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Call for papers | International conference “Romance on the Nile: The Ancient Novel in Egypt – Egypt in the Ancient Novel”, 10-12 September 2025, Freie Universität Berlin — LIMITE : 30/11/2024

We are two postdocs who are currently researching novelistic literature in the Egyptian language, i.e., the Demotic novel(la) (Cross) and the underappreciated legacy of the ancient (Greek, Jewish, Egyptian) novel in Coptic literature (Krueger). To benefit both our own studies and the flourishing interdisciplinary spectrum of research on the ancient novel, the aim of our conference is to bring together scholars from different disciplines (e.g., Egyptology, Biblical studies, Classics) who, in one way or another, deal with some facet of the phenomenon “the ancient novel in Egypt” or “Egypt in the ancient novel,” i.e., novelistic works produced by different cultures (Egyptians, Greeks, Jews) in Egypt and/or that transmit a literary concept of Egypt (see the abstract below for more details).

Presentations should be in English and 20–25 minutes long.

The keynote lecture on September 10 will be given by Prof. Ian Rutherford (Reading).

We will fund speakers’ travel and accommodation expenses.

If you would like to participate, please send us the title and a short abstract of your proposed paper, as well as your full name and affiliation, by November 30th.

We look forward to your submissions and hope to see you in Berlin!

Frederic Krueger (DFG project “Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic”, Institut für Ägyptologie, Freie Universität Berlin)                     

Joseph Cross (ERC project “Demotic Egyptian Papyri  and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible”, Theologische Fakultät, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)

 

Conference abstract

According to conventional Western wisdom, the modern novel was “invented” in ca. 18th-century England with works like Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Yet a remarkably similar literary phenomenon involving works of adventurous prose fiction that are now increasingly agreed to constitute novels (or novellas) flourished long before this across national, ethnical, religious, and linguistic borders in the ancient Mediterranean world. The scholarly exploration of this literary world has advanced much in recent decades, ever since a consensus took shape within classics in the 20th century, that, not Robinson Crusoe, but the much earlier shipwrecked heroes of Roman-period Greek prose adventures starting in the mid-1st century CE can lay claim to the status of “first novel.” This re-centering soon found itself in need of defense against the dawning realization that novel-like literature had already been produced in the “Orient” by Jews and Egyptians for several centuries. Egypt in particular, where Egyptian, Jewish, and probably also Greek novels were composed, has even been claimed to have provided the essential inspiration for the Greek novel in general, thus threatening to further re-center the phenomenon on the banks of the Nile. Far from claiming one place or one native literature as the single source whence all novels ultimately sprang, we assume that a “novelistic impulse” (Lawrence Wills) can assert itself in different times and places under favorable historical conditions, and if two or more meet each other, they can begin to influence each other, though the manner and direction of influence is often debatable.

The many roles played by Egypt as the great crucible in this important branch of world literature (as well as Egypt as a favorite topic/setting in Greek novels, whether or not this be due to Egyptian influence on/provenance of the work) thus far lack a concentrated effort by an interdisciplinary group of scholars from Egyptology (especially Demotic studies), Classics, Biblical and early Christian studies, even Coptology, given the underappreciated legacy of the ancient novel in Coptic literature. Thus, the purpose of our conference is to bring together just such a group of scholars in order to achieve a clearer understanding of the complex ways in which different cultural, ethnic, and religious groups (Egyptians, Greeks, Jews, Christians) coexisting in Egypt from ca. the 4th century BCE to the 7th century CE produced novelistic prose literature, often influencing each other (including ties, of course, that extend beyond Egypt) while Egypt passed from Persian to Greek, from Greek to (East) Roman, from Roman to Persian and back to Roman, and finally to Islamic rule. The “novels” (or “novellas” for equivalent but shorter and less sprawling works) to be examined include, of course, the famous Greek novels of love and adventure (in particular the “Big Five” by Chariton, Xenophon, Longus, Achilles Tatius, and Heliodorus). Yet we consider it crucial to adopt a far more inclusive perspective that considers all manner of “historical novels” in the sense of lengthy works of prose fiction that, in addition to their clear entertaining nature and social commentary, often serve as propagandistic reports of the legendary feats and the righteous suffering of national or culture heroes – like Ninus for the descendants of the Babylonians, Alexander for the Greeks, Sesostris/Sesonchosis for the Egyptians, Moses for the Jews, and the Apostles (beginning with the shipwrecked Paul) for the Christians.

Contact Email
frederic.krueger[at]fu-berlin.de
 
More information here

OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Chargé de diffusion scientifique (20 novembre 2024). Call for papers | International conference “Romance on the Nile: The Ancient Novel in Egypt – Egypt in the Ancient Novel”, 10-12 September 2025, Freie Universität Berlin — LIMITE : 30/11/2024. IISMM. Consulté le 16 décembre 2025 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/12q5x


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