Transnational Arab Stardom

Kaya Davies Hayon is Honorary Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Lincoln, UK, and Research and Development Manager at Belong - The Cohesion and Integration Network. She is the author of Sensuous Cinema: The Body in Contemporary Maghrebi Film (Bloomsbury, 2018), and she has also published on contemporary Arab and African film in edited collections, special issues and journals, including Alphaville: Journal of Film and Media and Studies in French Cinema. Stefanie Van de Peer is Lecturer in Film & Media at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, UK. She specialises in Arab and African cinema, with a focus on women's roles in the film industries. She has written two books, Negotiating Dissidence: The Pioneering Women of Arab Documentary (2017) and Women in African Cinema: Beyond the Body Politic (2020) and three edited collections, Art and Trauma in Africa (IB Tauris, 2013), Film Festivals and the Middle East (2014) and Animation in the Middle East (IB Tauris, 2017). In addition, she programmes Arab cinema for international film festivals, and she works for the Africa in Motion film festival in Scotland.

Introduction: The Multidirectionality of Transnational Arab Stardom
Kaya Davies Hayon (Open University, UK) and Stefanie Van de Peer (Queen Margaret University, UK)


Section 1: The Arab Diva: Glamour in Pan-Arab Performers
Chapter 1: Reading Umm Kulthum through Film: Egyptian Woman, International Star, and Haunting Legacy
Laura Lohman (North Central College, USA)
Chapter 2: Fame, Infamy, Renown and Celebrity in the Life of Asmahan
Sherifa Zuhur (Institute of Middle Eastern, Islamic, and Strategic Studies, USA)
Chapter 3: ‘Subversive to Boot’: Tahia Carioca, an Imagined Geography of Egypt
Carolina Bracco (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Chapter 4: The Modern Marianne of Cairo: Arabness and Cosmopolitanism in Dalida’s Stardom
Barbara Lebrun (University of Manchester, UK)
Chapter 5: Feiruz: Deconstructing a Legacy
Salma Yassine and Vicky Panossian (Central European University, Austria)

Section 2: The Intersections of Gender, Class and Sexuality in Arab Stardom
Chapter 6: Differently Empowering: The Performativity of Strong Female Leads Faten Hamama and Hind Rostom
Wessam Elmeligi (University of Michigan-Dearborn, USA)
Chapter 7: The Sexually and Politically Dissident Stardom of Lubna Azabal
Kaya Davies Hayon (Open University, UK)
Chapter 8: Artist contribution
Bahia Shehab (American University in Cairo, Egypt)
Chapter 9: ‘For Those That Haven’t Given Up, Love Is Resistance’: Hamed Sinno and the Power and Perils of Mashrou’ Leila’s Music
Lowry Martin (University of Texas at El Paso, USA)
Chapter 10: ‘Egypt, Africa!’: The Sonic Stardom of Mohamed Ramadan
Claire Cooley (Tufts University, USA)
Chapter 11: A ‘Little Narrative’: Elderly Actresses in Contemporary Egyptian Cinema
Dina Mohamed Abd Elsalam (Alexandria University, Egypt)

Section 3: Power and Politics: The Ideologies and Reception of Arab Stars
Chapter 12: Habiba M'sika and Haydee Chikly: Tragic Transnational Fandom and the Feminist Legacy of the Earliest Stars of Arab Cinema
Stefanie Van de Peer (Queen Margaret University, UK)
Chapter 13: Stars in Arms: Egypt’s Movie Stars and the Free Officers
Ifdal Elsaket (Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, Egypt)
Chapter 14: Being Omar Sharif: A Cinematographic Excavation of a Star
Mark Lotfy (Figleaf Studios, Egypt)
Chapter 15: Elia Suleiman: The Reluctant Star
Hania A.M. Nashef (American University of Sharjah, UAE)
Chapter 16: Jamel Debbouze: Intersectionality, Diaspora and Transnational Stardom
Will Higbee (University of Exeter, UK)

Index