Incubation as a type-scene in the Aqhatu, Kirta, and Hannah stories: A form-critical and narratological study of KTU 1.14 I--1.15 III, 1.17 I--II, and 1 Samuel 1:1--2:11

This dissertation, in which I explore the use of incubation as a literary device in three West-Semitic texts, is motivated by the conviction that the current state of impasse in the scholarly discussion of incubation in Ugaritic and biblical studies may be resolved only when we make a clear distinction between incubation as an actual practice and incubation as a literary device and deal with them in their own terms---hence the focus of this dissertation is on the latter. By so doing, this dissertation attempts to fill what has been lacking in previous scholarship, that is, a study of incubation as a literary device.;I have borrowed the idea of a type-scene from Homeric scholarship in order to illustrate literary rendition of the incubation rite in West-Semitic literature. Specifically, I have applied Nagler's idea of type-scene to the discussion of incubation type-scenes in two Ugaritic texts (KTU 1.17 I-II and 1.14 I-1.15 III) and one biblical text (1 Samuel 1:1-2:11). According to Nagler, a type-scene does not consist of a fixed sequence of motifs (contra Arend), but is an inherited Gestalt for the spontaneous generation of a 'family' of meaningful details. The family resemblance between various instances of the incubation type-scene may be discerned through four concrete heuristic criteria. First, unlike a random agglomerate of motifs, the incubation type-scene must manifest a discernible organization with a problem-solving structure. Second, although there is no requirement that there must be an essential motif at the verbal and thematic levels, one may look for four conceptual elements (preverbal Gestalt), abstracted from the verbal expression and assumed to be operating at a deeper level, that inform an incubation type-scene: predicament, intentionality, liminality, and theophany. Each of them has the potential to be verbalized or actualized as various motifs in a given instance of the incubation type-scene. The third heuristic criterion is to identify the literary function of the incubation type-scene; more specifically, the literary function of components motifs within the type-scene and then that of the type-scene within the narrative as a whole. Finally, the fourth criterion for recognizing family resemblances among different instances of an incubation type-scene is what Foley calls "metonymic use of tradition." The poet's use of the incubation type-scene entails the celebration of a pious incubant who actively seeks divine help at a time of distress and the affirmation of the benevolent deity who responds positively to that pious incubant. This ideological point of an incubation type-scene may either be expressed straightforwardly or be deliberately distorted, depending on the poet/narrator's narratological purpose.;From this vantage-point of "an incubation type-scene" I have examined two Ugaritic texts (KTU 1.17 I-II and 1.14 I-15III) and one biblical text (1 Samuel 1:1-2:11). Various component motifs of the type-scene are separated out and explained in detail. Also, their functions in a wider narrative context are suggested. By so doing, not only has new light been shed on the literary artifices that the poet/narrator created in those texts, but further, the incubation type-scene has been proposed as a fruitful way of studying these three West-Semitic literary texts, all of which consist of a configuration of motifs that is uniquely adapted to the poetic/narrative purpose in the text, not to mention showing family resemblances to other instances of the same type-scene.