The Bible and the Comic Vision

This study explores in a comprehensive and provocative way the presence of comedy in the Hebrew Scriptures.

J. William Whedbee (Author)

9780521097611, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 January 2009

332 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.9 cm, 0.42 kg

This study explores in a comprehensive and provocative way the presence of comedy in the Hebrew Scriptures. Apart from the occasional recognition of comic forms or motifs in biblical dress, the vast majority of interpreters have usually discounted or even disdained the possibility of the Bible having any significant place for the comic vision. This book attempts to make amends for this short-sighted, prejudicial perspective. Using a broad, eclectic view of comedy, it offers an in-depth analysis of such richly diverse biblical texts as Genesis, Exodus, Esther, Jonah, Job and the Song of Songs. Showing how comedy oscillates between the poles of attack and affirmation, critique and celebration, this exploration brings to light the biblical appropriation of the comic vision as a vital strategy to overcome death and despair and to revel in life and laughter.

Acknowledgements
Note on translation and transliteration
Introduction: an anatomy of comedy in the Bible
Part I. The Genesis of Comedy - The Comedy of Genesis: 1. The comedy of creation
2. Domestic comedy in the household of faith: Israel's fathers and mothers as comic figures
Part II. Generating Comedy: Biblical texts and the drive to comic regeneration: 3. Liberation and laughter: Exodus and Esther as two comedies of deliverance
4. Jonah as joke: a comedy of contradiction, caricature and compassion
5. The comedy of Job: creation, chaos and carnival
6. Paradox and parody in the Song of Soloman: towards a comic reading of the Song of Songs
Conclusion: towards a comprehensive view of biblical comedy
Bibliography
Indexes.

Subject Areas: Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG]