Narratology, Hermeneutics, and Midrash
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Poetik, Exegese und Narrative Studien zur jüdischen Literatur und Kunst Poetics, Exegesis and Narrative Studies in Jewish Literature and Art Band 2 / Volume 2 Herausgegeben von / edited by Gerhard Langer, Carol Bakhos, Klaus Davidowicz, Constanza Cordoni Constanza Cordoni / Gerhard Langer (eds.) Narratology, Hermeneutics, and Midrash Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Narratives from the Late Antique Period through to Modern Times With one figure V&R unipress Vienna University Press Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. ISBN 978-3-8471-0308-0 ISBN 978-3-8470-0308-3 (E-Book) Veröffentlichungen der Vienna University Press erscheineN im Verlag V&R unipress GmbH. Gedruckt mit freundlicher Unterstützung des Rektorats der Universität Wien. © 2014, V&R unipress in Göttingen / www.vr-unipress.de Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Das Werk und seine Teile sind urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung in anderen als den gesetzlich zugelassenen Fällen bedarf der vorherigen schriftlichen Einwilligung des Verlages. Printed in Germany. Titelbild: „splatch yellow“ © Hazel Karr, Tochter der Malerin Lola Fuchs-Carr und des Journalisten und Schriftstellers Maurice Carr (Pseudonym von Maurice Kreitman); Enkelin der bekannten jiddischen Schriftstellerin Hinde-Esther Singer-Kreitman (Schwester von Israel Joshua Singer und Nobelpreisträger Isaac Bashevis Singer) und Abraham Mosche Fuchs. Druck und Bindung: CPI Buch Bücher.de GmbH, Birkach Gedruckt auf alterungsbeständigem Papier. Contents Constanza Cordoni / Gerhard Langer Introduction .................................. 7 Irmtraud Fischer Reception of Biblical texts within the Bible: A starting point of midrash? . 15 Ilse Muellner Celebration and Narration. Metaleptic features in Ex 12:1 – 13,16 . 25 Agnethe Siquans Midrasch und Kirchenväter: Parallelen und Differenzen in Hermeneutik und Methodologie . ............................ 39 Carol Bakhos Reading Against the Grain: Humor and Subversion in Midrashic Literature .................................... 71 Joshua Levinson Post-Classical Narratology and the Rabbinic Subject . ........... 81 Paul Mandel Kidor’s Revenge: Murder, Texts and Rabbis – An Analysis of a Rabbinic Tale and its Transmission (BT Yoma 83b) ..................107 Lorena Miralles Maciá Judaizing a Gentile Biblical Character through Fictive Biographical Reports: The Case of Bityah, Pharaoh’s Daughter, Moses’ Mother, according to Rabbinic Interpretations ....................145 6 Contents Susanne Plietzsch “That is what is written”–Retrospective Revelation of the Meaning of a Verse in Aggadic Midrash ...........................177 Gerhard Langer Lekh Lekha: Midrash Bereshit Rabbah and Tanhuma to Gen 12:1 . 187 ˙ Constanza Cordoni The emergence of the individual author(-image) in late rabbinic literature 225 Angelika Neuwirth The Challenge of Biblical Passion Narratives: Negotiating, Moderating, and Reconstructing Abraham’s Sacrifice in the Qurʾan ...........251 Andreas Mauz “Write what you see and hear”. Methodological problems of the poetics of ‘sacred text’: Hildegard’s Protestificatio as revelation narrative . 265 Armin EidherR Forms and Functions of Midrashic Narrative in Modern Yiddish Literature in the Light of Itzik Manger and Hirsh Osherowitsh . 289 Dorothee Gelhard Maqom als Figur der Profanierung bei Walter Benjamin ..........301 Literature ....................................325 Constanza Cordoni / Gerhard Langer (Wien) Introduction The forging of a link between narratology and literary and biblical hermeneutics, much like the link suggested in Bo Petterson’s article “Narratology and Her- meneutics: Forging the Missing Link”, appears to apply to the essays contained in this volume and to the volume as a whole. Pleading for a blend of hermeneutics and narratology at the time of approaching texts, Petterson aRgues namely that the latteR can thereby “outgrow its abidingly structuralist view of the literary text and its unidimensionally contextualized readings.”1 Furthermore, he suggests that instead of viewing interpretation as framework or theory it can be regarded as an art and that it is both on their own skills and on the specific aspects of their objects of interpretation that interpreters should rely for their interpretive work.2 With the exception of those written by Gerhard Langer and Paul Mandel, this volume’s articles are revised versions of papers presented at the international conference, Narratology, Hermeneutics, and Midrash, held in Vienna from 23rd to 25th October 2011. For the most part they comprise studies of Jewish texts – biblical, rabbinic, medieval, and modern – but also of