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This courageous woman: A Socio-rhetorical womanist reading of proverbs 31: 10-31
Get PDFThe title of Proverbs 31:10-31, namely, ‘a woman of courage’, cultivated my interest in this text and hence this thesis. Through the use of a multidimensional and interdisciplinary approach under the banner, Socio-rhetorical Womanist reading, I endeavour to show that the picture here portrayed in Proverbs 31:10-31 is a complex one. Previously scholars have tackled the poem from different perspectives and contexts. However they have understated or misread the rather richly nuanced portrayal that is here depicted in the portrait of the woman. The over simplified reading of the text has resulted in such translations of as ‘a good wife, an excellent wife, a virtuous wife or even a woman of substance or valour but, not as ‘a woman of courage’ which I maintain is a more fitting translation of the Hebrew phrase. By exploring the different textures of inner, inter, socio-cultural and ideological textures of Proverbs 31:10-31 as permitted by the socio-rhetorical approach, the thesis shows that the woman here described is more than a wife and mother, roles which are stereotypically used for the subordination of women. With the influence of my interpersonal and ideological womanist reading, our subject is shown to be a woman of courage, who displays autonomy, physical prowess, is a trader and business guru who acquires land. She is also a wise and thoughtful woman. The woman is on the same footing as men of courage described throughout the Hebrew bible. The poem is read as a polemic to the patriarchal status quo with its tendency to subordinate, suppress and oppress women on the basis of their gender. It ends on a strong note, demanding that the woman be duly recognized for her deeds of courage particularly at the public level of the ‘gates’. Consequently this thesis contends that the poem constitutes a paradigm shift in relation to gender based inequality, challenging men to reconsider their stance and empowering women to take their place as equal partners
The Untold Story of “Mrs Noah” : The Hebrew Bible, Gender and Media: An Intertextual Critical Discourse Analysis
Get PDFThe Bible is notorious for its androcentric narratives of biblical protagonists. Women’s stories are either abbreviated or erased. Where and when they are mentioned, women are represented negatively as whores, adulteresses and wicked temptresses. Where they are represented as virtuous, virtuousness is synonymous with meekness and submissiveness, both of which reinforce patriarchal ideologies. In the narrative of Noah, we read about the godliness and righteousness of Noah, but we only hear about his wife in passing. Mrs Noah is not only unnamed; she is voiceless and only exists in the shadow of her famous husband. This paper attempts to re-construct, based on Proverbs 31:10-31, the story of Noah’s wife from an intertextual critical discourse analysis perspective, to show that issues of gender and the media have evolved from biblical times to the detriment of women. The paper argues that when read within the cultural context of ancient Israel, the untold story of Noah’s wife is that of a great woman
'A Woman of Courage’: An Interpretation of the Biblical Hebrew Perspective in Relation to Women and Business in Botswana
Get PDFThis essay attempts to read biblical wisdom literature in relation to modern women entrepreneurship. Whereas traditionally in the Setswana culture and many other cultures women are often perceived as sluggish when it comes to doing business, there is reference in the Bible to hardworking women engagingin mercantile or entrepreneurial pursuits for family and society. The paper uses a biblical text namely Proverbs chapter 31 verses 10-31 to encourage Batswana women to work hard and to go beyond small scale to international businesses capable of improving their lives and their communities as well as the nation at large. The paper demonstrates that while previous studies indicate that Batswana women (like many of their African counterparts) take the Bible as an authentic document capable of providing answers to pertinent existential questions, not much has been done with regard to women and entrepreneurship in the Bible. Women’s involvement in business is critical in the creation of wealth and employment as Botswana, like many countries in the world, is grappling with serious issues of unemployment
READING THE BOOK OF ESTHER IN THE LIGHT OF BOTSWANA’S 21ST CENTURY CHALLENGES
Get PDFThe Book of Esther presents readers with an intriguing story of two women: Vashti and Esther. It is a story of hope for women who find themselves suffering at the hands of cruel and dangerous patriarchal homes, systems, institutions and cultures. Using the case of Botswana, this essay explores how the struggles of the two women in the book of Esther compare with the lived experiences of many African women, and Botswana’s in particular. The point I make is that the life of both Esther and Vashti resonates with the struggles of Botswana women who continue to toil and suffer from a complexity of challenges amongst them HIV and AIDS, drought and poverty. The main question I explore is what similarities and lessons, if any, can the story of Esther and Vashti offer concerning the challenges of HIV and AIDS and the declining socio-economic conditions
Incel Ideologies, Misogynistic Terrorism and the Bible
No full textRecent research in terrorism studies has drawn attention to the threat and misogynistic violence of incels. In this chapter, Greenough demonstrates how the Bible has the potential to validate the violent ideologies that inform incel thinking and how religious language is used to popular effect in incel forums, revealing incel murderers as ‘saints’ or ‘martyrs’. The chapter explores misogynistic language in both the biblical text and in contemporary incel spaces
Vashti and Sita: The Daring Sisters We Could Trust
No full textThe aim of this paper is to make a comparison between two female figures from two different religions. Vashti is one of the unsung heroines in the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible, while Sita in the Book of Ramayana is a revered female figure among Hindus. The tales of these women seem to display similarities in the ideals they embody and hence we endeavour to read them together. We wish to explore the extent to which Vashti and Sita’s tales of female courage and daring could inspire women today who continue to suffocate under oppressive patriarchal contexts. This is relevant to the context of Botswana, where despite global efforts to bend gender-based inequality, women continue to be victimised
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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