Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ruthy & Baruch" <alster AT comandcom.com>]

Shalom to all!

I am currently working on my MA thesis (at Bar Ilan University, with Dr.
Amos Frisch of the Bible department), on surprise in Biblical narrative
(from a literary perspective), and would like to ask you all a few
questions, mainly about references:

1.  Does anyone know of general discussions of this subject, by anyone
other than Sternberg (_The Poetics of Biblical Narrative_)?  I understand
(from a vague reference in T. Cave's _Recognitions_) that Piero Boitani may
have covered this subject in ancient and medieval literature (including
Bible), but I can't find the title.

2.  Are there any articles / book chapters dealing with specific Biblical
surprise stories?  I've found a few, but they're hard to look for,
especially as surprise is mentioned only in passing in many of my
references.

3.  In this context, something dealing in BH discourse analysis, especially
in the distinction between foreground and background information, would be
useful.  What is the best material on this subject?

4.  Is there a discussion list similar to this one dealing in literary
theory?

5.  Has anyone heard of a journal called Angelaki?  There seems to be an
article on surprise in their first issue, but it doesn't exist in Israeli
University libraries.  How can I get my hands on such an article (without
paying 100 shekels for an international loan)?

6.  Does anyone know of research in this subject in related ancient
literature (apocrypha, Christian Bible, Rabbinic, ANE)?

Thanks in advance for any help.  As my main fields are "Bible as
literature" and Rabbinic exegesis, help from other fields would be
especially welcome.  God willing, when I get around to writing about the
stories themselves, I will try to bring anything interesting up for
discussion on-list.

Thanks again,

Kol Tuv, 
Baruch Alster
Kochav Ya`akov, Israel