Description
Book SynopsisApplying current narrative criticism to the study of the Apocalypse, Hongisto underscores the oral nature of the narrative vis-à-vis the roles of the readers/listeners. EXPERIENCING THE APOCALYPSE AT THE LIMITS OF ALTERITY probes the interplay of meaning creation as readers/listeners encounter the narrative. The author shows how readers/listeners alike partake in the narrative design and become constructors of the narrative, given their own life experiences. Thus, the overarching reading context assists in the creation of a narrativity for the text. The form of the Apocalypse along with its imagistic quality convey a message that is not primarily cognitive, but is delivered and grasped by a sense of alterity encompassing the imaginary world of the text and the real world of the readers/listeners.
Table of Contentscontents Introduction Part one Apocalypse , a text looking for a reading Chapter One Critical Orientation 1.1 Questions and Method 1.1.1 Focus and Boundaries 1.1.2 Task 1.2 Some Definitions and Assumptions 1.3 Modalities of Reading 1.3.1 Realist and Non-realist Relation to the Other 1.3.2 A Virtual Text 1.3.3 Shifts in Viewpoints 1.3.4 Text and ‘Site’ Chapter Two Reading the Form of the Apocalypse 2.1 Defining the Form and Function of the Artefact 2.1.1 The Notion of a Setting 2.2 Framing a Hybrid Text 2.2.1 The Role of a Frame 2.3 The Scripture Profile of the Apocalypse 2.3.1 Literary Freedom 2.4 The Apocalypse as Oral Performance 2.4.1 Word-pictures 2.5 Historical, Narrative and Imaginative Qualities 2.6 The Trait of Construction 2.6.1 The Necessity of Selectivity 2.6.2 Transaction Chapter Three Apocalypticality: An Integrating Function 3.1 Imagining the ‘Other’ 3.1.1 The Spectacular 3.1.2 Sequels to Repeated Readings 3.1.3 Staged ‘as if ’ 3.2 Prismatic Reflections 3.2.1 Experience of Cognitive Dissonance 3.3 From Plain Words to Powerful Metaphors 3.3.1 Communal Cognitions 3.3.2 Collective Experience 3.4 Search for a Setting 3.4.1 Exegetical Assumptions and Spiritual Experience Part two Take up and read Take Up and Read Chapter Four Narrative Positioning – Aligning Experiences 4.1 The Narrative Situation – the First Meeting with the ‘Other’ 4.2 Visions of Jesus: Experiencing the Known Anew 4.2.1 Visionary Experiences of Jesus 4.2.2 Corpus of Visionary Sayings 4.3 The Medium of Sharing God’s Knowledge 4.3.1 Deictic Expressions 4.3.2 Gave ‘Him’ 4.3.3 ‘He’ Sent 4.4 The Form of Visionary Appropriation 4.4.1 John’s Own Vision 4.4.2 As He Saw It 4.5 The Sweet Bitterness of Reading Chapter Five Narrator Perspectives – Affirming Narration 5.1 The Narrator as the Experiencer 5.2 Co-Narrator 5.3 Alternating Between Narrator and Co-narrator Chapter Six The Narratee’s Experience – Connectedness of Life 6.1 ‘You’ as Narrative Identity 6.2 The Other as Oneself 6.3 When Narrative Voices Clash 6.4 The Art of Suppleness Chapter Seven Towards an Anatomy of Apocalypticality 7.1 Action Day 7.1.1 Time of Action 7.1.2 Secular and Sacred 7.1.3 Sinners and Saints 7.2 Conceptual Blends and Shifts 7.2.1 Imagistic Cognitions 7.2.2 Alterations 7.2.3 Merging of Time and Eons 7.3 Concentric Spaces Conclusion Postscript Twelve Storyboards of the Apocalypse Bibliography Index
