“White Trash” Wisdom: Proverbs 9 Deconstructed

Though Woman Wisdom has often been viewed as a positive figure for feminism, I will show that the picture is much grimmer. The article has two parts. First, I will demonstrate that the personification of wisdom reinscribes the typical ideo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mark Sneed
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Alberta Library 2009-03-01
Series:Journal of Hebrew Scriptures
Online Access:https://jhsonline.org/index.php/jhs/article/view/5653
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author Mark Sneed
author_facet Mark Sneed
author_sort Mark Sneed
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description Though Woman Wisdom has often been viewed as a positive figure for feminism, I will show that the picture is much grimmer. The article has two parts. First, I will demonstrate that the personification of wisdom reinscribes the typical ideology of the time along gender, social class, and racial lines. The eroticization of wisdom as female actually excludes the woman from the search for truth and knowledge because it assumes its adherents are male. Woman Wisdom is shown to be upper class, while Folly is poor. And Woman Wisdom is shown to be xenophobic in her preference for Jewish boys. Second, wisdom/folly, the dominant dichotomy of these chapters, will be shown to deconstruct, showing how both Woman Wisdom and Folly are inextricably connected and partake of each other’s identity. The boundary between the two begins to blur.
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spelling doaj.art-da3b414627f34b83b7fe67ea17d83e082023-03-24T20:41:53ZengUniversity of Alberta LibraryJournal of Hebrew Scriptures1203-15422009-03-01710.5508/jhs.v7.a5“White Trash” Wisdom: Proverbs 9 DeconstructedMark Sneed Though Woman Wisdom has often been viewed as a positive figure for feminism, I will show that the picture is much grimmer. The article has two parts. First, I will demonstrate that the personification of wisdom reinscribes the typical ideology of the time along gender, social class, and racial lines. The eroticization of wisdom as female actually excludes the woman from the search for truth and knowledge because it assumes its adherents are male. Woman Wisdom is shown to be upper class, while Folly is poor. And Woman Wisdom is shown to be xenophobic in her preference for Jewish boys. Second, wisdom/folly, the dominant dichotomy of these chapters, will be shown to deconstruct, showing how both Woman Wisdom and Folly are inextricably connected and partake of each other’s identity. The boundary between the two begins to blur. https://jhsonline.org/index.php/jhs/article/view/5653
spellingShingle Mark Sneed
“White Trash” Wisdom: Proverbs 9 Deconstructed
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures
title “White Trash” Wisdom: Proverbs 9 Deconstructed
title_full “White Trash” Wisdom: Proverbs 9 Deconstructed
title_fullStr “White Trash” Wisdom: Proverbs 9 Deconstructed
title_full_unstemmed “White Trash” Wisdom: Proverbs 9 Deconstructed
title_short “White Trash” Wisdom: Proverbs 9 Deconstructed
title_sort white trash wisdom proverbs 9 deconstructed
url https://jhsonline.org/index.php/jhs/article/view/5653
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