Prophetic Language Research Articles

Peake’s Palette

Mervyn Peake’s 1947 novel Titus Groan continually defies genre recognition. Scholar Farah Mendlesohn, however, places it decisively in the category of immersive fantasy. Building on Mendlesohn’s categorization, I further illustrate Peake’s mastery of immersive fantasy in Titus Groan by analysing a symbol imbedded in the text: a green light. This article reaches across media to frame Peake’s descriptive strategies in the context of his role as a visual artist, particularly in his use of abstracted imagery to depict a collective mental and emotional experience between his characters. This, paired with prophetic language surrounding the green light, gestures to the presence of spiritual forces in Peake’s fictional world. I begin by outlining the art historical context in which Peake worked, concentrating on the philosophies of Peake’s artistic contemporaries and the connections between abstract art and notions of universal spiritual forces. I then closely analyse the green light in Titus Groan, linking Peake’s descriptive mode to these philosophies. Finally, I explore narrative evidence for connecting these abstract descriptions of the green light to a spiritual agent at work in the novel—an assertion which heightens an understanding of Peake’s meticulous worldbuilding. Pulling from fantasy scholarship, art historical writings, and inter-artistic theory, this cross-media study argues that Titus Groan, in addition to its oft-viewed physical setting and vibrant characters, houses an observable spiritual plane—into which the green light provides an entry point for the reader. The first study to identify Titus Groan’s green light as a repeated and significant symbol, this article bolsters an understanding of Peake as an immersive fantasy worldbuilder by focusing on the first book of the Gormenghast trilogy. With its narrow focus on Titus Groan and the symbol of the green light, this article alerts scholars to the existence of Peake’s unobserved worldbuilding exertions and forms a basis for further study of the trilogy.

Magic and Spells in <em>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</em> (1997-2003)

Magic and Spells in <em>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</em> (1997-2003)

THE PROPHET AND POETRY: Theoretical Problems of Islamic Prophetic Texts

In a semiotic framework, hadith literature can be read as a prophetic text. With this perspective, hadith literature is no longer functional solely in the structure of Islamic legal sources, but more broadly as a language and discourse for the prophetic teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, which in its nature is intended “for all creatures” (li-l-‘ālamīn). This research then tries to reveal how Islamic prophetic language unit is formed in a whole prophetic text discourse. To take Halliday’s approach, a language unit can create its own language environment. Thus, hadith literature, as a medium for the functioning of a particular language unit, can create its own language environment, which is the prophetic language environment. A prophetic language, of course, will only be meaningful in its own ecosocial environment and can also become what is called “antilanguage” for different contexts. Yet, in fact, some hadith literatures show the presence of poetic texts in them. These poetic texts take the form of classical Arabic poetry from the pre-Islamic tradition which, if we refer to Quran 36:69, would be considered incompatible with prophethood. By unraveling the intertwining of these texts, this study seeks to show how the situation of intertextuality can pave the way for a new reading of Islamic prophetic texts. Poetic texts, in this case, may constitute a functional element that makes an important contribution in establishing Islamic prophetic discourse.

THE PROPHET AND POETRY: Theoretical Problems of Islamic Prophetic Texts

In a semiotic framework, hadith literature can be read as a prophetic text. With this perspective, hadith literature is no longer functional solely in the structure of Islamic legal sources, but more broadly as a language and discourse for the prophetic teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, which in its nature is intended “for all creatures” (li-l-‘ālamīn). This research then tries to reveal how Islamic prophetic language unit is formed in a whole prophetic text discourse. To take Halliday’s approach, a language unit can create its own language environment. Thus, hadith literature, as a medium for the functioning of a particular language unit, can create its own language environment, which is the prophetic language environment. A prophetic language, of course, will only be meaningful in its own ecosocial environment and can also become what is called “antilanguage” for different contexts. Yet, in fact, some hadith literatures show the presence of poetic texts in them. These poetic texts take the form of classical Arabic poetry from the pre-Islamic tradition which, if we refer to Quran 36:69, would be considered incompatible with prophethood. By unraveling the intertwining of these texts, this study seeks to show how the situation of intertextuality can pave the way for a new reading of Islamic prophetic texts. Poetic texts, in this case, may constitute a functional element that makes an important contribution in establishing Islamic prophetic discourse.

