Narrative exegesis

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Narrative exegesis is a newer method of biblical exegesis that is particularly widespread in English-speaking countries and has been increasingly adopted in German biblical studies for around twenty years. The narrative exegesis is based on the observation that many passages of the Bible are narrative texts: for example the four Gospels , the Acts of the Apostles or the stories about the parents , Moses , Samuel or the kings of Israel. Therefore, biblical exegesis uses models and methods from literary narrative theoryon the Bible. It is based in particular on the theory of New Criticism and Close Reading , but also emphasizes that the reader is involved in the creation of the sense of the text (cf. reception aesthetics ).

method

Unlike the historical-critical method, narrative exegesis is not interested in the genesis of the biblical narrative texts, but in the analysis of their present form. For this purpose, the following questions are used, which, according to JL Resseguie and Shimon Bar-Efrat, are essential for understanding their structure:

The narrator

  • 1. From what perspective is the text told?
  • 2. How does the narrator appear: as omniscient, evident or hidden?

rhetoric

  • 1. Are there repetitions of keywords, sentences, topics, patterns, situations or actions?
  • 2. Are there similar verbs (word fields) that indicate a particular topic?
  • 3. What do stylistic figures ( parallelism , antithesis , inclusion, chiasmus , rhetorical question ) contribute to the narrative?
  • 4. How is the text section structured? Are there inclusions, changes in characters or actions, or other changes that separate scenes from each other?
  • 5. How does the narration begin? How does it end?
  • 6. Which images, symbols, opposites, comparisons or metaphors can be found in the text? Do they indicate a specific topic? In what way do they contribute to the characterization of the characters and the course of action?
  • 7. If a misunderstanding is portrayed in the text, how does it contribute to the subject of the narrative?
  • 8. Is irony used in a speech or action ? How does irony express a certain point of view?
  • 9. Are general or everyday points of view alienated by the rhetorical means?

Setting

  • 1. Which geographical or topographical setting can be observed? Are the terms meant symbolically? Should the setting be a reminder of important events in Israel's history?
  • 2. Is the narration drawn in a particular social, cultural, religious or political situation?
  • 3. Are “props” used? In what way do they serve to advance the course of action, to develop the characterization of the characters or to describe a point of view?
  • 4. Which temporal environment is depicted in each case? What is its symbolic meaning in the story? (Example: Nicodemus comes to Jesus “by night”.)

Characterization of the figures

  • 1. What do the characters speak? What are your first words? Does your speech express a certain mood or attitude?
  • 2. What are the characters' actions?
  • 3. How do the framework conditions influence our understanding of the characters?
  • 4. What do other characters say about the character? What titles and descriptive phrases do they use?
  • 5. What are the features of the figure? Is the character "round" or "flat" (ie less complex)? Does the character develop or do their characteristics remain the same throughout the narrative? As the character evolves, what contributes to his or her development? In what way is the character different in the end?
  • 6. Does the transformation of a character give a key to unlock the plot or the main point of the narrative?
  • 7. Does one character serve as a foil to illuminate or contrast the features of another character?
  • 8. What does the narrator say about a character? What comments and remarks are made by the narrator? In what way does the narrator give an inside view of what the character is thinking, feeling, or believing? Is a character's worldview made known? Does it confirm or oppose the general worldview of the narrative?

Point of View

  • 1. What is the judgmental or ideological standpoint of the story?
  • 2. Does the narrator give certain indications that make a character's point of view clear?
  • 3. Which inner views of the thoughts, feelings and motives of a character are depicted (psychological point of view)?
  • 4. Does a point of view come through what a character says or does? How does this point of view relate to the overarching ideological point of view of the narrative?

plot

  • 1. Which conflicts arise in the narrative? Are there conflicts with nature, with transcendence or with people? Or does the character have to deal with internal conflicts?
  • 2. Is the character facing a problem? How does the figure solve this problem?
  • 3. If the storyline is U-shaped (“ comedy ”), what is the first storyline or crisis that begins the downward movement? What is the reason that then reverses the falling course of action into a rising one? Is there a knowledge scene? What is the resolution of the crisis? (Example: In this sense, the Gospels are a “comedy” because Jesus is resurrected; some exegetes classify the Gospel of Mark as a tragedy.)
  • 4. If the course of the plot follows an inverted u (“ tragedy ”): What then is the fatal weakness / sin of the figure that leads to the downward movement? Or what circumstances contributed to the disaster? Is there a knowledge scene? If not: what should the figure have recognized, but didn't it?
  • 5. If the course of action leads to a certain insight, what important discovery does the character make? In what way does this discovery change the character's point of view? In what way is reality seen differently?
  • 6. What is the main theme of the story? Is it presenting a new point of view, a change in behavior, or a discovery of something important that has not been seen before?

