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The Transgression Of Maacah In 2 Chronicles 15:16: A Simple Case Of Idolatry Or The Threatening Poesis Of Maternal Speech?, Julie Kelso
Julie Kelso
Extract:
In this essay, I shall argue that in Chronicles Maacah is not simply deposed because she is an idolater. Rather, in an important sense Maacah’s act of producing an idol for the goddess Asherah threatens patrilineal, patriarchal social order itself, as it is constructed and understood in Chronicles. Specifically, her act undermines the dominant (unconscious) phantasy at work in Chronicles: that of masculine, monosexual (re)production. To sustain itself, this phantasy requires the ‘silence’ or non-representation of the maternal body. In other words, it is not simply Maacah’s idolatry that sees her punished; it is her daring production of the …