On Femininities in the Song of Songs and Beyond

On Femininities in the Song of Songs and Beyond
Author: Vita Daphna Arbel
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2022-01-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567700070

Vita Daphna Arbel uses critical theories of gender to offer an alternative reading of the multilayered conceptualization of the Song of Song's feminine protagonist: “the most beautiful woman”. Arbel treats “the most beautiful woman” as a culturally constructed and performed representation of “woman,” and situates this representation within the cultural-­discursive contexts in which the Song partly emerged. She examines the gender norms and cultural ideologies it both reflects and constructs, and considers the manner in which this complex representation disrupts rigid, ahistorical notions of femininity, and how it consequently indirectly characterizes “womanhood” as dynamic and diverse. Finally, Arbel examines the reception and impact of these ideas on later conceptualizations of the Song of Songs' female protagonist with a heuristic examination of Mark Chagall's Song of Songs painting cycle, Le Cantique des Cantiques. These compositions-selected for their diverse depictions of the Song's protagonist, their impact on European art, and their vast popularity and bearing in the broader cultural imagination-illustrate a fascinating dialogue between the present and the past about the “most beautiful woman” and about multiple femininities.

The Israelite Woman

The Israelite Woman
Author: Athalya Brenner-Idan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2014-11-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567657744

In the first edition of The Israelite Woman Athalya Brenner-Idan provided the first book-length treatment by a feminist biblical scholar of the female characters in the Hebrew Bible. Now, thirty years later, Brenner provides a fresh take on this ground-breaking work, considering how scholarly observation of female biblical characters has changed and how it has not. Brenner-Idan also provides a new and highly personal introduction to the book, which details, perhaps surprisingly to present readers, what was at stake for female biblical scholars looking to engage honestly in the academic debate at the time in which the book was first written. This will make difficult reading for some, particularly those whose own views have not changed. The main part of the book presents Brenner-Idans's now classic examination of the roles of women in the society of ancient Israel, and the roles they play in the biblical narratives. In Part I Brenner-Idan surveys what can be known about the roles of queens, wise women, women poets and authors, prophetesses, magicians, sorcerers and witches and female prostitutes in Israelite society. In Part II the focus is on the typical roles in which Hebrew women appear in biblical stories, as mother of the hero, as temptress, as foreigner, and as ancestress. In these narratives, for which there are standard plots and structures and characterizations readily available, women play a generally domestic role. Not only is the book a highly valuable resource detailing the social role of women in ancient Israel, and showing how the interpretation of women in the bible has been influenced by convention, but it is also a challenging reminder of how outdated attitudes can still prevail.

Unquenchable Love

Unquenchable Love
Author: Rene Erwich
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 149
Release: 2024-08-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666778265

More than ever before there is a need for in-depth dialogue between theology and sciences with regard to gender and human sexuality. This is especially true for Christian communities that are increasingly challenged by the many questions and experiences people have. This book provides the material to explore the various views and bring them together from a Christian perspective, based on a theological account of desire. It shows how gender, sexuality, and faith are positively connected without losing out on deep Christian values and norms.

Freedom Taking Place: War, Women and Culture at the Intersection of Ukraine, Poland, and Belarus

Freedom Taking Place: War, Women and Culture at the Intersection of Ukraine, Poland, and Belarus
Author: Jessica Zychowicz
Publisher: Vernon Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2023-05-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1648896901

Freedom as a concept shifts with different forms of expression. As the authors of this volume convey in their focus on 'freedom of expression', the idea of 'freedom' in the twenty-first century does not stand apart as a purely physical location marked by national borders. In the Internet Age information is increasingly co-determinate of physical freedom. The information-dense space of the protests of 2021, and beyond, provide soil for the intellectuals writing in this volume to reflect on women’s agency in struggles for human rights. Where historical discourse on “The Woman Question” once conflicted with “feminism” as a perceived importation from the West, this conflict also produced productive tensions that have provided ongoing sites for research. When closely studied, these contexts can deepen global concepts of democracy and justice, providing not only pathways for acts of solidarity and mutual assistance, but intellectual depth and breadth for the future 'ways of knowing', and thus ways of creating, more equitable post-conflict power systems and citizenship amid times of revolution and war. Coming from multiple generations, gender identities, nationalities, and language; the authors in this volume represent the most forward-thinking voices and figures working on gender in the region today.

The Routledge Handbook of Language and the Global South/s

The Routledge Handbook of Language and the Global South/s
Author: Sinfree Makoni
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 514
Release: 2022-08-29
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1000600130

This Handbook centers on language(s) in the Global South/s and the many ways in which both "language" and the "Global South" are conceptualized, theorized, practiced, and reshaped. Drawing on 31 chapters situated in diverse geographical contexts, and four additional interviews with leading scholars, this text showcases: Issues of decolonization Promotion of Southern epistemologies and theories of the Global South/s A focus on social/applied linguistics An added focus on the academy A nuanced understanding of global language scholarship. It is written for emerging and established scholars across the globe as it positions Southern epistemologies, language scholarship, and decolonial theories into scholarship surrounding multiple themes and global perspectives.