patristic and medieval Christian texts, and, in one case, of a passage of the Muslim text par excellence, the Qurʾan, which is read in light of a biblical and Christian narrative. The contributors, scholars in the fields of Jewish Studies, Catholic and Protestant Theology, Islamic Studies, German philology etc., were invited to reflect on texts 1 Bo Petterson, “Narratology and Hermeneutics: Forging the Missing Link.” In: Sandra Heinen and Roy Sommer (eds.), Narratology in the Age of Cross-Disciplinary Narrative Research. De Gruyter: Berlin, 2009, pp. 11 – 34 at 21. Petterson designates his hermeneutical approach “contextual intention inference”. On how narratology and hermeneutics can be merged he writes: “contextual intention inference requires the kind of detailed contextual, historically- anchored and interdisciplinary study of the literary work that post-classical narratology and its multi-faceted toolkit is well equipped to provide in the study of fiction. Hence, narratology and hermeneutics can profitably be combined: classical narratology offers the textual tools, post- classical narratology the contextual and cognitive tools, and a hermeneutics based on con- textual intention inference provides an account that is able to deal with narratology’s inter- pretive features and approximate interpretive validity.” (21 – 22) 2 Ibid. 8 Constanza Cordoni / Gerhard Langer of theiR respective disciplines – religious or otherwise, narrative or otherwise – in interpretations that are context-sensitive and take into account the link con- necting midrash, hermeneutics, and narrative. This resulted in the contributions focusing on illuminating narratological and/or hermeneutical aspects of the texts in question. Whereas some explicitly made use of the toolkits of classical and post-classical (cultural oR contextualist) narratology,3 applied narratological categories to literary phenomena not usually analysed from this perspective, others concentrated on the midrashic, commentary-like, or hermeneutical as- pects of the texts in question. All of them are concerned in some way or another with bridging the gap between the mere description of textual phenomena and the possibility given by these texts to pose and answer questions pertaining to broader cultural and historical contexts. The first group of essays offers readings of biblical texts. Irmtraud Fischer’s contribution focuses on the use of repetition in the form of Leitwörter but also of direct quotation and allusions as important mechanisms in the composition of texts of both the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. These are seen as crucial aspects of the process of inner-biblical reception or midrashic reading, a process which, according to her argumentation, runs parallel to that of canonization. Her reading operates on the micro-level of words and on the macro-level of narra- tives, told to interpret legal passages in the Bible. Biblical narratology can be seen as one of the many subfields of the so-called post-classical narratology which consists of a series of approaches for which the borders of modern literary narrative as a privileged object of study have been transgressed. It is in this promising subfield that Ilse Müllner places herself providing a narratologically informed reading of Exod 12:1 – 13,16 in an attempt to demonstrate how a biblical narratology can shed new light on aspects of ancient texts thus far not discussed. The category of metalepsis, understood as transgression or “contamination between the world of the telling and the world of the told”, is used in this context to describe several instances of boundaries that are blurred in this biblical text: namely the boundaries between the narrative’s 3 Ansgar Nünning argues for example that “classical narratology and context-sensitive analysis and interpretations of narrative, despite their contrasting theoretical and methodological assumptions, are not as incompatible as is suggested by their respective practitioners.” (“Surveying Contextualist and Cultural Narratologies: Towards an Outline of Approaches, Concepts and Potentials.” In: Heinen and Sommer (eds.), Narratology, pp. 48 – 70 at 53) For the differences between classical and post-classical narratologies see i. a. Ansgar Nünning, “Towards a Cultural and Historical Narratology. A Survey of Diachronic Approaches, Con- cepts and Research Projects.” In: Berhard Reitz and Sigrid Rieuwerts (eds.), Anglistentag 1999 Mainz. Proceedings. Trier: WVT, 2000, pp. 345 – 373 and idem, “Narratology or Narratologies? Taking Stock of Recent Developments, Critique and Modest Proposals for Future Usages of the Term.” In: Tom Kindt and Hans-Harald Müller (eds.), What is Narratology? Questions and Answers regarding the Status of a Theory.