Research Catalog

Title

American hieroglyphics : the symbol of the Egyptian hieroglyphics in the American Renaissance / John T. Irwin.

Author

Irwin, John T.

Publication

• Baltimore [Maryland] : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016
• ©1980

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 371 pages; 23 cm

Summary

"The discovery of the Rosetta Stone and the subsequent decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics captured the imaginations of nineteenth-century American writers and provided a focal point for their speculations on the relationships between sign, symbol, language, and meaning. Through fresh readings of classic works by Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville, John T. Irwin’s American Hieroglyphics examines the symbolic mode associated with the pictographs. Irwin demonstrates how American Symbolist literature of the period was motivated by what he calls "hieroglyphic doubling," the use of pictographic expression as a medium of both expression and interpretation. Along the way, he touches upon a wide range of topics that fascinated people of the day, including the journey to the source of the Nile and ideas about the origin of language."--

Alternative Title

Symbol of the Egyptian hieroglyphics in the American Renaissance

Subject

• 1783-1899
• American literature > 19th century > History and criticism
• American literature > Egyptian influences
• Hieroglyphics in literature
• Symbolism in literature
• American literature
• American literature > Egyptian influences
• Intellectual life
• Literature
• United States > Intellectual life > 1783-1865
• Egypt > In literature
• Egypt
• United States

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Note

• "Originally published in 1980 by Yale University Press; Johns Hopkins Paperbacks edition, 1983, 2016"--Title page verso.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

pt. 1. Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman: Champollion and the historical background: Emerson's hieroglyphical emblems -- Thoreau: the single, basic form -patenting a leaf -- Whitman: hieroglyphic bibles and phallic songs -- pt. 2. Poe: The hieroglyphics and the quest for origins: the myth of hieroglyphic doubling -- Ends and origins: the voyage to the polar abyss and the journey to the source of the Nile; the survival of the manuscript -- Certainty and credibility -self-evidence and self-reference: Nietzsche and tragedy -Whitman and opera; the open road -- Writing self/written self: the dark double; the overwhelming of the vessel -- Cannibalism and sacrifice: metaphors of the body -transfiguration, transubstantiation, resurrection, and ascension -- Narcissus and the illusion of depth -- Self-recognition: deciphering a mnemic inscription; historical amnesia and personal anamnesis -- Repetition: symbolic death and rebirth; the infinite and the indefinite; the mechanism of foreshadowing -- The unfinished narrative: the cavern inscription on Tsalal; survival in an image -- The white shadow: imaging the indefinite; reading the spirit from the letter; the finality of revenge, the alogical status of the self -- The return to oneness: breaking the crypt; the limits of interpretation; the ultimate certainty -- pt. 3. Hawthorne and Melville: Hawthorne: the ambiguity of the hieroglyphics; the unstable self and its roles; mirror image and phonetic veil; the feminine role of the artist; veil and phallus; the book as partial object -- Melville: the indeterminate ground; a conjunction of fountain and vortex; the myth of Isis and Osiris; master oppositions; the doubleness of the self and the illusion of consistent character; Dionysus and Apollo; mask and phallus; the chain of partial objects.

ISBN

• 9781421421155
• 1421421151

OCLC

• 947074594
• SCSB-10868700

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library