Conference Presentations by Alexiana Fry
Trauma is never simply personal. Trauma lives on and on in the lives that itself violently touche... more Trauma is never simply personal. Trauma lives on and on in the lives that itself violently touches, and always asks to be reckoned with. When trauma effects whole cultures and people groups, however, there is a process of how that trauma will be interpreted. Using Jeffery Alexander’s book, Trauma: A Social Theory, this paper will seek to consider the horrific text of Judges 19 as a narrative used in order to explain the realities and events of exile and displacement of Israel and Judah. As the rape and dismemberment of the Levite’s concubine in the Scripture leaves us dumbfounded, the words asked as the reader bears witness is not to look away, but to “consider it, take counsel, and speak. (v.30)”
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Rahab in Joshua 2-6, the nameless Concubine in Judges 19, and the Witch of En-Dor in 1 Samuel 28,... more Rahab in Joshua 2-6, the nameless Concubine in Judges 19, and the Witch of En-Dor in 1 Samuel 28, have numerous things in common. All of these stories feature hospitality. All of these women are considered “other,” both in marginalized places and at the intersections. Each of these women’s bodies are received as a meeting place for men—and each of these texts also lead
to some form of violence that follows. Yet, in each of these stories, while these women function as a bridge, which brings up an assortment of feminist issues that should be addressed, these women also function as a form of YHWH’s self, as well as Jeremiah Cataldo recognizing that
“in facing the Other we are judged by her, called into an ethical relationship by her.” Although these women are spoken for, rather than truly heard, as the Biblical text is ultimately the written product of elite men; the biblical author through each of these stories may be stating something more subversive than is accepted in the ANE culture around them. In comparing the three stories where these women’s bodies are seen as primarily functional rather than being received for their actual being, this paper serves to read the text for “the dignity of all” and in so doing, compelling others to see greater meaning behind the God within these words.
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Speech Act Theory is a severely underutilized tool by which we might understand texts, including ... more Speech Act Theory is a severely underutilized tool by which we might understand texts, including passages that tend to leave us dumbfounded. While Paynter’s recent monograph on Judges 19 applies this theory quite deftly—the silenced, dismembered woman as still speaking to us today as we are entreated to take part in a so-called hermeneutic of self-involvement with the three imperatives, “שימו־לכם עליה עצו ודברו” (Ju. 19:30)—Hosea’s own prophetic book with similar themes of the woman’s body as a metaphor and representative of the social body also makes mention of a particular “הגבעה חטאת” (Hos. 9:9; 10:9-10), hypothetically referencing the incident in Judges 19 in order to enact another level of action, repentance, amongst the Israelites. Using memories from the past in hopes of change for the future is taken literally from Judges to Hosea’s audience. While Israel did not heed the words of the Prophet, simultaneously choosing not to claim their sinful ancestry in bearing witness to and remembering her body, history shows us that we too have yet to repent of gender-based violence and its longsuffering affects.
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While a more recent method for biblical study, Trauma Hermeneutics has helped provide greater con... more While a more recent method for biblical study, Trauma Hermeneutics has helped provide greater context for our understanding of Scripture as a whole. Qoheleth, the author of Ecclesiastes, takes traditional wisdom literature and rewrites a new version in order to make sense and meaning from an experienced traumatic event in the process of rebuilding shattered personal and collective myths. The anti-wisdom of the Teacher can readily be explained through this new method, although it also calls for caution to not westernize or colonize how the Israelites may be processing through disasters they endured.
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Articles by Alexiana Fry
AVAR, 2024
The unnamed pilegesh of Judges 19 has been understood and labeled as "abject." However, to only s... more The unnamed pilegesh of Judges 19 has been understood and labeled as "abject." However, to only see her as abject as it pertains to the text is to miss the layered aspects of her abjection. She is not only abject literally and literarily but also abject as she is a symbol of abjection for the social body of Ancient Judah, a figure by which they understand and make sense of their traumas. The dismembered pilegesh thus demonstrates how corporeal violence to her body is used to think within the ancient world, how her body continues to demonstrate the subjugation of precarious bodies, and the way her body demonstrates theological claims and ideas-on multiple layers. Finally, in a manner of self-reflexivity, this article considers my posture as continuing her abjection. While this will not and cannot redress her abjection, exposing these layers is an attempt at remembering.
