The Egyptian Museum in Fiction: The Mummy’s Eyes as the ‘Black Mirror’ of the Empire
This article considers the way the late nineteenth-century genre of mummy fiction represents the exhibition of Egyptian mummies in the space of private or public museums. In the context of the constitution of the ‘imperial archive’ (Thomas Richards), the museum plays a substantial role and the inter...
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| Language: | English |
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Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
2021-06-01
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| Series: | Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/cve/8779 |
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| author | Nolwenn Corriou |
| author_facet | Nolwenn Corriou |
| author_sort | Nolwenn Corriou |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article considers the way the late nineteenth-century genre of mummy fiction represents the exhibition of Egyptian mummies in the space of private or public museums. In the context of the constitution of the ‘imperial archive’ (Thomas Richards), the museum plays a substantial role and the interactions between the archaeologist or museum visitor and the mummy in fiction can be interpreted in imperial terms, archaeological processes of excavation, classification and exhibition mirroring imperial dynamics. The motif of the gaze in particular gives us an insight into Victorian and Edwardian notions of knowledge and its links with imperial domination at the turn of the century. In texts such as Bram Stoker’s The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903) and Henry Rider Haggard’s ‘Smith and the Pharaohs’ (1913), the scientific and aesthetising gaze of the archaeologist is challenged by the eyes of the mummy who, in turn, gazes at the museum visitor and thus defeats the imperial order of the museum. My contention is that the showcasing of mummies in these two texts leads to a critique of imperialism as the mummy’s gaze, by offering a mirror image to the museum visitor, can mediate imperial anxieties and put on display the repressed parts of the imperial psyche. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-25d372d76219406e80cc89686c7e6f9a |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0220-5610 2271-6149 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2021-06-01 |
| publisher | Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens |
| spelling | doaj-art-25d372d76219406e80cc89686c7e6f9a2025-01-30T10:20:48ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492021-06-019310.4000/cve.8779The Egyptian Museum in Fiction: The Mummy’s Eyes as the ‘Black Mirror’ of the EmpireNolwenn CorriouThis article considers the way the late nineteenth-century genre of mummy fiction represents the exhibition of Egyptian mummies in the space of private or public museums. In the context of the constitution of the ‘imperial archive’ (Thomas Richards), the museum plays a substantial role and the interactions between the archaeologist or museum visitor and the mummy in fiction can be interpreted in imperial terms, archaeological processes of excavation, classification and exhibition mirroring imperial dynamics. The motif of the gaze in particular gives us an insight into Victorian and Edwardian notions of knowledge and its links with imperial domination at the turn of the century. In texts such as Bram Stoker’s The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903) and Henry Rider Haggard’s ‘Smith and the Pharaohs’ (1913), the scientific and aesthetising gaze of the archaeologist is challenged by the eyes of the mummy who, in turn, gazes at the museum visitor and thus defeats the imperial order of the museum. My contention is that the showcasing of mummies in these two texts leads to a critique of imperialism as the mummy’s gaze, by offering a mirror image to the museum visitor, can mediate imperial anxieties and put on display the repressed parts of the imperial psyche.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/8779Stoker (Bram)imperialismmummy fictionEgyptologyHaggard (Henry Rider) |
| spellingShingle | Nolwenn Corriou The Egyptian Museum in Fiction: The Mummy’s Eyes as the ‘Black Mirror’ of the Empire Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens Stoker (Bram) imperialism mummy fiction Egyptology Haggard (Henry Rider) |
| title | The Egyptian Museum in Fiction: The Mummy’s Eyes as the ‘Black Mirror’ of the Empire |
| title_full | The Egyptian Museum in Fiction: The Mummy’s Eyes as the ‘Black Mirror’ of the Empire |
| title_fullStr | The Egyptian Museum in Fiction: The Mummy’s Eyes as the ‘Black Mirror’ of the Empire |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Egyptian Museum in Fiction: The Mummy’s Eyes as the ‘Black Mirror’ of the Empire |
| title_short | The Egyptian Museum in Fiction: The Mummy’s Eyes as the ‘Black Mirror’ of the Empire |
| title_sort | egyptian museum in fiction the mummy s eyes as the black mirror of the empire |
| topic | Stoker (Bram) imperialism mummy fiction Egyptology Haggard (Henry Rider) |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/cve/8779 |
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