Return to Alexandria : an ethnography of cultural heritage, revivalism, and museum memory / Beverley Butler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Butler, Beverley.

Series:

Publications of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Critical perspectives on cultural heritage.

Publications of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Critical perspectives on cultural heritage

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aliksāndrīnā (Library)--History.

Aliksāndrīnā (Library).

Revival movements (Art)--Egypt--Alexandria.

Revival movements (Art).

Library architecture--Egypt--Alexandria.

Library architecture.

Cultural property--Protection--Case studies.

Cultural property.

Museum techniques--Case studies.

Museum techniques.

East and West--Case studies.

East and West.

North and south--Case studies.

North and south.

Postcolonialism--Case studies.

Postcolonialism.

Alexandria (Egypt)--Antiquities.

Alexandria (Egypt).

Egypt--Cultural policy.

Egypt.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (300 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Walnut Creek, Calif. : Left Coast Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina was launched with great fanfare in the 1990's, a project of UNESCO and the Egyptian government to recreate the glory of the Alexandria Library and Museion of the ancient world. The project and its timing were curious-it coincided with scholarship moving away from the dominance of the western tradition; it privileged Alexandria's Greek heritage over 1500 years of Islamic scholarship; and it established an island for the cultural elite in an urban slum. Beverley Butler's ethnography of the project explores these contradictions, and the challenges faced by Egyptian...

Contents:

Preludes : founding myth and archive

The 'Alexandria Project' in the western imagination

'On the ruins' : postcolonial heritage metamorphosis

Contemporary return to Alexandria : international sacred dramas

'Revivalism between worlds' : UNESCO and GOAL

'Meltdown' : revivalism's 'time of anxiety'

'Spirit of aspiration' : archaeological revivalism and recuperation

Urban shock therapy : Alexandria's 'Las Vegasisation'

'Windows onto contemporary worlds'.

Notes:

First published 2007 by Left Coast Press, Inc.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 279-291) and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-315-42084-8

1-315-42083-X

1-315-42085-6

1-59874-653-7

9781315420851

OCLC:

604887610