1	The Literary Book of Mormon Dr. Gideon Burton Brigham Young University Presentation to the Association for Mormon Letters BYU Student Chapter February 15, 2007
2	Reasons for Reading the Book of Mormon as Literature Provides proof of the historicity of the book
3	It’s Egyptian! “The first three verses of 1 Nephi…are a typical colophon, a literary device that is highly characteristic of Egyptian compositions, such as in the Bremer-Rhind Papyrus. Nephi gives first his name, than the merits of his parents with special attention to the learning of his father and an avowal that the record is true, and “I make it with mine own hand.” Egyptian literary writings regularly close with the formula iw-f-pw “thus it is” as does Nephi 11” –Franklin S. Harris
4	It’s Hebrew! “The second type [of Hebrew literary forms found in the Book of Mormon] is antithetical parallelism in which the thought of the first line is emphasized, or confirmed by a contrasted thought expressed in the second line: To be carnally minded is death, And to be spiritually-minded is life eternal” --Franklin S. Harris
5	It’s Middle Eastern! Lehi’s desert poems in 1 Nephi 2:9-10 are a literary form Hugh Nibley as identified as an Arabic quasida. –adapted from Richard Dilworth Rust and Donald Perry, “Book of Mormon as Literature”
6	Reasons for Reading the Book of Mormon as Literature Provides proof of its historicity Literature is sophisticated, so if our scripture is impressive, then so are we Mormons Better appreciate the book’s creation Better understand its doctrines Better feel its effects
7	Literary Activities Record Keeping Drafting Revising / Correcting Translating Redacting Editing Publishing Transmitting
8
9	Narrative Genres Journal / Diary Family histories Political histories Annals of military campaigns Epic Parable / Allegory Detective story
10	Literary Elements Setting Plot (including flashbacks / foreshadowing) Characters / Characterization Dialogue Figurative Language Imagery Symbolism Dramatization Narrator and Narrative commentary Allusions
11	Linguistic Elements (Diction—level of words and phrases) Word pairs (“great and terrible” “signs and wonders”) Merisms (“nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples”) Idioms (“make bare his arm”; “ends of the earth”) Aphorisms (“For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things”) Antithetical pairings (“Jew and Gentile”; “choose life or death”; “mortality raised to immortality”; “to act for themselves and not to be acted upon”)
12	Figurative Language Schemes Anadiplosis Parallelism Antithesis Climax Parenthesis Tmesis Apposition Repetition Tropes Metaphors Similes Apostrophe Personification Hyperbole Exergasia Polysyndeton
13	Poetical Genres Psalm Lamentation Lyric poetry
14	Literary Lamentations Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. –from Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach”
15	Literary Lamentations Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. –from The Tempest, by Shakespeare
16	Literary Lamentations I conclude this record....by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream, we being a lonesome and a solemn people, wanderers, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethren, which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn out our days. –Jacob from the Book of Mormon (Jacob 7:26)
17	Rhetorical genres Speeches Sermons Political Oratory Military Addresses Debates Interviews
18	Rhetorical Elements Rhetorical Modes Exposition Narration Description Types of Discourse Direct / Indirect Reported Narratives Questions
19	Onomastics (Naming) Multiple Names of Christ: 60 names New names: Irreantum, curelom, deseret, urim & thummim, rameumptom, liahona Conventions of naming places and people
20	Literary Themes and Motifs Obey and prosper (conceptual motif) Wars and contentions Pride Land of Promise Fleeing Naming Preserving Remembering Visitations of angels (plot motif) Sword / word Imagistic motifs
21	The Functions of Form Being aware of formal features of a sacred text attunes one to the various functions and effects of those forms that condition the understanding and appreciation of the text.
22	Any difference? The Red Wheelbarrow so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. --William Carlos Williams The Red Wheelbarrow So much depends upon a red wheelbarrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. --William Carlos Williams
23	What effects from the forms? Chaptering? Paragraphing? Versification? Layout?
24	Function of Layout: Chiasmus A B B A
25	Book of Mormon manuscript
26	Book of Mormon 1830 (1^st) edition
27	Special Attention through Verses
28	The Psalm of Nephi (1)
29	The Psalm of Nephi (1)
30	The Psalm of Nephi (2)
31
32	Book of Mormon 1980 Church Edition
33	1830 Book of Mormon
34	Book of Mormon Golden Plates
35	Book of Mormon Manuscript of English Translation
36	Book of Mormon A Reader’s Edition, ed. Grant Hardy (University of Illinois, 2003)
37	Illustrated Book of Mormon
38	Book of Mormon Digital Audio Edition
39	Book of Mormon Family Study Edition
40	The Book of Mormon Non-English Translations
41	Book of Mormon Scholarly Edition
42	Golden Plates Graphic Novel edition
43	The Literary Book of Mormon Dr. Gideon Burton Brigham Young University Presentation to the Association for Mormon Letters BYU Student Chapter February 15, 2007