A Biblical Interpretation through Cultural-Spatial Imagination Yong Sung Ahn (Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary) As a way of connecting biblical text and Korean readers, I propose to combine the three theoretical/methodological tools: aesthetics of reception as a phenomenology of reading, narrative criticism as a method of textual analysis, and cultural studies as a way of cultural analysis. This paper is focused on the cultural aspect, following a short discussion of the usefulness and limitations of the other two ones. Interpretation has been acknowledged as the engagement between the reader and the text. Both text and the reader are socially and historically located, and the location affects the construction of meaning. This acknowledgement of social location coincides with “cultural turn” arising in cultural studies. Cultural geography among them provides a perspective of “space-time and power relations,” which can be utilized not only for an understanding of cultural context but also for a narrative analysis. Inspired by the geographical imagina- tion, this paper proposes a biblical interpretation through cultural-spatial imagi- nation, especially of Edward Said and Homi Bhabha, both of whom think culture and identity in terms of space. In particular, this paper explores how the cultural geographers’ concept of “the spatial,” Said's contrapuntal reading, through which he reveals a “structure and attitude of reference,” and Bhabha's theory of ambivalence and diaspora from the view of “the third space” can enrich biblical interpretation.

A Biblical Interpretation through Cultural-Spatial Imagination Yong Sung Ahn (Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary) As a way of connecting biblical text and Korean readers, I propose to combine the three theoretical/methodological tools: aesthetics of reception as a phenomenology of reading, narrative criticism as a method of textual analysis, and cultural studies as a way of cultural analysis. This paper is focused on the cultural aspect, following a short discussion of the usefulness and limitations of the other two ones. Interpretation has been acknowledged as the engagement between the reader and the text. Both text and the reader are socially and historically located, and the location affects the construction of meaning. This acknowledgement of social location coincides with “cultural turn” arising in cultural studies. Cultural geography among them provides a perspective of “space-time and power relations,” which can be utilized not only for an understanding of cultural context but also for a narrative analysis. Inspired by the geographical imagina- tion, this paper proposes a biblical interpretation through cultural-spatial imagi- nation, especially of Edward Said and Homi Bhabha, both of whom think culture and identity in terms of space. In particular, this paper explores how the cultural geographers’ concept of “the spatial,” Said's contrapuntal reading, through which he reveals a “structure and attitude of reference,” and Bhabha's theory of ambivalence and diaspora from the view of “the third space” can enrich biblical interpretation.

culture, space, biblical interpretation, realtionship between time-space and power