QUEERING JEREMIAH

Abstract

AbstractSome criticism of queer theory has centred on its alleged ahistoricity in its treatment of historical texts and on its damage to the liberationist efforts of the identity-based feminist and lesbian and gay movements. This paper argues for queer theory's survival as both a valid academic methodological position, and an alternative liberationist approach to issues of gender and sexuality. Queer theory is then applied to the marriage metaphor in Jeremiah chs. 2–3. Recent feminist critiques of the prophetic use of the metaphor postulate a dichotomy between male and female readers' responses to the texts. In reply, this paper argues that there are serious breakdowns in gender divisions within what is a chaotic text; further, that the male reader implied in the text is forced to identify with not the faithful husband but the faithless wife; and finally that critics overlook the positive portrayal of the restored wife in the metaphor's 'third movement'. A queer reading does not wholly rehabilitate the text but suggests tentatively that the metaphor may be read as a subversion rather than a re-inscription of masculinist values.