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Heartless Bimbo or Subversive Role Model?: A Narrative (Self) Critical Reading of the Character of Esther
Author(s) -
Song Angeline
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
dialog
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.114
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1540-6385
pISSN - 0012-2033
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6385.2009.00502.x
Subject(s) - character (mathematics) , narrative , reading (process) , perspective (graphical) , literature , sacrifice , empathy , immigration , close reading , critical reading , sociology , aesthetics , history , psychoanalysis , art , psychology , philosophy , social psychology , theology , linguistics , visual arts , geometry , mathematics , archaeology
: She has been described as weak, beautiful but brainless, and “the scab undermining the impact of a striking worker's sacrifice.” This article engages such opinions, but takes a different view of the character of Esther. It is a narrative critical reading that is nuanced with ‘realistic empathy’, from the perspective of someone whose life story has much in common with Esther's tale. Given away as a child by my biological parents in a society that preferred boys, like Esther, I was adopted by a single parent and raised in a strongly patriarchal society. I am now an Asian immigrant in New Zealand, a predominantly Western society, while Esther was a diasporic Jew in Persia. 1