Unswathing the Mummy: Body, Knowledge, and Writing in Gautieris Le Roman de la momie

Abstract

Through a reading of Théophile Gautier's Le Roman de la momie, my paper explores nineteenth-century France's fascination with unwrapping mummies, performed as public spectacles at universal exhibitions, against the backdrop of previous centuries' practice of public dissections. Gautier's tale stages various types of openings (of the landscape, tomb, sarcophagus, mummy, and papyrus roll), in which a complex interplay of different models of openings, or "coupe," is at work: of the Parnassian poetics, the sculptural ideal, and of the scientific/medical dissection. The cross-examination between scientific and literary/artistic openings of the body reveals two competing structures of knowledge: one that cuts right through the surface and reaches depth in a straight line according to the mathematical principle of shortest path between two points, and one that moves along the surface in a horizontal path of circular tour, detour, and contour. (CL)

Ancient Corpses as Curiosities: Mummymania in the Age of Early Travel

“…145 The unrolling and unveiling of mummies brought them figuratively to life, "resurrecting" these ancient bodies that had lain dormant for millennia. 146 These public unwrappings were multisensory experiences 147 that allowed spectators to be transported to a distant period, across temporal boundaries, between the margins of life and death, mortality and eternity. 148 To witness an unrolling was therefore an occasion not to be missed, 149 and many mummy enthusiasts were disappointed when not able to secure tickets; in order to satisfy the curiosity of these Egyptophiles, the unwrapped mummy was often put on display (Figure 13), 150 to be examined by the public at leisure for a small fee.…”