earticle

영어

Re-reading Abimelech’s story (Judg 9:50-54) with the literary approaches, such as narratology, structural criticism, honor/shame study, and gender criticism interprets and multiplies the text’s own meaning that seems to be hidden by narrator’s literary strategy. This re-reading, especially with gender criticism, provides a counter explanation through ‘gender-based shame,’ explaining how honor and shame are described by gender preference. My reading suggests a further approach toward the focalization in which the narrator employs the method of removing hyper-heroization, and to emphasize an intention to dishonor characters step-by-step. As a result, the narrative exposes its concentration on the approaches employed to catch readers’ attention effectively. In other words, the author uses highly-constructed methods of transmission and communication in the narrative. This study employs a scheme of three terms (hyper-heroization, de- heroization, and trans-heroization), which I call a tri-dishonoring pattern. The pattern continually occurs in Judges 9 with Abimelech, the unnamed woman, and the young man, whether the character is male or female, until they are removed/veiled from the text. Even though each character appears to have committed a violent action, he/she is just hyper-heroized, de-heroized soon, and then trans-heroized. Therefore, all characters are victimized for the purpose of generating a constant focus toward the next character, continuing to the end of the pattern. One might see Judges 9 as a valid model of the retribution theme resulting from the Deuteronomistic viewpoint in order to judge the final end of the sinfulness of the wrongdoing. The inglorious end of Abimelech appears as retaliation for his cruel beginning. Others might interpret that the final text explains that the Babylonian exile was inevitable due to the disobedience of Israel. In this case, the text could be blaming Abimelech’s attempt to seize what should have been a divine initiative. However, my reading suggests a possibility of reading a literary pattern that alludes to the realization that God is at the end of the pattern. This theological approach describes the fact that, even though Judges continues to illustrate how to rule/lead the people, the people could not rely on the political systems which they experienced as having bitter ends. Further studies of this pattern should be considered throughout the narratives of the Hebrew Bible. Such a reading contributes to figuring out how the narrator manipulates the characters and employs their own resources by using ambiguity as a literary technique. The presence of such a pattern suggests that all characters are potentially limited in reputation and agency, and that these limitations are crucial for the production of meaning.

한국어

이 논문은 아비멜렉 이야기(삿 9:50-54)에 나타나있는 화자의 문학적 기교를 분석하는 것이다. 먼저 서사이론과 구조주의 비평에서 말하는 다양한 사회적 이념을 담고 있는 문학적 코드들과 패턴이라는 요소들을 연구하고, 이를 본문에 대입하여 새로운 본문 읽기를 할 것이다. 특별히 명예/수치 연구와 젠더비평의 연결점으로 문화적 이념소가 등장인물에 모호하게 표현되고 있다는 것을 밝히고자한다. 본문 연구를 통해서 아비멜렉 이야기의 문학적 초점은 화자가 사용하는 고도의 문학 기교로서 세 개의 불명예 패턴으로 간주되며 이 기교는 등장인물들을 불명예/수치로 꾸미는 등의 모호성과 독자의 집중을 끌어내고 있다. 그러므로 이러한 표현법은 화자가 이야기를 통해서 강조하고자 하는 메시지를 전달하는 최고의 문학적 수단이다.