When politicians and pundits in the Middle East discuss democracy, do they mean it? Looking at public discourse about democracy in contemporary Egypt, Dunne proposes a fresh way of reading Arabic political discourse. She charts a method combining ethnographic research into communities of people producing political discourse with investigation of the texts themselves, using tools from anthropology, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics - a method with broad applicability to political discourse generally. Taking off from the premise that all discourse is based in social interaction, this book demonstrates that looking at the ways individuals and groups use public discourse to perform critical social and political functions yields entirely new perspectives on the significance of the discourse.

Democracy in Contemporary Egyptian Political Discourse is a valuable resource for students of linguistics, political science, democracy studies, Arabic language, and Middle East area studies.

Table of contents

Acknowledgements v 1. Introduction: Context, data, methods 1–12 2. Political talk as mediated discourse 13–42 3. Situating the Discourse 43–72 4. Identities under construction 73–94 5. Power relations replicated and challenged 95–125 6. Conclusion: The irresistible discourse 127–132 References 133–137 Appendix A: Transliteration and transcription key 139–140 Appendix B: Excerpt from Mubarak speech delivered October 5, 1999 141–149 Appendix C: Excerpt from Mubarak speech delivered November 13, 1999 150–158 Appendix D: September petition text 159–163 Appendix E: Excerpts from two articles by Fahmi Huwaydi 164–169 Appendix F: Excerpts from two articles by Hala Mustafa 170–176 Index 177–178