Paper Topics | Fall 2013 | Paper 2
Due Saturday, October 12th, 5 p.m., in your conference leader's Eliot Hall mailbox.
Length: 5 double-spaced pages (1,500 words)
Choose one of the following questions:
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Both Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations were monarchical: the ideology and the practice of political organization placed ultimate authority in the hands of an exalted individual, and hierarchical social relations were celebrated as the proper order. At the same time, while the literary traditions of both societies celebrate monarchy, they also point out the weaknesses, and make criticisms, of monarchic power. Focusing on either the Mesopotamian texts, Gilgamesh and "The Code of Hammurabi," or the Egyptian texts "The Tale of Sinuhe" and "The Teaching for King Merikare," examine how monarchy is portrayed in either Mesopotamian or Egyptian literature [NOT in both]. Be attentive to how that portrayal varies between texts, and offer analysis that explains such similarities and differences.
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In the texts retrieved from the village of Deir el-Medina, we glimpse traces of ordinary life outside of the Egyptian tomb. Compare the representation of the human body in the love lyrics with the images of the corpse in other New Kingdom texts. How do the descriptions of living as a physical experience undermine or reinforce the centrality of death in Egyptian culture?
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A number of stories in Genesis contain contradictions and discrepancies (two versions of creation, two versions of the sale of Joseph). Locate two instances of such contradiction and analyze them closely. What do you think is the effect of these contradictions, i.e., what role - stylistic, thematic, historical, theological - do they play in their respective passages and within the larger themes and goals of Genesis?