Pub Date : 2021-11-12DOI: 10.1163/15685152-29040002
C. Bennema
The discipline of cognitive narratology applies insights of cognitive linguistics to narrative analysis. This study seeks to demonstrate the value of cognitive narratology by exploring the role of the reader and the extent of the reader’s knowledge in constructing characters. While traditional narrative criticism often limits itself to the world of the text, cognitive narratology recognizes that the reader’s knowledge from other texts and the real world also contributes to the construction of characters. This study will show that the extent of the reader’s literary and social knowledge of a text affects the construction of characters. As a case study, we will examine the calling of Peter in the canonical Gospels and show how four readers with varying degrees of knowledge will arrive at different constructions of Peter’s character.
{"title":"How Readers Construct New Testament Characters: The Calling of Peter in the Gospels in Cognitive-Narratological Perspective","authors":"C. Bennema","doi":"10.1163/15685152-29040002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685152-29040002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The discipline of cognitive narratology applies insights of cognitive linguistics to narrative analysis. This study seeks to demonstrate the value of cognitive narratology by exploring the role of the reader and the extent of the reader’s knowledge in constructing characters. While traditional narrative criticism often limits itself to the world of the text, cognitive narratology recognizes that the reader’s knowledge from other texts and the real world also contributes to the construction of characters. This study will show that the extent of the reader’s literary and social knowledge of a text affects the construction of characters. As a case study, we will examine the calling of Peter in the canonical Gospels and show how four readers with varying degrees of knowledge will arrive at different constructions of Peter’s character.","PeriodicalId":43103,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Interpretation-A Journal of Contemporary Approaches","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46746327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-12DOI: 10.1163/15685152-29040005
Michael R. Whitenton
This article presents a blending-based approach to characters in early Christian narratives. Even cognitive approaches to complex characters (including my previous work) tend to frame character development as a primarily linear unidirectional process. However, the human mind integrates incoming information through processes that are more recursive than linear and more synergistic than summative. I propose that Cognitive Blending Theory, pioneered by Gilles Fauconnier & Mark Turner, provides a heuristic approach that better accounts for the complexity of cognitive information processing. First, I articulate a blending-based approach to ancient characters. Next, I show the validity of such an approach by modeling the blends for each of Nicodemus’s appearances in John’s gospel, focusing on the novel insights only available through blending. As will become apparent, these blends are interrelated, building upon and challenging one another on the path toward a complete characterization of “Nicodemus” across John’s gospel. I conclude with brief reflections on the future prospects of blending-based character studies.
{"title":"Towards a Blending-Based Approach to Early Christian Characters: Nicodemus as a Test Case","authors":"Michael R. Whitenton","doi":"10.1163/15685152-29040005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685152-29040005","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article presents a blending-based approach to characters in early Christian narratives. Even cognitive approaches to complex characters (including my previous work) tend to frame character development as a primarily linear unidirectional process. However, the human mind integrates incoming information through processes that are more recursive than linear and more synergistic than summative. I propose that Cognitive Blending Theory, pioneered by Gilles Fauconnier & Mark Turner, provides a heuristic approach that better accounts for the complexity of cognitive information processing. First, I articulate a blending-based approach to ancient characters. Next, I show the validity of such an approach by modeling the blends for each of Nicodemus’s appearances in John’s gospel, focusing on the novel insights only available through blending. As will become apparent, these blends are interrelated, building upon and challenging one another on the path toward a complete characterization of “Nicodemus” across John’s gospel. I conclude with brief reflections on the future prospects of blending-based character studies. ","PeriodicalId":43103,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Interpretation-A Journal of Contemporary Approaches","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45020325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-12DOI: 10.1163/15685152-29040004
Bonnie Howe, Eve Sweetser
This study employs an array of cognitive linguistic (cl) models to reveal some of the details in how contemporary readers understand and interpret characters in a New Testament parable, the one often tagged “The Good Samaritan.” It also uses cognitive narrative analysis to explore how Luke constructs and develops the dialog partners in the pericope and the characters in the parable. The larger goal is to use cl to reveal some of the ways in which meanings are evoked, constructed, constrained and opened up. The parable is embedded in a larger narrative and immediate co-text, its characters selected from the stock of Lukan personae. The study explains how narrative spaces are built up; how characters serve as anchors and links to the larger narrative; and how viewpoint shifts proliferate as the story unfolds. The Lukan narrator makes Jesus’ viewpoint clear: “Do this, and you will live!” Readers are implicitly invited to identify with the compassionate character of the parable and emulate him. But the opening question and closing dialog shape the parable’s point, expanding its trajectory beyond mere moral rule revision or definitions of “neighbor” or even of “good” character. This parable allows readers to imagine with Luke a way of life lived in the light of the new epoch Jesus is announcing and inaugurating.
