| The biblical book of Lamentations affronts the reader with a barrage of harsh and violent images. In order to "survive" this barrage--that is, to deal with the pain and suffering that the book presents, especially as it challenges the reader's theology--modern interpreters have almost unanimously attempted to tone down, expunge, or belittle the language of lament and accusation against God. The most challenging complaint language in the book comes from the figure of Zion in Lamentations 1 and 2, whose rhetoric is acutely urgent, in particular as it addresses God and demands a response on behalf of her children, who are presented as dying in the streets. These chapters have been largely ignored or devalued in critical scholarship, which has paid much more attention to the suffering man of Lamentations 3 and his brief statement of hope. Taking a cue from twentieth-century literature of survival, the writings of those who have survived catastrophes and acts of atrocity, I refocus attention on chapters 1 and 2, reading them as an example of the most basic need to give voice to suffering without attempting to give such suffering meaning.;My focus on chapters 1 and 2 is supported by the history of Jewish interpretation, which presents another strategy for surviving Lamentations, in contrast to the devaluing of lament language pervasive in modern scholarship: this strategy is to face squarely the most disturbing and accusatory passages and to attempt a direct response to them. Thus, in Jewish interpretation attention has been focused on the figure of Zion, with text after text identifying Zion's concern for her children as of primary significance and attempting to provide the response to her lament that is lacking in the biblical book. This dissertation traces the drive to supplement and thus to "keep alive" the book of Lamentations, as it is manifested in Second Isaiah, Targum Lamentations, Lamentations Rabbah, the medieval Hebrew poetry of Eliezer ben Kallir, and in a contemporary short story by Cynthia Ozick. |
