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The Book of Job in Wonderland: Making (Non)Sense of Job's Mediators

Autor Ryan M. Armstrong
en Limba Engleză Hardback – 19 dec 2024
The book of Job and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland may not seem like natural bedfellows at first, but both have become literary classics by lifting a voice of protest against injustice. They employ similar techniques to mock self-assured moralists: nonce-formation, unique orthography, frame tales, episodic plot structure, and parodies of religious songs. Both culminate in a chaotic trial that remains unresolved. At every turn, these books subvert conventions of genre and even language itself. Job and Alice become curiouser and curiouser as their most foundational beliefs are challenged. In this creative new study, Ryan M. Armstrong explores mediation in Job's land of Uz with insights gained from Wonderland - Job and Alice must both learn the value of honest protest, a lesson intensified by their would-be mediators.Readers throughout history have long been mesmerized by Job's search for a “redeemer,” a mediator that will stand between him and God. But few have noted the pervasiveness of mediation throughout the book, which opens and closes with mediatory acts. Armstrong turns attention to the mediation (and un-mediation) of Job's primary interlocutors. Like Wonderland's Queen of Hearts, God thunders into Job's life and reminds him that few mediators are willing to stand up to authority. Like the King of Hearts, Job's three friends take the side of the most powerful disputant, God. Like Wonderland's Gryphon, Elihu creates a cliffhanger before the dénouement and offers a moment of reflection. In the end, Job, like Alice, clings to his honesty and refuses to flatter authority.Making use of philological and linguistic analysis in conversation with history's rabbis, theologians, and artists, Armstrong provides detailed readings of key poems within their literary context. These readings are then viewed through a looking-glass of comparative work, relating Job and his friends to Wonderland and other cultural touchpoints. The Book of Job in Wonderland offers an important contribution to the field of biblical studies through the lens of a classic text.
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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9780197763674
ISBN-10: 0197763677
Pagini: 248
Ilustrații: 10 b/w halftones
Dimensiuni: 157 x 226 x 25 mm
Greutate: 0.5 kg
Editura: Oxford University Press
Colecția OUP USA
Locul publicării:New York, United States

Recenzii

This is the most creative and insightful study of the Elihu speeches in the Book of Job that I have read. It combines careful and rigorous philological analysis, attention to the history of reception among Jewish and Christian interpreters, and literary theory to offer a fresh reading of the material. It is also beautifully written and truly engaging to read. A tour de force.
There are many faces to mediation between Job and the Deity in the book of Job. In this original and fascinating book, Ryan Armstrong examines them all, employing a rich array of philological and literary-rhetorical means to do so. Armstrong impresses us with the intermediary contributions of Elihu at the same time that he addresses the Deity's astonishingly unmediated response to Job. Armstrong makes profound use of interpretations of Job stretching from ancient to contemporary times, with extended and delightful comparisons drawn to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Engagingly written, this marvelously sophisticated and learned treatment of an endlessly engaging text is essential reading for every student of Job.
Ryan Armstrong draws productively on the work of Lewis Carroll to offer a detailed, authoritative, and highly insightful exploration of the Book of Job. In so doing, he sheds fascinating light on topics ranging from social justice to language, wisdom and learning in the Carrollian oeuvre. Compellingly written - at times via some delicious neologisms of his own - this volume delivers on the promise of any comparative exercise which, in the words of George Steiner, is to 'see more'.
The Book of Job in Wonderland quickly captured my heart and attention. If you're a Bible teacher or preacher, you should snatch up a copy posthaste!

Notă biografică

Ryan M. Armstrong is Visiting Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible at Oklahoma State University. His research focuses on ancient Hebrew literature within its linguistic and historical context and its impact on interpreters throughout history.