Gustave Dore (1866)
Due in Class Tuesday, September 30, 2003: submission by means of posting on individual websites (and, optionally, artistic or iconographic representations to supplement the presentation). The postings should be available for classroom use that day. List of website postings: anagnosa , bishayp
Reading. Genesis and Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling
Background. We have discussed and/or will discuss Genesis 22 in art and in Fear and Tremblin g. We will have dissected Kierkegaard's four unique and separate elaborations of that story. We could do many more things with Genesis 22 because others have made so much use of the episode. We could, for instance, search for artistic depictions that seem to reflect each of Kierkegaard's four scenarios or one that most fully matches Kierkegaard's ultimate Abraham, the "knight of faith". And we can also use Genesis 22 as a model for close study of other Genesis episodes. In this assignment you are asked to do the latter.
Assignment. Elaborate on four different ways in which a single Genesis episode might have taken place while remaining true to the essence and heart of the episode provided in Scripture (in the spirit of Kierkegaard's attempts to understand the sacrifice in Genesis 22 ). The essay should be an organized presentation of these scenarios and some assessment of the overall results. Length should be sufficient to fully explore the four possibilities. What does result from concentrating so much attention on a short, fixed and powereful text? This assignment has been used before with results that have surprised and satisfied those who did it.
Sample. (from Exodus). Take Moses. One way of looking at Moses (taking an episode from Exodus for my text) is to see him as an upper class Egyptian who betrays his class because it is oppressing the workers building for pharaoh. This would preserve the "known" details about Moses's birth, survival, and especially his behavior towards the Hebrews. It would serve to explain motivation. Or would it? But this is just one way of looking at him. It is the starting point for a further "elaboration" from other points of view. And we also have a screenplay for a Disney film (i.e. Prince of Egypt).
Suggestion: Survey the iconography of Biblical scenes (in museums and art books) for a powerful interpretation of one chapter from Genesis. Perhaps that will point you to a fertile text from which your thinking can grow. Also, there is the tradition of mishnah or "interpretation"/"exegesis" in rabbinical Judaism - the meaning of a canonical text is explored by means of such deeper reading and retelling. Elaborations on Biblical stories have a long history among Hebrews, Christians and Moslems.