The Bible, Gender, and Sexuality: Critical Readings

The Bible, Gender, and Sexuality: Critical Readings
Author: Lynn R. Huber
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 717
Release: 2020-10-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567677567

This volume collects both classic and cutting-edge readings related to gender, sex, sexuality, and the Bible. Engaging the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and surrounding texts and worlds, Rhiannon Graybill and Lynn R. Huber have amassed a selection of essays that reflects a wide range of perspectives and approaches towards gender and sexuality. Presented in three distinct parts, the collection begins with an examination of gender in and around biblical contexts, before moving to discussing sex and sexualities, and finally critiques of gender and sexuality. Each reading is introduced by the editors in order to situate it in its broader scholarly context, and each section culminates in an annotated list of further readings to point researchers towards other engagements with these key themes.

First-Degree Incest and the Hebrew Bible

First-Degree Incest and the Hebrew Bible
Author: Johanna Stiebert
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2016-10-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567675254

'Incest' refers to illegal sexual relations between family members. Its precise contours, however, are culturally specific. Hence, an illegal incestuous union in one social context may be a legal close-kin union in another. First-degree sexual unions, between a parent and child, or between siblings, are most widely prohibited and abhorred. This book discusses all overt and covert first-degree incest relations in the Hebrew Bible and also probes the significance of gaps and what these imply about projected sexual and social values. As the dominant opinion on the origin of first-degree incest continues to be shaped, new voices such as those of queer and post-feminist criticism have joined the conversation. It navigates not only the incest laws of Leviticus and the narratives of Lot and his daughters and of Amnon and Tamar but pursues subtler intimations of first-degree sexual unions, such as between Adam and his (absent but arguably implied) mother, Haran and Terah's wife, Ham and Noah. In pursuing the psycho-social values that may be drawn from the Hebrew Bible regarding first-degree incest, this book will provide a thorough review of incest studies from the early 20th century onward and explain and assess the contribution of very recent critical approaches from queer and post-feminist perspectives.

Art as Biblical Commentary

Art as Biblical Commentary
Author: J. Cheryl Exum
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2019-05-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567685195

Art as Biblical Commentary is not just about biblical art but, more importantly, about biblical exegesis and the contributions visual criticism as an exegetical tool can make to biblical exegesis and commentary. Using a range of texts and numerous images, J. Cheryl Exum asks what works of art can teach us about the biblical text. 'Visual criticism' is her term for an approach that addresses this question by focusing on the narrativity of images-reading them as if, like texts, they have a story to tell-and asking what light an image's 'story' can shed on the biblical narrator's story. In Part I, Exum elaborates on her approach and offers a personal testimony to the value of visual criticism. Part 2 examines in detail the story of Hagar in Genesis 16 and 21. Part 3 contains chapters on erotic looking and voyeuristic gazing in the stories of Bathsheba, Susanna, Joseph and Potiphar's wife and the Song of Songs; on the distribution of renown among Jael, Deborah and Barak; on the Bible's notorious women, Eve and Delilah; and on the sacrificed female body in the stories of the Levite's wife (Judges 19) and Mary the mother of Jesus.

Transfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies

Transfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies
Author: Finn Enke
Publisher: Temple University Press
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2012-05-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 143990748X

Lambda Literary Award for Best Book in Transgender Nonfiction, 2013 If feminist studies and transgender studies are so intimately connected, why are they not more deeply integrated? Offering multidisciplinary models for this assimilation, the vibrant essays in Transfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies suggest timely and necessary changes for institutions of higher learning. Responding to the more visible presence of transgender persons as well as gender theories, the contributing essayists focus on how gender is practiced in academia, health care, social services, and even national border patrols. Working from the premise that transgender is both material and cultural, the contributors address such aspects of the university as administration, sports, curriculum, pedagogy, and the appropriate location for transgender studies. Combining feminist theory, transgender studies, and activism centered on social diversity and justice, these essays examine how institutions as lived contexts shape everyday life.

The "new Woman" Revised

The
Author: Ellen Wiley Todd
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 464
Release: 1993-01-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780520074712

In the years between the world wars, Manhattan's Fourteenth Street-Union Square district became a center for commercial, cultural, and political activities, and hence a sensitive barometer of the dramatic social changes of the period. It was here that four urban realist painters--Kenneth Hayes Miller, Reginald Marsh, Raphael Soyer, and Isabel Bishop--placed their images of modern "new women." Bargain stores, cheap movie theaters, pinball arcades, and radical political organizations were the backdrop for the women shoppers, office and store workers, and consumers of mass culture portrayed by these artists. Ellen Wiley Todd deftly interprets the painters' complex images as they were refracted through the gender ideology of the period. This is a work of skillful interdisciplinary scholarship, combining recent insights from feminist art history, gender studies, and social and cultural theory. Drawing on a range of visual and verbal representations as well as biographical and critical texts, Todd balances the historical context surrounding the painters with nuanced analyses of how each artist's image of womanhood contributed to the continual redefining of the "new woman's" relationships to men, family, work, feminism, and sexuality.