Local Incoherence, Global Coherence?: Allusion and the Readability of Ancient Israelite Literature

Does a lack of coherence always render a text “unreadable” or “unintelligible”? In this essay, I explore the relationships between three of De Beaugrande and Dressler’s standards of textuality: cohesion, coherence, and intertextuality (considered more narrowly here in the form of allusion). I consid...

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Bibliographic Details
Subtitles:PART I: General
Main Author: Lyons, Michael A. 1967- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: SA ePublications 2021
In: Old Testament essays
Year: 2021, Volume: 34, Issue: 1, Pages: 141-164
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Literature / Israel (Motif) / Allusion / Coherence / Cohesion
IxTheo Classification:BH Judaism
HA Bible
HD Early Judaism
KBL Near East and North Africa
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Description
Summary:Does a lack of coherence always render a text “unreadable” or “unintelligible”? In this essay, I explore the relationships between three of De Beaugrande and Dressler’s standards of textuality: cohesion, coherence, and intertextuality (considered more narrowly here in the form of allusion). I consider examples of textual allusion that readers have considered surprising, incongruous, or incoherent. I conclude that in some cases, there is reason to believe ancient Israelite writers employed allusion in such a way as to create incongruity and incoherence at local text-segment levels while creating a coherent argument at larger text-segment levels. In these cases, at least, the text is still “readable.”
ISSN:2312-3621
Contains:Enthalten in: Old Testament essays
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.17159/2312–3621/2021/v34n1a9