Women, Seduction, and Betrayal in Biblical NarrativeCambridge University Press, 1997 M08 28 - 296 pages This accessible, readable book looks at the cultural study of the Bible, challenging the traditional mode of reading the women in the Bible. Alice Bach applies literary theory, cultural representations of biblical figures, films, and paintings to a close reading of a group of biblical texts revolving around the 'wicked' literary figures in the Bible. She compares the biblical character of the wife of Potiphar with the Second Temple Period narratives and rabbinic midrashim that expand her story. She then reads Bathsheba against a Yiddish novel by David Pinski, and finally looks at the Biblical Salome against a very different Salome created by Oscar Wilde, and the selection of Salomes created by Hollywood. Bach argues that biblical characters have a life in the mind of the reader independent of the stories in which they were created, thus making the reader the site at which the texts and the cultures that produced them come together. |
Contents
Signs of the flesh | 1 |
Contending with the narrator | 13 |
A story of reading the story of Genesis 39 | 34 |
I shall stir up thy mistress against thee | 82 |
Signs of her flesh | 128 |
Wine women and death | 166 |
Calling the shots directing Salomes dance of death | 210 |
263 | |
290 | |
294 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Abigail Ahasuerus Amnon analysis ancient argues audience banquet Baptist Bathsheba beauty becomes Bereshit Rabbah Bible biblical narratives biblical text book of Esther book of Judith chapter codes connection critics cultural dance daughter David death Delilah emphasizes erotic female characters female figure female literary figures feminist figure of Salomé film fin de siècle fragrance frame gender Genesis 39 genre girl Greek Haman Hebrew Hellenistic hero Herod Herod Antipas Herodias husband Huysmans images imagine interpretation ishah zarah Israel Jewish Joseph and Aseneth Judith king literature male gaze Michal midrash mother motif Mut-em-enet Nabal narrator narrator's novel object offered patriarchal play pleasure plot Potiphar Queen rape reader reading reflect role romance Salomé scene Second Temple seduction sensual servants sexual desire social Song spices Sternberg storyteller Susanna Tamar Testament theological TJos traditional Uriah verse visual voice wife of Potiphar Wilde Wilde's women words YHWH young