ORGANIZATION’S ENGAGEMENTS WITH ANCIENT EGYPT: FRAMING AND CLAIMING THE SUBLIME?

In this paper I write to examine the turn to ancient Egypt and the production of the geography of interest that surrounds it; specifi cally, I consider relationships between artifacts and arguments of relevance to organization by offering three spaces of aporetic negotiability that explore engagements with ancient Egypt. These examine attempts at a variety of claims in both senses of the word: forms of ancient Egypt are claimed for organization even as forms of organization are claimed and located in ancient Egypt. The argument is that while such appropriations can be constraining, they are simultaneously inscribed in the conditions for alterity and difference. Hence, the resultant piece inscribes a series of overlapping and, at times, contradictory relationships between ancient Egypt, organization and Egypt. In the first space I consider the writing of ancient Egypt into contemporary accounts on organization by discussing its incorporation into ancient Greek writing; in the second space I pose readings of international engagements with ancient Egypt as the other, while simultaneously claiming it in a metonymy of identity, of the self; in the third space I supplement this with a variety in readings of Egyptians ’ engagement with ancient Egypt. The afterword stops short of a final word; rather, it offers some reflections on ancient Egypt’s appeal to various organizational collectives. Key words. administration; ancient Egypt; aporia; origins; subjectivity; writing But concerning Egypt I will now speak at length, because nowhere are there so many marvellous things, nor in the whole world beside are there to be seen so many works of unspeakable greatness. (Herodotus, II, 35