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SELLING SUCCESS, NURTURING THE SELF: SELF-HELP LITERATURE, CAPITALIST VALUES, AND THE SACRALIZATION OF SUBJECTIVE LIFE IN EGYPT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2015

Jeffrey T. Kenney
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Abstract

The growing strength of self-help literature in Egypt represents a new cultural expression of accommodation with capitalism, and markedly expands the mix of modern ideas and ethical practices rendered legitimate through association with tradition. The ideas and practices found in self-help, however, are anything but traditional. In its style and content, self-help expresses the values of individualism and neoliberal understandings of subjectivity. Informed by modern insights into the self and its formation, the genre blurs the boundary between psychology and religion, valorizing the process of self-exploration and self-fulfillment. The inherent message of self-help is not simply the glorification of the individual but, more pointedly, the sacralization of the self and subjective life choices—an interpretive trend that, in Egypt, simultaneously functionalizes Islam and fosters new understandings of what it means to be Muslim.

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Articles
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International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , November 2015 , pp. 663 - 680
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

NOTES

Author's note: I thank the IJMES anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. Support for this project was kindly provided by DePauw University and by the Great Lakes Colleges Association as part of its New Directions Initiative, made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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21 Hilmi, Kun Wathiqan, 35.

22 Badran, Kayf Tuhaqqiq Dhatak?, 15.

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35 Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity, 77–78.

36 For examples of the range of publications, see the online catalogs of Ray Publishing & Science (http://www.raypub.com/catalog/default.php) and Jarir Bookstore (http://www.jarirbookstore.com). For a discussion of these books in Iran, see Adelkhah, Being Modern in Iran, 149–51.

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62 ʿArafa, An Takun Nafsak!, 21–37, 107–27.

63 Farha, Salih Nafsak, 5, 13, 23.

64 See Kamal, Hussam Muhammad, al-Amal (Cairo: Dar Ajial, 2011)Google Scholar; and Kamal, al-Tahfiz (Cairo: Dar Ajial, 2011)Google Scholar.

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72 Ahmad Badran, ʿAmru Hassan, al-Shakhsiyya al-Najiha (Cairo: al-Dar al-Dhahabiyya, n.d.), 9Google Scholar; Rauf Shabayk, al-Najah al-Saʿb, 28; al-Fiqi, al-Mafatih al-ʿAshr, 34, 111, 160; al-Shafiʿi, Sinaʿat al-Dhat, 192.

73 For some examples of “success gospel” discourse, see Magid, Mafatih al-Najah, 65–68, 123–26; al-Khusht, Istakshaf Nafsak, 99–103; Fathi, Muhammad, Midhaq al-Najah..! (Cairo: Dar Ajial, 2006), 9–18Google Scholar.

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76 Ahmed Badran, ʿAmru Hasan, Kayf Tatakhallas min al-Qalaq (Cairo: al-Dar al-Dhahabiyya, n.d.), 55Google Scholar. It is important to note that Badran does cite Carnegie's book at one point, but he is not clear about the extent of his debt. Badran is the author of a number of “how-to” books published by the same press; his freehanded use of unattributed sources appears to be a common practice.

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