RT Article
T1 Constructions of Sex and Gender: Attending to Androgynes and Tumtumim Through Jewish Scriptural Use
JF Literature and theology
VO 25
IS 4
SP 422
OP 435
A1 Schleicher, Marianne
LA English
PB Oxford University Press
YR 2011
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1780313551
AB Responding to the ethical and performative call of Judith Butler not to propagate the sex- and gender-related violence of the imbedded discourse that we study, this article inquires into the discursive strategies of Jewish scripture by analysing how it orchestrates certain norms of sex and gender and makes them serve the overall aim of securing cultural survival. Following this, it traces reflections on persons of ambiguous or indeterminate sex from rabbinic to modern Judaism so as to inquire into the rabbinic dependency on scripture when non-conforming individuals challenge its bipolar sex and gender system. Finally, the article considers if scripture, as suggested by Butler, can play a subversive role in how we attend to non-conforming others today. To do so, the author's distinction between hermeneutical and artifactual uses of scripture is presented to evaluate the extent to which modern Jews and non-Jews are able to influence their own representations of sex and gender and thus liberate themselves from the normativity implied by scriptural discourse.
DO 10.1093/litthe/frr051