RT Article
T1 Constructing Imperial and National Identities: Monstrous and Human Bodies in Book of Watchers, Daniel, and 2 Maccabees
JF Interpretation
VO 74
IS 2
SP 159
OP 170
A1 Portier-Young, Anathea
LA English
PB Sage Publ.
YR 2020
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1694484467
AB Monster theory illuminates the construction of imperial and national identities in the portrayals of monstrous and human bodies in three early Jewish texts; Book of Watchers, Daniel, and 2 Maccabees. Book of Watchers expresses anxiety about Judean/Jewish identity in the shadow of empire through its portrayal of a vulnerable humanity terrorized by voracious giants and their demonic spirits. Daniel dehumanizes empire and its agents, imaging empire as a colossal statue, an animalistic were-king, and a series of monstrous beasts, while one like a human being poses an alternative to imperial rule. Second Maccabees, by contrast, demythologizes, decapitates, dismembers, and disintegrates the imperial body in order to portray the integral Judean political body (and soul) as mature, pure, capable, and ordered.
K1 Antiochus IV
K1 Judas Maccabee
K1 Nebuchadnezzar
K1 Nicanor
K1 1 Enoch
K1 2 Maccabees
K1 book ofDaniel
K1 Book of Watchers
K1 Beasts
K1 Body
K1 Corpses
K1 Decapitation
K1 Dismemberment
K1 Giants
K1 Judea
K1 Martyrs
K1 Monster Theory
K1 Monsters
K1 Seleucids
DO 10.1177/0020964319896309