Exegesis seeking appropriation; appropriation seeking exegesis: Re-reading 2 Samuel 13:122 in search of redemptive masculinities

Verbum et Ecclesia

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Exegesis seeking appropriation; appropriation seeking exegesis: Re-reading 2 Samuel 13:122 in search of redemptive masculinities
 
Creator West, Gerald
 
Subject Biblical Studies; African hermeneutics African hermeneutics; masculinity; Tamar
Description Exegesis in the traditional sense is concerned with generating as much (scientific) detail about a biblical text as possible. Whilst the two primary modes of biblical exegesis – socio-historical and literary-semiotic – do this differently, they share a common concern for the detail of the text as an ancient artefact. Critical distance is a key concept here, with the exegetes bracketing (for a moment) their own contexts and concerns. However, such bracketing is impossible to sustain, and so the exegetes’ interests (shaped by their contexts and concerns) ‘leak’ into the act of exegesis. Most exegetes today recognise this leakage, and whilst some still view such leakage as contaminating the exegesis, others, including the tradition of African biblical scholarship, actively identify the contextual concerns they bring to the task of exegesis, both respecting the detail of the text and desiring to be accountable to their contexts in which the Bible is a significant text. This article explored some of the dimensions of forms of exegesis that actively seek appropriation, using 2 Samuel 13:1–22 as an example. In this case, the article analysed the contextual shift from a focus on women as the victims of sexual violence to an emerging emphasis on masculinities. Reading the same text from these different contextual concerns ‘activates’ particular details of the text, and so both draw on different elements of the text and thus guides the gaze of exegesis.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor National Research Foundation
Date 2013-09-04
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Literary analysis
Format text/html application/octet-stream text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ve.v34i2.761
 
Source Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 34, No 2 (2013); 6 pages 2074-7705 1609-9982
 
Language eng
 
Relation
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https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/761/1172 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/761/1173 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/761/1174 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/761/1170
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2013 Gerald West https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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