Description:
We can no longer read biblical texts that include explicit and implicit depictions of violence without awareness of trauma. In Esther Keeps the Score, Alexiana Fry challenges conventional interpretations of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament book of Esther. Fry offers a full treatment of the violence found within, seen through a trauma-informed lens, acknowledging the many shifting contexts and power structures that create significant effect on the characters in the story. Through an analysis of gender and ethnic minoritization in diaspora settings, as well as how this shows itself in emotional and somatic compulsive responses, the book of Esther can be read afresh with empathic eyes.
Understanding Esther with a holistic view on how oppression creates, sustains and perpetuates trauma, in both individuals and collectives, should cause readers to consider ways to break the cycle, both in the book and in their own worlds and lives. A must-read for Old Testament and trauma scholars, preachers, as well as anyone seeking to better understand how trauma operates in biblical narratives, Esther Keeps the Score reshapes our understanding of Esther's story and its implications for survival in a hostile world of patriarchy, sexism, misogyny and racism.
Brief description: Dr Alexiana Fry is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Copenhagen for the project 'Divergent Views of Diaspora in Ancient Judaism'. She received her PhD in Old Testament from Stellenbosch University in South Africa in 2021, where she began her specialisation at the intersection of gender, trauma and migration studies in biblical interpretation.
Review Quotes:
Rarely does a book provide unique insight into both a biblical hermeneutic and application of it. In Alexiana Fry's Esther Keeps the Score, readers not only gain insight into the ever-elusive category that is trauma, but also a new understanding of Esther as trauma literature. Without restraint, Fry provides a model for how to do interdisciplinary work in the field of biblical studies.
--Sarah Emanuel