Creating fictional worlds : Peshaṭ-Exegesis and narrativity in Rashbam's commentary on the Torah / / by Hanna Liss.

• Superior document: Studies in Jewish history and culture, v. 25
• Author: Liss, Hanna.
• TeilnehmendeR: Liss, Hanna.
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Jewish history and culture ; v. 2.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (332 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

R. Samuel ben Meir (b. 1085) wrote his Torah commentary at a point in time when the French masters of Bible collected their glossae, but he wrote it also at the point in time that we today consider to be the turning point in ‘lay literacy,’ when the Anglo-Norman aristocracy patronized the production of romances. In the first half of the 12th century, Northern France was a vibrant spot. It was an era in which composing, reading, and listening to narratives and stories intensified as a complex cultural phenomenon. This book presents the idea that Rashbam tried to compete with this new intellectual movement, claiming that the literary quality of the biblical texts was at least as good as that of the nascent courtly romances, or even on a par with one another.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / H. Liss -- Introduction / H. Liss -- Chapter One. The Northern French School Of Biblical Exegesis: The Status Quaestionis In Modern Scholarship / H. Liss -- Chapter Two. Reevaluating Biblical Commentaries In Northern France / H. Liss -- Chapter Three. R. Samuel Ben Meïr (Rashbam): His Torah Commentary And Its Transmission / H. Liss -- Chapter Four. The Torah And The Art Of Narrative / H. Liss -- Chapter Five Rashbam’S Commentaries Between ץומנר And ‘Romance’ / H. Liss -- Chapter Six. Peshat And Halakhah / H. Liss -- Chapter Seven. The Old French Glosses And Rashbam’s Exegesis ‘According To The Ways Of The World’ / H. Liss -- Conclusion Rabbis, Knights, And The Excitement Of Medieval Adolescence / H. Liss -- Appendix Synopsis. Of The Old French Glosses In Rashbam’s Torah-Commentary / H. Liss -- Bibliography / H. Liss -- General Index / H. Liss -- Index Of Names / H. Liss -- Index Of References / H. Liss.