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Hieroglyphic Modernisms: Writing and New Media in the Twentieth Century (Edinburgh Critical Studies in Modernist Culture)
Explores hieroglyphs as a metaphor for the relationship between new media and writing in British modernism In the British Museum, one object attracts more tourists than any other: the Rosetta Stone. The decipherment of the Stone by Jean-Franois Champollion and the discovery of King Tutankhamuns tomb in 1922 contributed to creating a worldwide vogue for all things Egyptian. This fascination was shared by early-twentieth-century authors who invoked Egyptian writing to paint a more complicated picture of European interest in non-Western languages. Hieroglyphs can be found everywhere in modernist novels and in discussions of silent film, appearing at moments when writers and theorists seek to understand the similarities or differences between writing and new recording technologies. Read more