Literary Structure Research Articles

Darian R. Lockett. Letters for the Church: Reading James, 1–2 Peter, 1–3 John, and Jude as Canon

Darian R. Lockett. <i>Letters for the Church: Reading James, 1–2 Peter, 1–3 John, and Jude as Canon</i>

Jeannine K. Brown. Philippians

Brown’s present volume on Philippians is one of the first of the new commentaries in the flagship Tyndale Commentary series—the first volumes published from 1956 to 1974 and the next set between 1983 and 2003 (p. vii). The goal of the series is to provide a simultaneously readable, accessible, and robust exegetical engagement of the text within its historical context—and with an eye toward contemporary theological relevance. Brown’s commentary accomplishes these goals with excellence.The first fifty pages are devoted to introductory matters such as authorship, audience, date, the genre and literary structure of the letter, Paul’s opponents, and theological themes. Brown assumes Paul’s imprisonment in Rome (rather than Caesarea or Ephesus), and so dates the letter to sometime in the early 60s. There are multiple purposes of the letter, including Paul’s desire to frame their understanding of Epaphroditus’s ministry upon his return to Philippi, to comment upon the gifts he had received from the Philippian church, to encourage them that they need not worry about him while he is imprisoned, and to exhort them to grow in unity. The primary theological themes that undergird Paul’s arguments are Christology, eschatology, friendship, communal discernment, unity and resilience in suffering, and Christian imitation.Brown successfully situates Paul’s argument within its ancient historical context but in a way that manages to make his claims easily digestible for nonspecialists. So, for example, in commenting upon Paul’s seeming indifference to whether he lives or dies—so long as Christ is glorified in his body (Phil 1:19–22)—she contrasts Paul’s stance with a Stoic philosophical perspective that would lead one to indifference toward so-called external matters. Rather, for Paul, “Christ himself is the lens for assessing what is valuable and of ultimate worth. . . . What is important to Paul is that the person of Christ would be exalted—shown to be of ultimate value—whatever the outcome” (p. 84). Similarly, Brown draws upon Aristotle’s three categories of proof from his work on rhetoric—pathos, ethos, and logos—to helpfully illuminate Paul’s arguments. For example, Paul draws upon ethos argumentation especially in his commendation of Timothy and Epaphroditus (Phil 2:19–30) as he appeals to their character as those who are single-mindedly committed to Christ’s interests and who work hard for the Philippian church even at great cost to themselves. Brown also notes how Paul frequently uses the philosophical language of phronesis, sometimes translated as prudence or practical wisdom, in order to cultivate a “Christologically focused mindset” that will guide the church’s communal discernment (p. 66). Brown shows how Paul’s theological argumentation intersects with the Philippian church’s situatedness in a Roman veteran colony. So, Paul’s use of the term politeuomai (Phil 1:27) has political and civic connotations. The phrase should be translated something like “live in singularly loyalty to the gospel of Christ” (p. 95). Brown notes: “As cities expected their citizens to live in undivided loyalty to their laws, norms, and ideals, Paul expects believers in Jesus to live in undivided loyalty to the norms and values implicit in the gospel and to Jesus as Lord” (pp. 95–96).With respect to the disputed pistis Christou phrase in Phil 3:9, Brown opts for the subjective genitive, namely, the faithfulness of Christ given that God’s righteousness is gifted to people “through the work of Christ—through his faithfulness or obedience . . . rather than directly through human faith” (p. 181). Paul’s language about Jesus existing in “God’s form” (2:6) and “emptying himself” (2:7), Brown argues, has less to do with ontology and is rather more interested in status, particularly in showing how Christ’s “downward mobility” (p. 117) functions to depict Jesus in his “Godlikeness as the epitome of self-giving” (p. 116). Regarding Phil 4:10–20, Brown argues that the overlap of its themes with other portions of Philippians (e.g., rejoicing, a right mindset, shared partnership, etc.) argues in favor of the integrity of the letter.There is an abundance of excellent options of good commentaries for students, teachers, and pastors today. For those who want a robust reading of Philippians, attuned to both the historical context of the letter and its contemporary theological implications, written in accessible prose—one can do no better than Jeannine Brown’s Philippians.

