On Dynamic Canonicity in Late-Egyptian: The Literary Letter and the Personal Prayer

Dynamic canonicity (DC) is defined with respect to the Egyptian language as the innovative acceptance of previously impermissible vernacular forms into official texts, which thereby become productive models. The inclusion of letter writing, formerly only an administrative function, in the literary repertoire of the New Kingdom exemplifies DC. In this theoretical framework, discourse contexts of register shifts are examined in the Anastasi I & Turin A papyri. Three personal prayers of Ramesses III provide further evidence for the DC theory that a genre from the periphery of Egyptian society is incorportated into the older texts by its identification as a text register. J. Hitchcock