Countertraditions in the Bible: A Feminist Approach / Edition 1

by Ilana Pardes

Overview

In this eye-opening book, llana Pardes explores the tense dialogue between dominant patriarchal discourses of the Bible and counter female voices. Pardes studies women’s plots and subplots, dreams and pursuits, uncovering the diverse and at times conflicting figurations of femininity in biblical texts. She also sketches the ways in which antipatriarchal elements intermingle with other repressed elements in the Bible: polytheistic traditions, skeptical voices, and erotic longings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674175457
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/15/1993
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	206
Sales rank:	863,684
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Ilana Pardes is Lecturer in Comparative Literature and English at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Table of Contents

1. Preliminary Excavations

Miriam and Her Brothers

2. Creation according to Eve

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Simone de Beauvoir and Kate Millett

Phyllis Trible

Esther Fuchs

Mieke Bal

The Book of J

Conclusion

3. Beyond Genesis 3: The Politics of Maternal Naming

Maternal Naming-Speeches

Uprising

Reversal: Dialogic Naming

Falling Again

Creative Hierarchies

When P Expands on Genesis I

P versus J

Mixed Languages

4. Rachel's Dream: The Female Subplot

The Young Barren One versus The Elder Cowife

Exchanging Plots

Joining Forces

Rachel's Death

Difference in Development

Dreams and Reality

5. Zipporah and the Struggle for Deliverance

Female Saviors

Back to the Ark

The Bridgeroom of Blood

Textual Traces

The Egyptian Connection

The Politics of Transition

Longings

Eruption

6. The Book of Ruth: Idyllic Revisionism

The Plot of Female Bonding

The Doubling of the Female Subject

Estrangement

A Midrashic Parallel

7. " I Am a Wall, and my Breast like Towers": The Song of Songs and the Question of Canonization

The (Im)purity of the Songs

Eros

Constructions of Gender

Refraction Revisited

Dreams and Walls

The Changing of the Guard

The Keepers of the Torah

8. Conclusion

Job's Wife

Beyond Piety

Fragment Names

Open House

Notes

Bibliography

Index

What People are Saying About This

This lively and stimulating book probes the words and the silences of such figures as Eve, Rachel, and Zipporah, using their stories in turn to test a variety of contemporary feminist approaches to the Bible…[An] original blend of text history, feminist theory, and literary analysis.

Mieke Bal

This book marks the much needed next step in feminist biblical criticism.

David Damrosch

This lively and stimulating book probes the words and the silences of such figures as Eve, Rachel, and Zipporah, using their stories in turn to test a variety of contemporary feminist approaches to the Bible…[An] original blend of text history, feminist theory, and literary analysis.

Editorial Reviews

This lively and stimulating book probes the words and the silences of such figures as Eve, Rachel, and Zipporah, using their stories in turn to test a variety of contemporary feminist approaches to the Bible… [An] original blend of text history, feminist theory, and literary analysis.

David Damrosch

This book marks the much needed next step in feminist biblical criticism.

Mieke Bal

Distinguishing herself from feminist Biblical scholars who regard the Bible as a wholly patriarchal work, Pardes sees the text itself as challenging gender distinctions… Her arguments are buttressed with an impressive command of Biblical scholarship and an awareness of the sensitive, nuanced readings to be found in Rabbinic literature.

Forward - Yehudah Mirsky

Ilana Pardes planes the Bible’s surface to expose the lineaments that run against the grain, challenging the pat assumptions of our predecessors. Pardes focuses on the unconventional, the irregular, in Biblical literature and points up instances in which a female voice in permitted its say—until the masculine voice resumes.

Jerusalem Report - Edward L. Greenstein

Ilana Pardes planes the Bible's surface to expose the lineaments that run against the grain, challenging the pat assumptions of our predecessors. Pardes focuses on the unconventional, the irregular, in Biblical literature and points up instances in which a female voice in permitted its say--until the masculine voice resumes.
— Edward L. Greenstein

Jerusalem Report

Distinguishing herself from feminists Biblical scholars who regard the Bible as a wholly patriarchal work, Parders sees the text itself as challenging gender distinctions…Her arguments are buttressed with an impressive command of Biblical scholarship and an awareness of the sensitive, nuanced readings to be found in Rabbinic literature.
— Yehudah Mirsky

Forward

Pardes begins with a thorough anlaysis of six leading feminist discussions of the biblical creation stories. She then provides analyses for maternal naming, Rachel's dream, Zipporah's struggle for deliverance, the book of Ruth, the Song of Songs, and Job's wife's sentence. In doing so, she reveals various concepts of femininity which at times unite with other elements contrary to the dominant patriarchal, monotheistic, covenantal tradition. This important book for feminists and biblical scholars may also appeal to serious general readers. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.

Library Journal