Are We Amused?: Humour About Women In the Biblical World

Description

Biblical humour remains elusive for many readers. And biblical humour about women and gender remains more problematic still, since its recognition may imply the realization that it's a cruel and disrespectful humour, ridicule rather than good-natured fun. But viewing humour as social critique, as is largely done in this volume's essays, can be both fun and significant for developing an understanding the biblical worlds. As most of the essays show, writing about women is writing about men as well. The critique of women, womanhood and femaleness implied by biblical and related texts serves, in equal measure, as critique of men, manhood and maleness -- as they appear in the texts, as the texts' authors, and as the texts' commentators and readers. The contributors to this revealing and entertaining collection are Scott Spencer, Mary Shields, Kathleen O'Connor, Toni Craven, Kathy Williams, Athalya Brenner, Gale Yee, Amy-Jill Levine and Esther Fuchs. This is volume 2 in the Bible in the 21st Century series and is volume 383 in the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement series.

Athalya Brenner-Idan is Professor Emerita of the HB\OT Chair at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and currently Professor in Biblical Studies at the Department of Hebrew Culture Studies, Tel Aviv University, Israel, and Research Associate at the Biblia Arabica Project there. In addition, she is Extraordinary Professor at the Department of OT/NT, Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Her website is http://athalya-morah-letorah.com.

"This volume deals with humor about women. The author asks: Is this humor really funny, or is it demeaning? Might we have missed humor by reading some stories too seriously?... This fine book will be of interest to a wide audience."- The Bible Today, January/ February 2006 * Bible Today, The *