Contemporary approaches to Mesopotamian literature how to tell a story edited by Dahlia Shehata, Karen Sonik

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Shehata, Dahlia, editor.

Sonik, Karen, editor.

Series:

Cuneiform monographs 56

Cuneiform monographs volume 56

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sumerian literature--History and criticism.

Sumerian literature.

Assyro-Babylonian literature--History and criticism.

Assyro-Babylonian literature.

Narration (Rhetoric).

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Leiden Boston Brill [2024]

Summary:

"This volume lays theoretical and methodological groundwork for the analysis of Mesopotamian literature. A comprehensive first chapter by the editors explores critical contemporary issues in Sumerian and Akkadian narrative analysis, and nine case studies written by an international array of scholars test the responsiveness of Sumerian and Akkadian narratives to diverse approaches drawn from literary studies and theories of fiction. Included are intertextual and transtextual analyses, studies of narrative structure and focalization, and treatments of character and characterization. Works considered include the Standard Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic and many other Sumerian and Akkadian narratives of gods, heroes, kings, and monsters"-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Introduction. How to tell a story in ancient Mesopotamia / Shehata and Sonik

Part 1. Issues, theories, and methods

Mesopotamian literature: issues, theories, and methods of Sumerian and Akkadian narrative analysis / Sonik and Shehata

Part 2. Sumerian narratives: narratological approaches

Focalization and "story time": techniques of Sumerian narrative / Löhnert

There and back again: journeying and narrative structure in the Sumerian Lugalbanda epics / Konstantopoulos

Part 3. Akkadian Gilgamesh narratives: contextual and intertextual approaches

Gilgamesh and the forest of gemstones: symbolic value-history of tradition-intertextuality / Lang

Journey towards death: the cedar forest in the SB Gilgamesh epic from an intertextual perspective / Wisnom

Allusion or no allusion: commenting on the interpretations of SB Gilgamesh Epic V 1-26 and IX 171-194 / Gabriel

Part 4. Assyrian royal narratives: contextual and intertextual approaches

The good, the bad, (and the ugly?): propaganda and the Tukulti-Ninurta epic / Jakob

A methodology for the transtextual analysis of Assyrian royal narrative texts / Bach)

Making the invisible visible: propaganda, ideology, and intertextuality in Assyrian royal narrative / Sonik and Novotny

Part 5. Sumerian and Akkadian narratives: novel approaches

Characterization and identity in Mesopotamian literature: the Gilgamesh epic, Enuma elish, and other Sumerian and Akkadian narratives / Sonik

Index of ancient words / Akkadian, Greek, Sumerian

Index of modern authors and researchers

Index of (ancient) names and subjects

Index of primary sources

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record

Includes bibliographical references and index

Other Format:

Print version Contemporary approaches to Mesopotamian literature

ISBN:

9004697578

9789004697577

OCLC:

1451797824

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license