This paper examines a hitherto neglected device in Egyptian literature that one finds frequently in ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Akkadian texts—the use of Leitwörter. In these other corpora, the Leitwort involves words and/or roots that recur throughout a text and often reflect on central characters and/or reinforce central themes. It also can lend irony to a tale, propel its plot, and encourages comparisons and contrasts between the story’s characters and their actions. In some cases, it creates additional themes. As in the other languages, cases of polysemy and paronomasia often draw attention to Leitwörter. In Akkadian, the device extends also to key signs because, much like Egyptian, the cuneiform script is pictographic in origin and its signs can hold multiple syllabic and ideographic values. I contend that the same device occurs in the Tale of Sinuhe and that it reflects upon the name and character of Sinuhe and underscores the central theme of the journey while registering his increasing alterity and the problem of identity it raises.
Sinuhe; key sign; Leitwort; polysemy; paronomasia; theme; alterity; foreignness; identity
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