Hieroglyphic modernisms : writing and new media in the twentieth century / Jesse Schotter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schotter, Jesse, author.

Series:

Edinburgh critical studies in modernist culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Modernism (Literature)--Great Britain.

Modernism (Literature).

Great Britain.

Hieroglyphics.

Physical Description:

vii, 264 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press Ltd, [2018]

Summary:

In the British Museum, one object attracts more tourists than any other: the Rosetta Stone. The decipherment of the Stone by Jean-François Champollion and the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 contributed to creating a worldwide vogue for all things Egyptian. This fascination was shared by early-twentieth-century authors who invoked Egyptian writing to paint a more complicated picture of European interest in non-Western languages. Hieroglyphs can be found everywhere in modernist novels and in discussions of silent film, appearing at moments when writers and theorists seek to understand the similarities or differences between writing and new recording technologies. Hieroglyphic Modernisms explores this conjunction of hieroglyphs and modernist fiction and film, revealing how the challenge of new media spurred a fertile interplay among practitioners of old and new media forms. Showing how novelists and film theorists in the modernist period defined their respective media in relation to each other, the book shifts the focus in modernism from China, poetry, and the avant-garde to Egypt, narrative, and film.

Contents:

Part I

1 Misreading Egypt p. 25

2 The Hieroglyphics of Character p. 62

3 Sound Enclosures p. 92

Part II

4 The 'Essence' of Egypt p. 127

5 Solving the Problem of Babel p. 165

6 Matrices and Metaverses p. 199.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781474424776

1474424775

OCLC:

1018197167