Erotics of the ruins: longing for the lost antiquity in Pierre Loti’s La Mort de Philae

Abstract

ABSTRACT Where does the material presence of antiquity in ancient ruins fit in with the perception of the parallel declines of western civilisation and the possibility of an exotic “other”? This article investigates this question in relation to Pierre Loti’s La Mort de Philae (1908). It uses Joshua Billings “erotics” model for Classical reception, highlighting the dialectics of a never-satisfied desire to retrieve the absent from classical ruins. It demonstrates that the attraction of the classical past is heightened by its perceived imminent disappearance. Ruins, as physical traces as well as material absences, epitomise the dialectics of reception and reinterpretation of both Classics and the exotic operated by Loti. In the light of past and imminent decadences, Loti comes to valorise the fragmentary as a potent heritage of the ancient past as its incompleteness enhances its symbolic decadent value, and allows for a creative engagement that subverts the announced “aporia” of exotic travel writing.