dc.contributor.author | Wagstaff, Bethany Joy | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2017-05-18T17:40:17Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2017-01-10 | |
dc.description.abstract | Despite the dynamic portrayal of clothes in the Hebrew Bible scholars
continue to interpret them as flat and inert objects. They are often overlooked
or reduced to background details in the biblical texts. However, this thesis will
demonstrate that the biblical writers’ depictions of clothes are not incidental
and should not be reduced to such depictions.
This thesis employs a multidisciplinary approach to develop and challenge
existing approaches to the clothing imagery in the Hebrew Bible. It will fall into
two main parts. In the first part, I draw insights from material-cultural theories
to reconfigure ways of thinking about clothing as material objects, and
reassessing the relationships between people and objects. Having challenged
some of the broader conceptions of clothing, I will turn to interrogate the
material and visual evidence for clothing and textiles from ancient Syro-
Palestinian and ancient West Asian cultures to construct a perspective of the
social and material impact of clothing in the culture in which the biblical texts
were constructed and formed. In the second part, I will examine the biblical
writers’ depiction of clothing through two case studies: Joseph’s ketonet
passim (Genesis 37) and Elijah’s adderet (1 Kings 19 and 2 Kings 2). These
analyses will draw from the insights made in the first part of this thesis to
reassess and challenge the conventional scholarly interpretations of clothing
in these texts.
In this thesis, I argue that clothes are employed in powerful ways as material
objects which construct and develop the social, religious and material
dimensions of the text. They are also intimately entangled in relationships with
the characters portrayed by the biblical writers and can even be considered as
extensions of the people with whom they are engaged. Clothes manifest their
own agency and power, which can transform other persons and objects
through their performance and movement in a biblical text. | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Arts and Humanities Research Council | en_GB |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/27594 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | University of Exeter | en_GB |
dc.rights.embargoreason | In order to publish papers from my thesis. | en_GB |
dc.subject | Hebrew Bible | en_GB |
dc.subject | Old Testament | en_GB |
dc.subject | Clothing | en_GB |
dc.subject | Dress | en_GB |
dc.subject | Materiality | en_GB |
dc.subject | Material Culture | en_GB |
dc.subject | Ancient Textile Production | en_GB |
dc.subject | Ancient Textiles | en_GB |
dc.subject | Joseph, Genesis | en_GB |
dc.subject | Elijah and Elisha | en_GB |
dc.title | Redressing Clothing in the Hebrew Bible: Material-Cultural Approaches | en_GB |
dc.type | Thesis or dissertation | en_GB |
dc.contributor.advisor | Stavrakopoulou, Francesca | |
dc.contributor.advisor | Lawrence, Louise | |
dc.publisher.department | Theology and Religion | en_GB |
dc.type.degreetitle | PhD in Theology and Religion | en_GB |
dc.type.qualificationlevel | Doctoral | en_GB |
dc.type.qualificationname | PhD | en_GB |