The purpose of this course is to use contemporary metaphor theory to read ancient texts. Metaphors are no longer seen as merely a literary device but as a fundamental way that we think:
"our conceptual system is largely metaphorical" (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980) and we will explore this way of understanding metaphors by first reading Susan Sontag's classic essays Illness and Metaphor and AIDS and its Metaphors (1977 and 1988). From there we will go on to a broad theoretical discussion of metaphors and their functions and to detailed analysis of use of metaphorical language in text examples. In class we will be working primarily with biblical texts (based in the Hebrew or Greek texts or translations depending on your language skills), but students will be able to work with texts from their own area of specialization as well.
If metaphor is one focal point of this course, gender is another. We will not be dealing with the conceptualizing of gender and sex on a larger scale, but focus on how gender functions in texts. Gendered language could both refer to "grammatical gendered language" (also called linguistic gender) or to
"conceptual gendered language" (language which connotes or denotes gender) and gendered metaphors belong to this second category. We will investigate whether there is a connection between grammatical gendered language and gendered metaphors, how we identify gendered metaphors in the first place, and how to best understand them. For this purpose we will be studying gendered metaphors for God and Zion in the book of Isaiah. In this context we will also be exploring the relationship between metaphors and religious language and metaphors and the concept of the divine more in general.
By the end of this course you will have gained a thorough working knowledge of current theoretical discussions of metaphor and of gender and you will be enabled to work with metaphors in any ancient or contemporary text. Metaphor and Gender is relevant for students working with metaphorical language in any field but particularly for students in biblical studies, Jewish studies, religious studies, and the study of religion in antiquity. Students will be heavily involved in the weekly presentation of topics and discussion. More detailed topics and readings will be specified by the course schedule.