A Queer Reading of Joseph

Karin Hügel published her article “A Queer Reading of Joseph: Jewish Interpretations of the Beautiful Young Man in the Hebrew Bible” in Biblische Notizen 157 as a result of her research into queer readings of the Hebrew Bible.

She has given a lecture on a queer reading of Joseph at the Winter meeting of The Old Testament Society in the Netherlands and in Belgium (OTW) at the Free University of Amsterdam on February 2, 2012.

The author offers queer readings of the beautiful young Joseph in the Hebrew Bible focusing on later Jewish interpretations of the biblical Joseph narrative. These interpretations can be captured under three headings, viz.(1) “Joseph being an effeminate youth”, i.e. interpretations of Gen 37:2 and Gen 39:6; (2) “Potiphar buys Joseph in order to have sex with him”, i.e. interpretations of Gen 39:1; and (3) “the beautiful Joseph ignores women”, i.e. interpretations of Gen 49:22.

Karin Hügel, “Eine queere Lektüre von Josef: Jüdische Interpretationen des schönen jungen Manns aus der Hebräischen Bibel”, in: Biblische Notizen 157, Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2013, 69-99.

The author is a PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam and an external member of ASCA, that is the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, and of ARC-GS, that is the Amsterdam Research Center for Gender and Sexuality. The provisional title of her dissertation is “Queer Readings of the Hebrew Bible” (“Queere Lesarten der Hebräischen Bibel”) – it will be written in German.

http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a9104666/huegelkarinarticlejoseph.html

http://uva.academia.edu/KarinHügel

http://www.www.uva.nl/profile/k.hugel