Leviticus, Deconstruction and the Body
This paper is a contribution to a discussion of feminism, deconstruction and embodiment at the Canadian Society for Biblical Studies Meeting in June, 1999. I briefly align and contrast deconstruction, as a practice of resistance to totaliz...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of Alberta Library
1999-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of Hebrew Scriptures |
| Online Access: | https://jhsonline.org/index.php/jhs/article/view/5996 |
| _version_ | 1797860522440261632 |
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| author | Francis Landy |
| author_facet | Francis Landy |
| author_sort | Francis Landy |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper is a contribution to a discussion of feminism,
deconstruction and embodiment at the Canadian Society for Biblical Studies
Meeting in June, 1999. I briefly align and contrast deconstruction, as a
practice of resistance to totalizing discourses, with feminism, as a practice of
resistance to totalizing hierarchies. I then engage with three student responses
to a course I taught on Leviticus, as part of the dialogic of biblical studies
(and certainly deconstructive/feminist ones). In one, I discuss Leviticus as
pornography, in the context of the nexus between prohibition and desire, and pay
especial attention to the points where Leviticus changes subject position. A
second concerns land, imagined in anticipation and retrospectively from exile,
as the object of memory and frustration, and speculates on the sexual imagery of
sacrifice. A third turns to narrative in Leviticus, in particular that of
24.10-23, as potentially destructive of the whole rhetorical enterprise of the
book, which posits a static society. In my conclusion, I express distrust of
pure deconstructive or feminist programs, and turn to the paradox that Leviticus
is both a text preeminently about the body, and profoundly phallocentric. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T21:47:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ed0550182759434fbe011878d88abb73 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1203-1542 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T21:47:16Z |
| publishDate | 1999-12-01 |
| publisher | University of Alberta Library |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Hebrew Scriptures |
| spelling | doaj.art-ed0550182759434fbe011878d88abb732023-03-24T20:46:12ZengUniversity of Alberta LibraryJournal of Hebrew Scriptures1203-15421999-12-01210.5508/jhs.1999.v2.a5Leviticus, Deconstruction and the BodyFrancis Landy This paper is a contribution to a discussion of feminism, deconstruction and embodiment at the Canadian Society for Biblical Studies Meeting in June, 1999. I briefly align and contrast deconstruction, as a practice of resistance to totalizing discourses, with feminism, as a practice of resistance to totalizing hierarchies. I then engage with three student responses to a course I taught on Leviticus, as part of the dialogic of biblical studies (and certainly deconstructive/feminist ones). In one, I discuss Leviticus as pornography, in the context of the nexus between prohibition and desire, and pay especial attention to the points where Leviticus changes subject position. A second concerns land, imagined in anticipation and retrospectively from exile, as the object of memory and frustration, and speculates on the sexual imagery of sacrifice. A third turns to narrative in Leviticus, in particular that of 24.10-23, as potentially destructive of the whole rhetorical enterprise of the book, which posits a static society. In my conclusion, I express distrust of pure deconstructive or feminist programs, and turn to the paradox that Leviticus is both a text preeminently about the body, and profoundly phallocentric. https://jhsonline.org/index.php/jhs/article/view/5996 |
| spellingShingle | Francis Landy Leviticus, Deconstruction and the Body Journal of Hebrew Scriptures |
| title | Leviticus, Deconstruction and the Body |
| title_full | Leviticus, Deconstruction and the Body |
| title_fullStr | Leviticus, Deconstruction and the Body |
| title_full_unstemmed | Leviticus, Deconstruction and the Body |
| title_short | Leviticus, Deconstruction and the Body |
| title_sort | leviticus deconstruction and the body |
| url | https://jhsonline.org/index.php/jhs/article/view/5996 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT francislandy leviticusdeconstructionandthebody |