The Woman Babylon and the Marks of Empire: Reading Revelation with a Postcolonial Womanist Hermeneutics of Ambiveilence

by Shanell T. Smith (Editor)

The "Great Whore" of the Book of Revelationthe hostile symbolization used to illustrate the authors critique of empirehas attracted considerable attention in Revelation scholarship. Feminist scholar Tina Pippin criticizes the use of gendered metaphors "Babylon" as a tortured womanwhich she asserts reflect an inescapably androcentric, even misogynistic, perspective. Alternatively, Elisabeth Schssler Fiorenza understands Johns rhetoric and imagery not simply in gendered terms, but in political terms as well, observing that "Babylon" relies on conventionally coded feminine language for a city. Shanell T. Smith seeks to dismantle the either/or dichotomy within the Great Whore debate by bringing the categories of race/ethnicity and class to bear on Johns metaphors. Her socio-cultural context impels her to be sensitive to such categories, and, therefore, leads her to hold the two elements, "woman" and "city," in tension, rather than privileging one over the other. Using postcolonial womanist interpretation of the woman Babylon, Smith highlights the simultaneous duality of her characterizationher depiction as both a female brothel slave and as an empress or imperial city. Most remarkably, however, Smiths reading also sheds light on her own ambivalent characterization as both a victim and participant in empire.

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2014

Reviews

[MegHansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous womanist/post-colonial critical analysis of the Book of Revelation

[Jamin Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-envisioning a Character

I think the main point of this book is well worth a consideration. For if this is the light John meant to convey with the character then many have been reading the story backwards. The author’s picture blends much better with what we would expect of the Woman Babylon even just based on the human trafficking cases we see today. Appreciate this work. Much of the research I was seeking out was in the last chapter.