This study argues that the story of the book of Jonah may be interpreted as a transformation of a familiar topos in which the protagonist undergoes a rite de passage during a quest that takes him towards a foreign land. While in a liminal "no man's land" the hero overcomes several challenges before reintegrating with humanity in an act of communitas, but Jonah fails in this and the prophet is consequently depicted as an antihero. To demonstrate how the story's structure adapts recognizable components from this topos, I have compared the Jonah story with two other fantastic tales from the ancient Near East. This portrayal of Jonah reflects the unsettled social situation in which the narrative took form, and I suggest several ways the story might be interpreted in this context.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03292010-110411 |
| Date | 13 April 2010 |
| Creators | Harkins, Robert Justin |
| Contributors | Jack M. Sasson, Douglas Knight, Annalisa Azzoni, Volney Gay, Herbert Marbury |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03292010-110411/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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