Prophets, performance, and power

"Embedded in portions of the biblical text are performance modes of thought that preserve a pre-literary way of thinking that can be analyzed through performance analysis. Performance analysis is designed to identify and describe these performance modes of thought embedded in the prophetic literature." "Prophets, Performance, and Power provides the first-ever use of performance criticism to analyze biblical-in this case, Old Testament-texts. Doan and Giles show that prophetic activity, in the books of Amos, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, functions as drama and theater in much the same way that Greek tragedy or modern comedy does. The author's careful analysis of the prophets' performance offers new and valuable insights into the role of the prophet in Israel and into the ways that the audiences of the prophets perceived them.