REL 201(F) The Hebrew Bible as Literature

How can we apply the word "Literature" to the Bible? Like religion, literature is an ancient-new category that does not match, in any simple way, with the ancient texts that form the Hebrew Bible. Still, many critics, ancient and modern, have noted the narrative, rhetorical, and poetical devices that are very much at play in the texts, thus suggesting that the association of the Bible with literature is not entirely anachronistic. The questions, for us, will be as follow: How do these devices function in relation to the meaning (religious, historical, or other) of the texts? How have they shaped our understanding of the Bible as a coherently meaningful text, and how did they - how do they - disrupt this understanding? We will read closely the books of Genesis and Samuel while looking for the ways in which they constitute an heterogeneous body of texts that has coagulated into an authoritative story. By considering a range of modern approaches (feminist, narratological, poetic, psychoanalytic, anthropological, etc.), we will not try to make sense of the Bible. Rather, we will look for ways of acknowledging/reading the multiple possibilities the texts continue to hold, the manners in which they make sense, and the literary devices they put into play. No knowledge of Hebrew is required. Readings will include Mieke Bal, Lethal Love, Jacques Derrida, "Des Tours de Babel," Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative, Howard Eilberg-Schwartz, The Savage in Judaism, Ilana Pardes, in the Countertraditions in the Bible, Meir Sternberg, The Poetics of Biblical Narrative. Requirements: full attendance and participation, class presentations, written comments on weekly readings, two papers (10-15 pages). Lecture and discussion. Open to all classes without prerequisite. (This course is part of the new Jewish Studies cluster.)

Hour: ANIDJAR