Search Results

Fusing an Alloy: Muriel Rukeyser at the Limits of Poetry/ Documentary

Sarah Ehlers

in Left of Poetry: Depression America and the Formation of Modern Poetics

This chapter charts the formation of the documentary poetry tradition in the U.S. through a consideration of Muriel Rukeyser’s The Book of the Dead. It demonstrates how Rukeyser pushed the boundaries ... More

This chapter charts the formation of the documentary poetry tradition in the U.S. through a consideration of Muriel Rukeyser’s The Book of the Dead. It demonstrates how Rukeyser pushed the boundaries of genre and media to imagine modes of expression that resisted traditional notions of liberal subjectivity. Drawing on multiple valences of the term alloy, the chapter argues that Rukeyser imagined documentary writing as a complex fusing of elements that speculates on the ontology of the poem itself. The chapter begins with an account of the historical, definitional, and theoretical concerns that have shaped documentary poetry. The chapter’s subsequent analyses of The Book of the Dead consider the impact of industry on subject formation: demonstrating how Rukeyser experimented with literary and visual genres, as well as poetic tropes and themes, to devise alternate modalities of personhood that interface the human with the materials of history and industry. The chapter concludes by showing how Rukeyser’s plans to adapt The Book of the Dead into a documentary film demonstrate a combination of formal and technical resources that illuminate new principles of composition.Less

The Book of the Dead from the Second Pillared Hall of the Tomb of Karakhamun: A Preliminary Survey

Kenneth Griffin

in Tombs of the South Asasif Necropolis: Thebes, Karakhamun (TT 223), and Karabasken (TT 391) in the Twenty-fifth Dynasty

Despite the collapse of the ceiling that destroyed much of the Second Pillared Hall of the Tomb of Karakhamun, the recovery of thousands of fragments has allowed over 90 per cent of the texts used to ... More

Despite the collapse of the ceiling that destroyed much of the Second Pillared Hall of the Tomb of Karakhamun, the recovery of thousands of fragments has allowed over 90 per cent of the texts used to be identified. The Book of the Dead appears extensively in this tomb, and this chapter looks at the placement and choice of the texts and spells. It also considers peculiarities and possible alterations, their current condition, and the level artisanship used to inscribe them. The excavation of this tomb makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Book of Dead in the Twenty-fifth Dynasty.Less

Egypt

John Casey

in After Lives: A Guide to Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory

The ancient Egyptians were the first culture that we know of systematically to correlate an afterlife with good and evil actions in this world. Far from being obsessed with death, the Egyptians were ... More

The ancient Egyptians were the first culture that we know of systematically to correlate an afterlife with good and evil actions in this world. Far from being obsessed with death, the Egyptians were above all lovers of life. Their ideas about post‐mortem survival affirmed the value of life in this world. Their joyous feeling for a bounteous land teeming with fertility carried over into a hope for resurrection—entailing mummification—that lacks the pessimism of many earlier cultures. The evolution of belief in Osiris as judge of the dead, from the early Pyramid texts to the Book of the Dead, both enforces fear of post‐mortem judgment and seems to open the possibility of resurrection to all, and not only to Pharaoh and his immediate circle.Less

Toward a Better Understanding of the Ritual of the Hours of the Night (Stundenritual)

Kenneth Griffin

in Tombs of the South Asasif Necropolis: New Discoveries and Research 2012-2014

This chapter focuses on the Ritual of the Hours of the Night in the First Pillared Hall of the tomb of Karakhamun. The Ritual of the Hours of the Day and Night is one of a series of religious texts ... More

This chapter focuses on the Ritual of the Hours of the Night in the First Pillared Hall of the tomb of Karakhamun. The Ritual of the Hours of the Day and Night is one of a series of religious texts relating to the cycle of the sun god. The Hours of the Night have been interpreted as consisting of extracts from the Book of the Dead. In the earliest versions of the ritual, attested within the memorial temples of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Dynasty, it is the pharaoh who is the beneficiary. The ongoing reconstruction of the tomb of Karakhamun offers the potential to better understand the Hours of the Night. The chapter first considers the sources for the texts of the Hours of the Night before analyzing its complete text.Less

