MINISTÈRE DE L'ÉDUCATION NATIONALE, DE L'ENSEIGNEMENT SUPÉRIEUR ET DE LA RECHERCHE BULLETIN DE L’INSTITUT FRANÇAIS D’ARCHÉOLOGIE ORIENTALE en ligne en ligne en ligne en ligne en ligne en ligne en ligne en ligne en ligne en ligne BIFAO 117 (2017), p. 293-317 Aurore Motte Reden und Rufe, a Neglected Genre? Towards a Definition of the Speech Captions in Private Tombs Conditions d’utilisation L’utilisation du contenu de ce site est limitée à un usage personnel et non commercial. Toute autre utilisation du site et de son contenu est soumise à une autorisation préalable de l’éditeur (contact AT ifao.egnet.net). Le copyright est conservé par l’éditeur (Ifao). Conditions of Use You may use content in this website only for your personal, noncommercial use. Any further use of this website and its content is forbidden, unless you have obtained prior permission from the publisher (contact AT ifao.egnet.net). The copyright is retained by the publisher (Ifao). Dernières publications 9782724708288 BIFAO 121 9782724708424 Bulletin archéologique des Écoles françaises à l'étranger (BAEFE) 9782724707878 Questionner le sphinx Philippe Collombert (éd.), Laurent Coulon (éd.), Ivan Guermeur (éd.), Christophe Thiers (éd.) 9782724708295 Bulletin de liaison de la céramique égyptienne 30 Sylvie Marchand (éd.) 9782724708356 Dendara. La Porte d'Horus Sylvie Cauville 9782724707953 Dendara. La Porte d’Horus Sylvie Cauville 9782724708394 Dendara. La Porte d'Hathor Sylvie Cauville 9782724708011 MIDEO 36 Emmanuel Pisani (éd.), Dennis Halft (éd.) © Institut français d’archéologie orientale - Le Caire Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) 1 / 1 Reden und Rufe, a Neglected Genre? Towards a Definition of the Speech Captions in Private Tombs aurore motte* introduction Within the scope of my PhD research, I investigated a neglected corpus in Egyptology: the speech captions found in “daily life” scenes in private tombs. Such speech captions are sometimes called Arbeiterreden1 or, more frequently, Reden und Rufe, a label coined by Adolf Erman (1919) and re-used by Waltraud Guglielmi (1973). Both studies2 can now be refined for several reasons among which the quantity of materials now available thanks to the tombs published since. One of my major goals is consequently to provide a philological commentary for every single speech.3 In order to frame the discussion, the broader material * F.R.S-FNRS – University of Liège, speech in the Pyramid Texts (see in 3 My study is mainly based on the Belgium. This work was supported by the particular PT 235 [= § 239a-b] and 243 published material but we may easily Fonds de la recherche scientifique – FNRS. [= § 248a–b]). imagine that more Reden und Rufe will I warmly thank James P. Allen, Stéphane 2 Several ad hoc papers or studies appear thanks to the on-going or future Polis, and Jean Winand for reading my are dealing with the subject (see inter excavations. As a matter of fact, the re- manuscript and suggesting valuable alia Junker 1943; Altenmüller 1973; cently discovered 18th Dynasty tombs improvements. The remaining short- A ltenmüller 1978; Altenmüller of Amenhotep and of Samut by the comings are, of course, my own respon- 1984–1985; Altenmüller 1987; American team (ARCE) in the Theban sability. I am also very grateful to the Altenmüller 1989; Altenmüller 1994; Necropolis (east of TT 110) revealed new Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Kairo, Merzeban 2007; Vernus 2010a; speeches. See “New Tomb Discovery the Institut français d’archéologie orientale, A ltenmüller 2011; and Vernus 2015) East of TT110”, ARCE, 2015, <http:// and Naguib Kanawati for giving me the but A. Erman (1919) and W. Guglielmi www.arce.org/news/2015/03/u153/new- kind permission to use their figures in (1973) remain, with P. Montet (1925) and tomb-discovery-east-of-tt110> accessed this paper. B. Dominicus (1994), the main studies 20 May 2017. 1 Kroeber 1970, pp. 13, 26–27, 212, on Reden und Rufe in private tombs to 216. J. Spiegel (1953) also makes use of this day. this expression but it refers to reported bifao 117 - 2017 BIFAO 117 (2017), p. 293-317 Aurore Motte Reden und Rufe, a Neglected Genre? Towards a Definition of the Speech Captions in Private Tombs © IFAO 2021 BIFAO en ligne https://www.ifao.egnet.net Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) 294 aurore motte and cultural context to which the literary4 genre directly contributes need to be taken into account. As Pierre Larthomas pointed out: Toute étude stylistique d’une œuvre est prématurée, qui n’a pas défini d’abord le genre auquel elle appartient ; et elle sera, sinon mauvaise, toujours incomplète, si elle n’est guidée et soutenue par une définition correcte de ce genre. […] C’est dire qu’à côté (ou plutôt au-dessus) de cette