Talk:Egyptomania
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Egypt in the European imagination covers pretty much the same ground... Churchh 09:31, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
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[edit] Merging "Egypt in the European imagination" and "Egyptomania"
I agree that there is some overlap, but the merged article would have to be renamed and restructured significantly, since Egyptomania focuses primarily on Egypt in the U.S.-American cultural imagination since the 19th century. Since "Egyptomania" is a term that in principle covers all Western reception of Egypt, particularly after the Napoleonic campaign, the merging should probably go the other way. --Jottce 18:02, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
- Maybe they don't have to be completely merged, but they should definitely refer to and support each other -- instead of being completely isolated from each other. Churchh 23:41, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
Absolutely, I agree. I am not sure how to do this, but perhaps there could be a shorter article on "Egyptomania" in general that would be thematic as the one is now (culture, racial identity, etc), but taking account of the differences (and overlaps) between American and European "Egyptomania" and then a linked chronological article that would trace "Egypt in the Western imagination" from its beginnings to the present. And the two should also be linked to Edward Said's notion of Orientalism. These steps would make a significant improvement I think. What do you think of moving "Egypt in the European Imagination" to "Egypt in the Western Imagination" and cross-referencing it with "Egyptomania" as a first step? --Jottce 09:43, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Renaming "Egyptomania"/"Egypt in the European imagination"
Was thinking about this -- maybe the most direct way would be to rename "Egyptomania" as "Egypt in the American imagination", and then rename "Egypt in the European imagination" as "Egyptomania". Then "Egyptomania" would be the more general article. Churchh 03:59, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
- Hm. The problem with such a renaming is that "Egyptomania" has recently been used in scholarship (particularly by Scott Trafton) to refer to precisely the phenomenon described in the "Egyptomania" article, which means it is a term that specifically captures processes of national identity formation and, particularly in the United States, racial typing within that process. I know too little about the phenomenon in a European context to say whether the figure of Egypt had a comparable effect in the various European countries in which it played a role (I suspect there would be cultural differences within Europe as well, relating to different colonial interests). So a simple renaming would not solve the problem. Furthermore, "Egyptomania" is distinct from "Egypt in the European/American imagination," even though there is significant overlap -- not all references to Egypt are "egyptomanic." It seems to me that a good solution would be to have two cross-referenced companion articles: (1) "Egyptomania" (with a more conceptual/thematic approach) and (2) "Egypt in the Western imagination" branching out into "... American ..." and "...European..." (with a more chronological approach). There is also the relation to Afrocentrism that needs to be worked out.
- I think the problem has to do with how different disciplines approach the question: Egyptomania spans such diverse fields as architecture, visual and performance art, music, popular culture, clothing, science and literature, and different disciplines will have vastly different approaches, so it is very difficult to bring all of them together in one coherent article. --Jottce 06:54, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
- Another thought: "Egyptomania" of course would also have to distinguish between "American Egyptomania" and "European Egyptomania."--Jottce 07:05, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Removed tamplate
However the relationship between the two articles eventually sorts itself out, Egypt in the European imagination is currently effectively the "globalized" version of this article, so I removed the "globalize" template... Churchh
[edit] I just changed "U.S." back to 'America"
in the caption of the Blashfield mural because - quess what? The figure is labeled AMERICA in the painting. Carptrash 17:29, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
