Egyptian print nationalism defied Anderson’s model because Egypt sat in an imperial limbo

Evidence

But differing somewhat from writers of other cultures included in Anderson’s brilliant presentation of the birth of literature among colonized peoples of the nineteenth century, Egyptian writers existed in a greater colonialist limbo: not yet independent from the Ottoman Empire, but not quite colonized by Great Britain. Furthermore, Anderson posits that this adoption of print media was an expression of cultural revolution and anti-imperialism among the colonized. In Egypt, however, the artists and writers who were helping to fashion this imagined community were themselves parading Egyptian society along a very traditional stage. Their characters were locked into a recognizable series of linguistic, stereotypical tics. Perhaps this made it easier for them to be imagined. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 352

Categorization

• XREF: Benedict Anderson’s imagined communities framework is explicitly invoked and qualified — a direct connection to the comparative coloniality reading.
• QUESTION: Why did Egyptian writers lean on stereotypical caricature rather than Andersonian realism — was it Ottoman-era deniability, the lingering dominance of classical traditions, or audience economics?