{"title":"Cognitive Linguistic Models for Analyzing Characterization in a Parable: Luke 10:25–37 The Compassionate Samaritan","authors":"Bonnie Howe, Eve Sweetser","doi":"10.1163/15685152-29040004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685152-29040004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This study employs an array of cognitive linguistic (cl) models to reveal some of the details in how contemporary readers understand and interpret characters in a New Testament parable, the one often tagged “The Good Samaritan.” It also uses cognitive narrative analysis to explore how Luke constructs and develops the dialog partners in the pericope and the characters in the parable. The larger goal is to use cl to reveal some of the ways in which meanings are evoked, constructed, constrained and opened up. The parable is embedded in a larger narrative and immediate co-text, its characters selected from the stock of Lukan personae. The study explains how narrative spaces are built up; how characters serve as anchors and links to the larger narrative; and how viewpoint shifts proliferate as the story unfolds.\u0000The Lukan narrator makes Jesus’ viewpoint clear: “Do this, and you will live!” Readers are implicitly invited to identify with the compassionate character of the parable and emulate him. But the opening question and closing dialog shape the parable’s point, expanding its trajectory beyond mere moral rule revision or definitions of “neighbor” or even of “good” character. This parable allows readers to imagine with Luke a way of life lived in the light of the new epoch Jesus is announcing and inaugurating.","PeriodicalId":43103,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Interpretation-A Journal of Contemporary Approaches","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45340512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-12DOI: 10.1163/15685152-29040001
Jan Rüggemeier, E. Shively
This Introduction provides an overview of a cognitive-narratological approach to characters and characterization in New Testament narratives. We begin by comparing conventional and cognitive approaches to New Testament characters and characterization, and delineating a practical methodology designed to sensitize readers to a variety of interpretative possibilities that arise from the cognitive turn within narratology. Afterwards, we apply that methodology in three ways. First, we acquaint readers with the prospect of tracing characters within one New Testament narrative. Then, we hint at the analysis of character migration, that is, a character’s development across more than one narrative. Finally, we provide insight into the analysis of character emotions and the readers’ empathy with characters. To illustrate these aspects, we focus on examples from the Gospel of Mark.
{"title":"Introduction: Towards a Cognitive Theory of New Testament Characters: Methodology, Problems, and Desiderata","authors":"Jan Rüggemeier, E. Shively","doi":"10.1163/15685152-29040001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685152-29040001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This Introduction provides an overview of a cognitive-narratological approach to characters and characterization in New Testament narratives. We begin by comparing conventional and cognitive approaches to New Testament characters and characterization, and delineating a practical methodology designed to sensitize readers to a variety of interpretative possibilities that arise from the cognitive turn within narratology. Afterwards, we apply that methodology in three ways. First, we acquaint readers with the prospect of tracing characters within one New Testament narrative. Then, we hint at the analysis of character migration, that is, a character’s development across more than one narrative. Finally, we provide insight into the analysis of character emotions and the readers’ empathy with characters. To illustrate these aspects, we focus on examples from the Gospel of Mark.","PeriodicalId":43103,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Interpretation-A Journal of Contemporary Approaches","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49293757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-12DOI: 10.1163/15685152-29040008
T. Kraus
The Roman senator Marcellus plays a prominent role among the considerable number of characters mentioned in the apocryphal Acts of Peter. He was very important for the Christian community, and his house was a central meeting place for widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor, before it became the residence of Simon Magus and his followers. By applying a specific approach of cognitive narratology and by taking serious an active participation of readers in analyzing a character more closely, this study intends to analyze the extent to which such an approach might help to perceive and understand Marcellus more appropriately and to highlight his function within the story and his impact on readers.
