Socrates and the Fat Rabbis
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A01=Daniel Boyarin
academic
allegory
ancient world
Author_Daniel Boyarin
babylon
belief
Category=QDHA
Category=QRAB
Category=QRJ
Category=QRJF
controversial
culture
dialogues
discourse
educational
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
essay
faith
historical
history
holy book
learning
literary
literature
lucian
menippean satire
monological
monologue
plato
platonic
postmodern
protagoras
rabbinic
relationship
religion
religious texts
research
satirical
scholarly
sermons
structure
studies
symposium
talmud
talmudic
Product details
- ISBN 9780226069166
- Weight: 680g
- Dimensions: 16 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 01 Nov 2009
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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What kind of literature is the Talmud? To answer this question, Daniel Boyarin looks to an unlikely source: the dialogues of Plato. In these ancient texts he finds similarities, both in their unique combination of various genres and topics and in their dialogic structure. But Boyarin goes beyond the typological parallelism between the texts, arguing also for a cultural relationship. In "Socrates and the Fat Rabbis", Boyarin suggests that these dialogues are not dialogic at all. Using Michael Bakhtin's notion of represented dialogue and real dialogism, Boyarin demonstrates, through multiple close readings, that the give-and-take in these texts is actually monologic in spirit. At the same time, he shows that there are other elements that manifest genuine dialogicality. Boyarin ultimately singles out Menippean satire as the most important genre with which to understand both the Talmud and Plato, pointing out their seriocomic peculiarity. An innovative contribution to rabbinic studies, "Socrates and the Fat Rabbis" makes a major contribution to scholarship on the discursive and cultural practices of the ancient Mediterranean.
Daniel Boyarin is professor of Talmudic culture and holds the Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Chair in the departments of Near Eastern studies and rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author, coauthor, editor, or coeditor of more than a dozen books, including, most recently, Border Lines: The Partition of Judeo-Christianity.
