RT Article
T1 "Look at What They’ve Turned Us Into": Reading the Story of Lot’s Daughters with Trauma Theory and The Handmaid’s Tale
JF Open theology
VO 7
IS 1
SP 208
OP 223
A1 Cobb, Kirsi
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1830009540
AB The story of Lot’s daughters’ incest with their father in Genesis 19:30-38 has been variously understood as a myth, a trickster tale, and an androcentric phantasy. In this paper, I will use insights gained from trauma theory, as well as from the characters of Emily and Moira in the Hulu adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale , to evaluate the daughters’ actions. Studying the characters in the final form of the text, the women undergo traumatic experiences as their father offers their bodies to be raped (Gen. 19:7-8) and they witness the destruction of their home (Gen. 19:24-25). Consequently, they engage in what could be described as a traumatic re-enactment with their father, where the roles of the perpetrator and the victim are reversed, and the continuation of the patriarchal line is simultaneously guaranteed. Read in conjunction with the fates of Emily and Moira, the daughters’ experience could be summarized in Emily’s observation, "Look at what they’ve turned us into." In the lives of all the women, the experience of cumulative and direct trauma influenced their decision making as well as the choices they had available. This leaves the audience in a moment of uncertainty, where evaluating the women’s actions becomes a complex, even an impossible prospect.
K1 Hebrew Bible
K1 Lot’s daughters
K1 insidious trauma
K1 re-enactment
K1 Revenge
K1 Trauma Theory
K1 traumatic amnesia
DO 10.1515/opth-2020-0156