| Summary: | This dissertation demonstrates that the narrators of Genesis 34 and 2 Samuel 13 cast the sexual violations of Dinah and Tamar similarly. Chapter 1 attends to the words that link the two narratives. It also examines other Hebrew Bible (HB) passages containing inah, nevalah, and herpah. Because it is asserted that Shechem and Amnon had committed grave sexual wrongs, a significant amount of language in the texts is laden with a sense of shame/dishonor. Chapter 1 closes with three excursi that help inform one's understanding of the two primary narratives. The first deals with exogamy, as Shechem was identified as a Hivite. Because Amnon and Tamar were half-sister and brother, a second excursus addresses sibling incest. The final one focuses on rape in the HB. A narrator takes for granted that readers/hearers are familiar with concepts that are basic to his story. An ancient reader would have understood the subtleties and nuances of the texts more readily than we. The contemporary reader, far removed from the time, ideology, and culture of the HB, may turn to other passages as "literary evidence" to be mined for clues to how other texts used the same words or addressed similar issues. Chapters 2 and 3 of the dissertation are narrative close readings of each of the two stories. Before providing translations, I divided each episode into scenes. Next textual issues were noted, particularly where the critical apparatus of the BHS indicated variants. The narrative critical studies focus on characterization, gaps, and the narrators' rhetoric. In the final chapter, it is concluded that as the narrators developed the two plots, similar patterns of paternal and fraternal reactions to the sexual improprieties can be detected. Whereas the fathers were silent and passive, the brothers were active and violent. The narrators used the sexual outrage committed against the women as "narrative justification" for their brothers' deeds. The maternal brothers of Dinah and Tamar avenged the wrongs by slaying the perpetrators. The brothers of the women came to the foregrounds of the narratives, playing central roles in response to the offenses.
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