Reading Jezebel from the “other” side: Feminist critique, postcolonialism, and comedy
The Hebrew Bible is infused with an “us” and “them” dynamic that differentiates between Israel and any, particularly non-Israelite, “other” who might threaten Israel’s distinctive relationship to their God. In arguably no other biblical figure has the identification of the “other” become as entrench...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage
2015
|
| In: |
Review and expositor
Year: 2015, Volume: 112, Issue: 2, Pages: 239-255 |
| Further subjects: | B
Television comedies
B Postcolonialism B the “other” B Jezebel B feminist critique B counternarrative |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The Hebrew Bible is infused with an “us” and “them” dynamic that differentiates between Israel and any, particularly non-Israelite, “other” who might threaten Israel’s distinctive relationship to their God. In arguably no other biblical figure has the identification of the “other” become as entrenched as it has in the much-vilified figure of Jezebel. Furthermore, her infamy has travelled well beyond the Bible and into wider religious and cultural usage as a metaphor for any woman deemed dangerous, seductive, and/or evil. Thus, Jezebel is an ideal figure around whom to center a discussion about the self/other dichotomy, utilizing three reading strategies also attentive to this dichotomy: feminist critique, postcolonialism, and comedy. Reading the texts in which Jezebel has a role (1 Kgs 16:31; 18–19; 21:1–16; 2 Kgs 9:30–37) through these interpretive “lenses” allows a character to emerge from the caricature and enables the construction of a counternarrative by which the understanding of “self” in relation to “other” is an identity that can be established and maintained without requiring homogeneity, without deferring to violence, and with liberation as its fundamental aim. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2052-9449 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Review and expositor
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/0034637315582469 |