Texto literario y territorio geográfico.Lealtad y espacio en Sinuhé

Resum

The following analysis of the Middle Kingdom narrative known as the Tale of Sinuhe presents a reading in which some reflections on the text as spatial frame are proposed. These considerations are based on the affinity of text and territory in so far as both are inhabited by the individual who uses them as a scenario within which his physical changes in space and time take place. Movement in a physical space can be compared with the motion of the hand and the writing tool on the writing medium, both governed by the mind of the author. One characteristic of ordered space is the existence within it of landmarks dividing and separating different geographic areas. The following analysis of the Tale of Sinuhe suggests the existence of these landmarks within the text. The areas created and separated by these landmarks can be characterized by the actions of the individual (Sinuhe) performed within them; the reverse also takes place, in that the individual is characterized by particular aspects of the area inhabited at a given moment in the course of the narration. These aspects, taken in conjunction, allow for the mapping of the narrative structure of the text as an interpretational device, resulting in a conjunction of areas and landmarks which characterize the individual and are characterized by him, thus producing the metaphorical relationship between text and territory here proposed.