Moses in America: The Cultural Uses of Biblical Narrative (American Academy of Religion Cultural Criticism Series)

181 Pages·2002·8.77 MB·English

by  Melanie J. Wright

Moses in America
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION
CULTURAL CRITICISM SERIES
SERIES EDITOR
Bjorn Krondorfer, St. Mary's College of Maryland
A Publication Series of
The American Academy of Religion
and Oxford University Press
ANTI-JUDAISM IN FEMINIST RELIGIOUS WRITINGS
Katharina von Kellenbach
THE GREAT WHITE FLOOD
Racism in Australia
Anne Pattel-Gray
ON DECONSTRUCTING LIFE-WORLDS
Buddhism, Christianity, Culture
Robert Magliola
CULTURAL OTHERNESS
Correspondence with Richard Rorty, Second Edition
Anindita Niyogi Balslev
CROSS CULTURAL CONVERSATION
Initiation
Edited by Anindita Niyogi Balslev
IMAG(IN)ING OTHERNESS
Filmic Visions of Living Together
Edited by S. Brent Plate and David Jasper
PARABLES FOR OUR TIME
Rereading New Testament Scholarship after the Holocaust
Tania Oldenhage
MOSES IN AMERICA
The Cultural Uses of Biblical Narrative
Melanie J. Wright
AAR
AMERICAN ACADbMY 0F RELIGION
Moses in America
The Cultural Uses of
Biblical Narrative
Melanie J. Wright
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
2003
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford New York
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Copyright © 2003 by The American Academy of Religion
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Excerpts from "Moses in Red" are from the 1926 Dorrance and Co. edition, reprinted in The World of
Lincoln Steffens, edited by Ella Winter and Herbert Shapiro, copyright © 1962, renewed 1990 by Hill and
Wang. Reprinted by permission of Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
Excerpts from Moses, Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston. Copyright © 1939 by Zora Neale
Hurston. Copyright renewed 1967 by John C. Hurston and Joel Hurston. Reprinted by permission of
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wright, Melanie J. 1970-
Moses in America : the cultural uses of biblical narrative / Melanie J. Wright.
p. cm.—(American Academy of Religion cultural criticism series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-515226-3
1. Moses (Biblical leader) 2. Steffens, Lincoln, 1866-1936. Moses in red. 3. Hurston, Zora Neale. Moses,
man of the mountain. 4. Ten Commandments (Motion picture) 5. Bible O. T.—Biography—History and
criticism. 6. Religion and culture—United States—History—20th century. I. Title. II. Series.
BS580.M6 W75 2002
700'.451—dc21 2001052047
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Preface
This book began as a doctoral dissertation at Oxford University, under the
direction of Christopher Rowland. Thanks go to him for being a patient
and tolerant supervisor, and to my examiners John Barton and Bill Telford.
For their institutional assistance I am a grateful to the Bodleian Library
at Oxford, the British Library, the Butler Library at Columbia University,
Christ Church (Oxford), the Faculty of Divinity and University libraries
of Cambridge, and Scunthorpe Central Library. Without the financial sup-
port of the British Academy, this project would not have been undertaken;
I am thankful for their award of a postgraduate studentship.
On a more personal level, I wish to express gratitude to Mark Baker,
Rachel Baker, Chris Carmen, Andrew Chester, Peter Clarke, Jane Doyle,
Clare Drury, Jon Gifford, Nancy Isle, Robert Isle, Fazana Khatri, John
Leigh, Don Stebbings, Andrena Telford, Jerry Toner, David Woodhouse,
and the members of the Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations, Cam-
bridge. They have read drafts of parts of this book, offered comments on
issues raised, or heartened me with words of constructive criticism and
support. Bjorn Krondorfer and Cynthia Read (and colleagues) of the
American Academy of Religion and Oxford University Press were unfail-
ingly patient and wise as Moses in America moved from manuscript to
bound book. Finally, I want to register the debt that I owe Justin Meggitt,
who has cheered me on over the years. I dedicate this to him and to Mollie
Wright, who died shortly after the project was initiated but gave me the
strength to see it through.
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Contents
i.
Introduction, 3
2.
Back to the Future: Lincoln Steffens's
Moses in Red (1926), 13
3.
If Moses Was a Mulatto: Zora Neale Hurston's Moses,
Man of the Mountain (1939), 43
4.
Coming in from the Cold (War): Cecil B. DeMille's
The Ten Commandments (1956), 89
5.
Conclusions, 128
Notes, 133
Bibliography, 151
Selective Filmography, 167
Index, 169
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Moses in America