Fighting words: hidden transcripts of resistance in the Babylonian Talmud, Homer's Odyssey and Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorShoichet, Jillian Grant
dc.contributor.supervisorGrove-White, Elizabeth
dc.contributor.supervisorShrimpton, Gordon Spencer
dc.date.accessioned2011-05-26T19:04:57Z
dc.date.available2011-05-26T19:04:57Z
dc.date.copyright2010en_US
dc.date.issued2011-05-26
dc.degree.departmentInterdisciplinary Graduate Program
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Greek and Roman Studies
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of English
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of History
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of History in Art
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Art History and Visual Studies
dc.degree.levelDoctor of Philosophy Ph.D.en_US
dc.description.abstractThe study proposes that oral-traditonnal cultures, or cultures with a high degree of orality, use similar processes to hide political or social subversion in text. To test this hypothesis, the author examines three texts from three highly oral cultures: a tractate of the Babylonian Talmud, Homer's Odyssey and Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent. The author finds that in all three texts subversion is concealed according to what she defines as the three principles of disguise: articulation, by which a text hides secondary meaning through its use of diction and syntax; construction, by which a text incorporates hidden transcripts or meaning within its narrative or textual structure; and diversion, by which a text directs the audience away from subversive meaning by focusing attention on other elements. All three principles of disguise exploit the relationship between the written text and the oral-traditional environment in which the text was used. The three-principle model of disguise enables us to set in comparative perspective relationships between the processes of communication and resistance in diverse cultures, and offers significant opportunities for comparative study. The author concludes that texts from diverse cultures may be employed similarly as extensions of oral tradition, especially when there is a need to conceal particular ideas from a dominant hegemony, and that reading these texts "against the grain" for evidence of subsurface subversion promises a deeper insight into both the function of text as a tool of resistance and the dynamics of human power relationships.en_US
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/3316
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rights.tempAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectHomer -- Odysseyen_US
dc.subjectTalmuden_US
dc.subjectresistance (philosophy)en_US
dc.titleFighting words: hidden transcripts of resistance in the Babylonian Talmud, Homer's Odyssey and Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrenten_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Shoichet_Jillian_Grant_PhD_2010.pdf
Size:
54.06 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
dissertation
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.74 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD)
 
University of Victoria Libraries

We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.