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Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies, 2023
In Judges 19, the Levite from Ephraim, together with his concubine, on their journey back home pa... more In Judges 19, the Levite from Ephraim, together with his concubine, on their journey back home pass by Jebus and refuse to stay in the hometown of the Jebusites, remarking that "we will not stop at a foreign city where there are no Israelites" (Judges 19:12). It is an ironic comment made as it is precisely within the city of Israelites in Gibeah that danger and violence will occur. This narrative portrayal is particularly poignant in the current context of the United States that is dominated by fear, specifically through the bodies of those who are deemed "other" in terms of their ethnicity. Meanwhile, it may be that the greatest threat in the United States today lies within its own walls, i.e., in the majority demographic. This paper explores the biases majority culture holds towards the supposed morality of "other" ethnicities and nationalities, considering questions regarding what is considered "normal" or "safe." The fear that characterises the downfall of the narrative reaches beyond ethnic othering to gender and sexual othering as well, not only inside the text, but in interpretation and reception as well. Yet, the narrative shows this as baldly ironic in order to face it; whereas the United States and scholars within have yet to truly name the problem in order to maintain the ideals of hierarchy, power, and White supremacy.
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Dissertation by Alexiana Fry
Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2021.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation explores an inter... more Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2021.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation explores an intertextual connection of the texts Judges 19 and Hosea 9-10 based on the phrase “the sin of Gibeah” through the methodological lenses of trauma hermeneutics and migration theory. With particular consideration of the impact of the Judean exile on texts not only in the exilic period, but also post-exilic, I propose in this study that the sin of Gibeah can best be understood as one of Othering. A central argument of this dissertation is that both Judges 19 and Hosea 9-10 can be read as stories of migration, as writing impacted by exile, depicting the horrors the community had experienced. In these texts, we find that the literary figures of the bodies of the women Gomer and the nameless Concubine are characters through whom the trauma of migration played out in order to make sense of the senseless for the community in the form of narratives. Yet, from the position of the authorship of both tex...
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Book Reviews by Alexiana Fry
RBL, 2024
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RBL, 2023
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Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses
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Books by Alexiana Fry
Lexington Books, 2023
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Conference Presentations by Alexiana Fry
to some form of violence that follows. Yet, in each of these stories, while these women function as a bridge, which brings up an assortment of feminist issues that should be addressed, these women also function as a form of YHWH’s self, as well as Jeremiah Cataldo recognizing that
“in facing the Other we are judged by her, called into an ethical relationship by her.” Although these women are spoken for, rather than truly heard, as the Biblical text is ultimately the written product of elite men; the biblical author through each of these stories may be stating something more subversive than is accepted in the ANE culture around them. In comparing the three stories where these women’s bodies are seen as primarily functional rather than being received for their actual being, this paper serves to read the text for “the dignity of all” and in so doing, compelling others to see greater meaning behind the God within these words.
Articles by Alexiana Fry
Dissertation by Alexiana Fry
Book Reviews by Alexiana Fry
Books by Alexiana Fry
to some form of violence that follows. Yet, in each of these stories, while these women function as a bridge, which brings up an assortment of feminist issues that should be addressed, these women also function as a form of YHWH’s self, as well as Jeremiah Cataldo recognizing that
“in facing the Other we are judged by her, called into an ethical relationship by her.” Although these women are spoken for, rather than truly heard, as the Biblical text is ultimately the written product of elite men; the biblical author through each of these stories may be stating something more subversive than is accepted in the ANE culture around them. In comparing the three stories where these women’s bodies are seen as primarily functional rather than being received for their actual being, this paper serves to read the text for “the dignity of all” and in so doing, compelling others to see greater meaning behind the God within these words.