Re Resting in Osiris, Osiris Resting in Re: Osiris, Sun God, and the Deceased in the New Kingdom

Mark Smith

in Following Osiris: Perspectives on the Osirian Afterlife from Four Millenia

This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part investigates the role and status of Osiris, and conceptions of the afterlife more generally, during the Amarna Period. It emerges that the ... More

This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part investigates the role and status of Osiris, and conceptions of the afterlife more generally, during the Amarna Period. It emerges that the evidence for continued belief in the Osirian hereafter during this time is more abundant than one might have expected. The second part scrutinizes the theory of the ‘solar-Osirian unity’ which some Egyptologists think is reflected in the underworld guides of the New Kingdom. It explores how the relationship between Osiris and the sun god attested in New Kingdom sources like these and the Book of the Dead affected the relationship between Osiris and the deceased.Less

Across the Divide

David Gange

in Time Travelers: Victorian Encounters with Time and History

This chapter explores the Book of the Dead as it began to preoccupy Victorian writers and thinkers in the late nineteenth century. It argues that, as the traditions of Victorian Protestantism became ... More

This chapter explores the Book of the Dead as it began to preoccupy Victorian writers and thinkers in the late nineteenth century. It argues that, as the traditions of Victorian Protestantism became less secure and authoritative, many commentators began to look to other traditions to explore ideas about the soul and the afterlife, either to challenge Christian ideas or to bolster them. Taking in the "time-travel theme parks" that were Victorian cemeteries, through unfulfilled architectural plans to build a pyramid on Primrose Hill in London, through scholarship and popular accounts of the Book of the Dead, this chapter reveals how the so-called Victorian "cult of death" was itself long dead before 1914 (the date at which it is often said to have expired), and unspools the ways in which mid-Victorian uncertainty about evangelical notions of the afterlife fueled a popular passion for all things Egyptian in the later decades of the century.Less

“Written by His Own Hand”: The Book of Abraham

Terryl Givens and Brian M. Hauglid

in The Pearl of Greatest Price: Mormonism's Most Controversial Scripture

In 1835, Joseph Smith acquired four mummies and a trove of papyri from an antiquities dealer. He claimed that the papyri included a narrative of the patriarch Abraham, and over the following years he ... More

In 1835, Joseph Smith acquired four mummies and a trove of papyri from an antiquities dealer. He claimed that the papyri included a narrative of the patriarch Abraham, and over the following years he translated the Book of Abraham. It describes a creation presided over by “gods” and details a premortal council in which human “intelligences” are present and a Savior is chosen. Controversy over Smith’s “translation” erupted almost immediately and reignited in 1967 when some of the original papyri were made public. Egyptologists identify those fragments as Egyptian funerary documents, unrelated to Smith’s Book of Abraham chronologically or thematically. Some Latter-day Saint apologists disagree, finding the Egypticity of Smith’s narrative credible. Other apologists agree that his work fails as translation in the conventional sense but succeeds as genuinely inspired scripture.Less

Remembering Networks

Alan Liu

in Friending the Past: The Sense of History in the Digital Age

This chapter begins on the paradigmatic instance of a hybrid print/digital work at the onset of the digital networked era—Agrippa (A Book of the Dead) by Dennis Ashbaugh, Kevin Begos Jr., and William ... More

This chapter begins on the paradigmatic instance of a hybrid print/digital work at the onset of the digital networked era—Agrippa (A Book of the Dead) by Dennis Ashbaugh, Kevin Begos Jr., and William Gibson (1992)—to call for a method of “network archaeology” extending media archaeology. Network archaeology facilitates understanding the sense of history in our postlinear age of digital networks—one filled with buzzing, flitting ephemeral or dynamic artifacts that make a mockery of archiving, yet that urgently requires methods not just of archiving but of open, transparent archiving. Past eras created networked artifacts and systems in their own way. The chapter braids together research on web archiving, scientific workflows (data-analysis workflows facilitating reproducible research), data provenance, and digital humanities prosopography to make the case for remembering networks through new digital archiving methods. Remembering networks, it argues, is foundational for providing our networked age with its appropriate, distinctive sense of history.Less

