Book release: "Diary of an Imaginary Egyptian" by Brandon LaBelle
Professor Brandon LaBelle is launching his new book "Diary of an Imaginary Egyptian" on 21 July in Berlin. The book is marked by an urgency to unsettle divides, both imaginary and physical, between west and east, Anglo and Arab, and to put into question narratives of the political.
"Diary of an Imaginary Egyptian" by Brandon LaBelle
The ongoing protest movements spanning the globe seek to revitalize and renew democratic processes as well as demand economic justice. Forming into a dispersed yet no less poignant network of struggles, the current situation reveals a global culture of hope, angst and imagination.
Author, artist and professor Brandon LaBelle has sought to engage these events by way of a diary of affiliation and reciprocation in which personal memories and cultural reflections search for remote connection, in particular, with the Arab Spring. His "Diary of an Imaginary Egyptian" is marked by an urgency to unsettle divides, both imaginary and physical, between west and east, Anglo and Arab, and to put into question narratives of the political.
Written between February and June of 2011, the diary functioned as a daily consideration of the intensity of events erupting around the world structurally linked to personal thoughts and memories. This five-month period acts as a platform from which questions around US imperialism, art and revolution, the task of writing, and the possibility of a new politics are raised. LaBelle asks for an "agency of the intimate", outlining a tender map of the transnational.
"Diary of an Imaginary Egyptian" is the second issue of the new book series Doormats published by Errant Bodies Press. The series aims at contributing to the now, addressing issues that are present and that demand presence.
The book release takes place on 21 July, 2012, at Errant Bodies in Berlin.
The work is part of Brandon LaBelle's ongoing investigation into theories of subjectivity, and notions of the ethical other. It connects to his upcoming course on "the voice" to be taught in the autumn 2012.
