Egyptomania
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Egyptomania is a concept that describes the Western fascination with ancient Egyptian culture and history. Although this fascination goes back to a time immediately following the pharaonic period, "Egyptomania" specifically refers to the renewed interest in Egypt during the nineteenth century as a result of Napoleon's "Egyptian Campaign" (1798-1801) and, in particular, as a result of the extensive scientific study of Ancient Egyptian remains and culture inspired by this campaign.
Culture
Since the early nineteenth century, the fascination with ancient Egypt seems to have affected every field of American culture. Some of the most important areas of culture influenced by Egyptomania are literature, architecture, art, film, politics and religion. There were two important waves of Egyptomania in the nineteenth century, especially in arts and design, which were both caused by publications about Egypt that became very popular: Dominique Vivant, Baron de Denon, Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Egypt (1802), and the Institute of Egypt's Description de l'Egypte (1809). Because of these publications, people became more and more interested in Egyptian culture and everything related to it. Ancient Egyptian images and representations were integrated into a wide variety of cultural sectors. They influenced the fine arts not just in the US but throughout the western world. Examples of this are the pyramid of glass and steel in front of the LouvreTemplate:Citation needed or Verdi's famous Aida. thumb|left|175px|British caricature (1806)But Egyptian images and symbols also served for more trivial purposes, such as dessert services, furniture, decoration, commercial kitsch or even advertising. There were parties and public events that had Egypt as a motto, where people wore special costumes. In general, people were fascinated by everything that had the label Egypt attached to it. And even today, this kind of fascination for Egypt and all things Egyptian still exists. Many different exhibitions about Egyptian culture in museums all over the world demonstrate people's continued interest in it.
Fascinated by Egyptian culture, American literature, visual art and architecture absorbed what was becoming general knowledge about ancient Egyptian culture, making use of this knowledge in the contemporary debate about national identity, race, and slavery. Certain characteristic elements of Egyptian culture became particularly symbolically charged. The mummy, for example, represented the fascination of the Americans with the living dead, reanimation, revenge and anxiety about race. The figure of Cleopatra, hieroglyphic writing and deciphering, and the pyramid as maze and tomb are other examples of how ancient Egypt has been productive in the West, and specifically in the United States since the nineteenth century. Well-known literary works that make use of these symbolic references to Egypt include "Some Words With a Mummy" by E. A. Poe, "Lost In A Pyramid Or The Mummy’s curse" by Louisa May Alcott or The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The impact of ancient Egyptian culture in architecture is called the Egyptian Revival, an important expression of neoclassicism in the United States. Well-known Egyptian images, forms and symbols were integrated in the contemporary style. This influence can best be seen in the architecture of cemeteries and prisons. Other examples of this influence are the Gold Pyramid House in Illinois or the famous Obelisk (Washington Monument) in Washington DC. Movies such as The Mummy (1999) (itself a remake of a 1932 Boris Karloff film) and its sequels demonstrate that ancient Egypt and the discovery of its secrets is still a powerful point of reference for contemporary western cultures. Important scholarly texts about this phenomenon in American culture include Scott Trafton’s Egypt Land (2004) and M. J. Schueller’s U.S. Orientalism (1998).
It is important to point out that this impact of ancient Egyptian culture and its characteristic features is a result of cultural projection, and its re-creations and interpretations of Egypt say more about the anxieties and desires of Western cultures engaged in a colonialism that benefited them economically and symbolically than about the ancient culture itself. As such, Egyptomania is an integral part of a process of cultural appropriation that Edward Said has called "Orientalism" (in his seminal study under the same title).
See also
