Biblical Hebrew Forum

[c stirling bartholomew <cc.constantine AT worldnet.att.net>]

on 5/29/02 12:34 PM, c stirling bartholomew wrote:

> So we might say that what creates textual chaos (too strong a word) at the
> clause and paragraph level promotes cohesion at the macro level.

A vivid example of this can be found in William Faulkner's "The Sound and
The Fury." The first section of this novel is narrated by Benjy who is not
dealing with a full deck (mentally off) . The discourse in this section is
incoherent, notably lacking the features that are used to tie together a
cohesive text. The second section of the book switches to a different
narrator and most of the incoherence disappears.

The first section of the book is difficult to process (read) but this
difficulty sets it off from the second section, and thus makes it stand out
as a textual unit and serves to provided macro level cohesion.

The ambiguity in Zechariah is not as extreme as "The Sound and The Fury."
The main problem in Zech is participant reference ambiguity, and it is
mostly a problem in the apocalyptic scenes where the speaker/agent isn't
easy to identify. I need to take a look at Daniel and see if this sort of
ambiguity is found in the apocalyptic sections of that book. I know there
are a few cases of it in the Apocalypse of John.

greetings,

Clay

--  
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062