The satire of the anti-prophet:
irony in Jonah’s narrative
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23925/2236-9937.2021v24p549-582Keywords:
Jonah, irony, satireAbstract
The book of Jonah has been widely known as a literary masterpiece. Over the last decades, scholars have explored narrative features of the book as a whole emphasizing its form and content. However, among these literary analyses, few have mentioned a key phenomenon to comprehend the book: the presence of irony. In the book o Jonah, irony is a key to disclose the multiple levels of interconnection between the various parts of the book. Essential to the characterization, it plays with the reader’s expectations; all characters act opposed to the expected. Irony is also related with point of view; the narrator explores it through the words he puts into the mouth of the characters. Finally there is irony in the way these words echo other texts form the canon; the king of Nineveh’s speech, for example, reproduce the words of Moses in Ex. 32 and 34. Through a narrative criticism analysis, this article aims to explore how irony operates making this book the satire of a anti-prophet.
References
ACKERMAN, J. S. “Jonah”. In: ALTER, R.; KERMODE, F. (Eds.). The Literary Guide to the Bible. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987. p. 234-244.
BERLIN, A. “A Rejoinder to John A. Miles, Jr., with Some Observations on the Nature of Prophecy”. The Jewish Quarterly Review. New Series, v. 66, n. 4, p. 227-235, April 1976.
BRUEGGEMANN, W. The Prophetic Imagination. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001.
CHISHOLM Jr., R. B. Handbook on the Prophets. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002.
CRAIG, K. M. A Poetics of Jonah: art in the service of ideology. Atlanta: Mercer University Press, 1993.
DAVIDSON, S. V. “Postcolonial Readings of the Prophets”. In: SHARP C. J. (Ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the Prophets. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. p. 507-527.
DAVIS, E. F. Biblical Prophecy: perspectives for Christian theology, discipleship, and ministry. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014. (Interpretation).
FRETHEIM, T. E. The Message of Jonah: a theological commentary. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Pub., 1977.
FRYE, N. Anatomia da Crítica: quatro ensaios. São Paulo: Realizações, 2014.
GOOD, E. M. Irony in the Old Testament. Sheffield: The Almond Press, 1981.
GUNN, D. M.; FEWELL, D. N. Narrative in the Hebrew Bible. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
HOLBERT, J. C. “‘Deliverance belongs to Yahweh!’: satire in the book of Jonah”. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 21, p. 59-81, October 1981.
JEMIELITY, T. Satire and the Hebrew Prophets. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1992. (Literary Currents in Biblical Interpretation).
KÖEHLER, L. et al. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994-2000. Electronic edition.
MAGONET, J. Form and Meaning: studies in literary techniques in the book of Jonah. Sheffield: The Almond Press, 1983.
MARCUS, D. From Balaam to Jonah: anti-prophetic satire in the Hebrew Bible. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995. (Brown Judaic Studies, 301).
MILES Jr., J. A. “Laughing at the Bible: Jonah as parody”. In: The Jewish Quarterly Review. New Series, v. 65, n. 3, p. 168-181, January 1975.
MUECKE, D. C. The Compass of Irony. London: Methuen, 1969.
RYU, C. J. “Divine Rhetoric and Prophetic Silence in the book of Jonah”. In: FEWELL, D. N. (Ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Narrative. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. p. 226-236.
SHARP, C. J. Irony and Meaning in the Hebrew Bible. Bloomington; Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2009.
SIMON, U. The JPS Bible Commentary: Jonah. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1999.
STERNBERG, M. The poetics of the Biblical Narrative: ideological literature and the drama of reading. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.
STUART, D. Word Biblical Commentary: Hosea-Jonah. Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002. v. 31.
SWEENEY, M. A. The Twelve Prophets. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 2000. (Berit Olam Series, 1).
TRIBLE, P. Rhetorical Criticism: context, method and the book of Jonah. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994. (Guides to Biblical Scholarship).
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Teoliteraria - Journal of Literatures and Theologies (On Line) ISSN 2236-9937
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
TeoLiteraria – Journal of Literatures and Theologies owns the copyright of all published material. The whole reproduction of the articles of this Journal in other publications or for any other purpose, by any means, requires a written permission of the editor of this journal. Partial reproductions of articles (abstracts, more than 500 words text, tables, figures and other illustrations) must have a permission written by the publisher and the authors.
