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...

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Veröffentlicht in:Transition. - Indiana University Press, 1957. - 35(2015), 2-3, Seite 250-270
Format: Online-Aufsatz
Veröffentlicht: 2015
Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk:Transition
Schlagworte:Arts Behavioral sciences Biological sciences Social sciences
Beschreibung
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.
ISSN:15278042
DOI:10.2979/prooftexts.35.2-3.05