Kata Markon

["David C. Hindley" <dhindley AT compuserve.com>]

On Sat, 13 May 2000, George Young said:

>>Dear Phil:

Its always nice to hear from 'down under.'  I agree that sometimes the
distinction between the ironic and the satirical is hard to
differentiate, and the ironic clearly has a place in Mark - including
the coronation scene. Yet my focus carries me into more acrid terrain,
where the narrator's pleasure teeters over from the serio-comical
(irony) into one of ridicule (satire).  My interests spring from a
continued dissatisfaction with the endless stutter of the BIOS school,
i.e., those who frame all three synoptics (and John) as some mutation
of the 'Life' genre. And, as you know, any 'frame' cannot but hide the
margins, or, in my view, the satirical side(s) of Mark.

Currently, I'm drawing from the insights of Northrop Frye (Anatomy),
M. Bakhtin (Doestovesky's Poetics), and many others' discussions of
the ancient Menippean Satire.  Both Frye and Bakhtin argue effectively
(in my opinion) that the Menippean Satire was one of the most
influential
literary experiments of the ancient world.  First attributed, or given
'form,' by Menippus, but then 'nurtured' by Varro, Lucian, and many
others to follow, and finding a special place in early and medieval
Christianity, and, still more, (as Bakhtin argues) perfected in
Doestovesky.  Anyway, the paucity of secondary literature concerning
satire in Mark (as defined above), suggests that maybe there is still
more canvas under that annoying, ugly, old frame which that B(i)os(sy)
school keeps handing us!<<

George,

Since you are not shying away from secular works on the subject (very
refreshing, BTW), I might suggest Hayden White's _Metahistory_, which
treats the subject of tropic figurations as used in historical
narratives.

He proposes that an author's narrative possesses, on a deep level, an
overall "Trope" (mainly metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche or irony). On a
surface level, narratives exhibit "Emplotment" (romantic, tragic,
comic or satiric), and "Argument" (formist, mechanistic, organicist,
contextualist). His studies, however, are confined to the 19th century
and its immediate philosophical antecedents, and are driven by the
linguist model of Ferdinand de Saussure (father of structuralism).

This may not directly treat your area of interest, but it might be
interesting as a means to gauge your approach to application of any
theories your research may develop.

Regards,

Dave Hindley
Cleveland, Ohio, USA