Hands, heads, and feet

Subtitle:body parts as poetic device in judges 4-5

Scholars have identified lists of body parts as a compositional device in Biblical Hebrewpoetry and as a way to highlight key themes in the biblical text or uncover hidden meanings. In addition, body parts have been given metaphorical and euphemistic senses. In this article I propose that body parts can form a poetic device an sich. This device is characterized by its willful exploitation of space: bodily space (with oppositions such as up-down and left-right), interpersonal space (connecting different characters), and literal space occupied by words in verses and phrases (with the opposition first-last). I will address each of these types of space and illustrate them with examples from Judg 4-5. In addition, I will examine the effect of the device, in terms of both story building and story decoding. A comparison between the prosaic and poetic accounts of the story of Jael and Sisera will show that the use of body parts, like other poetic devices, generates different reading experiences.

Publication year:2017

Keywords:A1 Journal article

BOF-keylabel:yes

Authors from:Higher Education

Accessibility:Closed