Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik Recent documents in Michael Carasik en-us Sun, 31 May 2009 09:19:51 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/13 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/13 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:57:55 PDT Michael Carasik http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/12 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/12 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:52:51 PDT Can the God of the Hebrew Bible read minds? Contrary to popular belief, most biblical texts suggest that God cannot, but several narrative texts insist that God can. This observation prompts a second and broader question: To what extent are the theologies that appear to be operative in various biblical texts actually shaped by literary imperatives? Michael Carasik http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/11 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/11 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:48:57 PDT Ch. 12 of Ecclesiastes depicts a scene that combines elements of the death of a person with others that describe the death of an entire world. Vladimir Nabokov's novel Invitation to a Beheading ends with a similar scene. Both Nabokov's writings and his biography suggest that he shared Qohelet's view of life "under the sun" as hevel, but his own experience as a creator led him to believe that there is a higher-order reality than our own. The literary technique described here was Nabokov's attempt to show how one might cross the boundary into that higher reality. With a particular focus on Nabokov's novel Pale Fire, I will argue that the parallel to Ecclesiastes suggests that the writer of Eccl. 12:9-14 was also the writer of that entire book, who chose to drop the persona of Qohelet at the end of his book and speak as himself, to burst through the boundaries of death (in 12:7) and offer a view of the world that the Qohelet persona could not perceive. Michael Carasik http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/10 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/10 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:36:56 PDT Biblical texts regularly emphasize following the straight path that is marked out by God's teachings. Just as in English, 'straightness' is prized as 'right' and 'crookedness' scorned as perverse. This quality is praised both in action and in thought. By contrast, Qohelet's search for wisdom is specifically expressed in language which gives turning, not straightness, the highest value. This study explores how Qohelet uses words and images of turning to express both what he has learned and how he has learned about the world, as well as how circularity is an element not merely of Qohelet's thought, but of his style. Michael Carasik http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/9 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/9 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:32:04 PDT Michael Carasik http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/8 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/8 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:28:01 PDT Michael Carasik Jewish biblical commentary http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/7 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/7 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:23:03 PDT Michael Carasik http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/6 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/6 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:20:50 PDT Michael Carasik Jewish biblical commentary http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/5 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/5 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:16:04 PDT Michael Carasik http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/4 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/4 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:14:32 PDT Michael Carasik