Interludes and Irony in the Ancestral Narrative

327 Pages·2015·2.08 MB·English

by  Jonathan Kruschwitz

Interludes and Irony in the Ancestral Narrative

J. A. Kruschwitz

Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Philosophy
Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies
2014

Interludes and Irony in the Ancestral Narrative

By
Jonathan A. Kruschwitz

Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Philosophy
Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies
Faculty of Arts & Humanities
The University of Sheffield

November 2014

ABSTRACT

The strange stories of Hagar, Dinah, and Tamar unsettle the ancestral narrative in
Genesis. Whereas the ancestral narrative revolves around the interests of the ancestral
family, these stories deviate from the main plot and draw attention to the interests of non-
ancestral characters. Interpretation traditionally domesticates the strange stories by
focusing on how they may serve the purposes of the embedding ancestral narrative. This
thesis, however, revives the question of their strangeness and proposes an original
response: the strange stories are interludes that ironize ancestral identity.
The concepts of interlude and irony lay the methodological groundwork for this
thesis. Because scholarship commonly identifies the strange stories as “interludes,” this
study innovates a poetics of the interlude. This poetics, which derives from the model of
certain musical interludes, suggests that the interlude’s function is to develop primary
thematic content. While scholarship conventionally allows the primary narrative to
determine the significance of the interlude, this poetics illumines how the interlude may
determine aspects of the primary narrative. A hermeneutics of irony, in turn, offers a
persuasive account of how an interlude may develop primary thematic material. This
study bases its hermeneutics on the idea that irony consists in quoting a prior proposition
and implying a negative judgment toward it. When the interludes invoke central ancestral
motifs, they may mean something different—even contrary—to what was meant before.
A poetics of the interlude and a hermeneutics of irony drive this study’s close
readings of the strange stories. The close readings demonstrate how the interludes ironize
key themes of ancestral identity: the ancestral-divine relationship, ancestral relations to the
land and its inhabitants, and ancestral self-identity. Each interlude subverts the
conventionally exclusive formulation of an ancestral theme and shows that, while ancestral
identity may be contained in the ancestral family, it is not contained by it.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have heard it said—and I believe it to be true—that being original is forgetting
where you read or heard something. What modest claim I can make to originality, then, is
displaced by the debt I owe to the many who have influenced my thought and research
over the last several years.
I first express my gratitude to a person without whom this project would not have
been possible. My supervisor and mentor Hugh Pyper has assisted my research in
countless ways, some more obvious than others. Never short of a recommendation for
further reading, eternally curious, and always at hand with a gentle critique, Hugh has
provided me with invaluable inspiration throughout the project and has encouraged
independent, innovative thought.
I am also grateful to other instructors whose teaching has kindled my fascination
with the biblical text. Special mention must be made of Mark E. Biddle, F. Scott Spencer,
Juliana M. Claassens, Melissa Jackson, Sandra Hack Polaski, Donald C. Polaski, and
Samuel L. Adams, whose shared love of reading the biblical text undoubtedly nurtured my
own.
It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the academic communities that have
supported me throughout my studies, including the Department of Biblical Studies at the
University of Sheffield and bands of colleagues across the world. Welcoming me and
accompanying me through new corridors in academia—papers, conferences, the joys and
travails of PhD life—these communities have been a mainstay of my research.
Communities of faith have also sustained me. In particular, Second Baptist Church
of Richmond, Virginia, and Gayton Road Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) have kept
me near their hearts and emboldened me to pursue my course of research. I am deeply
thankful for both their love and affirmation.
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Close friends have contributed to the completion of this project more than they
know. Their silliness and levity have occasionally made light of what seemed a daunting
task—and for that, I can only say, “Thank you.” I especially thank Jason, whose
transatlantic conversations consistently buoyed my spirits; the Vlads and Reza, and
Adriana and Itzel, who turned houses into homes; and Svetlana, whose simple words
marked my thoughts in profound ways. There are many others, but to continue this word
of thanks would take too much space and allow for too many possible omissions.
I close these acknowledgments with a loving and reverent nod to my family—
especially to my grandfather Verlin C. Kruschwitz, whose enthusiasm for the Old
Testament I am honored to share; to my uncle Robert Kruschwitz, whose generous
attention, editorial acumen, and heartfelt encouragement saw me through my final
revisions; and to my mother and father, Marlis and William, and my brother, Curt, whose
listening ears, devoted hearts, and caring words have helped me along the way time and
time again.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT III!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS V!
TABLE OF CONTENTS VII!
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION 1!
The Strange Stories of Hagar, Dinah, and Tamar: !
What Are They Doing in the Ancestral Narrative? 1!
The Ancestral Narrative: A Story of Ancestral Identity 1!
The Strange Stories of Hagar, Dinah, and Tamar 3!
The Logic of Narrative Strangeness and the Defamiliarization of a “Familiar” Story 8!
Qualification of Reading 11!
Against Original Meaning 12!
A Story of Reading 15!
An Overview of This Story of Reading: Of Interludes and Irony 18!
The Stories as Interludes 20!
The Stories as Ironic 21!
Close Ironic Readings of the Interludes 22!
Summary 23!
CHAPTER 2
POETICS: THE INTERLUDE AS A NARRATIVE STRUCTURE 25!
A Poetics of the Interlude 25!
The Interlude as a Musical Concept 29!
The Sonata-Rondo Episode as a Model for Interlude 31!
A Conceptualization of the Interlude according to the Sonata-Rondo 36!
The Stories of Hagar, Dinah, and Tamar as Interludes 38!
Summary 44!
CHAPTER 3
HERMENEUTICS: IRONY 45!
Irony as a Hermeneutical Concept 46!
Historical Review of Irony 49!
Classical Greece 50!
Ancient Rome into the Middle Ages 53!
Romanticism and New Criticism 55!
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Irony in Literary Discourse 57!
Text-Centered Conceptualizations: Muecke and Booth 59!
Reader-Centered Conceptualizations: Fish and Dane 62!
“Double-Logic” Conceptualizations: Colebrook, Hutcheon, and Sperber and Wilson 66!
Irony in Biblical Discourse 71!
From Local to Pervasive Irony 72!
Divine Irony 79!
Definition of Irony 81!
Indicative of Text-Reader Double Logic 81!
Quotational, Evaluatively Dissociative, and Dialogic 82!
Rhetorically Pervasive 86!
Semantically Excessive 87!
Why Read Irony in Genesis? !
Against the Charge of Anachronism 88!
Repetition 90!
Peripeteia 94!
Frugal Narration 96!
The Interlude 99!
Summary 100!
CHAPTER 4
THE HAGAR INTERLUDES 102!
Traditional Interpretation 102!
The Divine Program as the Ancestral Prerogative 103!
The Hagar Interludes as a Foil 110!
The Hagar Interludes as Mise en Abyme 118!
The Concept of Sojourn (rwg) 118!
The Gendering of Sojourn 135!
Mise en Abyme 137!
Thematic Development: Ancestral Relationship with God 140!
Summary 149!
CHAPTER 5
THE DINAH INTERLUDE 151!
Traditional Interpretation 151!
A Story of Judgment 151!
The Authoritative Narrator in Literary Discourse 154!
The Biblical Narrator 159!
The Evaluative Comments in the Dinah Interlude 162!
The Dinah Interlude as Judgment on Ancestral Relations 176!
The Dinah Interlude as Ventriloquy 182!
Narratological Reflections on Voice 184!
Hearing the Brothers in the Evaluative Comments 193!
The Evaluative Comments as Double-Voiced Discourse 199!
Thematic Development: Ancestral Relations 203!
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