Apocalyptic Style and Prophetic Diction

Abstract This short essay makes inquiries and observations about how Norman O. Brown understands the confluence of poetry and prophecy, especially concerning the sorts of language he associates with “prophetic” poetry. Specifically, the essay attempts to identify more clearly the particular features of the diction of prophetic poetry, as Brown conceives it, and how it relates to the expressive substance of his own diction in the innovative critical texts he produced. The diction of Brown's own “prophetic” texts can be at once libertine and bossy, silly and imposing, initiatory and constraining. The alternation in Brown's texts between didactic assertion, libertine refrains, and borrowed scraps of obscure patois, embodies the violent oscillation of prophetic language, as Brown conceives it, which veers between elevated and vernacular registers of language.

A Black Manifesto: Ottobah Cugoano's Radical Romanticism

This essay engages with the prophetic language of Black British abolitionist Quobna Ottobah Cugoano (1757–c. 1801) as he condemns the humanitarian abuses of the transatlantic slave trade. By examining the abolitionist polemic Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species (1787), I assert that Cugoano's radical rejection of racial categories models a new way for British Romanticism to account for the broader contribution of Black writers beyond the limits of slavery. By invoking the genealogical theory of monogenesis, Cugoano normalizes Black identity as an expression of shared universal humanity.

A Moor of Granada: Prophecies as political instruments in the entangled histories of Spain, Portugal, and the Middle East 16th-18th centuries

This paper argues that the hitherto unknown Portuguese “Profesias dadas por um Mouro de Granada” (Prophecies given by a Moor of Granada) (copied 18th c.) should be seen as an example of messianic-political prophetic imagination in early modern Portugal and Spain. Our discussion will focus on the political uses of Sebastianism in Portugal and on the various ways in which prophetic language became entangled with broader prophetic discourses in the Iberian territories that resulted from centuries of Christian military and religious struggle with Islam and Muslims.

How to become animal through writing: the case of the bear

ABSTRACTAnimals are present in many corners of our consciousness and can help us in the creative process of writing. It is in the writing, and especially writing on the edge of ignorance, that knowledge of a new kind is produced. In this process, animals have a specific power of attraction, like many famous novels have shown. Taking a close look at the concept of becoming-animal that is in itself embedded in these authors’ poetic and nearly prophetic language, animal writing is seen as an extension of dirty, interruptive or feminine writing. The French novel La peau de l’ours – The bear's skin illustrates how becoming-animal operates in fiction writing, producing a strong effect both on writer and reader. Animal writing is a molecular encounter with the wild animals that live in us and as such it is also an upheaval of the self.

The Difficulty of Reading Allen Ginsberg's "Kaddish" Suspiciously

The difficulty of reading Allen Ginsberg’s poetry is a recurring theme in criticism of his work and that of other post-WWII “Beat Generation” writers. “Even when a concerted effort is made to illuminate [Beat] literature,” laments Nancy M. Grace, “doing so is difficult: the romance of the Beat life threatens to subsume the project” (812). Of course, the Beat life is romantic to the extent that it is romantically regaled. Continual romantic portrayals, such as that of Ginsberg in the recent movie Howl (2010), rekindle the Beat romance for new audiences with chicken-and-egg circularity. I explore this difficulty of reading Ginsberg that Grace and other critics identify by articulating it with respect to "Kaddish"—“Ginsberg’s most highly praised and his least typical poem” (Perloff 213)—as a difficulty of interpreting Ginsberg suspiciously. Philosopher Paul Ricoeur’s theories of interpretation—or “hermeneutics”—provide the theoretical foundation here. Ricoeur distinguishes between a romantic or “restorative” mode of interpretation, where meaning is reverently reconciled to a text assumed to be trustworthy, and a “suspicious” approach, where meaning is aggressively extrapolated from a text held as unreliable. In order to bring these theories to bear on "Kaddish" and its criticism, I draw on Rita Felski’s pioneering work in relating Ricoeur’s concept of “suspicious reading” to the field of literature. Is it possible to read "Kaddish" suspiciously? Or is there nothing left for suspicious readers to expose in texts such as "Kaddish" that are already self-exposing?

