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Exegesis |
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Feminist Criticism
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Definition
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- Feminist
criticism is the analysis of biblical texts which seeks to recover
the experience of women in antiquity and to critique norms and
interpretations whereby that experience was and is marginalized. The
feminist critic begins with the observation that ancient texts
were mostly written by men and thus communicate men’s view of
reality. Women’s perspectives, insofar as these differ(ed)
from men’s perspectives, are rarely visible. Thus women
appear in the biblical texts often as the objects rather than
the subjects of religious experience and ecclesial debate. To
remedy this imbalance, the feminist critic reconstructs and emphasizes
women’s experience as it is indirectly revealed in the text: through
narrative descriptions, prescriptive laws, and female metaphors.
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- The
feminist mode of criticism is called a "hermeneutics (or
interpretive strategy) of suspicion," for two reasons. First,
it seeks by definition something the texts unconsciously disregarded
or actively repressed; thus it approaches the texts suspicious
of ancient motives. Second, it is self-critical, aware
of its own role in the activity of interpreting texts. The
feminist critic is conscious that every reading of texts is an
interpretation, and every interpretation has contemporary political
implications.
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- There
is a continuum of opinion about the Bible in feminist circles. At
one pole are men and women who emphasize the positive biblical
images of women and hold these as binding for contemporary faith
and practice. At the other pole are men and women who
see the Bible as irredeemably misogynistic and who therefore reject
the normativity of any biblical precept. In the middle
are those who recognize the patriarchal presuppositions inherent
in the texts, and critique misogynism in the name of other biblical
values (human dignity, liberation from oppression).
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Method
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- Feminist
criticism is not a stand-alone method. Feminist critics approach
various genres differently, depending on the most appropriate
method for the genre, and then add a layer of feminist questions
to their analysis. For example, if a feminist critic wishes to
analyze a narrative, they will generally select either narrative
or social-scientific criticism to explore the dynamics in the
story, and then add properly feminist questions. If they are analyzing
an epistle or speech, they will generally begin with rhetorical
or social-scientific criticism and bring their additional critical
lens to that method. Thus the "method" of feminist exegesis
will look like one of the other critical methods, but you will
also apply whichever of the following feminist questions apply
to your analysis:
- Is
there a woman or a woman's point of view in this text?
- How
are women portrayed in this text? Do they speak? Are
we given access to their point of view?
- Who
has the power in this text? How is power distributed? How
do women get what they want (if they do)? And
what do women want?
- How
does the text represent uniquely female experiences, such
as childbearing or menstruation, or traditionally female
experiences, such as child rearing?
- How
have women's lives and voices been suppressed by this text? Are
women made to speak and act against their own interests?
- What
hidden gender assumptions lie behind this text (e.g., that
women lead men astray, that women cannot be trusted)?
- Is
the import of the passage to reinforce or to alter contemporary
gender roles? Does the text betray any anxiety
about changing gender roles?
- Whose
interests are being served?
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Questions
derived from
J. Cheryl Exum, "Feminist Criticism: Whose Interests Are
Being Served?"
in Judges and Method: New Approaches in Biblical Studies
(ed. Gale A. Yee; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995) 69-70.
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Bibliography
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- Method
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Bach, Alice. "Reading Allowed: Feminist
Biblical Criticism Approaching the Millennium." In
Currents in Research: Biblical Studies 1 (1993) 215-35.
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Clark, Elizabeth A. and Herbert Richardson. "The
New Testament and Christian Origins." In
Women and Religion: The Original Sourcebook of Women
in Christian Thought, rev. ed. (ed. Elizabeth A. Clark and Herbert Richardson; New York: Harper Collins,
1996; original 1977) 9-18. (Orradre has the 1977 edition)
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Lerner, Gerda. The Creation of Patriarchy. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1986.
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Russell, Letty M., ed. Feminist Interpretation
of the Bible. Philadelphia: Westminster,
1985.
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Schüssler Fiorenza, Elisabeth. In Memory
of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian
Origins. New York: Crossroad, 1985.
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--------. Sharing Her Word: Feminist Biblical
Interpretation in Context. Boston: Beacon,
1998.
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Warhol, Robyn R. and Diane Price Herndl, eds. Feminisms:
An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism. New
Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1991.
