Teaching the Bible as literature in university education

Kirova, Milena (author)

Studying the biblical corpus as an object of literary observation has been practised for decades in parts of Europe and the United States, but has only recently appeared in the universities of the "post-communist" countries. It constitutes a feature of a more general process of secularisation and scholarly analysis, in which the Scriptures are understood, yet disputed, as a cultural and psychological fundamental of the modern individual. The proposed paper endeavours to outline the general parameters within which the Bible could be treated in the academic curricula of philological departments, systematising the various possibilities of a literary approach. The traditional concept of a "historical-critical" interpretation is contrasted with a synchronic reading that facilitates an acknowledgment of the literary qualities of a text that is commonly viewed as a finalised and closed entity. The paper discusses the possibilities offered by different schools and methodologies of literary criticism: structuralism and semiotics, New Criticism, archetypal criticism, reader-response criticism, deconstruction, feminism and Gender Studies.

• Language: English
• Keywords: teaching, literature, teaching of literature, didactics of literature, literary didactics, academic curricula, curriculum, interpretation of literature, strategies of interpretation, Bible
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Year: 2008
• Number of pages: Str. 225-230
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-154536
• UDC: 82:378.147:2-227
• COBISS.SI-ID: 72036194
• Publication date in RUL: 20.02.2024

Record is a part of a monograph

• Title: Književnost v izobraževanju - cilji, vsebine, metode
• Editors: Boža Krakar-Vogel
• Place of publishing: Ljubljana
• Publisher: Filozofska fakulteta, Oddelek za slovenistiko, Center za slovenščino kot drugi/tuji jezik
• Year: 2008
• ISBN: 978-961-237-263-7
• COBISS.SI-ID: 242242304
• Collection title: Obdobja
• Collection numbering: 25
• Collection ISSN: 1408-211X

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian

Abstract

Korpus besedil Svetega pisma je že desetletja predmet literarnega preučevanja v delih Evrope in v Združenih državah, v "postkomunističnih" deželah pa so se na univerzah s to tematiko začeli ukvarjati šele pred kratkim. Preučevanje korpusa predstavlja značilnost splošnejšega procesa sekularizacije in znanstvene analize, v katerem se Sveto pismo razume kot kulturna in psihološka osnova sodobnega človeka, čemur pa nekateri nasprotujejo. V pričujočem prispevku skušam orisati splošne parametre, v okviru katerih bi lahko Sveto pismo obravnavali v visokošolskih učnih načrtih filoloških oddelkov, ter sistematiziram različne možnosti literarnega pristopa. Tradicionalni koncept "zgodovinsko-kritične" interpretacije primerjam s sinhronim branjem, ki omogoča potrditev literarnih kvalitet besedila, na katerega običajno gledamo kot na dokončano in zaključeno entiteto. V prispevku obravnavam možnosti, ki jih ponujajo različne šole in metodologije literarne kritike: strukturalizem in semiotika, Nova kritika, arhetipska kritika, teorija bralčevega odziva, dekonstrukcija, feminizem in študije spolov.

• Keywords: poučevanje, književnost, pouk književnosti, književna didaktika, didaktika književnosti, visoko šolstvo, visokošolska didaktika, učni načrti, literarna interpretacija, strategije interpretacije, Sveto pismo