Dialogue, Debate, or Argument: Reconsidering a 19th century (BCE) Classic

Understanding remotely ancient texts entails intricate problems. Philological exactitude is sometimes at odds with a translator's (viz. reader's) thirst for audience with a voice from the distant past. I propose to look at the text on a papyrus commonly known as The Debate between a Man and His Ba . It is considered a great-- perhaps the greatest -- literary and/or philosophical text to survive from ancient Egypt. I contend that its reception in most Egyptological scholarship has been hampered by trying too hard to make sense. The challenge begins right with the title and generic presumptions of a debate. As I read it, the text reads better as a psychodrama, with an accent on drama, so I am translating it as a play. --- Event Details: https://my.princeton.edu/rsvp?id=1957132