Algerian and Egyptian Acrobats Abroad: History from below and Occidentalist Narratives of Fact Re-narrated

Abstract

Though hidden in plain sight and aesthetically relegated to the margin of history, Arab acrobats’ accounts in the West are critical terrains that shift the spotlight downwards, signal new versions of the inscription of Otherness and recreate the absent/present agency of acrobats as active interlocutors and “dissenting voices”. They remain valuable archival material that particularly challenges Orientalist orthodoxies and Western clashing tropes; they are undoubtedly alternative discourses of difference that run counter to the binary mainstream trope and the fixed taxonomy of East versus West. The researcher’s particular interest is in the Algerians and Egyptians. The ultimate aim is to show an Occidentalist façade of representing the Western Other. The author argues that these acrobatic experiences formulate a parallel Occidentalist discourse that tries to create a counter-discursive narrative of fact. This is significant in in the building up of an Occidentalist project. It shows how the acrobats have turned into examiners and eyewitnesses from within Western contexts. This article starts from this aporetic question: to what extent do Algerian and Egyptian acrobats recreate their agency and enunciate an alternative façade of Occidentalism? Using a postcolonial micro-historicist[i] approach, this paper aims to undermine both the Orientalist discourse and the Occidentalist thesis based on Hassan Hanafi’s allegiance. Ranging from the itineraries of Abachi troupe to the trajectories of Amin brothers and Ramses groups, this article concludes that the discourse generated is not Orientalism but rather a heterogeneous version of Occidentalism.