Déjà Vu: Shirley Kaufman's Poetry on Biblical Women
This article explores Shirley Kaufman's reading of the Bible as an elaboration on/of its feminine characters via three devices: (a) Dramatic monologues, in which the woman speaks for herself ("Rebecca" and "Leah"); (b) description of specific scenes that gives us a glimpse i...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
MDPI
[2019]
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In: |
Religions
Year: 2019, Volume: 10, Issue: 9 |
Further subjects: | B
Hebrew Bible
B American Jewish poets B biblical women B Shirley Kaufman B Midrash |
Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
Summary: | This article explores Shirley Kaufman's reading of the Bible as an elaboration on/of its feminine characters via three devices: (a) Dramatic monologues, in which the woman speaks for herself ("Rebecca" and "Leah"); (b) description of specific scenes that gives us a glimpse into the character's point of view ("His Wife", "Michal", "Abishag", "The Wife of Moses", "Yael", and "Job's Wife"); and (c) interweaving of the biblical context into contemporary reality ("Déjà Vu" and "The Death of Rachel"). Fleshing these figures out, Kaufman portrays the biblical women through contemporary lenses as a way of "coming to terms with the past" and the historical exclusion of "women's bodies" from Jewish tradition, thereby giving them a voice and "afterlife". Her treatment of the biblical texts can thus be viewed as belonging to the new midrashic-poetry tradition by Jewish-American women that has emerged as part of the Jewish feminist wave. Herein, Kaufman follows Adrienne Rich and Alicia Ostriker's "re-visioning" of the Bible and in particularly its women, empowering them by making use of her/their own words. |
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ISSN: | 2077-1444 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Religions
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3390/rel10090493 |