Article published In: English Text Construction
Vol. 8:2 (2015) ► pp.194–206
Genesis plural
Jenny Diski’s reconfiguration of God and his Word in Only Human
Published online: 3 December 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.8.2.03ber
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.8.2.03ber
This article is devoted to Jenny Diski’s polyphonic rewriting of the biblical myth of Abraham and Sarah in Only Human: A Divine Comedy (2000). It shows how this subversive novel, through its juxtaposition of two competing narrative voices – an unidentified human narrator and God himself –, challenges the omniscience and transcendence usually attributed to God, but also the power of his creative Word, and launches a reflection on storytelling and truth, presenting thereby an “only human” Bible.
References (14)
Brown, Helen. 2004. A writer’s life: Jenny Diski (interview with Jenny Diski). <[URL]> (last accessed on 4 May 2015).
Diski, Jenny. 2001 [2000]. Only Human. London: Virago.
. 2005 [2004]. After These Things. London: Virago.
Genette, Gérard. 1980. Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Richardson, Brian. 2006. Unnatural Voices: Extreme Narration in Modern and Contemporary Fiction. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
Scurr, Ruth. 2000. In the land of Canaan. Jenny Diski. Only Human: A Divine Comedy. Times Literary Supplement (October 13th, 2000): 221.
Soskice, Janet M. 2002. The gift of the name: Moses and the burning bush. In Silence and the Word: Negative Theology and Incarnation, Oliver Davies & Denys Turner (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 61–75.
Tew, Philip. 2006. Jenny Diski’s millennial imagination 1997–2004. In British Fiction Today, Philip Tew & Rod Mengham (eds.). London: Continuum, 67–77.
The Holy Bible. Authorized King James Version. n.d. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
