Prophets, Performance, and Power: Performance Criticism of the Hebrew Bible

-Provides the first ever use of performance criticism to analyze Old Testament, or biblical, texts. -Shows that prophetic activity, especially Amos, functions as drama and theater in the same way that Oedipus does. -Offers to general readers a new way of reading and thinking about the Old Testament prophets. Embedded in portions of the biblical text are performance modes of thought that preserve a pre-literary way of thinking that can be analyzed through performance analysis. Even as literary forms of thought are embedded in non-literary forms of communication (television and radio announcers, preachers, actors, conversation), pre-literary forms of thought (i.e., performance modes of thought), became embedded in early literature. Performance analysis is designed to identify and describe these performance modes of thought embedded in the prophetic literature. While recognizing the contribution of various forms of literary criticism, performance analysis enriches literary analysis by bridging the written word to its oral world. Doan's and Giles' book has two major components: the development of performance analysis methodology and the application of that methodology to select portions of the prophetic texts found in the Hebrew bible.