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E-book How Pharaohs Became Media Stars : Ancient Egypt and Popular Culture

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Penilaian

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Even today the academic world often rejects the different manifestations of contemporary popular culture as a source of study in many subjects of the humanities. In the fields of history and archaeology its role is, however, fundamental to the framework of research into cultural reception. In this respect, as defined by Sonna and Illarraga (2016: 9-10):Cines, series, películas, libros, videojuegos: las cosas que nos divierten hoy no tienen nada que envidiarle a La Ilíada o a La Odisea de Homero - el Game of Thrones en tiempos del surgimiento de la filosofía - si nos quitamos la venda romántica de nuestros ojos.1But if in the study of other historical periods, such as the classical world (Frauenfelder 2005; Llewellyn-Jones 2009; Nisbet 2006; Wyke 1997) or the Middle Ages (Aberth 2003; Elliot 2010; Harty 1999; Young 2015), this traditional opposition between academicism and popular culture has been progressively softening since the end of the 20th century, in the case of academic Egyptology this process is proving to be much slower and more incremental.2In addition to this drawback, we can add others that are affecting our discipline. Firstly, academic research on reception in Egyptology has been dominated by the processing of isolated and significant leitmotifsof Egyptian civilisation, mainly mummies, pyramids, the figure of Cleopatra, and some objects from Tutankhamun’s tomb (Brier 2013; Taterka 2016). Secondly, for the analysis of these leitmotifs, researchers have often exclusively drawn on mainly Anglo-Saxon literature from the turn of the 20th century and Hollywood epic movies since the middle of the that same century, while more recent productions and media such as TV series, comics, games, or the internet have been almost completely ignored. Thirdly, most of the works frequently analysed refer exclusively to the reception of ancient Egypt in western civilisation, ignoring other cultural spheres, like modern Egypt and the Islamic world or the Far East.3The analysis of the visions of ancient Egypt reflected in contemporary popular culture must go beyond the simple observation of the use of Egyptian incidental motifs or complex narratives set in antiquity or featuring characters from the pharaonic past in current literary nd audiovisual products. It is essential to integrate these elements into a long tradition that clearly shows the fruitful dialogue established between the past and the subsequent presents (in the plural), up to and including our own time, in the framework of cultural reception, Egyptomania and mnemohistory.4 In this respect, Florian Ebeling (2019: 57) states: The focus here is therefore not on two points in time, that of the act of reception and that of the object of reception, but on the processual and semantically unfolding interaction of history, reference to the past and self-understanding in this interspace.5Within this diachronic perspective there is certainly a constant recurrence of the same motifs and narratives inspired by ancient Egypt over time, but there is also a continual transformation and resemanticisation of them. Examples just from recent sources illustrate this: the pyramid appears in many contemporary works in its function as a tomb as it was in the past, but in other testimonies it is a spaceship (La trilogie Nikopol (1980-1992) by Enki Bilal) or the lair of a tyrannic ancient god (Moon Knight: Welcome to New Egypt (2016) by Jeff Lemire). Elsewhere, the pharaohs might be portrayed as travellers from the future (Chrononauts (2015), Mark Millar), as representatives of a civilisation from outer space (Ian Kaledine: Le secret de la taiga (1983) by Ferry-Vernal; Stargate (1994) by Roland Emmerich) or one may embody the terrestrial appearance of a superior cosmic being (Nyarlahotep (1920) by H.P. Lovecraft). Therefore, within the apparent reiteration of the same leitmotifs there is room for both continuities and discontinuities.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

776 PIC h

Penerbit

London : Archaeopress Publishing., 2024

Deskripsi Fisik

261 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781803276274

Klasifikasi

776

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

-

Subjek

Computer Arts, Digital Arts

Info Detail Spesifik

-

Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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