The Promise and Peril of Prophetic Language: An Assessment of O'Brien's Middle Course

The Promise and Peril of Prophetic Language: An Assessment of O'Brien's Middle Course

Turban and Crown Lost and Regained: Ezekiel 21:29-32 and Zechariah's Zemah

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.) The visions and prophecies recorded in the book of Zechariah have long puzzled scholars.1 Among the more challenging ones are the prophetic sign-acts connected to the appearance of ... in Zechariah 3 and 6:9-15. Who is this enigmatic figure? What is his relationship to Joshua and the priesthood? In this essay, I will first offer brief summary of earlier attempts to answer these questions and then proceed to suggest new interpretation of the data. I will argue that, among other texts, Ezpk 21 -.29-32 (Eng. 21:24-27) presents us with an interpretative key to these two passages from Zechariah. I. PAST INTERPRETATION As is the case with most exegetical puzzles, there are number of variations also among the solutions offered to the puzzle of ... (hereafter Zemah),2 Joshua, and Zerubbabel (who appears only in Zechariah 4). However, it is nevertheless possible to identify majority view.3 According to this view, Zechariah 3 and 6 envisage form of diarchy, shared rule of the high priest and Davidic king, and these chapters thus testify to the rise of the Zadokite priesthood as political power in the postexilic Jewish community.4 As for Zemah, the original oracles referred to Zerubbabel-or even Joshua-instead, but for one reason or another, this was changed in the process of redaction. This traditional reading of the data has recently been challenged by more than one interpreter. A major contribution has been offered by Wolter H. Rose, whose monograph focuses on Zemah and Zerubbabel.5 Some of his main conclusions are as follows:6 (1) Zemah is future messianic figure and not to be identified with Zerubbabel (or Joshua); (2) attempts to consider parts of the oracles in ch. 3 and 6:9-15 as secondary may appear to solve some problems but are based on dubious grounds;7 (3) although the high priests influence in the temple is expanding (ch. 3) and he may possibly function as counselor to the coming ruler (ch. 6), there is no evidence in the book of Zechariah for diarchy or the emergence of the priesthood as political power. Another nontraditional reading has been proposed by Mark J. Boda, who agrees with Rose on most issues but sees Zechariah as emphasizing the continuing influence of prophetic and royal streams in texts traditionally interpreted as promoting the extension of priestly prerogatives.8 According to Boda, Zechariah has been influenced by-and clearly alludes to-the Jeremianic tradition of enduring but separate royal and priestly lines.9 Zechariah's agenda vis-a-vis the leadership is thus to restrain priestly aspirations rather than endorse them as has been argued in the past.10 It is beyond the scope of this essay to offer detailed response to these three readings, but I will interact with them where appropriate. My own interpretation follows in many ways the freshly beaten path of Rose and Boda, yet departs from it at certain key points.11 II. A NEW PROPOSAL Zechariah's wide knowledge and use of earlier books and traditions is well known.12 Indeed, many details and motifs of Zechariah can be fully appreciated only when seen in light of their treatment by earlier prophets, and the present pericopae are no exceptions. While this is not the occasion for an extended survey of Zechariah's employment of existing traditions, couple of comments are nevertheless appropriate, given the topic of the essay. First, the very opening word of Yahweh (1:1) coming to Zechariah refers three times (w. 4-6) to the earlier prophets and their words.13 These (and later references, 7:7,12) suggest both Zechariah's familiarity with earlier prophetic traditions and their importance to the interpretation of his own message. As Michael Fishbane has noted, a learned preoccupation with older prophetic language is characteristic of late biblical prophecy, and Zechariah is no exception.14 Second, while some of Zechariah's prophetic language is clearly stereotypical and it is possible to discern simple and echoes in the text, there are also allusions that evoke specific earlier text or tradition that can shed light on the text containing the allusion. …

Prophetic Language and Etymological Discovery in the Work of Richard Verstegan

Prophetic Language and Etymological Discovery in the Work of Richard Verstegan

Glass Houses: Surrey, Petrarch, and the Religious Poetics of the ‘London’ Invective