Down with This Sort of Thing: Seth Heringer and the End of the Historical-Critical Method

Down with This Sort of Thing: Seth Heringer and the End of the Historical-Critical Method

Artistry and Genealogy: The Literary Structure of On the Genealogy of Morality’s First Treatise

Abstract Despite the attention paid to the artistic and literary dimensions of Nietzsche’s writings, the literary structure of On the Genealogy of Morality (GM) has received little attention. In this article I examine the literary structure of GM’s first treatise. This study shows that Nietzsche structured the treatise simultaneously as a descent to the depths of ressentiment-fueled hatred, and as an ascent bringing its readers from self-ignorance to the beginnings of self-knowledge. The treatise’s structure responds to the preface’s twofold genealogical question on the historical origins of modern moral values, and on their real worth. In GM I:1–8 Nietzsche addresses the first part of the question, while in GM I:10–17 he addresses its second part. The free spirit’s objection in GM I:9, I argue, is the hinge upon which GM I turns, and which brings the treatise to the question of the real worth of moral values.

Tracing a Literary Structure in the Book of Revelation

Tracing a Literary Structure in the Book of Revelation

Boarding School Voices: Carlisle Indian Students Speak by Arnold Krupat

Reviewed by: Boarding School Voices: Carlisle Indian Students Speak by Arnold Krupat Geoff Hamilton Arnold Krupat. Boarding School Voices: Carlisle Indian Students Speak. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2021. 402 pp. Hardcover, $80.00. With this follow-up to his two-volume study Changed Forever: American Indian Boarding School Literature (2018, 2020), Krupat turns to a selection of writings by former students of the Carlisle Indian School, framing these works with his own critical commentary. His broadest aim is to improve our still limited understanding of the experiences of those who attended the school and others like it, "allowing us a measure of insight into what they saw and thought and felt" (xiv). The texts, the bulk of which have not been published previously, date from the last decade of the nineteenth century to Carlisle's closing in 1918, and primarily consist of letters to administrators, responses to questionnaires, and pieces written for the school's newspapers. As Krupat notes, this archive represents only a fraction of the students who attended Carlisle—namely, those who seemingly felt positive enough about the school to carry on communication with its representatives. The texts express, in fact, a generally (and often markedly) positive view of the institution, and are identified as conforming, for the most part, to a "comic" literary structure, with the majority of former students "telling stories that, all in all, come to a moderately happy ending" (xix). With this selection bias kept in mind, Krupat explains how these writings can contribute to a fuller understanding of the role played by boarding schools in Native American lives: "There is no doubt that the schools caused pain and suffering that often lasted generations; some of their ill effects linger today. But the full story, so far as one can grasp it, is one not only of suffering and pain, loss, defeat, and abjection, but also of what Gerald Vizenor has termed Native survivance. It is a story not only of victim-subjects but of ingenious agents, a narrative not only of suffering but of creative syntheses and adaptive actions" (xvii). [End Page 349] Though the extant material Krupat has to work with is regrettably limited, his selected texts and commentary do indeed grant compelling insights into the experiences of some Carlisle students and their reactions to the world they confronted after leaving the school. We hear suggestive evidence, for instance, of the intensity of debates within Indian communities about the value of (and threats posed by) a Western education, along with the tensions felt by those who attempted to balance their new learning with traditional lifeways. At times we read of conflicts with conservative tribal authorities, and at others of a seemingly harmonious combination of cultural practices, as in a letter sent to the school's superintendent by a man named F. H. Miller from Acoma Pueblo, who reports on his successes as a potato farmer. Krupat observes here "the wonderful conjunction … of tradition and modernity in the field, where we have Miller spreading the odorless phosphate he had learned to use from Carlisle's agricultural program, and also singing songs that his Acoma people sung for generations 'so the crops will be pleased with it'" (64). Several texts speak to the diverse ways Carlisle's students negotiated the school's legacy in their own lives as they sought to leverage their education into successful careers. One striking example comes from Luther Standing Bear, by far the most well-known of the correspondents included in the book, who in a response to a questionnaire pointedly insists that, in spite of the school's opposition to Buffalo Bill shows, he has learned something of worth from performing in them. His stance models, as Krupat points out, how some correspondents expressed their gratitude to Carlisle while still affirming their intellectual independence. In letters sent to the school by Dr. Caleb Sickles, a Wisconsin Oneida who became a prosperous dentist, we find another intriguing reaction—a de facto rejection of Indigenous identity as a way of evading mainstream racial prejudices and the barriers they presented to professional advancement. Overall, the book helps illuminate former students' views on a panorama of contemporary topics, including the advancement...

