Writing the Sphinx: Literature, Culture and Egyptology

by Eleanor Dobson

Overview

Unearths a rich tradition of creative flexibility, collaboration and mutual influence between literary culture and Egyptology

The first monograph study to bring literature into conversation with Egyptological cultureIncorporates a number of archival primary sources which have, until now,　escaped critical attentionAnalyses canonical literature alongside works by lesser-known authors Combines literary criticism with book history, the history of science, and reception studiesThis book explores literary and Egyptological cultures from the closing decades of the nineteenth century to the opening decades of the twentieth, culminating in the aftermath of the high-profile discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. Analysing the works of Egyptologists including Howard Carter, Arthur Weigall and E. A. Wallis Budge alongside those of their literary contemporaries such as H. Rider Haggard, Marie Corelli and Oscar Wilde, it investigates the textual, cultural and material exchanges between literature, Egyptology and visual and material culture across this period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474476256
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	08/25/2022
Series:	Edinburgh Critical Studies in Victorian Culture
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.59(d)

About the Author

Eleanor Dobson is Lecturer in Nineteenth Century Literature at the University of Birmingham. Her most recent publications include Dobson, E 2019, ''The most magical of mirrors': Oscar Wilde, photography, and cultures of spiritualism', English Literature in Transition 1880-1920, Dobson, E & Banks, G 2018, Excavating Modernity: Physical, Temporal and Psychological Strata in Literature, 1900-1930. in E Dobson & G Banks (eds), Excavating Modernity: Physical, Temporal and Psychological Strata in Literature, 1900-1930. Routledge, and ‘A Tomb with a View: Supernatural Experiences in the Late Nineteenth Century’s Egyptian Hotels,’ in M Elbert & S Schmid (eds), Anglo-American Travelers and the Hotel Experience in Nineteenth Century Literature: Nation, Hospitality, Travel Writing. Routledge, pp. 89-105.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. ‘Wonderful Things’: Howard Carter, Literary Genre & Material Intertextuality2. ‘Fairy Tales’ and ‘Bunkum’: Marie Corelli, Artefacts & Fabrications3. ‘The Master-Key that Opens Every Door’: Hieroglyphs, Translations & Palimpsests4. ‘Drunk on the Dead’: Intoxication, Perfume & Mummy Dust5. ‘The Sphinx Will Speak at Last’: Visions, Communications & Spiritual Experience

Coda Appendix 1: ‘Story of an Egyptian Necklace’Index

What People are Saying About This

University of Oxford Richard Bruce Parkinson

This magnificent book investigates the startlingly complex ways in which literature, art and Egyptology have influenced each other. With an impressive range of textual and material forms, Dobson provides a vivid, authoritative and revelatory analysis of cultural engagements with the idea of ancient Egypt in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Once read, Egyptology will never seem the same again.

Editorial Reviews

This magnificent book investigates the startlingly complex ways in which literature, art and Egyptology have influenced each other. With an impressive range of textual and material forms, Dobson provides a vivid, authoritative and revelatory analysis of cultural engagements with the idea of ancient Egypt in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Once read, Egyptology will never seem the same again.

Richard Bruce Parkinson