Sense and stigma in the gospels : depictions of sensory-disabled characters / Louise J. Lawrence.

By: Material type: TextSeries: Biblical refigurationsPublisher: Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2013Edition: First editionDescription: x, 195 pages ; 21 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780199590087
  • 0199590087
  • 9780199590094
  • 0199590095
Subject(s): LOC classification:
  • BS 680 .P435 L39 2013
Contents:
Introduction: Sense and stigma -- Looking through a glass darkly : sensing disabilities of biblical studies -- Blind spots and metaphors : refiguring sightless characters in the gospels -- Sounding out a 'deaf-mute': Mark 7:31-37 as deaf world performance -- The stench of untouchability: sensory tactics of a leper, legion, and leaky woman -- Sense, seizures, and illness narratives: the case of an 'epileptic'/'demon-possessed, boy' -- Conclusion: 'Sensory-disabled' characters refiguring God.
Summary: The senses are used within New Testament texts as instruments of knowledge and power and thus constitute important mediators of cultural knowledge and experience. Likewise, those instances where sensory faculty is perceived to be "disabled" in some way also become key sites for ideological commentary and critique. However, often biblical scholarship, itself "disabled" by eye-centric and textocentric "norms," has read sensory-disabled characters as nothing more than inert sites of healing; their agency, including their alternative sensory modes of communication and resistance to oppression, remain largely unaddressed. In response, Louise J. Lawrence seeks to initiate a variety of interdisciplinary dialogues with disability studies and sensory anthropology in a quest to refigure characters with sensory disabilities featured in the gospels and provide alternative interpretations of their conditions and social interactions. In each instance the identity of those stigmatised as "other" (according to particular physiological, social and cultural "norms") are recovered by exploring ethnographic accounts which document the stories of those experiencing similar rejection on account of perceived sensory "difference" in diverse cross-cultural settings. Through this process these "disabled" characters are recast as individuals capable of employing certain strategies which destabilize the stigma imposed upon them and tactical performers who can subversively achieve their social goals. (Publisher)
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Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Barcode
Book Storms Research Center Main Collection BS 680 .P435 L39 2013 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 98651181

Includes bibliographical references (pages 167-185) and indexes.

Introduction: Sense and stigma -- Looking through a glass darkly : sensing disabilities of biblical studies -- Blind spots and metaphors : refiguring sightless characters in the gospels -- Sounding out a 'deaf-mute': Mark 7:31-37 as deaf world performance -- The stench of untouchability: sensory tactics of a leper, legion, and leaky woman -- Sense, seizures, and illness narratives: the case of an 'epileptic'/'demon-possessed, boy' -- Conclusion: 'Sensory-disabled' characters refiguring God.

The senses are used within New Testament texts as instruments of knowledge and power and thus constitute important mediators of cultural knowledge and experience. Likewise, those instances where sensory faculty is perceived to be "disabled" in some way also become key sites for ideological commentary and critique. However, often biblical scholarship, itself "disabled" by eye-centric and textocentric "norms," has read sensory-disabled characters as nothing more than inert sites of healing; their agency, including their alternative sensory modes of communication and resistance to oppression, remain largely unaddressed. In response, Louise J. Lawrence seeks to initiate a variety of interdisciplinary dialogues with disability studies and sensory anthropology in a quest to refigure characters with sensory disabilities featured in the gospels and provide alternative interpretations of their conditions and social interactions. In each instance the identity of those stigmatised as "other" (according to particular physiological, social and cultural "norms") are recovered by exploring ethnographic accounts which document the stories of those experiencing similar rejection on account of perceived sensory "difference" in diverse cross-cultural settings. Through this process these "disabled" characters are recast as individuals capable of employing certain strategies which destabilize the stigma imposed upon them and tactical performers who can subversively achieve their social goals. (Publisher)

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