RT Article
T1 Clothing, Conformity, and Power: Garment Imagery in the Book of Esther
JF Vetus Testamentum
VO 72
IS 3
SP 474
OP 494
A1 Quick, Laura 1987-
A1 Lyell, Ellena
LA English
PB Brill
YR 2022
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1809669227
AB Recent scholarship has shown a burgeoning interest in the narrative functions and implications of references to dress and adornment in the Hebrew Bible. Yet the many references to the various clothing items and associated acts of dressing and undressing in the book of Esther have been less explored. In fact, the book of Esther weaves a complex tapestry of garment imagery, and untangling this tapestry is essential to properly interpreting this text. Through dress, characters can communicate their conformity to certain conventional expectations, affecting the ways in which other characters relate and behave towards them. Characters can utilize dress to express their protest, or conversely hide their true intentions. Crucially, differences in clothing develop distinctions between the power and status of the various characters. Clothing therefore has discrete and important functions in the book of Esther, providing new access to understanding characterisation and plot.
DO 10.1163/15685330-bja10062