A Study of the "First Tale of Setne Khaemwas" and Other Ancient Egyptian Fiction of the Ptolemaic Period, 323-30 B.C.

FAIN: FB-53751-08

Stephen Michael Vinson
Trustees of Indiana University (New Paltz, NY 12561-2407)

A literary and historical analysis of the "First Tale of Setne Khaemwas," an ancient Egyptian ghost story from Egypt's Ptolemaic period (323 - 30 BCE). The story will be analyzed in terms of its narrative structure, and in terms of its core themes; the narratology and the thematic substance of the tale will be placed in the context of the development of Egyptian narrative in prose fiction and in other genres. Further, because the product is a tale of the Hellenistic period, we will consider how far the story's novelty (as compared with earlier Egyptian fiction) might be the result of cross-cultural interaction between Egyptians and Greeks, and how far it might be the result of inner-Egyptian cultural processes.