Abstract
This paper will examine the manner in which actor Soad Hosny is framed and portrayed on-screen, and – by consequence – off-screen in contemporary Egyptian culture. Specifically, this paper will address a critical phenomenon: the majority of Hosny’s roles, and certainly the ones for which she is better known, are roles where Hosny is ‘framed’ on-screen, as an ‘image’: an entity to be viewed. Hosny, dubbed the ‘Cinderella of the Silver Screen’ by her public, is often portrayed and constructed as an object in her films: an object which is framed and presented as one especially crafted for visual consumption, not just by audiences without the film but – critically – by consuming audiences within the frame, plot and matrix of the film itself.
After making a case for the construction of Hosny as on-screen ‘image’, the paper will venture beyond Hosny’s on-screen representations to consider her after-lives (and more specifically, the afterlives of her ‘image’) off-screen. As well as considering the proliferation and circulation of fetishized images of Hosny on items ranging from house-hold wares (coasters, cushions), to wall-art, to contemporary fashion items, the paper will conclude by posing – and attempting to answer – the following question: why is the nation obsessed with Hosny, and more primarily, with Hosny as an image – a visual commodity – up until the present day?
As a theoretical starting point, this paper will be engaging with Richard Dyer’s seminal theories on the construction and commodification of the ‘star’ – particularly, with regards to the construction of the ‘star’ as image. In addition, this paper will draw on theoretical frameworks of studying visual and material culture vis-à-vis gender studies. Specifically, the paper will pay particular attention to the aesthetic and sociopolitical forces at work, in constructing a volatile version of ‘femininity’: a kind of ‘femininity’ which is idolized, sanctioned and sanctified, but only within the confines of an image – whether this image be projected on the silver screen, or transferred unto a coffee-cup. This will, in turn, lead us to consider the negotiation, and transformation, of the social and ideological place of ‘women’ – and women stars and entertainers, in particular – across the decades in which Hosny was active: an issue famously tackled by Hosny herself, through her iconic role in Khali Balak min Zuzu! (Watch out for Zuzu!, 1971).
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