This book offers a fresh perspective on classical Jewish literature by providing a gender-based, feminist reading of rabbinical anecdotes and legends. Viewing rabbinical legends as sources that generate perceptions about women and gender, Inbar Raveh provides answers to questions such as how the Sages viewed women; how they formed and molded their characterization of them; how they constructed the ancient discourse on femininity; and what the status of women was in their society. Raveh also re-creates the voices and stories of the women themselves within their sociohistorical context, moving them from the periphery to the center and exposing how men maintain power. Chapter topics include desire and control, pain, midwives, prostitutes, and myth. A major contribution to the fields of literary criticism and Jewish studies, Raveh's book demonstrates the possibility of appreciating the aesthetic beauty and complexity of patriarchal texts, while at the same time recognizing their limitations.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Brandeis University Press, University Press of New England
ISBN-10
1611686083
ISBN-13
9781611686081
eBay Product ID (ePID)
209041645
Product Key Features
Author
Inbar Raveh
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Subject
Social Studies: General
Type
Textbook
Additional Product Features
Place of Publication
Hanover
Translated by
Kaeren Fish
Author Biography
INBAR RAVEH is a scholar of rabbinic literature (aggada) and of modern Hebrew literature, as well as a poet in her own right. Her focus over the past several years has been a gender perspective on the legends of the Sages.