Mummy Eaters (African Poetry Book)
Following in the footsteps of an imagined ancestor, one of the daughters of the house of Akhenaten in the Eighteenth Dynasty, Egypt, Sherry Shenoda forges an imagined path through her ancestor’s mummification and journey to the afterlife.
Work Information
Following in the footsteps of an imagined ancestor, one of the daughters of the house of Akhenaten in the Eighteenth Dynasty, Egypt, Sherry Shenoda forges an imagined path through her ancestor’s mummification and journey to the afterlife.
Following in the footsteps of an imagined ancestor, one of the daughters of the house of Akhenaten in the Eighteenth Dynasty, Egypt, Sherry Shenoda forges an imagined path through her ancestor’s mummification and journey to the afterlife.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Univ of Nebraska Pr
- Published
- 2022-09-01
- Pages
- 78 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 14.61 x 1.27 x 22.23 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781496232540
- ISBN-10
- 1496232542
- Price
- 3707 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Poetry/African
2022 Longlist for the National Book Awards Winner of the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets, Sherry Shenoda’s collection Mummy Eaters follows in the footsteps of an imagined ancestor, one of the daughters of the house of Akhenaten in the Eighteenth Dynasty, Egypt. Shenoda forges an imagined path through her ancestor’s mummification and journey to the afterlife. Parallel to this exploration run the implications of colonialism on her passage. The mythology of the ancient Egyptians was oriented toward resurrection through the preservation of the human body in mummification. Shenoda juxtaposes this reverence for the human body as sacred matter and a pathway to eternal life with the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European fascination with ingesting Egyptian human remains as medicine and using exhumed Egyptian mummies as paper, paint, and fertilizer. Today Egyptian human remains are displayed in museums. Much of Mummy Eaters is written as a call and response, in the Coptic tradition, between the imagined ancestor and the author as descendant.
Sherry Shenoda is a Coptic poet and pediatrician, born in Cairo, living near Los Angeles. Working at the intersection of human rights and child health, she serves as a pediatrician in a nonprofit health center. She is the author of The Lightkeeper: A Novel .
Reviews
-
Refreshing poetry on a complex topic
Egypt is a country with a long, rich and varied history. Its relationship with other nations is complex and nuanced. Shenoda tackles this in her poetry without flattening the issues or pulling any punches. A reader feels woven into the ancient past, the recent past, and the sharpness of the present. Take “Cairo, 1958” — a building crumbles and all I see is the recent images of Pakistan flooded by monsoon rains, buildings turning to dust and read her line of poetry… “ They were warned to move, she says, hands swirling wash water. The building swayed but they were too poor to move, and we were too little “ The recent past repeated in the present… Take “Aftermath” and you can hear the heart of an Ancient Egyptian mother beat the same rhythm as your grieving American neighbor, folding baby clothes alone. A must-read, must-experience masterpiece
-
I read it, I bought one for my sister, I'll get one for my mother.
Get it. It's this simple. This is an author at the summit of technical, emotional and transcendental poetic expression. Like wonders of old you read this book and you're left asking how it all came together with such creativity and brilliance. Sherry strings together dense subject matter into simple short sentences that take you by surprise and leave you thinking about them for a long time afterwards. She captures the heart and soul of a modern copt with all the pride and pain that comes with the history. And, like a royal mummy, she tightly wraps this intensely personal subject matter into a larger narrative around ancient egyptians and how we view them today. This gives you an extremely touching piece of work that is both personal and universal in scale. Incredible work. You'll want to experience this with your own eyes and heart.
-
Novice poem reader
Very enlightening poems; thoroughly enjoyed the reading!!