Romantic Egypt

An exceptionally fine study of a resonant topic generally known only in sketchy fashion. Fay provides a sustained inquiry revelatory in its reconstruction of the fast-changing state of affairs, as important as it was for the prosecution of empire and the progress of philology. The author is particularly illuminating on the meaning of ancient Egypt for thinking of the period, including for the likes of Hegel and Schelling, where the stakes were high.

-- Ian Balfour, Professor of English, York University

Elizabeth Fay reminds us how fundamental the imagining of Ancient Egypt was for the phenomenon we call Romanticism. Historical events such as the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt, the vast plundering of antiquities (most of which ended up in British hands), and the emergence of modern Egyptology took place within and contributed to a multilayered cultural imaginary in which Egypt represented both a fantasy of lost origins (of writing, science, magic, myth) and the inscription—and prefiguration—of ruin and entombment. Fay’s nuanced and daring readings weave their way through a variety of literary and philosophical texts (Plato, Schelling, Hegel, Freud, Derrida; Wordsworth, Keats, the Shelleys), allowing her to shed new light on a range of topics central to Romanticism, from the romantic fragment to the romantic sublime.

-- Marc Redfield, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Brown University,