The Passover as inauguration of Israel’s departure from Sinai: interpretive potential of analysing narrative technique for discerning literary structure in Numbers 1–10

Providing a rationale for the composition of Numbers 1–10 continues to pose a formidable challenge to Old Testament scholarship. Most studies in Numbers seek to discern its structure by connecting keywords to concepts, moving immediately from a basic verbal to a high conceptual level of literary structure. With attention to narrative technique, the present study analyses an intermediate level by investigating the demarcation of direct speech, recurring chronological indicators and the dynamic between law and narrative. Accordingly, correspondence of patterns on different levels of literary structure suggests a main break in Numbers 1–10. The Passover command in Numbers 9 inaugurates Israel’s departure from Sinai. The calling and dedication of the Levites in Numbers 3 and 8 form an inclusion of direct divine speeches consisting of four triads around a central command to purify the camp. These observations offer a coherent interpretation of the included legal materials.

The Shadow of the Genocide in Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game - Compared with the Pacifism of Mormonism -

본 논문은 세계적으로 유명한 소설가이자 경건한 몰몬교도인 오슨 스콧 카드의 SF소설『엔더의 게임』에 나타난 몰몬교의 평화주의를 분석하는 것을 목적으로 한다. 소설의 주인공인 앤드류 “엔더” 위긴은 “셋째”로 태어나는데, 이는 그가 전 지구적으로 시행 중인 두 자녀 정책에 의해 예외적이고 불법적인 아이라는 것을 의미한다. 그는 전쟁학교에서 하이럼 그라프 대령에 의해 숙련된 군사 장교로 훈련을 받고 “버거”라고 불리는 절지류 외계종족의 임박한 침략을 방어하는 임무를 맡는다. 소설에 등장하는 여섯 살 소년 엔더는『몰몬경』의 용맹한 전사들을 모델로 하여 몰몬교의 신학이 소위 ‘아이의 컬트’ 시대 동안 아이를 ‘타블라 라사’로 보는 관점의 영향을 많이 받았음을 보여준다. 몰몬교의 의식과 역사 또한 카드에게 영감을 주었는데, 특히 카드가 쓴 최고의 소설로 꼽히는『엔더의 게임』은 과거 두 차례 지구를 공습한 외계종족을 학살하는 장면이 등장한다. 소설은 엔더가 고도로 지능적인 외계인을 파괴했다는 죄책감에 시달리는 장면으로 끝나고, 그 죄책감은 카드의 후속 작품에서 고스란히 드러난다. 초기 몰몬교도들이 박해와 마운틴 메도우즈 대학살에 맞서 싸운 전투는 소설 속 엔더의 경험과 비슷한 것으로 보인다. 나아가 본 논문은 카드의 소설 ꠓ엔더의 게임ꠗ이 몰몬교의 비폭력 평화주의를 재조명하고 문학 구조와 형식을 통해 과거 역사의 참회자 역할을 한다는 것을 보여준다.The purpose of this paper is to analyze the pacifism of Mormonism in a world-famous novelist and devout Mormon Orson Scott Card’s science fiction novel Ender’s Game, The novel’s main character, Andrew ‘Ender’ Wiggin, is born ‘the third,’ which means he is an exceptional and illegal child by the two-child policy in place worldwide. He is trained as a skilled military officer by Colonel Hiram Graff at a Battle School and is tasked with defending the impending invasion of an arthropod alien species called ‘Buggers.’ A six-year-old boy in the novel, Ender, modeled after the valiant warriors in the Book of Mormon, shows that Mormon theology was greatly influenced by the view of children as tabula rasa during the so-called ‘Cult of Child’ era. Ender’s Game shows the massacre of alien races who have attacked Earth twice in the past. The battles that early Mormons fought against persecution and the Mountain Meadows Massacre seem to parallel Ender’s experience in the novel. Furthermore, this paper shows that Ender’s Game sheds light on Mormonism’s non-violence pacifism and serves as a penitentiary of past history through the unique literary structure and form.

