TLRH | Interruptions in Babylonian Poetry: Are They There, and What do They Tell Us?

Tuesday, 17 November 2020, 4 – 5pm A talk by Prof. Martin
Worthington (TCD) as part of the School of Languages, Literatures
and Cultural Studies Research Seminar Series in association with
Trinity Long Room Hub. The study of Babylonian poetry as poetry is
still in its infancy — largely because so much energy has to go
into textual reconstruction. But we now have a number of reasonably
well preserved narrative poems, and one question which never seems
to have been asked of them is whether characters finish their
speeches to the end, or interrupt each other. In the absence of a
Babylonian phrase for 'interrupt', this ends up being a matter of
judgment, and conceivably one which elicited different views from
different audiences. This paper will offer some examples of where
interruptions can be envisaged, and what the implications are for
characterisation. Our speaker would be delighted to get references
to interruption in other literary traditions! Dr Martin
Worthington, who specialises in the Ancient Middle East, joined
Trinity in August 2020. He is Associate Professor in the Department
of Near & Middle Eastern Studies. His most recent book is Ea's
Duplicity in the Gilgamesh Flood Story (Routledge, 2019), and
during lockdown he is racking his brains over 'Sargon's Riddle'.
Learn more at: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/