Mummymania update Jasmine Day (The Ancient Egypt Society of Western Australia Inc.) sends along a list of readings on Egyptomania, etc:

Here's a list (to which I could add even more were there
time enough) of my top picks for Egyptomania and mummymania reading. The
public seem largely unaware of the work that has been done in this field,
and sorely need to read this material to understand the reasons for
Western interest in ancient Egypt, and the ways in which ancient Egypt is
at times distorted or exploited by vested interests.

My book, to start with:

* Day, J. (2006) The Mummy's Curse: Mummymania in the English-speaking
World, Routledge (June 1, 2006).
It can already be ordered online in hardback or softcover
from Routledge or Amazon.com.


The other books and articles. Note that Ucko ed. is actually an entire
series of books! Also, I don't have my copy of J. S. Curl to hand but
it's a major publication on Egyptomania.

* Curl, J. (republished 2005) The Egyptian Revival: a Recurring Theme
in the History of Taste.
* Frayling, C. (1992) The Face of Tutankhamun, London, Boston: Faber &
Faber.
* Daly, N. (1994) ŒThat obscure object of desire: Victorian commodity
culture and fictions of the mummy¹, Novel: a forum on fiction
28(1):24­51.
* Day, J. (2002) Œ³The curse² from an anthropological perspective, with
implications for its study using hard sciences¹, rapid response to M.
Nelson, One foot in the past: the mummy's curse: historical cohort
study, British Medical Journal 325(7378):1482­4. Online posting.
Available online:

(accessed 26 December 2002).
* Fisher, S. (2000a) ŒWhat is the Appeal of Ancient Egypt? Qualitative
Research with the Public¹, unpublished report for the Petrie Museum
of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London. Susie Fisher
Group.
* ‹‹ (2000b) ŒExploring Peoples¹ Relationships with Egypt: Qualitative
Research for the Petrie Museum¹, unpublished report for the Petrie
Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London. Susie
Fisher Group.
* Hope, C. (2000) ŒVictorian Australia and ancient Egypt¹, paper
presented at Encounters With Ancient Egypt conference, Institute of
Archaeology, University College London, December 16. Online.
Available HTTP:

(accessed 11 May 2001).
* Humbert, J., Pantazzi, M. and Ziegler, C. (1994) Egyptomania: Egypt
in Western art 1730 ‹ 1930 (English edition), Ottawa: National
Gallery of Canada.
* Johnson, C. (1991) ŒThe limbs of Osiris: Reed¹s Mumbo Jumbo and
Hollywood¹s The Mummy¹, MELUS: the journal of the Society for the
Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States
17(4):105­15.
* Lupton, C. (2003) ŒŒMummymania¹ for the masses ‹ is Egyptology cursed
by the mummy¹s curse? ¹, in S. MacDonald and M. Rice (eds) Consuming
Ancient Egypt (Encounters With Ancient Egypt), London: UCL Press
pp.23­46.
* McAlister, M. (1996) Œ³The common heritage of mankind²: race, nation
and masculinity in the King Tut exhibit¹, Representations 54:80­103.
* MacDonald, S. (2003) ŒLost in time and space: ancient Egypt in
museums¹, in S. MacDonald and M. Rice (eds) Consuming Ancient Egypt
(Encounters With Ancient Egypt), London: UCL Press, pp.87­99.
* Merrillees, R. (1995) Egyptomania in Australia, Bulletin of the
Australian Centre for Egyptology 6, 77­87.
* Merrillees, R. et al. (1990) Living with Egypt¹s Past in Australia,
Melbourne: Museum of Victoria.
* Montserrat, D. (1998) ŒLouisa May Alcott and the mummy¹s curse¹, KMT:
a modern journal of ancient Egypt 9(2):70­5.
* ‹‹ (1999a) Œ³To make death beautiful²: the other life of the Fayum
portraits¹, Apollo: the international magazine of the arts
(150)449:18­25.
* ‹‹ (1999b) Review of ŒThe Mummy¹, Egyptian Archaeology 15:44.
* ‹‹ (2000) Ancient Egypt: digging for dreams, Glasgow: Glasgow City
Council, Cultural & Leisure Services.
* Shohat, E. (1997) ŒGender and culture of empire: toward a feminist
ethnography of the cinema¹, in M. Bernstein and G. Studlar (eds)
Visions of the East: Orientalism in film, New Brunswick, New Jersey:
Rutgers University Press, pp.19­66.
* Towers, D. and Wallace, D. (dirs) (1992) The Face of Tutankhamun, 5
episodes, 49 mins each, executive producer J. Bennett: BBC-TV and The
Arts & Entertainment Network.
* Trigger, B. (1995) ŒEgyptology, ancient Egypt, and the American
imagination¹, in N. Thomas et al. The American Discovery of Ancient
Egypt, vol. 1, New York: Harry N. Abrams, pp.21­35.
* Ucko, P. (series ed.) (2003) Encounters With Ancient Egypt (8 vols),
London: UCL Press.