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

Description

Biblical humor about women and gender remains elusive for many readers, for its recognition may imply the realization that it's a cruel and disrespectful humor, ridicule rather than good-natured fun. But viewing humor as social critique, as is largely done in the essays in this volume, with respect to both the texts read and their actual or implied author, may be fun as well as significant for understanding the biblical worlds. As most of the essays show, writing about women is writing about men as well. In other words, it is writing about gender roles. The critique of women, womanhood and femaleness implied by biblical and related texts serves, in equal measure, as a critique of men, manhood and maleness in the texts, of the texts authors, and of the texts' commentators and readers. Contributors include Scott Spencer, Mary Shields, Kathleen O'Connor, Toni Craven, Kathy Williams, Athalya Brenner, Gale Yee, Amy-Jill Levine, and Esther Fuchs.

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 * "The audience for this collection would included biblical scholars and any other interested in the intersections of humor, women, and the Bible...While the book may not always amuse (hence the question that is the book's title), it succeeds in showing the equivocal and ambiguous nature of humor as it applies to representations of women in the Bible, a conclusion that coheres well with those reached by feminist biblical scholars more generally." -Review of Biblical Literature (May 2005) * Review of Biblical Literature *