Interludes and Irony in the Ancestral Narrative
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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. iii iv 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. v 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. vi 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! vii 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! viii Summary 212! CHAPTER 6 THE TAMAR INTERLUDE 213! Traditional Interpretation 213! The Dynamic of Agency in the Ancestral Narrative 213! The Tamar Interlude as an Interpretive Key 224! The Tamar Interlude as an Ancestral Birth Story 238! Ancestral Birth Narrative Motifs 240! The Direction of Allusion 271! A Parody of an Ancestral Birth Narrative 273! Thematic Development: Ancestral Self-Identity 276! Summary 286! CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSION 287! What Are the Strange Stories Doing in the Ancestral Narrative? 287! Interludes, Irony, and Ancestral Identity 288! Implications for Further Study 291! Concluding Remarks 299! BIBLIOGRAPHY 302! ix x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION THE STRANGE STORIES OF HAGAR, DINAH, AND TAMAR: WHAT ARE THEY DOING IN THE ANCESTRAL NARRATIVE? The Ancestral Narrative: A Story of Ancestral Identity Commentators regularly identify Gen 12-50 as a distinct narrative within Genesis. Differentiating it from the more universal, timeless narrative of Gen 1-11,1 they designate it the “patriarchal”2 or, as this study prefers, “ancestral” narrative.3 As its name implies, the ancestral narrative is read as a story about the ancestral family,4 the forebears of Israel.5 It narrates how the ancestral family was born and recounts a diverse range of stories concerning the family as it moves toward the divine promises of offspring, land, and blessing. Indeed, the family’s prospects for growth, land, and blessing unify the mix of stories into