In this book, Ilana Pardes explores the tense dialogues between dominant patriarchal discourses of the Bible and counter female voices. Her findings lead to reassessments of patriarchal traditions and of current feminist critiques. Pardes studies women's plots and subplots, dreams, and pursuits, uncovering the diverse and at times conflicting figurations of feminity in biblical texts. She also sketches the ways in which antipatriarchal elements intermingle with other repressed elements in the Bible; polytheistic traditions, skeptical voices, anti-covenantal trends, and erotic longings. The formation of the Hebrew Bible, Pardes shows, entailed not only a concern for unity but also, on occasion, an irrestible attraction toward countertraditions. This book draws on feminist theory, literary criticism, biblical scholarship, and psychoanalysis. Pardes' discussions of Eve as namegiver, Rachel's Dream, the song of the Shulamite, Zipporah's magical act, and the critique of Job's wife should open new lines of thought for feminist critics, literary critics, biblical scholars, and all readers of Bible.
- ISBN10 0674175425
- ISBN13 9780674175426
- Publish Date 8 May 1992
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 15 January 2011
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Harvard University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 206
- Language English