How to think about this part?

[xdjuicebox]

So a while back someone told me that the way I thought about this part of Liebestraume No. 3 was wrong. This is coming right off of the Fm -> C -> Am -> E part.

So the way I think about this part is that it's "in E," because if you think about it that way, then it's just a really simple walk through the circle of 5ths (E -> G#7/D# -> G#m7b5/Bnatural -> C#7 -> F#9 -> Bdominant13 +whatever extensions idk how to analyze-> E, correct/modify that if I'm wrong). That's if E is the tonic. Except I was told it was not the tonic. I know we're in Am right now, so I think of E as the tonic in the dominant key.

So the question is, how are you SUPPOSED to think about this part? I kind of learned theory by reading wikipedia so...