Egyptian Gothic: 1884-1920

The Egyptian Gothic consists of novels and short stories about ancient Egyptian mummies returning to life to seek retribution or romance as well as cursed object tales. Now mostly forgotten, from the 1880s through to the 1920s it was more popular than the vampire genre.

This book is the first to examine the genre by using the frequent sensory descriptions within these texts to interrogate attitudes towards Empire. Its aims are twofold. Firstly, it demonstrates that despite their status as disposable popular fiction these texts are rich in sensory discourses that have thus far been unexamined. Secondly, reading these discourses of touch, sight, smell, sound and taste reveals new and intriguing ways in which Egypt is allowed to strike back against the British Empire. The book argues that the Egyptian Gothic does not support the domination of Empire, but instead presents a power dynamic in flux with the mummy fighting back against Western occupation. Egypt and its artefacts evoke simultaneous feelings of fear and desire, where those who meddle by invading tombs or stealing mummies are destroyed by Egyptian revenants.

Jay Sullivan is a writer and researcher based in London, UK. Jay holds a PhD from the University of Roehampton and an MA in Victorian Literature from Birkbeck College. Her research blends museum, sensory and gothic studies with a focus on the Victorian Egyptianised Gothic genre.