ТВОРЦІ РЕВОЛЮЦІЇ: КОНЦЕПТ ŠABĀB (МОЛОДЬ) В ДИСКУРСІ ЄГИПЕТСЬКОЇ АРАБСЬКОЇ ВЕСНИ

Abstract

At the semantic level, the mechanism that helps sustain the discourse of the Egyptian Arab Spring may be represented as a set of concepts, both new and old ones, such as ṮUWĀR (REVOLUTIONARIES), IRĀDA(t) AŠ-ŠA‘B (PEOPLE’s WILL) – as the driving force of the ṮAWRA (REVOLUTION), FULŪL – as defeated enemies of the REVOLUTIONARIES, members and clients of the Ancien Régime and ŠABĀB (YOUTH) – featuring as the vanguard or the true makers of the REVOLUTION. This article analyzes the latter concept, from the perspective of George Lakoff’s conceptual metaphor and by looking into the most frequent collocations with the nouns šabāb (youth) and šābb (young man). A closer examination of these collocations reveals some culturally idiosyncratic aspects of meaning associated with the concept, including hidden social categories of class and gender, which modify the concept beyond the notion of merely an age group. Characteristic ambiguity surrounding the concept within the revolutionary discourse, could be accounted for by the difference in the way it functions in two interwoven strands of political discourse – the common official one, which views the YOUTH as object of care by the adult society and the narrative of the revolution, which portrays them as heroes and martyrs.