Abstract

The discourse on kingship is one of a series of attempts in the Bible to construct identities for Israel. The rhetoric of the body is the strategy employed in this discourse, as kingship in Israel is thought in terms of, and through, the bodies of those who become king and embody the nation. ;Chapter one discusses Michel Foucault's ideas on history, power, and the body, and how the rhetoric of the body is a strategy of power relations. This rhetoric produces knowledge about the king's identity and the way it is constructed implies knowledge about the nation's identity and how it is constructed. ;Chapter two traces the construction of Saul as king. Saul is cut off from others as he is particularized as king. Cutting, both literal and figurative, serves as a metaphorics for the construction of both individual and national identity in Israel, as seen in 1 Sam 11. But cutting deconstructs bodies even as it constructs them, thereby destabilizing identity. ;Chapter three considers how a new discourse is introduced into the construction of identity. This leads to Saul being cut off as king and David being constructed as king. Constructing identity in terms of one's heart compels individuals to tell the truth about themselves, one of the effects of power. The compulsion to tell the truth about oneself is demonstrated in a reading of 1 Sam 17. ;Chapter four considers the gendered nature of the identity constructed in the text. Drawing on the work of Eve Sedgwick and Nancy Jay in a reading of 2 Sam 1, it is argued that relationships between men construct identity in male terms, thereby excluding women from being subjects in the text. ;Chapter five reviews and summarizes the dissertation, considers how power is being effected in the construction of identity in the text, and suggests several implications from the study