The Textualization of Women’s Letters from Roman Egypt: Analyzing Historical Framing Practices from a Multi-Modal Point of View

Abstract

13 Ready 2019 distinguishes "textualization" from "entextualization," the latter referring to how an instance of discourse is made detachable from its original, local context (e.g., how the Homeric epics took shape, independently from medial considerations). 14 Scholarly attention has mostly focused on scribes and dictation. See, e.g., Verhoogt 2009; Evans 2012; Halla-aho 2018. 15 The notion "frame" has had a long history in a broad range of fields, including philosophy, psychology, sociology, artificial intelligence, narratology, and linguistics, without there being a "unified frame theory with specific terms and definitions" (Bednarek 2005, 688). Space does not permit extensive discussion here. For a good introduction, see, e.g., MacLachlan and Reid 1994. 16 Kress 2010, 149. 17 Compare the physical frames around paintings. 18 There are about 170 Greek letters from this period. Some of the letters discussed here were not included in Bagnall and Cribiore 2006, or the 2008 online edition of that volume: new letters have been edited since then, and some letters also seem to have been overlooked. Not included in the present study are letters where it is uncertain whether the sender is female, either because of the state of preservation (e.g., Ἰ̣ σ̣ ι̣ δώρα̣ in SB VI 9165 [1-50 CE]) or the status of the name as male or female (e.g., Αὐνῆν in P. Louvre I 67,). Also not included are party invitations by women (e.g., P.Coll.Youtie I 52 [II-III CE]), which are rather short and stereotypical.