Joshua and the Rhetoric of Violence: A New Historicist Analysis

by Lori L. Rowlett, Andrew Mein (Editor), Claudia V. Camp (Editor)

Overview

'Joshua and the Rhetoric of Violence' examines the book of Joshua as a construction of national identity. This pioneering New Historicist analysis shows how the Deuteronomist used war oracle language and epic historical lore to negotiate sociopolitical boundaries. It asserts that text and context interacted in a programme consolidating King Josiah's authority in the wake of Assyrian imperial collapse. The book argues that the conquest narrative is not simple 'us against them' propaganda but a complex web of negotiations defining identity and otherness. The analysis draws on Foucault's principle that power is something exercised rather than merely possessed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781850756279
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/01/1996
Series:	The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies , #226
Pages:	202
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Andrew Mein is Lecturer in Old Testament at the University of Durham, UK.

Claudia V. Camp is Professor of Religion at Texas Christian University, USA and was on the steering committee of the Seminar. She is currently co-general editor of the LHBOTS series, as well as the author or editor of 4 books and numerous articles.

Editorial Reviews

...[A]dvances the provocative thesis that the book of Joshua utilizes a rhetoric of violence in order to induce submission to the lines of inclusion, hierarchy, and authority established by a fragile centralized government. ...Rowlett has offered a perspective worth further exploration; her focus on the militaristic language of the text provides a good starting point for what has become a significant issue in the study of Joshua. —Society of Biblical Literature

L. Daniel Hawk