In this dissertation I apply the literary and cultural theory of Fredric Jameson to some biblical texts. In the first chapter I present Jameson's theory as a complex relationship between an effort to account for the pluralism of methods and interpretations (metacommentary) and a specific Marxist method, comprising three phases of interpretation. In chapter two I apply metacommentary and the Marxist method to 1 Kings 11-14, moving from a formal and ideological analysis to questions of class and economics in an imperial context. In chapter three the method is similarly applied to two reinterpretations of the Kings passage: 3 Reigns 11-14 and 2 Chronicles 10-13. Here I argue that while the Reigns text is formally and ideologically concerned with moving away from a Judean focus, by contrast the Chronicles text constructs a utopian community in Judea. The conclusion considers the implications of these results.
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