Lecture: "The labor of secrecy: interpreting parables from the bible to Kafka"

Professor Abigail Gillman is ​2021/2022 IAS Distinguished Scholars of the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies.

Abstract:

Since ancient times, religious teachers have communicated wisdom through parables. In the modern period, literary writers and philosophers adopt parabolic style to challenge us and subvert our ways of thinking. Parables have simple plots, but the message is rarely simple. A particular kind of interpretive labor is needed to grasp their message.

Prof. Gillman’s lecture explores different theories about how parables work, arguing that Franz Kafka provides a template for understanding modern parabolic style. She traces the genealogy of the Jewish parable, from the Hebrew Bible, to the Gospels, Midrash, Hasidism, modernism, post-Holocaust writing, to contemporary literature. She proposes that the parable is especially significant today, as a form of meaning-making that challenges the rigid religious-secular divide.