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey responded to his incarceration in 1543 for Lenten misrule with an invective against London. This article traces how the division of critical opinion over this poem is related to its rhetorical instability, especially where Surrey's perceived religious convictions have been sought or supplied. However, Surrey's related poetics of elegy, complaint and ostensible confession, tend towards an entrenched isolation of lament reflecting a conflict between the genealogies of dynastic and literary authority. Reformers were ever distrustful of the son of the Duke of Norfolk, yet Surrey's purposeful literary association with Wyatt alienated him from conservatives. His London poem—part satirical, part apocalyptic—manifests his profoundly unresolved nature, one that finally rendered him a political liability. Furthermore it asks important questions of how religious commitments are to be understood from such writing. Those who find an evangelical Surrey in his poetry appeal to his use of fervent prophetic language. The mediation of these biblical voices by Petrarch's Rime sparse has previously ignored the commentary Vellutello included in the edition that was perhaps the most influential at the Henrician court. This commentary is shown to complicate our understanding of Petrarch's moral and anti-curial, rather than proto-evangelical, exemplarity, to show the arch-humanist occupying the same ambiguous terrain of the early Reformation as the poet earl.

Love and Violence: Marriage as Metaphor for the Relationship between YHWH and Israel in the Prophetic Books (review)

Hebrew Studies 46 (2005) 407 Reviews Shared by the Tetrateuch and the DtrH” (pp. 101–102), a Bibliography (pp. 103–114), and an Index of References (pp. 115–127). The strengths of this study could have been enhanced by more discussion of the nature of the intertextuality Harvey describes. For example, when he says that “Dtr based the Manoah story of Judg. 13 on Genesis 18” (pp. 38– 39), would he describe this relationship as typology, allegory, or something else? Or, would he avoid such compartmentalization? Some may find his psychologizing of Dtr’s “Torah Consciousness” (Chapter 3) to require more controllable defining. Overall, however, Harvey is to be commended for the remarkable clarity with which he writes and explains complex intertextual relationships. It makes this work both accessible to a wide readership while a challenge to the status quo of scholarly opinion on the issues it addresses. The impression with which a reader is left is that the intertextuality he presents is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Harvey’s work opens the door for even more comprehensive treatment of this topic to illuminate our understanding of the history and unity of the Tetrateuch, its use in subsequent texts, and what that reveals about various biblical authors’ views of historiography. Daniel M. Gurtner Tyndale House Cambridge, England dgurtner@yahoo.com LOVE AND VIOLENCE: MARRIAGE AS METAPHOR FOR THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YHWH AND ISRAEL IN THE PROPHETIC BOOKS. By Gerlinde Baumann. Translated by Linda M. Maloney. Pp. xii + 271. Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 2003. Paper, $39.95. This book sets out to explore and assess the marriage metaphor in the prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible. It is the most comprehensive, though not necessarily most original treatment of this topic, as it discusses texts from Hosea to the Twelve Prophets, rather than select texts. The book differs from previous scholarship in its attempt to consider this metaphor in the context of ancient Near Eastern law codes, and in its attempt to balance critical observations with historical considerations. The book is divided into three uneven parts related to research background, textual studies, and a brief summary. The first part of the book begins with an overview of previous scholarship on the marriage metaphor, and an overview on metaphor in literary criticism. Baumann appropriately mentions the earlier feminist studies of T. Drorah Hebrew Studies 46 (2005) 408 Reviews Setel, Phyllis Bird, Fokkelien van Dijk-Hemmes, Athalya Brenner, Renita Weems, and Yvonne Sherwood, who have already raised the issue of male violence as a behavioral norm in heterosexual marriage, and as a conduct attributed to God. While she accepts the basic insights made so far on this topic, Baumann argues correctly that most previous studies have not sufficiently considered the historical context of the ancient Near East. Baumann mentions the work of Max Black and Paul Ricoeur, whose theories of metaphors have done the most to break the automatic correlation between the representing image and the object represented in reality. This overview does not take account of postmodern theories of the metaphoric uses of discourse as such. Nevertheless, Baumann emphasizes that metaphorical language has a precognitive value that shapes emotional and moral responses. In chapter 3, Baumann offers an inventory of prophetic terms used to describe a wife’s unacceptable behavior in marriage, such as harlotry (ZNH) and adultery (N√F). She suggests, rather vaguely, that some of these terms have equivalences in ancient Near Eastern codes. Finally, in chapter 4, Baumann discusses the concept of berit or covenant, which is a legal concept applied metaphorically to describe the marital relationship between YHWH, the husband, and Israel, his wife. In chapter 5, Baumann traces the concept of a city as wife to ancient Near Eastern sources. She also notes parallels between prophetic references to the punishment of a disloyal wife to Babylonian and Nuzi texts regarding the punishments of wives seeking divorce. She cites the comparative work of Raymond Westbrook who found parallels between the stripping and expulsion scenarios in the Prophets and a text from Nippur describing the punishment meted out to an adulterous wife. Baumann cites work by Delbert Hillers to substantiate similar correlations between prophetic language and ancient...

