Performing Habakkuk
Subtitle: faithful re-enactment in the midst of crisis
By: Jeanette Mathews
Publisher: Pickwick Publications
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Eugene, OR
Language: eng
Number of pages: 251
ISBN-13: 9781610975735
Subjects: Bible; Criticism, interpretation; History and criticism; Drama; Religious drama; Performance
Description: Scripture, like any performance, aims for transformation of its audience. In this new study Jeanette Mathews demonstrates how literature from the diverse field of performance studies can be applied to the prophetic book of Habakkuk in order to draw out themes and features that are common to both. Mathews offers a fresh new translation of Habakkuk that emphasizes and celebrates its intrinsic dramatic features. This translation provides the "script" for the performance of Habakkuk. The attitudes and actions of the "actors" in the performance become models for their "audience," such that the audience members are drawn into the performance and do not remain impartial spectators. The context of crisis that forms the book's "setting" is of crucial importance, ensuring that genres such as complaint and lament are taken seriously as expressions of faith in the midst of traumatic experience.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-251).
Table of contents: title: The prophetic phenomenon in the Hebrew Bible; title: An introduction to performance studies; title: Performance criticism in biblical studies; title: Preparing the "script" of Habakkuk; title: A performance reading of Habakkuk 1; title: A performance reading of Habakkuk 2; title: A performance reading of Habakkuk 3; title: Reading Habakkuk through a performance lens.