Author Description
Are We Not Men? offers an innovative approach to gender and embodiment in the Hebrew Bible, revealing the male body as a source of persistent difficulty for the Hebrew prophets. Drawing together key moments in prophetic embodiment, Graybill demonstrates that the prophetic body is a queer body, and its very instability makes possible new understandings of biblical masculinity. Prophecy disrupts the performance of masculinity and demands new ways of inhabiting the body and negotiating gender.Graybill explores prophetic masculinity through critical readings of a number of prophetic bodies, including Isaiah, Moses, Hosea, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. In addition to close readings of the biblical texts, this account engages with modern intertexts drawn from philosophy, psychoanalysis, and horror films: Isaiah meets the poetry of Anne Carson; Hosea is seen through the lens of possession films and feminist film theory; Jeremiah intersects with psychoanalytic discourses of hysteria; and Ezekiel encounters Daniel Paul Schreber's Memoirs of My Nervous Illness. Graybill also offers a careful analysis of the body of Moses. Her methods highlight unexpected features of the biblical texts, and illuminate the peculiar intersections of masculinity, prophecy, and the body in and beyond the Hebrew Bible. This assembly of prophets, bodies, and readings makes clear that attending to prophecy and to prophetic masculinity is an important task for queer reading. Biblical prophecy engenders new forms of masculinity and embodiment; Are We Not Men?offers a valuable map of this still-uncharted terrain.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This work investigates how the male body serves as a site of persistent instability and gender disruption within the Hebrew prophetic tradition. Rhiannon Graybill, a scholar of biblical studies, utilizes a multidisciplinary framework to analyze the prophetic body. By integrating psychoanalysis, feminist film theory, and philosophy, she argues that the act of prophecy inherently challenges traditional performances of masculinity.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Close readings of biblical figures including Isaiah, Moses, Hosea, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.
- Comparative analysis using modern intertexts such as horror films and the memoirs of Daniel Paul Schreber.
- A theoretical framework applying queer theory to ancient religious texts.
Scope Limits
- The analysis focuses specifically on the Hebrew prophets and does not extend to New Testament figures or broader Christian theology.
- The text prioritizes gender and embodiment over historical-critical or archaeological investigations of the prophetic period.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars in the field of biblical studies recognize this text as a significant contribution to the intersection of queer theory and ancient literature. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the innovative nature of the author's comparative methodology.
Page Count:
200
Publication Date:
2016-12-26
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190227362
ISBN-13:
9780190227364
Theology doctrinal
Queer Theory
Gender Studies
Theology
Literary Criticism