This year, we completed our analysis of the transition from first-person narrative to the literary genre of autobiography [1] by translating and commenting on the accounts of Hirkouf and Pepynakht [2], and comparing them with historical and geographical realia. The same work was carried out, in parallel, with the campaign of the year 23 of Thutmosis III [3].
Moving from autobiography to literary narrative, the first text studied was Sinueh's "novel", which was translated and commented on using the same method, paying particular attention to intertextuality, both towards contemporary sources - or supposedly contemporary sources, such as theTeachings of Amenemhat I, the papyri of Kahun and Gurob, the Admonitions, etc. [4] - as well as towards later sources, such as the Anastasi II papyrus or the triumphal stele of Py(ânkh)y, or even outside Egyptian culture, such as the Gesture of Gilgamesh or I Sam 17 for the battle against the champion of Retenou. This last episode, like that of the flight out of Egypt which opens the story, was also an opportunity to put forward the first elements on Egyptian literary posterity and to mark the difference between quotations and cultural references.