{"title":"Dramatis Personae in the Acts of Peter: Character Identification and the Conveyance of Ethical Values","authors":"T. Kraus","doi":"10.1163/15685152-29040008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685152-29040008","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The Roman senator Marcellus plays a prominent role among the considerable number of characters mentioned in the apocryphal Acts of Peter. He was very important for the Christian community, and his house was a central meeting place for widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor, before it became the residence of Simon Magus and his followers. By applying a specific approach of cognitive narratology and by taking serious an active participation of readers in analyzing a character more closely, this study intends to analyze the extent to which such an approach might help to perceive and understand Marcellus more appropriately and to highlight his function within the story and his impact on readers.","PeriodicalId":43103,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Interpretation-A Journal of Contemporary Approaches","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49422903","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-12DOI: 10.1163/15685152-29040007
Kirsten Marie Hartvigsen
In the Gospel of Luke 1–2, the narrator focuses on two couples and their (future) sons. The plot of the narrative emphasizes the main characteristics of the characters, which in turn accentuate important characteristics of God. Audience members construct these characters like real-life persons based on the discourse aspect (textual features which indicate character traits, plots, focalization, etc.) and the suggestion aspect (memories, emotions, schemata that are activated or primed, etc.). In this article, the construction of characters is analyzed with insights into mental character models and social schemata. The linear presentation of information in orally performed narratives structures the first part of the analysis. The latter part draws on conceptual blending theory to explore how the character of God is constructed based on selected information projected from the utterances of the other characters to the blended space.
{"title":"How Audience Members Envision New Testament Characters: Mental Character Models, Blending, and the Reception of Luke 1:5–2:52","authors":"Kirsten Marie Hartvigsen","doi":"10.1163/15685152-29040007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685152-29040007","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In the Gospel of Luke 1–2, the narrator focuses on two couples and their (future) sons. The plot of the narrative emphasizes the main characteristics of the characters, which in turn accentuate important characteristics of God. Audience members construct these characters like real-life persons based on the discourse aspect (textual features which indicate character traits, plots, focalization, etc.) and the suggestion aspect (memories, emotions, schemata that are activated or primed, etc.). In this article, the construction of characters is analyzed with insights into mental character models and social schemata. The linear presentation of information in orally performed narratives structures the first part of the analysis. The latter part draws on conceptual blending theory to explore how the character of God is constructed based on selected information projected from the utterances of the other characters to the blended space.","PeriodicalId":43103,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Interpretation-A Journal of Contemporary Approaches","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41851115","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-12DOI: 10.1163/15685152-29040009
Evert van Emde Boas
This response article reviews the contributions of Kirsten Marie Hartvigsen and Thomas Kraus to this special issue, and uses them as the basis for a discussion of some theoretical and methodological issues relevant to cognitive narratology and cognitive literary studies more broadly. Without offering substantial answers itself, the response poses questions concerning (i) the compatibility of different scientific frameworks used in cognitive models of characterization, particularly in the light of currently dominant ‘4ea’ models of cognition (there is a particular focus on the relationship between affective and (other) cognitive aspects of reader response, and on the role of memory); and (ii) the adaptability of cognitive models to dealing with “synthetic” and “thematic” (as opposed to “mimetic”) aspects of literary character. A brief conclusion argues for two-way traffic between the cognitive sciences and literary criticism.
