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This study of dreams accounts in the Bible and in ancient Near Eastern literture suggests two main lines of interpretation: on the one hand it defines the function of dream accounts from a lterary, social, political and religious point of view on the basis of literary genre (practitioners' manuals, royal inscriptions, prophetic texts, etc.). On the other hand, in adopting a rather larger typology than is usual (message dreams, symbolic dreams, but also prophetic, premonitory and judgement dreams), it seeks to clarify both the relationship between the fiction implied by literary form and the actual dream experience of individuals, as well as the different ritual practices related to this experience (interpretation, conjuration, incubation, etc.).
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