Narratology Hermeneutics And Midrash

The contributions compiled in this volume comprise studies of Jewish texts - biblical, rabbinic, medieval, and modern - as well as of patristic and medieval Christian texts, and in one case, a passage of the Muslim text par excellence, the Quran. The authors, scholars in the fields of Jewish Studies, Catholic and Protestant Theology, Islamic Studies, German philology etc., invited to reflect on texts of their respective disciplines in context-sensitive interpretations, taking into account the link connecting Midrash, hermeneutics, and narrative, provide illuminating narratological and/or hermeneutical insights into the texts in question. The interdisciplinary dialogue that characterized the conference “Narratology, Hermeneutics, and Midrash” that gave rise to the volume proves to be rich and full of potential for further research in the direction proposed by the Series Poetics, Exegesis and Narrative. Studies in Jewish literature and art.

The contributions compiled in this volume comprise studies of Jewish texts - biblical, rabbinic, medieval, and modern - as well as of patristic and medieval Christian texts, and in one case, a passage of the Muslim text par excellence, the Quran. The authors, scholars in the fields of Jewish Studies, Catholic and Protestant Theology, Islamic Studies, German philology etc., invited to reflect on texts of their respective disciplines in context-sensitive interpretations, taking into account the link connecting Midrash, hermeneutics, and narrative, provide illuminating narratological and/or hermeneutical insights into the texts in question. The interdisciplinary dialogue that characterized the conference "Narratology, Hermeneutics, and Midrash" that gave rise to the volume proves to be rich and full of potential for further research in the direction proposed by the Series Poetics, Exegesis and Narrative. Studies in Jewish literature and art.

Proceeding by means of intensive readings of passages from the early midrash on Exodus The Mekilta, Boyarin proposes a new theory of midrash that rests in part on an understanding of the heterogeneity of the biblical text and the constraining force of rabbinic ideology on the production of midrash. In a forceful combination of theory and reading, Boyarin raises profound questions concerning the interplay between history, ideology, and interpretation.

In Midrash and Theory, David Stern presents an approach to midrashic literature through the prism of contemporary theory. As midrash--the literature of classical Jewish Scriptural interpretation--has become the focus of new interest in contemporary literary circles, it has been invoked as a precursor of post-structuralist theory and criticism. At the same time, the midrashic imagination has undergone a revival in the larger Jewish community and shown itself capable of exercising a powerful influence and hold on a new type of contemporary Jewish writing. Stern examines this resurgence of fascination with ancient Jewish interpretation from the persepctive of the cultural relevance of midrash and its connection to its original historical and literary contexts.

The book is concerned with a so called ethical midrash, Seder Eliyahu (also known as Tanna debe Eliyahu), a post-talmudic work probably composed in the ninth century. It provides a survey of the research on this late midrash followed by five studies of different aspects related to what is designated as the work’s narratology. These include a discussion of the problem of the apparent pseudo-epigraphy of the work and of the multiple voices of the text; a description of the various narrative types which the work, itself as a whole of non-narrative character, makes use of; a detailed treatment of Seder Eliyahu’s parables and most characteristic first person narratives (an extremely unusual form of narrative discourse in rabbinic literature); as well as a final chapter dedicated to selected women stories in this late midrash. As it emerges from the survey in chapter 1 such a narratologically informed study of Seder Eliyahu represents a new approach in the research on a work that is clearly the product of a time of transition in Jewish literature.

This important collection of essays by leading scholars of rabbinics reflects the current methodological approaches to the study of midrash. The volume situates midrash within the broader contexts of hermeneutics, rabbinics and postmodern studies, and thus presents a comprehensive view of the kinds of issues scholars in the field are engaging.

In Parables in Changing Contexts, new venues in the comparative study of parables are addressed by scholars of Judaism, New Testament, Buddhism and Islam. Essays cover parables in the synoptic Gospels, Rabbinic midrash, and parabolic tales and fables in the Babylonian Talmud.

Representing Jewish Thought offers essays on modes and media of transmitting and re/presenting thought pertinent to Jewish past and present, zooming in on textual and visual hermeneutics to material and textual culture to performing arts.