Biblical Women in Contemporary Novels in English

Ingrid Bertrand, Ph.D. (2011), is an Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature at the Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles and the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium). She has published on biblical rewritings and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Her research interests are dystopias and manifestations of silence in novels.

• AcknowledgementsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction1Setting the Frame. Voices and SilencesPart 1: The Silenced Feminine?2Ambivalent Responses to the Bible1Listening to the Implicit Dimension of the Bible2Challenging Women’s Silencing2.1Dumb Silencing2.2Garrulous Silencing2.3Deaf Silencing3So Many Forms of Silencing to Denounce1The Demoted, Repressed Feminine: The Wild Girl2Amputated Subjecthood: The Handmaid’s Tale3Boarding the Ark of the Refusées: The Book of Mrs Noah4Beware of the Big Bad Lies: Sisters and Strangers5The Voiceless Cipher in the Text: The Red Tent6Battling Against God: Only Human7Feminist Responses to Women’s SilencingPart 2: Voices Draped in SilencesSection 1:Encountering the Other through Silences. Diamant’s the Red Tentand Roberts’s the Wild Girl4Dinah’s Ode to the Plural Mother1A Universe of Mothers and Goddesses2The Bliss and Burden of Silence2.1In the Image of the (Great) Mother(s)2.2From Eloquent Silence to Silencing2.3At One with the Mothers5Mary Magdalene’s Quest for Identity and God1Introduction into the Ineffable Divine1.1A Voluptuous Dissolution of the Self1.2Ineffable Beauty and Harmony2Regaining Primeval Wholeness2.1Sexuality as a Route to the Divine2.2The Marriage between the Inner Man and the Inner Woman2.3The Rehabilitation of the Female Divine Principle2.4Celebrating Life and the Eloquent Silence of Intimacy3The Harrowing of Hell and Resurrection3.1Mary Magdalene’s First Trip to the Nether Realm3.2On the Erroneous Belief in the Bodily Resurrection3.3Mary Magdalene’s Second Harrowing Scene4The Voice of Female Dissent4.1Each of Us Is the Rock4.2Sailing in and to SilenceSection 2:Blurred Voices and Spectral Silences. Roberts’s the Book of Mrs Noahand Diski’s Only Human6Mrs Noah’s Journey to Creativity1On the Polyphonic, Silent Use of Epigraphy1.1Echoing Donne’s Erratic Progress of a Multiform Soul1.2In the Image of … Donne’s Soul: Outshining Noah’s Ark1.3Sharing a Playful, Ironic Distance towards Authority1.4Tempering with Donne’s Voice2A Great Web of Blurred Voices2.1Voice Blurring Across Narrative Levels2.2Blurring within the Main Narrative Level2.3A Mixture of Chaos and Rhythm Celebrating Plurality2.4Delivered from Confinement, Delivered through Confinement?2.5A Heavy Weight to Bear?2.6Conjugating “To Come”3Climbing Down Deep Inside, to Spectral Silence3.1Partying with the Quintessential Silenced3.2Speaking with(out) the Lost Mother7Sarai’s Story Game of Competing Voices and Rival Desires1Voice Blurring in a War of the Wor(l)ds1.1At the Start, There Is an End1.2Unidentified Narrative Voice for a Silenced Heroine1.3Blurred Rival Versions of the Beginning(s)2Sarai’s Early Encounter with Spectral Silence2.1Primeval Loss and the Beginning of Desire2.2The Beginning of the End, and Disappointing New Starts3Sarai-Abram-God, a Destructive Triangular Desire3.1When the One Finds Her Own Voice, the Other Finds God’s3.2Enter I Am That I Am, the Homewrecker: Sarai Nil, God One3.3The Battle of Wor(l)ds: Sarai One, God One3.4The Choice of Laughter: Sarai Two, God OneSection 3:Reticent Testimonies. Atwood’s the Handmaid’s Tale and Tennant’sSisters and Strangers8Offred’s Reticent Tale of Resistance1An Introduction to Reticence2Offred’s Polyphonic Testimony2.1Dialoguing with the Narratee(s)2.2Passing On Other Mutinous Female Voices2.3Offred’s Chatty Discourse with the Maker3Fighting for a Plurality of Identities and Meanings3.1Remembering Her Former Selves3.2Games of Words, Power and Desire with the Commander3.3Offred as Secret Lover9The Playfully Reticent Tale of Eve’s Journey1An Introduction into Grandmother Dummer’s Reticence2From the Passive Princess to the Demonic Lilith3Subverting the Extremes: From Harlot to Madonna4Female Lies and Truths: From Courtesan to BluestockingPart 3: Closing Silences Voicing Openness10Passing on the Heroine’s Voice1Mary Magdalene’s Distrust of Words2Eve’s Ultimate Subversive Enactment of Female Stereotypes3Sarai and the Ineffable Human Horror4Dinah’s Life Beyond the Grave5The Irreconcilability of Mrs Noah’s Aspirations?6Offred’s Blurred Voice11ConclusionWorks CitedIndex