BS2615-1-WI10

Right off of Wikipedia: Theory Derrida began speaking and writing publicly at a time when the French intellectual scene was experiencing an increasing rift between what could broadly be called "phenomenological" and "structural" approaches to understanding individual and collective life. For those with a more phenomenological bent the goal was to understand experience by comprehending and describing its genesis, the process of its emergence from an origin or event. For the structuralists, this was precisely the false problem, and the "depth" of experience could in fact only be an effect of structures which are not themselves experiential. It is in this context that in 1959 Derrida asks the question: Must not structure have a genesis, and must not the origin, the point of genesis, be already structured, in order to be the genesis of something?[3] In other words, every structural or "synchronic" phenomenon has a history, and the structure cannot be understood without understanding its genesis.[4] At the same time, in order that there be movement, or potential, the origin cannot be some pure unity or simplicity, but must already be articulated-complex-such that from it a "diachronic" process can emerge. This originary complexity must not be understood as an original positing, but more like a default of origin, which Derrida refers to as iterability, inscription, or textuality.[5] It is this thought of originary complexity, rather than original purity, which destabilises the thought of both genesis and structure, that sets Derrida's work in motion, and from which derive all of its terms, including deconstruction.[6] Derrida's method consisted in demonstrating all the forms and varieties of this originary complexity, and their multiple consequences in many fields. His way of achieving this was by conducting thorough, careful, sensitive, and yet transformational readings of philosophical and literary texts, with an ear to what in those texts runs counter

Straight from the words of Derrida in an interview. Came across this quote which does a good job of describing a deconstructionist approach: Derrida says, "There is the general structure of Messianicity as the structure of experience, and on this groundless ground there have been revelations, a history which one calls Judaism or Christianity and so on. That is a possibility and then you would have a Heideggerian gesture, in style. You would have to go back from these religions to the fundamental ontological conditions of possibilities of religions, to describe the structure of messianicity on the groundless ground on which religions have been made possible (23)".

Looks like this could be a good book on this type of criticism in a community context.

This is a very complete source on Canonical Criticism. It is informative for my description and looks like a book worth buying.

an academic writing, but useful for its discussion on using literary approaches to biblical narratives. Comprehensive Bibiliography helpful.

Discusses how the author has used things like rhetorical devices, setting, characterization, point of view and plot as ways of conveying a message and shaping readers.

This also looks very helpful, and the book looks good too!

"Professional scholars and ordinary people contribute to this book, which is written from the perspective of those in the Third World. Writing from an experience of injustice and oppression, hunger and exploitation, they explore issues of racism and sexism, class struggle and religious triumphalism." Although not explicitly focused on postcolonial criticism, I think the voices of lay people might bring some issues that postcolonial criticism addresses into sharper focus and provide a sense of what this approach to reading the text means in real lives. I have included a review of this book in the bibliography.

"An exciting collection of essays connecting postcolonialism and the Gospel of John, written by a group of international scholars, both established and new, from Hispanic, African, Jewish, Chinese, Korean and African-American backgrounds. It explores important topics such as the appropriation of John in settler communities of the United States and Canada, and the use of John in the colonization of Africa, Asia, Latin America and New Zealand." Although there are numerous readings of the text, the focus on a single Gospel will perhaps illuminate themes and concepts more easily than a collection of essays that use multiple texts.

This article looks fascinating to me for several reasons. First, it focuses on South Africa where historically a huge percentage of the population was marginalized. Second, the church was instrumental in bringing an end to apartheid. Finally, it highlights one of the critiques of postcolonial Biblical interpretation, the lack of political action because of the focus on textual politics. New Testament.

"In this stimulating study, R. S. Sugirtharajah explores the implications of postcolonial criticism for biblical studies. He provides a comprehensive overview of the origins, definitions, and procedures of postcolonial criticism, followed by a discussion of the significance of postcolonial criticism in biblical interpretation. He reveals how postcolonial criticism can offer an alternative perspective to our understanding of the Bible, and how, when the Bible has been deployed as a Western cultural icon, it has come to be questioned in new ways. " This book provides an overview of postcolonial Biblical criticism from a leading scholar - may be heavy going but is recommended for interested lay readers.

Summary of Social-Scientific Criticism in abstract of book

A rich blogging tool.

Another good resource for feminist biblical criticism.

Chapter on narrative Criticism addresses five issues: 1. definition, terms, concepts 2. the method in relation to other methods 3. the method "in action' using a particular text 4. drawbacks of the methods 5. additional suggested readings

Discusses problems of redaction criticism in regard to the source known as Q

A collection of essays on the modern forms of psychoanalytic criticism gathered from the Fourth International Conference on Literature and Psychology (Aug 7-9, 1987) hosted at Kent State University.

section on narrative criticsm. Good discussion on narrative world not being identical to the real world; implied author shaping story world by selecting (and excluding) events.