| Abstract: | This article investigates heritage in terms of different intertwined temporalities and polyphonic pasts in the Mediterranean. It posits that postcolonial theory has fallen short of perceiving the effects that movements of exchange, circularity and choice have had on Mediterranean societies in colonial times. Further, it explicates that the exploration of these avenues in matters of heritage and material culture would open the path for alternative understandings of the articulations of cultural encounters. Using a biographical approach I concentrate on an historical hotel, the Gezira Palace Hotel in Cairo, and explore the ways in which processes of change occur in intermediary spaces of cultural encounters, exchange and circularity that generate novel cultural expressions. |
