Contemporary Approaches to Mesopotamian Literature

Dahlia Shehata, PhD University of Göttingen, completed her habilitation and is Assistant Professor at the University of Würzburg, where she teaches Sumerian, Akkadian, and Mesopotamian history. Her research explores Mesopotamian languages and culture, with particular emphasis on literature and music history. Karen Sonik, PhD University of Pennsylvania, is Associate Professor at Auburn University. Her research explores Mesopotamian literature, with an emphasis on the Sumerian and Akkadian Gilgamesh narratives and Enuma elish, as well as the visual arts, aesthetics, and emotions in Mesopotamia.Contributors are: Johannes Bach, Gösta Gabriel, Stefan Jakob, Gina Konstantopoulos, Martin Lang, Anne Löhnert, Jamie Novotny, Dahlia Shehata, Karen Sonik and Selena Wisnom.

• AcknowledgementsList of Figures and TablesAbbreviationsNotes on ContributorsIntroduction: How to Tell a Story in Ancient MesopotamiaDahlia Shehata and Karen SonikPart 1 Issues, Theories, and Methods1 Mesopotamian Literature: Theories, Methods, and Issues of Sumerian and Akkadian Narrative AnalysisKaren Sonik and Dahlia ShehataPart 2 Sumerian Narratives: Narratological Approaches2 Focalization and “Story Time”: Techniques of Sumerian NarrativeAnne Löhnert3 There and Back Again: Journeying and Narrative Structure in the Sumerian Lugalbanda EpicsGina KonstantopoulosPart 3 Akkadian Gilgamesh Narratives: Contextual and Intertextual Approaches4 Gilgamesh and the Forest of Gemstones: Symbolic Value—History of Tradition—IntertextualityMartin Lang5 Journey towards Death: The Cedar Forest in the SB Gilgamesh Epic from an Intertextual PerspectiveSelena Wisnom6 Allusion or No Allusion: Commenting on the Interpretations of SB Gilgamesh Epic V1–26 and IX171–194Gösta Ingvar GabrielPart 4 Assyrian Royal Narratives: Contextual and Intertextual Approaches7 The Good, the Bad, (and the Ugly?): Propaganda and the Tukulti-Ninurta EpicStefan Jakob8 A Methodology for the Transtextual Analysis of Assyrian Royal Narrative TextsJohannes Bach9 Making the Invisible Visible: Propaganda, Ideology, and Intertextuality in Assyrian Royal NarrativeJamie Novotny and Karen SonikPart 5 Sumerian and Akkadian Narratives: Novel Approaches10 Characterization and Identity in Mesopotamian Literature: The Gilgamesh Epic, Enuma elish, and Other Sumerian and Akkadian NarrativesKaren SonikIndex