Midrash Unbound by Michael Fishbane, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters

Midrash is arguably the most ancient and native of Jewish genres, forming a voluminous literature of scriptural exegesis over the course of centuries. There is virtually nothing in the ancient rabbinic universe that was not taught through this medium. This volume presents the diversity anddevelopment of that creative profusion in a new light. It covers a broad range of literary texts, from late antiquity to the early modern period and from all the centres of literary creativity, including non-rabbinic and non-Jewish literature, so that the full extent of the modes and transformationsof Midrash can be rightly appreciated. A comprehensive Introduction situates Midrash in its full historical and rhetorical setting, pointing to creative adaptations within the tradition and providing a sense of the variety of genres and applications discussed in the body of the work. Bringingtogether an impressive array of the leading names in the field, the volume is entirely new in scope and content. It seeks to open a new period in the study of Midrash and its creative role in the formation of culture. It should be of interest to all scholars of Jewish studies, both broadly and specifically, as well as to a wider readership interested in the interrelationships between hermeneutics, culture, and creativity, and especially in the afterlife of a classical genre and its ability to inspire newcreativity in many forms. | Midrash Unbound by Michael Fishbane, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters