Approaches to Literary Readings of Ancient Jewish Writings

In this volume twelve contributions discuss the relevance, accuracy, potential, and possible alternatives to a literary reading of ancient Jewish writings, especially the Hebrew Bible. Drawing on different academic fields (biblical studies, rabbinic studies, and literary studies) and on various methodologies (literary criticism, rhetorical criticism, cognitive linguistics, historical criticism, and reception history), the essays form a state-of-the-art overview of the current use of the literary approach toward ancient Jewish texts. The volume convincingly shows that the latest approaches to a literary reading can still enhance our understanding of these texts.

Klaas Smelik, Ph.D. (1977), Ghent University, is Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at that university. He has published monographs and articles on Hebrew Epigraphy, Hebrew Bible, Biblical Hebrew, Jewish Studies, Ancient History and Religious Studies, including Converting the Past (1992).

Karolien Vermeulen is Research and Teaching Assistant Hebrew at Ghent University and Research Fellow at the Institute of Jewish Studies, University of Antwerp. She has published several articles on wordplay, metaphor, and related phenomena in the Hebrew Bible.

Contributors include Scott Noegel, Johan de Joode, Hanneke Van Loon, Angela Erisman Roskop, Klaas Smelik, Robert Gordon, Karolien Vermeulen, Ellen Van Wolde, Anne-Laure Zwilling, Tamar Kadari, Lennart Lehmhaus, and Rebecca Kneller.