Die Literarisierung des entzifferten Ägypten. Wissenschaft und Fiktion im Roman Uarda (1877) von Georg Ebers (1837-1898)

Abstract

In the context of nineteenth-century orientalism, the narrative production of the Berlin-born Egyptologist George Ebers (1837-1898), whose novels fall within the category of Professorenroman, plays a significant role. Standing on the confines between literature and historiography, Ebers’ works set in Egypt gave rise to an authentic mania for Egypt and made the people, events, habits and customs of the ancient country of the Nile, which at that time were being studied by the first generation of German Egyptologists (Lepsius, Brugsch), familiar to a vast public of readers; but the literary transposition of the ancient Egyptian world was also an opportunity to write about the burning religious, political and social questions of the day. The analysis of the successful novel Uarda, printed in thousands of copies, intends not only to focus on Ebers’sWeltanschauung, but also to contribute to rediscover a writer who, although not outstanding from a literary point of view, represents a significant part of the Wilhelmian Zeitgeist.