Anonymous characters -- such as Lot's wife, Jephthah's daughter, Pharoah's baker, and the witch of Endor -- are ubiquitous in the Hebrew Bible, and appear in a wide variety of roles. Adele Reinhartz here answers two principal questions concerning this aspect of biblical narrative. First, is there a "poetics of anonymity," and if so, what are its contours? Second, how does anonymity affect the readers' response to, and construction of, unnamed biblical characters. She is especially interested in issues related to gender, determining whether female characters are more likely to be anonymous than male characters, and whether the anonymity of female characters functions differently from that of male characters.
Anonymous characters, such as Lot's wife, are common in the Hebrew Bible, appearing in a variety of roles. This book examines whether there is a "poetics of anonymity", if so, what its contours are, and how anonymity affects readers' responses to unnamed characters, particularly female characters.
