Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-302) and index.

Anthropology and national media -- National pedagogy -- The eroding hegemony of developmentalism.

How do people come to think of themselves as part of a nation? Dramas of Nationhood identifies a fantastic cultural form that binds together the Egyptian nation--television serials. These melodramatic programs--like soap operas but more closely tied to political and social issues than their Western counterparts--have been shown on television in Egypt for more than thirty years. In this book, Lila Abu-Lughod examines the shifting politics of these serials and the way their contents both reflect and seek to direct the changing course of Islam, gender relations, and everyday life in this Middle East.