An Analysis of the Relationship between Shenxian Daohua Ju and Daoism of the Yuan Dynasty

The Shenxian daohua ju of the Yuan dynasty closely relates to Daoism. However, the essence and boundary of these two concepts have not been clearly defined and delineated in the existing research, which leads to confusion in analyzing their relationship. This article provides methodologies for defining Shenxian daohua ju and Daoism. Based on the extant Yuan zaju texts and confined to the themes of seclusion, deliverance, and ascending to immortality, we enumerate the particular dramatic texts of Shenxian daohua ju. Then, we limit the objects of the concept of Daoism to specific Daoist sects in history and highlight that the criteria for determining whether a Shenxian Dao (Celestial Being Sect) belongs to Daoism are provided by the officially recognized Daozang (Daoist canon). According to the above understanding of these two concepts, we explore their relationship from the following perspectives. First, in terms of composition subjects, these include the frustrated Confucian literati, the vassal Kings, and the imperial literati; the Shenxian daohua ju written by frustrated literati in the Yuan dynasty is not the embodiment of Daoist doctrines as some of the researchers conclude. Second, in light of the “aesthetic distinction”, we can also take Shenxian daohua ju as pure literary works and interpret these dramas from their literary structures and rhythmical forms. Third, from the perspective of the literary tradition, although with the adoption of Daoist themes, the Shenxian daohua ju of the Yuan dynasty still belongs to the Confucian poetic tradition. Its negation of secular life and advocacy of the ideal world follow the Confucian poetic teachings of “criticizing those above”. Objectively speaking, due to the influence of Daoism, the Shenxian daohua ju with the Daoist themes breaks through the taboo topics prescribed in Confucian literary principles to a certain extent and enriches Chinese literature.

Mimetic theory and cinema: desire and hate in Little Children

Bu çalışmada, yönetmenliğini Todd Field’ın üstlendiği Tutku Oyunları (2006) filminin Girardcı bir analizi yapılacaktır. Tom Perrotta’nın Little Children isimli kitabından uyarlanan film, Amerikan taşrasında yaşayan bir grup insanın arzu ve nefret dinamiklerini konu alır. Tutku Oyunları, arzunun ve nefretin taklitçi doğasını göstermesi bakımından edebiyat kuramcısı René Girard’ın romansal yapıt kavramı bağlamında incelenmeye elverişli bir anlatıdır. Girard, Romantik Yalan ve Romansal Hakikat: Edebi Yapıda Ben ve Öteki adlı eserinde arzuyu ve özneyi yücelten romantik yapıt ile arzunun mimetik yapısını görünür kılan romansal yapıt arasında bir karşıtlık kurar. Girard’ın teorisine göre romansal yapıtlar, teorisyenin üçgen arzu olarak isimlendirdiği model üzerinden arzunun dolayımlılığını görünür kılmaktadır. Tutku Oyunları filmi de merkezine aldığı karakterlerin arzularındaki mimetik yapıyı deşifre etmesi bakımından romansal bir yapıttır. Çalışmanın amacı Girard’ın teorisini sinema çalışmaları açısından bir imkân olarak değerlendirdikten sonra Tutku Oyunları filmindeki arzunun mimetik yapısını metin analizi yöntemi ile incelemektir. Bu çalışma sadece bir film analizi uygulaması olmanın ötesinde filmi günümüz kültürüne dair bir yorum olarak anlayan teorik bir mahiyet de taşır. Girard’ın romanlar üzerinden yaptığı hem kültürü analiz etme hem de kültüre dair teorik bir bakış geliştirme çabasına benzer şekilde bu çalışma da sinemayı hem analiz etmeyi hem de sinema üzerinden günümüzün kültürüne dair bir yorum getirmeyi amaçlamaktadır.

Papyrus Amherst 63: Shifting between the Heavenly and Earthly Spheres

Van der Toorn’s 2018 edition of Papyrus Amherst 63 paved the way for a fresh examination of this difficult Demotic–Aramaic text. This article first examines the literary structure of the text and suggests a revised internal arrangement of its constituents, in particular those of Section IV. The revised arrangement serves as the basis for the ensuing discussion. The article discusses the designation ‘Rash’, a term that is key for an understanding of the many episodes related in the papyrus, and suggests that it designated the heavenly abode of the gods, from where they operated in heaven and earth. It then examines the few references to the earthly seats of the gods, and in particular passage viii 1–7a, which relates the heavenly or earthly realms of the gods and their seats in the sanctuaries. The final part of the article examines the way the author of Section II tried to resolve the theological problem of the impotence of god in the face of defeats, destructions and deportations. The author explains god’s silence by his slumber in his heavenly abode. Surprisingly, the theological solution of sin and punishment is absent from the papyrus, in contrast to its frequent appearance in many ancient Near Eastern texts and, above all, in the biblical literature.

