Category: Authorship

Janus-faced authors

sophushelle

In this response to a volume on ancient authorial fictions, I argue that “authorship” has come to refer to two things at once, what I call authorship-as-production and authorship-as-presentation: how and by whom a text was made, and how and by whom a text was thought to have been made. These are equally significant aspects of a text’s history, and I argue that differentiating between them is an important methodological step in the study of authorship, especially in the ancient world.

“Janus-Faced Authors: Production or Presentation?,” in Authorial Fictions and Attributions in the Ancient Mediterranean, edited by Chance E. Bonar and Julia D. Lindenlaub (2024, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck), pp. 225–40. Link.

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Authorship as story

sophushelle

The chapter, written for my PhD thesis, argues that “authorship” means two things at once: textual production and its presentation (that is, the actual activity of authors and its depiction). I argue that this presentation has an inherently narrative form, and that for ancient cultures, it is more methodologically sound to study such narratives than the reality of authorship. Further, authorship’s double nature imbues it with an odd temporality: authorship-as-presentation claims to be identical with authorship-as-production but is in fact born belatedly, in the wake of a text’s circulation.

“Narratives of Authorship and Cuneiform Literature,” in Authorship and the Hebrew Bible, edited by Sonja Ammann, Katharina Pyschny, and Julia Rhyder (2022, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck), pp. 17–35. Link.

The first authors

sophushelle

My PhD thesis on authorship in ancient Iraq presents two claims. First, I argue that ancient authors are better studied as cultural narratives than as empirical realities and present a set of tools which with to do so. Second, I argue that the earliest written sources relating to authorship appeared when the cultures of ancient Iraq found themselves in crisis: authorship served to map, manage, and represent an endangered cultural heritage.

“The first authors: Narratives of authorship in ancient Iraq.” Unpublished PhD thesis, Aarhus University (February 2020). View the committee’s assessment of the thesis here.

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Birth of the author

sophushelle

Through a reading of Enheduana’s Exaltation—the earliest known depiction of authorship—the essay argues that the figure of the author is created by a number of individuals acting together, including the addressee, performer, and copyist of the text: their involvement is necessary for the author to become an author.

“The birth of the author: Co-creating authorship in Enheduana’s Exaltation,” Orbis Litterarum, vol. 75, no. 2 (February 2020), pp. 55–72. Link.

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Enheduana at school

sophushelle

Why did Enheduana, the first known author, gain such outstanding cultural prominence during the Old Babylonian period? The essay connects the sudden importance of her authorship with the cultural crisis of the 1740’s BCE, and the following reinvention of Sumerian literature.

“Enheduana and the invention of authorship,” Authorship, vol. 8, no. 1 (July 2019), pp. 1–20. Link. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21825/aj.v8i1.11486

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What was an author?

sophushelle

The essay proposes a new framework for the study of premodern authors. Historically, authors have most often been depicted as textual transmitters, not original creators, so a focus on the middle position of premodern authors will lead to a more nuanced, inclusive history of authorship.

“What is an author? Old answers to a new question”, Modern Language Quarterly, vol. 80, no. 2 (June 2019), pp. 113–139. Link. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/00267929-7368183

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Assyrian authors

sophushelle

The essay is a presentation of all sources relating to authorship that date to the Neo-Assyrian period. I argue that authors are depicted in these as ancestors, professional scribes, and mechanisms of textual control, and then examines the historical circumstances that led to the rise of authorship in this period.

“A literary heritage: Authorship in the Neo-Assyrian period,” Kaskal, vol. 16 (2019), pp. 349–71.

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Authors at Uruk

sophushelle

A text known as the “Uruk List of Kings and Sages” uses the names of ancient authors to present a tiny synoptic overview of cuneiform culture. In this otherwise fully anonymous culture, authors became important during times of crisis, since they could represent, organize, and condense an imperilled tradition.

“The role of authors in the ‘Uruk List of Kings and Sages’: Canonization and cultural contact,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 77, no. 2 (October 2018), pp. 219–34. Link. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/699166

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