Conservation and Reconstruction in the Tomb of Karakhamun, 2012-14¹

Elena Pischikova, Ahmed Ali Hussein, Afaf Fathallah Phillips, and Abdelrazk Mohamed Ali

in Tombs of the South Asasif Necropolis: New Discoveries and Research 2012-2014

This chapter describes the conservation and reconstruction work carried out in the tomb of Karakhamun during the period 2012–2014. Full reconstruction of the tomb of Karakhamun in the South Asasif ... More

This chapter describes the conservation and reconstruction work carried out in the tomb of Karakhamun during the period 2012–2014. Full reconstruction of the tomb of Karakhamun in the South Asasif necropolis was carried out continuously following the excavation of the damaged areas. So far, one pillar and two pilasters, featuring the text of the Book of the Dead chapters (BD) 58, 72, 82, 92, 94, 106, and 119 and the Tenth–Twelfth Hours of the Day were reconstructed in the western section of the First Pillared Hall. The chapter also discusses the reconstruction of the area of the Tornische, the architectural and decorative features of the Second Pillared Hall in the tomb, and the conservation of the burial chamber and vestibule in the same tomb.Less

The Vignette of BD 32 in the Tomb of Karakhamun

Miguel Ángel Molinero Polo and Margarida Redondo Vilanova

in Tombs of the South Asasif Necropolis: New Discoveries and Research 2012-2014

This chapter discusses the iconography of the vignette of BD 32 in the tomb of Karakhamun. One of the key objectives of the South Asasif Conservation Project team is to rebuild the walls of ... More

This chapter discusses the iconography of the vignette of BD 32 in the tomb of Karakhamun. One of the key objectives of the South Asasif Conservation Project team is to rebuild the walls of Karakhamun's tomb. This will allow secure analysis of the place of Karakhamun's Book of the Dead (BD) versions in the history of this composition. Devoting a closer look at the vignettes seems an appropriate way to further deepen knowledge about BD in the first part of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. BD 32 occupies columns 48 to 403 of the north wall in the First Pillared Hall of Karakhamun's tomb. The chapter describes the spell and vignette of BD 32 in the tomb, along with the models of BD V31 and BD V32. It shows that models V31.6 and V32.6 became the illustration of their respective spells in the Saite recension.Less

The Theosophical Discovery of the Tibetan Book of the Dead (1927)

Jens Schlieter

in What Is It Like To Be Dead?: Near-Death Experiences, Christianity, and the Occult

The first Western translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz (1927) played a central role for the emerging belief that experiences near death are prevalent in non-Western ... More

The first Western translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz (1927) played a central role for the emerging belief that experiences near death are prevalent in non-Western cultures too. Especially noteworthy is the Tibetan Buddhist description of “Clear Light of Pure Reality,” but also frightening experiences of consciousness in the afterlife realm, and the necessity of a “guide.” The chapter describes how Theosophical preconceptions led to a view that Tibetan Buddhism corroborates premortal and postmortal out-of-body experiences or rebirth doctrines. As such, it became highly influential for C.G. Jung and other scholars of the “psyche,” paranormal experiences, and religion, allowing them to argue for a transcultural dimension of experiences near death, and experiences after death.Less

Silent bodies and dissident vernaculars: representations of the body in South African fiction and film

Lizzy Attree

in Images of Africa: Creation, negotiation and subversion

In recent years, literary representations of HIV/AIDS in South African literature have crept closer to the personal. There has been a parallel movement towards the visual, towards descriptive ... More