The Book of Acts as Story: A Narrative-Critical Study by David R. Bauer

Reviewed by: The Book of Acts as Story: A Narrative-Critical Study by David R. Bauer Christine H. Aarflot david r. bauer, The Book of Acts as Story: A Narrative-Critical Study (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021). Pp. xii + 284. Paper $32.99. In The Book of Acts as Story, David R. Bauer offers a narrative-critical reading of the Acts of the Apostles. In chap. 1, B. explores some of the foundational questions related to treating Acts as story and, in chap. 2, discusses central aspects of narrative criticism and their uses in reading Acts. Chapter 3 proposes a literary structure for reading Acts, and chaps. 4–7 offer a narrative-critical reading of Acts based on the literary structure and understanding of the plot presented in the previous two chapters. In chap. 1, B. discusses the relationship between Acts and the Gospel of Luke and raises the question of genre. He concludes, and rightly so in my opinion, that Acts "has its own message to convey, but on the other hand cannot be fully or even adequately understood without reference to the Gospel" (p. 7). B. brings this insight to his reading of Acts in chaps. 4–7. In terms of genre, B. follows the larger consensus of scholarship on Acts and treats the book as ancient historiography. Chapter 2 introduces narrative criticism as B.'s method for reading Acts, spending time particularly on the plot of Acts. This he considers to be made up of the way the events of the narrative are organized to form a story, and the conflicts the story revolves around (p. 15). Accordingly, B. does not follow contemporary literary research; he concentrates more on plot as the story's effect on the readers and their encounter with the questions raised by the story. Hence, I was left with the question, What would the plot have looked like according to B. if the questions Acts raises through its narrative had been in focus? In chap. 3, B. looks at the literary structure of Acts as reflected by the programmatic statement by Jesus in Acts 1:8: the movement of witness from Jerusalem to Samaria to the end of the earth. B. also discusses the roles of the ascended Jesus and the Holy Spirit in guiding and empowering the apostles' witness, the repetition of important events and themes, summary statements, and role of the speeches. In chaps. 4–7, B. takes us through Acts read as story. He pays due attention to the importance of Acts' beginning for the development of the rest of the story (chap. 4: Acts 1:1–26), spends some time with the apostles in Jerusalem (chap. 5: Acts 2:1–8:1a), traces the witness through Judea and Samaria to Antioch (chap. 6: Acts 8:1b–12:25), and finally follows Paul on his travels, through his arrest and on his way to trial in Rome (chap. 7: Acts 13:1–28:31). Throughout, B. remains true to his narrative-critical aim and espouses a clear understanding of how the different events are connected to bring forth Acts' witness to Christ. To read Acts as a story is a rewarding venture, but it is not without its dangers. In chap. 2, B. presents one of the central issues of Acts as a conflict "between the Church and [End Page 494] its Jewish opponents" (p. 23; cf. p. 18). It is certainly true that the apostles face opposition from Jews throughout Acts and that they often appear as an antagonistic character group. However, both historical and literary elements remind us that it is not unproblematic to distinguish between "the Church" and "the Jews" in this way. Because B.'s target audience consists of undergraduates, seminary students, pastors, and laypersons (p. 3), the history of anti-Semitism in the church warrants a particular reminder that Jesus's apostles were Jews. To be fair, B. does use the term "Jewish Christians" at times and therefore shows awareness of this, but this nuance is missing in his treatment of the plot. Moreover, on literary grounds, presenting "the Jews" as an antagonistic character group risks downplaying the fact that the apostles throughout their speeches...

