Making a home: the difficulty of dwelling in Genesis and its intertexts

BT Doctrinal Theology;PR English literature

Harris, Emily ; Nicholson, Sarah

University:University of Glasgow

Department:School of Critical Studies

关键词: Hebrew Bible, Genesis, literature, midrash, home, home-making, homecoming.;   

Others  :  http://theses.gla.ac.uk/7470/1/2015HarrisPhD.pdf

来源: University of Glasgow

【 摘 要 】

Using an inter-disciplinary range of research on the home-space, home-making practices andthe concept of ‘dwelling’, I achieve a new understanding of a central thematic concern inGenesis: its characters’ struggle to build stable, lasting homes upon the earth. Genesis startswith a lost home-space named Eden, before progressing towards other temporary dwellingssuch as the ark Noah builds, and Abraham’s tents. The biblical ‘home’ is constructed from amix of materials: the birth of children, divine instructions and journeys, dreams, homemakingacts and so on. Alongside social scientific criticism, this thesis uses literary and midrashicintertexts as a way into re-imagining the ‘unhomely’ experiences of certain characters, ordrawing out tensions in acts such as home-unmaking or homecomings. The investigation ofthe concept of ‘home’ in Genesis contributes to the study of this space more widely, as well asreinterpreting familiar biblical themes such as identity, family and community.