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The Book of Job as Polyphonic Text

Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA

The problem of the 'unity' of the book of Job has been an issue since the rise of historical criticism. Historical-critical analyses, final form literary approaches, and deconstructive readings engage the problem in enlightening but not wholly satisfying ways. A Bakhtinian approach that makes use of the categories of dialogic truth and polyphonic composition provides a means of acknowledging the sharp disjunctions in the book while still providing an account of the unity of the book as a whole. The book of Job can be seen as a dialogue of genres and 'voice ideas' in which no one voice is privileged as the voice of truth. At the same time issues raised in the book of Job disclose limitations in Bakhtin' s analysis of dialogue.

In its structure Job's dialogue is internally endless, for the opposition of the soul to God-whether the opposition be hostile or humble-is conceived in it as something irrevocable and eternal.

—M.M. Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky's Art¹

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