Much ado about Marduk : questioning discourses of royalty in First Millennium Mesopotamian literature / Jennifer Finn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Finn, Jennifer, author.

Series:

Studies in ancient Near Eastern records ; Volume 16.

Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records ; Volume 16

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Iraq--History--To 634--Kings and rulers.

Iraq.

Assyria--History--Sources.

Assyria.

Assyro-Babylonian literature.

Marduk (Babylonian deity).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (252 pages).

Place of Publication:

Boston, [Massachusetts] ; Berlin, [Germany] : Walter de Gruyter Inc., 2017.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Scholars often assume that the nature of Mesopotamian kingship was such that questioning royal authority was impossible. This volume challenges that general assumption, by presenting an analysis of the motivations,methods, and motifs behind a scholarly discourse about kingship that arose in the final stages of the last Mesopotamian empires. The focus of the volume is the proliferation of a literature that problematizes authority in the Neo-Assyrian period, when texts first begin to specifically explore various modalities for critique of royalty. This development is symptomatic of a larger discourse about the limits of power that emerges after the repatriation of Marduk's statue to Babylon during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I in the 12th century BCE. From this point onwards, public attitudes toward Marduk provide a framework for the definition of proper royal behavior, and become a point of contention between Assyria and Babylonia. It is in this historical and political context that several important Akkadian compositions are placed. The texts are analyzed from a new perspective that sheds light on their original milieux and intended functions.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Preface

Contents

Standard Abbreviations

Chapter 1. Reading Counterdiscursive Texts in the First Millennium BC

Chapter 2. The Kassite Revolution

Chapter 3. The Library of Assurbanipal and the Counterdiscursive Landscape

Chapter 4. The "Babylonian Problem" and Scribal Dialogues of Counterdiscursiveness

Chapter 5. Counterdiscursiveness beyond belles lettres in and out of Nineveh

Chapter 6. Textual Hegemony and the Counterdiscursive Public

Epilogue. The Legacy of Late Akkadian Countertexts

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781501504983

1501504983

OCLC:

988764315