June 2010:
9781590211830 • 224 pp • trade paper/ebook
Queering the Text: Biblical, Medieval, and Modern Jewish Stories .
Andrew Ramer’s new book, Queering the Text: Biblical, Medieval, and Modern Jewish Stories, grapples with traditional midrashim, plays with homoerotic love poems from medieval Spain, and envisions alternate versions of the present. Inspired by the pioneering work of Jewish feminists, working with the narrative tools of the rabbis of old, Ramer has crafted stories that anchor LGBT lives in the three-thousand-year-old history of the Jewish people. “The universe is made up of stories, not atoms,” wrote poet Muriel Ruckeyser. The stories in this book will transport you to a new universe – the one we are striving to create, right here and now.
Reviews
“Imagine traditional Jewish texts—or the three thousand-year history of the Jewish people—superimposed with stories from contemporary life. Ramer takes classic texts like the story of Ruth and Naomi, David and Jonathan, and improvises, elaborates, or moves the story into a present day context…. Ramer’s Old Testament world, infused as it is with a queer imprimatur, is a delightful, even surprising read, perfect for those sporadic moods when you want to queer the text.”
—Lambda Literary Foundation