{"title":"Emotion, Memory, Meaning, Directions: A Response to Kirsten Marie Hartvigsen and Thomas J. Kraus","authors":"Evert van Emde Boas","doi":"10.1163/15685152-29040009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685152-29040009","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This response article reviews the contributions of Kirsten Marie Hartvigsen and Thomas Kraus to this special issue, and uses them as the basis for a discussion of some theoretical and methodological issues relevant to cognitive narratology and cognitive literary studies more broadly. Without offering substantial answers itself, the response poses questions concerning (i) the compatibility of different scientific frameworks used in cognitive models of characterization, particularly in the light of currently dominant ‘4ea’ models of cognition (there is a particular focus on the relationship between affective and (other) cognitive aspects of reader response, and on the role of memory); and (ii) the adaptability of cognitive models to dealing with “synthetic” and “thematic” (as opposed to “mimetic”) aspects of literary character. A brief conclusion argues for two-way traffic between the cognitive sciences and literary criticism.","PeriodicalId":43103,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Interpretation-A Journal of Contemporary Approaches","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41425119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-22DOI: 10.1163/15685152-20211596
Nathan J. Nadeau
This article surveys a selection of figures in the recent history of historiography with particular focus on their discussion of the nature of historical epistemology (including facts, evidence, and knowledge) and concludes with implications for New Testament history. Figures and works are selected for their representativeness of new thinking in the field at their time, their critique of prior thinking, and in some cases their reception/critique by representatives of that prior thinking. Specifically, I consider in varying depth the historical epistemology of E. H. Carr, G. R. Elton, Hayden White, Richard Evans, Frank Ankersmit, John Zammito, and Aviezer Tucker. These exemplars are considered in order to construct a landscape of traditional, postmodern, and post-postmodern philosophy of historical epistemology. The survey is selective, but the effect is dialectic; ending with recent post-positivist historical epistemology, I raise a number of considerations for thinking about New Testament history.
{"title":"The Philosophy of History and New Testament History: A Survey of the Former with Some Implications for the Latter","authors":"Nathan J. Nadeau","doi":"10.1163/15685152-20211596","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685152-20211596","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article surveys a selection of figures in the recent history of historiography with particular focus on their discussion of the nature of historical epistemology (including facts, evidence, and knowledge) and concludes with implications for New Testament history. Figures and works are selected for their representativeness of new thinking in the field at their time, their critique of prior thinking, and in some cases their reception/critique by representatives of that prior thinking. Specifically, I consider in varying depth the historical epistemology of E. H. Carr, G. R. Elton, Hayden White, Richard Evans, Frank Ankersmit, John Zammito, and Aviezer Tucker. These exemplars are considered in order to construct a landscape of traditional, postmodern, and post-postmodern philosophy of historical epistemology. The survey is selective, but the effect is dialectic; ending with recent post-positivist historical epistemology, I raise a number of considerations for thinking about New Testament history.","PeriodicalId":43103,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Interpretation-A Journal of Contemporary Approaches","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46439681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-22DOI: 10.1163/15685152-20211628
Ekaterina E. Kozlova
Commenting on the metaphor in Isa. 26:17–18, i.e., ‘we were with child, we writhed in labour, but we gave birth to wind,’ scholars usually note that it is purely symbolic. The ‘wind’ in it indicates ‘nothingness’ representing Israel’s powerlessness to bring about its own salvation, let alone salvation on a larger scale. This article interrogates Isaiah 26 in light of pseudocyesis or false pregnancy, a condition recognised by the obstetrical knowledge of ancient societies and confirmed by modern medicine. More specifically, it explores the passage alongside Mesopotamian medical texts which feature the presence of ‘wind’ in the body describing illnesses in general and cases of abnormal births in particular.
{"title":"Diagnosing Judah’s Distress and Restoration in the Isaiah Apocalypse: Frustrated Childbirth in Isaiah 26 and Mesopotamian Medical Discourse","authors":"Ekaterina E. Kozlova","doi":"10.1163/15685152-20211628","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685152-20211628","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Commenting on the metaphor in Isa. 26:17–18, i.e., ‘we were with child, we writhed in labour, but we gave birth to wind,’ scholars usually note that it is purely symbolic. The ‘wind’ in it indicates ‘nothingness’ representing Israel’s powerlessness to bring about its own salvation, let alone salvation on a larger scale. This article interrogates Isaiah 26 in light of pseudocyesis or false pregnancy, a condition recognised by the obstetrical knowledge of ancient societies and confirmed by modern medicine. More specifically, it explores the passage alongside Mesopotamian medical texts which feature the presence of ‘wind’ in the body describing illnesses in general and cases of abnormal births in particular.","PeriodicalId":43103,"journal":{"name":"Biblical Interpretation-A Journal of Contemporary Approaches","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46145089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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