The reader

  • 1. Which expectations are awakened in the (implicit) reader, and how are they fulfilled or nullified in the course of the narrative?
  • 2. What new, strange point of view results from the fulfillment or the overturning of expectations?
  • 3. What new point of view does the narrator want the reader to adopt? How should the reader see reality differently?

literature

Literary narrative theory

  • Hans-Werner Ludwig (Hrsg.): Workbook Roman analysis . Literary studies in basic studies 12. Narr, Tübingen (1982) 6th edition 1998 (informative, clear presentation)
  • Mieke Bal: Narratology. Introduction to the Theory of Narrative . Univ. of Toronto Press, Toronto (1985) 2. Edition 1997, Repr. 2002. (Dutch orig.: De theorie van vertellen en verhalen )
  • Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan: Narrative Fiction. Contemporary Poetics . New accents. Routledge, London / New York 1983, Repr. (1996) 2003
  • Eberhard Lämmert : Types of storytelling . Metzler, Stuttgart (1955) 1993. (Timeline of narratives)
  • Manfred Pfister: The drama . Theory and analysis . UTB 580. Fink, Munich (1971) 11th edition 2001
  • Matias Martinez, Michael Scheffel: Introduction to narrative theory . Beck, Munich (1999) 4th edition 2003
  • Franz K. Stanzel : Theory of storytelling . UTB 904. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen (1979) 6th edition 1995
  • Jochen Vogt: Aspects of narrative prose. An introduction to storytelling and romance theory . WV studies 145. West German. Verl., Opladen 8th edition 1998 (9th edition June 2006)
  • Seymour Chatman : Coming to Terms. The Rhetoric of Narrative in Fiction and Film . Cornell UP, Ithaca NY (1990) 1993
  • Seymour Chatman: Story and Discourse. Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film . Cornell UP, Ithaca NY (1978) 1993
  • Wayne C. Booth: The Rhetoric of Storytelling . UTB 384.385. Heidelberg 1974
  • Boris Uspensky : Poetics of Composition. Structure of the artistic text and typology of the form of composition . Frankfurt a. M. 1975 (Russian orig .: Moscow 1970)

Introductions to narrative exegesis

  • Sönke Finnern, Jan Rüggemeier: Methods of New Testament Exegesis. A textbook and workbook. UTB 4212, Tübingen 2016 (narrative science up to date, didactically sophisticated, comprehensive, offers an integrative overall model of text interpretation).
  • Sönke Finnern: Narratology and Biblical Exegesis. An integrative method of narrative analysis and its results using the example of Matthew 28 . Tübingen 2010, 624 S., ISBN 978-3-16-150381-8 (very comprehensive, detailed presentation based on current cognitive narratology)
  • Shimon Bar-Efrat : As the Bible Tells. Understanding Old Testament texts as literary works of art . Gütersloh 2006, ISBN 3-579-05215-2
  • James L. Resseguie: Narrative Criticism of the New Testament. An Introduction . Baker Academic, Grand Rapids 2005 (good newer introduction; with examples and questionnaire from foolish exegesis)
  • Daniel Marguerat, Yvan Bourquin: How to Read Bible Stories. An Introduction to Narrative Criticism . SCM, London 1999
  • Mark Allan Powell: What is Narrative Criticism? Guides to Biblical Scholarship, New Testament Series, Fortress Press, Minneapolis 1990 / SPCK, London 1993 (helpful overview; not as extensive as Resseguie)
  • Wilhelm Egger: Succession as the way to life. Opportunities of newer exegetical methods presented in Mk 10.17-31 . Austrian Biblical Studies 1. Klosterneuburg 1979 (pp. 8–48: Propp , Dundes, Bremond , Greimas , Güttgemanns , Barthes )
  • Michael Fishbane: Text and Texture: Close Readings of Selected Biblical Texts . Schocken Books, New York 1979
  • Robert Alter : The Art of Biblical Narrative . Basic Books, New York 1981
  • Meir Sternberg: The Poetics of Biblical Narrative. Ideological Literature and the Drama of Reading . Indiana Literary Biblical Series. Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1985
  • Mark Allan Powell: The Bible and Modern Literary Criticism. A Critical Assessment and Annotated Bibliography . Greenwood Press, Westport 1991 (extensive bibliography)
  • Elizabeth Struthers Malbon: Narrative Criticism. How Does the Story Mean? In: Janice Capel Anderson, Stephen D. Moore (Eds.): Mark and Method. New Approaches in Biblical Studies . Fortress Press, Minneapolis 1992, pp. 23-49
  • Jean Zumstein : Narrative Analysis and New Testament Exegesis in the Francophone World . In: Annunciation and Research 41 (1996), pp. 5-27
  • George J. Brooke, Jean-Daniel Kaestli: Narrativity in Biblical and Related Texts = La Narrativité dans la Bible et les Textes Apparentes [Symposium Manchester 1996]. BEThL 149. University Press, Leuven 2000