stylistique grammaticale, il y a une stylistique des genres ; c’est elle finalement qui commande toutes les autres, qu’il s’agisse du matériel grammatical, du lexique ou des figures. Larthomas (1972, p. 146). In this respect, this paper intends to better understand the identity of Reden und Rufe (and thus their genre) by using the theory of the French literary critic, Gérard Genette. The shape of the paper is composed of three main sections. In the first section, I provide a theoretical frame by shortly presenting the structuralist theory of G. Genette,5 which aims at defining any textual genre. In the second section, I make some preliminary remarks pertaining to the study of literary genre in Ancient Egypt. The third section is devoted to the generic analysis, strictly speaking. I first briefly return to the previous studies of A. Erman and W. Guglielmi. I then consider the chronological and the geographical dispersion of Reden und Rufe, which chart the dynamicity of this corpus, before seeking to define the genre to which they belong with the help of Genette’s theory. In the conclusion, I resume the discussed characteristics of such speech captions and propose to enlarge the scope by considering the presence of Reden und Rufe in other contexts. It has to be mentioned here that the present paper does not intend to present a compre- hensive study of the genre, but rather to draw some attention to this still overlooked genre in Egyptology. The focus exclusively lays on Old and Middle Kingdom speeches. Material from the New Kingdom tombs, and Late Period ones to a lesser extent, is still subject to on-going research. This paper is thus part of a work in progress, a first step towards a generic definition of the Reden und Rufe. the structuralist approach of genette The approach of G. Genette (1986, pp. 89–159) offers to define the identity of any text (and thereby its literary genre) through three interconnected axes: modes, themes, and forms. I go into more detail in section 3 (the generic analysis) as to what each axis consists of but a brief explanation is in order. The mode is related to the rhetorical dimension; the themes have to do with the space-time frame and the set of recurrent patterns; and lastly, the forms deal with the interplay of the two first axes.6 4 In this paper, I use the concept of 5 Genette 1986, pp. 89–159. “literary genres” in its widest meaning, 6 For a comprehensive explanation i.e. all the written texts, by opposition of these three concepts, I refer to to “musical genres,” “film genres,” etc. G enette 1986. BIFAO 117 (2017), p. 293-317 Aurore Motte Reden und Rufe, a Neglected Genre? Towards a Definition of the Speech Captions in Private Tombs © IFAO 2021 BIFAO en ligne https://www.ifao.egnet.net Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) REDEN UND RUFE, a neglected genre? 295 Modal aspect M. a F. a. Formal aspect T. a. Thematic aspect Fig. 1. Cube crossing the modal, the thematic, and the formal dimensions. Those axes can be conceived as an imaginary cube (see fig. 1 supra),7 where the x-axis repre- sents all existing or possible modes; the y-axis all existing or possible themes; and the z-axis all existing or possible forms. Consequently, it provides a method to define all existing and possible literary genres.8 It even allows one to suggest a precise definition of a genre by bringing to light analogies and structural logics without establishing anachronistic cultural principles.9 Bernard Mathieu10 (1996) first applied this approach toLove poetry and lately, Chloé Ragazzoli (2008) to Les éloges de la ville. Yet, both authors investigated a New Kingdom genre belonging to the Belles-Lettres.11 Further, this approach has not been comprehensively applied to a genre known throughout the pharaonic era. Indeed, in her study on the Letters to the Dead, Sylvie Donnat Beauquier12 reaches the conclusion that this very genre virtually disappears after the Middle Kingdom, which thus prevents us to consider it as an active genre throughout the pharaonic era. All these reasons prompted me to analyse in my PhD thesis the Reden und Rufe, a corpus of texts attested during a wide period of nearly 2300 years. By using those three main criteria of forms, modes, and themes, I intend to establish the literary genre to which they belong (or in which they participate).13 7 The figure is inspired by Mathieu genre: the “Caractères.” See Mathieu in 12 Donnat Beauquier 2014, 1996, p. 130, and more recently, Mathieu press. pp. 166–174, 182–187. in press. 11 For similar study on Ancient 13 For that matter, see the philosophi- 8 Genette 1986, pp. 153–154. Egyptian texts outside the realm of cal thought of Derrida 1986, pp. 262– 9 Ragazzoli 2008, p. 96. Belles-Lettres, see e.g. Gnirs 1996 and 265.