Reading Johannine Dramatic Irony through Ancient Dramatic Devices - by Tat Yan Lee (Paperback)

About the Book

When studying irony in John's Gospel, scholars have relied on modern literary theories and anachronistic interpretive tools. Lee pushes beyond contemporary interpretations to examine the literary context of the Gospel's original audience.

Book Synopsis

When studying irony in the Gospel of John, scholars have largely relied on modern literary theories and anachronistic interpretive tools. In this book, Dr. Tat Yan Lee pushes beyond contemporary interpretations to examine the literary context of the Gospel's original audience. Utilizing Aristotle's Poetics and drawing parallels between John's Gospel and ancient Greek tragedy, Dr. Lee offers a fresh perspective on the role of dramatic irony within the text. His exploration of Aristotelian theory highlights the significance of emotion as an intended by-product of ancient drama and provides a critical method for establishing plausible early readings of the Gospel and its dramatic devices.

Offering present-day readers a chance to encounter John's Gospel through ancient eyes, this book holds valuable insight for Johannine scholars, classicists, students of literary theory, and all those desiring greater insight into the gospel and its impact.

Review Quotes

This book is the first to examine the topic of dramatic irony in the Gospel of John using literary criteria current at the time of the book's composition. While dramatic irony is usually discussed based on modern definitions of the term, this new approach goes beyond modern theories back to Aristotle's Poetics, and derives concepts of dramatic irony that would have been recognizable to authors and readers in the first century. These are then applied to passages from the Gospel of John. This approach demonstrates how the Gospel evokes tragic emotions in the readers by means of dramatic irony and thus the readers are drawn into the drama of the narrative.

Jutta Leonhardt-Balzer, PhD

Honorary Senior Lecturer, New Testament,

University of Aberdeen, UK

Veering away from modern theories on irony and focussing instead on Aristotle's Poetics, Tat Yan Lee offers the reader a creative rereading of the topic in the Fourth Gospel. Any attempt at interpreting this document in the light of the norms and practices of its time is surely to be welcomed, especially when it is competently executed. Even if some readers are not convinced by Tat Yan's results, it is certain they will still gain fresh perspectives on this enigmatic Gospel.

Kim Huat Tan, PhD

Chen Su Lan Professor of New Testament

Trinity Theological College, Singapore

Tat Yan Lee proposes that John's "dramatic irony" is best interpreted in light of a range of plot devices attested in ancient Greek literature. This wide-ranging and illuminating study argues that the fourth evangelist understands dramatic irony not so much as a literary technique but as a strategy of employment that is to be sustained throughout the narrative. This is a most welcome addition to recent scholarship on the character and function of literary - and especially dramatic - elements in the Gospel of John.

Catrin H. Williams, PhD

Reader in New Testament Studies,

University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter, UK