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In Weapons of Words: Intertextual Competition in Babylonian Poetry Selena Wisnom offers an in-depth literary study of three poems central to Babylonian culture: Anzû, Enūma eliš, and Erra and Išum. Fundamentally interconnected, each poem strives to out-do its predecessors and competes to establish its protagonist, its ideals, and its poetics as superior to those that came before them.
The first of its kind in Assyriology, Weapons of Words explores the rich nuances of these poems by unravelling complex networks of allusion. Through a sophisticated analysis of literary techniques, Selena Wisnom traces developments in the Akkadian poetic tradition and demonstrates that intertextual readings are essential for a deeper understanding of Mesopotamian literature.
The first of its kind in Assyriology, Weapons of Words explores the rich nuances of these poems by unravelling complex networks of allusion. Through a sophisticated analysis of literary techniques, Selena Wisnom traces developments in the Akkadian poetic tradition and demonstrates that intertextual readings are essential for a deeper understanding of Mesopotamian literature.
Price: $212.00
Pages: 282
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Culture and History of the Ancient Near East
Publication Date:
14 November 2019
ISBN: 9789004412965
Format: Hardcover
"Selena Wisnom’s Weapons of Words (abbr. WoW) is a well laid out and carefully executed study of three big mythological epics of Akkadian literature, namely Anzû, Enūma eliš (abbr. Ee), and Erra and Išum (abbr. Erra). Wisnom stresses her focus on interpretation and highlights the “extrication of meaning” (WoW, p. 250) as a priority of the book. Aiming at advancing our understanding of the named pieces, Weapons of Words develops new insights into the literary nexus these texts constitute by an in-depth study of their intertextual relations."
- Johannes Bach, University of Helsinki, in Bibliotheca Orientalis LXXVIII N° 1-2 (2021)
- Johannes Bach, University of Helsinki, in Bibliotheca Orientalis LXXVIII N° 1-2 (2021)
Selena Wisnom, D.Phil. (2015, University of Oxford), is a Junior Research Fellow in Manuscript and Text Cultures at The Queen’s College, Oxford. She specialises in the literary and cultural interpretation of cuneiform sources, particularly poetry and divination.