In recent years, literary representations of HIV/AIDS in South African literature have crept closer to the personal. There has been a parallel movement towards the visual, towards descriptive representations of the body in pain. Silence, invisibility and the absence of the dead are slowly being eroded by narrative descriptions of suffering in fiction and at times explicit visual representations. Literary fiction offers a counterpoint to sensationalist and spectacular photographic TV and newspaper images that have dominated the representation of the HIV-positive person's body in the early years of coverage of the epidemic. This chapter examines these trends through a discussion of two novels, Magona's Beauty's Gift (2008) and Kgabetli Moele's The Book of the Dead (2009), and two films, Yesterday (2004) and District 9 (2009). These examples provide prolonged contemplative spaces in which to consider subjectivity and the other, and how the representation, image and description of the external body can be counterbalanced in art, literary and filmic narrative.Less

Palaeography of the Texts of the Burial Chamber of the Tomb of Karakhamun

Miguel Ángel Molinero Polo

Andrea Rodríguez Valls (ed.)

in Tombs of the South Asasif Necropolis: New Discoveries and Research 2012-2014

This chapter discusses the palaeography of the religious texts of the burial chamber of the tomb of Karakhamun. About 1,100 hieroglyphs on the walls and 300 hieroglyphs on the astronomical ceiling of ... More

This chapter discusses the palaeography of the religious texts of the burial chamber of the tomb of Karakhamun. About 1,100 hieroglyphs on the walls and 300 hieroglyphs on the astronomical ceiling of Karakhamun's tomb have been identified. The ensemble of texts in the chamber is small and it has a quite restricted scope: the name of the deceased and only one of his titles, the identification of the asterisms and their related deities on the astronomical ceiling, and two parts of a spell of the Book of the Dead, BD 125B and BD 125C, beside the legends of the justification scene represented on the east wall. The chapter describes the current state of the reconstruction of the texts on the walls of Karakhamun's tomb and offers a palaeographic commentary of the preserved hieroglyphic signs of the chamber.Less

Interpreting Buddhist Influences in Kawamoto’s Puppet Animation: A Psychologist’s Reflections and Readings of His Animation

Masao Yokota

in Animating the Spirited: Journeys and Transformations

In the field of Japanese independent animation, the late Kawamoto Kihachiro (1925-2010) made tremendous contributions. This chapter discusses in particular his puppet animations which are steeped ... More

In the field of Japanese independent animation, the late Kawamoto Kihachiro (1925-2010) made tremendous contributions. This chapter discusses in particular his puppet animations which are steeped with Japanese native beliefs and elements of Buddhist thought. From a clinical psychologist’s perspective, the author analyzes the spiritual dimensions of his work, particularly highlighting the native traditions and assimilated foreign thought systems that are encased within his creations. Specifically, The Book of The Dead (2005) is examined in the essay as it was created when Kawamoto was eighty years old. Issues like mid-life crisis, death, and other related matters are explored as the author surveys the creative and personal life of the master-animator. The author’s interpretation posits that Kawamoto’s puppet animation essentially tried to express the concepts of suffering and enlightenment, and that his work is related to his profound connections to the Japanese people and the historical evolution of a new Japan after the Second World War.Less

Consolidation of Near-Death Discourse (1930–1960)

Jens Schlieter

in What Is It Like To Be Dead?: Near-Death Experiences, Christianity, and the Occult

The three decades treated in this chapter can be summarized as a consolidation phase of near-death discourse, transmitted mainly in parapsychology, Theosophy, and Spiritualist–Occult circles. A newly ... More

The three decades treated in this chapter can be summarized as a consolidation phase of near-death discourse, transmitted mainly in parapsychology, Theosophy, and Spiritualist–Occult circles. A newly emerging element in near-death visions is the “tunnel” experience. Finally, the chapter highlights the impact of Aldous Huxley—especially his psychedelic drug experiences in combination with his reading of the Tibetan Book of the Dead—for the final configuration of systematized near-death experiences.Less