The Political Hero Figure in Egyptian Songs: A Linguistic Reading. With Particular Reference to Jamal Abdel Nasser

Abstract

The present paper deals with the political hero figure in Egyptian songs from a linguistic perspective. The researcher attempts to cast light on some linguistic features, including even few grammatical ones, which mark the treatment of the political hero figure in Egyptian songs with particular reference to Jamal Abdel Nasser as a case in point. The researcher, thus, adopts an analytical approach and tries to make use of linguistic techniques offered by discourse analysis. The basic hypothesis of the research is that one can learn a lot about political trends, inclinations and developments through even grammatical features that are hardly confined to mere structure and morphological relations. The claim is that through the investigation of such features, it is possible to trace the historical development of such figure across different periods of time that may reflect the political ups and downs in Nasser’s life as well as help gain a better understanding of the possible causes and consequences of the rise and fall of Nasser’s national project.

Key words: Political heroes; Songs; Idealization; Nasserism; Jamal Abdel Nasser; Grammatical features and their semantic indication; Discourse analysis