Read
"Woman" from The Legends of the Jews
| Take this link to the contents page of volume
one The
Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg. Then take the link to "Woman" in chapter two. If this does not work, try this freeliterature.com link, and scroll down to the "Woman" section. (Taking the link does not seem to work). You will then find the apocryphal writings of the ancient Hebrews and learn that Eve was not Adam's first wife and that the creation of Eve was not so simple as you might have thought. |
|
| Dante Gabriel
Rossetti's Lady Lilith, 1868, 1872-73 from www.wwnorton.com/nael/nto/victorian/ painterly/imlilith.htm |
Foucault
has identified "the
politics of truth," asserting that social, political, cultural, religious,
and philosophical situations affect what each of us perceives as true.
Feminists will see the exclusion of the Lilith myths (from the Jewish and
Christian canon) as being a political truth.
It might have been dangerous theologically for either religion to admit
that Adam (and so men) was (were)
equal to Lilith (women) and that God made a mistake in creating her or could not
control her.
Lilith, of course, is Adam's first wife, as found in the apocryphal writings of the Hebrew tradition. She was perhaps created to explain the discrepancy between the two creation accounts, or she might be a vestigial product of the feminine language and ideology (woman's energy as creative, similar to Greek myth) of the early myths before they were preempted, corrupted, displaced by patriarchal creation myths.
Feminists can see Lilith from a variety of perspectives:
|
Lilith's
existence
(in myth) shows that God did not initially subordinate women. |
|
|
Lilith's existence
(in myth) shows that creative energy can be located within the female. |
|
|
Lilith's exclusion
and vilification betrays patriarchal or misogynist bias. |
|
|
Lilith's exclusion
chronicles social change, as it indicates a loss of power by women in
ancient "developing"
Israel. |
|
|
Lilith's decision
indicates the free will of women and shows that they can resist male
domination. |
Lilith
is an incarnation
of the archetype of the madwoman who is dangerous and destructive to civilized
society. Eve exists as her foil,
the ideal woman--who really is not very ideal--who is emotional rather than
rational, supportive of the patriarchal policies, and naturally subordinate to
man.
Course Home Page
| The
Instructor's Homepage | IVCC Homepage
Syllabus
Contact Kimberly M. Radek, the instructor of Women in Literature, at Kimberly_Radek@ivcc.edu
.
This page was last updated on 21 April 2008 . Copyright Kimberly M. Radek, 2001.