J. Paul Tanner. Daniel, Evangelical Exegetical Commentary

J. Paul Tanner. <i>Daniel, Evangelical Exegetical Commentary</i>

Thomas R. Schreiner. Hebrews

Thomas R. Schreiner. <i>Hebrews</i>

CERITA RAKYAT “SI LANCANG” DARI INDONESIA, DENGAN CERITA RAKYAT “NAHKODA MANIS” DARI BRUNEI, DAN CERITA RAKYAT “SI TANGGANG” DARI MALAYSIA; SEBUAH KAJIAN STRUKTURAL SASTRA BANDINGAN

Mother's love doesn't matter, for the sake of her child she is willing to do anything. Including to support the decision of the child who wants to migrate to improve the family economy. A child who went abroad became successful because of his business outside the city and then forgot his mother who was alone at home praying for her child's safety. Although this story has often been heard by the people of Indonesia, it is about a child who disobeys his mother. However, it turns out that this theme is not only found in Indonesia. There are several folk tales with the same theme from various countries, such as Malaysia and Brunei. This is interesting to study because the three folklores are located in different areas with different socio-cultural and economic backgrounds, but have similarities or parallels in story motifs. This study aims to determine the similarities and differences between the folklore "Si Lancang" from Riau, Indonesia, with the story "Nakhoda Manis" from Brunei, and the folktale "Si Tanggang" from Malaysia. The study used in this research is a comparative literary structure study. This study uses a comparative description method. Through comparative literary structural studies, it can be said that these folk tales have similarities in structures such as themes and messages. There are also differences in characters, characteristics, plots, and folklore backgrounds. Keywords: Comparison, structural, folklore.

Witnessing the Uninhabitable Place: On the Experience and Testimony of Refugees

Abstract Symptomatic of the crisis of the current global political order are the millions of displaced that have fled their homes but are not allowed to enter the country in which they seek refuge. Instead, they are placed in camps. To understand the site of the camp and the bare life it produces, testimonies of refugees are indispensable. This essay aims to examine and listen to these testimonies by, first, introducing the notion of testimony and some of the characteristics of the testimony of refugees; second, examining what it means to listen to testimony and which role is played therein by the narrative, literary structure of testimony; and, third, by interpreting the form of life to which the testimonies of the camp attest, which several witnesses describe as a life in “limbo.” This essay concludes with some brief remarks on the relation between experience, truth, and language in testimony.

AN ANALYSIS ON AZERBAIJANI THEATER IN THE SOVIET PERIOD

Bu çalışmada, Sovyet dönemi Azerbaycan tiyatrosunun gelişim süreci ele alınmaktadır. Azerbaycan tiyatrosunun öncü isimlerinden Mirza Fetali Ahundzade’nin temellerini atmış olduğu modern tiyatro, Sovyet döneminde, maarifçi realizm, tenkidi realizm ve romantizm edebi akımlarının yanı sıra sosyalist gerçekçilik edebi anlayışı etrafında gelişim göstermeye başlamıştır. Bu bağlamda, zamanla sosyalist gerçekçilik edebi akımının edebiyat ve sanatta daha etkin rol oynamasıyla başkalaşan edebi yapı, egemen gücün ön gördüğü şekilde ilerlemiştir. Sovyet hükümeti, Proleter Yazarlar Birliğine bağlı denetleme kurulunun belirlediği kuralların dışına çıkan yazarları sürgün ederek veya kurşuna dizerek cezalandırmış, uygulanan sıkıyönetim nedeniyle, özellikle 1930’lardan itibaren sanatçıların bir kısmı inanarak bir kısmı ise zorla, sınırlarını Komünist Partinin çizmiş olduğu sosyalist gerçekçilik edebi anlayışına ayak uydurmuşlardır. Sanatçılar üzerindeki bu baskı, Stalin’in ölümünden bir müddet sonra azalmaya başlamış; sanat hayatında meydana gelen kısmi özgür ortam, yazarların nispeten görüşleri doğrultusunda eserler vermelerine olanak sağlamış ve Azerbaycan’ın bağımsızlığına kadar devam eden bu özgürleşme mücadeleleri sonucunda nitelik bakımından kıymetli eserler ortaya çıkmıştır.

Mimesis, Desire, and the Novel: René Girard and Literary Criticism ed. by Pierpaolo Antonello and Heather Webb

