Terrible Silence, Eternal Silence A Consideration of Dinah’s Voicelessness in the Text and Interpretive Traditions of Genesis 34

摘要

In this thesis, the author takes a journey through both biblical and contemporaryudpatriarchal cultures, contemplating the commonality of rape survivors’ experiencesudacross space and time, and, in particular, evaluating the insidious and pervasiveudinfluences of patriarchy, which have long served to deny these women a voice withudwhich to relate their narrative of suffering. Consideration is given to some of theudcommon contemporary cultural attitudes and misperceptions regarding sexualudviolence, commonly known as ‘rape myths’, which appear to be rooted within theuddeeply entrenched gender stereotypes of patriarchal cultures the world over, andudwhich survivors of sexual violence regard as lying at the very heart of their ownudvoicelessness. The author examines the means by which these rape myths silenceudvictims of sexual violence, then, using these myths as a hermeneutical tool,udevaluates whether they are likewise given voice within both the text and interpretiveudtraditions of Genesis 34, a biblical narrative recounting the rape of Jacob’s daughterudDinah. When these myths do appear to be represented within this narrative,udconsideration is then given to the impact that they may likewise have had uponudDinah’s own experience of her violation and thus, upon her ability to share her story.udMoreover, the author evaluates the representations of Dinah in her interpretiveudafterlife, assessing the ways in which biblical interpreters may or may not appeal toudthese same myths in order both to attend to her silence and to make sense of herudexperience. This thesis therefore has two primary aims. Firstly, there is an attemptudto paint a picture of the world in which Dinah experienced her sexual assault, byudcasting light upon the attitudes and ideologies that she would have faced from othersudwithin her own community. In addition, consideration is also given to the narrativeudworld, which Dinah continues to occupy in the minds of those who read her story,udby looking at the responses she has received and continues to receive from thisudinterpretive community. This thesis therefore attempts to provide a deeper insightudinto Dinah’s own experience of sexual violence, in order that contemporary readersudcan better comprehend the meaningfulness and complexity of her silence and grantudto it a rich and new meaning.