TY - BOOK AU - Alter, Robert TI - The art of biblical narrative SN - 9780465022557 AV - BS1171.3 .A45 2011 PY - 2011/// CY - New York : PB - Basic Books, KW - Bible. KW - Old Testament KW - Language, style KW - Narration in the Bible N1 - Since it was first published nearly three decades ago, "The Art of Biblical Narrative" has radically expanded the horizons of biblical scholarship by recasting the Bible as a work of literary art deserving studied criticism. Renowned critic and translator Robert Alter presents the Hebrew Bible as a cohesive literary work, one whose many authors used innovative devices such as parallelism, contrastive dialogue, and narrative tempo to tell one of the most revolutionary stories of human history: the revelation of a single God; Preface -- A literary approach to the Bible -- Sacred history and the beginnings of prose fiction -- Biblical type-scenes and the uses of convention -- Between narration and dialogue -- The techniques of repetition -- Characterization and the art of reticence -- Composite artistry -- Narration and knowledge -- Conclusion ER -