Rewriting Moses The Narrative Eclipse of the Text

by Britt, Brian

• ISBN13: 9780567080875
• ISBN10: 0567080870
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-02-15
• Publisher: Bloomsbury T&T Clark
• More Book Details
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Summary

Exalted for centuries as a hero and author of the Bible, Moses is inseparable from biblical tradition itself. Yet he is also an inherently ambiguous figure and a perennial focus of controversy, from ancient disputes over leadership and identity to modern issues of class, gender, and race. In Rewriting Moses, Brian Britt analyzes elements of polemic and ideology in the Moses of the Bible, of film, novel, visual art, and scholarship. He argues that the biblical Moses lives within writing, while the post-biblical Moses lives more often in biography. Yet later rewritings of Moses refract biblical traditions of writing in surprising ways. Rewriting Moses provides an original account of the Freudian insight that traditions preserve what they repress.

Author Biography

Brian Britt is Associate Professor and Director of Religious Studies in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia, USA

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Abbreviations	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
The Biblical Moses	p. 5
Moses in Post-Biblical Tradition	p. 7
Contemporary Images of Moses
Subverting the Great Man: Violence and Magic in Moses Fiction	p. 13
Ancient Polemical Roots of the Modern Moses Novels	p. 19
Idealism and the Egyptian Moses	p. 21
Identity and Recognition	p. 23
Stock Endings and Ideology	p. 25
Violence, Magic, and Critique	p. 27
Socialism, Fascism, and Violence: Steffens and Mann	p. 27
Moses and Magic: Hurston	p. 32
Conclusion	p. 39
Double-Moses: Gender and the Sacred in Moses Films	p. 40
Doubling	p. 43
The Ten Commandments (1956)	p. 46
Moon of Israel	p. 52
Prince of Egypt	p. 54
Conclusion	p. 58
Legend and History in Modern Scholarly Portraits of Moses	p. 59
Myth, Legend, and History	p. 62
Julius Wellhausen	p. 64
Hugo Gressmann	p. 68
Martin Noth	p. 71
Gerhard von Rad	p. 73
Martin Buber	p. 77
Conclusion	p. 80
Interlude: Biblical Text, Biblical Tradition
Concealment, Revelation, and Gender: The Veil of Moses in the Bible and in Christian Art	p. 82
The Exodus Episode	p. 84
Post-Biblical Legacy/History of Interpretation	p. 87
Jewish Interpretation	p. 87
Christian Interpretation	p. 88
Images	p. 91
Early Images (Ninth-Twelfth Centuries)	p. 91
Moses and Synagogue	p. 98
Later Images (Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Twentieth Centuries)	p. 103
Images with the Veil Apparently Pulled Back	p. 107
Analysis of Veiled Moses Images	p. 109
Beyond the Veil of Moses: Enlightenment Hermeticism and the Unveiling of Nature	p. 111
Conclusion	p. 114
Uncanny Biblical Texts
Moses' Heavy Mouth: Discourse and Revelation in Exodus 4.10-17	p. 117
Moses' Objection	p. 118
Moses and Aaron	p. 124
Discourse and Revelation	p. 125
The Torah of Moses: Deuteronomy 31-32 as a Textual Memorial	p. 131
The Question of Narrative Chronology	p. 132
The Question of Reference: Torah and Song	p. 137
Redactional Harmonization in 32.44-47?	p. 138
The Question of Genre	p. 139
Literary Concerns	p. 141
Conclusion	p. 143
The Song and the Blessing: Poetic Discourse in Deuteronomy 32-33	p. 144
Parallelism and Biblical Poetry	p. 146
Deuteronomy 32: The Song of Moses	p. 148
Deuteronomy 33: The Blessing of Moses	p. 158
Conclusion	p. 162
The Birth, Death, and Writing of Moses	p. 165
Language, Structure, and Meaning of the Birth Story	p. 166
Language, Structure, and Meaning of the Death Story	p. 168
The Death of Moses and the Writing of Moses	p. 171
Writing and Memory	p. 174
Patterns in the Birth and Death Stories	p. 177
Body of Moses, Text of Moses	p. 178
Conclusion	p. 182
Conclusion	p. 184
Bibliography	p. 188
Index of References	p. 201
Index of Authors	p. 205
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