Disputation Literature in the Near East and Beyond - Paperback

by Enrique Jiménez (Editor), Catherine Mittermayer (Editor)

Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records (SANER) is a peer-reviewed series devoted to the publication of monographs pertaining to all aspects of the history, culture, literature, religion, art, and archaeology of the Ancient Near East, from the earliest historical periods to Late Antiquity. The aim of this series is to present in-depth studies of the written and material records left by the civilizations and cultures that populated the various areas of the Ancient Near East: Anatolia, Arabia, Egypt, Iran, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Syria. Thus, SANER is open to all sorts of works that have something new to contribute and which are relevant to scholars and students within the continuum of regions, disciplines, and periods that constitute the field of Ancient Near Eastern studies, as well as to those in neighboring disciplines, including Biblical Studies, Classics, and Ancient History in general.

Back Jacket

Disputation literature is a type of text in which usually two non-human entities (such as trees and animals) vie over their respective merits in a series of elaborate, flowery speeches. Known in virtually every Middle Eastern culture from Antiquity to the present day, it represents one of the most enduring genres in world literature. The present volume collects over twenty contributions on disputation literature by a diverse group of world-renowned scholars. From ancient Sumer to modern-day Bahrain, from Egyptian to Neo-Aramaic, including Latin, French, Middle English, Armenian, Chinese and Japanese, the chapters of this book study the multiple avatars of this venerable text type.

Author Biography

Enrique Jiménez, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Catherine Mittermayer, University of Geneva, Switzerland.