Fragmented Women: Feminist (Sub)versions of Biblical Narratives

Description

In the biblical narratives, women are usually minor characters in the stories of men. Fragments of women's stories must be gleaned from the more cohesive stories of their fathers, husbands and sons. Fragmented Women begins with the premise that, to recover shards of women’s stories from androcentric texts like the Bible, it is necessary to step outside the ideology of the text, subverting the patriarchal perspective that has focused attention on the male characters. In this classic work, J. Cheryl Exum draws on feminist literary theory to critique the dominant male voice of the biblical narrative and to construct (sub)versions of women's stories from the submerged strains of their voices in men's stories. For this Cornerstones edition Exum has provided a reflective introduction on the book's impact, and upon how the field has changed since it was published. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Preface to the Second Edition Preface About Translations and Transliterations Chapter 1 Murder They Wrote The Case of the Dutiful Daughter The Case of the Nagging Wife Words as Weapons The Danger of Going Out Virginity and Childlessness: The Politics of Female Sexuality Opportunity and Motive, Or, Whose Interests Are Being Served? The Speaking Subject: Deconstructing the Dominant Narrative Voice Chapter 2 Michal: The Whole Story Narrative Imprisonment A Woman’s Place Is in the House Gender and Destiny: Michal and Jonathan Chapter 3 Samson’s Women Ideology and Reading: The Politics of Motherhood The Good Mother and the Whore Binary Opposition and the Problem of Woman as Other, Or, ‘Is there no woman among the daughters of your brothers or among all my people, that you are going to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?’ Knowledge, Power, and Sex What Is Sweeter than Honey and What Is Stronger than a Lion? Identification with the Other The Other Controlled The Androcentric Agenda Chapter 4 The (M)other’s Place The Absent Matriarch The Right Wife and the Right Mother The Sterile Matriarch The Matriarchs and the Plot, and the Plot against the Matriarchs Power and Authority The Mother’s Voice Unity and Difference Chapter 5 Who’s Afraid of ‘The Endangered Ancestress’? A Thrice-Told Tale Features Obscure and Obscuring The Repetition Compulsion Patriarchy’s Talking Cure Not a Woman’s Story ‘She Is Indeed My Sister’ Who’s Afraid of ‘The Endangered Ancestress’? Chapter 6 Raped by the Pen The ‘Rape’ of Bathsheba The Levite’s Wife of Secondary Rank Narrative Judgment She Asked for It Corpus delicti The Spiral of Violence Behold, the Woman Bathsheba’s Reappearance Was It Rape? Bibliography Index of Biblical References Index of Authors