Ep. 52 David & Goliath Like You’ve Never Read It Before

Heroic stories like David and Goliath were told for centuries before they were written down. But the creative storytelling process didn't end there. Written texts were "performed" and improvised upon, creating new variations that made it into later texts. The Bible that we have today was the product of ongoing "conversations" between oral and written traditions.

Helen and Dave are thrilled to welcome Jonathan Friedmann back to the podcast to introduce the exciting field of performance criticism. Jonathan uses the example of David and Goliath to show how artifacts of oral storytelling are found throughout the Hebrew Bible, and how texts may have even been written with an eye toward improvisation and performance.

To learn more, check out Jonathan's book, Goliath as Gentle Giant: Sympathetic Portrayals in Popular Culture. 

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