Examples of narrative exegesis

Gospel of Matthew

  • Jeannine K. Brown: The Disciples in Narrative Perspective. The Portrayal and Function of the Matthean Disciples . Society of Biblical Literature Academia Biblica 9. Brill, Leiden u. a. 2002
  • Jack Dean Kingsbury: Matthew as Story . Fortress Press, Philadelphia 2nd ed. 1988
  • Frank J. Matera: "The Plot of Matthew's Gospel". In: CBQ 49 (1987), pp. 233-253
  • John Paul Heil: The Death and Resurrection of Jesus. A Narrative Reading of Matthew 26-28 . Minneapolis 1991
  • Janice Capel Anderson: Matthew's Narrative Web. Over, and Over, and Over Again . JSNT.SS 91. JSOT Press, Sheffield 1994

Gospel of Mark

  • Jan Rüggemeier, Poetics of Markinian Christology. A cognitive-narratological exegesis. WUNT II 458. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2017 (narrative based on the state of cognitive narratology)
  • Ferdinand Hahn (ed.): The narrator of the gospel. Methodical new approaches in Markus research . SBS 118/119. Kath.Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 1985 (English essays in German translation; one of the first books that made narrative exegesis known in Germany; easily understandable introduction to the method with example exegesis)
  • Ute E. Eisen: "The Gospel of Mark tells. Literary Criticism and Gospel Interpretation", in: Stefan Alkier, Ralph Brucker (Eds.): Exegesis and discussion of methods . Tübingen / Basel 1998, pp. 135–153
  • David Rhoads, Joanna Dewey, Donald Michie: Mark as Story. An Introduction to the Narrative of a Gospel . Minneapolis (1982) 2nd ed. 1999. / University Press, Cambridge 2002
  • Ohajuobodo I. Oko: "Who Then Is This?" A Narrative Study of the Role of the Question of the Identity of Jesus in the Plot of Mark's Gospel . BBB 148. Philo, Berlin / Vienna 2004

Gospel of Luke

  • JL Resseguie: Spiritual Landscape: Images of the Spiritual Life in the Gospel of Luke . Peabody (Hendrickson Publishers) 2003, ISBN 1-565-638-27-1

Gospel of John

  • R. Alan Culpepper: Anatomy of the Fourth Gospel. A Study in Literary Design . Fortress Press, Philadelphia 1983
  • Dirk F. Gniesmer: Involved in the process. Narrative text analytical and text pragmatic considerations for the narrative of the trial of Jesus before Pilate (Joh 18,28-19,16a.b) . EHS 23/688. Lang, Frankfurt a. M. u. a. 2000
  • Tobias Nicklas: Detachment and entanglement. "Jews" and disciples as characters of the narrated world of the Gospel of John and their effect on the implicit reader . Regensburg studies on theology 60. Lang, Frankfurt a. M. u. a. 2001

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ JL Resseguie, Narrative Criticism of the New Testament, pp. 242-244
  2. ↑ S. Bar-Efrat, As the Bible Tells, pp. 23–56