Biblical Women in Contemporary Novels in English
From Margaret Atwood to Jenny Diski
Series: - Costerus New Series Online, Volume: 226
- Costerus New Series, Volume: 226
How are well-known female characters from the Bible represented in late 20th-century novels? In Biblical Women in Contemporary Novels in English, Ingrid Bertrand presents a detailed analysis of biblical rewritings by Roberts, Atwood, Tennant, Diamant and Diski focusing on six different women (Eve, Noah’s wife, Sarah, Bilhah, Dinah and Mary Magdalene). She shows how these heroines give themselves a voice that rests not only on words but also on silences. Exploring the many forms that silence can take, she presents an innovative typology that sheds new light on this profoundly meaningful phenomenon.
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Ingrid Bertrand, Ph.D. (2011), is an Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature at the Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles and the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium). She has published on biblical rewritings and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Her research interests are dystopias and manifestations of silence in novels.
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1Setting the Frame. Voices and Silences
2Ambivalent Responses to the Bible
1Listening to the Implicit Dimension of the Bible
2Challenging Women’s Silencing
2.1Dumb Silencing
2.2Garrulous Silencing
2.3Deaf Silencing
3So Many Forms of Silencing to Denounce
1The Demoted, Repressed Feminine: The Wild Girl
2Amputated Subjecthood: The Handmaid’s Tale
3Boarding the Ark of the Refusées: The Book of Mrs Noah
4Beware of the Big Bad Lies: Sisters and Strangers
5The Voiceless Cipher in the Text: The Red Tent
6Battling Against God: Only Human
7Feminist Responses to Women’s Silencing
4Dinah’s Ode to the Plural Mother
1A Universe of Mothers and Goddesses
2The Bliss and Burden of Silence
2.1In the Image of the (Great) Mother(s)
2.2From Eloquent Silence to Silencing
2.3At One with the Mothers
5Mary Magdalene’s Quest for Identity and God
1Introduction into the Ineffable Divine
1.1A Voluptuous Dissolution of the Self
1.2Ineffable Beauty and Harmony
2Regaining Primeval Wholeness
2.1Sexuality as a Route to the Divine
2.2The Marriage between the Inner Man and the Inner Woman
2.3The Rehabilitation of the Female Divine Principle
2.4Celebrating Life and the Eloquent Silence of Intimacy
3The Harrowing of Hell and Resurrection
3.1Mary Magdalene’s First Trip to the Nether Realm
3.2On the Erroneous Belief in the Bodily Resurrection
3.3Mary Magdalene’s Second Harrowing Scene
4The Voice of Female Dissent
4.1Each of Us Is the Rock
4.2Sailing in and to Silence
6Mrs Noah’s Journey to Creativity
1On the Polyphonic, Silent Use of Epigraphy
1.1Echoing Donne’s Erratic Progress of a Multiform Soul
1.2In the Image of … Donne’s Soul: Outshining Noah’s Ark
1.3Sharing a Playful, Ironic Distance towards Authority
1.4Tempering with Donne’s Voice
2A Great Web of Blurred Voices
2.1Voice Blurring Across Narrative Levels
2.2Blurring within the Main Narrative Level
2.3A Mixture of Chaos and Rhythm Celebrating Plurality
2.4Delivered from Confinement, Delivered through Confinement?
2.5A Heavy Weight to Bear?
2.6Conjugating “To Come”
3Climbing Down Deep Inside, to Spectral Silence
3.1Partying with the Quintessential Silenced
3.2Speaking with(out) the Lost Mother
7Sarai’s Story Game of Competing Voices and Rival Desires
1Voice Blurring in a War of the Wor(l)ds
1.1At the Start, There Is an End
1.2Unidentified Narrative Voice for a Silenced Heroine
1.3Blurred Rival Versions of the Beginning(s)
2Sarai’s Early Encounter with Spectral Silence
2.1Primeval Loss and the Beginning of Desire
2.2The Beginning of the End, and Disappointing New Starts
3Sarai-Abram-God, a Destructive Triangular Desire
3.1When the One Finds Her Own Voice, the Other Finds God’s
3.2Enter I Am That I Am, the Homewrecker: Sarai Nil, God One
3.3The Battle of Wor(l)ds: Sarai One, God One
3.4The Choice of Laughter: Sarai Two, God One
8Offred’s Reticent Tale of Resistance
1An Introduction to Reticence
2Offred’s Polyphonic Testimony
2.1Dialoguing with the Narratee(s)
2.2Passing On Other Mutinous Female Voices
2.3Offred’s Chatty Discourse with the Maker
3Fighting for a Plurality of Identities and Meanings
3.1Remembering Her Former Selves
3.2Games of Words, Power and Desire with the Commander
3.3Offred as Secret Lover
9The Playfully Reticent Tale of Eve’s Journey
1An Introduction into Grandmother Dummer’s Reticence
2From the Passive Princess to the Demonic Lilith
3Subverting the Extremes: From Harlot to Madonna
4Female Lies and Truths: From Courtesan to Bluestocking
10Passing on the Heroine’s Voice
1Mary Magdalene’s Distrust of Words
2Eve’s Ultimate Subversive Enactment of Female Stereotypes
3Sarai and the Ineffable Human Horror
4Dinah’s Life Beyond the Grave
5The Irreconcilability of Mrs Noah’s Aspirations?
