(Per)mutations of Qohelet: Reading the Body in the BookBloomsbury Publishing USA, 1. juuli 2006 - 152 pages (Per)mutations of Qohelet explores the question, Who is Qohelet? Rather than peering behind or through the text to answer this question in terms of authorship, Koosed analyzes the identity that is created through the words on the page. The text is not a transparent medium connecting reader with author; instead, it is an opaque body - it has weight, substance, skin. Koosed begins with an analysis of the ways in which words construct identities and the reasons why words can affect us so profoundly, relying primarily on the work of Judith Butler and Elaine Scarry. She then explores autobiography and how the genre of autobiography - as reconfigured by Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida - relates to Qohelet. These two chapters then set the framework for what follows: an analysis of the various bodily organs and sensations contained within the book of Qohelet. The body is embedded in the text through the naming of body parts (eye, hand, heart). And this same body is encoded in form, structure, and syntax, so that the text becomes a body with organs, systems, and even a life of its own. The book is a body and the book speaks of bodies. It speaks of the body's organs and senses; it concerns itself with the pleasures and pains of the body, the gendered body, the dying body. Finally, the ritual body is highlighted in the final passage of this enigmatic book. |
From inside the book
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Page vii
... women who taught me to read : my mother , Sharyn Koosed - Boyce ; my high school English teacher , Mary Sawan ; and Amy - Jill Levine , who introduced me biblical studies when I was nineteen and searching for a new major . ABBREVIATIONS ...
... women who taught me to read : my mother , Sharyn Koosed - Boyce ; my high school English teacher , Mary Sawan ; and Amy - Jill Levine , who introduced me biblical studies when I was nineteen and searching for a new major . ABBREVIATIONS ...
Page 3
... woman about a piece of fruit ( Gen 3 : 1-7 ) . The interaction between these three — and then four when the man joins in inaugurates a perpetual discord between human , animal , vegetable , and mineral bodies ( the soil which is fated ...
... woman about a piece of fruit ( Gen 3 : 1-7 ) . The interaction between these three — and then four when the man joins in inaugurates a perpetual discord between human , animal , vegetable , and mineral bodies ( the soil which is fated ...
Page 6
... woman who produced it , as if it were always in the end , through the more or less transparent allegory of the fiction , the voice of a single person , the author " confiding " in us . " 26 The idea of an author limits interpretation ...
... woman who produced it , as if it were always in the end , through the more or less transparent allegory of the fiction , the voice of a single person , the author " confiding " in us . " 26 The idea of an author limits interpretation ...
Page 11
... woman . She is a snare and her heart is nets , her hands are fetters . " There will also be reference to how the female body is represented in the discourses on pleasure in other parts of the book 1. Introducing Qohelet 11 Summary of Order.
... woman . She is a snare and her heart is nets , her hands are fetters . " There will also be reference to how the female body is represented in the discourses on pleasure in other parts of the book 1. Introducing Qohelet 11 Summary of Order.
Page 18
... women ( 1 Kgs 3-11 ) .9 Is Qohelet a proper name , a title , or a job description ? There is some evidence from the Persian period that feminine - ending nouns denote the title of an office . Ezra 2:55 and Neh 7:57 both speak of a ...
... women ( 1 Kgs 3-11 ) .9 Is Qohelet a proper name , a title , or a job description ? There is some evidence from the Persian period that feminine - ending nouns denote the title of an office . Ezra 2:55 and Neh 7:57 both speak of a ...
Contents
1 | |
16 | |
Chapter 3 FRAGMENTS OF QOHELETS BODY | 34 |
Chapter 4 QOHELET IN PLEASURE AND PAIN | 53 |
Chapter 5 IN LOVE AND GENDER TROUBLE | 74 |
Chapter 6 DECOMPOSING QOHELET | 88 |
Chapter 7 READING THE EPILOGUE THROUGH THIS BODY | 103 |
Chapter 8 DEPARTURES | 122 |
Bibliography | 124 |
Index of References | 134 |
Index of Authors | 138 |
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Common terms and phrases
ādām Akkadian ambiguity analysis ancient androcentric ănî argues autobiography begins believe biblical body book of Qohelet Brenner Butler chapter Chicago coherent Commentary commentators context contradictions Crenshaw criticism culture deconstruction definition desire Dhorme Ecclesiastes Elaine Scarry emendation epilogue example feminine feminist fiction flesh gender genre gift of death Gliserman God's Gordis heart hebel Hebrew Bible Hélène Cixous human Ibid identity interpretation Isaksson Jacques Derrida Judith Butler language lēb literary male meaning mezuzah misogyny notes noun NRSV Old Testament passage person phrase physical pleasure and pain poem Postmodern proper name Proverbs question R. N. Whybray Rabbi reader reading Qohelet refers ritual Roland Barthes Routledge Scarry scholars Schoors sexual signified singular Solomon Song of Songs speaker speaks speech structure textual theology theory tions tôb toil trans translation University Press verb verses Whybray Wiesel Wisdom Literature woman women words writing York