Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Illustrations ix
4. Introduction 1
5. 1. The Aesthetic and the Epistemic: Race, Culture, and Antiquity 13
6. 2. The Extraterrestrial Orient: Despotic Time and the Time of the Despots 50
7. 3. Ethnography and Mimesis: Representing Aesthetic Culture 73
8. 4. Being in the Word: Of Grammatology and Mantic 96
9. 5. Ṣalmu: Representation in the Real 121
10. 6. Decoys and Lures: Substitution and the Uncanny Double of the King 149
11. 7. Presence and Repetition: The Altar of Tukulti-Ninurta 185
12. 8. Conclusion: Image, Text, and Différance, or from Difference to Différance 202
13. Notes 211
14. Bibliography 219
15. Index 237
16. Acknowledgments 241