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Displaying results 1 to 5 of 5.

  1. Novelizing myth in Sholem Asch's "Moses"
    Author: Tumanov, Vladimir
    Published: 2014

    Sholem Asch's epic novel "Moses" has been criticized for a number of shortcomings. One of the main reproaches has do with Asch's attempt to present myth as history in a serious and at times "stuffily reverential" style (Siegel 194). Leslie Fiedler... more

     

    Sholem Asch's epic novel "Moses" has been criticized for a number of shortcomings. One of the main reproaches has do with Asch's attempt to present myth as history in a serious and at times "stuffily reverential" style (Siegel 194). Leslie Fiedler compares Asch's retelling of Exodus-Deuteronomy to Thomas Mann's version of Genesis in "Joseph and his Brothers" and argues that Asch, unlike Mann, lacks the irony of Mann's approach which is essential for handling mythological material in the modern age. Fiedler maintains that Mann's novel is superior to Asch's because Mann does not try to modernize the original material by rationalizing it (Fiedler 73-4). While there is much truth in what Fiedler says about "Moses", the contrast between Mann and Asch is not quite so clear-cut. Undoubtedly, the two authors did handle their material in radically different ways. However, both authors were writing modern realistic novels, i.e., they were dealing with a genre that demands structural coherence. And in this respect one must not overemphasize the difference between Asch's and Mann's treatment of myth.

     
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    Source: BASE Selection for Comparative Literature
    Language: German
    Media type: Article (journal)
    Format: Online
    DDC Categories: 800
    Subjects: Asch; Sholem; Mann; Thomas / Joseph und seine Brüder; Mythos
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    publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/home/index/help ; info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
  2. Stitching Joseph's coat in Thomas Mann's "Joseph und seine Brüder"
    Author: Tumanov, Vladimir
    Published: 2000

    The argument proceeds from the documentary hypothesis in modern biblical studies. This hypothesis is based on the assumption that the 1st 5 books of the Old Testament were written by four different authors at different times. These authors are known... more

     

    The argument proceeds from the documentary hypothesis in modern biblical studies. This hypothesis is based on the assumption that the 1st 5 books of the Old Testament were written by four different authors at different times. These authors are known as J, P, E and D. Their writing was joined in the 5th c. B.C.E. into what became the Pentateuch and the first part of the Old Testament. The result of this joining was a series of contradictions and redundancies in the final text as we have it today. Readers of the Bible who seek to read it as one coherent text try to naturalize these contradictions by what I call "stitching." Stitching involves putting coherence back into the Pentateuch by accounting for the contradictions and redundancies in terms of plausibility and common logic. Modern authors who write versions of Old Testament stories, such as Thomas Mann in his "Joseph and his brothers", also engage in stitching. I demonstrate how Mann stitches a number of important episodes from the Patriarch saga. I discuss the effect of this process on the story line. I compare that to two other recent instances of biblical stitching in modern fiction. And I conclude with the argument that stitching in modern biblical hypertexts stems from the need for coherence in the modern realistic novel. This post-enlightenment coherence impulse is contrasted with myth and the latter's tolerance for loose ends and less than coherent narrative.

     
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    Source: BASE Selection for Comparative Literature
    Language: English
    Media type: Article (journal)
    Format: Online
    DDC Categories: 830
    Subjects: Mann; Thomas / Joseph und seine Brüder; Pentateuch; Intertextualität
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    publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/home/index/help ; info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
  3. Jacob as Job in Thomas Mann's "Joseph und seine Brüder"
    Author: Tumanov, Vladimir
    Published: 2002

    The Book of Job from the Old Testament is juxtaposed in detail with its hypertext in Thomas Mann's novel: the chapter where Jacob mourns for his "dead" Joseph. An argument is made that Mann's awareness of rabbinical literature creates a connection... more

     

    The Book of Job from the Old Testament is juxtaposed in detail with its hypertext in Thomas Mann's novel: the chapter where Jacob mourns for his "dead" Joseph. An argument is made that Mann's awareness of rabbinical literature creates a connection with the Akedah tradition, i.e., different ways of dealing with the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham in Genesis. The notion that Abraham actually does kill Isaac, as suggested by a medieval rabbinical text, is interwoven into the analysis of Jacob's mourning for Joseph who appears as an Issaac-like sacrificial victim in Mann's novel. A connection is established between Abraham, Job and Jacob as figures whose children are claimed by God, and their reactions to this test are compared.

