Reading Revelation as Pastiche: Imitating the Past

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Description

Scholars have often read the book of Revelation in a way that attempts to ascertain which Old Testament book it most resembles. Instead, we should read it as a combined and imitative text which actively engages the audience through signalling to multiple texts and multiple textual experiences: in short, it is an act of pastiche. Fletcher analyses the methods used to approach Revelation's relationship with Old Testament texts and shows that, although there is literature on Revelation's imitative and multi-vocal nature, these aspects of the text have not yet been explored in sufficient depth. Fletcher's analysis also incorporates an examination of Greco-Roman imitation and combination before providing a better way to understand the nature of the book of Revelation, as pastiche. Fletcher builds her case on four comparative case studies and uses a test case to ascertain how completely they fit with this assessment. These insights are then used to clarify how reading Revelation as imitative and combined pastiche can challenge previous scholarly assumptions, transforming the way we approach the text.

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In Reading Revelation as Pastiche, Michelle Fletcher offers a perspective on Revelation that is fresh, startling in places, and undoubtedly illuminating The result of the interaction between critical theory, biblical studies, and interpretations of modern architecture, art, fiction and film is highly thought-provoking and of real value to Revelation scholarship. * Review of Biblical Literature *

Author Bio

Michelle Fletcher is Associate Lecturer at the University of Kent, UK.