Emporialism Department Store Fictions And The Politics Of The Mediterranean - Amr Kamal

A Comparative Study Of Iconographic And Fictional Representations Of Department Stores In France And Egypt, As Sites Of Imperial And Mediterranean Cultural Memory, From 1869 To The Present.shortlisted For The 2025 First Book Prize Presented By The Modernist Studies Associationhonorable Mention, For The 2025 Ren Wellek Prize Presented By The American Comparative Literature Associationthis Book Examines What Amr Kamal Calls The Phenomenon Of Emporialism, Or The Convergence Between The Spaces And Imaginaries Of Empires And Emporia In The Context Of A Modern Mediterranean Divided Among The British, French, And Ottoman Empires. By Emporia, Kamal Refers To The Commercial Network Of Nineteenth-century Department Stores, Which Gained Prominence After The Suez Canal Project. Taking As A Focal Point French And Egyptian Department Stores, The Author Examines Emporialism As A Set Of Phenomenological Experiences, Discursive And Social Praxes, And Mechanisms Of Control And Resistance, Born From The Intersection Of Modernity, Colonialism, And Mass Consumption.