Volume 6, Number 3

Egyptian Temporality In Pharos, The Egyptian

  Authors

Laura DeLuca, Binghamton University, USA

  Abstract

Egyptian culture has been transhistorically fetishized in Western literature. This is present in Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare, and reverberates in the Victorian novel Pharos, the Egyptian by Guy Boothby. This paper examines the temporal climate of Pharos, the Egyptian, and shows how Boothby perpetuates the myth that Egypt is so exotic that it operates on a different temporal plane than Western countries. First, I will unpack Egyptian symbols that index the feeling of stasis via Postcolonial theory. I will put these symbols in conversation with quotations from Antony and Cleopatra, which reveal the historical understanding of Egypt as static. Then, I will discuss temporal inconsistencies in Boothby’s text, which include gaps in time, fainting, entrancement, future-telling, differences in memory recall, and how characters can be representative of temporality in their domestic spheres. Through this analysis, I demonstrate that Egypt has been transtemporally communicated as static by British writers.

  Keywords

Victorian literature, temporality, Postcolonial theory, imperialism.