     
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    Source: BASE Selection for Comparative Literature
    Language: English
    Media type: Article (journal)
    Format: Online
    DDC Categories: 830
    Subjects: Ijob; Mann; Thomas / Joseph und seine Brüder; Intertextualität
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    publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/home/index/help ; info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
  4. Dinah's rage : the retelling of Genesis 34 in Anita Diamant's "The red tent" and Thomas Mann's "Joseph and his Brothers"
    Author: Tumanov, Vladimir
    Published: 2007

    It is commonplace to assert that the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament is based on an androcentric position. Although critics have tried to introduce some sort of female empowerment by reassessing various biblical stories (cf. Savina Teubal,... more

     

    It is commonplace to assert that the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament is based on an androcentric position. Although critics have tried to introduce some sort of female empowerment by reassessing various biblical stories (cf. Savina Teubal, 1984), Genesis remains a man's realm with only a limited female perspective. The case of Dinah's rape by Shechem in Genesis 34 illustrates the marginality of womanhood in the biblical world and theology. The pericope tells us that, while the Israelites are settled near the Hivite city of Shechem in Canaan, Jacob's and Leah's daughter Dinah goes out of the Israelite camp. She is raped by Shechem, the prince of the eponymous city, who then abducts her and makes her one of his household. A deal is concluded by Jacob's sons and the Shechemites, according to which the situation can be made legitimate through marriage if the men of Shechem circumcise themselves. While the Shechemites are weak at er the surgery, the Israelites sack the city, kill all the males and take Dinah back.

     
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    Source: BASE Selection for Comparative Literature
    Language: English
    Media type: Article (journal)
    Format: Online
    DDC Categories: 800
    Subjects: Mann; Thomas / Joseph und seine Brüder; Dina; Diamant; Anita / The red tent
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    publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/home/index/help ; info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
  5. Yahweh vs. the teraphim : Jacob's pagan wives in Thomas Mann's "Joseph and his brothers" and in Anita Diamant's "The red tent"
    Author: Tumanov, Vladimir
    Published: 2007

    This essay deals with two retellings of Genesis: Thomas Mann's "Joseph and his brothers" and Anita Diamant's "The red tent". Both authors note the presence of implicit pagan tendencies among the women of Jacob's clan (Gen 31:19; 35:2) and develop... more

     

    This essay deals with two retellings of Genesis: Thomas Mann's "Joseph and his brothers" and Anita Diamant's "The red tent". Both authors note the presence of implicit pagan tendencies among the women of Jacob's clan (Gen 31:19; 35:2) and develop this subtext for their respective ideological purposes. Thomas Mann creates a dichotomy between the backwardness of the pagan female realm and the progressive nature of the monotheistically-oriented patriarchs. The path toward modern humanist values comes from the likes of Jacob and Joseph rather than Rachel and Leah in Mann's novel. Anita Diamant, on the other hand, adopts the opposite attitude, namely, that the paganism of Rachel, Leah, as well as other women in Jacob's family, is a humane and natural form of spirituality in contrast to the bloodthirsty Yahwism of Jacob and his sons. The latter point is illustrated by the sacking of Shechem. In order to question the patriarchal stance of the Old Testament Diamant reverses the key values informing the theology of the Bible. Thus, in "The red tent" Jacob's wives venerate the Ashera in particular. The latter constitutes a challenge to the stance of the Deuteronomic History where the cult of the Ashera is viewed as a key reason behind God's decision to let the Babylonians destroy the Southern Kingdom of Judah. And since Mann's novel upholds the patriarchal spirit of the biblical text, Diamant enters into debate with the continuity of female disempowerment which reaches all the way from Genesis to "Joseph and his brothers".

     
    Export to reference management software   RIS file
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    Source: BASE Selection for Comparative Literature
    Language: English
    Media type: Article (journal)
    Format: Online
    DDC Categories: 800
    Subjects: Diamant; Anita / The red tent; Genesis; Mann; Thomas / Joseph und seine Brüder; Heidentum
    Rights:

    publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/home/index/help ; info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess