al-gamīl,’ perceived as an era of morality and proper Egyptianness. Among the several orientalist scenes captured on the footage was a character improvisation perceived to be ‘profane’ by the proponents of this ideal imaginary of the past. Considering online and offline ethnography and discourse analysis of online commentaries, this article examines how nationalism, conspiracy theories, identity politics and post-revolutionary frustrations are discussed through the circulation of representations of the nation’s past. By tracing the pre-and post-digital life of this footage, it presents a case study on how cultural texts acquire meanings as they migrate from one medium to another and how online publics are formed around the (re)circulation and (re)interpretation of these texts.