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June 17, 2006
The Role of Readers, Present and Future, in Motivating Literature
Jim Davila at PaleoJudaica.com directs us to an abnormally interesting article, "A literary circle in Judah," in Haaretz by Yaacov Shavit. Jim is correct in saying this piece is "speculative" but it is interesting nonetheless. The question of the extent to which the population of Judah was literate has been a subject of long standing speculation for nearly as long as there has been a Hebrew Bible. Shavit's article moves this discussion in an interesting direction. It asks, "Who constituted this reading public in the generations before the destruction of the First Temple?" And offers this answer,
He is the ideal reader of a linguistically, poetically and conceptually complex text; a reader who has the time to delve deeply into the text in a rereading in order to unravel the connection - whether overt of covert - that exists between different textual units within it.
After discussing this ideal reader (Who were they? Where did they read? How did they understand what to read?) Shavit concludes,
What we have is a wonderful and singular phenomenon: A large disparity existed between the rare quality of the scriptural work and the reading public for which it was in theory intended at the time of its composition, but which it could not reach. If so, it is impossible not to wonder whether the Deuteronomist composition (and not only it) was not written for its time, but with thought for future generations, and whether it indeed became the formative text of the consciousness of the past only generations after the return to Zion and not "in the present" - that is, in the First Temple period. It was only then that the people of Israel became a community of the book; that is, a community whose world is constructed and shaped by one compilation of texts, which became a "book." [emphasis added]
Some ancient authors seemed to have future, unknown readers, in mind. Herodotus' history begins,
Ηροδότου Αλικαρνησσέος ιστορίης απόδεξις ηδε, ως μήτε τα γενόμενα εξ ανθρώπων τω χρόνω εξίτηλα γένηται, μήτε εργα μεγάλα τε και θωμαστα, τα μεν Ελλησι τα δε βαρβάροισι αποδεχθέντα, ακλεα γένηται, τά τε αλλα και δι' ην αιτίην επολέμησαν αλλήλοισι.This is the Showing forth of the Inquiry of Herodotus of Halicarnassos, to the end that neither the deeds of men may be forgotten by lapse of time, nor the works great and marvellous, which have been produced some by Hellenes and some by Barbarians, may lose their renown; and especially that the causes may be remembered for which these waged war with one another. [Emphasis added, G. C. Macaulay trans.]
And Josephus, writing his Antiquities of the Jews long after both Herodotus and the authors of the Hebrew Bible authored their treatises, indicated that writing "for the advantage of posterity" was one of his own reasons for his history.
That being said, it is not so clear to me that possible future readers played any part in the work of the Deuteronomists. However, how these long complex accounts came to be and what those early readers thought of them is an area of considerable interest. Shavit stimulates thought.
Shavit says something else that I wonder about;
Even if we assume that in Judah individual reading began earlier, it is clear that such a reader does not resemble an author, who draws for his work on earlier sources and conducts a conscious dialogue with them.
What motivates such an assumption? If the original reason for compiling these complex treatises was to teach the art of reading (and writing), then in a very real sense the reader would resemble the author at least in terms of ultimate goals. The reader would be seeking to be like the author, a literate person. Of course, in most other ancient educational contexts literary teaching materials were short, one "tablet" in length, and less complex. Does this change when the media is extendable?
I'll have more to say on this in a future post on "The Jerusalem Academy?"
Posted by Duane Smith at June 17, 2006 3:32 PM | Read more on Scribal Schools |
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