(Auto-)biography is a genre of ancient Egyptian written discourse that
was central to high culture from its earliest periods. Belonging to the
nonroyal elites, these texts present aspects of individual lives and
experience, sometimes as narratives of key events, sometimes as
characterizations of personal qualities. Egyptian (auto-) biographies
offer a unique opportunity to examine the ways in which individuals
fashioned distinctive selves for display and the significance of the
physical, religious, and social contexts they selected. The present
volume brings together specialists from a range of relevant periods,
approaches, and interests. The studies collected here examine Egyptian
(auto-)biographies from a variety of complementary perspectives: (1)
anthropological and contrastive perspectives; (2) the original Old
Kingdom settings; (3) text format and language; (4) social dimensions;
and (5) religious experience.