The Problem of Orality in the Studies of Mesopotamian Literature

“Mesopotamian Orality” is generally seen as something that bubbles in the background of Mesopotamian Literature: what we have, seems to run the idea, are the written works of literate people ‘like us’; who may or may not have been influenced by the illiterate ramblings of the uneducated masses. But the situation was quite different: I will argue that writing was much less present in the lives of Mesopotamians (both literate and illiterate) than the huge mass of preserved writings would suggest. This point, which can be found in sentence-length comments here and there, has never been fully explored, nor its implications teased out. In this lecture, I will attempt do so in respect of a number of themes.