Reading Revelation as Pastiche: Imitating the Past

Description

Scholars have often read the book of Revelation in way that attempts to ascertain which other Old Testament book it most resembles. Instead, we should read it as a combined and imitative text which actively engages the audience through signalling to multiple texts and multiple textual experiences: in short, it is an act of pastiche. Fletcher analyses the methods used to approach Revelation's relationship with Old Testament texts and shows that, although there is literature on Revelation's imitative and multi-vocal nature, these aspects of the text have not yet been explored in sufficient depth. Fletcher's analysis also incorporates an examination of Greco-Roman imitation and combination before providing a better way to understand the nature of the book of Revelation, as pastiche. Fletcher builds her case on four comparative case studies and uses a test case to ascertain how completely they fit with this assessment. These insights are then used to clarify how reading Revelation as imitative and combined pastiche can challenge previous scholarly assumptions, transforming the way we approach the text. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations List of Illustrations Introduction I Overview Part I Contextualizing the Study Chapter 1 Reviewing the Past: Previous Studies and Approaches I Gregory Beale (1984) II Jon Paulien (1988) III Jean-Pierre Ruiz (1989) IV Jan Fekkes (1994) V Steve Moyise (1995) VI Alison Jack (1999) VII David Mathewson (2003) VIII Beate Kowalski (2004) IX Marko Jauhiainen (2005) X Agreements and Ways Forward Chapter 2 Revisualizing the Past: Ancient Imitation and Combination I Statues II Literary Imitation and Combination III Herod’s Temple IV Second Temple Pseudepigrapha V Summary Chapter 3 Pastiche: Imitation and Combination I What Is Pastiche? II Reading Revelation as Pastiche: Methodology and Preview Part II Case Studies Chapter 4 Listening to All the Voices: Reading Plurality in Revelation 1 I The Inaugural Vision of One like a Son of Man (Rev. 1.12–18) II Test Cases: Reading Combined Voices III Listening to All the Voices in Rev. 1.12–18 Chapter 5 Once Upon a Time in Babylon: Reading Revelation 17 Affectively I Reading the Whore of Babylon II Test Case: Once Upon a Time in the West III Rereading the Whore Chapter 6 Revelation 18: Far from the Past? I Revelation 18: Artifice II Similarity Studies III Test Case: Far from Heaven IV Revelation 18: Like but Not the Same Chapter 7 Apocalypse Noir: Rereading Genre through Pastiche I Apocalypse Awareness II Test Case: Film Noir and Neo-Noir III Neo-Apocalypse-Noir Chapter 8 Conclusions I Overview of Findings and Contributions II The Results and Ramifications of Reading Revelation as Pastiche Appendix I Appendix 1: Tabulated Apocalypse Features Bibliography Filmography Index Index of References