‘Darke Texts Needs Notes’: On Prophetic Prophecy, John Donne and the Baroque

Taking issue with a view of literature as artfully-crafted, smooth discourse, and questioning Romantic and New Critical readings of prophetic language, this article argues that prophetic language is better understood as baroque. I take my cue from Hermann Gunkel’s 1923 essay ‘The Prophets as Writers and Poets’ and argue that there is something about the prophets that is ‘dark’, ‘stammering’, ‘secretive’, ‘shadowy’, ‘bizarre’ and ‘colossal’. Whereas Wisdom literature conceives of words as choice delicacies to be savoured or as soothing ointment, the prophetic word describes itself as fire, metal or sword. Whereas Wisdom has most in common with an Augustan aesthetic of ‘what oft were thought, but ne’er so well expressed’ (Pope), prophetic language has more in common with the strange disjunctive images of an ‘anti-literary’ figure like John Donne. Like Donne’s poetry/sermons, prophecy creates heterogeneous, counter-intuitive linkages and makes itself felt through the skin and through the flesh. What Donne and prophecy have in common is the desire to split and disrupt language—a desire that, in prophecy, represents the speech of God as a mind-bending, wor(l)d-bending force.

A tradition-historical analysis of Psalm 55

A tradition-historical analysis of Psalm 55. The text of Psalm 55 will be remembered for its musical setting by Felix Mendelsohn and others and also for the fact that it is one of the most difficult psalms to analyse. A tradition-historical analysis of the traditions and history of the poem confinns the unique and independent character of the text. The content of the psalm is characterised by vague allusions to well-known salvational and historical traditions as well as the psalm's characteristic fonnulations. Themes from the primeval history and desert wanderings of Israel are identifiable. Moreover, tenninology with a socalled priestly background, reflect the psalm's cultic setting and junction, while a theme from the Zion tradition is also evident. Prophetic language is evident in both legal concepts and tenninology which expresses guilt. Relationships with wisdom texts are also evident. This article is an attempt to identify and detennine the function of the above-mentioned traditionsgeschichtliche themes in order to gain a better understanding of the text.

Enkele tradisie-historiese perspektiewe op Psalm 83

Some tradition historical perspectives on Psalm 83 Psalm 83 forms a poetical unit and is the well constructed poem of an artist. It could be divided into two stanzas which contains a cry for help (2), lament (3-9) and several petitions (10-19). This work reflects different tradition historical allusions. The use of prophetic language is immanent, while the faces of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel are elusively present. Two episodes from the history of the Judges (Judges 4-5; 7-8) are utilised to expose its independent function in this psalm. The occurence of a well known Canaanite tradition is further obvious, while the question into the psalm's apocalyptic relationships is negatively assessed. Single motives like the upliftment of the head (3) and the shepherd/flock image (13) fulfil a definite Junction within the psalm’s context. The poet clearly applied historical traditions, motives and images to express an independent function within its context.

"Thus Saith the Lord": Prophetic Language in Samuel’s Speech

"Thus Saith the Lord": Prophetic Language in Samuel’s Speech

The Temple, the Sepulchre, and the Martyrion of the Savior

This paper examines the ideological relationship of the Holy Sepulchre and the Temple of Jerusalem, as manifest in writings, ceremonies, and architecture. A possible relationship between the form of the Tomb aedicula at the Holy Sepulchre and early representations of the Ark of the Covenant is explored. Related to this, the origin and significance of the term martyrion in reference to the site of the Holy Sepulchre is discussed. The term was apparently derived from the prophetic language of the Septuagint, and thus meant something different from simply a martyr's shrine. Finally, some comments are presented on the interpretation of the symbolic language of architecture.