Showing Seeing in Susanna: The Virtue of the Text
The story of Susanna in the longer Greek versions of the biblical book of Daniel has come to be regarded as a "text of terror" within the Septuagint: some recent critics classify the book as pornography, offering the reader a chance to spy on Susanna directly through the lenses of her viol...
Veröffentlicht in: | Transition. - Indiana University Press, 1957. - 35(2015), 2-3, Seite 250-270 |
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Format: | Online-Aufsatz |
Veröffentlicht: |
2015
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Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk: | Transition |
Schlagworte: | Arts Behavioral sciences Biological sciences Social sciences |
Zusammenfassung: | The story of Susanna in the longer Greek versions of the biblical book of Daniel has come to be regarded as a "text of terror" within the Septuagint: some recent critics classify the book as pornography, offering the reader a chance to spy on Susanna directly through the lenses of her violators. But the tools of narratology show that in fact the text's storytelling mechanisms work differently: in particular, the revision of Theodotion reorders the story and syntax to resist the voyeuristic perspective of the earlier Old Greek version. Further, there is a much more complicated overlapping of visual fields in the Susanna-tale than a monolithic, one-directional male gaze: Greek theatrical conventions, ancient optics, and modern theory converge to expose an intricate map of what happens to whom when seeing takes place in Susanna. |
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ISSN: | 15278042 |
DOI: | 10.2979/prooftexts.35.2-3.05 |