Description
Book SynopsisBitter Scrolls is a broad survey of our sacred texts, both Holy Writ (Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Qur''an) and secular masterpieces, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to the work of William Butler Yeats and D.H. Lawrence, whose canonical status often exempts them from the sort of hardnosed, commonsense criticism that we uniformly apply to contemporary literature and art. A frank look at this literature reveals a stunning combination of bias and blindness toward women. Acknowledging this would, in any case, be painful and depressing; but confronting it in some of our greatest minds-Homer, Aeschylus, Virgil, Boccaccio, Rabelais, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth, and so on-must inevitably give rise to profound, if no longer unusual, culture shock. With few exceptions, we can no more remake the canon than we can redesign our family tree, but we need to come to terms with the toxic contents of our art.
Trade ReviewBitter Scrolls is an ambitious book by Peter Heinegg. Beginning with the Epic of Gilgamesh, and romping through history to end up with John Donne and even throwing in Marvin Gaye for good measure, Heinegg sets out to show the "toxicity of the texts" Heinegg succeeds in bringing to light in a very quick succinct fashion misogynistic texts that a beginning feminist scholar, unfamiliar with the texts, might find helpful. Heinegg is also very right; we have a long way to go. * Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception *
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction, In Their Own Words Chapter 2 1. Gilgamesh, Off to a Very Bad Start Chapter 3 2. The Mightiest, Manliest Murderers Chapter 4 3. Clytemnestra's Ghost: Aeschylus Puts Women in Their Place Chapter 5 4. Moses: Misogyny in High Places Chapter 6 5. St. Paul: Christianity's Founder Founders Chapter 7 6. Muhammad Keeps the Ladies in Line Chapter 8 7. Boccaccio and the Renaissance Playboy Philosophy Chapter 9 8. Rabelais and the Triumph of Youmanism Chapter 10 9. Thoroughly Unmodern Willie: Shakespeare's Women Chapter 11 10. Milton Confronts the Biblical Babe Chapter 12 11. Alexander Pope's Dissonant Classical Symphony Chapter 13 12. Wordsworth and the Helpless Female Chapter 14 13. Tolstoy's Women: Barefoot in the Dacha Chapter 15 14. W.B. Yeats: The Last of the Red-Hot Lovers Chapter 16 15. D.H. Lawrence: Hierophant Unhinged Chapter 17 16. An Alternate Feminist Canon?-Forget About It Chapter 18 17. Leftover Toxins
