Imagining the Past

Abstract

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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