Studies in Rabbinic Narratives Volume 1

<p>Rabbinic literature includes hundreds of stories and brief narrative traditions. These narrative traditions often take the form of biographical anecdotes that recount a deed or event in the life of a rabbi. Modern scholars consider these narratives as didactic fictions-stories used to teach lessons promote rabbinic values and grapple with the tensions and conflicts of rabbinic life. Using methods drawn from literary and cultural theory including feminist structuralist Marxist and psychoanalytic methods contributors analyze narratives from the Babylonian Talmud midrash Mishnah and other rabbinic compilations to shed light on their meanings functions and narrative art. </p>