Reworking the Bible
Subtitle: the literary reception-history of fourteen biblical stories
By: Anthony C. Swindell
Series: Bible in the modern world -- 30; Bible in the modern world -- 30.
Publisher: Sheffield Phoenix Press; Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Sheffield, England
Language: eng
Number of pages: 342
ISBN-13: 9781907534010
Subjects: Narrative Criticism; Bible and literature; Bible stories; Bible
Description: Reworking the Bible is a substantial account of the reception history of fourteen biblical stories-those of Eden, the Flood, Jacob and Esau, Moses and the Exodus, Joshua and Rahab, Samson, Nebuchadnezzar, Susanna, Esther, Jesus Christ, Salome, Lazarus, the Prodigal Son and the Descent into Hell. Full of fascinating detail of the afterlives of these biblical narratives, the book also offers a sophisticated theoretical analysis of the processes of reworking: major hypertexts from The Dream of the Rood to Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood come under the spotlight of the theories of Genette about rewriting and of Bakhtin about chronotopes and polyphony. In the final chapter, the material is viewed from the point of view of its spatial overtones, highlighting works that use the retelling of biblical stories to transport the reader to somewhere beyond controlling monological cultures. As well as providing close readings of some extraordinary literary reworkings, the book provides a guide to the available critical literature. Both the biblical stories themselves and the works of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Racine, George Eliot, Turgenev, Kafka, Iris Murdoch, Julian Barnes, Ben Okri and many others are cast in a new light, including many plays, novels and poems that have been surprisingly neglected. The works discussed range from the hilarious to the horrific and have the capacity to refresh and even transform our reading of the Bible.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [318]-336) and index.
Table of contents: title: Literary reworkings in perspective; title: Eden the place; title: Noah the serio-comical flood; title: Jacob and Esau and others; title: Moses multiplied; title: Joshua in Jericho and Rahab in rehab; title: Samson surviving; title: Nebuchadnezzar rules; title: Susanna and a world of elders; title: Esther at large; title: Christ reborn; title: Salome and the dance of time; title: Lazarus recycled; title: Returning to the prodigal; title: In and out of hell (the descent into hell); title: Narrative upheavals (categories and classifications); title: Towards diegetic outer space.