Egypt, Orientalism, and the BBC World Service, 1952–2013

Abstract

This article aims to supplement existing studies of the reception of the BBC in the Middle East by unpacking a genealogy of writers who heard one another’s talks. Beginning with Edward Said’s memory of listening to Arnold Toynbee’s 1952 Reith Lectures, I then turn to the Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif, who heard Said’s 1993 Reith Lectures and herself appeared on the World Service’s World Book Club in 2013. Soueif appeared on the programme in August 2013, as Mohamed Morsi’s brief presidential term was coming to an end. In a revealing moment at the conclusion of the show, Soueif is asked to explain Egyptian unrest according to a Manichean difference between East and West, a task she complicates through recourse to an on-air history lesson in the vein of Toynbee and Said’s previous programmes. This recent moment, then, opens on to a half-century of debate between East and West, revealing the BBC’s central role in both perpetuating and challenging the ideology of Orientalism through an engagement with Egyptian writers, readers, and listeners.