The Frye Art Museum and Seattle Public Library are pleased to present this list of books and music CDs related to current exhibitions as part of an on-going community partnership program that focuses on self-education, for free and for all.
For these items and many more like them, visit the Seattle Public Library.
Napoleon on the Nile and Empire
Sorted alphabetically by author
Fiction Books
Napoleon's Pyramids
William Dietrich
At the start of Dietrich's superb historical thriller, his swashbuckling hero, American Ethan Gage, who's living in Paris during the waning days of the French Revolution and was once apprenticed to Benjamin Franklin, wins a curious Egyptian medallion in a card game. Soon after, he's set upon by thieves, chased by the police, attacked by bandits, befriended by Gypsies, saved by a British spy and then packed off to join Napoleon's army as it embarks on its ill-fated Egyptian campaign. – Publishers Weekly
I, Crocodile
Fred Marcillino
Crocodile lives an easy life – feasting and snoozing on the banks of the Nile – until one fateful day, August 17, 1799, when Napoleon’s troops arrive in Egypt. The French whisk Crocodile off to Paris, where he becomes an instant celebrity. But he soon learns fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be... (Children’s Picture Book)
Santa Claus in Baghdad: and Other Stories About Teens in the Arab World
Elsa Marston
Short stories about what it is like being an Arab teen caught between global culture and religion and traditions of your own country.
Children of the Storm (An Amelia Peabody Mystery)
Elizabeth Peters
Egyptian nationalism is on the rise in the early 20th century as archaeologist and amateur sleuth Amelia Peabody prepares for another Egyptian excavation. Old dangers bring fresh foes and Amelia finds herself in peril - Catalog
Non-Fiction Books
Mirage: Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt
Nina Burleigh
962.03 B924M 2007
Over 150 Parisian scientists and artists accompanied Napoleon and his troops on their invasion of Egypt in 1798. In her fascinating history of this expedition, Burleigh dedicates a chapter each to the lives of 10 of the remarkable individuals whose contributions to the 24-volume Description of Egypt helped create the Continental craze for all things Egyptian.
Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East
Juan Cole
962.03 C6754N 2007
Tells the story of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, and "reminds us that today's leaders are not the first to find the Islamic world far more complex that they imagined."
Lewis & Clark Territory: Contemporary Artists Revisit Place, Race, and Memory
Rock Huskha
704.94997 L5851H 2004
Lewis & Clark’s journals provide the impetus for artists to explore exploration and exploitation of a land and its peoples.
Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam
Mark LeVine
306.48424 L5787H 2008
With a jolting arrangement of images and voices, LeVine powerfully upends received notions about the Middle East by exploring one of the area's least-known subcultures. Interviewing and jamming with musicians from Morocco to Pakistan—including rappers and trip-hop artists as well as metalheads—LeVine (Why They Don't Hate Us) presents Muslims, Christians and Jews who, in the face of corruption, repression and violence, use their music to speak truth to power and carve out a space for individual expression and a new form of community. – Publishers Weekly
Description de l'Egypte: Publiée par les Ordres de Napoléon Bonaparte
Gilles Néret
745.44932 DESCRIP 1997
A collaborative work of text and engravings by civilian scholars and scientists who accompanied Napoleon’s exposition to Egypt. See online exhibit at http://descegy.bibalex.org/
Orientalism in Art
Christine Peltre
704.84885 Peltre 1998
Napoleon’s incursion into Egypt seizes the imaginations of European artists in unforeseen ways.
The Allure of Empire: Art in the Service of French Imperialism, 1798-1836
Todd B. Porterfield
701.03094 PORTERF 1998
A provocative look at the forces of art and politics in France’s military conquest of the Near East.
Whose Pharaohs?: Archaeology, Museums, and Egyptian National identity from Napoleon to World War I
Donald M. Reid
932 R2723W 2002
Tells how Egypt’s reaction to the plundering of antiquities spurned a nationalist movement.
Seeker of Knowledge: The Man Who Deciphered Egyptian Hieroglyphics
James Rumford
J493.1092 RUMFORD 2000
Illustrated with elegant watercolors, this picture book tells the story of Jean-François Champollion, the French amateur scholar who traveled to Egypt with Napoleon’s troops and cracked the code of ancient Egyptian hierogylphics. (Children’s Picture Book)
Orientalism
Edward Said
950.072 Sa21ov
First published in 1978, Orientalism remains a highly influential and controversial work of postcolonial theory. A political activist and academic, Said argued that 18th and 19th century European depictions of the Middle East in art and scholarship cannot be understood outside the context of “Western” colonial imperialism in Egypt, India, and other “Eastern” countries.
A People’s History of an American Empire: a Graphic Adaptation
Howard Zinn
741.56973 Z666P 2008
An examination and interpretation of the “other side” of some US history.
Music
Kala
M.I.A.
CD 782.42166 M1K
Born in London, raised in Sri Lanka and India, musician Maya Arulpragasm (aka M.I.A.) infuses danceable electronic beats with a global, postcolonial consciousness.
Articles
Davis, K. "Romancing the East." Art & Antiques V. 28 No. 5 (May 2005) p. 70.
Herbert, M. “Cinematic Affects: The Art of Runa Islam.” Artforum International V. 44 No. 5 (January 2006) p. 208-11.
Sheets, H. M. “Paul Pfeiffer: Gagosian and the Project.” Artnews V. 104 No. 3 (March 2005) p.115.
