Comedy and Feminist Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible - A Subversive Collaboration (Hardcover, New)

Comedy is both relative, linked to a time and culture, and universal, found pervasively across time and culture. The Hebrew Bible contains comedy of this relative, yet universal nature. Melissa A. Jackson engages the Hebrew Bible via a comic reading and brings that reading into conversation with feminist-critical interpretation, in resistance to any lingering stereotype that comedy is fundamentally non-serious or that feminist critique is fundamentally unsmiling.
Dividing comic elements into categories of literary devices, psychological/social features, and psychological/social function, Jackson examines the narratives of a number of biblical characters for evidence of these comic elements. The characters include the trickster matriarchs, the women involved in the infancy of Moses, Rahab, Deborah and Jael, Delilah, three of David's wives (Michal, Abigail, Bathsheba), Jezebel, Ruth, and Esther. Nine particularly instructive points of contact between comedy and feminist interpretation emerge: both (1) resist definition, (2) exist amidst a self/other, subject/object dichotomy, (3) emphasise and utilise context, (4) promote creativity, (5) acknowledge the concept of distancing, (6) work towards revelation, (7) are subversive, (8) are concerned with containment and control, and (9) enable survival. The use of comedy as an interpretive lens for the Hebrew Bible is not without difficulties for feminist interpretation. While maintaining an uncomfortable, even painful, awareness of the hold patriarchy retains on the Hebrew Bible, feminist critics can still choose to allow comedy's revelatory, subversive, survivalist nature to do its work revealing, subverting, and surviving.

General

Imprint:	Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Series:	Oxford Theological Monographs
Release date:	July 2012
First published:	September 2012
Authors:	Melissa Jackson
Dimensions:	223 x 161 x 24mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	298
Edition:	New
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-965677-6
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Literary theory Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > Judaism > General Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian sacred works & liturgy > Sacred texts > General Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Gender studies > Women's studies > Feminism Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian religions > Judaism > General Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian sacred works & liturgy > Sacred texts > General
LSN:	0-19-965677-0
Barcode:	9780199656776

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!