Women in Drag

Gender and Performance in the Hebrew Bible and Early Jewish Literature

From Jael’s tent peg to Judith’s sword, biblical interpreters have long recognized the power of the "lethal women" stories of the Hebrew Bible and related literature. The tales of Jael and Judith, female characters who assassinate enemy commanders, have fascinated artists, writers, and scholars for centuries, no doubt partly because of the gender of the characters doing the killing. Tamber-Rosenau presents the first systematic study, both text-centered and deeply engaged with a variety of queer-theoretical frameworks, of the motif of the woman-turned-warrior in ancient Jewish literature. Through analysis from queer-theoretical perspectives and comparison with Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman literature, Women in Drag shines new light on three strong female characters from the Hebrew Bible and the early days of Jewish literature.

Be the first to review this product

Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC

SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-0716-8

Formats
- Hardback (In Print) ISBN 978-1-4632-0716-8
- eBook PDF (In Print) 978-1-4632-3942-8 on Gorgias Mobile App (Glassboxx)

Publication Status: In Print

Series: Biblical Intersections16

Publication Date: Nov 2,2018

Interior Color: Black

Trim Size: 6 x 9

Page Count: 294

Languages: English

ISBN: 978-1-4632-0716-8

Price: $114.95 (USD)

Your price: $68.97 (USD)

Qty:

Ship to

Shipping Method

Name

Estimated Delivery

Price

No shipping options

From Jael’s tent peg to Judith’s sword, biblical interpreters have long recognized the power of the "lethal women" stories of the Hebrew Bible and related literature. The tales of Jael and Judith, female characters who assassinate enemy commanders, have fascinated artists, writers, and scholars for centuries, no doubt partly because of the gender of the characters doing the killing. Tamber-Rosenau presents the first systematic study, both text-centered and deeply engaged with a variety of queer-theoretical frameworks, of the motif of the woman-turned-warrior in ancient Jewish literature. Through analysis from queer-theoretical perspectives and comparison with Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman literature, Women in Drag shines new light on three strong female characters from the Hebrew Bible and the early days of Jewish literature.

Overview
Reviews
Contact Us
About the Author
Table Of Contents

From Jael’s tent peg to Judith’s sword, biblical interpreters have long recognized the power of the "lethal women" stories of the Hebrew Bible and related literature. The tales of Jael and Judith, female characters who assassinate enemy commanders, have fascinated artists, writers, and scholars for centuries, no doubt partly because of the gender of the characters doing the killing. Tamber-Rosenau presents the first systematic study, both text-centered and deeply engaged with a variety of queer-theoretical frameworks, of the motif of the woman-turned-warrior in ancient Jewish literature. Through analysis from queer-theoretical perspectives and comparison with Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman literature, Women in Drag shines new light on three strong female characters from the Hebrew Bible and the early days of Jewish literature.

Your name *

Your email *

Subject: *

Enquiry *

	Contributor	Biography
	CarynTamber-Rosenau	Caryn Tamber-Rosenau is Instructional Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Religious Studies at University of Houston. She holds a Ph.D. in Religion (Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel) from Vanderbilt University.

Table of Contents (v)
Acknowledgments (vii)
Chapter One. Introduction (1)
Scope (5)
Methodology (9)
Liminality (23)
Conclusion and Prospect (27)
Chapter Two. Striking Women in Ancient Mediterranean Literature (29)
Making Cross-cultural Literary Comparisons (29)
Scope and Content of Comparisons (35)
Goddess Comparisons (38)
Anat (42)
Paghit (53)
Shaushka (56)
Amazons (59)
Athena (66)
Artemis (73)
Clytemnestra (77)
Conclusion (87)
Chapter Three. Penetrating Looks: Gender and the Tent-Peg Assassin (Judges 4–5) (91)
The Preparation (97)
The Act (106)
The Aftermath (112)
Jael through the Lens of Queer Theory (118)
Chapter Four. A Cut Above: The Exemplary Jewess and Her Feminine Performance (The Book of Judith) (131)
The Preparation (135)
The Act (163)
The Aftermath (169)
Judith through the Lens of Queer Theory (178)
Chapter Five. Hammering It Home: The Refigured Tent-Dweller and Her Deadly Performance (Biblical Antiquities 31) (197)
The Preparation (204)
The Act (215)
The Aftermath (218)
Pseudo-Philo’s Jael through the Lens of Queer Theory (221)
Chapter Six. Conclusion (227)
Future Directions (230)
Women in Drag (231)
Jael in the Book of Judges: Mother, Seductress, Killer (231)
Judith: How to Get a Head Using High-Femme Drag (233)
The Second Jael: Motherhood and Sex, Made Explicit (236)
Bibliography (239)
Index (263)

Customers who bought this item also bought

Women in Shiʿism

What is the nature and social role of women? In today’s Shi‘ism, these questions are often answered through the “separate-but- equal” ideology which emphasizes the role of women as wives and mothers, and places men in authority. But is this the only ideology which can be derived from Shi‘i scriptural sources? This book takes a more nuanced approach to that question by exploring how women are portrayed in hadith on ancient sacred narrative – the stories of the prophets. It shows far more diverse views on what it means to be a woman (and, by extension, a man) – and that early Shi‘is held competing views about ideals for women.

$114.95 (USD) $68.97 (USD)

Early Philosophical Ṣūfism

This study challenges the conventional image of the tenth-century Sufi mystic Al-Husayn Ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāğ (d. 929) as an anti-philosophical mystic. Unlike the predominantly theological or text-historical studies which constitute much of the scholarly literature on Ḥallāğ, this study is completely philosophical in nature, placing Ḥallāğ within the tradition of Graeco-Arabic philosophy and emphasizing, in a positive light, his continuity with the pagan Neoplatonism of Plotinus and Proclus.

$141.00 (USD) $84.60 (USD)

The New Syriac Primer, 2nd Edition

A truly useful introduction to the Syriac language is a rare find. This practical initiation to the study of this ancient language of the Christian church speaks with clarity and authority. A fruitful integration of scholarly introduction and practical application, this primer is more than a simple grammar or syntactic introduction to the language. Writing in a style designed for beginners, Kiraz avoids technical language and strives for a reader-friendly inductive approach. Readings from actual Syriac texts allow the student to experience the language first hand and the basics of the grammar of the language are ably explained. The book comes with downloadable material so that readers may listen to all reading sentences and text passages in the book.

$48.00 (USD)

Umayyad Christianity

A study of the identity-formation process that the Christians of Syria-Palestine experienced during the Umayyad Caliphate. It approaches this subject by using John of Damascus and his writings on Islam as a case-study. This provides an exhaustive study of the available historical data in order to stimulate some further thought on John of Damascus’s theology and legacy from a contextual and intercultural methodology. Such an examination has not yet been pursued in the scholarship of Byzantine Christianity during that era. Proceeding from a centralizing ‘context’, the monograph revisits John of Damascus’s legacy (and the Umayyad Christians’ identity-formation of that era) from the perspective of his historical, Islamic-Arabic context, and not from any assumed, metanarrative, common to contemporary pro-Byzantine theology scholars.