maagden knapen vruchtbare vrouwen & dappere mannen
Virgin Brides & Virgin Martyrs
For all this convergence, however, there are differences, as well.
Both the continuity and the 'otherness' of rabbinic Judaism in relation tp Christianity are revealing,
as Jewish and Christian men are seen to deploy strikingly different rhetorics of sexuality for the con-struction of counter-masculinities within the context of late ancient Greco-Roman culture.
One source of such differences, we could suggest, is that the use of the virgin as a male identificatory symbol is highly dependent on the posture of a given society toward actual virgin girls, and this was crucially different for the Rabbis and for the Fathers of the fourth-century Church.
Up until now, we have focused entirely on the identification of the Rabbis with the female virgin in the brothel as a symbol of their tricky resistance, their playing of the hidden transcript, within the brothel of the Empire. As such, our strategy has been to downplay the genderend differences of the text,emphasizing instead the ways that the genders are homologized in the narrative, that Rabbi Me'ir doubles the daughter of Rabbi Hanina, who doubles Rabbi El'azar ben Perata in his trickster escape,
who doubles Rabbi Eli'ezer in his.
All these males are feminized figures finally metaphoricized as the virgin in the brothel.
The tricksterism of the virgin daughter thus at one level reprises and spotlights the openness of the talmudic text on the question of tricksters versus martyrs.
Even in the very narrative in which nartyrdom is being valorized, there is a favored instance as well of tricky escape. But even this is compromised by the fact that both the daughter and Rabbi Yose ben Kisma seem engaged in pleasing "the great men of Rome."
Both the defiance of the father and the trickster escape of the daughter seen equally valorized, or at any rate, once more, the text just won't settle down to a univocal position on the acts of the tricksters and the martyrs.
However, if we reread its ending, now emphasizing gendered differences rather than disavowing them, we will find very different meanings emerging from the text. In other words, if we look at the virgin as a representative of Jewish female subjectivity, rather than a transgendered symbol of identification for the Rabbis and for the people of Israel, we suddenly discover not a narrative that opens options for Jewish
people, but a narrative that shuts them down for Jewish women.
To put it bluntly: In the rabbinic world, there can be no virgin martyrs!
Onduidelijk? Ingewikkeld? Iets van 2000 jaar geleden?
We zullen zien [als er tijd voor is]: de rol van mannen, vrouwen en kinderen toen, nu & straks!
Dwars door alle menselijke ervaringen van alle eeuwen en plaatsen heen breekt zich iets nieuws baan.
En dan hebben we het niet meer alleen maar over locale & tijdelijke omstandigheden en constructies,
maar ook over India, China, Amerika, Afrika en 'waar dan ook'!
Niet alleen maar als mooie [of lelijke] theorie en/of praktijk,
maar over hoe wij zelf omgaan met onze frustraties
en mogelijkheden
...
Kortom:
de rijst is gaar ~
even proeven.
For all this convergence, however, there are differences, as well.
Both the continuity and the 'otherness' of rabbinic Judaism in relation tp Christianity are revealing,
as Jewish and Christian men are seen to deploy strikingly different rhetorics of sexuality for the con-struction of counter-masculinities within the context of late ancient Greco-Roman culture.
One source of such differences, we could suggest, is that the use of the virgin as a male identificatory symbol is highly dependent on the posture of a given society toward actual virgin girls, and this was crucially different for the Rabbis and for the Fathers of the fourth-century Church.
Up until now, we have focused entirely on the identification of the Rabbis with the female virgin in the brothel as a symbol of their tricky resistance, their playing of the hidden transcript, within the brothel of the Empire. As such, our strategy has been to downplay the genderend differences of the text,emphasizing instead the ways that the genders are homologized in the narrative, that Rabbi Me'ir doubles the daughter of Rabbi Hanina, who doubles Rabbi El'azar ben Perata in his trickster escape,
who doubles Rabbi Eli'ezer in his.
All these males are feminized figures finally metaphoricized as the virgin in the brothel.
The tricksterism of the virgin daughter thus at one level reprises and spotlights the openness of the talmudic text on the question of tricksters versus martyrs.
Even in the very narrative in which nartyrdom is being valorized, there is a favored instance as well of tricky escape. But even this is compromised by the fact that both the daughter and Rabbi Yose ben Kisma seem engaged in pleasing "the great men of Rome."
Both the defiance of the father and the trickster escape of the daughter seen equally valorized, or at any rate, once more, the text just won't settle down to a univocal position on the acts of the tricksters and the martyrs.
However, if we reread its ending, now emphasizing gendered differences rather than disavowing them, we will find very different meanings emerging from the text. In other words, if we look at the virgin as a representative of Jewish female subjectivity, rather than a transgendered symbol of identification for the Rabbis and for the people of Israel, we suddenly discover not a narrative that opens options for Jewish
people, but a narrative that shuts them down for Jewish women.
To put it bluntly: In the rabbinic world, there can be no virgin martyrs!
Onduidelijk? Ingewikkeld? Iets van 2000 jaar geleden?
We zullen zien [als er tijd voor is]: de rol van mannen, vrouwen en kinderen toen, nu & straks!
Dwars door alle menselijke ervaringen van alle eeuwen en plaatsen heen breekt zich iets nieuws baan.
En dan hebben we het niet meer alleen maar over locale & tijdelijke omstandigheden en constructies,
maar ook over India, China, Amerika, Afrika en 'waar dan ook'!
Niet alleen maar als mooie [of lelijke] theorie en/of praktijk,
maar over hoe wij zelf omgaan met onze frustraties
en mogelijkheden
...
Kortom:
de rijst is gaar ~
even proeven.
19 okt 2008 - bewerkt op 19 okt 2008
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