THE PROSTITUTE AND THE PROPHET
Reading Hosea in the Late Twentieth Century
YVONNE SHERWOOD
Published by T&T Clark International
A Continuum imprint
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Copyright © 1996 Sheffield Academic Press
First edition published as JSOTS 212/Gender, Culture, Theory 2 by Sheffield Academic Press
This edition published 2004
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0567040712 (paperback)
This book is dedicated to my parents, who have given me many things, but none so precious as the freedom to be myself.
Problem Texts and Problem Plays
The Strange Case of the Missing Prostitute: A Response to Some Responses to Hosea 1:2
2. The Averted Gaze: ‘Pre-Critical’ Readings of Hosea 1:2
3. Modern Mythmakers, or Twentieth-Century Darshanim
4. Art and Commentary: Blurring the Boundaries
‘Sign Language’: A Semiotic Analysis of Hosea 1–3
1. Readerly and Writerly Texts
Derrida among the Prophets: A Deconstructive Reading of Hosea 1–3
1. An Introduction to Deconstruction
3. Reactions to Derrida in Biblical Studies
Gomer’s Marriage: A Feminist Analysis of Hosea 1–3
1. Comments on Metacommentary: A Feminist Reappraisal
2. ‘A “Right Strawy Epistle” for the Women’s Bible’: Some Women’s Responses to Hosea 1–3
3. Towards a Feminist Approach to Hosea
4. Toppling the Pack: A Feminist Deconstructive Reading of Hosea 1–3
No work is complete without acknowledgment to those who have helped the author and generally made her task easier and more enjoyable than it might otherwise have been.
This book is a slight revision of my doctoral thesis and I consider myself lucky to have been part of a lively group of postgraduates so that I did not have to spend more time than was necessary in the ‘not-so-splendid’ isolation usually associated with doctoral work. In memory of times spent in seedy hotels in Dublin and Münster, of coffee in the Plaza, and of Friday nights at the Star and Garter, this book is a tribute to Mark Love, Ruth-Anne Reese, Noel Bailey, Todd Klutz, Froo Signore, Helen Duckett and all the ‘class of 91–94’.
I would also like to thank David Clines, my supervisor, for giving me initial momentum ...
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About The Prostitute and the Prophet: Reading Hosea in the Late Twentieth CenturySherwood unravels the three chapters of Hosea by examining the particular complexities of the text and confronts the frictions that arise between the text and reader. She considers four problematic areas: the conflict between text and reader over the ‘improper’ relationship between Hosea and Gomer; the bizarre prophetic sign-language that conscripts people into a cosmic charade; the text’s propensity to subvert its central theses; and the emergent tensions between the feminist reader and the text. Aiming to bring together literary criticism and biblical scholarship, Sherwood provides lucid introductions to ideological criticism, semiotics, deconstruction and feminist criticism, while also focusing on the implications of these approaches not only for the book of Hosea but for biblical studies in general. |
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