The Rhetoric of Freedom

Dar Attanweer publishing house will host a celebration in the honour of Dr Emad Abdellatif and his book The Rhetoric of Freedom: The Battles of Political Discourse in the Time of Revolution Saturday at 7pm. The book won the award for best book on the social sciences at the Cairo International Book Fair. The event will include a book signing. Abdellatif's book treats of the three major types of discourse engendered by Egypt's revolution: revolutionary protest discourse; media discourse, which he says is geared at aborting the revolution and electoral discourse, which Islamist forces have triumphed in at the expense of revolutionary forces. The author explores a number of texts that have had a big impact on the course of the Egyptian revolution, including protest banners, chants, jokes, songs and nicknames of protest arenas, in addition to speeches by former President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak and current President Mohammed Morsi and statements by Supreme Council of the Armed Forces [SCAF]. He also analyses state TV's coverage of the transitional period and looks at the parliamentary and presidential election campaigns to explore the methods of persuasion and influence used by candidates to win voters. Abdellatif studies discourse analysis at Cairo and Lancaster Universities and has published three books: Why Do Egyptians Clap?, Strategies of Persuasion and Influence in Political Discourse and Rhetoric and Inter-cultural Communication. He makes frequent appearances in the media to comment to Arab political discourse. Dr Mohammed Mechbal, professor of rhetoric and discourse analysis in Morocco, says Abdellatif brought rhetorical studies to the centre stage in Arab culture and make it part of Arabs' daily life. History, Mechbal says, will testify to Abdellatif's impact.