PG 654 Luke as Storyteller: engaging the discourse of the short stories and parables of the Lukan Travel Narrative (Luke 9:51-19:44)

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Module Level

9/10 MTh / PhD/ STL Seminar Course

Time Allowance

Semester 1. 10 Seminars. Wednesdays 16:00-18:00. Beginning 25.09.2019

Assessment

A questionnaire on a selected scriptural text will guide the work of each session. Participants are expected to prepare in advance a response to the weekly questionnaires, four of which are to be submitted as written responses (500 words each). Seminar attendance and participation: 50% Final paper (to be submitted by January 13th 2020): 50% (MTh/PhD 5,000 words; STL 4,000 words)

Module Aims

This course explores the discourse and narrative dynamic of Luke’s stories and parables. The contribution of the diverse voices of implied author, narrator and intradiegetic characters will be examined to gauge the various harmonies of the underappreciated polyphonic accounts.

Indicative Syllabus

The course elucidates essential narratological techniques, categories and terms which will then be applied to selected accounts from Luke’s Gospel. Specifically, the course will examine:

  • the discourse (how the story is told) of the narrative
  • the rhetoric of the narrative
  • the contributions of the voices of the implied author, narrator and intradiegetic characters
  • the dialogue between the various voices and interaction between the narrative levels
  • the discursive role of space, time, plot and perspective in characterisation


Bibliography

  • Beavis, Mary Ann. The Lost Coin: Parables of Women, Work and Wisdom. BibSem 86. London; New York: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002.
  • Darr, John A. On Character Building: The Reader and the Rhetoric of Characterisation in Luke-Acts. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1992.
  • Dowling, Elizabeth V. Taking away the pound: Women, Theology, and the Parable of the Pounds in the Gospel of Luke. LNTS 324. London; New York: T & T Clark, 2007.
  • Gowler, David B. The Parables After Jesus: Their Imaginative Receptions Across Two Millennia. Publisher: Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017.
  • Levine, Amy-Jill. Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi. New York: HarperOne, 2014.
  • Marguerat, Daniel, and Yvan Bourquin. How to read bible stories. London: SCM, 1999.
  • Marshall, Christopher D. Compassionate Justice: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue with two Gospel Parables on Law, Crime, and Restorative Justice. Theopolitical Visions 15. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2012.
  • Nadella, Raj. Dialogue Not Dogma: Many Voices in the Gospel of Luke. LNTS 431. New York: T & T Clark, 2011.
  • Woloch, Alex. The One vs. the Many: Minor Characters and the Space of the Protagonist in the Novel. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2004.