Déjà Vu: Shirley Kaufman’s Poetry on Biblical Women

Anat Koplowitz-Breier

doi:10.3390/rel10090493

Déjà Vu: Shirley Kaufman’s Poetry on Biblical Women

Religions ◽

10.3390/rel10090493 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (9) ◽

pp. 493

Author(s):

Anat Koplowitz-Breier

Keyword(s):

Point Of View ◽

Jewish Tradition ◽

Jewish American ◽

Adrienne Rich ◽

Women's Bodies ◽

The Bible ◽

Biblical Women ◽

Deja Vu ◽

Contemporary Reality ◽

Déjà Vu

This article explores Shirley Kaufman’s reading of the Bible as an elaboration on/of its feminine characters via three devices: (a) Dramatic monologues, in which the woman speaks for herself (“Rebecca” and “Leah”); (b) description of specific scenes that gives us a glimpse into the character’s point of view (“His Wife”, “Michal”, “Abishag”, “The Wife of Moses”, “Yael”, and “Job’s Wife”); and (c) interweaving of the biblical context into contemporary reality (“Déjà Vu” and “The Death of Rachel”). Fleshing these figures out, Kaufman portrays the biblical women through contemporary lenses as a way of “coming to terms with the past” and the historical exclusion of “women’s bodies” from Jewish tradition, thereby giving them a voice and “afterlife”. Her treatment of the biblical texts can thus be viewed as belonging to the new midrashic-poetry tradition by Jewish-American women that has emerged as part of the Jewish feminist wave. Herein, Kaufman follows Adrienne Rich and Alicia Ostriker’s “re-visioning” of the Bible and in particularly its women, empowering them by making use of her/their own words.

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Déjà vu and the Timequake: Beyond Postmodernism

Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network ◽

10.31165/nk.2014.72.336 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Federico Giordano

Keyword(s):

Point Of View ◽

Formal Structure ◽

The Political ◽

A Posteriori ◽

Final Phase ◽

Aesthetic Movement ◽

Deja Vu ◽

The One ◽

Déjà Vu ◽

Theoretical Reflection

The aim of this article is to verify how Tony Scott proved to be, throughout his career, a director particularly sensitive to social shifts and to artistic and cultural modifications. He adjusted the content and formal structure of his films according to what seemed to be the most “modern” or suitable way of depicting contemporaneity. When observed in these terms and a posteriori, in his last films Tony Scott can be seen as a director who tried to go beyond postmodernism, addressing himself towards the new movements of post-postmodernism, as with metamodernism, pseudomodernism or digimodernism. Among Scott’s films, the one which seems to be particularly relevant in this sense is Déjà Vu (2006), where the latest artistic point of view of the director is quite well summarized. It is a film that puts into metaphor some of the political problems of our epoch and, above all, through a reflection on time embraces some of the features of postmodernism. In doing so, it surpasses postmodernism, opening towards the new aesthetic movement of post-postmodernism. In such a kind of filmic construction, which entails a theoretical reflection on modernity through images, Scott adopts and confirms the post-postmodernist inclination of the final phase of his body of work.

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Point of view: Deja vu—again:Advantages and limitations of methods for assessing penile arterial flow

Urology ◽

10.1016/0090-4295(90)80229-g ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 36 (2) ◽

pp. 199-200 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ralph G. DePalma ◽

Vaclav Michal

Keyword(s):

Point Of View ◽

Arterial Flow ◽

Deja Vu ◽

Déjà Vu

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Commemorating the Nameless Wives of the Bible: Midrashic Poems by Contemporary American-Jewish Women

Religions ◽

10.3390/rel11070365 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 365

Author(s):

Anat Koplowitz-Breier

Keyword(s):

Significant Role ◽

Biblical Text ◽

Jewish American ◽

Jewish Women ◽

Women's Poetry ◽

The Bible ◽

Biblical Women ◽

Proper Name ◽

American Jewish ◽

American Poets

A proper name individualizes a person, the lack of it making him or her less noticeable. This insight is apt in regard to the nameless women in the Hebrew Bible, a resolutely androcentric work. As Judaism traditionally barred women from studying, many Jewish feminists have sought access to the Jewish canon. Much of American-Jewish women’s poetry can thus be viewed as belonging to the midrashic-poetry tradition, attempting to vivify the biblical women by “revisioning” the Bible. This article examines two nameless wives who, although barely noted in the biblical text, play a significant role in their husbands’ stories—Mrs. Noah and Mrs. Job. Although numerous exegetes have noted them across history, few have delved into their emotions and characters. Exploration of the way in which contemporary Jewish-American poets treat these women and connect them to their own world(s) is thus of great interest to both modern and biblical scholars. Herein I focus on five poets: Elaine Rose Glickman (“Parashat Noach”), Barbara D. Holender (“Noah’s Wife,” and “Job’s Wife”), Oriana Ivy (“Mrs. Noah,” and “Job’s Wife”), Shirley Kaufman (“Job’s Wife”), and Sherri Waas Shunfenthal (“Noah’s Wife Speaks,” “The Animals are our Friends,” “Time,” and “Arc of Peace”).

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