Review of Allen & Doedens (eds.), Turmoil, trauma and tenacity in early Jewish literature

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Turmoil, trauma and tenacity in early Jewish literature.

Nicholas P. L. Allen, Jacob J. T. Doedens, Turmoil, trauma and tenacity in early Jewish literature. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2022. Pp. 285. ISBN 9783110784893

Review by
Matthew Kraus, University of Cincinnati. matthew.kraus@uc.edu

... The authors are to be commended for acknowledging that the depiction of trauma can be used as a literary strategy, may evoke or re-evoke trauma in the reader, and may influence the author who experienced trauma. Nevertheless, the reader will be left frustrated and unconvinced by how these topics are to be understood in Hellenistic Jewish texts. The authors raise insightful questions, while the answers remain obscured in the analyses of specific texts.

I noted the publication of the book here.

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