Ancient Egypt in the Modern Imagination: Art, Literature and Culture

381 Pages·2020·13.823 MB·English

by  Eleanor Dobson, Nichola Tonks

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ANCIENT EGYPT IN THE MODERN

IMAGINATION
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ANCIENT EGYPT IN THE MODERN

IMAGINATION
ART, LITERATURE AND CULTURE
Edited by
Eleanor Dobson and Nichola Tonks
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BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2020
Copyright © Eleanor Dobson, Nichola Tonks and contributors, 2020
Eleanor Dobson and Nichola Tonks have asserted their right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Editors of this work.
Cover design by Adriana Brioso
Cover image © The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1895.
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For my parents, Georgia and Mike
E. D.
For Toby & Phyllipa – without whom I could not exist
For Lynda & Barry – without whom I would not exist
N. T.
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CONTENTS

List of Figures ix
Notes on Contributors xi
Introduction 1
Eleanor Dobson and Nichola Tonks
PART I The Egyptological Imaginary 11
1 ‘Wonderful Things’ in Kingston upon Hull 13
Gabrielle Heffernan
2 ‘Let Sleeping Scarabs Alone’: When Egypt Came to Stonehenge 29
Martyn Barber
3 ‘Mummy First: Statue After’: Wyndham Lewis, Diffusionism, Mosaic
Distinctions and the Egyptian Origins of Art 47
Edward Chaney
4 Ancient Egypt in William S. Burroughs’s Novels 75
Riccardo Gramantieri
5 Between Success and Controversy: Christian Jacq and the Marketing
of ‘Egyptological’ Fiction 89
Vassilaki Papanicolaou
PART II Death and Mysticism 103
6 Egyptomania, English Pyramids and the Quest for Immortality 105
Jolene Zigarovich
7 Obituaries and Obelisks: Egyptianizing Funerary Architecture and
the Cemetery as a Heterotopic Space 117
Nichola Tonks
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Contents
8 Tutankhartier: Death, Rebirth and Decoration; Or, Tutmania in
the 1920s as a Metaphor for a Society in Recovery after World War One 127
Lizzie Glithero- West
9 Celtic Egyptians: Isis Priests of the Lineage of Scota 145
Caroline Tully
10 Jack the Ripper and the Mummy’s Curse: Ancient Egypt in From Hell 161
Eleanor Dobson
PART III Gender and Sexuality 181
11 From Sekhmet to Suffrage: Ancient Egypt in Early Twentieth- Century
Women’s Culture 183
Mara Gold
12 ‘The Use of Old Objects’: Ancient Egypt and English Writers around 1920 199
R. B. Parkinson
13 Women Surrealists and Egyptian Mythology: Sphinxes, Animals and Magic 213
Sabina Stent
14 Egyptian Excesses: Taylor, Burton and Cleopatra 229
Siv Jansson
15 The Mummy, the Priestess and the Heroine: Embodying and Legitimating
Female Power in 1970s Girls’ Comics 247
Nickianne Moody
Notes 261
Bibliography 333
Index 361
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FIGURES
1.1 The Gold Throne. © Hands on History, Hull Museums. 18
1.2 The Footstool. © Hands on History, Hull Museums. 20
1.3 The Golden Shrine. © Hands on History, Hull Museums. 22
2.1 The scarab from Stonehenge Aerodrome. Line drawings by R. S. Newall
originally published in Engleheart & Collignon 1936. 36
2.2 Aerial view of Stonehenge and the First World War aerodrome, the latter
in the process of being dismantled. The photograph was taken on 12 July
1928, two months before the scarab was found, almost certainly on the
site of the hangar seen at the top of the photograph. CCC 11796/ 4519,
reproduced by permission of the Historic England Archive. 36
2.3 The scarab from Collingbourne Wood (or Ludgershall). Salisbury Museum
acc. no. 1935/3 1 (‘On deposit from Mr James’. Max. length 107 mm, max.
height 37 mm). Reproduced by permission of Salisbury Museum. 38
2.4 One of Alexander Keiller’s 1930s concrete obelisks at Avebury. This is an
example of his ‘Mark 2’ design. Photo: M Barber. 45
3.1 Tut (1931). Sketch by Wyndham Lewis. Pencil, charcoal and wash, 11 × 9¼
in. By permission of the Wyndham Lewis Memorial Trust (a registered charity). 71
6.1 Francis Douce Mausoleum (c. 1748), Lower Wallop, Hampshire. Courtesy
of The Mausolea & Monuments Trust. 111
6.2 John ‘Mad Jack’ Fuller, ‘The Pyramid’ (c. 1811), Brightling Churchyard.
Courtesy of the Mausolea & Monuments Trust. 112
6.3 Burton Pyramid (c. 1837), St. Leonards, East Sussex. This image is in the
public domain. 113
6.4 Kilmorey Mausoleum (c. 1850), St. Margarets, Richmond upon Thames.
Courtesy of the Mausolea & Monuments Trust. 114
6.5 Courtoy Mausoleum (c. 1850), Brompton Cemetery, London. This image is
in the public domain. 114
7.1 ‘Aerial View of Hamilton Mausoleum’, © A.P.S. (UK)/ Alamy Stock Photo. 124
7.2 ‘Hamilton Mausoleum’, © paulskinner25/ Stockimo/ Alamy Stock Photo. 125
8.1 ‘What the great find in Egypt may bring: a 3000- year old pharaoh “coming
forth into the day” with the contemporary garlands which adorned his
mummy’. © Illustrated London News Ltd/ Mary Evans. 132
8.2 Scarab brooch, Cartier London, 1924. Vincent Wulveryck, Collection
Cartier © Cartier. 136
8.3 Scarab brooch, Cartier London, 1925. Nils Herrmann, Collection Cartier
© Cartier. 137