Reviewed by: Mimesis, Desire, and the Novel: René Girard and Literary Criticism ed. by Pierpaolo Antonello and Heather Webb Ben P. Robertson (bio) Pierpaolo Antonello and Heather Webb, eds. Mimesis, Desire, and the Novel: René Girard and Literary Criticism. Michigan State University Press, 2015. ISBN: 978-1-61-186165-5, 358 pages, $29.95 (cloth). A few years ago, Michigan State University Press published Mimesis, Desire, and the Novel: René Girard and Literary Criticism, edited by Pierpaolo Antonello and Heather Webb, as part of the Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture Series by William A. Johnsen. The volume represents the culmination of a series of four conferences held in 2011 to mark the fiftieth publication anniversary of René Girard's 1961 book, Mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque, translated as Deceit, Desire, and the Novel: Self and Others in Literary Structures by Yvonne Freccero in 1965. Published in 2015, the present volume also celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Freccero's English translation, which coincidentally corresponded with the year of Girard's death. The collection includes eighteen densely written essays in two parts. The first five compose a section titled Theoretical Considerations, while the remaining thirteen form a section called Mimetic Hermeneutics in History. Additionally, in an appendix, the book reprints "Literature and Christianity: A Personal View" by Girard himself, and the book begins with a lengthy introduction that opens the book's attempt at a reassessment of Girard's mimetic theory. Although the editors assert that their introduction is not meant to "provide a summary or overview of Girard's theory," the introduction does, nevertheless, focus on some of the theory's main points, particularly the concepts of triangular desire and scapegoating (x). As a result, even readers who are unfamiliar with Girard's theory should find the introduction enlightening, perhaps as a starting point for more in-depth study after first reading Deceit, Desire, and the Novel. The introduction expertly weaves together a complex narrative that places this volume's essays in conversation with other major critical pronouncements on [End Page 166] mimetic theory, openly acknowledging some of the theory's limitations and suggesting important avenues for further analysis. With the section called Theoretical Considerations, the editors provide readers with a series of five essays that examine the workings of Girard's mimetic theory more closely. Maria DiBattista's "Jealousy and Novelistic Knowledge" explores the ramifications of novelistic jealousy as having a "preeminent and ultimately fateful place" in Girard's thinking that is not always negative (3). Relying on Girard's concept of triangular desire, she asserts that "[j]ealous desire activates a quest whose goal is not complete possession, but total knowledge of the beloved" (7). Furthermore, she points out in her concluding paragraphs that "jealousy may actually, surprisingly, and actively assist in the birth of the social instincts, in which the life of others becomes increasingly entwined with our sense of our own existence" (14). Following DiBattista's insightful analysis, Alessia Ricciardi's contribution, "Desiring Proust: Girard against Deleuze," suggests that readings of triangular desire in the works of Proust can be interpreted along "a continuum in which Gilles Deleuze and René Girard can be said to occupy opposite poles" (17). From Ricciardi's point of view, both critics' ideas can offer useful insights into Proust's novels, although Proust himself becomes the "winner of their imaginary contest" (34). In "Within and Beyond Mimetic Desire," Luca Di Blasi explores the ramifications of authentic versus mimetic desire in Girard's terms. In so doing, Di Blasi detects a sense of elitism in Girard's theoretical approach that represents a significant limitation in Girardian thought. The next contribution, "On Girard's Biblical Realism," by Karen S. Feldman, suggests that "René Girard's studies of scapegoating, ritual, and sacrifice claim that Judeo-Christian Scripture demystifies, or reveals to us fully, the violent foundations of human institutions and the centrality of victimage in our history, psychology, and social organization" (55). Feldman argues that Girard's point of view in terms of biblical interpretation is not as fully nuanced as it needs to be. Finally, in "Creative Renunciation: The Spiritual Heart of Deceit, Desire, and the Novel," Wolfgang Palaver examines Girard's...

Ishbāʿ al-maʿnā in the Qur’an: A Structural Survey of Sūrat al-Ḥāqqa (Q. 69)

This article seeks to define the meaning of the technical linguistic term ‘ ishbāʿ al-maʿnā’ (‘enhancing the meaning’) and explore how this device helps clarify the linguistic structure of Sūrat al-Ḥāqqa (Q. 69). The Qur’anic text, held to transcend time and space, utilises literary styles and lexical structures to convey its meaning across a diverse range of contexts. In this article the author analyses a selection of verses, all of which are characterised by the presence of ishbāʿ al-maʿnā. Sūrat al-Hāqqa offers a good sample of this category of verses. The primary research question will be approached via four enquiries and ten investigative points that offer both description and analysis of the occurrence of ishbāʿ al-maʿnā within Sūrat al-Ḥāqqa and the role linguistics plays in this phenomenon throughout the sura, which focuses primarily on the Day of Judgement.

Elements of Biblical Exegesis: A Basic Guide for Students and Ministers

Elements of Biblical Exegesis: A Basic Guide for Students and Ministers