Moses in America: The Cultural Uses of Biblical Narrative (American Academy of Religion Cultural Criticism Series) PDF
Preview Moses in America: The Cultural Uses of Biblical Narrative (American Academy of Religion Cultural Criticism Series)
Moses in America AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION CULTURAL CRITICISM SERIES SERIES EDITOR Bjorn Krondorfer, St. Mary's College of Maryland A Publication Series of The American Academy of Religion and Oxford University Press ANTI-JUDAISM IN FEMINIST RELIGIOUS WRITINGS Katharina von Kellenbach THE GREAT WHITE FLOOD Racism in Australia Anne Pattel-Gray ON DECONSTRUCTING LIFE-WORLDS Buddhism, Christianity, Culture Robert Magliola CULTURAL OTHERNESS Correspondence with Richard Rorty, Second Edition Anindita Niyogi Balslev CROSS CULTURAL CONVERSATION Initiation Edited by Anindita Niyogi Balslev IMAG(IN)ING OTHERNESS Filmic Visions of Living Together Edited by S. Brent Plate and David Jasper PARABLES FOR OUR TIME Rereading New Testament Scholarship after the Holocaust Tania Oldenhage MOSES IN AMERICA The Cultural Uses of Biblical Narrative Melanie J. Wright AAR AMERICAN ACADbMY 0F RELIGION Moses in America The Cultural Uses of Biblical Narrative Melanie J. Wright OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2003 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Sao Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Copyright © 2003 by The American Academy of Religion Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Excerpts from "Moses in Red" are from the 1926 Dorrance and Co. edition, reprinted in The World of Lincoln Steffens, edited by Ella Winter and Herbert Shapiro, copyright © 1962, renewed 1990 by Hill and Wang. Reprinted by permission of Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Excerpts from Moses, Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston. Copyright © 1939 by Zora Neale Hurston. Copyright renewed 1967 by John C. Hurston and Joel Hurston. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wright, Melanie J. 1970- Moses in America : the cultural uses of biblical narrative / Melanie J. Wright. p. cm.—(American Academy of Religion cultural criticism series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-515226-3 1. Moses (Biblical leader) 2. Steffens, Lincoln, 1866-1936. Moses in red. 3. Hurston, Zora Neale. Moses, man of the mountain. 4. Ten Commandments (Motion picture) 5. Bible O. T.—Biography—History and criticism. 6. Religion and culture—United States—History—20th century. I. Title. II. Series. BS580.M6 W75 2002 700'.451—dc21 2001052047 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Preface This book began as a doctoral dissertation at Oxford University, under the direction of Christopher Rowland. Thanks go to him for being a patient and tolerant supervisor, and to my examiners John Barton and Bill Telford. For their institutional assistance I am a grateful to the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the British Library, the Butler Library at Columbia University, Christ Church (Oxford), the Faculty of Divinity and University libraries of Cambridge, and Scunthorpe Central Library. Without the financial sup- port of the British Academy, this project would not have been undertaken; I am thankful for their award of a postgraduate studentship. On a more personal level, I wish to express gratitude to Mark Baker, Rachel Baker, Chris Carmen, Andrew Chester, Peter Clarke, Jane Doyle, Clare Drury, Jon Gifford, Nancy Isle, Robert Isle, Fazana Khatri, John Leigh, Don Stebbings, Andrena Telford, Jerry Toner, David Woodhouse, and the members of the Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations, Cam- bridge. They have read drafts of parts of this book, offered comments on issues raised, or heartened me with words of constructive criticism and support. Bjorn Krondorfer and Cynthia Read (and colleagues) of the American Academy of Religion and Oxford University Press were unfail- ingly patient and wise as Moses in America moved from manuscript to bound book. Finally, I want to register the debt that I owe Justin Meggitt, who has cheered me on over the years. I dedicate this to him and to Mollie Wright, who died shortly after the project was initiated but gave me the strength to see it through. This page intentionally left blank Contents i. Introduction, 3 2. Back to the Future: Lincoln Steffens's Moses in Red (1926), 13 3. If Moses Was a Mulatto: Zora Neale Hurston's Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939), 43 4. Coming in from the Cold (War): Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956), 89 5. Conclusions, 128 Notes, 133 Bibliography, 151 Selective Filmography, 167 Index, 169 This page intentionally left blank Moses in America
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