Possession, Trance, and Reincarnation: Confrontations with Ancient Egypt in Edwardian Fiction

Abstract

Egyptianising fantastic fiction was a widely popular genre at the advent of the twentieth century, and, customarily, Egyptian characters act as a foil to the Western protagonists. This essay uses three Edwardian Egyptianising stories – Bram Stoker's The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903; 1912), Guy Boothby's ‘A Professor of Egyptology’ (1904), and H. Rider Haggard's ‘Smith and the Pharaohs’ (1912–13) – to demonstrate how these critical voices address the anxieties of the fin de siècle: issues including gender inequality, imperial arrogance, and archaeological entitlement. The Egyptian characters have the ability to hypnotise or psychologically influence the Western protagonists, highlighting their helplessness when confronted with the ancient Other. Simultaneously, a deep connection between archaeological and psychological discoveries (and thus antiquity and modernity) comes to light.