Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
How ideas of law, justice, and agency are visualized and contested in Egyptian television crime dramas
What has citizenship come to mean in Egypt after 2011? Since 2007, constitutions have proclaimed it as the foundation of Egypt’s democratic system, yet the everyday workings of citizenship often unfold in the shadows of legal texts. Gianluca Parolin thus turns to Egyptian television drama—specifically, the emerging crime genre of the 2010s—to explore how ideas of law, justice, and agency are visualized and contested on screen.
Unlike its prominence elsewhere, crime drama has not historically been acknowledged as a distinct genre on Egyptian television. Yet during the 2010s, a recognizable crime formula began to take shape across a large number of incarnations. This book identifies the emergence of this formula, which embodies ways of imagining the relationship between citizens, law, and the state. Through depictions of investigation, policing, and civic intervention, these dramas portray citizens stepping in to restore justice when law enforcement fails to deliver on its most basic promise.
Combining distant readings of broad trends across the decade’s television output with close readings of key series, Scripting Citizenship examines how this formula flourished within Egypt’s tightly regulated media landscape, and how it displayed formidable resilience through the transformations of the late 2010s.
In doing so, the book develops a jurisprudential reading of the Egyptian crime formula—a legal theory in which drama casts its own light across the shadows of legal texts, revealing a visual definition of citizenship for viewers and scholars alike.
"In Scripting Citizenship, Gianluca Parolin brings his formidable expertise in Egyptian law to the analysis of television crime drama. Focusing on the pivotal decade of the 2010s, he reveals the regulatory system as a creative force that shapes the depiction of Egyptian law. Through portraits of ordinary citizens pursuing justice amid dysfunction, Egyptian drama—in Parolin’s estimation—does not merely reflect legal practice; it generates legal knowledge. He identifies a 'visual jurisprudence of citizenship' that has emerged in response to transformations in Egypt’s political landscape, a concomitant restructuring of its media industries, and an evolving set of conventions defining global drama."—Christa Salamandra, City University of New York
"Producing TV drama is an expensive business, which in Egypt comes with complex additional risks and challenges. Replete with telling insights into politics and culture, this elegant and riveting examination of representations of crime and law enforcement on Egyptian television in the eventful 2010s identifies recurring themes and patterns on screen as well as the multiple layers of censorship that shape them."—Naomi Sakr, University of Westminster
"A remarkable book in the way it forges connections between Egyptian television drama and the law, speaking as much to the general viewer and those interested in cultural studies as it does to legal scholars. Scripting Citizenship sheds fresh light on works we know well, revealing how crime permeates everyday life in subtle ways. It uncovers surprising layers of meaning that were always present yet had gone unnoticed. Moving beyond rigid approaches, this book reveals a society’s collective unconscious regarding systems of justice, dimensions that conventional legal tools struggle to capture."—Salma Mobarak, Cairo University
Gianluca Parolin writes at the intersection of comparative constitutionalism, legal theory, and law and culture. His work is marked by a persistent effort to approach foundational questions of citizenship through unconventional theoretical frameworks. He is the author of Citizenship in the Arab World (2009).
Note on Transcription
Introduction.
1. The Imaginary, Television Drama and Crime.
2. Constraints on Creativity: Legal, Administrative and Structural.
3. The Egyptian Crime Formula: Citizens in Quest for Justice.
4. International Remakes: Tuning Classical Detectives to the Formula.
5. “American-Style” Crime Drama on Egyptian Television.
6. Turning the Screw on Drama in the Late 2010s.
Conclusions: A Way Forward?
Filmography: Ramadan Dramas, 2010-2019
Bibliography: Essential Reads
Analytical Table of Contents
Index