The poetics of biblical narrative : ideological literature and the drama of reading

"This . . . is a brilliant work." -Choice "[Sternberg] has written a very important book, both for his comprehensiveness and for the clearly-avowed faith stance from which he understands and interprets the strategies of the biblical narratives. . . . a superb overview . . . " -Theological Studies " . . . rated very highly indeed. It is a book to read and then reread." -Modern Language Review " . . . Sternberg has accomplished an enormous task, enriching our understanding of the theoretical basis of biblical narrative and giving us insight into a remarkable number of particular texts." -Journal of the American Academy of Religion " . . . an important book for those who seek to take the Bible seriously as a literary work because it shows, more clearly and emphatically than any book I know, that the Bible is a serious literary work-a text manifesting a highly sophisticated and successful narrative poetics." -Adele Berlin, Prooftexts

Preface 1. Literary Text, Literary Approach: Getting the Questions Straight Discourse and Source Fiction and History Form and Doctrine The Drama of Reading 2. Narrative Models 3. Ideology of Narration and Narration of Ideology Omniscience Charged and Monopolized: The Epistemological Revolution The Omnipotence Effect: Control Claimed and Disclaimed 4. Viewpoints and Interpretations Point of View and Its Biblical Configuration The Wooing of Rebekah Positions and Discrepancies Established The Movement form Divergence to Convergence of Perspectives New Tensions and Final Resolution 5. The Play of Perspectives Narrator vs. God Narrator and Reader vs. God and Characters Spheres of Communication Three Reading Positions From Plot to Perspective From Ignorance to Knowledge Privilege and Performance 6. Gaps, Ambiquity and the Reading Process The Literary Work as a System of Gaps The Story of David and Bathsheba: On the Narrator's Reticence and Omissions The Ironic Exposition What Is the King Doing in the City? Uriah the Hittite Recalled to Jerusalem Does Uriah Know about His Wife's Doings? The Twofold Hypothesis What Does David Think That Uriah Thinks? The Three-Way Hypothesis How Joab Fails to Carry Out David's Order The Analogy to the Story of Abimelech and the Woman On Mutually Exclusive Systems of Gap-Filling: Turning the Screws of Henry James and Others 7. Between the Truth and the Whole Truth Foolproof Composition in Ambiguity The Relevance of Absence Temporary and Permanent Gapping The Echoing Interrogative Opposition in Juxtaposition Coherence Threatened and Fortified Norms and Their Violations From Gapping to Closure: The Functions of Ambiguity 8. Temporal Discontinuity, Narrative Interest, and the Emergence of Meaning Suspense and the Dynamics of Prospection The Pros and Cons of Suspense in the Bible Modes of Shaping the Narrative Future Darkness in Light, or: Zigzagging toward Sisera's End Curiosity and the Dynamics of Retrospection Joseph and His Brothers: Making Sense of the Past Surprise and the Dynamics of Recognition 9. Proleptic Portraits Character and Characterization: From Divine to Human Why the Truth about Character Does Not Suffice The Art of the Proleptic Epithet Epithets and the Rule of Forward-looking Exposition 10. Going from Surface to Depth Character as Action, Character in Action The Composition of Character and the Limits of Metonymic Inference Old Age in Genesis Good Looks in Samuel 11. The Structure of Repetition: Strategies of Informational Redundancy Similarity Patterns and the Structure of Repetition Formulaic Convention or Functional Principle? Constant and Variable Factors Verbatim Repetition Repetition with Variation: Forms and Functions of Deviance Repetition and Communication: Pharah's Dream Basic Axes and Natural Combinations From Natural to Functional Combinations Deliberate Variation: (Figural) Rhetoric within (Narratorial) Rhetoric Generic Transformation into Parable Permutations and Some Complications Repetition and Narrative Art: Some General Consequences 12. The Art of Persusion Persuading in the Court of Conscience Delicate Balance in the Rape of Dinah The Rhetorical Repertoire 13. Ideology, Rhetoric, Poetics Justifying the Ways of God to Man: Saul's Rejection Dancing in Chains Dialogue as Pressure, Variations as Judgment Convergence with Belated Discovery: Rhetorical Overkill Notes Index