Mieke Bal
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226035864
- eISBN:
- 9780226035888
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226035888.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
When the author of this book reread the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife as an adult, she was struck by differences between her childhood memories of a moral tale and what she read today. This ...
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When the author of this book reread the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife as an adult, she was struck by differences between her childhood memories of a moral tale and what she read today. This book seeks to resolve this clash between memory and text, using the same story, in which Joseph spurns the advance of his master's wife who then falsely accuses him of rape, as her point of departure. The book juxtaposes the Genesis tale to the rather different version told in the Qur'an and the depictions of it by Rembrandt, and explores how Thomas Mann's great retelling in Joseph and His Brothers reworks these versions. Through this inquiry, the text develops concepts for the analysis of texts that are both strange and overly familiar—culturally remote yet constantly retold. As the book puts personal memories in dialogue with scholarly exegesis, it asks how all of these different versions complicate her own and others' experience of the story, and how the different truths of these texts in their respective traditions illuminate the process of canonization.Less
When the author of this book reread the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife as an adult, she was struck by differences between her childhood memories of a moral tale and what she read today. This book seeks to resolve this clash between memory and text, using the same story, in which Joseph spurns the advance of his master's wife who then falsely accuses him of rape, as her point of departure. The book juxtaposes the Genesis tale to the rather different version told in the Qur'an and the depictions of it by Rembrandt, and explores how Thomas Mann's great retelling in Joseph and His Brothers reworks these versions. Through this inquiry, the text develops concepts for the analysis of texts that are both strange and overly familiar—culturally remote yet constantly retold. As the book puts personal memories in dialogue with scholarly exegesis, it asks how all of these different versions complicate her own and others' experience of the story, and how the different truths of these texts in their respective traditions illuminate the process of canonization.
Rachel Havrelock
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226319575
- eISBN:
- 9780226319599
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226319599.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
As the site of several miracles in the Jewish and Christian traditions, the Jordan is one of the world's holiest rivers. It is also the major political and symbolic border contested by Israelis and ...
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As the site of several miracles in the Jewish and Christian traditions, the Jordan is one of the world's holiest rivers. It is also the major political and symbolic border contested by Israelis and Palestinians. Combining biblical and folkloric studies with historical geography, this book explores how the complex religious and mythological representations of the river have shaped the current conflict in the Middle East. It contends that the intractability of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict stems from the nationalist myths of the Hebrew Bible, where the Jordan is defined as a border of the Promised Land. Both Israelis and Palestinians claim the Jordan as a necessary boundary of an indivisible homeland. Examining the Hebrew Bible alongside ancient and modern maps of the Jordan, the book chronicles the evolution of Israel's borders based on nationalist myths while uncovering additional myths that envision Israel as a bi-national state. These other myths, it proposes, provide roadmaps for future political configurations of the nation.Less
As the site of several miracles in the Jewish and Christian traditions, the Jordan is one of the world's holiest rivers. It is also the major political and symbolic border contested by Israelis and Palestinians. Combining biblical and folkloric studies with historical geography, this book explores how the complex religious and mythological representations of the river have shaped the current conflict in the Middle East. It contends that the intractability of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict stems from the nationalist myths of the Hebrew Bible, where the Jordan is defined as a border of the Promised Land. Both Israelis and Palestinians claim the Jordan as a necessary boundary of an indivisible homeland. Examining the Hebrew Bible alongside ancient and modern maps of the Jordan, the book chronicles the evolution of Israel's borders based on nationalist myths while uncovering additional myths that envision Israel as a bi-national state. These other myths, it proposes, provide roadmaps for future political configurations of the nation.
