The Hebrew Bible in Contemporary Fiction and Poetry

The chapters, written by an international group of scholars, explore biblical retellings in a variety of modern languages, ranging from Korean and Chinese to Hebrew and Arabic. Most of the contributions deal with retellings of the narrative books (Genesis, Exodus, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, Daniel), but a few are devoted to prophetic (Hosea) and poetic (Psalms) ones. Another set of articles looks beyond specific biblical books and instead analyses how the Bible has been retold in different literary genres (Children and YA literature, sci-fi and fantasy, Christian Inspiration fiction) and in modern political discourse (North and South Korea). All the chapters further highlight how literary retellings of the Bible form two-way movements. They reveal the often-subversive quality of literary retellings: retellings not only emphasise those nuances in the biblical texts that create unease but also problematise their standpoint and question their moral and theological message.
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