Through the Eras

LiteratureCOMBINING LITERARY GENRESINTRODUCTION: The Teachings of Amenemhet begins as a typicalMiddle Kingdom teaching, even using the genrename in its first line. Yet it includes among its subjectsthe traditional advice found in teachings, autobiographicalinformation, and elements of the pessimistic literature.The text is also unusual because Amenemhetaddresses his son from beyond the grave while mostteachings are set in this world only. Yet this text providesa good sample of many types of ancient Egyptian literature.THE SAMPLE. It is very difficult to judge the representativenature of a sample of surviving ancient Egyptianliterature. Often scholars cannot know if a work thathas survived had a wide audience or whether ancientreaders thought it represented the highest quality. Whena work survives in many copies from different historicalperiods, it seems safe to assume that the Egyptians consideredit important. But with works surviving in onecopy near its time of composition, it is harder to judge.TITLES AND GENRE. The Egyptians used the firstline of the text as its title. Some titles provide the nameof the genre. For example, the genre name seboyet(“teaching”) often occurs in the phrase “Beginning of theteaching which [narrator’s name] made” that is the titleof the text. The German Egyptologist Siegfried Schottmade a catalog of ancient Egyptian book titles that providesome genre names. Unfortunately, many preservedtexts do not preserve the beginning. Of 33 works fromthe Middle Kingdom, only fifteen are complete. Thethree most common genres are narratives, teachings, anddiscourses.NARRATIVES. No Egyptian word bears the samemeaning as the English word “narrative,” but certaintexts definitely tell a story. These narratives include theprose text The Shipwrecked Sailor and the verse epic TheStory of Sinuhe. Each of these stories appears to the modernreader to have a moral. The Shipwrecked Sailor counselsagainst despair, while Sinuhe urges the reader todepend on the king’s mercy. All of the known Egyptiannarratives lack titles. Some narratives begin with wordsbest translated “There was once,” a formula similar tothe modern English “Once upon a time.” But there isno reason to think that this could be the name of thegenre or the name of the work.124 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)