Translating Eve: Death and Female Identity in a Funerary Hymn Ascribed to EphremJournal of Theological StudiesSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/9C5T426G/tei
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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.Maria E.DoerflerTranslating Eve: Death and Female Identity in a Funerary Hymn Ascribed to Ephremhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/9C5T426Ghttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/9C5T426Ghttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/9C5T426GJournal of Theological Studies73:12022167-194The <i>necrosima</i>, a collection of 85 funerary <i>madrāshê </i>ascribed to Ephrem the Syrian, encompasses hymns in a variety of metres, commemorating Christians of all stations and backgrounds. Scholarly interest in the necrosima peaked in the nineteenth century; in the intervening decades, the hymns have retreated into relative obscurity, a fate precipitated in part by the recognition that few appear to be of genuinely Ephremic vintage. This article participates in an effort to revive interest both in the <i>necrosima </i>as a corpus, and in its individual hymnic constituents—including those of uncertain provenance. To this end, it focuses on one of its most striking examples, <i>madrāshâ </i>31 (<i>In funere matrisfamilias</i>). The latter depicts a dialogue between a deceased wife and mother and her community, wherein the former presents herself as daughter, victim, and unwitting double of Eve. The article examines the motif of Eve’s legacy in the lives of ordinary Christian women, as depicted in <i>madrāshâ </i>31, in three interlocking strata: of the necrosima; of roughly contemporaneous Syriac literature; and, finally, of the madrāshâ’s putative performative context. Each stratum elucidates intertextual connections and additional layers of meaning, resulting in a more satisfyingly ‘thick’ description of the <i>madrāshâ </i>and its narrative.
Doerfler, Maria E. “Translating Eve: Death and Female Identity in a Funerary Hymn Ascribed to Ephrem.” Journal of Theological Studies 73:1 (2022): 167–94. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flac077.
Maria E. Doerfler, Translating Eve: Death and Female Identity in a Funerary Hymn Ascribed to Ephrem,Journal of Theological Studies 73:1 (2022): 167–94, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flac077.EphremEphremiana [Syriac]EveIV CEIV-VII CEdeathhymnographypoetrywomen