The death wish in the Hebrew Bible: rhetorical strategies for survival

This is the first book to systematically investigate the texts in the Hebrew Bible in which a character expresses a wish to die. Contrary to previous scholarship on these texts that assumed these death wishes were simply a desire to escape suffering, Hanne Løland Levinson employs narrative criticism...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Levinson, Hanne Løland ca. 20./21. Jh. (Author)
Format: Electronic Book
Language:English
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WorldCat: WorldCat
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2021
In:Year: 2021
Reviews:[Rezension von: Levinson, Hanne Løland, ca. 20./21. Jh., The death wish in the Hebrew Bible : Rhetorical Strategies for Survival] (2023) (Weingärtner, Martina)
[Rezension von: Levinson, Hanne Løland, ca. 20./21. Jh., The death wish in the Hebrew Bible : Rhetorical Strategies for Survival] (2023) (Kalmanofsky, Amy)
Series/Journal:Society for Old Testament study monographs
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Old Testament / Death
IxTheo Classification:HB Old Testament
Further subjects:B Life Biblical teaching
B Bible. Old Testament Criticism, interpretation, etc
B Death Biblical teaching
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:This is the first book to systematically investigate the texts in the Hebrew Bible in which a character expresses a wish to die. Contrary to previous scholarship on these texts that assumed these death wishes were simply a desire to escape suffering, Hanne Løland Levinson employs narrative criticism and conversation analysis, together with diachronic methods, to carefully hear each death-wish text in its literary context. She demonstrates that death wishes embody powerful, multi-faceted rhetorical strategies. Grouping the death-wish texts into four main rhetorical strategies of negotiation, expression of despair and anger, longing to undo one's existence, and wishing for a different reality, Løland Levinson portrays the complex reasons why characters in the Hebrew Bible wish for death. She concludes that the death wishes navigate the tension between longing for death and fighting for survival - a tension that many live with also today as they attempt to claim agency and autonomy in life.
Item Description:Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 14 Sep 2021)
ISBN:1108986188
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/9781108986182