In Strategic Maneuvering for Political Change, the author analyzes five political columns written before 2011 by Al Aswany, a prominent Egyptian novelist, using the lens of the extended pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation. What these texts have in common is the use of narrative, fictional and semi-literary techniques to strategically maneuver in supporting the feasibility of political change. It is a contribution to explain how an anti-regime writer paved the way to the Arab Spring in Egypt, and thus goes against a common opinion that the Arab Spring in Egypt was fortuitous or a wholly social-media-based movement. This monograph is an attempt to help argumentation theorists, linguists, analysts of narratives, and political scientists better understand and evaluate how fiction and narration can be effective means of persuasion in the domain of political communication. It therefore reconsiders the non-straightforward and artistic variants of the language of politics.

• Strategic Maneuvering for Political Change
• Editorial page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Table of contents
• Foreword
• Chapter 1. Introduction
  • 1.1 Object of research
  • 1.2 Approach
  • 1.3 Aims and research questions
  • 1.4 Organization of the study
• Chapter 2. Al Aswany’s call for democracy in the Al Shorouk columns
  • 2.1 Introduction
  • 2.2 The political situation in Egypt before 2011
  • 2.3 Al Aswany’s public stature
    • 2.3.1 Fifteen years of anti-regime writing
    • 2.3.2 The impact of The Yacoubian Building: A revival of the political novel
  • 2.4 Al Aswany’s political columns in Al Shorouk from a stock issues perspective
  • 2.5 The topics discussed in the columns addressing the feasibility issue
  • 2.6 Al Aswany’s audience and its frame of reference
    • 2.6.1 The Al Shorouk audience: Supporters of an alternative political path
    • 2.6.2 Al Aswany’s followers: Respondents to a second wave of committed literature
  • 2.7 Conclusion
• Chapter 3. An argumentative characterization of Egyptian political columns
  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 Opinions in printed newspapers
  • 3.3 The pragma-dialectical approach to the contextualization of argumentative practices
  • 3.4 The institutional point of political columns
  • 3.5 Political columns as an argumentative activity type
    • 3.5.1 The argumentativeness of a political column
    • 3.5.2 The initial situation
    • 3.5.3 Procedural starting points
    • 3.5.4 Material starting points
    • 3.5.5 Means of argumentation and criticisms
    • 3.5.6 Possible outcomes
  • 3.6 Conclusion
• Chapter 4. Strategic maneuvering with arguments from example: The “active people” topic
  • 4.1 Introduction
  • 4.2 The circulated image of the Egyptian people in Mubarak’s era
  • 4.3 Al Aswany’s discussion of the “active people” topic
  • 4.4 The argumentative predicament of evaluating a political group by means of examples
  • 4.5 The “Egypt awakened” case
  • 4.6 “The coming civil disobedience on April 6th.” case
  • 4.7 Conclusion
• Chapter 5. Strategic maneuvering by means of a narrative perspective: The “defeatable police” topic
  • 5.1 Introduction
  • 5.2 The public image of the Egyptian police before 2011
  • 5.3 The argumentative functions of a narrative perspective
  • 5.4 The “An unfortunate incident befalling a state security officer” case
  • 5.5 The “Why was the general screaming?” case
  • 5.6 Conclusion
• Chapter 6. Strategic maneuvering by means of an allegorical fable: The “victorious protesters” topic
  • 6.1 Introduction
  • 6.2 Beast fable, allegory, and allegorical beast fable
  • 6.3 Speech-act-based approaches to fiction
  • 6.4 Justifying an allegorical interpretation of a beast fable
  • 6.5 The conceptual aspects of an allegorical beast fable
  • 6.6 Reconstructing an allegorical beast fable as a critical discussion
  • 6.7 Strategic maneuvering in the “A story for children and adults” case
  • 6.8 Conclusion
• Chapter 7. Conclusion
• Appendix A. Egypt awakened
• Appendix B. The coming civil disobedience on April 6th
• Appendix C. An unfortunate incident befalling a state security officer
• Appendix D. Why was the general screaming?
• Appendix E. A story for children and adults
• References
• Index of names
• Index of terms