6Offred’s Blurred Voice
11Conclusion
Works Cited
Index
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1Setting the Frame. Voices and Silences
Part 1: The Silenced Feminine?
2Ambivalent Responses to the Bible
1Listening to the Implicit Dimension of the Bible
2Challenging Women’s Silencing
2.1Dumb Silencing
2.2Garrulous Silencing
2.3Deaf Silencing
3So Many Forms of Silencing to Denounce
1The Demoted, Repressed Feminine: The Wild Girl
2Amputated Subjecthood: The Handmaid’s Tale
3Boarding the Ark of the Refusées: The Book of Mrs Noah
4Beware of the Big Bad Lies: Sisters and Strangers
5The Voiceless Cipher in the Text: The Red Tent
6Battling Against God: Only Human
7Feminist Responses to Women’s Silencing
Part 2: Voices Draped in Silences
Section 1:Encountering the Other through Silences. Diamant’s the Red Tent and Roberts’s the Wild Girl
4Dinah’s Ode to the Plural Mother
1A Universe of Mothers and Goddesses
2The Bliss and Burden of Silence
2.1In the Image of the (Great) Mother(s)
2.2From Eloquent Silence to Silencing
2.3At One with the Mothers
5Mary Magdalene’s Quest for Identity and God
1Introduction into the Ineffable Divine
1.1A Voluptuous Dissolution of the Self
1.2Ineffable Beauty and Harmony
2Regaining Primeval Wholeness
2.1Sexuality as a Route to the Divine
2.2The Marriage between the Inner Man and the Inner Woman
2.3The Rehabilitation of the Female Divine Principle
2.4Celebrating Life and the Eloquent Silence of Intimacy
3The Harrowing of Hell and Resurrection
3.1Mary Magdalene’s First Trip to the Nether Realm
3.2On the Erroneous Belief in the Bodily Resurrection
3.3Mary Magdalene’s Second Harrowing Scene
4The Voice of Female Dissent
4.1Each of Us Is the Rock
4.2Sailing in and to Silence
Section 2:Blurred Voices and Spectral Silences. Roberts’s the Book of Mrs Noah and Diski’s Only Human
6Mrs Noah’s Journey to Creativity
1On the Polyphonic, Silent Use of Epigraphy
1.1Echoing Donne’s Erratic Progress of a Multiform Soul
1.2In the Image of … Donne’s Soul: Outshining Noah’s Ark
1.3Sharing a Playful, Ironic Distance towards Authority
1.4Tempering with Donne’s Voice
2A Great Web of Blurred Voices
2.1Voice Blurring Across Narrative Levels
2.2Blurring within the Main Narrative Level
2.3A Mixture of Chaos and Rhythm Celebrating Plurality
2.4Delivered from Confinement, Delivered through Confinement?
2.5A Heavy Weight to Bear?
2.6Conjugating “To Come”
3Climbing Down Deep Inside, to Spectral Silence
3.1Partying with the Quintessential Silenced
3.2Speaking with(out) the Lost Mother
7Sarai’s Story Game of Competing Voices and Rival Desires
1Voice Blurring in a War of the Wor(l)ds
1.1At the Start, There Is an End
1.2Unidentified Narrative Voice for a Silenced Heroine
1.3Blurred Rival Versions of the Beginning(s)
2Sarai’s Early Encounter with Spectral Silence
2.1Primeval Loss and the Beginning of Desire
2.2The Beginning of the End, and Disappointing New Starts
3Sarai-Abram-God, a Destructive Triangular Desire
3.1When the One Finds Her Own Voice, the Other Finds God’s
3.2Enter I Am That I Am, the Homewrecker: Sarai Nil, God One
3.3The Battle of Wor(l)ds: Sarai One, God One
3.4The Choice of Laughter: Sarai Two, God One
Section 3:Reticent Testimonies. Atwood’s the Handmaid’s Tale and Tennant’s Sisters and Strangers
8Offred’s Reticent Tale of Resistance
1An Introduction to Reticence
2Offred’s Polyphonic Testimony
2.1Dialoguing with the Narratee(s)
2.2Passing On Other Mutinous Female Voices
2.3Offred’s Chatty Discourse with the Maker
3Fighting for a Plurality of Identities and Meanings
3.1Remembering Her Former Selves
3.2Games of Words, Power and Desire with the Commander
3.3Offred as Secret Lover
9The Playfully Reticent Tale of Eve’s Journey
1An Introduction into Grandmother Dummer’s Reticence
2From the Passive Princess to the Demonic Lilith
3Subverting the Extremes: From Harlot to Madonna
4Female Lies and Truths: From Courtesan to Bluestocking
Part 3: Closing Silences Voicing Openness
10Passing on the Heroine’s Voice
1Mary Magdalene’s Distrust of Words
2Eve’s Ultimate Subversive Enactment of Female Stereotypes
3Sarai and the Ineffable Human Horror
4Dinah’s Life Beyond the Grave
5The Irreconcilability of Mrs Noah’s Aspirations?
6Offred’s Blurred Voice
11Conclusion
Works Cited
Index
All interested in silence and voice in literature or the Bible, reconfigurations of biblical myths and characters, and the fictional work of Atwood, Roberts, Diski, Tennant or Diamant.