Reduced Laughter : Seriocomic Features and Their Functions in the Book of Kings.

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- List of Figures -- List of Abbreviations -- Miscellaneous Conventions -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- Humorous Genres within the Bible? -- Humour, Truth and Gravity -- How we Read the Bible -- Outline of the Investigation -- Chapter 2 Some Unanswered Questions in the Book of Kings -- The Interplay of Diachronic and Synchronic Approaches to the Text -- Methodological Decisions -- The Central Portion of Kings -- Enigma: The Ethical Content of the Prophets' Actions -- Enigma: The Prominence of Israel and the Peculiar Privilege of Aram -- Enigma: The Command-Prophecy formula in I Kings 19:15-17 -- Conclusion -- Chapter 3 Seriocomic Readings and the Mise-en-abyme: Useful Heuristics for Biblical Criticism? -- Introduction to the Life and Work of Bakhtin -- Bakhtin and the Dialogical Novel -- Bakhtin and Carnival -- Menippean Satire -- Transferability to the Bible? -- Polyphony and the Hebrew Bible -- Carnival and the Hebrew Bible -- Biblical Scholarship and Bakhtin -- Towards a Diagnostic Heuristic -- Mise-en-abyme -- Chapter 4 An Investigation into the Seriocomic Elements at the Heart of Kings -- Francisco García-Treto on Jehu -- Examining for Diagnostic Features of the Seriocomic Genre -- Violation of Linguistic Norms -- Inversion of Hierarchy and Reversals -- Masking and Foolery -- Feasting -- Transgression of Bodily Barriers and the Grotesque -- Profanation of the Sacred -- Fantasticality -- Comparison with Similar Passages in the Rest of Kings -- Comparison with Parallel Passages in Chronicles -- Conclusion -- Chapter 5 Anti-prophetic Rhetoric -- The Prophets of Baal -- False Prophets of YHWH -- Elijah -- Elijah's Self-pity? -- Elijah's Hubris? -- Elisha -- The Word of YHWH and the Prophet -- The Magic of the Man of God? -- Elisha's Reputation -- The Lying Prophet? -- The Irony of the Bears.

Satire of the Shunammite -- Naaman and the Servants -- Evidence for an Anti-prophetic Satire -- Chapter 6 The Command-Prophecy Formula -- Establishing an Inclusio -- Crowning-decrowning -- Limits of the Central Section -- Setting Up a Parallelism -- Chapter 7 Satire against Kings and Nations -- Critique of Aram Mirrored upon Israel -- The Wise and Foolish Kings -- The Blinding of the Aramean Soldiers and the Siege of Samaria -- Use of Pagan Nations to Critique Israel? -- Extension of the Critique to Judah -- Binding the Three Nations Together -- Pollution of the House of Judah with Omride Blood -- Athaliah Paralleling Jezebel -- Other Comparisons of Judah with the House of Ahab -- The Damascus Altar -- Conclusion -- Chapter 8 Conclusion -- Evaluation -- Clustering of Seriocomic Features -- Accounting for Difficulties in the Text -- Coherence-Comparison with the Overall Theology of Kings -- Comparison with the Work of Other Scholars -- Humour in Kings? -- Is YHWH a Player in the Carnival? -- Potential Criticisms -- Could the Author have been this Subtle? -- Could the Author have Expected his Reader to be this Perceptive? -- Why has the Reading Remained Undetected Previously? -- Are the Features Just Indicative of Source Diversity? -- Concluding Remarks -- Appendix 1 The χ-squared Test Applied to Rendsburg's Findings of Variant Linguistic Features in the Northern Narratives of Kings -- Appendix 2 Seriocomic Events of the Central Part of Kings, Itemised by Chapter -- Bibliography -- Index of Authorities -- Index of Biblical References -- Index of Subjects.

In Reduced Laughter: Seriocomic Features and their Functions in the Book of Kings, Helen Paynter uses a hermeneutic of carnivalization and mirroring to offer a radical, satirical re-evaluation of the Elijah-Elisha and Aram narratives in the book of Kings.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.