Queer Fish: Following the Great Transgender Fish in the Book of Jonah
This paper builds both on Raymond Person’s “The Role of Non-Human Characters in Jonah” where he argues that the book of Jonah is a satire of an anthropocentric worldview and on the work of transecological notions of enmeshment. The great fish stands at the center of the text and Jonah’s transformati...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2023
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| In: |
Biblical interpretation
Year: 2023, Volume: 31, Issue: 5, Pages: 568-577 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Jonah
/ Fish
/ Queer theory
/ Transgender
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| IxTheo Classification: | FD Contextual theology HB Old Testament |
| Further subjects: | B
Queer
B Jonah B Transgender B Fish |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This paper builds both on Raymond Person’s “The Role of Non-Human Characters in Jonah” where he argues that the book of Jonah is a satire of an anthropocentric worldview and on the work of transecological notions of enmeshment. The great fish stands at the center of the text and Jonah’s transformation, but the fish itself is transformed, starting the journey as a male fish and later becoming a female fish. Queer bodies and animal bodies are often mere metaphors in literature, examples of their andro-anthropo counterparts who are the subjects of the story. By taking the fish’s transition seriously, the fish’s queer body becomes the center of the satire and cannot be dissolved as merely a device for teaching Jonah a lesson. The fish is everything that Jonah is not: a transgender or gender fluid being with a nurturing nature and a fierce obedience to God. |
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| ISSN: | 1568-5152 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Biblical interpretation
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685152-31050004 |