Problems of Canonicity and Identity Formation in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia [Hardcover]

The term “canonicity” implies the recognition that the domain of literature and of the library is also a cultural and political one, related to various forms of identity formation, maintenance, and change. From the very earliest days of writing, texts from the written traditions of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt were accumulated, codified, and to some extent canonized, as various collections developed primarily in the environment of the temple and the palace.Problems of Canonicity and Identity Formation in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamiaaddresses the interrelations between various forms of “canon” and identity formation in different time periods, genres, regions, and contexts, as well as the application of contemporary conceptions of canon to ancient texts.
 

Kim Ryholtis professor of Egyptology at the University of Copenhagen.Gojko Barjamovicis a lecturer on Assyriology at Harvard University.
 

Preface
 
Sumerian Literature and Sumerian Identity
Jerrold S. Cooper
 
Literature and Identity in Mesopotamia during the Old Babylonian Period
Paul Delnero
 
Closed Canon vs. Creative Chaos: An In-depth Look at (Real and Supposed) Mortuary Texts from Ancient Egypt
Alexandra von Lieven
 
Canonical Motifs in the Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions
Mario Liverani
 
The last stand? What remains Egyptian in Oxyrhynchus
Joachim Friedrich Quack
 
Who Writes the Literary in Late Middle Kingdom Lahun?
Stephen Quirke
 
‘The Pen Promoted My Station’: Scholarship and Distinction in New Kingdom Biographies
Chloé Ragazzoli
 
King Petemenekh: New Kingdom Royal Sarcophagi Texts on a Private Coffin
Robert K. Ritner
 
Constructing Elite Group and Individual Identity within the Canon of 18th Dynasty Theban Tomb Chapel Del3Æ