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- Applications
- Bach,
Alice. Women, Seduction and Betrayal in Biblical
Narrative. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1997.
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Bauckham, Richard. Gospel Women: Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2002.
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Bird, Phyllis A. Missing Persons and Mistaken
Identities: Women and Gender in Ancient Israel, Overtures
to Biblical Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress,
1997.
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Brenner, Athalya and Fokkelien van Dijk-Hemmes. On
Gendering Texts: Female and Male Voices in the Hebrew Bible,
Biblical Interpretations Series 1. Leiden: E.
J. Brill, 1993.
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Camp, Claudia V. Wise, Strange and Holy: The
Strange Woman and the Making of the Bible, Gender, Culture,
Theory 9. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press,
2000.
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Corley, Kathleen E. Private Women, Public
Meals: Social Conflict in the Synoptic Tradition. Peabody,
Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1993.
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Day, Peggy L., ed. Gender and Difference in
Ancient Israel. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1989.
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- Eisen,
Ute E. Women Officeholders in Early Christianity:
Epigraphical and Literary Studies, trans. Linda M. Maloney. Collegeville,
Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2000.
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Exum, Cheryl. "Feminist Criticism: Whose
Interests Are Being Served?" In Judges
and Method: New Approaches in Biblical Studies (ed.
Gale A. Yee; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995) 65-90.
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--------. Fragmented Women: Feminist (Sub)versions
of Biblical Narratives. Valley Forge, Pennsylvania:
Trinity Press International, 1993.
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Fewell, Danna Nolan and David M. Gunn. Gender,
Power, and Promise: The Subject of the Bible's First Story.
Nashville: Abingdon, 1993.
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Fuchs, Esther. "The Literary Characterization
of Mothers and Sexual Politics in the Hebrew Bible." In
Feminist Perspectives on Biblical Scholarship (ed.
Adela Yarbro Collins; Chico, California: Scholars Press,
1985) 117-36.
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- Keller,
Catherine. Apocalypse Now and Then: A Feminist
Guide to the End of the World. Boston: Beacon,
1996.
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- Kittredge,
Cynthia Briggs. "Corinthian Women Prophets
and Paul's Argumentation in 1 Corinthians." In
Paul and Politics: Ekklesia, Israel, Imperium, Interpretation. Essays
in Honor of Krister Stendahl (ed. Richard A. Horsley;
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Trinity Press International, 2000).
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Kraemer, Ross Shepard and Mary Rose D'Angelo, eds. Women
and Christian Origins. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1999.
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Meyers, Carol, Toni Craven and Ross Shepard Kraemer, eds. Women
in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in
the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/ Deuterocanonical Books,
and the New Testament. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 2000.
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Newsom, Carol A. and Sharon H. Ringe, eds. The
Women's Bible Commentary. London/Louisville:
SPCK/Westminster/ John Knox, 1992.
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Pippin, Tina. Death and Desire: The Rhetoric
of Gender in the Apocalypse of John, Literary Currents
in Biblical Interpretation. Louisville: Westminster/John
Knox, 1992.
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- Schottroff,
Luise, Silvia Schroer and Marie-Theres Wacker. Feminist
Interpretation: The Bible in Women's Perspective, trans.
Martin and Barbara Rumscheidt. Minneapolis: Fortress,
1998; German original, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft,
1995.
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Selvidge, Marla J. Notorious Voices: Feminist
Biblical Interpretation, 1500-1920. New York:
Continuum, 1996.
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Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. The Woman's Bible. Boston:
Northeastern University Press, 1993; original 1895-1898.
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Washington, Harold C., Susan Lochrie Graham and Pamela Thimmes,
eds. Escaping Eden: New Feminist Perspectives
on the Bible. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic
Press, 1999.
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Wire, Antoinette Clark. The Corinthian Women
Prophets: A Reconstruction through Paul's Rhetoric. Minneapolis:
Fortress, 1990.
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- Also
of Interest
- Thompson, John L. Writing the Wrongs: Women of the Old Testament among Biblical Commentators from Philo through the Reformation, Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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- For
further resources, see the SCTR 26 Gender in Early Christianity
Course
Bibliography.
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