Imagining the Past: Historical Fiction in New Kingdom Egypt
Abstract
This book examines four tales within the corpus of ancient Egyptian literature. During the Ramesside Period, the ancient Egyptians composed stories set two or even three centuries earlier. Known by their modern titles, The Quarrel of Apepi and Seqenenre, The Capture of Joppa, Thutmose III in Asia, and The Libyan Battle Story, each tale uses historically-attested figures within a plausible, yet fictional, narrative. Plot elements range from a witty exchange of letters to the first attested stratagem in world military history. Imagining the Past draws upon ancient Egyptian sources as well as modern literary theory to define a genre of historical fiction within New Kingdom literature; this book also presents the first application of Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the chronotope to ancient Egyptian literature. New translations and extensive commentary on the literary, social, and political context of the tales appear within each chapter and a concluding analysis summarizes the audience and function of historical fiction as well as theology and historiography within the tales.
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In Egyptian historical documents, subtle allusions can cast foreign leaders as Apep, an equation created through cosmic symbolism rather than made outright.
“subtle allusions can cast foreign leaders as Apep-such equations are never made outright, but created through cosmic symbolism.”
From The Journey through the Netherworld and the Death of the Sun God: A Novel Reading of Exodus 7–15 in Light of the Book of Gates (2023) · cites this paper as Manassa (2013, p. 57)
Cites
Semitic Words in Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period
Hoch, J. E. (1994) · doi:10.1515/9781400863884 · Cited by 301 · see citing works
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Lee, S. (2023) · Religions · doi:10.3390/rel14030343 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Manassa, C.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Manassa, Colleen
- Publisher
- Oxford University PressNew York
- Published
- 2013-11-26
- OpenAlex
- W4243674237
- Cited by
- 41
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 23 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 2 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 2.23
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Ancient Egypt and Archaeology
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Classical Antiquity Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Classical Studies and Philology
- Keywords
- ancient Egyptian literature, Ramesside period, New Kingdom Egypt, historical fiction, chronotope, Bakhtin, historical narratives, historiography, theology, literary genre
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