Malvern Group Meeting – Radical Biblical Rewriting in the 20th and 21st centuries
Thursday 10 April 2025
This evening, I will look at some radical literary rewritings of biblical tropes, concentrating on those of Uriah, Job, and Mary Magdalene. Beginning with a run-through of terms useful in the classification of types of rewriting (most people are familiar with "Sequel" and "Prequel"), we will trace the outline reception histories of these three tropes and consider the proposition that meaning is added to texts through time and that the quest for the "original meaning" can be illusory, or at least severely limiting.
- Start Date:
- Thursday 10th April 2025
- Start Time:
- 7:30PM
- Location:
- Friends Meeting House, 1 Orchard Road, Malvern, WR14 3DA
- Phone:
- 01684 565708
- Email:
- andrewrobertwebb@googlemail.com
- Speakers:
- Dr Anthony Swindell
- Website:
- pcnmalvern.org.uk
This evening, I will look at some radical literary rewritings of biblical tropes, concentrating on those of Uriah, Job, and Mary Magdalene. Beginning with a run-through of terms useful in the classification of types of rewriting (most people are familiar with "Sequel" and "Prequel"), we will trace the outline reception histories of these three tropes and consider the proposition that meaning is added to texts through time and that the quest for the "original meaning" can be illusory, or at least severely limiting.
Anthony Swindell lives in Mid Wales and is Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Chester and Literature Area Editor, The Encyclopedia of the Bible & Its Reception. He is an active member of the Society for Biblical Literature and the International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture and has been a lifelong member of the Folklore Society. In 2012 Anthony was awarded a Lambeth D.D. in recognition of his scholarship and research in the field of Biblical Reception Studies and his particular contribution to theological reflection and debate. He is author of How Contemporary Novelists Rewrite Stories from the Bible: The Interpretation of Scripture in Literature (2009); Reworking the Bible: The Literary Reception-History of Fourteen Biblical Stories (2010); Extreme Literary Rewritings of the Bible (2019); Going to Extremes in Biblical Rewritings: Radical Literary Retellings of Biblical Tropes (2023).
This meeting will also be broadcast via zoom. Please email for details.
info@pcnmalvern.org.uk