J. Cheryl Exum - Plotted, Shot, and Painted: Cultural Representations of Biblical Women

In this work, J. Cheryl Exum, Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield, considers six biblical traditions involving women (Bathsheba, Michal, Ruth and Naomi, Delilah, the women in Exodus, and pornographic prophetic imagery) and the representations of these figures in art, film, literature. and music. Her concern is with how the arts are transmitters of cultural views of women. In particular she examines how we derive our perceptions of these biblical women from their representations in popular culture as well as from the biblical texts themselves. She is sensitive to the continuing influence the Bible has had upon Western culture and its connection to the social problems of pornography, sexual abuse, and voyeurism. Exum, as she has done in previous scholarship, brings fresh, creative approaches to these biblical texts and their metatexts in popular culture and is particularly adept at introducing ideas and methods from disciplines outside of biblical studies to the texts of the Bible. Also to be applauded is her recognition of the (often unacknowledged) gender ideology shaping both the portrayals of these women in the ancient texts and our modern responses to these figures.

 261 Pages
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