Contesting languages: heteroglossia and the politics of language in the early church
How did the Apostle Paul navigate the language differences in Corinth? In this book, Ekaputra Tupamahu investigates Corinthian tongue-speech as a site of political struggle. Tupamahu demonstrates that conceptualizing speaking in tongues as ecstatic, unintelligible expressions is an interpretive inve...
| Summary: | How did the Apostle Paul navigate the language differences in Corinth? In this book, Ekaputra Tupamahu investigates Corinthian tongue-speech as a site of political struggle. Tupamahu demonstrates that conceptualizing speaking in tongues as ecstatic, unintelligible expressions is an interpretive invention of German romantic-nationalist scholarship. Instead, drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of language, Tupamahu finds two forces of language at work in the New Testament: a centripetalizing force of monolingualism, which attempts to force heterogeneous languages into a singular linguistic form, and a countervailing centrifugal force that diverse languages unleash. Cover -- Contesting Languages -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: When Language Becomes a Site of Struggle -- 1. Why on Earth Does "Tongue(s)" Become Ecstatic Speech? -- Pre-Herderian Reading of the Phenomenon of Tongue(s): Missionary-Expansionist Mode of Reading -- Johann Herder and the Romantic-Nationalist Mode of Reading -- Herder's Philosophy of Language -- Herder's Rejection of Tongue(s) as a Multilingual Phenomenon -- Herder's Constructive Explanation -- German Scholarship in the Nineteenth Century -- The Shift in the Mode of Reading -- 2. Heteroglossia of Corinth in the Roman Period -- A Theoretical Framework: Heteroglossic-Immigrant Mode of Reading -- Bakhtin's Notion of Heteroglossia -- Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces of Language -- An Overview of Linguistic Situation in the Greco-Roman World -- The Case for Heteroglossic Roman Corinth -- Latin and Greek in Roman Corinth -- Immigrants in Roman Corinth -- Who Were the Freedpersons in Corinth? -- Roman Corinth at the Crossroads of Trade -- The Isthmian Games -- The Jewish and Samaritan Communities in Corinth -- The Egyptians in Corinth -- Specific Names of Immigrants in Corinth -- Conclusion -- 3. Tongue(s) as a Heteroglossic Phenomenon -- Pauline Appropriation of Isaiah 28:11 -- Concerning the Singular and Plural Forms of γλῶσσα -- Concerning "Translation" -- Concerning φωνή -- Concerning the Issue of the Unintelligibility -- Conclusion -- 4. The Constructed Linguistic Stratification: Prophecy vs. Tongue(s) -- Language vs. Nonlanguage? -- Internal and External Arguments for Linguistic Stratification -- The Internal Argument (14:1-5) -- The External Argument (14:22-25) -- The Result of Stratification: Subject Formation -- 5. The Politicization of Language -- The Politics of Race -- The Politics of Gender -- The Politics of Imperialism. |
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| ISBN: | 0197581145 |